Repetitive projects are characterized by the presence of large number of repetitive activities, along with a number of non-repetitive activities. Each of thee two types of activities requires different scheduling techniques. Non-repetitive activities in the project can be scheduled using traditional network-based techniques such as the critical path method. Repetitive activities, however, require techniques that are capable of accounting, primarily, for crew work continuity. Integration of the two planning techniques, in an efficient operating environment, is the objective of the proposed model. The model accounts for two types of activities (repetitive, and non-repetitive), and three types of relationship (regular-relation, repetitive-relation, and hetero-relation). Object-Oriented Programming technique is utilized to design the different components of the model, in an effort to avoid the duplication in modeling, and benefit from the shared data and method elements among the different data types. The present model makes use of data encapsulation and inheritance concepts in order to develop a properly derived and organized hierarchy of classes. Such a hierarchy is designed to best represent the characteristics of the two types of activities and their relationships.


Legal scholars and academic commentators have long written about the ways in which close-knit communities of people employ extra-legal or non-legal methods to structure conflict, resolve disputes, and advocate for their rights and interests. From cattle ranchers to diamond merchants to third-wave feminists, scholars emphasize how groups of people opt out of the legal system and instead use personalized and informal methods of rights assertion as a means of overcoming the ineffectiveness of state-sponsored laws, and because they reject the law as a viable means of achieving change. Similar to cattle ranchers and diamond traders, a growing number of women lawyers have developed their own method of rights assertion and conflict resolution that does not involve turning to the legal system. Despite the cottage industry of articles, books, and reports describing gender inequality in the legal profession, few, if any, have focused on what women lawyers are actually doing to address the challenges and grievances they face in the workplace, and to increase the proportion of women in leadership positions in the profession. Based on a detailed, empirical analysis of women lawyers in law firms, this Article argues that similar to cattle ranchers and diamond traders, a growing number of women lawyers have rejected the law as a viable means of personal advocacy and are instead, using blogging - an alternative, informal and impersonal form of engagement - to advocate for their rights and interests in the workplace. One would expect that women lawyers, when confronted with unfair hiring practices, unequal pay, or unjust choices, would turn to the legal system. They are legally trained and undoubtedly immersed in the law, and therefore, one might presume that they are particularly attentive to legal rights and predisposed to think of personal grievances in a legal framework. Nonetheless, a growing group of women lawyers are using the Internet - and, in particular, blogging - to resolve their disputes, address their personal grievances, challenge implicit male bias engrained in the profession, and share and obtain the information they need to become stronger bargainers in the workplace.


Article refers to the issue of credit risk management in commercial banks. Particular attention is paid to the problem of stress testing. In addition, methods are presented that allow prediction of the losses of the portfolio in the context of extreme events relating to the crises of financial markets. The author presented the results of research based on the extreme values theory, the conditional loss distribution function and the profitability analysis of the loan portfolio. The achieved outcomes has been shown in the context of the provisions of the New Basel Capital Accord and the subsequent consultation documents published by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. It was shown that losses caused by the rare but still plausible events could significantly exceed the minimum capital requirements estimated in accordance with IRB method.


Following advice from the World Bank, and hoping for economic growth and independence from donors, a number of African countries have opened up opportunities for large-scale mining by foreign investors over the last decade and a half. Tanzania, one of the 'new' mining countries, is now among the largest gold producers in Africa, but investor-friendly contracts have resulted in extremely low government revenues from mining, totalling less than 5 percent of what the country receives in development aid. In response to widespread discontent, and acknowledging the plight of affected communities, the government amended the 1998 Mining Act in 2010. However, improved legal provisions may have limited effect if the present governance challenges are not resolved. The article demonstrates that the legal provisions meant to protect the rights of affected people are not followed, and that poorly functioning local democracy is particularly dangerous for pastoralists who are 'represented' by local authorities often dominated by non-pastoralist immigrants. Compensation to smallholder farmers is either non-existent or too low – or the compensation money is embezzled by the authorities entrusted to distribute it.


In this paper a model has been developed to estimate surface temperature of Antarctic ice sheet using thermal bands of MODIS sensor images and in situ surface temperature measurements. The brightness temperature of snow/ice surface of Antarctica has been estimated for MODIS bands 31 and 32 using Planck's spectral radiation equation. Split window technique has been used to develop the model from brightness temperature and automatic weather station recorded surface temperature. The model has been validated using in situ measurements of surface temperature of the ice sheet near Indian Antarctic Research Station 'Maitri'. High coefficient of determination (R 2 = 0.99) and low root mean square error (0.8°C) have been obtained between modeled and in situ recorded surface temperature. The model is easy to use and can generate the surface temperature maps at spatial resolution of 1.0 km. These maps can be useful in various glaciological, hydrological, climatological and ecological study of the ice sheet.


expands portfolio EUROIMMUN, a PerkinElmer, Inc. Company, today announced the launch of the CE marked EURORealTime SARS-CoV-2/Influenza A/B for direct detection of SARS-CoV-2, influenza virus type A and influenza virus type B. It expands the testing portfolio for acute COVID-19 diagnostics by supporting differential diagnostics between SARS-CoV-2 infections and the common flu. It is available in countries accepting the CE mark. PCR technology is considered the gold standard for direct pathogen detection. The new EURORealTime test allows fast detection and differentiation of genetic material from SARS-CoV-2, influenza virus type A and influenza virus type B using throat swab samples of patients with acute symptoms, which can be indicative for COVID-19 or flu. Validation efforts revealed very high agreement of results obtained with the EURORealTime test and those obtained with reference PCR tests for SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A/B. No cross-reactions with other common respiratory pathogens were detected. The assay is compatible with common real-time PCR thermal cyclers, while the EURORealTime Analysis Software allows for reliable and standardized evaluation of the test results. "As the flu season overlaps with the second wave of COVID-19, there is an increasing need to be able to quickly distinguish between SARS-CoV-2 and influenza infections. Individuals with these viral diseases can present with very similar symptoms which makes it difficult to differentiate between them. Here, direct pathogen detection plays a major role in rapid and correct identification of these infections as it is essential for proper subsequent patient management," says Dr. Wolfgang Schlumberger, CEO of EUROIMMUN. "The combination of the three pathogens within this single multiparametric assay means saving valuable time and resources in the laboratories." The EURORealTime SARS-CoV-2/Influenza A/B assay adds to the Company's broad product portfolio of COVID-19 diagnostics and is the second molecular assay for direct pathogen detection following the CE-marked and FDA-EUA approved EURORealTime SARS-CoV-2 assay.


As wind power retains a significant proportion of generation mix in the electric system, we foresee that less fossil fuel units will be on service. Under this situation, it may impact system's frequency security due to the lack of frequency support from units. To make up for such a system change, wind turbines should actively provide frequency response upon request. For wind turbines to achieve this goal, active power output of the wind turbine should be controllable so that the generating margin could be preserved for frequency response. Therefore, the presentation of this paper will begin with the demonstration of the control scheme for the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG). Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the methodology in regulating wind power upon operator's request, while stability is assured under variant wind speeds. Following that, this paper will explore several operating strategies for DFIGs to support system frequency with less sacrifice in the wind energy production. Simulation results show that the proposed strategies can enhance regulation performance in the high wind penetrated power system.


Introduction The social organisation of semi-nomadic Irish Travellers is characterised on the one hand by internal autonomy and tension between domestic groups, and on the other by a barely muted sense of conflict between themselves and non-Travellers. Correspondingly, there are two modes of religious-cum-ritual expression: one personal, private and interior, that draws on diffuse and condensed symbols (to use Mary Douglas's terms 1978, 1984); the other collective, public and exterior, that draws on condensed symbols (Griffin 2002). This paper takes these ideas further (1). To begin with, just as some Gypsy or Roma groups articulate aspects of their social organisation and identity in beliefs and symbolic practices concerning the body (Miller 1975; Okely 1983; Stewart 1997; Sutherland 1975), so too, it will be seen, do Irish Travellers. Moreover, when the historian de Paor (1986: 39) said of the Celts, 'this concept, this clear and sharp division between "inside" and "outside" was for the Irish as powerful as the concept of Hellas for the Greeks, and was to have long continuing importance', he could as well have been referring to today's Travellers. Secondly, when Travellers describe individuals of groups as 'clean' of 'dirty', and act accordingly, all they are really doing is differentiating the 'inside' from the 'outside', separating 'us' from 'them', marking a border. Thirdly, while the Traveller categories 'clean' and 'dirty' say something important about insider/outsider identities, they are more often than not exaggerated oppositions of what are really more ambivalent relations. Fourthly, attitudes and beliefs about social boundaries also find expression in behaviours concerning their own bodies which, for convenience, I shall describe as body ritual. Fifthly, while aware of the danger of reading too much symbolism into the body ritual of Travellers, thereby overlooking more 'rational', common sense explanations (Acton et al. 1997), I am confident the interpretation below remains valid. Finally, although my selection and interpretation of data owe much to previous writers, the data themselves were collected relatively uninfluenced by earlier texts, in the course of my work as the warden of a Travellers' caravan site in London--a warden who happened to be an anthropologist. Indeed, after reading Rehfisch's (1975) comment on writers repeating too uncritically claims to 'facts' made by writers preceding them, I decided to suspend my reading on Gypsies and Travellers until such time as I had built up some knowledge of my own. Consequently, it was at least nine months before I returned to the literature. The Site The site was a walled strip, situated on two-thirds of an acre of land, in the middle of an inner-city motorway. Over its west wall, a ramp carried an endless stream of traffic bound for central or outer London onto a flyover, which passed over several caravans parked at the bottom of the site. Over the east wall, another ramp ushered the flow in another direction. The site's entrance lay at the bottom near the flyover, where a rutted lane led in from the surrounding predominantly working-class neighbourhood to a narrow road that ran down the middle of the site. To add to the overwhelming sense of ghetto, the place was further bounded on its west by a railway line, a triangle of waste ground and several acres of industrial land, and to the east by towers of 1960s-style council flats. When I was appointed warden for six months in 1983, my employers in the Housing Department of the local authority explained that the site had become run down following the previous warden's departure a year earlier. It was only a successful legal action brought against the authorities by site residents and their supporters that had forced the council to act, and to reappoint a warden. I also discovered that what the authorities really wanted to do was to apply to central government to close the site under a special provision of the 1968 Caravan Sites Act. …


The effects of fenoldopam, a selective dopamine-1 agonist, on regional blood flow and vascular resistance were examined in conscious unrestrained spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Rats were instrumented chronically with pulsed Doppler flow probes to allow measurement of renal, mesenteric and hindquarters blood flow. Maximal changes in mean arterial pressure, heart rate and regional blood flow were recorded after i.v. administration of fenoldopam (1-1000 micrograms/kg). Fenoldopam produced a dose-dependent reduction in arterial pressure and increased heart rate in the conscious SHR. Significant increases in mesenteric (maximal = 69 +/- 10%) and renal (maximal = 42 +/- 4%) blood flows were observed at all doses of fenoldopam. In the hindquarters, vascular resistance was increased after low doses of fenoldopam (1-30 micrograms/kg), but decreased with higher doses (100-1000 micrograms/kg). After ganglionic blockade, hindquarter vasodilation was observed with fenoldopam at low (10 micrograms/kg) and high (500 micrograms/kg) doses. Pretreatment with metoclopramide (20 mg/kg) or SCH 23390 (30 micrograms/kg), a new selective dopamine-1 antagonist, significantly attenuated the vasodilator responses to fenoldopam in all three vascular beds. Pretreatment with propranolol failed to alter the vascular effects of fenoldopam, but reduced the tachycardia markedly. This study indicates that fenoldopam decreased regional vascular resistance in the renal, mesenteric and hindquarters vascular beds of the conscious SHR with the mesenteric vascular bed demonstrating the greatest reactivity. The vasodilation induced by fenoldopam in these vascular beds appeared to be due to stimulation of vascular dopamine-1 receptors.


Objective: This study was performed to compare the effectiveness of intravenous dexmedetomidine with that of pethidine and tramadol in the treatment of post-neuraxial anaesthesia shivering. Design: This was a prospective, randomised, double-blinded study. Setting and subjects: One hundred and two patients of both genders, aged 18–70 years with American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status I and II undergoing spinal or combined spinal and epidural anaesthesia for elective surgery were enrolled in this study. Sixty of them developed shivering after an intrathecal injection of 0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine 15 mg. They were then randomly allocated to receive either intravenous dexmedetomidine 0.5 μg/kg, pethidine 0.5 mg/kg or tramadol 0.5 mg/kg. Outcome measures: The response rate to treatment, the degree of sedation and the side-effects were recorded. Results: The response rate to treatment was highest in the dexmedetomidine group, and it was only significant when compared to tramadol group (p = 0.0012). It was noted that the response rate was higher in the pethidine than in the tramadol group. This difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.082). The sedation score post treatment was similar in all three groups, but more patients in the dexmedetomidine group developed hypotension and bradycardia (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Dexmedetomidine 0.5 μg/ml was more effective than tramadol 0.5 mg/ml and pethidine 0.5 mg/ml, and both tramadol and pethidine were found to have similar efficacy, in the treatment of post-neuraxial anaesthesia shivering. However, dexmedetomidine caused a higher incidence of hypotension and bradycardia.


Type II quasars are luminous active galactic nuclei (AGNs) whose centers are obscured by large amounts of gas and dust. In this paper we present three-band Hubble Space Telescope images of nine type II quasars with redshifts 0.2 < z < 0.4 selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey based on their emission-line properties. The intrinsic luminosities of these AGNs are estimated to be -24 > MB > -26, but optical obscuration allows their host galaxies to be studied unencumbered by bright nuclei. Each object has been imaged in three continuum filters ("UV," "blue," and "yellow") placed between the strong emission lines. The spectacular, high-quality images reveal a wealth of details about the structure of the host galaxies and their environments. Six of the nine galaxies in the sample are elliptical galaxies with de Vaucouleurs light profiles, one object has a well-defined disk component, and the remaining two have marginal disks. Stellar populations of type II quasar hosts are more luminous (by a median of 0.3-0.7 mag, depending on the wavelength) and bluer (by about 0.4 mag) than are M* galaxies at the same redshift. When smooth fits to stellar light are subtracted from the images, we find both positive and negative residuals that become more prominent toward shorter wavelengths. We argue that the negative residuals are due to kiloparsec-scale dust obscuration, while most positive residuals are due to the light from the nucleus scattered off interstellar material in the host galaxy. Scattered light makes a significant contribution to the broadband continuum emission and can be the dominant component of the extended emission in the UV in extreme cases.


Auscher proved Gaussian upper bound estimates for the fundamental solutions to parabolic equations with complex coefficients in the case when coefficients are time-independent and a small perturbation of real coefficients. We prove the equivalence between the local boundedness property of solutions to a parabolic system and a Gaussian upper bound for its fundamental matrix. As a consequence, we extend Auscher's result to the time dependent case.


Accommodating Australians explores the rise and fall of public housing during a prolonged period of generous Government support for home ownership while forcing the poor to pay more for their accommodation. The book discusses the way in which Commonwealth initiative led to the States adopting town planning processes that due to State departure from historic approaches to the provision of urban infrastructure services has helped fuel a massive rise in dwelling prices. This book explores the response of the Australian Government during the bleakest years of WWII when it took stock of the situation facing the housing of the people and the way it developed a housing program in the post war period to improve the way they were accommodated. The ambitions of those who witnessed the extremes of housing deprivation during the Depression and resolved to improve the quality of housing, to make it more affordable and the nation fairer are outlined. It is a story about the rise and fall of public housing and helps explain why Australian housing has now become one of the most expensive in the developed world. It is also about the way Commonwealth initiatives built on the reforming agendas of critics within the States of the prevailing mode of and approach to urban development led to the introduction of town planning in Australia. It is also a sad tale about the way principle and mature consideration of the rational way to develop our cities gave way to pre-occupation with accommodating the short term wishes of developers. This history is an important aspect of Commonwealth-State relations over the last 70 years and explores the way interpretations of the Constitution have evolved to result in the Commonwealth gradually assuming greater authority over the States in the development and management of our accommodation (as in other areas). It in, large measure, documents the fragile and limited nature of the idea of the Federation and the few opportunities taken to see things as a nation rather than a loose coalition of States.


The names of early Germanic warrior tribes and leaders resound in songs and legends; the real story of the part they played in reshaping the ancient world is no less gripping. Herwig Wolfram's panoramic history spans the great migrations of the Germanic peoples and the rise and fall of their kingdoms between the third and eighth centuries, as they invaded, settled in, and ultimately transformed the Roman Empire. As Germanic military kings and their fighting bands created kingdoms, and won political and military recognition from imperial governments through alternating confrontation and accommodation, the 'tribes' lost their shared culture and social structure, and became sharply differentiated. They acquired their own regions and their own histories, which blended with the history of the empire. In Wolfram's words, 'the Germanic peoples neither destroyed the Roman world nor restored it; instead, they made a home for themselves within it'. This story is far from the 'decline and fall' interpretation that held sway until recent decades. Wolfram's narrative, based on his sweeping grasp of documentary and archaeological evidence, brings new clarity to a poorly understood period of Western history.


The radiologic criteria are important for the diagnosis of silicosis and must be objective. Initial radiologic changes are nonspecific and sometimes misinterpreted. We asked six Pulmonologists with distinct training in pulmonary disease to interpret 112 chest films according to a simple established protocol. No further information was given. One year later, all the observers analysed the same films over again. Then, we compared the results among the observers and between the two analysis made by the same individual. In 34 cases (30%) there was unanimity in asserting or denying the presence of micronodules and in 74 cases (66%) there was an agreement among the three more experienced observers. The intraobserver variability ranged from 8% to 40% and it was more important in the least trained observers. We concluded that when interpreting early radiologic changes in silicosis inter and intraobserver variability was elevated, more objectivity was achieved by the observers with more experience in epidemiologic studies and that we must be careful in interpreting results of epidemiologic studies concerning this matter.


An elementary way of using language is to refer to objects. Often, these objects are physically present in the shared environment and reference is done via mention of perceivable properties of the objects. This is a type of language use that is modelled well neither by logical semantics nor by distributional semantics, the former focusing on inferential relations between expressed propositions, the latter on similarity relations between words or phrases. We present an account of word and phrase meaning that is perceptually grounded, trainable, compositional, and 'dialogueplausible' in that it computes meanings word-by-word. We show that the approach performs well (with an accuracy of 65% on a 1-out-of-32 reference resolution task) on direct descriptions and target/landmark descriptions, even when trained with less than 800 training examples and automatically transcribed utterances.


Cellulitis is an acute inflammation of dermis and subcutaneous tissue, usually complicating wounds, ulcers, or dermatosis. Even though in these cases it is recommended to perform culture from skin and soft tissue samples, the utility of blood cultures remains controversial due to the low frequency of positive results. Here we report the prevalence of bacteremia in patients with cellulitis admitted in our Hospital, and evaluate the presence of risk factors associated with the occurrence of this event. Clinical records of patients with diagnosis of cellulitis admitted between June 2007 and March 2010 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients without skin and soft tissue culture and/or blood cultures were excluded. Demographic data, presence of comorbidities, and culture results were analyzed. In this period, 140 patients were admitted with this diagnosis. Fifty six (40%) of them had positive skin and soft tissue cultures; where methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was the most frequently isolated bacterium species (35.7%). Bacteremia was detected in 8.6% of these cases, where the most frequently isolated bacteria were Group G Beta haemolytic Streptococcus (33%). Bacteremia was significantly associated with longer hospital stay (10.5 ± 8.98 vs. 4.9 ± 6, p = 0.004). The following variables were significantly associated with the occurrence of positive blood cultures: diabetes (41.7% vs. 14.1%; p = 0.02; OR 4.4), positive skin and soft tissue culture (75% vs. 35.2%; p = 0.01; OR 5.5), alcoholism (16.7% vs. 3.9%; p = 0.01; OR 4.9), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (16.7% vs. 0.78%; p = 0.01; OR 25.4).


Autoimmune destruction of β cells is the predominant cause of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) in humans and is modeled in non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice. Many therapeutic interventions prevent the development of T1DM in NOD mice, but few can induce its reversal once established. Intervention with Freund's complete adjuvant, semi-allogeneic splenocytes, and temporary islet transplantation has been reported to cure NOD mice of established T1DM. Using the same approach, we report here that this treatment cured 32% of NOD mice of established diabetes (>340 milligrams per deciliter blood glucose), although β cells in these mice were not derived from donor splenocytes.


The termination in the white dwarf luminosity function is a standard diagnostic tool for measuring the total age of nearby stellar populations. In this paper, an algorithm is presented for inverting the full white dwarf luminosity function to obtain a maximum likelihood estimate of the time varying star formation rate of the host stellar population. Tests with synthetic data demonstrate that the algorithm converges over a wide class of underlying star formation rate forms. The algorithm successfully estimates the moving average star formation rate as a function of lookback time in the presence of realistic measurement noise, though suffers from degeneracies around discontinuities in the underlying star formation rate. The inversion results are most sensitive to the choice of white dwarf cooling models, with the models produced by different groups giving quite different results. The results are relatively insensitive to the progenitor metallicity, initial mass function, initial-final mass relation and ratio of H/He atmosphere white dwarfs. Application to two independent determinations of the Solar neighbourhood white dwarf luminosity function gives similar results. The star formation rate has a bimodal form, with broad peaks at 2-3 Gyr and 7-9 Gyr in the past, separated by a significant lull of magnitude 30-90% depending on choice of cooling models. The onset of star formation occurs around 8-10 Gyr ago. The total integrated star formation rate is ~0.014 stars/pc3 in the Solar neighbourhood, for stars more massive than 0.6M_{solar}.


The runway show has become paradigmatic of late twentieth- centuryspectacle; it has the potential to project imaginary worlds and aesthetic ideals, to set standards of taste and of distinction, and to simultaneously incite desire and controversy to various degrees. The term catwalk often calls to mind the extravagant productions associated with the semiannual fashion weeks of New York, Paris, London, and Milan. In these settings, the runway show is arguably inextricable from the commercial realm and functions as a tool with which designers seek the favorable attention of buyers, editors, trendsetters, and bloggers, all toward a common underlying goal: to sell clothing. In this essay, however, I aim to address how the deployment of the fashion show in a different context can involve a multiplicity of ambitions and outcomes. Specifically, I look at the politics of value that underlie the commodification of culture vis-a-vis a fashion show I attended in Windhoek, the capital city of postapartheid Namibia.In 2010, the year marking Namibia's twentieth as a nation independent from South Africa, the Franco Namibian Cultural Center (FNCC) and the National Arts Council of Namibia (NACN) sponsored a fashion and photography event titled Himba in the Mix. The main attraction was a fashion show featuring the work of seven young female Namibian designers, who created eighteen explicitly contemporary ensembles inspired by the culture of the Ovahimba people, who are one of at least ten recognized ethnic groups in Namibia today. A local newspaper described the event as the first of its kind in the country. Its kind refers to the somewhat paradoxical fact that its organizers chose the definitively "modern" mediums of fashion and the catwalk to celebrate "traditional" culture (Kapitako 2010). The present-day Himba are the descendants of Herero pastoralists who remained in northwest Namibia while others migrated southward in the eighteenth century. They have maintained relations with "external" (that is, non-native African) influences at least since the middle of the nineteenth century, when the first hunters and traders from Cape Town arrived in northern Namibia. It is believed that the Herero had originally migrated to what is now southern Angola and northern Namibia in the sixteenth century (Katjavivi 1988). Those who continued southward encountered European settlers and began working in their homes. Converted to Christianity and taught to sew by German settlers, Herero women adopted Victorian-style dresses made from local cloth, which are today worn with pride as the "traditional" clothing of the Herero people. Still, the Herero maintained contact with the Himba through the centuries, either through marriage, for example, or by providing aid with cattle grazing (Warnlof 2000, 182). For the most part, the Himba of Namibia remained in the northwestern part of the country, which came to be called Kaokoland, under the apartheid legislation that designated it the "homeland" of the Himba.In all the press leading up to Himba in the Mix, as well as that which followed and praised its success, a clear purpose for its production was articulated, one that - on the surface at least - had little to do with commercial pursuits. Those who organized the event intended for it "to counter the consistent life threatening pressure" exerted by forces of globalization on the Ovahimba people (Franco Namibia Cultural Center). A cultural officer in the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport, and Culture claimed, "I can't agree more with the fact that the inevitable exposure to Western identity and lifestyle gives young Namibians leeway to detach themselves from their own local culture, to such an extent that even association with activities of this nature become less significant" (Kapitako 2010). He therefore found the endeavor to be a much-needed corrective to popular attitudes toward Namibia's indigenous groups. Meanwhile, a representative from the FNCC announced its intention, which was to "resurrect" indigenous fashion and make it "part and parcel" of modern-day fashion, claiming, "The overall objective of this project is to re-instate that indigenous people's culture and fashion are not as dull and boring as they are perceived to be, but instead rich, fascinating, and admirable" (Nashuuta 2010). …


This study investigates a recent phenomenon in the market for technology: online marketplaces for technological inventions, which support the listing, search, and exchange of technological inventions by sellers and buyers. Focusing on three salient theoretical factors that affect markets for technology—search costs, ambiguity about the underlying knowledge and its applications, and expropriation concerns—our research systematically explores which industries are served by online marketplaces. We exploit the fact that the magnitude of these factors varies across industries and identify key features of online marketplaces that may address these factors. Our proprietary dataset covers 12 online marketplaces for technology and spans over 140 industries. The results indicate that online marketplaces are more likely to serve an industry with (a) a higher cost of searching for technologies in that industry, (b) greater ambiguity about the underlying technology's potential applications across industries, and (c) greater ability to protect inventions from expropriation.


A planar dual-mode ring resonator loaded by four mushroom-shaped stubs is presented for design of dual-band bandpass filter (BPF). The four mushroom-shaped stubs utilized in the inner area of the traditional dual-mode ring resonator can realize both compact size and controllable harmonic response of the filter to generate the second passband. Additionally, a novel pair of feed lines with source-load coupling is employed to not only feed the ring resonator but also generate the higher third passband when the length of feed lines increases. For demonstration purpose, two example filters (dual-band BPF and tri-band BPF) are implemented.


We provide a methodology for testing a polynomial model hypothesis by extending the approach and results of Baek, Cho, and Phillips (2015; Journal of Econometrics; BCP) that tests for neglected nonlinearity using power transforms of regressors against arbitrary nonlinearity. We examine and generalize the BCP quasi-likelihood ratio test dealing with the multifold identification problem that arises under the null of the polynomial model. The approach leads to convenient asymptotic theory for inference, has omnibus power against general nonlinear alternatives, and allows estimation of an unknown polynomial degree in a model by way of sequential testing, a technique that is useful in the application of sieve approximations. Simulations show good performance in the sequential test procedure in identifying and estimating unknown polynomial order. The approach, which can be used empirically to test for misspecification, is applied to a Mincer (1958, 1974) equation using data from Card (1995). The results confirm that Mincer's log earnings equation is easily shown to be misspecified by including nonlinear effects of experience and schooling on earnings, with some flexibility required in the respective polynomial degrees.


Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD) is a disorder that affects around 40% of the population. Low sexual arousal and low sexual desire are the most common problems. The mechanisms underlying the disorder are still unclear. The aims of this thesis were 1) the search for animal models of FSD, 2) the development of new treatments and 3) to investigate the effects of common used antidepressants on female sexual behavior. In the first part, two rat models are described which were validated with pharmacological studies. First, there is the so-called "avoiders" model, based on different endophenotypes in natural cycling female rats. Male-avoiders show significantly less sexual behavior than male-approachers. This suggests that these rats can be used as model for women suffering from female sexual dysfunction. Further investigation with apomorphine (dopamine type 1 receptor agonist) showed a different responsiveness between normal and dysfunctional rats, which suggests that the dopamine system could be involved in the different sexual behavior of the avoiders. Other pharmacological studies showed that the serotonin 1a receptor and serotonin transporter systems are the same as the controls. The second model is the "sub-primed" model in which female rats are ovariectomized and primed with low levels of estrogens. These rats show significant lower levels of sexual behavior. In this model, we tested a new treatment for FSD: the combination treatment of testosterone and vardenafil (phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitor). In a clinical trial this treatment was shown to be effective in women. It also turned out to have beneficial effects in sexual dysfunctional rats without affecting healthy rats. Our findings make mechanistic studies into this field possible. The second part of the thesis focuses on the side-effects of chronic selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Depressed women complain about sexual dysfunctions. It is unclear whether this is due to the disease itself or their pharmacological treatment. First, a serotonin transporter (SERT) knockout rat was tested for their basal sexual activity. This study showed that SERT knockout rats have normal sexual activity compared to controls. Second, female rats were chronically treated with paroxetine (SSRI) for 56 days and tested for their sexual behavior. Again, no differences in sexual activity were found compared the controls. In addition, administration of serotonin 1a receptor agonist (()8-OH-DPAT) and antagonist (WAY-100635) was used to study the effects of chronic blockade of the SERT on the serotonin 1a receptor. In both studies, serotonin 1a receptor desensitization was found. This may protect against FSD


A labeling of a graph is a function from the vertices of the graph to some finite set.  In 1996, Albertson and Collins defined distinguishing labelings of undirected graphs.  Their definition easily extends to directed graphs.  Let $G$ be a directed graph associated to the $k$-block presentation of a Bernoulli scheme $X$.  We determine the automorphism group of $G$, and thus the distinguishing labelings of $G$.  A labeling of $G$ defines a finite factor of $X$.  We define demarcating labelings and prove that demarcating labelings define finitarily Markovian finite factors of $X$.  We use the Bell numbers to find a lower bound for the number of finitarily Markovian finite factors of a Bernoulli scheme.  We show that demarcating labelings of $G$ are distinguishing.


A multi-million dollar, four-color printing press used to produce a major weekly magazine was breaking pinions (shouldered shafts) on rolls. The cause of fracture was cyclic fatigue. Steel quality and heat treatment met expected standards. The pinion fracture showed multiple origins indicating rotational vibration fatigue. Keeping bolts tight solved this problem. In another case, grinding machines were unable to produce surfaces of uniform quality and smoothness on steel bearing products. Measurements showed that self-excited vibrations were created when particular steels were ground. It was found that the natural frequency of the wheel truing device was the culprit. A tuned damped absorber was designed and built to modify the resonance. This eliminated the problem.


There's more to sports than the ethos of competition, entertainment, and commercialism expressed in popular media and discourse. Sport, Philosophy, and Good Lives discusses sport in the context of several traditional philosophical questions, including: What is a good human life and how does sport factor into it? To whom do we look for ethical guidance? What makes human activities or projects meaningful? Randolph Feezell examines these questions along with other relevant topics in the philosophy of sport such as the contribution of play to a meaningful life, the various reasons for pessimistic views of sport, the various claims that celebrated athletes are role models, and the seldom-questioned view that coaches are in a position to offer advice to athletes on how to live or on leadership skills. He also discusses the way that non-Western attitudes found in Buddhism, Taoism, and the Bhagavad Gita might be used to address the vulnerabilities of sports participants. Feezell draws from current sports issues, popular literature, and contemporary sports figures to shed light on the attraction and value of sports and examine the accompanying ethical issues.


Electrophysiological and pharmacological methods were used to examine the role of glutamate in mediating the excitatory and inhibitory responses produced by the N2v rasp phase neurons on postsynaptic cells of the Lymnaea feeding network. The N2v --> B3 motor neuron excitatory synaptic response could be mimicked by focal or bath application of -glutamate at concentrations of >/=10(-3) M. Quisqualate and alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) were potent agonists for the B3 excitatory glutamate receptor (10(-3) M), whereas kainate only produced very weak responses at the same concentration. This suggested that non-N-methyl--aspartate (NMDA), AMPA/quisqualate receptors were present on the B3 cell. The specific non-NMDA receptor antagonist 6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione (CNQX; 10(-5) M) blocked 85% of the excitatory effects on the B3 cell produced by focal application of glutamate (10(-3) M), confirming the presence of non-NMDA receptors. CNQX also blocked the major part of the excitatory postsynaptic potentials on the B3 cell produced by spontaneous or current-evoked bursts of spikes in the N2v cell. As with focal application of glutamate, a small delayed component remained that was CNQX insensitive. This provided direct evidence that glutamate acting via receptors of the non-NMDA, AMPA/quisqualate type were responsible for mediating the main N2v --> B3 cell excitatory response. NMDA at 10(-2) M also excited the B3 cell, but the effects were much more variable in size and absent in one-third of the 25 B3 cells tested. NMDA effects on B3 cells were not enhanced by bath application of glycine at 10(-4) M or reduction of Mg2+ concentration in the saline to zero, suggesting the absence of typical NMDA receptors. The variability of the B3 cell responses to NMDA suggested these receptors were unlikely to be the main receptor type involved with N2v --> B3 excitation. Quisqualate and AMPA at 10(-3) M also mimicked N2v inhibitory effects on the B7 and B8 feeding motor neurons and the modulatory slow oscillator (SO) interneuron, providing further evidence for the role of AMPA/quisqualate receptors. Similar effects were seen with glutamate at the same concentration. However, CNQX could not block either glutamate or N2v inhibitory postsynaptic responses on the B7, B8, or SO cells, suggesting a different glutamate receptor subtype for inhibitory responses compared with those responsible for N2v --> B3 excitation. We conclude that glutamate is a strong candidate transmitter for the N2v cells and that AMPA/quisquate receptors of different subtypes are likely to be responsible for the excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic responses.


Health care needs are changing due to the rapidly ageing population and the increasing number of patients with long term conditions and comorbidities.1 This has occurred at a time of continuing maldistribution of the medical workforce in Australia and increased specialisation and subspecialisation within the medical profession and the medical education system. As the next generation of doctors will need to serve an older population and those with more than one condition, a more useful focus would be "much less on narrow disease silos and . more on the breadth of possible permutations of co-morbidity". 1 Long periods of training and increasing subspecialism may also lead to difficulty in changing the scope of practice in times of surplus or reluctance to move to geographic areas with medical workforce shortages.2 For example, despite increasing numbers of medical graduates in Australia, there are existing shortages in generalist specialties, such as general practice, general medicine and psychiatry, and many rural communities still have reduced access to medical care compared with urban populations.2 Do current models and degree of specialisation encountered in medical training optimally prepare physicians to serve the needs of all patients?


Abstract The Soxhlet extraction method (SE) only used in the extraction of fullerenes from carbon condensate (CC) obtained in the fullerene production facility, which in the literature is often referred to as carbon black, does not provide complete extraction. Fullerenes can also be extracted from the CC suspension and the solvent by the mechanical extraction method (ME) and show higher degree of extraction efficiency. This method combined with filtration process takes only a few minutes and allows a significant reduction in solvent consumption. Extraction via the ME method application makes it possible to carry out extraction of fullerenes twenty times faster than by the SE method. It can be used as an independent method, bypassing the extraction by the SE method, and also as an additional one. Application of the ME method allows additional extraction of fullerenes weight percentage from the CC, after extracting fullerenes from it applying the SE method. In this instance the higher fullerenes prevail in the essences extracted by the ME method with their content reaching as high as 39.50 wt%. The obtained samples of fullerene mixtures (FM) are characterized by the methods of high-performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. Analysis of the results shows that the composition of the FM, isolated by the ME method, differs from the compositions extracted via the SE method.


In previous work, a single Degree Of Freedom (DOF) controller for altitude of a Flapping-Wing Micro Air Vehicle (FW-MAV) has been presented which meets the various needs of such a device. Unique challenges posed by the small size of such a device include accounting for process variation during the manufacturing of small scale wings and effectors, damage accumulation during the operation of the device, as well as weight and power restrictions limiting the computational power available on-board the device have been overcome with a cycle-average controller which preserves mathematical rigor while still allowing computational power for evolvable hardware on-board the device. This paper will describe an attempt to optimize altitude control learning times on a controller which has been shown to support single DOF flight with the intent to shorten learning times of a multiple DOF flight controller which is much more computationally intense.


Back in the 1980s when actor Lorne Greene served as the pitchman for Alpo dog food, the TV commercials were careful to point out that he indeed fed Alpo to his dogs. So, the idea that someone would use the products they were making became known as "eating your own dog food." An alternative explanation for the term I've heard is that each year the president of Kal Kan Pet Food would eat a can of the company's dog food at the annual shareholders' meeting.Regardless of its genesis, the software industry has adopted the phrase to mean that a company uses its own products. Somewhere along the line, the noun "dog food" appears to have morphed into a verb. It's said that Microsoft has aggressively adopted the concept of dogfooding, at least within its development groups. Likewise, the Eclipse development group will tell you that they all use Eclipse as a development platform and therefore "eat their own dogfood." There are many markets and applications where dogfooding might indeed be possible. The question is, should we care?


The challenges inherent in teaching and studying through distance education have been recognised by many (e.g., Bower, 2004; Peters, 2001; Willems, 2007). A range of specific issues can be identified which distance educators increasingly need to grapple with. These include issues
of access, particularly as distance teaching moves increasingly online (e.g., Willems, 2004), and issues of equity and comparability (e.g., Gibb, 2006; Yang, 2006), where the challenge is to ensure that distance students receive an educational experience that is equivalent to that available to on-campus students. For educators interested in promoting the creation of learning communities amongst student populations, a further challenge is to bridge the divide between those students
undertaking a course in a traditional on-campus mode and those studying the same course through distance education.

In many institutions which offer both on-campus and distance versions of the same courses, parallel structures exists for the design and delivery of subject content which are mirrored by parallel sets of student experiences. It is often the case that distance and on-campus students have very little to do with each other, and despite studying the same course through the same institution, may have very few opportunities to interact with their peers and form broader communities of learning. This is particularly significant for distance learners who are often geographically dispersed and can experience their education as an isolating and individualised process.

This paper reports on developments in so-called Web 2.0 technologies that present opportunities to bridge this gap (e.g., Deng and Yuen, 2007; Elgort, 2007; Jones, 2007). The use of Blogs and Wikis is discussed and two specific examples provided of their use in a social work degree course. In the first, less successful, example, first year students in both modes created critically reflective
blogs as a piece of assessment. Students were then able to access, read and comment on each other's reflections. In the second example, final year social work students worked collaboratively to develop a group wiki as an assessable task, where the groups involved were comprised of both on-campus and distance learners. This exercise produced significant outcomes in terms of bringing these two cohorts of students together and creating a community of learners that stood in stark contrast to many distance students' previous experience of higher education. Students' own reflections on this process are provided in support of these outcomes.

The discussion of these examples focuses on the potential for Web 2.0 technologies to create opportunities for distance education and on-campus students to interact in meaningful ways and, through the design of collaborative learning activities, to begin to build communities of learning that transcend both geographical distance and the on-campus / off-campus divide.


From the international successes of Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan, to the smaller productions of the new generation of Irish filmmakers, this book explores questions of nationalism, gender identities, the representation of the Troubles and of Irish history as well as cinema's response to the so-called Celtic Tiger and its aftermath. Irish National Cinema argues that in order to understand the unique position of filmmaking in Ireland and the inheritance on which contemporary filmmakers draw, definitions of the Irish culture and identity must take into account the so-called Irish diaspora and engage with its cinema. An invaluable resource for students of world cinema.


This paper provides an empirical study of the between-individual and between-country differences in the popular legitimacy of European healthcare systems. In order to explain two dimensions of popular legitimacy (satisfaction and support for state responsibility), we assess the impact of self-interest motives (income and personal health), ideology (egalitarianism) and institutional arrangements (level of service provision, and private and government health expenditure). For this purpose, data from the European Social Survey Round 4 (ESS-4, 2008–2009) are analysed by means of multilevel models. Universal high support for state responsibility is found, while satisfaction varies considerably, with particularly low levels found in Eastern European and former Soviet Union countries. It appears that individuals are not guided by self-interest motives and ideology alone. In addition to these factors interacting, the results suggest that state-provided healthcare might be in everyone's interest. Introducing a patient perspective could advance our understanding of healthcare legitimacy.


Following the industrial revolution, abandonment and decrease of population in rural areas are common problems that can be faced all around the world, as a result of various factors. As a consequence of implemented policies and radical changes in social life, nowadays large number of rural settlements in Turkey are also in the process of abandonment. However, many of these abandoned rural settlements have invaluable vernacular assets that bear the traces of past rural life and comprise the spirit of these cultural landscape areas. Although rural heritage in depopulated settlements have melted against the natural conditions by time, some settlements succeed to preserve their authenticity and integrity to a certain extent. On the other hand in some villages, which are more crowded and close to the city centers, authenticity and integrity values of traditional architectural heritage has been destroyed by human beings as a result of new construction pressures. This situation accompanies a big dilemma about conservation of traditional architectural heritage. This article aims to discuss reasons of depopulation in countryside, impacts of abandonment, pros and cons of re-evaluation alternatives for rural settlements and to develop proposals not only for preservation of rural architectural heritage in rural regions of Turkey, but also for revitalization and sustainability of livelihoods in there.


Abstract The type material of several Central American tarantulas (Theraphosidae; Theraphosinae) were re-examined within a broader revision involving the defunct genus Eurypelma Koch, 1850 and the poorly defined Aphonopelma Pocock, 1901. Here, we create the new monotypic genus Sandinista gen. nov. for a revised taxon Sandinista lanceolatum (Simon, 1891) comb. nov., which is a small tarantula from the Pacific lowland dry forests of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. It was originally described under Eurypelma and later transferred to Aphonopelma without justification. Based on comparison of type specimens against new material, we emphasise its unusual bulb anatomy to rediagnose it as a new genus with suggested close affinity to Aphonopelma Pocock, 1901 (sensu stricto), Sphaerobothria Karsch, 1897, and Stichoplastoris Rudloff, 1997. We also re-examined the type material of Brachypelma fossorium Valerio, 1980, which is here treated as a junior synonym of S. lanceolatum, syn. nov. We also discuss the Mexican/Central American genus Crassicrus Reichling & West, 1999, into which we transfer another former Eurypelma from the Yucatán. This species was later called Aphonopelma stoicum (Chamberlin, 1925), which we revise as Crassicrus stoicum comb. nov. and contrast against other described congeners. We also re-evaluate two other specimens later determined as Aphonopelma stoicum by Schmidt & Piepho (1997), including the alleged first female for the species, and consider them as mis-identified congeners. Finally, we provide some discussion on Citharacanthus meermani Reichling & West, 2000 from Belize in the context of Crassicrus, due to similar aspects of their male palpal bulb morphology, highlighting potentially informative aspects.


Objective. To describe the frequency of selected antimicrobial resistance patterns among pathogens causing device-associated and procedure-associated healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) reported by hospitals in the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). Methods. Data are included on HAIs (ie, central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia, and surgical site infections) reported to the Patient Safety Component of the NHSN between January 2006 and October 2007. The results of antimicrobial susceptibility testing of up to 3 pathogenic isolates per HAI by a hospital were evaluated to define antimicrobial-resistance in the pathogenic isolates. The pooled mean proportions of pathogenic isolates interpreted as resistant to selected antimicrobial agents were calculated by type of HAI and overall. The incidence rates of specific device-associated infections were calculated for selected antimicrobial-resistant pathogens according to type of patient care area; the variability in the reported rates is described. Results. Overall, 463 hospitals reported 1 or more HAIs: 412 (89%) were general acute care hospitals, and 309 (67%) had 200-1,000 beds. There were 28,502 HAIs reported among 25,384 patients. The 10 most common pathogens (accounting for 84% of any HAIs) were coagulase-negative staphylococci (15%), Staphylococcus aureus (15%), Enterococcus species (12%), Candida species (11%), Escherichia coli (10%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (8%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (6%), Enterobacter species (5%), Acinetobacter baumannii (3%), and Klebsiella oxytoca (2%). The pooled mean proportion of pathogenic isolates resistant to antimicrobial agents varied significantly across types of HAI for some pathogen-antimicrobial combinations. As many as 16% of all HAIs were associated with the following multidrug-resistant pathogens: methicillin-resistant S. aureus (8% of HAIs), vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (4%), carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa (2%), extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant K. pneumoniae (1%), extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant E. coli (0.5%), and carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii, K. pneumoniae, K. oxytoca, and E. coli (0.5%). Nationwide, the majority of units reported no HAIs due to these antimicrobial-resistant pathogens.


To date the debate over payday lending has focused on whether access to such lending is on net beneficial or harmful to consumer welfare. However, payday loans are not one product but many, and different forms of lending may have different welfare implications. The current diversity in payday lending stems from the diverse ways in which states have regulated the industry. This paper attempts to quantify the effects that various regulatory approaches have had on lending terms and usage. Using a novel institutional dataset of over 56 million payday loans, covering 26 states for nearly 6 years, I find that price caps tend to be strictly binding, size caps tend to be less binding, and prohibitions on simultaneous borrowing appear to have little effect on the total amount borrowed. Minimum loan terms affect loan length while maximum loan terms do not. Repeat borrowing appears to be negatively related to rollover prohibitions and cooling-off periods, as well as to higher price cap s. Several states have used law changes to sharply cut their rate of repeat borrowing. However, this process has been disruptive, leading to lower lending volumes and, in at least one case, higher delinquency.


This study focused on grade 12 students' understanding of reaction kinetics. A 4-tier diagnostic instrument was developed for this purpose and administered to 137 students in the main study. Findings showed that reaction kinetics is a difficult topic for these students, with a total of 25 alternative conceptions (ACs) being uncovered. Except for one AC, the other ACs uncovered have not been reported before in the literature. An interesting point emerging from this study is that nearly 70% of the ACs were obtained from questions that featured graphs. Overall, the 4-tier format for the diagnostic instrument demonstrates good utility for probing students' understanding of reaction kinetics as well as uncovering their ACs. The confidence-related measures, which are more commonly used in the educational psychology literature, have also permitted further insights to be gained into how the students performed in the test as well as the classification of the ACs.


'By God I am confused'. exclaimed Colonel Gadafi at one Libyan popular conference. Where Libya is concerned, who isn't?

Ruth First's main emphasis falls on the causes and consequences of the 1969 revolution, in which a group of young off icers ousted the monarchy. This thorough survey provides a wealth of information about the religious, economic and social springs of Libyan politics, the sudden explosion of oil revenues and the fanatical- often na•ive- pursuit of Arab unity. She introduces the reader to a twentieth-century social revolution based on the Koran ; to an oil-rich state determined not to copy Kuwait; to a new centre of pan-Arabism which has almost invited the hostility of other Arab states;and to a regime which
exhorts the people to embrace its historic role but suffocates all independent action.

Nevertheless this nation of under two million inhabitants has struck giant postures in recent years. Its strengths and weaknesses become clearer in the light of Ruth First's able study.


Critical Success Factors in the Front End of New Product Development: A Literature Review and a Conceptual Framework Abstract The literature on the front end in the New Product Development (NPD) literature is fragmented with respect to the identification and analysis of the factors that are critical to successful product development. The article has a two-fold purpose. First, it describes, analyses, and synthesizes those factors through a literature review of the research on the front end in NPD. Second, it conceptualizes a framework that features two types of success factors: foundational success factors (common to all the firm's projects) and project-specific success factors (appropriate for the firm's individual projects). The article makes recommendations for the management of this important phase of product development, discusses limitations of relevant previous research, and offers suggestions for future research. The article makes a theoretical contribution with its analysis and synthesis of the reasons for success in front-end activities and a practical contribution with its conceptual framework that can be used as an analytical tool by firms and their product managers.


The tobacco-specific nitrosamine 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) is a potent lung carcinogen. Previously, we have demonstrated that NNK-induced lung tumorigenesis in mice depends on target-tissue bioactivation by pulmonary cytochrome P450 (P450) enzymes. The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that mouse CYP2A5 plays an essential role in NNK bioactivation in mouse lung. The role of CYP2A5 in NNK bioactivation was studied both in vitro and in vivo, by comparing the kinetic parameters of microsomal NNK metabolism and tissue levels of O6-methylguanine (O6-mG) (the DNA adduct highly correlated with lung tumorigenesis) between wild-type (WT) and Cyp2a5-null mice. In both liver and lung microsomes, the loss of CYP2A5 resulted in significant increases in the apparent Km values for the formation of 4-oxo-4-(3-pyridyl)butanone, which represents the reactive intermediate that produces O6-mG in vivo. The loss of CYP2A5 did not change circulating levels of NNK or 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol in mice treated intraperitoneally with NNK at either 20 or 100 mg/kg. However, the levels of lung O6-mG were significantly lower in Cyp2a5-null than in WT mice; the extent of the reduction was greater at the 20 mg/kg dose (∼40%) than at the 100 mg/kg dose (∼20%). These results indicate that CYP2A5 is the low-Km enzyme for NNK bioactivation in mouse lung. It is noteworthy that the remaining NNK bioactivation activities in the Cyp2a5-null mice could be inhibited by 8-methoxypsoralen, a P450 inhibitor used previously to demonstrate the role of CYP2A5 in NNK-induced lung tumorigenesis. Thus, P450 enzymes other than CYP2A5 probably also contribute to NNK-induced lung tumorigenesis in mice.


Hyperhomocysteinemia is associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The causality of this association is controversial. In this study we tested the effect of a hyperhomocysteinemia-inducing diet in the ArcAβ transgenic AD mouse model. At 14 months of age, the hyperhomocysteinemia-inducing diet yielded higher plasma homocysteine levels in ArcAβ mice compared with wild-type mice. Levels of plasma 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF) in 14-month-old mice on hyperhomocysteinemia-inducing diet were lower in the transgenic than in the wild-type mice. The folate derivate 5-MTHF serves as cofactor in homocysteine metabolism. Oxidative stress, which occurs in the course of disease in the ArcAβ mice, consumes 5-MTHF. Thus, the transgenic mice may plausibly be more vulnerable to 5-MTHF-depleting effects of hyperhomocysteinemia and more vulnerable to hyperhomocysteinemia-inducing diet. This argues that AD pathology predisposes to hyperhomocysteinemia, i.e., as a facultative consequence of AD. However, we also observed that dietary-induced folate reduction and homocysteine increase was associated with an increase of plasma (young animals) and brain (older animals) amyloid-β concentrations. This suggests that the hyperhomocysteinemia-inducing diet worsened pathology in the transgenic mice. In conclusion, this data may argue that folate reduction and hyperhomocysteinemia may contribute to neurodegeneration and may also be triggered by neurodegenerative processes, i.e., represent both a cause and a consequence of neurodegeneration. Such a vicious cycle may be breakable by dietary or supplementation strategies increasing the availability of 5-MTHF.


The article discusses the process of creating bibliographic and cataloging standards, after the implementation of VTLS, in major Polish academic libraries. It examines the adoption of the USMARC format as a standard for the transfer of bibliographic data in Poland, and the editorial work of VTLS libraries resulting in publication of USMARC format manuals for Polish libraries. The question of authority control is studied, with special attention given to the creation of the ckhw (a common online authority database), which includes authority records for series, uniform titles, personal, corporate, and geographic names, and topical subject headings. The development of the KABA subject thesaurus, which is influenced by the RAMEAU and LC subject systems, is discussed, and the structure of subject authority MARC records, as used by Polish libraries, is examined. Finally, the effect of the VTLS implementation upon the establishment of national and local library consortia in Poland is considered. Introduction Polish libraries have been greatly affected by the end of the Cold War. The collapse of communism gave them more freedom in building their collections and in providing access to previously banned materials. Major changes also seem to be taking place in the area of automation of library processes and computerization of libraries' catalogs. These phenomena have been possible thanks to the greater openness of the Polish market to Western European and American computer technologies as well as the generosity of Western, especially American, foundations. In 1992 the Jagiellonian University Library, the Mining and Metallurgy University Library in Cracow, the University of Gdansk Library, and the Warsaw University Library decided to purchase an American integrated library system VTLS (Virginia Tech Library System).[1] VTLS was chosen because the company was able to present the most interesting and affordable offer to Polish libraries.[2] One of VTLS' main attractions was its support of authority control, which would allow Polish libraries to establish and maintain online authority files featuring author, title, and subject authority headings with cross-references.[3] Many in Poland considered it to be a vital part of an integrated library system. Polish librarians were also aware of other European libraries' positive experience with VTLS. By the late '80s the company had already implemented many sites in Europe including Finland, France, the Soviet Union, and the UK.[4] By mid-1997 there were over twenty-two academic libraries in Poland using VTLS and eleven of them had their catalogs available through the Internet.[5] One of the biggest challenges facing these libraries has been the lack of "common library and network and access standards."[6] The implementation of VTLS enhanced cooperation between these libraries and led to the creation of common standards to be used in these institutions. The standards deal with bibliographic data exchange formats, authority control (name, title, and subject headings), and cataloging. The close cooperation between various libraries has taken the form of local and national consortia. These issues will be discussed successively. Bibliographic Data Exchange Format In the early 1980s the National Library in Warsaw developed and popularized MARC-BN (National Library MARC) as a standard bibliographic format. That changed once major academic libraries began to buy foreign integrated library systems (such as VTLS, PROLIB, Horizon, and INNOPAC) in the early 1990s. Since that time more and more libraries, including the National Library, have been using USMARC format for the creation of their bibliographic records. The University of Warsaw Library decided to adopt USMARC as early as 1992. One of the major reasons justifying the selection of USMARC was the format's ability to link bibliographic records smoothly to corresponding authority records. …


Researchers typically analyze time-series{cross-section data with a binary dependent variable (BTSCS) using ordinary logit or probit. However, BTSCS observations are likely to violate the independence assumption of the ordinary logit or probit statistical model. It is well known that if the observations are temporally related that the results of an ordinary logit or probit analysis may be misleading. In this paper, we provide a simple diagnostic for temporal dependence and a simple remedy. Our remedy is based on the idea that BTSCS data is identical to grouped duration data. This remedy does not require the BTSCS analyst to acquire any further methodological skills and it can be easily implemented in any standard statistical software package. While our approach is suitable for any type of BTSCS data, we provide examples and applications from the field of International Relations, where BTSCS data is frequently used. We use our methodology to re-assess Oneal and Russett's (1997) findings regarding the relationship between economic interdependence, democracy, and peace. Our analyses show that 1) their finding that economic interdependence is associated with peace is an artifact of their failure to account for temporal dependence and 2) their finding that democracy inhibits conflict is upheld even taking duration dependence into account.


Government statistics show that around 1,700 Scottish children and young people are in residential care at any one point in time. In addition several hundred others, including those with significant learning, physical and communication disabilities, receive regular periods of respite care in residential units. Residential child care has also been the focus of a considered amount of government policy-making. There have been changes in the average size and location of residential units, changes in staffing structures and repeated attempts to better train the workforce. Residential care has also been the focus of considerable regulation and scrutiny, much of it in response to scandals associated with abuse; both contemporary and 'historic'. Scotland's residential care services are strongly supported by central government policy and the government continues to play a major role, particularly for the most disadvantaged or 'troubled and troublesome' children. The sector is noteworthy in that Scotland does not have a separate juvenile justice 'detention' sector and it only has a tiny in-patient child and adolescent mental health service. Another notable characteristic of the Scottish children's homes sector is that a significant number remain under local authority control. Meanwhile there has been a steady decline in voluntary sector provision and a steady growth, from a low base, of private provision. This is the first dedicated study of the Scottish children's residential care sector. Throughout appropriate comparisons are made to parallel provision elsewhere in the UK and in Europe. The result is a text of great interest and utility to all those working, training to work or formulating practice and policy for the children's residential care sector in Scotland.


A review of the year that passed after the Aquino government was established and had began reforms and its relationship with the bureaucracy it inherited from the previous government and what prospects it holds. The bureaucracy at the end of the Marcos regime was strong, capable but dedicated to Marcos and contained the same contradictions of society within itself. The bureaucracy wanted the Aquino administration but it was evident that it was not mutual. To clean up the bureaucracy, it was purged. However, asking for section chiefs and rank and files to resign was seen not as cleaning up but an opening for new patrons to play politics. Although grounded on two basic principles that all removals are justified and should stop at positions of authority, the procedures' fairness was questioned because of who stayed and who was let go. Employees were terrified of being axed from their jobs does started a new trend of applying from one agency to the other while others who were reluctant stopped working and just waited it out. The government reorganization did not live up to its hopes as it nearly doubled the already existing deputy minister positions from the previous administration. The issue of corruption did not stop either and continued in all levels of government. After a year of the Aquino government and redemocratization the authoritarian tendency remained in the bureaucracy. Although the relationship of the administration with the bureaucracy is generally calm and would likely survive as compared to the problems the administration faced with the military. Potential areas of conflict may come out in the personnel and administrative moves as well as in the issues of corruption and politicization.


The story of 37 year-old founder and CEO of Taste Holdings, Carlo Gonzaga, typifies what can happen when this phenomenal growth prospect is allied to an unbelievably passionate entrepreneurial ethos. Gonzaga, a lawyer by profession - he obtained his LLB degree at the University of Natal - and his father, Luigi, started out with four franchised pizza outlets in the Durban region in the late 1990s. A passionate believer in the power of entrepreneurship, Gonzaga was chairman of the Franchisee Council for three years and during this time won Marketer of the Year, and the Franchisee of the Year awards twice.


Anti-predator behavior can affect prey growth, reproduction, survival, and generate emergent effects in food webs. Small mammals often lower the cost of predation by altering their behavior in response to shrubs, but the importance of other microhabitat features, such as downed woody debris, for anti-predator behavior is unknown. We used givingup densities to quantify the degree to which downed woody debris alters perceived predation risk by small mammals in southeastern pine forests. We placed 14 foraging trays next to large downed woody debris, shrubs, and in open areas for 12 consecutive nights. Moon illumination, a common indicator of predation risk, led to a similar reduction in small mammal foraging in all three microhabitats (open, downed woody debris, and shrub). Small mammals perceived open microhabitats as riskier than shrub microhabitats, with downed woody debris habitats perceived as being of intermediate risk between shrub and open microhabitats. Despite the presumed benefits of the protective cover of downed woody debris, small mammals may perceive downed woody debris as a relatively risky foraging site in southeastern pine forests where the high diversity and abundance of rodent-eating snakes may provide a primary predatory threat.


Despite its proven accuracy and the potential for improved dose distributions to influence treatment outcomes, the long calculation times previously associated with MC simulation rendered this method impractical for routine clinical treatment planning. However, the development of faster codes optimized for radiotherapy calculations and improvements in computer processor technology have substantially reduced calculation times to, in some instances, within minutes on a single processor. Several commercial vendors have released or are currently in the process of releasing MC algorithms for photon and/or electron beamtreatment planning. Consequently, the accessibility and use of MCtreatment planning algorithms may well become widespread in the radiotherapy community. With MC simulation,dose is computed stochastically using first principles; this method is therefore quite different from conventional dose algorithms. Issues such as statistical uncertainties, the use of variance reduction techniques, the ability to account for geometric details in the accelerator treatment head simulation, and other features, are all unique components of a MCtreatment planning algorithm. Successful implementation by the clinical physicist of such a system will require an understanding of the basic principles of MC techniques. Educational Objectives: 1. To provide an educational review of the physics of the MC including discussion of methods used for coupled photon and electron transport. 2. To review the methods used to improve the simulation efficiency. 3. To briefly review the vendor transport codes currently used for clinical treatment planning. 4. To describe the development of treatment head models for clinical treatment planning. 5. To discuss the factors associated with MCdose calculation within the patient‐specific geometry, such as statistical uncertainties, CT‐to‐material, and reporting of dose‐to‐medium versus dose‐to‐water. 6. To discuss the issues associated with experimental verification of MC algorithms. 7. To briefly review the potential clinical implications of MC calculated dose distributions. 8. To provide example timing comparisons of the major vendor MC codes in the clinical setting.


An FPGA-based Linux test-bed was constructed for the purpose of measuring its sensitivity to single-event upsets. The test-bed consists of two ML410 Xilinx development boards connected using a 124-pin custom connector board. The Design Under Test (DUT) consists of the "hard core" PowerPC, running the Linux OS and several peripherals implemented in "soft" (programmable) logic. Faults were injected via the Internal Configuration Access Port (ICAP). The experiments performed here demonstrate that the Linux-based system was sensitive to 199,584 or about 1.4 percent of all tested bits. Each sensitive bit in the bit-stream is mapped to the resource and user-module to which it configures. A density metric for comparing the reliability of modules within the system is presented. Using this density metric, we found that the most sensitive user module in the design was the PowerPC's direct connections to the DDR2 memory controller.


The standard approach to computer-aided language translation is post-editing: a machine generates a single translation that a human translator corrects. Recent studies have shown this simple technique to be surprisingly effective, yet it underutilizes the complementary strengths of precision-oriented humans and recall-oriented machines. We present Predictive Translation Memory, an interactive, mixed-initiative system for human language translation. Translators build translations incrementally by considering machine suggestions that update according to the user's current partial translation. In a large-scale study, we find that professional translators are slightly slower in the interactive mode yet produce slightly higher quality translations despite significant prior experience with the baseline post-editing condition. Our analysis identifies significant predictors of time and quality, and also characterizes interactive aid usage. Subjects entered over 99% of characters via interactive aids, a significantly higher fraction than that shown in previous work.


The thermal degradation of poly(methyl methacrylate) and its nanocomposite has been studied to determine if the presence of clays (anionic and cationic) or carbon nanotubes has an effect on the degradation pathway. Nanocomposite formation has been established by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy, thermal degradation has been investigated by cone calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and the products of degradation have been studied with TGA/FT-IR and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). There are no marked differences in the degradation products of the polymer and its nanocomposites, but the degradation of the nanocomposite occurs at higher temperatures. The most likely explanation is that poly(methyl methacrylate) degrades by only a single route, so the clay cannot promote one pathway at the expense of another. This observation bears important implications for the barrier mechanism, which is currently used to explain the reduction in the peak heat release rate of nanocomposites. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Some of the best walking and cycling routes in the world have few conventional pedestrian and cycle facilities. Neighbourhood greenways (aka "bicycle boulevards") are a form of street treatment where simple measures such as lower speeds, traffic restraints, wayfinding and crossing treatments are used to create an environment that is friendly for walking and cycling. They are particularly useful for connecting people to community facilities such as schools, parks, shops and other key destinations in a neighbourhood and beyond. Neighbourhood greenways are a popular tool in North America (e.g. Portland and Vancouver) but have yet to catch on here in New Zealand, despite many similarities in street environment. This paper outlines what kind of features typically make up neighbourhood greenways and how they combine to make walk/cycle-friendly streetscapes. Examples from North America will be shown, as well as a case study for how similar treatments could be applied in rebuilt Christchurch. Funding and implementation considerations for New Zealand will also be discussed.


This is a discussion paper, consisting for four essays on Open Access. They propose a new way to assist in gaining universal open access. The essays are meant to be read in the order:
• An Inertial Tale
• On Revolutions
• The Titanium Road
• Converse
The essays were written in Jun and July of 2011 by Professor Arthur Sale.


Abstract. The impact of spatial and temporal variability of rainfall on hydrological response remains poorly understood, in particular in urban catchments due to their strong variability in land use, a high degree of imperviousness and the presence of stormwater infrastructure. In this study, we analyze the effect of storm scale, position and movement in relation to basin scale and flow-path network structure on urban hydrological response. A catalog of 279 peak events was extracted from a high-quality observational dataset covering 15 years of flow observations and radar rainfall data for five (semi)urbanized basins ranging from 7.0 to 111.1 km2 in size. Results showed that the largest peak flows in the event catalog were associated with storm core scales exceeding basin scale, for all except the largest basin. Spatial scale of flood-producing storm events in the smaller basins fell into two groups: storms of large spatial scales exceeding basin size or small, concentrated events, with storm core much smaller than basin size. For the majority of events, spatial rainfall variability was strongly smoothed by the flow-path network, increasingly so for larger basin size. Correlation analysis showed that position of the storm in relation to the flow-path network was significantly correlated with peak flow in the smallest and in the two more urbanized basins. Analysis of storm movement relative to the flow-path network showed that direction of storm movement, upstream or downstream relative to the flow-path network, had little influence on hydrological response. Slow-moving storms tend to be associated with higher peak flows and longer lag times. Unexpectedly, position of the storm relative to impervious cover within the basins had little effect on flow peaks. These findings show the importance of observation-based analysis in validating and improving our understanding of interactions between the spatial distribution of rainfall and catchment variability.


BRIEF SESSION DESCRIPTION:
This panel discussion will focus on practical examples of how to enhance student engagement and interaction when students work in collaborative learning environments in asynchronous online courses and technology-enhanced face-to-face classes. Participants will also have an opportunity to share their discipline specific strategies for managing team-based assignments. Participants will take away practical tips how to implement roles assignments, peer work, technology-integrated group work, and collaborative writing in their own classes.
________________________________________________________________
FULL ABSTRACT:
The purpose of this panel is to share, demonstrate and discuss examples of how instructors at George Mason University facilitate student interaction and engagement when they teach online courses.  Student engagement is defined as "the student's psychological investment in and effort directed toward learning, understanding, or mastering the knowledge, skills, or crafts that academic work is intended to promote" (Newman, Wehlage, & Lamborn, 1992, p.12). Student interaction is defined as "an event that takes place between a learner and learner's environment and its purpose is to respond to the learner in a way intended to change his or her behavior toward an educational goal" (Wagner, 2005, p.9).

Examples of using roles for group work:
PSYC 321: The course instructor provides five case scenarios of diverse people with symptoms and asks students to describe techniques from one of five roles: assessment, consultation (with other professionals), treatment, research, or prevention. The students evaluate the benefits and costs of their techniques and comment on others' posts. They rotate to other roles for the other four cases.
NUTR 295: For each weeklong online discussion, three roles are assigned within small discussion groups. The starter and wrapper begin and end the conversation, respectively, structuring the group's response to the instructor-provided topic. The skeptic's role is to ask critical questions mid-discussion.
COMM 359: Students are assigned online group discussions centered on a media management topic. Initially, students analyze the situation as a media leader and post a proposal to solve the problem. Then, group members comment on proposals they find insightful.
INTS 204: A core assignment is the Leadership in the News activity. Each week, a student team creates a presentation connecting course readings to current events and facilitates discussion. One team member is designated the Team Coach and shepherds the presentation process.

Examples of technology-integrated group work:
SYST 573: The course teaches the quantification of a decision problem.  Quantification requires stakeholders to identify their values.  In the live version of the course, an affinity diagram facilitates this elicitation.  Padlet allows a similar interaction in the online version.
LING 523: The online English phonetics course trains students to close-listen to human speech and to analyze it.  To this end, a wiki is used to promote collaboration on fine phonetic transcription of accented English speech.  Students learn to support their analysis and reach consensus.

Examples of collaborative work:
COMM 380: Voting activity is a multi-layered activity that takes place periodically throughout a given semester and culminates in a final voting activity among peers.  Students are required to vote on the best essays nominated by the professor per category.  The results are tabulated and the top papers in each of the categories are published.
EVPP 361: The course contains a collaborative writing project. Students are assigned to a stakeholder group among six different groups whose political power and economic stakes vary.  Students take a joint effort to produce the final paper by collaborating together as a group and make a decision on behalf of each stakeholder group.
Panel attendees will have an opportunity to get advice how to manage collaborative group work and what strategies need to be applied. The faculty across different disciplines will have an opportunity to share and discuss their own examples as well.


Carbamylation of LDL is a nonenzymatic posttranslational modification of LDL resulting from addition of urea-derived cyanate to either the N-terminus or e-amino group of lysine residues in apolipoprotein B. The Carbamylated LDL (cLDL) has been recently shown to manifest all of the biological effects for relevant to atherosclerosis, including endothelial dysfunction, expression of adhesion molecules and vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation. In addition, cLDL binds to macrophage scavenger receptors inducing cholesterol accumulation, foam cell formation as well as enhanced oxidant generation. Despite the discovery of an alternative urea-independent myeloperoxidase-mediated mechanism for carbamylation, cLDL has been studied only in subjects with end stage renal disease. Elevated circulating and intraintimal cLDL levels have been associated with increased cardiovascular risk in those patients. However, other carbamylation products have been delineated as independent risk markers for cardiovascular disease even in the absence of uremia. Although diabetes mellitus is characterized by an increased atherosclerotic risk, chronic low grade inflammation and increased levels of myeloperoxidase, the data on cLDL in diabetes are scarce. Therefore, the present review reveals the main molecular mechanisms involved in the carbamylation of LDL in diabetes mellitus and briefly describes the atherogenic effects of cLDL. The possibility of using the high levels of cLDLs as a predictive tool for cardiovascular risk in diabetes-related pathologies is also discussed.


Abstract Media impact on suicide is well‐established. Groups at heightened risk of suicide, such as nurses, may be particularly influenced by poor news reporting. This study aimed to examine UK newspaper reporting of suicide of nurses and student nurses, including during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Print and online newspaper reports about suicide in nurses (including students) published in the UK between January 2018 and August 2021 were obtained and data extracted for analysis in collaboration with Samaritans' media advisory team. Content and quality of newspaper reports were examined using a content analysis approach. The study was compliant with the STROBE checklist. Nurse or student nurse suicides were reported in 134 articles, including 50 individual suicides. Most articles were acceptable against Samaritans' media guidelines. However, common problems included absence of signposting to support organizations and lack of suicide prevention messages. A minority of articles included methods of suicide within article headlines (18, 13.4%) and sensationalist or romanticizing language (14, 10.7%). Most contained occupation‐related content. Many named the individual's specific hospital or university and a substantial proportion included occupation‐related images. Working on the frontline was the most reported link between COVID‐19 and nurse suicide. While reporting on suicide among nurses and students was largely acceptable, quality of reporting was variable. Occupation was often discussed, and most articles published during COVID‐19 linked suicide to the pandemic. The research findings can help shape guidance on reporting of suicide in specific professions and occupations, including nursing, to encourage responsible reporting and reduce inadvertent promotion of suicide.


Aestivating aquatic fauna are able to survive periods of drying using various unique behavioural, morphological and physiological adaptations. The Salamanderfish, Lepidogalaxias salamandroides, and Black-stripe Minnow, Galaxiella nigrostriata, are aestivating fishes restricted to the south-western most corner of Australia. The region has experienced a drying climate since the 1970's and this trend is projected to continue due to climate change. The associated reductions in surface flows and groundwater is placing pressure on many of the highly endemic freshwater fishes of the region that are known to have been severely impacted by other anthropogenic stressors. Several of the region's freshwater fishes are listed as threatened, however, the current conservation status of the two aestivating species is in need of updating and threats to both are largely unknown. This study aimed to assess the current conservation status of these species and determine the key physicochemical and hydrological variables associated with their distributions to help project future population viabilities under hydrological change scenarios.

A total of 53 sites were sampled throughout the historical range of L. salamandroides and G. nigrostriata and a suite of physicochemical and habitat variables measured. Of the sites surveyed, 39 and 28 historically contained L. salamandroides and G. nigrostriata, respectively. Concerningly, the study revealed that only 26 currently contained L. salamandroides (66.67% of their historical distribution) and 20 contained G. nigrostriata (71.43% of their historical distribution). Both L. salamandroides and G. nigrostriata were absent from the four eastern-most sites sampled representing approximate reductions in extent of occurrence (EOO) of 79% and 12% for the two species, respectively. Area of occupancy (AOO) of L. salamandroides and G. nigrostriata has declined by approximately 71% and 56% for each species, respectively. Both species qualify as Endangered (IUCN Red List Threatened Category) under A2c), A4 c); population size reductions (past and projected based on AOO and EOO).

Historical sites were predominantly ephemeral wetlands that were acidic (mean pH = 4.77 (±0.12 SE)), had low salinity (mean 0.23 mg/L (±0.01 SE)) and a shallow (<1m) depth to groundwater during the dry period. Species distribution modelling was undertaken to determine those environmental variables that best explained the presence and absence of the species and revealed that sites with greater depth in winter and length of the annual non-wetted period were the variables of highest importance for L. salamandroides, with higher connectivity to surrounding wetlands a key variable of importance for G. nigrostriata.

Both species exhibited depleted lipid content after aestivation. The change in lipid content across seasons was more pronounced in L. salamandroides; however there was also a significant difference between G. nigrostriata and the non-aestivating Galaxiella munda suggesting that G. nigrostriata may also utilise lipid storage as part of its aestivation strategy. Increases in the annual dry period of wetlands may push the limits of such physiological strategies.

Analysis of seasonal stable isotope composition (δ2H and δ18O) of surface, ground and rain water identified that the wetlands are reliant on winter rainfall for recharge, with high rates of evaporation occurring during summer.

The results of the study suggest that climate change is likely to have been a key factor in the recent decline of these species. It is likely that the viability of populations will continue to be challenged given groundwater models project that the water table within much of this region will decrease by up to 4 m by 2030 and therefore further population losses may be expected. This research has considerable implications for future management of these aquatic ecosystems, including the management of groundwater levels in the region, reducing anthropogenic modifications and maintaining existing habitats. To help ensure survival of these enigmatic species in light of projected climatic and hydrological change, novel approaches such as creation of artificial wetlands and breeding programs may be necessary to help ensure their survival.


Abstract. We estimate the long-range atmospheric transport of elemental mercury in the Northern Hemisphere and present new data for volcanic eruptions in Iceland. At the Polar station Amderma (Russia) of long-term observations of elemental mercury concentration (2009–2010), a change in the dynamics was recorded. For seasonal variability at the period from 2001–2009 negative trend (−0.66 ng per month) was fixed. However, the analysis of the last three years of measurement (2010–2012) showed the greatest positive trend (+0.97 ng per month). In April 2010 and the highest positive trend was observed (+0.24 ng m−3), for the first time for the whole (2001–2013). At the same time, high concentrations of gaseous elemental mercury in the range from 1.81 to 2.58 ng m−3 in Apr–Jun 2010 and from 1.81 to 3.31 ng m−3 in May–Jun 2011 in contrast to the typical concentrations of 1.51 ng m−3. During the period of 2010 and 2011 intensified volcanoes in Iceland and consequently volcanic eruptions in Iceland were considered the most probable cause of these increased concentrations. Until now, there have been no cases of recording a high concentration of mercury during the active eruption of the volcano, measured so far from the source of the eruption. In this way for the first time at the Amderma station in the Russian Arctic, high levels of elemental mercury were recorded as associated with the periods of active volcanoes Eyjafjallajokull (in 2010) and Grimsvotn (in 2011). The inverse trajectories calculated for a vertical profile covering a height of 500 and 3000 m above sea level the time level with high mercury concentrations confirmed that this was due to atmospheric transport from the northwest and was associated with the active Eyjafjallaicull and Grimsvotn volcanoes. Therefore, it can be assumed that these active volcanoes are the main sources of increased mercury concentrations in the northern hemisphere as a result of atmospheric transport of volcanic clouds to the monitoring point in the Russian Arctic.