The estrogen-dependent inflammatory and neuroangiogenic activities that drive endometriosis can be suppressed by estrogen receptor ligands in mice. Fewer Lesions, More Little Mice Endometriosis is a poorly understood disorder of the female reproductive system, where collections of tissue that normally lines the uterus appear outside the uterus as well. These tissue deposits can be found anywhere in the abdominal cavity, where they cause inflammation and pain, and often also decreased fertility. Although some hormonal treatments for endometriosis exist, they are not always effective, have numerous side effects, and also suppress fertility. Now, Zhao et al. present some mechanistic explanations for the inflammatory phenomena seen in endometriosis. Even more importantly, the authors identified two new estrogen receptor ligands that can suppress endometriosis in mouse models safely and effectively, without disrupting the animals' reproductive cycles and fertility. Estrogenic and inflammatory components play key roles in a broad range of diseases including endometriosis, a common estrogen-dependent gynecological disorder in which endometrial tissue creates inflammatory lesions at extrauterine sites, causing pelvic pain and reduced fertility. Current medical therapies focus primarily on reducing systemic levels of estrogens, but these are of limited effectiveness and have considerable side effects. We developed estrogen receptor (ER) ligands, chloroindazole (CLI) and oxabicycloheptene sulfonate (OBHS), which showed strong ER-dependent anti-inflammatory activity in a preclinical model of endometriosis that recapitulates the estrogen dependence and inflammatory responses of the disease in immunocompetent mice and in primary human endometriotic stromal cells in culture. Estrogen-dependent phenomena, including cell proliferation, cyst formation, vascularization, and lesion growth, were all arrested by CLI or OBHS, which prevented lesion expansion and also elicited regression of established lesions, suppressed inflammation, angiogenesis, and neurogenesis in the lesions, and interrupted crosstalk between lesion cells and infiltrating macrophages. Studies in ERα or ERβ knockout mice indicated that ERα is the major mediator of OBHS effectiveness and ERβ is dominant in CLI actions, implying involvement of both ERs in endometriosis. Neither ligand altered estrous cycling or fertility at doses that were effective for suppression of endometriosis. Hence, CLI and OBHS are able to restrain endometriosis by dual suppression of the estrogen-inflammatory axis. Our findings suggest that these compounds have the desired characteristics of preventive and therapeutic agents for clinical endometriosis and possibly other estrogen-driven and inflammation-promoted disorders.


From slavery to the white backlash of the 1990s, A Voting Rights Odyssey is a riveting account of the crusade for equal voting rights in Georgia. Written by a veteran civil rights lawyer who has tried innumerable voting cases, the book draws upon expert reports and other court records, as well as trial testimony and interviews with the men and women who served as plaintiffs and witnesses in litigation that helped to forge a revolution in voting rights. The book explores, and repudiates, the myths of the Reconstruction era that blacks were incapable of voting and holding office. It also catalogues the extraordinary, and ultimately failed, attempts of the state leadership to maintain white supremacy after the abolition of the white primary, the demands of the civil rights movement, and passage of the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965. AVoting RightsOdyssey is essential reading for anyone interested in the way in which race has driven and distorted the political process in the South.


We analyze the performance of a spectrally phase-encoded optical code division multiple access slotted packet network based on a simple protocol. The steady-state throughput and average packet delay are derived as two measures to assess the performance of the network. First, only multiple access interference is considered and other sources of noise are neglected. In this context, comparing different systems with the fixed bit rate and chip duration leads us to conclude that increasing the code length improves the performance of networks with small average activity; but in highly active networks, decreasing the code length results in a significant improvement in the throughput and average packet delay. Next, Gaussian approximation is used in our performance analysis to consider both shot noise and thermal noise as well as multiple access interference. The packet success probability is derived as a function of transmitted power. It is shown that in a fixed bandwidth and with a fixed bit rate, increasing the code length can lead to better performance in high average powers. But, in the low-power regime, decreasing code length leads to better performance due to the lower level of activity.


In this study, we seek to answer the question of whether sending the product discount coupons through the mobile technology as opposed to another more traditional communication technology i.e., e-mail, will yield different effect on consumer behavior? Through a realworld field experiment spanning four weeks, we observed that there is no significant difference in terms of coupons' usage rate between the two technological means through which the coupons were disseminated, i.e., mobile phone in the form of short-message-service (SMS); and e-mail technology as e-mail message. However, we discovered that the discount coupons' forwarding rate is significantly higher via e-mail as compared to SMS. Furthermore, the results provide indication that the propensity of using coupons received from a peer is higher as compared to coupons received from a merchant.


Problem Statement: To help improve efficiency and reduce costs involved in an electronic discovery1 (E-discovery) process for email investigations, visualisations can be of great help, and they can change the way analysts/investigators understand contacts, messages in inboxes and their relationship. Though email data is a central resource in E-discovery processes [1,2] but the existing tools such as JigSaw, INSPIRE and DocuBurst are not capable of handling this dynamic, heterogeneous and relational data. As the socio-technical systems have grown in complexity, E-discovery analysts who are not that tech-savvy are looking for a simple and effective visualisation tool to detect, analyse and understand anomaly behaviours in email communication. This project is in close collaboration with the Redsift Limited London who are currently working on E-discovery related projects.

Case Study: Enron [3] scam is a well-known case in the data visualisation field. Enron produced fake profit reports and company's accounts which led to bankruptcy. Most of the top executives were involved in the scam, as they sold their company stock prior to the company's downfall. The Enron email is available for the public to access. In our work, we will be using the Enron data as a test case for designing and user-testing.

Workshop: We conducted couple of workshops to understand analysts requirements. The first workshop was with a legal team of six solicitors in Bangalore, India. They use Excel as a tool for their investigations. They liked the simple visualisations but found the manual search and data arrangements strenuous. The second workshop was with an intelligence analyst who works at the cyber investigation department, Bangalore, India. He uses E-discovery tools such as Jigsaw, Concordance by LexisNexis and/or INSPIRE to analyse unstructured data. He finds the visualisations to be complex and difficult to understand.Workshop

Suggestions: The five-point visualisation features
summarised for E-discovery email investigation are:
1. Multi-faceted: representation must be supported with a multifaceted search feature to display various granularities.
2. Multi-modality: representation must include temporal behaviours, individuals' action, connections and text/topic responses.
3. Multi-level: representation must have a drill-down approach (multiple levels) to filter and sort the data based on the multimodality and present with some visual cues about what to consider and what not to (investigation cueing).
4. Multi-aggregation: representation must be systematically organised based on the multiple aggregations from the higher level (top-level) to all the consecutive levels which helps in building visual summaries that can be presented legally.
5. Multi-juxtaposition: representations must be effective for displaying multiple relationships and comparison when placed close together or side by side.

Proposed Solution: Based on the workshop suggestions and the limitations of the current tools that generate email visualisations, we propose a multi-perspective approach (shown in the Figure 1) that will generate elementary (simple) and intelligible automated visual representations for displaying the most relevant information from the email data and aid in comparing two subsets of information.


The synthesis of RNA from a DNA template in eukaryotic cells is a complex process which is regulated at several stages. This is accomplished by RNA polymerase II and a horde of other transcription factors which together comprise the transcription machinery. Accessing information from DNA in the nucleus is restricted by chromatin structures. Chromatin comprises of DNA wrapped around a histone octamer (two copies each of histones H2A, H2B, H3 and H4) and the linker histone H1. The structural entity of chromatin known as nucleosome contains protruding N-terminal ends of histones. These histone tails are subject to post-translational modifications like acetylation, methylation, phosphorylation and methylation. Histone modifications may act alone or in concert in a context-dependent manner to facilitate or repress transcription. They may also influence one another such that one modification recruits or activates chromatin-modifying complexes to generate a different histone modification and this forms the theme of histone 'cross talk'. Genomic-scale analyses of histone modifications show general correlations between different modification states, their genomic loci and gene expression levels. Histone modification patterns are regulated by enzymes that add, remove or read the covalent modifications. Trimethylation of lysine 4 on histone H3 (H3K4me3) is a mark associated with active transcription at promoters and the MLL families of histone methyltransferases are mainly responsible for writing this mark. Menin, an integral subunit of the MLL1/MLL2 complexes critically links H3K4me3 and estrogen-receptor mediated transcription. H3K4me3 can recruit plant homeodomain (PHD)-containing effector proteins to chromatin and thereby facilitate downstream effects. Basal transcription factor TFIID has been identified as one such reader of H3K4me3. To further explore the mechanism of menin and nuclear- receptor mediated transcription as well as the regulation of TFIID mediated recognition of H3K4me3 we addressed these two questions in this thesis. In chapter 2 we review the current knowledge of several histone lysine methyltransferase and demethylase pathways relevant to cancer. We also summarize the current status and future opportunities for development of 'epidrugs' targeting histone modifications for cancer therapy. The menin protein is encoded by the Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) tumor suppressor gene. In chapter 3 we address the role of menin in PPAR γ -dependent transcription and adipocyte differentiation. Next, in chapter 4, we investigate the global levels of H3K4me3 in parathyroid adenomas and also the effect of menin on the function of VDR. We establish that aberrant gene expression in MEN1 tumors is caused by specific effects on genes that are regulated by menin-interacting proteins, such as VDR. In chapter 5 we show that H3K4me3 binding of TFIID is decreased by phosphorylation of the preceding threonine residue in the histone H3 tail and this coincides with mitotic inhibition of transcription. Based on our observations we propose that a histone H3 phospho-methyl switch regulates TFIID mediated transcription during mitotic progression of the cell cycle. In conclusion, I have addressed the importance of H3K4me3 and menin in molecular pathways regulating gene expression and I have also identified a novel form of cross talk at the histone H3 tail in regulating transcription by TFIID during mitosis.


The palladium-catalyzed amination of aryl halides, in conjunction with an orthogonal protective group scheme, forms the basis of two routes to oligoaniline precursors. One method consists of a bidirectional chain growth from a symmetric core piece, whereas the other involves a divergent−convergent synthesis of nonsymmetric fragments, followed by coupling to a symmetric core fragment. The oligoaniline precursors are soluble in a variety of common organic solvents and are easily converted to the deprotected oligoanilines. The method allows the preparation of even or odd chain lengths and the incorporation of a variety of functional groups. The synthesis of phenyl-capped heptaaniline through decaaniline, of four end-functionalized octaaniline derivatives, and of phenyl-capped 16-mer and 24-mer is described. The effects of chain length and substitution upon oligomer behavior have been investigated by electronic absorption spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry.


The timing of index finger pointing gestures of three Swedish children (recorded longitudinally between 18 and 28 months) was analyzed. 63% of the pointing strokes ended in direct association with the child's own spoken utterance. This is in line with standard descriptions of gesture timing. However, 35% of the pointing strokes were sustained for a longer time—until a response was received from an interlocutor. It is shown here that parents give significantly more elaborated responses when children's pointing strokes are sustained and that the children work actively to achieve this result. The timing of such pointing gestures is thus a matter of interactive coordination between child and interlocutor. Finally, these findings are used as the basis for a discussion of different types of descriptions of gesture timing in the literature and how these may relate to each other.


As an extension of wireless sensor network in underwater environment, underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) have caused widespread concern of academia. In UASNs, the efficiency and reliability of data transmission are very challenging due to the complex underwater environment in variety of ocean applications, such as monitoring abnormal submarine oil pipelines. Motivated by the importance of energy consumption in many deployments of UASNs, we therefore propose an energy-efficient data transmission scheme in this paper, called energy-efficiency grid routing based on 3D cubes (EGRCs) in UASNs, considering the complex properties of underwater medium, such as 3D changing topology, high propagation delay, node mobility and density, as well as rotation mechanism of cluster-head nodes. First, the whole network model is regarded as a 3D cube from the grid point of view, and this 3D cube is divided into many small cubes, where a cube is seen as a cluster. In the 3D cube, all the sensor nodes are duty-cycled in the media access control layer. Second, in order to make energy efficient and extend network lifetime, the EGRC shapes an energy consumption model considering residual energy and location of sensor nodes to select the optimal cluster-heads. Moreover, the EGRC utilizes residual energy, locations, and end-to-end delay for searching for the next-hop node to maintain the reliability of data transmission. Simulation validations of the proposed algorithm are carried out to show the effectiveness of EGRC, which performs better than the representative algorithms in terms of energy efficiency, reliability, and end-to-end delay.


Sr isotope stratigraphy provides a new age model for the first complete section drilled through a deep-water coral mound. The 155-m-long section from Challenger Mound in the Porcupine Sea-bight, southwest of Ireland, is on Miocene siliciclastics and consists entirely of sediments bearing well-preserved cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa. The 87Sr/86Sr values of 28 coral specimens from the mound show an upward-increasing trend, correspond to ages from 2.6 to 0.5 Ma, and identify a significant hiatus from ca. 1.7 to 1.0 Ma at 23.6 m below seafloor. The age of the basal mound sediments coincides with the intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciations that set up the modern stratification of the northeast Atlantic and enabled coral growth. Mound growth persisted throughout glacial-interglacial fluctuations, reached a maximum rate (24 cm/k.y.) ca. 2.0 Ma, and ceased at 1.7 Ma. Unlike other buried mounds in Porcupine Seabight, Challenger Mound was only partly covered during its growth interruption, and growth restarted ca. 1.0 Ma.


This paper constructs strong-stability-preserving general linear time-stepping methods that are well suited for hyperbolic PDEs discretized by the method of lines. These methods generalize both Runge-Kutta (RK) and linear multistep schemes. They have high stage orders and hence are less susceptible than RK methods to order reduction from source terms or nonhomogeneous boundary conditions. A global optimization strategy is used to find the most efficient schemes that have low storage requirements. Numerical results illustrate the theoretical findings.


This paper reexamines the Japanese deictic verb kuru "to come" within the RRG framework and argues that its auxiliary use should be analyzed as a kind of inverse marker, elaborating on Shibatani (e.g., 2003). We show that the division of labor between the active-passive system and the direct-inverse system in Japanese involves complicated pragmatic factors. Specifically, it is when a Privileged Syntactic Argument (PSA) is topical but there is another participant that outranks PSA on the person hierarchy (usually speaker or hearer) that the direct-inverse paradigm is obligatorily used, although it may be optionally employed when a PSA is in focus domain. The present study adds a new insight to the growing body of studies on inverse phenomena (Payne 1994), as well as to the typology of PSAs proposed in rrg.


The useful life of infrastructure metals is limited by prolonged exposure to water and deposition of insoluble minerals. Advances in surface treatment suggest that both problems can be alleviated through the formation of surfaces that are hydrophobic and therefore self-cleaning. In nature, the surface of a lotus leaf displays superhydrophobicity, containing microbumps on the surface with non-polar nanofibers on the bumps. Here, we describe a process that mimics this topography. The process includes brief electrodeposition of zinc from aqueous Zn(NO3)2 followed by drying and spray-coating of a xylene silicone solution. Our results indicate that zinc coated steel has a contact angle of 130° and a sliding angle of 16°, displaying it has high hydrophobicity and self-cleaning properties. Copper yielded similar results, indicating that this method can be applied to other metals. These results suggest that a Cassie-Baxter state, the ideal droplet to surface interaction, was formed on these metal surfaces. However, further development should be done regarding the precipitation of nanofibers to maintain the created topography. Such hydrophobic surfaces would improve the longevity of metal infrastructure since its anti-rusting characteristics limits the surface's exposure to water.


Multiple sexual partnerships play a very significant role in the spread of HN with epidemiologists suggesting that these partnerships possibly drive the epidemic. According to epidemiological evidence, a reduction of these partnerships would have a substantial impact on the epidemic. Like most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Zambia is facing a crippling HIV epidemic with prevalence in the 15-20 percent range. In light of this, this study explored youth perceptions of multiple sexual partnerships in the contex,t of HIV/AIDS. The main aim of the study was to provide some insight on these partnerships with the hope that this will shed some light on why these partnerships exist and what barriers and opportunities for change exist given Zambia's high HIV prevalence. The findings of this study suggest that there are several social, cultural, economic and environmental factors that influence the existence of multiple sexual partnerships among the youth. In addition, the study also shows that while young people acknowledge the benefits of faithfulness in sexual relationships, there are several barriers that prevent the youth from being faithful.


This paper examines the correlation between credit intermediated by financial systems and economic growth in developing countries. More specifically we have studied whether well-functioning financial markets result in economic growth. We base our study on data from 53 lowand lower-middle income countries in the period 2004-2011. By comparing the two different economic theories, Schumpeter's growth theory and Austrian business cycle theory, we have analysed our results from two different perspectives. The results from this study show an insignificant relationship between financial systems and economic growth, contradicting much of the theory and results from previous studies that have been reviewed. Other variables outside of the financial system in this study, such as economic freedom and corruption, could be a reason for the non-existent correlation between financial development and economic growth in this study.


The COVID-19 crisis paralyzed huge parts of the planet in weeks. It not only infected the population but injected a gargantuan dose of uncertainty into the system. In that regard, as in many others, it is a phenomenon without precedent. As of the time of writing (May-June 2020), we are witnessing, simultaneously, a health crisis, an economic crisis, and a crisis of global governance as well. In the forthcoming months, it could well turn into a set of financial, social, and political crises most governments and international organizations are ill-prepared to handle. In this paper, what concerns us is the financial dimension of the crisis. The paper is divided into four sections. Following the introduction, the second section maps the financial dimension of the pandemic through an extension of Hyman Minsky's financial fragility analysis. The result is a three-pronged analytical framework that encompasses financial fragility, financial instability, and insolvency-triggered asset-liability restructuring processes. These are seen as three distinct but interconnected processes advancing financial fragility. The third section dissects how these three processes have been managed as they have unfolded since March 2020, underlining the key policy interventions and institutional innovations introduced so far, and suggesting further measures for addressing the forthcoming stages of the financial turmoil. The fourth section concludes the paper by pointing out the results as of June 2020 and highlights our intended analytical contribution to Minsky's theoretical framework.


In October 2016, Thomas Zurbuchen took the reins of NASA9s science directorate. A heliophysicist from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Zurbuchen grew up in a tiny Swiss village with more cows than people. Raised in a deeply religious family, he grew comfortable asking the hard questions: "Where am I from?" and "What9s my purpose?" He could soon face more hard questions from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, which is skeptical about the value of climate change research, much of it supported by NASA. After nearly 6 months on the job, Zurbuchen answers questions on the value of earth science, the role of risk, and how he talks to members of a polarized electorate.


Since the mid-1990s, countries offering tax systems that facilitate international tax avoidance and evasion have been facing growing political pressure to comply with the internationally agreed standards of exchange of tax information. Using data of German investments in tax havens, we find evidence that the conclusion of a bilateral tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) is associated with fewer operations in tax havens and the number of German affiliates has on average decreased by 46% compared to a control group. This suggests that firms invest in tax havens not only for their low tax rates but also for the secrecy they offer.


Acute alcohol consumption causes deficits in motor coordination and gait, suggesting an involvement of cerebellar circuits, which play a role in the fine adjustment of movements and in motor learning. It has previously been shown that ethanol modulates inhibitory transmission in the cerebellum and affects synaptic transmission and plasticity at excitatory climbing fiber (CF) to Purkinje cell synapses. However, it has not been examined thus far how acute ethanol application affects long-term depression (LTD) and long-term potentiation (LTP) at excitatory parallel fiber (PF) to Purkinje cell synapses, which are assumed to mediate forms of cerebellar motor learning. To examine ethanol effects on PF synaptic transmission and plasticity, we performed whole cell patch-clamp recordings from Purkinje cells in rat cerebellar slices. We found that ethanol (50 mM) selectively blocked PF-LTD induction, whereas it did not change the amplitude of excitatory postsynaptic currents at PF synapses. In contrast, ethanol application reduced voltage-gated calcium currents and type 1 metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR1)-dependent responses in Purkinje cells, both of which are involved in PF-LTD induction. The selectivity of these effects is emphasized by the observation that ethanol did not impair PF-LTP and that PF-LTP could readily be induced in the presence of the group I mGluR antagonist AIDA or the mGluR1a antagonist LY367385. Taken together, these findings identify calcium currents and mGluR1-dependent signaling pathways as potential ethanol targets and suggest that an ethanol-induced blockade of PF-LTD could contribute to the motor coordination deficits resulting from alcohol consumption.


How does professional employment support provided by newcomer support organizations (NSOs) influence highly-skilled refugees' professional identities and workforce integration? To answer this question, we draw on interviews with 25 managers and staff of NSOs in Canada and 11 recently arrived, highly-skilled refugees. We contribute to the literature on refugee workforce integration by shedding light on the dynamic process of employment support in which NSOs engage in sensegiving practices and influence refugees' understanding of career options, assessment of opportunities, and their professional identity responses. We found that NSOs attempted to manage refugees' expectations of career opportunities while fostering hope for the future and that refugees reacted to NSOs' sensegiving practices by resisting expectation management messages, recrafting a new identity, or bracketing the present as transitory. We highlight the role of external agents in sensemaking and identity work by exploring work role transitions caused by forced migration. Furthermore, we uncover the dynamics of power and contextual constraints that influence sensegiving interactions. From a practical point of view, we argue that in the absence of quality employment opportunities, the reliance on refugees' resilience and their motivation for long-term professional integration may further marginalize them.


C^C cyclometalated platinum(II) triplet emitters bearing electronically different N-heterocyclic carbenes-(1,3-diisopropyl-4-(trifluoromethyl)-imidazol-2-ylidene (d), 1,3-diisopropyl-benzimidazol-2-ylidene (e), and 1,3-diisopropyl-imidazol-2-ylidene (f))-as neutral ligands and biphenyl (bph) as well as its fluorinated derivative octafluorobiphenyl (oFbph) as dianionic cyclometalating ancillary ligand were synthesized and structurally characterized by 1H, 13C, 19F, and 195Pt NMR, single crystal X-ray diffraction, and HR-ESI-MS studies. Detailed photophysical investigations carried out reveal a strong influence on the excited-state properties exerted by the electronic nature of the N-heterocyclic carbenes as well as the fluorine functional groups on the ancillary biphenyl moiety. The solid-state structures of all complexes reveal a nearly planar and slightly distorted square planar geometry around the platinum center. Introduction of fluorine groups into the ligand framework leads to a less structured emission centered at 513 nm in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) thin films, compared to the highly structured emission profile of the bph analogues. Additionally, a hypsochromic shift of approximately 10-12 nm was found in the absorption as well as in the emission profiles and is attributed to the electron deficient nature of the oFbph ligand. Three wt % of the compounds doped in PMMA exhibit photoluminescence efficiencies as high as 92% in thin films. DFT and TD-DFT calculations on selected molecules revealed the charge transfer to be an admixture of intraligand (3ILCT) and metal-to-ligand charge transfer (3MLCT) and the frontier orbitals corresponding to the emission to be mainly localized on the bph and oFbph ligands, which is consistent with the observations from the photophysical investigations. The thermal stability of the complexes evaluated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) shows an enhanced thermal stability for the complexes bearing fluorine functional groups.


ICT for education heralded much promise for improving learning outcomes, but results have not lived up to expectations. To understand why, researchers are increasingly exploring the factors that affect teachers' acceptance and use of ICT in the classroom. This study adopts the systematic review approach used in clinical research to systematically search, screen, assess, and synthesize the literature on ICT use in classrooms and determine effect sizes, if any, of factors affecting teachers' acceptance and use of ICT. We and that teachers' perceptions about the usefulness of a particular technology are twice as important as their perceptions of the technology's ease of use. We also and that two particular facilitating conditions—the provision of one laptop per child and on-site coaches—increased the use of technology by teachers by effect sizes ranging from 0.48 to 1.31.


Laughter is a frequently occurring social signal and an important part of human non-verbal communication. However it is often overlooked as a serious topic of scientific study. While the lack of research in this area is mostly due to laughter's non-serious nature, it is also a particularly difficult social signal to produce on demand in a convincing manner; thus making it a difficult topic for study in laboratory settings. In this paper we provide some techniques and guidance for inducing both hilarious laughter and conversational laughter. These techniques were devised with the goal of capturing motion information related to laughter while the person laughing was either standing or seated. Comments on the value of each of the techniques and general guidance as to the importance of atmosphere, environment and social setting are provided.


Abstract:How do filmmakers in the United States play a role in perpetuating narratives of belonging to the American culture? What is the marking line between Orientalist and post-Orientalist articulations of Arabness? In what ways have the transnational configurations of geopolitics affected the image formations of Arab Americans in Hollywood? This article emerges at the intersection of those inquiries, and provides a historical account of Hollywood's representation of Arab Americans rooted in the 1970s. This decade, I argue, constitutes a turning point in the industry's nationalist projections of Arabness from an Orientalist trope for Arabia to a post-Orientalist notion influenced by U.S.-Arab and Arab-Israeli geopolitics. It replaces an earlier moral geography that consumes the Orient while remaining distant from it with a new moral geography that constantly questions Arab Americans' belonging through narratives of alienness and terrorism. The significance of this work lies in its investigation of the historical trajectory of Hollywood's engagement with the Arab American cultural identity.


ABSTRACT This intervention shares images and stories from the women evictees in Jakarta who collectively give voice to the psychic, physical, and material injuries inflicted by state dispossession in the city. Engaging Ann Laura Stoler's (2013) language to expose the politics of ruination and preservation, we illustrate the gendered nature of the remaking of life on the most wasted of urban landscapes. The focus of this piece is Kampung Akuarium, a neighborhood violently evicted in April 2016 as part of a broader evictions regime in Jakarta under the governorship of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, popularly known as Ahok. In the aftermath, Kampung Akuarium became the most restive of Jakarta's landscapes as residents returned to make claims for justice and compensation, and to remake their lives directly on the rubble of their old homes in defiance of the city government. Flanked by the preserved warehouses of the VOC, the ruined neighbourhood ultimately became a site where colonial histories, state- and capital-inflicted expropriation and ruination, and gendered forms of injury and struggle all found material modes of expression alongside one another.


Propofol is a general anesthetic widely used in surgical procedures, including those in pregnant women. Preclinical studies suggest that propofol may cause neuronal injury to the offspring of primates if it is administered during pregnancy. However, it is unknown whether those neuronal changes would lead to long-term behavioral deficits in the offspring. In this study, propofol (0.4 mg/kg/min, IV, 2 h), saline, or intralipid solution was administered to pregnant rats on gestational day 18. We detected increased levels of cleaved caspase-3 in fetal brain at 6 h after propofol exposure. The neuronal density of the hippocampus of offspring was reduced significantly on postnatal day 10 (P10) and P28. Synaptophysin levels were also significantly reduced on P28. Furthermore, exploratory and learning behaviors of offspring rats (started at P28) were assessed in open-field trial and eight-arm radial maze. The offspring from propofol-treated dams showed significantly less exploratory activity in the open-field test and less spatial learning in the eight-arm radial maze. Thus, this study suggested that propofol exposure during pregnancy in rat increased cleaved caspsase-3 levels in fetal brain, deletion of neurons, reduced synaptophysin levels in the hippocampal region, and persistent learning deficits in the offspring.


This Essay describes three areas in which advocates have developed new models of practice and new forms of advocacy. It examines ways that lawyers and clients are collaborating to create more effective advocacy for battered women, low-income entrepreneurs and nonprofit communitybased organizations that serve the poor. It describes how, why and where the new practices operate and analyzes the roots of the new approaches, showing that they can be traced to changes in lawyering theory and new visions of the lawyer-client relationship. The Essay assesses whether these models can be sustained and generalized, concluding that although the new approaches are modest in scope, local in operation and tentative in aspirations, they show that creative lawyering for poor people is still possible. The innovative spirit they demonstrate reflects the ongoing search by lawyers and clients to find ways for the American legal profession to ameliorate inequality. The Essay closes by suggesting ways we might be able to encourage the proliferation of similar locally


Background and Aim: Sustainable development to address the global economic, environmental and social issues has been introducedby prominent scientists and is widely used by governments, international organizationsand NGOs. This study aimed to assess the current sustainable development situation influencing health and the future of health in Iran. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive study. The sample size was determined using the targeted intentional method and data were collected through targeted search, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. Results: Sustainable development situation in the country has improved in terms of quantitative indicators of child and maternal mortality and Human Development Index.Have However, badair quality, unemployment, inflation and other social harms have had undesirable trends.The most important causes of slow sustainable development have been reliance on oil revenues, unemployment, increased inflation, inequity in incomes, poverty, and insufficient intersectoral coordination due to lack of a multi-ministerial secretariat. The health sector should have a comprehensive approach to promoting health of the population. Conclusion: Based on the findings, it is recommended to include training courses for managers based on sustainable development principles, as well as management techniques in academic training and in-service training of managers. It is essential to create a multi-ministerial infrastructure and, even, a infrastructural power, for cohesion and coordination in order to ensure sustainable development.


Proper modeling of the switching windows leads to a better estimate of the noise induced delay variations. The present paper proposes a new continuous switching model. This new model is combined with the principle of superposition of linear circuits. It not only surpasses the accuracy of the traditional discrete model but also integrates with an ordering technique that avoids convergence and multiple solution issues.


As dazzling as the decade they dominated, The Beatles almost single-handedly created pop music as we know it. Today, their songs are cited as seminal influences by stars like Oasis, Blur and Kula Shaker. Eloquently giving voice to their time, The Beatles quite simply changed the world. Fully updated to include material from The Beatles Live at the BBC and the Anthology series, this acclaimed book goes back to the heart of The Beatles - their records. Drawing on a unique resource of knowledge and experience to 'read' their 241 tracks - chronologically from their first amateur efforts in 1957 to 'Real Love', their final 'reunion' recording in 1995 - Ian MacDonald has created an engrossing classic of popular criticism in which the extraordinary songs of The Beatles remain a central and continually surprising presence.


In WP1 the WEKIT consortium develops a framework for wearable experience, specifies a
corresponding methodology for vocational training, creates suitable application scenarios, and
derives requirements for the technological platform accordingly. The first findings are documented
in the Deliverables 1.1-4. This deliverable (D1.4) is the first outcome of the WEKIT Task 1.4
Requirements for Scenarios and Technological platform, where the stakeholders can continuously
collect, update, and negotiate requirements for Wearable Technology (WT) and Augmented Reality
(AR) solutions, which should be developed in this project. The end-user requirements have been
elicited through co-design activities and captured in Requirements Bazaar, a social requirements
engineering toolkit that was initially developed by RWTH in the ROLE project and was awarded the
best demo paper award at the IEEE International Conference on Requirements Engineering in 2013.
Later on it was successfully used also in other projects, including Learning Layers. The House of
Quality (HoQ) approach was adopted to offer a consulting tool for assessing technological options
and comparing available tools for AR based workplace learning support. Here we present the current
status of the collected requirements, which will inform our developments in the technical work
packages WP2-WP5. This report will be later on updated in M21 and M36.


Accentuated eccentric loading (AEL) employs heavier load magnitudes in eccentric actions than concentric actions of complete stretch-shortening cycles. In doing so, unique neuromuscular and molecular responses are expected to result in acute post-activation performance enhancements, as evidenced by increased movement velocity or power. Improvements are dependent upon load selection, which varies across exercises, such as jumps and bench press throws (eccentric: 20-40 kg or 20-30% of body mass; concentric: body mass only), and squats and bench press (eccentric: 77.3-120% One-Repetition Maximum (1-RM); concentric: 30-90% 1-RM). The efficacy of AEL is dependent upon the concentric load used, which in turn is influenced by the magnitude of the eccentric load. Greater strength relative to body mass may enable the maintenance of technique and pacing during AEL, necessary for resultant performance enhancements, particularly when using eccentric loads exceeding the individual's concentric 1-RM. Before prescribing AEL practitioners should consider: training experience, strength relative to body mass, the particular exercise, AEL application method, and the magnitude of both eccentric and concentric loads. Thus, the aims of this brief review are to describe: 1) neuromuscular and molecular constructs of AEL; 2) acute effects of AEL; 3) chronic effects of AEL; 4) loading considerations; 5) practical applications.


The coronavirus 2019 (COVID‐19) infection pandemic has affected the care of patients with heart failure (HF). Several consensus documents describe the appropriate diagnostic algorithm and treatment approach for patients with HF and associated COVID‐19 infection. However, few questions about the mechanisms by which COVID can exacerbate HF in patients with high‐risk (Stage B) or symptomatic HF (Stage C) remain unanswered. Therefore, the type of HF occurring during infection is poorly investigated. The diagnostic differentiation and management should be focused on the identification of the HF phenotype, underlying causes, and subsequent tailored therapy. In this framework, the relationship existing between COVID and onset of acute decompensated HF, isolated right HF, and cardiogenic shock is questioned, and the specific management is mainly based on local hospital organization rather than a standardized model. Similarly, some specific populations such as advanced HF, heart transplant, patients with left ventricular assist device (LVAD), or valve disease remain under investigated. In this systematic review, we examine recent advances regarding the relationships between HF and COVID‐19 pandemic with respect to epidemiology, pathogenetic mechanisms, and differential diagnosis. Also, according to the recent HF guidelines definition, we highlight different clinical profile identification, pointing out the main concerns in understudied HF populations.


Baroness Morris of Yardley was Secretary of State for Education from June 2001 until October 2002. She was also Schools Minister under David Blunkett (interview on this website). She recalls her own experience of being taught history and of teaching it as part of 'social studies' in the 1970s. Estelle Morris discusses the reasons why history might be losing out to other subjects, such as citizenship or media studies and the reasons why history should be optional after age 14. She agrees that history is important for national identity although it should reflect the diversity of modern Britain. Interviewed by Nicola Sheldon.


During the past decade several reports were published showing that intensive treatment of type 1 diabetes can prevent and delay disease-related microvascular complications. However, several problems were reported in children and adolescents such as frequent hypoglycemic episodes and weight gain. The aim of this study was to describe the results of intensified treatment for type 1 diabetes in a group of Argentinean adolescents after a follow-up of two years. Twenty five adolescents with type 1 diabetes older than 10 years with at least one year from diagnosis were selected. All patients received a one-week teaching program during admission to our center. All patients were followed-up monthly during two years. Treatment schedule included 4-5 controls in fasting conditions, two doses of NPH insulin and four doses of regular insulin according to glycemia and the amount of calculated carbohydrate intake. Median age was 13.5 years (range 10 to 19 years). Mean time from diagnosis to inclusion in the study was 3.8 years (range 1.25 to 9 years). Mean total dose of NPH insulin decreased significantly when measured at the inclusion in the study (0.9 IU/kg) and after a year of follow-up 0.8 IU/kg (p 0.04). However, there were no changes in NPH insulin dose after two years follow-up (0.85 IU/kg). On the contrary, the dose of regular insulin administered on fasting conditions with normal glycemia increased from 0 to 0.21/kg after a year (p 0.0001) and to 0.69 after two years (non significant). Median HbA1C showed a significant reduction from 10 +/- 1.62% to 8.53 +/- 1.04% after a year (p 0.03) and to 8.72 +/- 0.81% after two years. BMI Z score increased from significantly from 0.7 +/- 0.9 to 1.06 +/- 1.15 after a year (p 0.03) with a further reduction without a significant difference from the basal value after two years. We found no significant differences in the frequency of hypoglycemia or other metabolic features. Our results show that intensive treatment of type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents can achieve significant and sustained reductions of HbA1C without increasing the risk of hypoglycemia or other adverse effects.


"Theory and Practice" of TA, which is referred to in the title of this journal "TATuP", is usually addressed as a question of TA research. But science is more than research: the field of teaching requires just as much attention, both practically and theoretically.
Therefore, a mere collection of individual teaching experiences and best practice examples does not provide a strong enough basis to discuss questions of TA teaching, these must also be embedded in a theoretical context and discussed in their relation to research. In this special issue, we aim to contribute to a combination of theoretical and practical approaches to the relation of TA and "Bildung".


Natural disasters, such as the 2004 East Asian Tsunami, attract a high level of donations. Previous literature has shown that the scale of the disaster is important in driving the aid response, but there are inconsistent findings on whether the number killed or the number affected matters more. In this paper we discuss a number of issues in linking measures of the scale of a disaster to the aid response, particularly taking account of outliers in both scale of disaster and aid. We show that a log-specification is preferred and that this specification can reconcile findings based on different datasets. Both the number killed and the number affected matter equally for whether aid is given; the number killed is more strongly related to the magnitude of the aid response. We also present new evidence confirming the importance of publicity for disasters, focusing on appeals.


Ultralong bulk semiconductor optical amplifiers (bulk UL-SOAs) have tremendous four-wave mixing (FWM) efficiencies so that due to two continuous wave (CW) input signals, a broad mode comb at the output of the UL-SOA can be obtained. When using tunable single mode lasers as input signals, the generated FWM mode comb is tunable in the mode spacing and the wavelength. As a result in time domain, widely tunable pulses in the repetition rate and the carrier frequency are obtained. Since the phase signature of the FWM modes is not linear over the whole mode comb, different filtering techniques can be applied for filtering modes with linear phase in order to efficiently generate short pulses. With the optimal filtering technique, pulses with full width at half maximum of less than 2 ps and a pulse repetition rate of 20 GHz can be obtained.


Gene expression profiling using microarrays requires microgram amounts of RNA, which limits its direct application for the study of nanogram RNA samples obtained using microdissection, laser capture microscopy, or needle biopsy. A novel system based on Ribo-SPIA technology (RS, Ovation-Biotin amplification and labeling system) was recently introduced. The utility of the RS system, an optimized prototype system for picogram RNA samples (pRS), and two T7-based systems involving one or two rounds of amplification (One RA, Standard Protocol, or Two RA, Small Sample Prototcol, version II) were evaluated in the present study. Mouse kidney (MK) and mouse universal reference (MUR) RNA samples, 0.3 ng to 10 mug, were analyzed using high-density Affymetrix Mouse Genome 430 2.0 GeneChip arrays. Call concordance between replicates, correlations of signal intensity, signal intensity ratios, and minimal fold increase necessary for significance were determined. All systems amplified partially overlapping sets of genes with similar signal intensity correlations. pRS amplified the highest number of genes from 10-ng RNA samples. We detected 24 of 26 genes verified by RT-PCR in samples prepared using pRS. Two RA yielded somewhat higher call concordances than did RS and pRS (91.8% vs. 89.3% and 88.1%, respectively). Although all target preparation methods were suitable, pRS amplified the highest number of targets and was found to be suitable for amplification of as little as 0.3 ng of total RNA. In addition, RS and pRS were faster and simpler to use than the T7-based methods and resulted in the generation of cDNA, which is more stable than cRNA.


In this paper, experiences with organizational antecedents for Open Innovation are presented, based on an in-depth case study conducted within the framework of KOPIWA – a pre-competitive joint research project on "Competences Monitoring for Open Innovation in the Digital Economy" in Germany. The empirical findings on organizational competences within this case study are based on hypotheses and research questions that have been tackled in more detail in [4]. The results indicate that the focal open innovator's organizational and management routines evolved organically from closed to open innovation over the last years, as a result of the overall market, network and technology dynamics in the Digital Economy innovation system. The findings also reveal that, especially in the Digital Economy, 'Innovation 2.0' (also known as 'Open Innovation') is not entirely new, but rather a more natural and logical continuation of "new internet based innovation processes and business models" that have been developed in the past decade, noteably with


When discussing large social trends or experiences, we tend to group people into generations. But what does it mean to be part of a generation, and what gives that group meaning and coherence? It's collective memory, say Amy Corning and Howard Schuman, and in Generations and Collective Memory, they draw on an impressive range of research to show how generations share memories of formative experiences, and how understanding the way those memories form and change can help us understand society and history. Their key finding-built on historical research and interviews in the United States and seven other countries (including China, Japan, Germany, Lithuania, Russia, Israel, and Ukraine)-is that our most powerful generational memories are of shared experiences in adolescence and early adulthood, like the 1963 Kennedy assassination for those born in the 1950s or the fall of the Berlin Wall for young people in 1989. But there are exceptions to that rule, and they're significant: Corning and Schuman find that epochal events in a country, like revolutions, override the expected effects of age, affecting citizens of all ages with a similar power and lasting intensity. The picture Corning and Schuman paint of collective memory and its formation is fascinating on its face, but it also offers intriguing new ways to think about the rise and fall of historical reputations and attitudes toward political issues.


Congenitally athymic rats injected with CD45RBhigh CD4+ T cells from congenic euthymic donors developed a severe wasting disease with inflammatory infiltrates in liver, lung, stomach, thyroid, and pancreas. In contrast, recipients of CD45RBlow CD4+ T cells remained well and continued to gain weight. Animals given unfractionated CD4+ T cells, i.e., a mixture of approximately two-thirds CD45RBhigh and one- third CD45RBlow, were protected from the wasting disease, and the incidence of organ-specific inflammation was much reduced compared with that found in recipients of CD45RBhigh cells alone. The data suggest that this latter subset of CD4+ T cells has autoaggressive potential that is inhibited in normal animals by cells of the CD45RBlow CD4+ phenotype. The possible consequences of a breakdown in this immunoregulatory mechanism are briefly discussed.


Laser surface authentication (LSA) is a technique for authenticating optically rough surfaces based on the intensity of diffusely scattered light. The degradation in the LSA signature over linear and rotational displacement is examined. Randomly roughened glass surfaces with roughness amplitudes ranging from 0.4 microm to 3 microm and correlation lengths from 16 microm to 45 microm are examined experimentally, showing that the average size of the surface feature has a negligible impact on the rate of LSA signature degradation. The average size of the surface features is shown to have a greater effect on the fractional intensity of the variations in diffuse light and on the quality of LSA signature match.


Che Guevara's death began a legend and closed an era. Based directly on the documents produced by the guerrillas themselves, this is the first comprehensive history of that era. In theory, immense disparity in local wealth combined with the heavy hand of "Yankee imperialism" laid the ground for revolution. In practice, however, circumstances conspired to thwart the plans of the revolutionary guerrillas. The Latin American Left was, and remains, seriously divided between Moscow-oriented Communists, Trotskyists, Maoists, pro-Cubans and simple nationalists. The rural guerrillas sought to spark off revolution through armed struggle. Yet they found themselves increasingly involved in ideological conflict with the Communists in the cities whilst rural support was rarely forthcoming with the peasants more mystified than enlightened by revolutionary rhetoric. Meanwhile, government forces, with military intelligence support from the United States, evolved steadily more efficient techniques for dealing with the guerrillas.


We report experiments on the migration of a large bubble in an otherwise monodisperse two-dimensional (2D) foam sheared in a wide-gap Couette device. The bubble migrates away from the walls toward an equilibrium position between the center of the gap and the inner cylinder. This differs from the situation in a narrow-gap Couette device, where the equilibrium position is at the center of the gap [Mohammadigoushki and Feng, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 084502 (2012)]. The shift in equilibrium position is attributed to the non-Newtonian rheology of the foam, which is brought out by the nonhomogeneous shearing in a wide-gap geometry. Two aspects of the rheology, shear-thinning and the first normal stress difference, are examined separately by comparing with bubble migration in a xanthan gum solution and a Boger fluid. Shear-thinning shifts the equilibrium position inward while the normal stress does the opposite. Bubble migration in the 2D foam is the outcome of the competition between the two effects.


Experimental results on electroconvection in a planarly aligned nematic liquid crystal are reported. Special emphasis is given to an optical technique for investigating abnormal rolls, which are characterized by a twist in the director field. The order parameter of the twist is measured by ellipsometry. We have also carried out a numerical investigation of the optical setup using a transfer-matrix method. The relaxation time of the twist has been measured and compared to theoretical predictions. In particular, it is found that the twist in the abnormal rolls forces the director field at the glass surface to turn away from its preferred direction ~weak anchoring !. This distortion in the anchoring of the liquid crystal relaxes one order of magnitude slower than theory predicts for relaxation processes driven by elastic forces in bulk. @S1063-651X~99!09701-9#


With the long-term goal of producing nanometer-scale machines, we describe here the unidirectional rotary motion of a synthetic molecular structure fueled by chemical conversions. The basis of the rotation is the movement of a phenyl rotor relative to a naphthyl stator about a single bond axle. The sense of rotation is governed by the choice of chemical reagents that power the motor through four chemically distinct stations. Within the stations, the rotor is held in place by structural features that limit the extent of the rotor's Brownian motion relative to the stator.


Theories of international norm diffusion rely on accounts of entrepreneurial action almost exclusively identified as normative non-state actors who persuade powerful states to change their behaviour. We argue that powerful state agents can (also) be moral norm entrepreneurs and explicate the foreign policy acts that make them significant agents of international socialisation. Unlike non-state actors who set the agenda by advocating for new norms, foreign policy leaders leverage their identity and position to advance the recognition and diffusion of already established norms by reframing the moral prerogative of the 'national interest'. The paper examines a prominent case, namely former British foreign secretary, Mr. William Hague's promotion, through the offices of the British Foreign Commonwealth, of the international norm prohibiting use of sexual violence in conflict. We ask why and how did the United Kingdom and William Hague devote the attention and resources of the foreign policy apparatus to further this norm established more than a decade earlier in the Rome Statute of the ICC and by gender justice advocates? Crucially, our findings highlight the role of foreign policy leadership in re-framing conflict-related sexual violence as a threat to national and international peace and security, the strategic use of the individual positioning of the foreign minister, the harnessing of the foreign policy machinery to mobilize commitments from other states through networked diplomacy, and seizing international political opportunities to promote the take-up of the norm.


With methodological support in Reinhart Koselleck's notion of historical semantics, and an empirical focus on the Brazilian critic Antonio Candido (1918−2017), this article approaches "literature" as a layered concept that will always fail to function as that "plane of equivalence" that Aamir Mufti sees as an outcome of the Orientalist episteme. This failure is historical in the strongest sense; it derives from the condition that "history is never identical with its linguistic registration," as Koselleck puts it. A concept will therefore, throughout its life span, always encompass a combination of persisting and new meanings. In this way, Candido and the São Paulo school of criticism that he was instrumental in forming can be read as a strong instance of "theory from the South" that exploits the malleability of the concept from within its historical situatedness and contributes thereby to the conceptual worlding of literature.


This paper examines aspects of the evolution of possessive and existential constructions that shed interesting light on the affinities between possession and the notions underlying existential predication, comitative predication and transitive predication. The unity of the notion of possession follows from the notion of personal sphere of an individual, but the relationships between an individual and the elements of his/her personal sphere are very diverse, and sometimes ambiguous, with respect to the control exerted by the possessor. Consequently, whatever the source of a predicative construction expressing possession (existential, comitative, or transitive), its extension to the whole domain of possession implies extension to situations that differ from those encoded by the source construction in terms of control, which favors further evolutions. This explains why many languages have constructions expressing predicative possession that are fully aligned with none of the constructions that can be their historical source. Keywords: possession; existence; comitative; transitivity


Mongolia's Ministry of Infrastructure has proposed a Draft Law on Information Technology that is now being considered by Mongolia's State Great Khural, the country's parliament. The core conclusion of this analysis and critique is that the Draft Law as it now stands would do significant harm to Mongolia's vibrant and promising information and communication technology (ICT) sector. For the reasons detailed in this analysis, the Draft Law should be substantially revised and rewritten. To fulfill its responsibilities as the guardian of the people of Mongolia, the Great Khural must give careful consideration to each of the many policy choices that would be codified in the provisions of the Draft Law. An alarmingly high portion of the policy choices in the Draft Law will cause harm to Mongolia's national Internet and e-commerce sectors and to its future as a competitive player in the global information and communication technology markets. Many provisions are confused and confusing, apparently reflecting a lack of technical understanding. At home, the Draft Law would crush e-commerce with unnecessary regulatory burdens, block effective deployment of new technologies and infrastructures, raise the costs of Mongolia's ICT enterprises, restrict the range and reduce the quality of communications services, and increase the monthly bills for Mongolian users. If the Draft Law is approved and implemented as it is currently written, Mongolian citizens will be saddled with fewer choices, older technology, slower connectivity, higher prices, irrational limits on technology, and more bureaucracy. Perhaps worst of all, the Draft Law's burdensome regulations are so vague and expansive that they will undoubtedly open new vistas for governmental abuse and corruption. For Mongolia, the net result would be a costly tragedy of short-sightedness and a squandering of potential: with its high levels of education, literacy, and technical skills, the country is well-situated to be a highly competitive player in the global market for ICT services. Mongolia deserves much better than the broken legal framework of the Draft Law on Information Technology. If the country is to foster entrepreneurship, local enterprise, and low-cost, high-quality ICTs for all Mongolians, the Draft Law must be thoroughly reconsidered and rewritten.


The mesoscopic morphologies of linear and graft fluorinated block copolymers of ABCBA and C:BA types, respectively, have been investigated by using dissipative particle dynamics method. Self-assembly in a selective solvent has been examined by the introduction of dimethylformamide as the choice of solvent. By comparing the solubility parameters calculated using atomistic simulations, fluorine-containing segments are found to be immiscible both with other segments of the polymer and with the solvent. Morphologies of the pure linear and graft copolymers were lamellar and cylindrical, respectively. Interfacial tension versus concentration curves have been used to explain the self-assembly behavior of copolymers in solution, as well as to predict the kinetic mechanisms responsible for this behavior.


This research aims to propose an integrated method, which combines all the aspects required to reduce environmental impact from waste packaging and to increase knowledge on the best way to enhance reusable packaging. Through a review of the extant literature, a conceptual framework was designed of the most important dimensions to enhance reusable packaging amongst society and industries The main contributions in the research are the development of a Social Behaviour Aspect Model (SBAM) and the creation of reusable packaging attributes checklist. The SBAM can help industries focus on having high knowledge about reuse of packaging and to cooperate with communities to develop personal and social values and norms during the designing of reusable packaging. SBAM is the output from the first phase, which showed the importance of making an effort to develop packaging for consumers to reuse. The reusable packaging attributes checklist can provide a guideline for manufacturers/designers who intend to develop packaging sustainability performance through designing reusable packaging, and contribute to meet and interpret the reuse of packaging requirements and procedures. It also determines the environmental impact of reusable packaging attributes, which many industries are concerned about. The reusable packaging attributes checklist is the output from the second and third phases. The System Dynamic (SD) method was the approach used to determinate the interaction between social aspects and reusable packaging. The Normal Average, Codes and Coding and factor analysis with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) approaches were used to determine the reusable packaging attributes checklist. The last phase of the research was the conduction of a case study of a real company which needs to increase the amount of reusable packaging it uses and which seeks to reduce its environmental impact. All methods used in this research have both a quantitative and a qualitative nature. Data was collected by evaluation of consumers' responses and experts' experiences, as provided in the questionnaires. This research opens up opportunities for improving packaging and meeting sustainable profits and provides valuable information based on social, economic and environmental benefits of reusable packaging. The novelty of this research can help industries to investigate the most important areas for development within communities to enhance the use of reusable packaging and also facilitate the process-based change from one-way packaging to reusable packaging effectively with reduction of environmental impact.


ABSTRCT: The co-infection of hepatitis B and C viruses with HIV accelerates disease progression and also has an effect on the management of patients infected with HIV. The prevalence of HIV co-infection with hepatitis viruses varies widely. This study is planned to determine and evaluate the prevalence of hepatitis B and C co-infection among HIV patients accessing healthcare at federal Medical Center Keffi, Nasarawa State, Nigeria. A total of 200 seropositive HIV patients participated in the study at the ART clinic of which blood samples collected from the patients were screened for HBV and HCV on the basis of the presence of HBsAg and anti-HCV markers. Socio-demographic information was collected by the use of a questionnaire. The study population comprises of 54(27%) males and 146 (73%) females, of these, 11% (22/200) were positive for HBV, 13.5% (27/200) were positive for HCV and 5% (10/200) were co-infected. The prevalence rates of hepatitis B and C co-infection among the HIV patients was insignificantly different (P>0.05) statistically for sex, ART status, Educational status, Marital status, Age, Occupation, CD4 Count, and socio-demographic factors. The prevalence rates of HBV and HCV co-infection are increasing in patients with HIV. Having acquired knowledge on the effect of HBV/HCV co-infection, it is essential that all HIV infected patients be screened for HBV and HCV infection.


PT-symmetric optical systems have been widely researched in recent years and most of the researches are limited to weakly guiding condition. In this paper, we propose a method based on the conventional coupled mode theory (CMT) to describe PT-symmetric coupling systems regardless of the guiding conditions. With this method, we can examine the unique PT characteristics and design various PT optical structures.


ABSTRACT The deep-water Naticidae Guilding, 1834 collected in the expedition MD55 off SE Brazil are taxonomically studied; of the eleven species found, nine species and one genus are new. Microlinices n. gen., mainly characterized by its minute shell size (5–8 mm), thick unpigmented shell walls, weak callus, umbilicus wide lacking central fold, corneous operculum, absence of eyes, osphradium somewhat peduncular, penis at right of or ventral to right cephalic tentacle, nerve ring highly concentrated, and found in deepwater environment. The following taxa are studied here: Microlinices latiusculus n. gen., n. sp., the type species, off Rio de Janeiro (RJ), 430–450 m (anatomy included); M. ibitingus n. gen., n. sp., off Espírito Santo (ES) and RJ, 640–1575 m (anatomy included); M. benthovus n. gen., n. sp., same distribution, 607–1575 m (anatomy included); M. ombratus n. gen., n. sp., off ES, 1500–1575 m; M. apiculus n. gen., n. sp., off ES, 367 m; M. gaiophanis n. gen., n. sp., off RJ, 830 m; Natica jukyriuva n. sp., off ES, 295–620 m; N. pipoca n. sp., off ES, 15 m; N. juani Costa & Pastorino, 2012, off ES, 52–105 m, expanding the geographic distribution to north, to ES and Trindade Island; an operculum of Natica (ss) sp., off ES, 295 m; Eunaticina abyssalis n. sp., off ES, 1500–1575 m. The Natica Scopoli, 1777 ss and Eunaticina Fisher, 1885 are reported on the Brazilian coast for the first time. The three species with anatomical descriptions, representing the new genus Microlinices n. gen., had their phenotypic characters coded and inserted in a wider cladistic analysis (Simone 2011), with no inclusion of new characters. The three species resulted as a monophyletic taxon amongst the basal Naticoidea Guilding, 1834, supported by 20 synapomorphies.


Social entrepreneurship is an emerging academic field generating a rapidly expanding literature on a growing range of topics. While the early stage of its development was nourished by many of the rich ideas developed within the "conventional" entrepreneurship literature, this is beginning to change as the community-based and societal entrepreneurship landscape has become a more fundamental part of the collection of entrepreneurship practices. Challenges still remain in forging effective and close relationships between academics, community groups and practitioners. This paper considers the way that the social entrepreneurship community, as a collective of academics and practitioners, is beginning to address this tension.


Abstract. Formaldehyde (CH2O) is an important tracer of tropospheric photochemistry, whose slant column abundance can be retrieved from satellite measurements of solar backscattered UV radiation, using differential absorption retrieval techniques. In this work a spectral fitting sensitivity analysis is conducted on CH2O slant columns retrieved from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment 2 (GOME-2) instrument. Despite quite different spectral fitting approaches, the retrieved CH2O slant columns have geographic distributions that generally match expected CH2O sources, though the slant column magnitudes and corresponding uncertainties are particularly sensitive to the retrieval set-up. The choice of spectral fitting window, polynomial order, I0 correction, and inclusion of minor absorbers tend to result in the largest modulations of retrieved slant column magnitude and fit quality. However, application of a reference sector correction using observations over the remote Pacific Ocean is shown to largely homogenise the resulting CH2O vertical columns obtained with different retrieval settings, thereby largely reducing any systematic error sources from spectral fitting.


This Article studies the durapolist, the durable-goods monopolist. Durapolists have long argued that, unlike perishable-goods monopolists, they face difficulties in exercising market power despite their monopolistic position. During the past thirty years, economists have extensively studied the individual arguments durapolists deploy regarding their inability to exert market power. While economists have confirmed some of these arguments, a general framework for analyzing durapolists as a distinct group of monopolists has not emerged. This Article offers such a framework. It first presents the problems of durapolists in exercising market power and explains how courts have treated these problems. It then analyzes the strategies durapolists have devised to overcome difficulties in acquiring and maintaining monopoly power and the legal implications of these strategies. This Article's major contributions are (a) expanding the conceptual scope of the durapolist problem, (b) presenting the durapolist problem as an explanation for many common business practices employed by durapolists, and (c) analyzing the legal implications of strategies employed to overcome the durapolist problem.


This article analyses `social exclusion' as conceptual and grammatical metaphor, discussing the concept's ideological impact on British policy-making. It complements work in political theory by employing a cognitive critical view of discourse and metaphor. The study draws on five different genres and analyses them quantitatively and qualitatively, looking at lemmas and their grammatical functions, clusters and collocations, and metaphoric expressions. In the data, society is conceptualized as a bounded space with a normative centre and a problematic periphery, with movement towards the centre as the aim of policy-making. Conceptual and grammatical metaphor interact because society is metaphorized as a bounded space, while the collocation `social exclusion' represents an abstract agentless nominalization and is re-concretized through a conceptual metaphor that casts it as a malleable object. This interplay of different forms of metaphor frames the discourse of social exclusion and orients political thought and action towards the reproduction, rather than transformation, of inequality.


High-yield bond benchmarks are often the major factor considered when evaluating the performance of high-yield bond managers. Levine, Drucker, and Rosenthal show that major indices are sometimes hard to beat and at other times easy to beat, and offer several reasons in support of their contention. The authors discuss the structural differences between the high-yield bond and equity markets as well as the properties of high-yield bond indices that make appropriate benchmarking in the high-yield bond market very challenging. The authors also provide a summary of the inclusion rules of several primary indices used as high-yield bond benchmarks. The conclusion reached by the authors is that the limitations of benchmarks, especially of high-yield benchmarks, should be kept in mind when a high-yield bond fund is compared to a high-yield bond index, and that high-yield bond fund performance is best judged within the context of the investor's investment guidelines. Because plan sponsors often rely on benchmarks in compensating managers who "beat the benchmark," in 2009 very few high-yield bond management professionals likely received bonuses despite great performance because they did not beat their benchmarks. In 2008, however, many managers received bonuses despite the high-yield bond market's 26% loss, because the majority of funds outperformed their benchmarks. Something seems to be amiss. Beating major high-yield bond indices is sometimes difficult and sometimes easy, and plan sponsors should be aware of this phenomenon when compensating managers based upon their performance relative to their benchmarks.


Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) deals with high uplink and downlink throughput. The Proportional Fair (PF) Medium Access Control (MAC) scheduler offered a good balance between allocated resources and fairness among the User Equipment (UE) in comparison with other schedulers. In the PF scheduler, at each cycle of resource allocation, a feedback mechanism ensures that operational resource requirements are met while maintaining a degree of fairness among the UE. We analyze the effect of feedback Transmission Time Interval (TTI) delay on two typical EUTRAN networks, in terms of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). One network is referred to as EUTRAN LTE and the other as EUTRAN LTE-A, which fulfils high throughput requirement. We evaluate the performance of the PF MAC scheduler for both networks under varying feedback delay in TTI. Simulated results show that the delay in TTI affects the performance of resource allocation in terms of throughput, fairness, and spectral efficiency. Feedback delay improves network performance by compensating effect of imperfect channel condition. Division


Advanced Care Planning (ACP) in end-of-life decision making is a fairly new concept in Australia. The greater use of ACP may assist the community in recognising the limits of modern medicine and technology and acknowledge palliative care as a life enhancement philosophy of care. As health care professionals gain knowledge and skills in ACP they are confronted with issues and difficulties which may impact on moral and ethical values. Disagreements and dilemmas have arisen regarding the interpretation and application of Advanced Care Directives (ACD). The intentions of the substitute decision makers, at the time when the patient has lost capacity can also be complicated. Problem solving, strategies implemented and the resolving of disputes are investigated and analysed. Discourse Analysis of conversations and interviews with the major stakeholders (patients, families, doctors and nurses) within the case studies reveal power relations within social interaction and social structure. This influences end of life decision making. The case studies were set in residential aged care facilities, where ACP is now routinely offered (but not necessarily accepted). ACP promotes autonomy and ensures that the person's values and preferences are respected and known for a future time, when capacity may be reduced. For various reasons, ACP has been slow in progress, as Australians have been hesitant in embracing this concept. By analysing these case studies, some of the dilemmas and barriers to ACP are identified through the views of the family, friends, carers, health care professionals and the person themselves.


The links between alcohol and sexual assault are now well established and have bee documented in both United Kingdom (UK) and international research (Abbey et al, 2001; Horvath & Brown, 2006a, 2007; Kelly, Lovett & Regan, 2005; Ullman,
Karabastsos & Koss, 1999; Walby & Allen, 2004). Although research has identified that administration of alcohol and drugs as means of obtaining illicit sex is not a new
phenomenon, it has been argued that the techniques for using alcohol and drugs to facilitate rape have changed and this issue is therefore worthy of renewed interest
(Foote, Wangmann & Braff, 2004). This chapter brings together and compares findings from two large independent studies which collected data on the involvement of alcohol and drugs in cases of rape and sexual assault reported to the police and/or sexual assault referral centres. We seek to explore the complexities of alcohol-related sexual assault by outlining a common methodological approach which generates findings that take greater account of the role of the perpetrator, the broader assault context (e.g. the location and relationship between the parties) and other situational characteristics, (e.g. the type of intoxicants consumed and the nature of consumption).
The aims of our chapter are to:
• promote a broader and more nuanced understanding of the realities of alcohol-related rape, which, we argue, are commonly over-simplified in both academic and popular representations of this crime;
• advance the view, based on research evidence, that alcohol is the drug most commonly associated with rape;
• and to move beyond the tendency to focus solely on the role and characteristics of victims of alcohol-related sexual assault and incorporate perpetrator characteristics.
Our purpose is to dispel some persistent myths about alcohol and drugs in rape in relation to types of substances consumed and the nature of consumption, context,
victims and perpetrators. We will present findings from two datasets side by side which is not commonly done and will allow for direct comparison and the generation
of new hypotheses.


The era of post authoritarian transition in the Philippines marks a period of searching as the end of the Cold Was and the apparent demise of state socialism necessitate a paradigm shift and an alternative social order. An assessment of the new roles of various actors in the broad mass movement play in the democratization process, is therefore, in order, as these, so-called change-agents continue to shape the kind of democratic transition taking place in the midst of a de-ideologizing political arena. In recognition of the need to redefine the roles and redirect progressive efforts, the grassroots movements need to attend to queries of paramount importance: (1) the role of class politics in the context of current realities (2) the extent to which the democratic space may be utilized without having to compromise the popular movements' commitment to popular struggle; and (3) the current notions regarding the state, that is, whether or not state power should be seized. To reflect on these issues is to shed light on two fundamental issues confronting popular movements in the changed political condition: whether to join the mainstream for the eventual creation of a new political and economic order, or to formulate a new framework for carrying out radical structural change.


Background Sustainable nutritional strategies to reduce risk factors of cardiovascular diseases are highly needed. Inclusion of meal replacements may increase adherence to plant-based diets (PBDs). Objective The aim of this study was to test the effects of a transition from a western-type diet to a new nutritional paradigm with a PBD from predominately unrefined whole food sources, eaten ad libitum and including nutrient-enriched plant-based meal replacements twice daily. Design This was a single-arm, prospective interventional trial for 10 weeks in 36 participants with extension to 36 weeks in 18 participants. The main endpoint was serum low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol measured at baseline, after 10 weeks (phase 1), and after 36 weeks (phase 2). Secondary endpoints included total, non-high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and HDL-cholesterol, fasting glucose, uric acid, and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1). Results The mean reduction in LDL-cholesterol was 0.6 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.3–0.8) mmol/L (−15%, P < 0.001) at the end of phase 1, with no further change by the end of phase 2. Similar reductions were noted for non-HDL-cholesterol and total cholesterol. HDL-cholesterol was reduced by 0.16 mmol/L (95% CI, 0.1–0.2). There was a borderline reduction in fasting glucose (5.2 to 5 mmol/L in phase 1, P = 0.08) and a small significant rise in serum uric acid levels of 15 (95% CI, 1–28) μmol/L, P < 0.05. Median baseline value for IGF-1 concentration was 156 μg/L. Participants with baseline IGF-1 below median had a significant increase in IGF-1 value from baseline 110 ± 31 to 132 ± 39 at the end of phase 1 (mean change of +22 μg/L, 95% CI, 11–33, P = 0.001). Participants with baseline IGF-1 above median had no significant change in IGF-1. Significant reductions in body weight, body fat, and visceral fat were observed. Conclusions Supplemented, unrefined PBD eaten ad libitum was effective in improving total and LDL-cholesterol, non-HDL-cholesterol, and IGF-1 in low baseline IGF-1 subgroup. This trial is registered as NCT02905448 at https://clinicaltrials.gov, registered 19.9.2016, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02905448.


Economic analysis plays a pivotal role in competition enforcement. Integrating an economic perspective on merger control with a legal perspective throughout, this is a comprehensive reference work on merger control in the EU. Each chapter includes an analysis of the economic methods that have been employed in merger cases or that can be employed in merger assessment, such as merger simulation and critical loss analysis. Whilst focusing on EU practice, the work also highlights key procedures and and case law across the member states. A comparison with US procedure is also considered. Analysing both substantive and procedural law in detail, this is the most comprehensive work on EU merger control and is invaluable for merger assessment.


Cyprinid Phoxinus sp. is a non-native species of high mountain lakes of the Pyrenees. Its introduction has been done by humans, causing serious effects over those habitats and native species. The LIFE LimnoPirineus Project has as the main goal the improvement of these aquatic systems and the species that live there. The elimination and management of Phoxinus sp. has been done to achieve this objective, from which the samples have been obtained to carry out this study.
The investigation done is based on the analysis of the growth and demography from the observation of otoliths, calcified bone structures located in the internal ear. Their visualization with binocular loupe allows the age determination of each individual, which will be related with the corresponding forkal length by a mathematical model named Von Bertalanffy. From this subsample used in the growth study and some estimation per proportions, the ages of each individual from samples not processed in the laboratory have been determined. With that, the analysis of the demography of each lake with the observation of the corresponding survival profiles and the instantaneous rate of mortality could have been done.
Results show meaningful differences in the studied populations, both for growth and demography, being each lake's limnological characteristics and morphometry the factors that can affect those divergences, also taking into account the possible presence of different species of Phoxinus sp. in all the lakes. In the case of Closell Lake, these growth and mortality rates have been close related to the fact that this population has been already exploited and has suffered a previous treatment. Concluding, this gesture has had a great success and has achieved the considerably reduction of the population


P and S wave tomographic models have been developed for the northern Malawi rift and adjacent Rungwe Volcanic Province (RVP) using data from the Study of Extension and maGmatism in Malawi aNd Tanzania project and data from previous networks in the study area. The main features of the models are a low‐velocity zone (LVZ) with δVp = ~−1.5–2.0% and δVs = ~−2–3% centered beneath the RVP, a lower‐amplitude LVZ (δVp = ~−1.0–1.3% and δVs = ~−0.7–1%) to the southeast of the RVP beneath the center and northeastern side of the northern Malawi rift, a shift of the lower‐amplitude anomaly at ~−10° to −11° to the west beneath the central basin and to the western side of the rift, and a fast anomaly at all depths beneath the Bangweulu Craton. The LVZ widens further at depths >~150–200 km and extends to the north beneath northwestern Malawi, wrapping around the fast anomaly beneath the craton. We attribute the LVZ beneath the RVP and the northern Malawi rift to the flow of warm, superplume mantle from the southwest, upwelling beneath and around the Bangweulu Craton lithosphere, consistent with high 3He/4He values from the RVP. The LVZ under the RVP and northern Malawi rift strongly indicates that the rifted lithosphere has been thermally perturbed. Given that volcanism in the RVP began about 10 million years earlier than the rift faulting, thermal and/or magmatic weakening of the lithosphere may have begun prior to the onset of rifting.


Pay what you want (PWYW) is a new participative pricing mechanism in which consumers have maximum control over the price they pay. Previous research has suggested that participative pricing increases consumers' intent to purchase. However, sellers using PWYW face the risk that consumers will exploit their control and pay nothing at all or a price below the seller's costs. In three field studies, the authors find that prices paid are significantly greater than zero. They analyze factors that influence prices paid and show that PWYW can even lead to an increase in seller revenues.


We describe the compilation and derivation of parameters for use in krill-fishery-predator
models of the Scotia Sea – Antarctic Peninsula region. The primary aim is to provide input for
the model developed by Watters et al. (2006), which we use to define the required parameters.
However, these parameters should be applicable to other models of the system. Our methods
include the use of weighted averages to derive "generic" parameters from multiple species in a
taxonomic group, and the derivation of potential krill transport rates from the OCCAM global
ocean circulation model. This parameter set, like most others, is associated with considerable
uncertainty, which must be taken into account when it is used. We have therefore documented
our sources, assumptions and calculations at every stage of the compilation process. Our
calculations suggest that myctophid fish are the major consumers of Antractic krill in the
Scotia Sea –Antarctic Peninsula region.


We present month-long observations of speciated acyl peroxy nitrates (APNs), including PAN, PPN, MPAN, APAN, and the sum of PiBN and PnBN, measured at the Mount Bachelor Observatory (MBO) as part of the INTEX-B collaborative field campaign during spring 2006. APN abundances, measured by thermal dissociation-chemical ionization mass spectrometry (TD-CIMS), are discussed in terms of differing contributions from the boundary layer (BL) and the free troposphere (FT) and in the context of previous APN measurements in the NE Pacific region. PAN mixing ratios range from 11 to 3955 pptv, with a mean value of 334 pptv for the full measurement period. PPN is linearly correlated with PAN ( r 2 =0.96), with an average abundance of 6.5% relative to PAN; other APNs are generally <1% of PAN. Diurnal cycles and relationships of APNs with ozone reveal a gradient in hydrocarbon chemistry between the BL and the FT. On average, levels of APNs, ozone and PPN/PAN are substantially higher in FT air relative to BL air, suggesting that this site is strongly influenced by distant pollution sources. To estimate the impact of long-range transport of Asian pollution on atmospheric composition at MBO, we perform a detailed analysis utilizing HYSPLIT back trajectories. This analysis suggests that trans-Pacific transport of Asian pollution leads to substantial increases in APN and ozone mixing ratios at MBO, especially when transport occurs via the free troposphere. The ensemble of trajectories indicate that Asian-influenced free tropospheric air was sampled in ~16% of our data and contained a median PAN mixing ratio double that of the full dataset.


The position of a foreign trader under the common law has never been quite clear in South Africa. Our courts have held in a number of decisions that where a trader has never performed or executed his business in this country and has subsequently not acquired any goodwill here, he is not entitled to relief. This appears to have been the position even if his business advertisements were published in foreign magazines which were read by the South African public. With the coming into operation of the new Trade Marks Act 194 of 1993 on 1 May 1995, it was hoped that the effect of the above approach would be softened with the prohibition of the unauthorised registration and use of unregistered trade marks which are well known in the Republic as being the marks of persons who are nationals of, domiciled in, or have commercial establishments in member countries to the Paris Convention. Inadequate protection of this nature will have a negative impact on South Africa's efforts to attract foreign investment.


We address the question of usefulness of virtual reality based rehabilitation equipment in practical therapy, by letting experienced therapists explore one such equipment during six months in their regular practice under natural circumstances. By protocols, questionnaires and focus group interviews we collect data regarding which activities they considered useful, why these are useful and what might improve usefulness of such activities, based on the therapists' professional judgement and experiences. This resulted in a set of purposeful activities, identified values for therapeutic work, and design guidelines. The conclusion is that such equipment has benefits beyond real life training, that variation in content and difficulty levels is a key quality for wide suitability and that the combination of challenging cognitive activities which encourage motor training was considered particularly useful.


A Supersymmetric Multiverse interpretation of Quantum Mechanics with instant quantum entanglement at universal distances. This many worlds or Supersymmetric Multiverse interpretation of quantum mechanics is the idea that NOT all possible alternate histories of the universe NEED to exist IF there is instant mirror symmetrical wavefunction collapse in at least two distant (Charge and Parity) mirror symmetric (anti)-universes. IF this is the case, then we could argue that still all alternate histories exist, but have the same anti-copy result of wavefunction collapse. Mirror symmetrical Clocks are running over there with left handed rotation, but time is running still forward. Dual entangled Schrodinger Cats and anti-Cats in both universes, die or live instantly (superpositioned) without looking at them: they (the nuclear decay trigger) look to each other by long distant instant entanglement. Schrodinger was not aware of that possibility of course so he described the paradox, which became known as Schrodinger's cat paradox. However deep down the Planck scale at the Higgs level there seem to be TWO entangled pinball machines active between dual anti-copy universes. The oscillating Higgs energy is compared with the pinball springs and the pinballs could be compared with the Fermions and photons


Sills of hydrothermally altered alkaline magmatic rock (teschenite) of Lower Cretaceous age at the Čerťák and Řepiště sites in the Silesian Unit (Flysch Belt of the Outer Western Carpathians, Czech Republic) host leucocratic dykes and nests which contain accessory minerals enriched in Zr, Nb and REE: Zr-, Nb-rich titanite, zircon, gittinsite, pyrochlore, monazite, REE-rich apatite, epidote, and vesuvianite. Titanite forms wedge-shaped crystals or irregular aggregates enclosed in the analcime groundmass or overgrowths on Zr-rich ferropargasite and taramite or Zr-rich aegirine–augite to aegirine. Titanite crystals show oscillatory or irregular patchy to sector zoning and contain up to 17.7 wt. % ZrO2 and 19.6 wt. % Nb2O5, and ≤1.1 wt. % REE2O3. High-field-strength elements (HFSE) are incorporated into the structure of the studied titanite predominantly by substitutions: (i) [6]Ti4+ ↔ [6]Zr4+; (ii) [6]Ti4+ + [6]Al3+ ↔ [6]Zr4+ + [6]Fe3+; and (iii) [6]2Ti4+ ↔ [6]Nb5+ + [6](Al, Fe)3+. Magmatic fractional crystallization, high-temperature hydrothermal autometasomatic overprint and low-temperature hydrothermal alterations resulted in the formation of the HFSE-rich mineral assemblages within the leucocratic teschenites. Autometamorphic processes caused by high-temperature hypersaline aqueous solutions (salinity ~50 wt. %, ~390–510 °C), which were released from the HFSE-enriched residual melt, played a major role in the crystallization of Zr-, Nb-, and REE-rich minerals. The mobilization of HFSE could have occurred either by their sequestration into a fluid phase exsolved from the crystallizing melt or by superimposed alteration processes. The distinctive positive Eu anomaly (EuCN/Eu* = 1.85) of leucocratic dykes infers possible mixing of Eu2+-bearing magmatic fluids with more oxidized fluids.


Age and structure of local vegetation (habitat complexity) are commonly assumed to be indicators of habitat quality for breeding birds, but for many species these relationships are poorly understood. The hihi (stitchbird Notiomystis cincta), an endangered New Zealand cavity-nesting passerine that only survives on mammalian predator-free islands or within fenced areas, has been the focus of intensive conservation management and research. Between 1992 and 2004 we examined the fledging success of 347 nests from four island populations. Habitat quality was improved at the two scrub/regenerating sites and one of the two mature/ climax sites through management using supplementary feeding, nest-box parasite control or both. At two sites (one mature, one regenerating) management was stopped during the study allowing us to measure fledgling success with and without habitat quality improvement through management. At the population level, the number of chicks fledged per nest increased as management intensity increased and habitat quality increased. The positive effect of management was greatest for populations in lower quality habitats. To assess the relationship between fledging success and local habitat variables around the nesting site we used a height-frequency vegetation survey method sensitive to changes in vertical structural complexity at the two mature/climax sites. For 36 natural nests, a cross-validated regression-tree analysis (R2 = 0.69) predicted that as habitat complexity increased, so did fledging success, which was generally higher for nests in trees with larger diameters (present in older forests). Because these habitats are free from nest predators, our results suggest that habitat age and complexity are proxies for habitat quality through effects on nestling food availability and/or nest-chamber characteristics. Our results support the current management approach of providing supplementary food to translocated hihi populations and suggest that supplementary food can be used to overcome resource deficiencies for this species in poorer quality habitats.