Back-Alley Banking: Private Entrepreneurs in China, by Kellee S. Tsai. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002. xvi + 316 pp. US$35.00 (hardcover). For some twenty years, economists have been applauding the formation, growth and maturation of China's private business sector. It is all the more remarkable, then, that Kellee Tsai's book is the first major English-language study to examine how Chinese entrepreneurs, denied lines of credit with state banking institutions and prohibited from organizing private banks, have raised capital. Back-Alley Banking offers readers rich empirical data, rigorous new tests of old theoretical frameworks and a smattering of engaging anecdotes from the field. In sum, this is a very fine book. Tsai's meticulous field research, carried out over several years in Fujian, Zhejiang and Henan, illuminates businesspeople's creation of an impressively diverse curb-market for finance. This market includes everything from legally sanctioned and semi-legal shareholding cooperative financial institutions and rural and urban cooperative foundations to illegal pawn-shops, loan sharks and Ponzi-type pyramidal investment schemes and to rotating credit associations. While conceding ' that the efflorescence of the curb-market has been "demand-driven", Tsai cautions that its internal diversity, modes of operation and impact cannot be understood solely through the calculus of the market. Nor can it be interpreted simply as evidence of state-directed developmental activity, for "the state" in China is not a unitary entity. Instead, Tsai demonstrates the importance of two key local political factors in shaping informal financial institutions in China. First, local governments' support for private business affects the range and sustainability of informal financial institutions available in different localities. Even within a local government jurisdiction, variation is produced by sections of the government responding to different incentive structures when dealing with informal financial institutions. Curb-market financiers amplify and operate within the interstices of these incentive structures, generating intra-government competition for rent-seeking opportunities. This is illustrated most clearly in the case of Wenzhou, where the Industrial and Commercial Management Bureau ignored both central government prohibitions and the objections of the municipal branch of the Peoples' Bank of China in approving applications from financial institutions to operate as private businesses. Tsai is undoubtedly correct that self-interest underpinned some of these government actions. However, her argument that all governmental interventions in the Wenzhou curb-market are expressions of self-interested utility maximization that can be modelled through game theory provides a very limited analytical framework with which to explain either how local economies are shaped by government agendas or how China's political system is changing in response to the challenges of financial diversification, deregulatory pressures and intensifying international competition. The second factor that Tsai identifies as a key determinant in the development of informal finance is the high level of differentiation in local credit markets. Even within a single town, entrepreneurs whom she distinguishes by place of origin, political connections and gender utilize divergent financing strategies. The chapter on Fujian provides a case in point. In explaining women's domination of credit associations in various locations in the province, Tsai draws attention to the importance of long-standing assumptions about women's ability to commit themselves and organize informally and their having the "time and patience to collect spare change" without feeling shame (p. …


One of the aims of the internationally funded Investment Compact of the Balkan Stability Pact is to reduce investment risk in the region and lay the foundations for the inflow of private capital. This paper discusses the situation of foreign direct investment (FDI) in South-East European countries (SEECs). It also draws lessons from the experience of Central European transition countries (CEECs) to make conclusions and policy recommendations for SEECs. It provides an insight into some crucial areas - foreign penetration in the manufacturing sector, FDI-related policies and privatization as a vehicle of FDI. The paper comes to the conclusion that the countries can transform and grow faster if they rely on foreign direct investment. The pace of restructuring has been fastest in countries where FDI was attracted also by privatization. Technologies relevant for growth are principally developed by multinationals and can only be accessed within their networks. A comparison of the performance of domestic-owned and foreign-owned enterprises in CEECs proves the overall positive effects of FDI in terms of structural upgrading and increasing competitiveness. But foreign direct investment inflows cannot be treated as unrequited transfers they finance profit-oriented ventures whose foreign owners expect to realize and, to a smaller or larger extent, also to repatriate the generated profit. Current account deficits are in part produced by FDI inflows. The experience with public policies in SEECs has been disappointing for reasons connected with weak states and corrupt practices. Strengthening public institutions and building credibility can be development targets of their own. In the given situation, policy recommendations must keep in mind that these countries can only cope with simple policies; they are unable to run very sophisticated programmes or apply complicated tools. In the future, supporting regional re-integration and easing border controls can reduce transaction costs and increase the size of attainable markets. Investment promotion policies must become more stable and transparent. Restructuring and privatization of ailing industries, restructuring and capitalization of the banking system as well as policies directed at the promotion of small and medium-size businesses are necessary to strengthen market-economy rule. The legal system must become more transparent and less corruptible. Simple legislation and institutions (smaller governments) are usually less corruptible than more complex, fuzzy ones.


A method is introduced for inferring cloud optical depth t from solar radiometric measurements made on an aircraft at altitude z. It is assessed using simulated radiometric measurements produced by a 3D Monte Carlo algorithm acting on fields of broken boundary layer clouds generated from Landsat imagery and a cloud-resolving model. The method uses upwelling flux and downwelling zenith radiance measured at two solar wavelengths where atmospheric optical properties above z are very similar but optical properties of the surface‐atmosphere system below z differ. This enables estimation of cloud reflectance into nadir for upwelling diffuse flux and, finally, t above z. An approximate one-dimensional radiative Green's function is used to roughly account for horizontal transport of photons in all, even broken, clouds. This method is compared to its surface-based counterpart and shown to be superior. Most notably, the aircraft-based approach deals easily with inhomogeneous land surfaces, is less susceptible to poor sampling, and need not account for aerosol below z. The algorithm appears as though it will have little difficulty inferring high-resolution time series of t & 40 for most (single layer) clouds. For larger values of t, biases emerge; particularly, underestimation for the statistically infrequent interiors of cumuliform clouds as photon leakage through cloud sides is not addressed. For the cumuliform and stratiform clouds used here, mean bias errors for retrieved t are ;1 (or ;15%) and ;0.3 (or ;3%), respectively. For stratiform clouds with textured bases, performance is likely to improve slightly for flights just up from mean cloud base.


Nestin, a marker of neural stem cells, is also expressed by cells located in the epithelium of the pancreatic primordium and by a subpopulation of exocrine cells but not by endocrine cells. These findings raised the possibility that the pancreatic epithelium is heterogeneous and comprised of subpopulations of exocrine/nestin‐positive and endocrine/nestin‐negative precursor cells. We examined this issue in two mutant mouse models characterized by protracted expression of several embryonal properties in islet cells. One mutant line comprises mice lacking mature glucagon due to abrogation of proprotein convertase‐2 (PC2−/−), responsible for the conversion of proglucagon into glucagon, while the second line consists of mice with a global deletion of the glucagon receptor (Gcgr−/−). We demonstrate that nestin is transiently expressed by acinar cells and by insulin and glucagon cells of islets of both lines of mice. In addition, the lack of glucagon signaling increased nestin mRNA levels in pancreas of mutant embryos and adult mice. We conclude that nestin+ cells located in the pancreatic primordium generate the cells of the endocrine and exocrine lineages. Furthermore, our results suggest that nestin expression is regulated by glucagon signaling. Developmental Dynamics 236:1126–1133, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


DONALD A. HENDERSON Confronting the Threat of Bioterrorism Serious concerns about the possible use of microbes as weapons of terror have heightened markedly over the past five years. This threat, mysterious and little understood, has spawned a spate of docudramas, books, and speculative scenarios, each conjuring up scarcely believable epidemic disasters. Although many such stories are best characterized as flights of science fiction, it has nonetheless become increasingly apparent that the occurrence of a bioterrorist event is entirely plausible and could be catastrophic. All countries are at risk. Instruction on how to prepare effective weapons is now available on the Internet, as are offers by laboratories in various parts of the world to provide strains of some of the most deadly microbes. Rapid developments in biotechnology are opening new vistas in medicine, but, at the same time, they are unwittingly providing rogue groups and nations with inexpensive tools to fashion new and more potent bioweapons. Meanwhile, during the past decade, large numbers of Russian sc ientists have left the extensive biological-weapons complex of the former Soviet Union and have been actively recruited for work in other countries. Thirty years ago, there were only four countries known to be working with biological weapons. Now, however, there are thought to be as many as 12 to 14. Assessing the Threat The United States ended its offensive bioweapons program in 1970. Like most countries, the United States has been slow to consider and implement possible defensive policies against "deliberate epidemics." Internationally, primary reliance has rested with the 1972 Biologic and Toxin Weapons Convention. This agreement had been signed by most countries but, as was discovered during the past decade, its terms were flagrantly violated both by Iraq and the former Soviet Union. Although the Convention mandates that no country undertake research on or production of biological weapons, there are no provisions or procedures for verification and enforcement. Countless meetings over a period of many years have so far failed to identify suitable mechanisms that countries could agree upon. Regrettably, the only other international initiative relating to biological weapons is an intention by the World Health Organization to issue a comprehensive booklet dealing with biological and chemical weapons in fall 2001. A new perspective on the threat is provided by a recent report of the US Commission on National Security in the 21st Century. It singles out bioweapons as perhaps the greatest threat that the United States might face in the next century. Admiral Stansfield Turner, former Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, believes that, besides nuclear weapons, the only other weapon class with the capacity to bring the nation past the "point of non-recovery" is biological weapons. In 1993, the US Office of Technology Assessment illustrated this threat in their estimate that 100 grams of anthrax released upwind of a large American city--say Washington, DC--could cause between 130,000 and three million deaths, depending on weather and other variables. At the high end, this degree of carnage is of a magnitude comparable to that caused by a hydrogen bomb, far exceeding what a chemical weapon could do. There is no doubt that biological weapons can be effective, and their utility has been demonstrated by all possible m eans short of war. Heightened interest in bioterrorism by a number of nations can be attributed in significant part to the massive research and development program in this field conducted by the former Soviet Union. In the early 1990s, the West first learned from high-level Soviet defectors that in 1972, when other countries were ending their programs, the Soviet Union opted to expand and modernize its biological-weapons program and to begin to develop genetically engineered pathogens that could serve as weapons. …


ABSTRACT The community structure of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) of a marine Arctic sediment (Smeerenburgfjorden, Svalbard) was characterized by both fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and rRNA slot blot hybridization by using group- and genus-specific 16S rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes. The SRB community was dominated by members of the Desulfosarcina-Desulfococcus group. This group accounted for up to 73% of the SRB detected and up to 70% of the SRB rRNA detected. The predominance was shown to be a common feature for different stations along the coast of Svalbard. In a top-to-bottom approach we aimed to further resolve the composition of this large group of SRB by using probes for cultivated genera. While this approach failed, directed cloning of probe-targeted genes encoding 16S rRNA was successful and resulted in sequences which were all affiliated with the Desulfosarcina-Desulfococcus group. A group of clone sequences (group SVAL1) most closely related toDesulfosarcina variabilis (91.2% sequence similarity) was dominant and was shown to be most abundant in situ, accounting for up to 54.8% of the total SRB detected. A comparison of the two methods used for quantification showed that FISH and rRNA slot blot hybridization gave comparable results. Furthermore, a combination of the two methods allowed us to calculate specific cellular rRNA contents with respect to localization in the sediment profile. The rRNA contents of Desulfosarcina-Desulfococcus cells were highest in the first 5 mm of the sediment (0.9 and 1.4 fg, respectively) and decreased steeply with depth, indicating that maximal metabolic activity occurred close to the surface. Based on SRB cell numbers, cellular sulfate reduction rates were calculated. The rates were highest in the surface layer (0.14 fmol cell−1day−1), decreased by a factor of 3 within the first 2 cm, and were relatively constant in deeper layers.


Conservation tillage is an agricultural strategy to mitigate atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In eastern Washington, we evaluated the long-term effects of conventional tillage (CT), reduced tillage (RT) and no-tillage (NT) on soil organic carbon (SOC) storage and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions at three dryland and one irrigated location using the cropping systems simulation model CropSyst. Conversion of CT to NT produced the largest relative increase in SOC storage (ΔSOC, average yearly change relative to CT) in the top 30 cm (11.8 in) of soil where ΔSOC ranged from 0.29 to 0.53 Mg CO2e ha−1 y−1 (CO2e is carbon dioxide [CO2] equivalent of SOC; 0.13 to 0.24 tn CO2e ac−1 yr−1). The ΔSOC were less with lower annual precipitation, greater fallow frequency, and when changing from CT to RT. Overall, ΔSOC decreased from the first to the third decade after conversion from CT to NT or RT. Simulations of ΔSOC for the conversion of CT to NT based on a 0 to 15 cm (0 to 5.9 in) soil depth were greater than the ΔSOC based on a 0 to 30 cm depth, primarily due to differences among tillage regimes in the depth-distribution of carbon (C) inputs and the resultant SOC distribution with depth. Soil erosion rates under CT in the study region are high, posing deleterious effects on soil quality, productivity, and aquatic systems. However, an analysis that includes deposition, burial, and sedimentation on terrestrial and aquatic systems of eroded SOC indicates that the substantial erosion reduction obtained with RT and NT may result only in minor additional SOC oxidation as compared to CT. Simulated N2O emissions, expressed as CO2 equivalent, were not very different under CT, RT, and NT. However, N2O emissions were sufficiently high to offset gains in SOC from the conversion of CT to RT or NT. Thus, reducing tillage intensity can result in net C storage, but mitigation of GHG is limited unless it is coupled with nitrogen (N) fertilizer management to also reduce N2O emission.


Most activities during the software development process have the potential to cause faults in the final software code. A fault caused somewhere in the development process will be manifested in products produced after its introduction e.g. a high level design document or a code component. A probabilistic model of fault introduction is presented, with the aim of estimating the integrity of the work carried out up to a particular point in a given development process. In particular, estimates of the integrity of products early in the development lifecycle are sought.


The long and stellar career of John Everett Millais (1829-1896) has been framed in terms of his rise to notoriety as an original member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood followed by a compromising descent into comfortable success as a popular painter and leading figure in the Royal Academy. But this dismissal of Millais's post-Raphaelite work overlooks more than forty years of artistic endeavour and distinction. In this book, nine scholars reexamine Millais's entire career from a variety of perspectives, arriving at a new vision of his place in the history of British art and finding that fame and recognition did not represent the end of this important Victorian artist's development. The contributors consider the whole fabric of Millais's work, seeking the patterns of continuity through his career. They acknowledge the significance of Millais's association with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood yet place that brief phase into the context of his entire body of work Exploring such topics as Millais's position among contemporary artists; his active interests in theatre, literature, and science; his lifelong love of nature; his role as a celebrity and a popular artist; and his enduring fascination with the poignant spectre of mortality, the book presents a portrait of Millais not limited by the parameters of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. It is a portrait of a supremely gifted artist, a rival of Frederic Leighton, and a counterpart to Alfred Lord Tennyson.


The first eleven books of Josephus's Jewish Antiquities and the Testament of Zebulun, part of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, present a common insistence on emotional responses to the pain of others. This article studies how both texts construct the emotions that one is supposed to have when facing the suffering of others. For Josephus, the basic response to others' pain is pity, rooted in the rhetorical tradition but reinterpreted. Emotionally responding to others' pain depends on a cognitive appraisal and is characteristic of high moral character, which may contribute to creating a sense of superiority. In the Testament of Zebulun, the response to others' pain is primarily an embodied experience. The self may be unable to help the one in pain, and intense emotions then compensate for lack of action. Compassion is rooted in the realization of one's own vulnerability. Both discourses, in fact, illustrate a particular aspect of compassion, emphasizing either empowerment or vulnerability. In the conclusion, the article looks at emotional responses to others' pain as occasions for the self to position itself toward others while they are vulnerable, thus less threatening. By displaying appropriate emotions, the self redefines its position vis-à-vis its peers and manifests its belonging to the social group.


A proposed functional polymorphism in the ionotropic glutamate receptor AMPA1 (GRIA1) has been reported to influence antral follicle numbers and fertility in cows. Repeat breeder cows that fail to produce a calf in multiple seasons have been reported to have reduced numbers of small (1 to 3 mm) antral follicles in their ovaries. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that this GRIA1 polymorphism was affecting antral follicle numbers in repeat breeder cows. Repeat breeder cows (n = 64) and control cows (n = 72) that had always produced a calf were housed in a dry lot and observed twice daily for behavioral estrus. Blood samples were collected, and cows were genotyped for this GRIA1 polymorphism and for a polymorphism in the GnRH receptor (GnRHR) that was proposed to influence age at puberty. On d 3 to 8 after estrus cows were slaughtered, and reproductive organs were collected to determine antral follicle count, ovary size, and uterine horn diameter. Repeat breeder cows were older at first calving than control cows (P = 0.006). The length (P = 0.03) and height (P = 0.02) of the ovary contralateral to the corpus luteum (CL) were greater in control cows than repeat breeder cows. The endometrial diameter in the horn ipsilateral to the CL was greater in the control cows than the repeat breeder cows. Repeat breeder cows had fewer small (1 to 5 mm) antral follicles than control cows (P = 0.003); however, there was no association between GRIA1 genotype and antral follicle number. The GnRHR polymorphism was associated with age at first calving because cows that were homozygous for the C allele had a greater age at first calving than heterozygous cows or cows that were homozygous for the T allele (P = 0.01). In the granulosa cells from small (1 to 5 mm) antral follicles, mRNA abundances of 2 markers of oocyte quality, anti-Müllerian hormone and pentraxin 3, did not differ between fertility groups (P ≥ 0.12). We conclude that this GRIA1 polymorphism exists in beef cows but that it does not influence antral follicle numbers. The association between GnRHR genotype and age at first calving is likely not causal as this polymorphism is not functional. The utility of this polymorphism as a genetic marker for early conception in heifers will require further validation. Screening postpartum cows by ultrasonography to determine antral follicle numbers may aid in making culling decisions.


Coastal development and climate change are dramatically increasing the risks of flooding, erosion, and extreme weather events. Coral reefs and other coastal ecosystems act as natural defenses against coastal hazards, but their degradation increases risk to people and property. Environmental degradation, however, has rarely been quantified as a driver of coastal risk. In Quintana Roo, Mexico, a region on the Mexican Caribbean coast with an annual tourism economy of 10 billion USD, coral reefs constitute a natural barrier against flooding from hurricanes. This study spatially quantifies the risk reduction benefits of the Mesoamerican Reef in Quintana Roo for people, buildings, and hotel infrastructure. The risk reduction benefits are substantial. For example, the reefs prevented 43% additional damage during Hurricane Dean (2007) and provide nowadays hazard risk reduction for 4.3% of the people, 1.9% of the built capital, and 2.4% of the hotel infrastructure, per year. The annual benefits are estimated in 4,600 people, 42 million USD damage prevention for buildings, and 20.8 million USD for hotel infrastructure. The study also compares the risk reduction of coral reefs with (i) the protection offered by dunes and (ii) the increase in coastal risk from sea-level rise. The risk reduction of dunes is more critical where there are no coral reefs offshore and for small return-periods storms. Sea-level rise, however, will make the more frequent storms more impactful and will drive significant increases in annual expected damages across the region. However, we demonstrate that, in coral reef environments, the contribution of reef degradation to coastal risk is larger than the expected increase in risk from sea level rise. However, the spatial distribution of the risk reduction benefits from reefs differs for people and infrastructure, and in particular for hotels, which receive the most protection from reefs. Furthermore, many sections present larger benefits than the typical costs of restoration. This valuation makes a compelling case for protecting and maintaining this natural infrastructure for its risk reduction service, but also allows the development of piloting innovative strategies, such as risk finance and insurance strategies, that can align environmental and risk management goals.


We analyze the sharing of very short identity by descent (IBD) segments between humans, Neandertals, and Denisovans to gain new insights into their demographic history. Short IBD segments convey information about events far back in time because the shorter IBD segments are, the older they are assumed to be. The identification of short IBD segments becomes possible through next generation sequencing (NGS), which offers high variant density and reports variants of all frequencies. However, only recently HapFABIA has been proposed as the first method for detecting very short IBD segments in NGS data. HapFABIA utilizes rare variants to identify IBD segments with a low false discovery rate. We applied HapFABIA to the 1000 Genomes Project whole genome sequencing data to identify IBD segments that are shared within and between populations. Many IBD segments have to be old since they are shared with Neandertals or Denisovans, which explains their shorter lengths compared to segments that are not shared with these ancient genomes. The Denisova genome most prominently matches IBD segments that are shared by Asians. Many of these segments were found exclusively in Asians and they are longer than segments shared between other continental populations and the Denisova genome. Therefore, we could confirm an introgression from Deniosvans into ancestors of Asians after their migration out of Africa. While Neandertal-matching IBD segments are most often shared by Asians, Europeans share a considerably higher percentage of IBD segments with Neandertals compared to other populations, too. Again, many of these Neandertal-matching IBD segments are found exclusively in Asians, whereas Neandertal-matching IBD segments that are shared by Europeans are often found in other populations, too. Neandertal-matching IBD segments that are shared by Asians or Europeans are longer than those observed in Africans. These IBD segments hint at a gene flow from Neandertals into ancestors of Asians and Europeans after they left Africa. Interestingly, many Neandertal-and/or Denisova-matching IBD segments are predominantly observed in Africans — some of them even exclusively. IBD segments shared between Africans and Neandertals or Denisovans are strikingly short, therefore we assume that they are very old. Consequently, we conclude that DNA regions from ancestors of humans, Neandertals, and Denisovans have survived in Africans. As expected, IBD segments on chromosome X are on average longer than IBD segments on the autosomes. Neandertal-matching IBD segments on chromosome X confirm gene flow from Neandertals into ancestors of Asians and Europeans outside Africa that was already found on the autosomes. Interestingly, there is hardly any signal of Denisova introgression on the X chromosome.


Following periods of mass atrocity and oppression, states are faced with a question of critical importance in the transition to democracy: how to offer redress to victims of the old regime without perpetuating cycles of revenge. Traditionally, balance has been restored through arrests, trials, and punishment, but in the last three decades, more than twenty countries have opted to have a truth commission investigate the crimes of the prior regime and publish a report about the investigation, often incorporating accounts from victims. Although many praise the work of truth commissions for empowering and healing through words rather than violence, some condemn the practice as a poor substitute for traditional justice, achieved through trials and punishment. There has been until now little analysis of the unarticulated claim that underlies the truth commissions' very existence: that language-in this case narrative stories-can substitute for violence. Acknowledging revenge as a real and deep human need, Shattered Voices explores the benefits and problems inherent when a fragile country seeks to heal its victims without risking its own future. In developing a theory about the role of language in retribution, Teresa Godwin Phelps takes an interdisciplinary approach, delving into sources from Greek tragedy to Hamlet, from Kant to contemporary theories about retribution, from the Babylonian law codes to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Report. She argues that, given the historical and psychological evidence about revenge, starting afresh by drawing a bright line between past crimes and a new government is both unrealistic and unwise. When grievous harm happens, a rebalancing is bound to occur, whether it is orderly and lawful or disorderly and unlawful. Shattered Voices contends that language is requisite to any adequate balancing, and that a solution is viable only if it provides an atmosphere in which storytelling and subsequent dialogue can flourish. In the developing culture of ubiquitous truth reports, Phelps argues that we must become attentive to the form these reports take-the narrative structure, the use of victims' stories, and the way a political message is conveyed to the citizens of the emerging democracy. By looking concretely at the work and responsibilities of truth commissions, Shattered Voices offers an important and thoughtful analysis of the efficacy of the ways human rights abuses are addressed.


Based on eight in-depth interviews, this article analyses the quandary faced by liberal mainland Chinese student migrants in Hong Kong. On the one hand, the liberal pro-democracy movements in Hong Kong are deeply intertwined with the rise of localism, which is based on a dichotomy between Hong Kong and mainland China. On the other hand, a rising, development-centric nationalism in mainland China reduces Hong Kong protesters to unemancipated British colonial subjects. However, in the context of this "double marginalisation," liberal Mainland students guard a form of liberalism that transcends both Hong Kong localism and Chinese nationalism. They debunk the stereotype of mainland Chinese students being apolitical and therefore provide an alternative definition of being Chinese. They challenge the view that mainland Chinese can only be emancipated outside mainland China to destabilise a Fukuyamian linear interpretation of history. They use four tactics to cope with double marginalisation: understanding localists, befriending expatriates, assuming professionalism, and becoming apolitical.
Image © Ling Tang


Blade wake interaction (BWI) noise is the broadband noise generated by the ingestion of turbulent tip vortices into helicopter rotors. Prediction of BWI noise requires knowledge of the turbulence structure of the tip vortex. This report describes a joint investigation to measure that structure and incorporate the results into a noise prediction scheme. Measurements were performed on the tip vortex shed by a single rectangular NACA 0012 half wing placed in a wind tunnel test section. The properties of the vortex were studied for a range of angles of attack (2.5° to 7.5°) and chord Reynolds numbers (130000 to 530000). Initially the vortex was examined for stability and probe interference effects through flow visualization. Then detailed three-component velocity, turbulence and spectral measurements were made using multiple hot wires between 20 and 30 chordlengths downstream of the wing. These measurements show the flow to consist of a small axisymmetric core surrounded by a large non-axisymmetric region in which the wing wake forms a spiral around the core. In contrast to the results of previous workers, most of whom studied vortices generated by split wing configurations, there appeared to be little axisymm.etric region of merged turbulent flow. Turbulence levels in the spiral wake decay with downstream distance. They also fall as the core is approached, presumably because of the effects of the increased straining and curvature on the turbulent structures here. Turbulence spectra measured in the wake are very similar in form, regardless of conditions and exact location, and bear a strong resemblance to a von Karman spectrum. At most conditions true turbulence levels in and immediately adjacent to the core are very low. Velocity fluctuations, however, are intense as a consequence of coherent lateral motions of the core and possible wave motions and instabilities travelling along it. Velocity autospectra in the core show the lateral motions to be anisotropic at very low frequencies and isotropic and mid frequencies. A large part of these motions may well be self induced. Circulation profiles in this region show Hoffman and Joubert's semi-logarithmic region, and in one case reveal the core to be fully developed. From the point of view of BWI noise prediction the flow measurements identify three sources of velocity fluctuations; low-frequency anisotropic core motions, mid-frequency isotropic core motions, and turbulence in the surrounding spiral wake. Estimates of the noise produced by these different frequency regimes show that it is the mid-frequency isotropic motions which is the most important mechanism for noise production, but the spectral shape and the predicted directionality for this mechanism are not in agreement with the measurements of BWI noise. The original noise-prediction scheme, based on the concept of a more turbulent vortex, has been shown to be the wrong basis for the correct description of the flow, but in spite of this the results are significantly better than those presented here. This suggests that the flow measured in the wind tunnel does not have the same turbulence upwash spectrum as that encountered by the helicopter rotor. One of the features of a real helicopter rotor which was not considered is the effect of a downstream blade upon the tip vortex. This may cause vortex bursting or alter the flow structure in the rotor disc plane in other ways. Measurements to evaluate this concept are planned for the future. J


During the recent earthquakes, it has been observed that structural irregularities are one of the main reasons of the building damage. Irregularities are weak points in a building which may cause failure of one element or total collapse of the building during an earthquake. Since Albania is a country with moderate seismicity which has been hit by earthquakes of different magnitudes many times establishes the need to study the effect of irregularities is well-founded. The main structural irregularities encountered in Albanian construction practice consist of short column, large and heavy overhangs and soft story. In this study, these types of irregularities are considered in two different types of buildings, low and mid-rise reinforced concrete frame buildings represented by 3- and 6- story respectively. Pushover analyses are deployed to get the effect of structural irregularities on RC building response. A building set is chosen to represent the existing construction practice in the region; regular framed building and buildings with irregularities such as soft stories, short columns, heavy overhangs and the presence of soft story with heavy overhangs. The analyses have been conducted by using ETABS and Seismosoft software. Pushover curves of building set are determined by nonlinear static analysis in two orthogonal directions. Comparative performance evaluations are done by considering EC8 and Albanian Seismic codes (KTP-N2-89). From the obtained results, it is observed that low and mid-rise structures with soft story- two sided overhangs and short column are more vulnerable during earthquakes.


The built-in Energy Management System (EMS) of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) plays an important role in the fuel efficiency of these vehicles. Recently, it has been revealed that prior knowledge of the upcoming trip can assist EMS to enhance the distribution of power between the energy sources, i.e. the engine and the motor-generators used in PHEVs, resulting in lower fuel consumptions. This dissertation intends to further investigate on a Trip Planning-assisted EMS (TP-assisted EMS), by studying its feasibility for online implementation, and evaluating its performance and robustness with respect to the trip data uncertainties in various practical scenarios, to ultimately answer this question: Does the TP-assisted EMS function as a reliable system for PHEVs which can outperform conventional methods? This research starts with improving upon an existing Trip Planning module with an emphasis on its online integration with the EMS module. In particular, the power-balance model of PHEVs is introduced, which is computationally inexpensive and yet adequately accurate to be used for the optimizations involved in the Trip Planning module. To speed up the optimizations, the use of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is suggested. These modifications result in the reduction of computational time, making TP-assisted EMS module suitable for online implementations. Once the TP-assisted EMS module has been integrated with a high-fidelity model of the baseline PHEV, namely, 2013 Toyota Prius PHEV, its performance and sensitivity/robustness have been extensively studied through Monte Carlo simulations, where numerous samples of standard as well as real-world drive cycles have been tested. However, in order to use these data for Model-in-the-Loop (MIL) and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) tests, a Micro-trip Generator block has been developed. This block automatically segments the drive cycles, similar to the way that trip information is obtained in practice, making the simulation samples compatible with the Trip Planning module. Statistical analyses of the simulation results show that the TP-assisted EMS is a superior controller compared to the conventional EMS strategies. Moreover, these simulations present one of the first sensitivity analyses that have been performed in the context of TP-assisted EMS for PHEVs, showing that this system is robust despite the existence of random disturbances and meanwhile has low sensitivity against variations of the design parameters.


The project aim was to identify differences in the metabolomic profiles in the serum of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), those with neuropathic pain (NP) and those with both MS and NP compared with controls and to identify potential biomarkers of each disease state. Metabolomic profiling was performed using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry and the data analysis involved parametric methods, principal component analysis, and discriminating filter analysis to determine the differences between disease and control serum samples. Sphingosine and dihydrosphingosine were identified as significant biomarkers.


This work reported on synthesis of highly efficient, color-pure green- and red-emitting non-Cd InP/ZnS core/shell quantum dots (QDs) and their utilization as color converters for the fabrication of display backlighting QD-based white light-emitting diode (LED). Green and red QD emitters were first individually embedded into a transparent polymeric matrix of polyvinylpyrrolidone and the resulting two free-standing QD composite plates were then physically combined into a bilayered form. White QD-LED was fabricated by remotely loading the bilayered QD plate of a red-on-green configuration onto blue LED chip. This remote-type white device generated a spectrally well-resolved, tricolored electroluminescent spectrum, and exhibited luminous efficacies of 8.9−16.7 lm/W, depending on forward currents of 20−100 mA, and a high color gamut of 87%.


Morphological methods are relied upon to determine the sex of skeletal remains of both archaeological and forensic significance. The characteristics commonly examined in these morphological methods have a large margin of error, especially when it comes to partial or fragmentary cranial remains. The case could be made from this morphological study that sex attributed to fragmented remains where not more than one commonly scored trait is available for examination should not be considered as being fully reliable. In this study, I examined 20 crania from a collection from Tepe Hissar to compare morphological sex and genetic sex. Overall, the mastoid process should be considered a better indicator of sex than the supraorbital margins, nuchal crest, supraorbital ridges, and mental eminence. It is safe to assume that if the genetic sex and the morphological sex are the same, that sex is definitive. Conversely, it is difficult to determine which is correct when the morphological sex does not align with the DNA-determined sex. Through this research I have concluded that DNA analysis and morphological methods have the most significant advantages, especially over their alternatives, analysis of tooth size and wear and measurements plugged into discriminant functions, but have significant drawbacks.


Abstract. This study presents results from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) carbon dioxide (CO2) analysis system where the atmospheric CO2 is controlled through the assimilation of column-averaged dry-air mole fractions of CO2 (XCO2) from the Greenhouse gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT). The analysis is compared to a free-run simulation (without assimilation of XCO2), and they are both evaluated against XCO2 data from the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON). We show that the assimilation of the GOSAT XCO2 product from the Bremen Optimal Estimation Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (BESD) algorithm during the year 2013 provides XCO2 fields with an improved mean absolute error of 0.6 parts per million (ppm) and an improved station-to-station bias deviation of 0.7  ppm compared to the free run (1.1 and 1.4  ppm, respectively) and an improved estimated precision of 1  ppm compared to the GOSAT BESD data (3.3  ppm). We also show that the analysis has skill for synoptic situations in the vicinity of frontal systems, where the GOSAT retrievals are sparse due to cloud contamination. We finally computed the 10-day forecast from each analysis at 00:00  UTC, and we demonstrate that the CO2 forecast shows synoptic skill for the largest-scale weather patterns (of the order of 1000  km) even up to day 5 compared to its own analysis.


When news spread last week that physicists in Europe had spotted subatomic particles called neutrinos traveling faster than light, some of their colleagues reacted with incredulity. After all, the observation would contradict Einstein9s special theory of relativity, which says that nothing can travel faster than light. Jim Al-Khalili, a theorist at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom, even vowed to eat his boxer shorts on live television if the result holds up. But if it does, physicists won9t be quite as bewildered as such reactions imply. Some have already developed a theoretical framework that can handle faster-than-light neutrinos and all other potential breaches of special relativity.


De novo mutations in the X-linked gene encoding the transcription factor methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MECP2) are the most frequent cause of the neurological disorder Rett syndrome (RTT). Hemizygous males usually die of neonatal encephalopathy. Heterozygous females survive into adulthood but exhibit severe symptoms including microcephaly, loss of purposeful hand motions and speech, and motor abnormalities, which appear after a period of apparently normal development. Most studies have focused on male mouse models because of the shorter latency to and severity in symptoms, yet how well these mice mimic the disease in affected females is not clear. Very few therapeutic treatments have been proposed for females, the more gender-appropriate model. Here, we show that self-complementary AAV9, bearing MeCP2 cDNA under control of a fragment of its own promoter (scAAV9/MeCP2), is capable of significantly stabilizing or reversing symptoms when administered systemically into female RTT mice. To our knowledge, this is the first potential gene therapy for females afflicted with RTT.


It has been observed experimentally that under certain conditions, pulsed laser deposition (PLD) produces smoother surfaces than ordinary molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). So far, the mechanism leading to the improved quality of surfaces in PLD is not yet fully understood. In the present work, we investigate the physical properties of a simple model for PLD, in which the transient mobility of adatoms and diffusion along edges is neglected. Analyzing the crossover from MBE to PLD, the scaling properties of the time-dependent nucleation density as well as the influence of Ehrlich-Schwoebel barriers, we find that there is indeed a range of parameters, where the surface quality in PLD is better than in MBE. However, since the improvement is weak and occurs only in a small range of parameters we conclude that deposition in pulses alone cannot explain the experimentally observed smoothness of PLD-grown surfaces.


The issue of who is or what is a human person occupies a central place in the history of relationships or encounters between religion and science. The Copernican Revolution, Darwinian Evolutionism, and Genetic Determinism have all contributed in significant but different ways to the progressive undermining of the traditional religious understanding of 'human.' From the religious perspective, science aided by technology has progressively shrunk the domain of human distinctiveness. The contemporary debate on the issue of the human person is only the latest in this long series of scientifically and technologically generated feuds between religion and science in modern times. As in earlier cases, central to this debate is the issue of the meaning of human. However, the new factor in this latest debate is the availability of new forms of technology that have the unprecedented capacity to at least transform the physical dimension of the human constitution if not also its psychological and mental dimension into shapes and forms beyond our current imagination. Genetic engineering with its attendant technologies has indeed posed great challenges not only for religion but also for science itself, public ethics, law and governance. In this presentation I will discuss some of these challenges within the framework of the currently deeply contested notion of the human person. I will also discuss the crucial role that interfaith and intercultural dialogues can play in formulating common cross-cultural responses to these challenges. My discussion, however, will be mainly guided by Islamic perspectives on these various issues.


Rapid industrialization leads to the maximum discharge of waste products which in turn causing the environmental hazards. These wastes can be a substitute for conventional material, when utilized in a best way. Red Mud is a waste generated by the aluminum industry (an average of 3million tons per year) in a Bayer's process and its disposal is a major problem for these industries as this is highly caustic and causes ground water contamination, leading to health hazards. By taking cementatious behavior of the red mud into account, an experiment was carried out to partially replace the cement by red mud in concrete for different percentages and also its effects on the strength and other properties of the concrete. Index terms – Industrial waste, Red Mud, Compressive Strength, Tensile strength, Slump.


The Supreme Court's Leegin decision has now brought the rule of reason to all purely vertical intrabrand distribution restraints. But the rule of reason does not mean per se legality and occasions for anticompetitive vertically imposed restraints may still arise. Of all those that have been suggested the most plausible are vertical restraints imposed at the behest of a powerful dealer or group (cartel) of dealers. Although a vertical distribution restraint resembles a dealer cartel in that both limit intraband competition, a manufacturer restraining the distribution of its product shuns the excess dealer profits a dealer cartel would seek. Accordingly, a knowledgeable and un-coerced manufacturer who restricts rivalry among dealers must do so for some other reason, such as to facilitate dealer services. In fact, however, manufacturers have been known to restrain intrabrand competition - especially through resale price maintenance - not to achieve more effective distribution but rather to appease dealer interests in excess profits. Whatever the social benefits of a distribution restraint that serves a manufacturer's self-interest, a competition-limiting restraint extracted by dealer power can be harmful. Vertical restraints reflecting dealer power could well be ignored by antitrust law if they were rare, insignificant in magnitude, or readily detected and remedied under other branches of antitrust law. But we doubt that dealer power is that rare and are troubled by an apparent history of price-enhancing resale price maintenance for the benefit of dealers. At least some of the claimed justifications for it actually reflect dealer power, and antitrust rules controlling horizontal combinations cannot themselves prevent those distribution restraints that result from the power of a single dealer. Requiring the plaintiff to prove that the challenged restraint is explained solely and exclusively on cartel, dealer power, or other non-efficiency grounds would be an attractive policy option for those who think such instances are rare. This option allows prompt validation of many such restraints. On the other hand, requiring the defenders to offer a plausible and legitimate business reason for every restraint would allow the antitrust tribunal easily to condemn those restraints obviously lacking justification but would complicate many cases in which dealer power is unlikely. Depending on the restraint, challengers might be required to prove specified indicia of dealer power, or, for legally less favored restraints, such power might be presumed subject to rebuttal by disproof of the same specified indicia. In sum, presumptions must be developed that will both clarify and simplify the fact finding process.


Numerous errors have crept into previous ecstatic curves because they have relied on unstable reference frames such as passive margins. A stable frame of reference is found in the Russian platform and allows a eustatic curve to be constructed without the subsidence corrections needed for subsiding margins. The stability of the Russian platform is indicated by flat-lying Mesozoic-Cenozoic sedimentary strata that have remained undeformed and untilted since deposition. These strata are no thicker than 200 m throughout the Russian platform. Individual lithofacies are continuous over large distances, suggesting a very flat hypsometry in which facies types were particularly sensitive to changes in sea level. The tectonic stability of the Russian platform allows ecstatic curves to be constructed through two complementary methods. The first method, the results of which we present here, uses backstripping to calculate sea-level changes from stage to stage. The second method uses the elevation of former shoreline deposits to calculate the net sea-level change from a former sea level to present sea level. Preliminary results suggest an unsteady 110-m rise in sea level from Bajocian to Albian time.


The antiphospholipid syndrome is an autoimmune disease characterized by thrombosis and pregnancy morbidity. One of the diagnostic hallmarks of the antiphospholipid syndrome is a prolonged clotting time. A prolonged clotting time is normally suggestive for bleeding tendency. The combination thrombosis in vivo and prolonged clotting assays in vitro indicates a paradox in the antiphospholipid syndrome. Patients with antiphospholipid syndrome have persistent so-called anti-phospholipid antibodies. A prolonged clotting time due to an inhibitor is known as lupus anticoagulant. The anti-phospholipid antibodies do not bind to phospholipids, but to the plasma protein β2-glycoprotein I (β2GPI) bound to phospholipids. β2GPI is an important player in the antiphospholipid syndrome, however, no physiological function has been described for β2GPI. The aim of this thesis is to understand lupus anticoagulant and its relation to thrombosis in the scope of the antiphospholipid syndrome. We started to study the clinical consequence of lupus anticoagulant in stroke in a case-control study in Tanzania. In this case-control study we found a high correlation between lupus anticoagulant and the risk for stroke. Several studies identified the presence of anti-β2GPI antibodies upon an infection. Our group previously showed that injection of surface protein H of Streptococcus pyogenes, a subset of Streptococcus, induces anti-β2GPI antibodies in mice. However, this study did not investigate the effect of β2GPI on thrombus formation. We describe that anti-β2GPI antibodies against domain I that were generated upon protein H injection enhances thrombus formation. Previous studies showed at least two different conformations of β2GPI. We developed a nanobody to distinguish between these conformations. The important sequences for a possible function for β2GPI are the cryptic epitopes in domain I and V. These epitopes are often involved in antibody and receptor/negative surfaces binding. Our nanobody recognizes an epitope only after the conformation of β2GPI has changed by binding to anionic surfaces. We have found that β2GPI in the presence of the auto-antibodies strongly binds to factor V and factor Va. We describe the ability of β2GPI-anti-β2GPI antibody complexes to inhibit the activation of factor V by factor Xa. This inhibition partly explains lupus anticoagulant in antiphospholipid syndrome patients. β2GPI-anti-β2GPI antibody complexes interacting with factor V were able to inhibit the cofactor function of factor V in the inactivation of factor VIIIa by activated protein C. This could explain why these patients do have an increased thrombotic risk. In this thesis we have studied auto-antibodies against β2GPI and its relation to thrombosis. There is found an association of lupus anticoagulant with thrombosis. We have found an alternative explanation why these antibodies prolonged in vitro clotting assays and we also showed that these antibodies induce protein C resistance.


This essay revisits the economic theory of fiduciary law. Nearly two decades have passed since the publication of the seminal economic analyses of fiduciary law by Cooter and Freedman (1991), and by Easterbrook and Fischel (1993), which together have come to underpin the prevailing economic, contractarian model of fiduciary law. The economic theory of agency that motivates those papers has come to permeate the literature on law and legal institutions generally. The law-and-economics movement has matured further, developing new tools and refining its understanding of previously applied concepts. The purpose of this essay is to restate the economic theory of fiduciary law in an updated and accessible synthesis.


Secondary metabolites in the Solanaceae group of plants influence human health. Hence fruits and beverages from Solanum torvum are becoming essential not only for their nutritional value but also for medicinal benefits. This study evaluates the antioxidant activity of the extract of fruit, leaf, and stem of S. torvum. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents were evaluated using the Folin-Ciocalteu method and AlCl3 test, respectively. Antioxidant activities were assessed by DPPH radical scavenging and the ferric-reducing antioxidant power assays. The results showed that stem extracts accumulated significantly higher phenolic content and higher reducing ability than the extracts of fruit and leaf. Extracts of leaves contained significantly higher flavonoid content and higher antioxidant capacity towards DPPH than that of in extract of fruit and stem. This result suggests that extracts of stems exhibited a good reducing ability, whereas the extract of leaves displayed an excellent DPPH free radical scavenging ability.


Prehospital airway management in trauma patients has been the subject of debate among many professionals for a number of years. At present, the gold standard for airway management and optimal ventilation is endotracheal intubation. Paramedics, as the frontline prehospital care providers, are currently able to practice endotracheal intubation in order to secure an airway, but only when the patient is comatose with no gag reflex. Training in endotracheal intubation has been under close scrutiny by regulatory bodies such as the Joint Royal Colleges Ambulance Service Liaison Committee, with emphasis on using other techniques to secure the airway, including supra-glottic airway devices. Rapid sequence induction and drug assisted airway management is only carried out by doctors working in the prehospital arena. However, a number of studies document that paramedics are more than capable of carrying out successful rapid sequence induction in trauma patients. This article considers the training received by paramed...


Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been widely used to quantify environmental impacts associated with urban water infrastructure, including wastewater, drinking water, stormwater, and integrated urban water systems. While LCA is applicable for the estimation of global environmental impacts, decision-makers must balance these impacts with local, often regulated, environmental and public health objectives. To characterize the state of the art for the use of LCA for urban water infrastructure, a thorough literature review was conducted of papers that applied LCA to wastewater (173 papers), drinking water (44 papers), stormwater (17 papers), and integrated urban water (22 papers) systems. Analyses revealed current preferences for functional unit basis (e.g., volume for wastewater), system boundaries (e.g., focus on operation), and impact assessment methodology (CML, ReCiPe, and Eco-Indicator). Based on these findings, LCA methodological recommendations for urban water infrastructure are made, and emerging opportunities to balance objectives and inform comprehensive decision-making are discussed. Critical opportunities include the integration of spatial considerations (e.g., spatialized characterization factors), water quantity (e.g., water quantity indicators), public health (e.g., integration with risk assessment), economic and social assessments (e.g., life cycle costing and social LCA), along with prioritization of continuous stakeholder engagement. Finally, research and development needs specific to the use of LCA for urban water infrastructure (e.g., development of new indicators coupled with case studies) are prioritized.


Abstract In subarctic Sweden, recent decadal colonization and expansion of aspen (Populus tremula L.) were recorded. Over the past 100 years, aspen became c. 16 times more abundant, mainly as a result of increased sexual regeneration. Moreover, aspen now reach tree-size (>2 m) at the alpine treeline, an ecotone that has been dominated by mountain birch (Betula pubescens ssp. czerepanovii) for at least the past 4000 years. We found that sexual regeneration in aspen probably occurred seven times or more within the last century. Whereas sexual regeneration occurred during moist years following a year with an exceptionally high June–July temperature, asexual regeneration was favored by warm and dry summers. Disturbance to the birch forest by cyclic moth population outbreaks was critical in aspen establishment in the subalpine area. At the treeline, aspen colonization was less determined by these moth outbreaks, and was mainly restricted by summer temperature. If summer warming persists, aspen spread may continue in subarctic Sweden, particularly at the treeline. However, changing disturbance regimes, future herbivore population dynamics and the responses of aspen's competitors birch and pine to a changing climate may result in different outcomes.


From the mid-nineteenth through twentieth centuries, geologists attained a good, if imperfect, view of the development of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. Beginning in the late 1850s and continuing through the 1880s, fundamental concepts such as fluvialism, antecedence, and superposition were invoked to explain the development of the Colorado River. Early proposals envisioned the Colorado River as "old" relative to the surrounding landscape. Challenges to antecedence were slow to emerge, and it remained the most viable theory into the early twentieth century. At that time two distinct periods (and styles) of erosion were proposed: a plateau cycle with lateral stripping of strata and a canyon cycle of deep, vertical dissection. Beginning in the 1930s, newer ideas proposed that the Colorado River was "young, " having been integrated by sequential basin spillover, the timing of which was constrained by interior basin deposits lying across the mouth of the Grand Canyon at the Grand Wash Cliffs (the Muddy Creek constraint). The field entered a period of uncertainty related to the conflicting evidence for an old (Paleogene) river upstream from the Grand Canyon versus a young (Neogene) river at Grand Wash Cliffs. Results from a symposium convened in 1964 offered a solution with a poly-phase history for the Colorado River. The poly-phase theory suggested that the river formed in a complex manner by the integration of two separate drainages, although some aspects became untenable. Efforts to resolve outstanding dilemmas from 1964, such as the ages of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon, have ultimately led to a modern resurgence in research.


In developed capitalist countries, debates over the economics of socialism have mostly concentrated on questions of information, incentives, and efficiency in resource allocation. This focus on "socialist calculation" reflects the mainly academic context of these discussions. By contrast, for anti-capitalist movements and post-revolutionary regimes on the capitalist periphery, socialism as a form of human development has been a prime concern. A notable example is Ernesto "Che" Guevara's work on "Man and Socialism in Cuba," which rebutted the argument that "the period of building socialism...is characterized by the extinction of the individual for the sake of the state." For Che, socialist revolution is a process in which "large numbers of people are developing themselves," and "the material possibilities of the integral development of each and every one of its members make the task ever more fruitful."This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


In this article social system theory was applied in order to analyze the repercussions of bioscientific applications in contemporary society, and furthermore in order to explain the risk status of a habitual means of communication. From this perspective, genetic research is treated as an emerging problem one, which is self-made, that aims at situations which Latin American society has only just recently begun to face. The objectives of this study were to relate, from an observation of the second order, reports that were from genetically modified foodstuffs to the expectations generated by genetics research. Finally, this article indicates that the complexity is raised in social operations which will involve communication in genetics, communication that will guide its evolution, as is the case with communication in Bioethics.


Among the most fundamental features to ensure the success of a new technology introduction is citizen acceptance. Based on a unified model, called the Unified Theory of Adoption and Use of Technology (UTAUT), this paper provides new insights into predicting adoption and identifying of the factors that may prompt people to accept and use of Solar Water Heaters as a concrete step toward using Renewable Energy Resources, and offer guidelines for energy saving for the Libyan government and that will contribute to the economy of the country.


This panel begins with a thought exercise. Each panelist has chosen a classic text from their home discipline and asks: what would happen if the author of that text revisited that topic today, using tools, techniques, or perspectives shaped by recent innovations in information technology and the digital humanities? We build on a question that one of our panelists, the historian of computing Nathan Ensmenger, asks in his article "The Digital Construction of Technology: Rethinking the History of Computers in Society," about Bruno Latour's ground breaking ethnography of scientific practice, Laboratory Life. If Latour were to revisit the Salk Institute, what would he make of the pervasive presence of computers, computer-based instruments, and computational metaphors? How would this change the ways in which he did his research, his interpretation of the role of (increasingly digital) inscription devices, or his conclusions about the ways in which social interaction shapes the formation of scientific knowledge? Each of our panelists will perform a similar thought experiment as a starting point for thinking about the historical transformations happening both to one's object of analysis and to the practice of scholarship in the Internet era.


Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors represent the fifth most often prescribed drugs. ACE inhibitors decrease 5-year mortality by approximately one-fifth in cardiovascular patients. Surprisingly, there are reports dating back to 1979 suggesting the existence of endogenous ACE inhibitors, which endogenous inhibitory effects are much less characterized than that for the clinically administered ACE inhibitors. Here we aimed to investigate this endogenous ACE inhibition in human sera. It was hypothesized that ACE activity is masked by an endogenous inhibitor, which dissociates from the ACE when its concentration decreases upon dilution. ACE activity was measured by FAPGG hydrolysis first. The specific (dilution corrected) enzyme activities significantly increased by dilution of human serum samples (23.2±0.7 U/L at 4-fold dilution, 51.4±0.3 U/L at 32-fold dilution, n = 3, p = 0.001), suggesting the presence of an endogenous inhibitor. In accordance, specific enzyme activities did not changed by dilution when purified renal ACE was used, where no endogenous inhibitor was present (655±145 U/L, 605±42 U/L, n = 3, p = 0.715, respectively). FAPGG conversion strongly correlated with angiotensin I conversion suggesting that this feature is not related to the artificial substrate. Serum samples were ultra-filtered to separate ACE (MW: 180 kDa) and the hypothesized inhibitor. Filtering through 50 kDa filters was without effect, while filtering through 100 kDa filters eliminated the inhibiting factor (ACE activity after <100 kDa filtering: 56.4±2.4 U/L, n = 4, control: 26.4±0.7 U/L, n = 4, p<0.001). Lineweaver-Burk plot indicated non-competitive inhibition of ACE by this endogenous factor. The endogenous inhibitor had higher potency on the C-terminal active site than N-terminal active site of ACE. Finally, this endogenous ACE inhibition was also present in mouse, donkey, goat, bovine sera besides men (increasing of specific ACE activity from 4-fold to 32-fold dilution: 2.8-fold, 1.7-fold, 1.5-fold, 1.8-fold, 2.6-fold, respectively). We report here the existence of an evolutionary conserved mechanism suppressing circulating ACE activity, in vivo, similarly to ACE inhibitory drugs.


As a live-bearing fish, Gambusia holbrooki offers unique opportunities to study sexual
selection. While males of this species invest little time or energy per offspring, sexual selection
theory should predict that if a male is presented with two females of differing size, a preference
should be shown for the larger of the two females. Evolution should favor the choice of a larger
female because of increased brood size, better health, and ability to survive the environment.
Only two studies to date have looked at male mate preferences in Gambusia holbrooki, and the
results were mixed. In this study, to measure male preference a dichotomous choice test was
used with female fish of varying sizes placed in clear containers at opposite ends of an aquarium.
The elapsed time a free swimming male spent in "side time" (on same side of aquarium as either
female) and "proximity time" (within one male length) was recorded. Experiment 1 looked at
male preference for females differing in size by at least 5mm and found that males (n=12) spent
significantly more time in close proximity to larger (compared to smaller) females in the first 10
minutes of a 20-minute preference test. The males, however, did not show a significant
preference in side time. Experiment 2 sought to increase the size discrepancy between the two
females tested and included very large females, as they might provide a supernormal stimulus for
the male (n=9). However, the results of Experiment 2 showed no such preference in side time or
proximity time. Experiment 3 increased the number of subjects to 27 to provide a more
representative sample of female fish a male might encounter in the wild and added a social
interaction portion to the testing. Female size differential groupings were broken in to three
categories: Small (2-6mm), Medium (8-11mm), and Large (13-17mm). The results of this
experiment showed a significant preference for the larger females that was dependent upon the
size differential grouping, with proximity time in the medium grouping being most pronounced.
In the social interaction portion of the testing, a significant preference was found for larger
versus smaller females, but there was not a significant preference found between the size
groupings. As predicted by the sexual selection theory, the results of the aforementioned
experiments seem to indicate that a male mate preference for larger females does exist, but only
within certain parameters.


The inclusion of ethics education in engineering courses has been recognized as fundamental. However, in Portugal this training component is present only in a small number of courses. Teachers are mainly responsible for building the curriculum, but students are the ones most affected by this absence of ethics education. In this context it is necessary and important to understand students´ perspective, because their role is vital in the curriculum construction´s success. It is in this framework that this investigation listened to engineering students' voice as a factor to consider in the rethinking of engineering course curriculum in the ethics education area. This study highlights the concept that students have of engineering action, their perspective about the possibility of their courses to include ethics training and its practical implementation. This research is part of a case study and research-action. The results indicate that students are very receptive to this training component, and they consider that it should be included as mandatory in engineering courses. The results also show that students prefer a more practical training with 'prescription' characteristics and that their perspective of engineering action consequences is very limited. These results reinforce the need for ethics education that promotes a wide scope critical reflection.


Chronobiology is a relatively young and fast evolving research field, which aims at understanding the origin, the mechanisms and the prerogatives of endogenous biological clocks. The Chronobiology section of Frontiers in Physiology provides an interdisciplinary forum for the publication of research covering all aspects of the field, including molecular clock circuitry, clock evolution, animal models, physiology, translational studies, and chronotherapy. Over the past few decades, chronobiology has moved from occupying a specialist niche within physiology research, to influencing every aspect at all levels of the discipline. In 2017, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young, three chronobiologists and drosophilists, "for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms that control circadian rhythms." The field went on to receive considerably more interest and attention, and the efforts of those researchers who had been working on chronophysiology and its medical implications and applications were also rewarded as chronobiology entered its true translational era (Cederroth et al., 2019). This has been characterized by a flourishing of relevant, novel clinical observations (to name one, the fact that the outcomes of certain types of cardiac surgery are heavily dependent on time of day; Montaigne et al., 2018), by the evolution and the definition of an almost entirely novel chronobiology vocabulary and, most interestingly, by experiments and observations that constantly challenge the few true dogmas of this relatively young science. The definition of clock cells themselves has changed, moving away from the idea that there are cells with specific features that qualify them as oscillators to a model where the clock or oscillator results from the interaction of distinct physiological players (circadian networks) (Mizrak et al., 2012). Similarly, it has become evident that brain structures other than the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) clock neurons [for example astrocytes within the SCN itself (Hastings et al., 2019), the habenula (Baño-Otálora and Piggins, 2017) and the blood brain barrier (Cuddapah et al., 2019)] exhibit clock properties or produce oscillations that modulate SCN outputs in many different ways. Thus rhythmicity, both circadian and over other time scales (for example seasonal, lunar and tidal) is transforming into an ever more complex, versatile and interesting natural phenomenon. The influence of chronobiology on society at large has also been profound, resulting in campaigns, for example, to modify urban lighting, to amend school times and to abolish daylight saving time (Roenneberg et al., 2019). Amongst these developments, I will now focus on a few that fascinate me and, hopefully, will stimulate you.


The removal of target DNA by magnetic capture hybridization (MCH) from constituents inhibitory to amplification by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was evaluated using Salmonella as the test pathogen. Hybrids were subjected to both conventional and quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). When PCR inhibitors commonly found in water were added to the reaction, MCH-PCR increased the detection sensitivity on the order of 8 to 2,000-fold compared with the system using only PCR. To determine the selectivity of MCH for target DNA (Salmonella), different amounts of non-target DNA (Escherichia coli) were added to the qPCR reaction. The highest non-target DNA concentration interfered with the amplification by qPCR alone, while MCH-qPCR was unaffected. Average recovery of Salmonella DNA by MCH-qPCR was 31% using optimized buffers, washing solutions and enzymatic digestion. A recovery function was proposed in order to calculate the real cell number based on the measured value. Preliminary testing confirmed the suitability of this method for analysis of natural waters.


The infectivity of Leishmania braziliensis ssp. in relation to their growth kinetics in Senekjie's medium was determined using the human macrophage cell line U937 and inbred hamsters. In both systems, infectivity was shown to be distinctive for each subspecies. While L. b. panamensis promastigotes from 6-day-old cultures (early stationary phase) were more infective than parasites from any other culture day, L. b. guyanensis and L. b. braziliensis reached maximum infectivity on days 8-10 and day 10 (late stationary phase of growth), respectively. Although maximum infectivity occurred during stationary growth, strict growth phase dependency was not observed. The populations of parasites on these culture days were composed mostly of small, highly motile promastigotes with flagella 2-3 times the length of their cell bodies. These promastigotes resembled the infective forms transmitted by the sand fly vector. A distinct pathological picture characterized the disease caused by the different WHO reference strains for these subspecies in hamsters: L. b. guyanensis developed the most severe lesions, while moderate and inconspicuous lesions were observed when L. b. panamensis and L. b. braziliensis, respectively, constituted the inocula.


We propose a novel method for Acoustic Event Detection (AED). In contrast to speech, sounds coming from acoustic events may be produced by a wide variety of sources. Furthermore, distinguishing them often requires analyzing an extended time period due to the lack of a clear sub-word unit. In order to incorporate the long-time frequency structure for AED, we introduce a convolutional neural network (CNN) with a large input field. In contrast to previous works, this enables to train audio event detection end-to-end. Our architecture is inspired by the success of VGGNet and uses small, 3x3 convolutions, but more depth than previous methods in AED. In order to prevent over-fitting and to take full advantage of the modeling capabilities of our network, we further propose a novel data augmentation method to introduce data variation. Experimental results show that our CNN significantly outperforms state of the art methods including Bag of Audio Words (BoAW) and classical CNNs, achieving a 16% absolute improvement.


E-science has reshaped meteorology due to the rate data is generated, collected, analyzed, and stored and brought data skills to a new prominence. Data information literacy—the skills needed to understand, use, manage, share, work with, and produce data—reflects the confluence of data skills with information literacy competencies. This research assessed perceptions of data information literacy and attitudes on its instruction for graduate students in meteorology. As academic librarians have traditionally provided information literacy instruction, the research determined if they were perceived as having a role in data information literacy instruction. The modified Delphi method was applied to obtain the perspectives of a panel of experts, representing students, librarians, professors, and researchers, for the purpose of forecasting and consensus-making. Through the consideration of the University of Oslo's Department of Geosciences' Meteorology Section, the research found that data information literacy skills were relevant to the work of meteorology students. Stakeholders perceived that academic librarians could play a future role in general instruction but that they would have to overcome obstacles to be involved in data information literacy instruction. For librarians to enter this domain, they would need to improve their technical skills, enhance their discipline-specific knowledge, or rely on collaborations. The significance of these findings was limited by the modest target population under examination; as a consequence, the results were strongly linked to the specific setting. Further studies would be necessary to determine their generalizability.


Objectives: The study explored whether innovative assessment methods can enhance the student learning experience and promote effective learning. More specifically: Do innovative assessments encourage students to focus on the processes of teaching and learning rather than outcomes?

Design: A qualitative design using focus groups conducted with undergraduate and postgraduate psychology students at University of Worcester was employed. This enabled a detailed exploration of how students made sense of their experiences, their understandings and perceptions of innovative assessment.

Methods: Focus groups were conducted with 8 undergraduate and 7 postgraduate students from the University of Worcester. Students were drawn from a convenience sample and were included if they had completed at least one form of innovative assessment during their degree, either at undergraduate or postgraduate level. Transcripts from each focus group were analysed using Ritchie and Spencer's Thematic framework method.

Results: Students' perceived innovative assessments to have a positive effect on their learning if they: related to authentic 'real world' tasks, encouraged the application of psychological knowledge or enabled the development of transferable skills that have long-term benefits for employment. However, the extent to which these perceptions impacted upon their approach to study was unclear.

Conclusions: This study demonstrated both the benefits to and challenges of implementing innovative assessment methods. Greater emphasis ought to be placed on students as active participants in the assessment process, developing a shared understanding of criteria. Exposure to these methods ought to be taken into account when evaluating their potential to enhance the learning experience of students.


Modern Library College Editions William Bradford's "Of Plymouth Plantation" is a remarkable work by a man who himself was something of a marvel. It remains one of the most readable seventeenth-century American books, attractive to us as much for its artfulness as for its high seriousness, the work of a good storyteller with intelligence and wit. Edited, with an Introduction, by Francis Murphy.


In 2016, both the Republicans and Democrats experienced efforts at hostile takeover of their presidential campaigns. On the Republican side of the ledger, the takeover was successful and ultimately yielded the presidency of Donald Trump. The Democratic effort, by a candidate who never actually joined the party, was beaten back only after a long and bruising primary campaign. This article examines some of the sources of weakness of contemporary political parties that leave them less able to control their internal party selection processes, and that further hamper their ability to govern effectively. The key insight is taken from a view of the political party as a firm, following the pioneering work of Ronald Coase, and then to merge that onto the modern understanding of political parties as a precarious balance of the desires of the electoral faithful, the interests of the party apparatus, and the governance needs of the party's elected officials. In effect, this paper joins the economic insights of Coase to the political analysis of V.O. Key. Historically, American political parties managed divergent interests by control over three critical political functions: access to campaign funding, delivery of patronage governmental positions, and control over the nomination process. Each of these functions has been compromised by legal reforms over the past century. With the inability to internalize control over critical organizational functions, the various constituencies of the modern political party have the choice to "buy not make," in the language of modern firm economics. Over time, the external option has changed the dynamic of politics, as evident in the last presidential election. This article does not offer a simply story of redemption through reform. The political party of old would strike modern sensibilities as insufficiently transparent and inclusive. But in the absence of the coordinating role of the party, politics becomes more atomized, rhetoric hardens, and governance becomes more complicated.


ABSTRACT Sign languages have become an increasingly discussed scientific topic given the rising awareness as to the Deaf Community, their language and their culture. Access to information and services is a matter of human rights and therefore sign language recognition and the development of sign language interpreting as a profession have become a matter of interest and research for many countries. This article seeks to emphasize some aspects that differentiate sign languages from spoken languages from several points of view: language structure, language use, language acquisition and interpreting. The aim is to offer some insight into this fairly new domain, based on a comparative approach. In the attempt to demystify sign language and sign language interpreting we offer clear examples that we hope will be useful for those interested in this challenging domain. KEYWORDS: sign language structure, language acquisition, sign language interpreting, simultaneous, consecutive In recent years increased attention has been given to the study of sign languages and numerous scientific researchers (beginning with Stokoe, 1960) have proven wrong the long-held belief that sign languages are inferior ways of communication. Sign languages have also been recognized by many states as the respective native language of the Deaf communities in those particular countries. According to a survey conducted by the WFD (World Federation of the Deaf) Deaf People and Human Rights (2009), "out of 93 countries, most of which are developing countries, only 44 countries have formal recognition of the country's sign language(s)". (2010, p. 2) The same document states however that among those which officially recognized sign language, only few countries actually offer equal chances to deaf people from a linguistic point of view. Given the measures adopted in many parts of the world to maximize the potential of these languages, they are now increasingly used and learned by teachers working with the Deaf, social workers, language students and interpreting students. We therefore consider it important to underline some differences between spoken and sign languages in order to identify the specific elements, potentially difficult, that one must deal with when learning a sign language. Nevertheless, "sign languages are conventional communication systems that arise spontaneously in all deaf communities. [...] They effectively fulfill the same social and mental functions as spoken languages" (Sandler & Lillo-Martin, 2009). We are not trying to emphasize the differences between spoken and sign languages in the detriment of the similarities between them. Sandler and Lillo- Martin (2006) have extensively studied linguistics universals starting from Noam Chomsky's principles and showed that there are more similarities than differences between these two groups of languages. Just like spoken languages, sign languages are merged with the culture of the Deaf communities. We consider that language and culture are inseparable, influencing one another. Although we will not discuss here the differences between the Deaf and the hearing culture, they represent a fundamental element in understanding the language, its use and the implications for communication and interpreting. In this article we will look into some aspects that differentiate sign languages from spoken languages from several points of view: language structure, language use, language acquisition and interpreting. The herein approach is based on the experience we have gained as an interpreter working from spoken languages and from and into Romanian Sign Language. The starting point of this undertaking was represented by the difficulties we had when starting to learn Romanian Sign Language and our aim is to pinpoint these aspects for the further development of the domain in Romania. Although several countries have researched intensively on their respective sign languages, developing the related domains and offering in-depth linguistic and socio-cultural data, Romania is still making its first steps in this direction and unfortunately it lacks thorough scientific research (for now). …


The HUMILITY OF MARY SISTERS have pursued an apostolate of teaching, health care and community service in Cleveland since 1864. Sisters from the order have served throughout the country and in El Salvador. The Roman Catholic religious order was founded in 1854 by the Reverend John J. Begel in Dommartin, France. The nucleus of the new community consisted of women recruited to serve as teachers to children of the poor, under the direction of Antoinette Potier (later Mother Magdalen).In 1864, the community left for America to staff a parochial school in Louisville, Ohio. Mother Magdalen died shortly before departure, and the community then came under the direction of Mother Anna Tabourat. The sisters took charge of a farm in New Bedford, Pennsylvania (which had been transferred to the Cleveland diocese from the Diocese of Pittsburgh), and established a school, orphanage and provincial house there. They taught at a number of parochial schools throughout the Cleveland diocese. In 1892, they opened Lourdes Academy for girls on Lorain Avenue, which moved to more spacious quarters on Franklin Avenue five years later.The sisters also entered health care when given charge of St. Elizabeth Hospital in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1910. In 1922, they became the administrators of ROSE-MARY, THE JOHANNA GRASSELLI REHABILITATION AND EDUCATION CENTER for handicapped children. In 1924 and 1927 respectively, they took over the administration of St. Joseph's Riverside Hospital in Warren, Ohio, and St. Joseph Hospital in Lorain.In 1955, the Humility of Mary sisters staffed a new girls' high school, Magnificat, in ROCKY RIVER. Lourdes Academy was merged with St. Stephen High School in 1970. A year later, the merged school, which remained under the direction of the Humility of Mary sisters, transferred to the site of St. Peter High School on East 17th and Superior Avenue and was reorganized as Erieview Catholic High School. The school, facing declining enrollment and high budget deficits, closed in 1993. Archives, Diocese of Cleveland. See also CATHOLICS, ROMAN; PAROCHIAL EDUCATION (CATHOLIC); RELIGION; WOMEN


The arrival of the Ryder Cup in 2006 initiated a period of unprecedented golfing successin Ireland. From 2007 to 2014 nine of the thirty two major golf championships werewon by players from both north and south of the border: Padraig Harrington, DarrenClarke, Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy. With the advent of golf into the 2016 Olympic Games, itself a key site for the construction of the nation, the allegiances of golfers from Northern Ireland has become more prominent in media coverage. This research examines how print and online newspapers have reported the national and regional identities of the four golfers in the years 2006 to 2015. Content and thematicanalysis are carried out on four news media outlets in order to assess the presentation of the national character on the island of Ireland. Anderson's derivation of the nation asan 'imagined community' in the context of time, circumstances and environment is important throughout. The researchers are sensitive as to whether the coverage has changed over the time period, and what it reveals, if anything, about patriotism, national identities, and the sport-media nexus. While golf in Ireland is governed on an all-island basis, initial analysis on coverage of the players' feats identifies a variety of labels, from European to Irish and British. With golf historically identified as an individual, classbasedsport devoid of flags and nationalistic tendencies, this study aims to make a new contribution to sport, media and the mobilisation of ethnic, civic or banal nationalisms.


The present generation of mobile handheld devices comes equipped with a large number of sensors. The key sensors include the Ambient Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Gyroscope, Compass and the Accelerometer. Many mobile applications are driven based on the readings obtained from either one or two of these sensors. However the presence of multiple-sensors will enable the determination of more detailed activities that are carried out by the user of a mobile device, thus enabling smarter mobile applications to be developed that responds more appropriately to user behavior and device usage. In the proposed research we use recent advances in machine learning to fuse together the data obtained from all key sensors of a mobile device. We investigate the possible use of single and ensemble classifier based approaches to identify a mobile device's behavior in the space it is present. Feature selection algorithms are used to remove non-discriminant features that often lead to poor classifier performance. As the sensor readings are noisy and include a significant proportion of missing values and outliers, we use machine learning based approaches to clean the raw data obtained from the sensors, before use. Based on selected practical case studies, we demonstrate the ability to accurately recognize device behavior based on multi-sensor data fusion.


We present a method for performing transductive inference on very large datasets. Our algorithm is based on multiclass Gaussian processes and is effective whenever the multiplication of the kernel matrix or its inverse with a vector can be computed sufficiently fast. This holds, for instance, for certain graph and string kernels. Transduction is achieved by varia-tional inference over the unlabeled data subject to a balancing constraint.


Increasing economic competition combined with the powerful threat of transnational activism are pushing firms to develop new political strategies. Over the past decade a growing number of corporations have adopted policies of industry self-regulation --corporate codes of conduct, social and environmental standards, and auditing and monitoring systems. A Public Role for the Private Sector explores the phenomenon of industry self-regulation through three different cases --environment, labor, and information privacy --where corporate leaders appear to be converging on industry self-regulation as the appropriate response to competing pressures. Political and economic risks, reputational effects, and learning within the business community all influence the adoption of a self-regulatory strategy, but there are wide variations in the strength and character of it across industries and issue areas. Industry self-regulation raises significant questions about the place of the private sector in regulation and governance, and the accountability, legitimacy and power of industry at a time of rapid globalization.


Abstract For well over 50 years, the telome theory of Walter Zimmermann has been extremely influential in interpreting the evolutionary history of land plant architecture. Using the "telome/ mesome" distinction, and the concept of universal "elementary processes" underlying the change in form in all plants, the theory was an ambitious synthesis based on the proposition that evolutionary change might be understood by a simple set of developmental or evolutionary rules. However, a major problem resides in deciding exactly how assertions of change are to span both developmental and evolutionary domains simultaneously, and, we argue, the theory critically fails testability as a scientific theory. Thus, despite continued popularity for the descriptive terms derived from the theory in evolutionary studies of early land plants, time has come to replace it with a more explicit, testable approach. Presented here is an attempt to clarify perhaps the most important issue raised by the telome theory—whether simple changes in basic developmental processes suffice to describe much of early land plant evolution. Considering the morphology of Silurian–Devonian fossil members, it is hypothesized that early land plants possessed a common set of developmental processes centered on primary growth of shoot apical meristems. Among these were (1) the capacity to monitor and act upon internal physiological status here modeled as "apex strength," (2) a mechanism for allocation of apex strength in a context-dependent way at each point of branching, (3) a rule for context-dependent apex angle for branches, (4) a largely invariant phyllotaxis unrelated to physiological status, and (5) a simple switch for terminating primary growth, based in part on genetics. Implemented as a set of developmental rules within a simple L-system model, these aspects of primary development in plants determine a sizable range of resultant morphologies, some of which are highly reminiscent of the early fossils. Thus, some support is found, perhaps, for Zimmermann's intuition. However, traditional concepts of growth patterns in plants, including the contrast between epidogenesis and apoxogenesis, require updating. In our reformulation, developmental processes, stated as rules of developmental dynamics, together constitute what we term the plant's developmental state. Using a hypothetico-deductive format, one may hypothesize intrinsic (or genetic) developmental processes that play out as realized developmental activity in specific spatial/temporal contexts, as modified by multiple context factors. The resultant plant morphology is highly dependent on multiple and simultaneous pathway ontogenetic trajectories. Within a likely set of developmental rules reasonably inferred from plant development, some of Zimmermann's elementary processes are perhaps recognizable whereas others are not. Progressively "overtopped" morphologies are easily produced by modifying intrinsic branch allocation. However, even so, the other developmental rules have a profound effect on final architectures. Planate architectures and circination vernation, often treated as special cases by plant morphologists, are perhaps better understood in terms of recurrent or iterative developmental relationships. Much analytic work remains before a completely specified system of rules will emerge. A well-articulated relationship between ontogeny and phylogeny remains fundamentally important in assessing evolutionary change. Fossil and living plants make it abundantly clear that current evolutionary concepts involving modification of a single ontogenetic trajectory from ancestor to descendant need to be greatly expanded into consideration of the entire logical geometry of causation in development. A mechanism for testing is also required that need not wait for complete elucidation at the molecular level. The relative simplicity of plant development, combined with an outstanding fossil record of early members, offers unique opportunities along these lines.