We prove that if $A \subset {\Bbb F}_q$ is such that $$|A|>q^{{1/2}+\frac{1}{2d}},$$ then $${\Bbb F}_q^{*} \subset dA^2=A^2+...+A^2 d \text{times},$$ where $$A^2=\{a \cdot a': a,a' \in A\},$$ and where ${\Bbb F}_q^{*}$ denotes the multiplicative group of the finite field ${\Bbb F}_q$. In particular, we cover ${\Bbb F}_q^{*}$ by $A^2+A^2$ if $|A|>q^{{3/4}}$. Furthermore, we prove that if $$|A| \ge C_{size}^{\frac{1}{d}}q^{{1/2}+\frac{1}{2(2d-1)}},$$ then $$|dA^2| \ge q \cdot \frac{C^2_{size}}{C^2_{size}+1}.$$
Thus $dA^2$ contains a positive proportion of the elements of ${\Bbb F}_q$ under a considerably weaker size assumption.We use the geometry of ${\Bbb F}_q^d$, averages over hyper-planes and orthogonality properties of character sums. In particular, we see that using operators that are smoothing on $L^2$ in the Euclidean setting leads to non-trivial arithmetic consequences in the context of finite fields.


It has been fifty years since the U.S. Supreme Court held that separate race schools are inherently unequal in Brown v. Board of Education. Through judicial efforts, over the past five decades, de jure segregation in the United States has been largely eradicated. But, a series of Court decisions in the 1990s has made it increasingly easier for previously segregated school districts to be released from judicial oversight. Many schools have subsequently resegregated – some to pre-Brown levels. This paper argues that school funding concerns have been underlying issues in desegregation litigation from the very beginning, and that, similarly, race has frequently been an issue in funding cases. Thus, a natural relationship exists between desegregation and school funding litigation. The relevant legal history of public school desegregation and funding litigation in the United States is reviewed, as is the current status of the law in these two areas. Finally, this paper examines the relationship between these two veins of litigation and considers how recent cases such as Sheff v. O'Neill, and Grutter v. Bollinger may pave the way for future litigants.


The effects of acetazolamide, amiloride, furosemide, ouabain and theophylline on nerve-induced prostatic secretion were determined in pentobarbital-anesthetized dogs. In one set of experiments the glands were exposed to normal saline or drug-containing saline between periods of nerve-induced secretion by connecting a urethral cannula for 30-min periods to a buret filled with normal saline or drug-containing saline at a height of 100 cm above the gland and by allowing retrograde penetration of these solutions into the gland. Secretion in response to stimulation of the hypogastric nerves at 20 Hz was markedly inhibited by intraurethral exposure to 0.1 and 1 mM ouabain but not to 10 mM furosemide, 3 mM amiloride or 30 mM theophylline; responses to stimulation at 2 Hz were potentiated by 30 mM theophylline. In other experiments, secretion in response to stimulation at 20 Hz was inhibited by i.v. administration of 10 to 30 mg/kg of furosemide but not 2 to 8 mg/kg of amiloride or 18.5 to 25 mg/kg of acetazolamide. Because active Cl- transport is a major process in canine prostatic fluid formation and because secretion of this fluid was selectively modified by these drugs in the same manner as is Na+,K+-coupled active Cl- transport by a variety of other epithelia, these epithelia appear to share a common Cl- transporting system.


The nuclear-armed states have large residual nuclear arsenals, and post-Cold War reductions of nuclear weapons have slowed. Meanwhile, the nuclear nations have undertaken ambitious nuclear weapon modernization programs that threaten to prolong the nuclear era indefinitely. These trends present a challenge to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty community, appearing to contradict the promises by the five NPT nuclear-weapon states to pursue a halt to the nuclear arms race and to seek nuclear disarmament. The NPT does not explicitly place limitations on modernizations, but the 2015 NPT Review Conference will have to address whether extending the nuclear arsenals in perpetuity is consistent with the obligations under NPT's Article VI and the overall purpose of the treaty.


ABSTRACT Keywords: education, income, social mobility This study, entitled Education and Income on Social Mobility Women in Gampong Laksana Banda Aceh raised the issue of (1) the role of education and income against the social mobility of women in the Village Laksana Banda Aceh (2) what was in the charge of education and income that contributes to social mobility of women in Like a Gampong Banda Aceh. This study aimed to (1) the role of education and income against the social mobility of women in the Village Laksana Banda Aceh and (2) the contents of the charge of education and income that contributes to social mobility Gampong Like a woman in Banda Aceh. This research subject female workers in Gampong Laksana totaling 581 people. Decision informants selected by purposive sampling a total of 11 people. The method used qualitative descriptive method. The data collection is done by observation and interview techniques and data processing using qualitative analysis, the data that has been collected in the reduction, followed by the presentation of the data is verified and do conclusion. The results showed the role of education was instrumental in increasing revenue because educated women have a greater opportunity to move from one job to another. Based on the results of the study conclude that 1) women in Gampong Like an educated employment and incomes were more feasible, 2) the education there is guidance on how a woman to be able to get a better income with the opportunity to obtain information about what work should be done that encourages women Gampong Laksana move from one job to another. Suggested research on social mobility can be continued by other researchers so that it can be revealed things that have not been revealed.


We consider a perturbation of an integrable Hamiltonian system which
possesses invariant tori with coincident whiskers (like some rotators and a pendulum).
Our goal is to measure the splitting distance between the perturbed whiskers, putting
emphasis on the detection of their intersections, which give rise to homoclinic orbits
to the perturbed tori. A geometric method is presented which takes into account the
Lagrangian properties of the whiskers. In this way, the splitting distance is the gradient of a splitting potential. In the regular case (also known as a priori-unstable: the
Lyapunov exponents of the whiskered tori remain fixed), the splitting potential is well-
approximated by a Melnikov potential. This method is designed as a first step in the
study of the singular case (also known as a priori-stable: the Lyapunov exponents of the
whiskered tori approach to zero when the perturbation tends to zero).


The case of a boy aged 4 yrs and 7 months, with isolated pulmonary involvement by Langerhans' cell histiocytosis is reported. The presentation of the disease was a sudden pneumothorax, with no previous signs of respiratory disease. The case was confirmed by S-100 and MT1 antibody staining, and was treated with pulse steroids and several pleural drainages, until the boy died after a large bilateral pneumothorax.


Background: The purpose of this study was to use a data mining technique to develop an expert system of the Bayesian model for detecting coronary artery disease (CAD). In addition, this study provides an evaluation of CAD detection before an invasive cardiac angiography as well as a paradigm for implementing relevant expert systems in the future. Methods: The study samples were drawn from all patients with cardiac angiography between August 1, 2005 and July 31, 2006, from the cardiac department in a medical center (Tri-Service General Hospital, TSGH), excluding samples with acute myocardial infarction, dilated cardio myopathy and rheumatic heart disease. A total of 415 samples were studied. All CAD-related risk factors were data-mined using a training set of randomly extracted 204 samples. All risk factors were calculated for sensitivity and specificity for Bayesian modeling and the implementation of the localized rules of a knowledge based. Furthermore, this study also quoted the epidemiological results of the knowledge based external rules from the PROspective Cardiovascular Munster study (PROCAM). Two knowledge bases, the TSGH base and the PROCAM base, were validated by a testing set of 211 samples. Results: The accuracy rates of the TSGH and PROCAM bases were as high as 70%. For detecting CAD, the localized data mining of the TSGH-based AUC was more stable at 86.2%, outperforming the PROCAM-based AUC of 82.2%. Conclusions: In this study, an evidence-based clinical expert system of the Bayesian model provides an evaluation for detecting CAD before an invasive cardiac angiography as well as a paradigm for relevant expert systems.


This thesis is a study of Stephen Gardiner's ecclesiological and theological development between his rise to international prominence in 1528 and the death of Henry VIII in 1547. It broadly divides these years into three: it begins by sketching out Gardiner's biographical details and by analysing his attitude to the Church before the split with Rome, and it identifies 1534 as the date at which Gardiner was converted to the Royal Supremacy. The second section examines his thought through the 1530s, during which, Gardiner was mostly concerned with the constitutional and ecclesiological implications of the Royal Supremacy over the fledgling Church of England. In the 1540s, however, he had became more preoccupied with the importance of Catholic theology, and the third section studies how he dealt with the rise of popular Protestantism and how he set about to defend Catholicism. Gardiner's written works reflected these trends, and this thesis determines just how his ideology progressed by paying particularly close attention to both his published books and his private letters. Gardiner's faith is described here in terms of Erastian Catholicism, by which is meant a belief in the validity of Henry VIII's Royal Supremacy combined with a doctrinal Catholicism. The thesis shows that these two propositions were not as antithetical as has been thought to be the case, and that Gardiner's primary objective during these twenty years was to reconcile the two. This thesis is an examination of Gardiner's intellectual development, and it is not intended to be an exhaustive biography. It gives special attention to events in ' Gardiner's life that either have not been sufficiently expounded to date, or have been persistently misunderstood.


Large advances have been made in hardware and every level of the software stack since the virtualized Hadoop tests published in April 2013. This paper shows how to take advantage of these advances to achieve maximum performance. The cluster size remains at 32 two-processor 2U hosts; however, the processor, memory, network, and storage capabilities are all roughly doubled from those reported in the earlier paper. The performance of native and several VMware vSphere® 6 virtualized configurations were compared using the same TeraSort application suite as before. It was found that the more powerful hosts give a larger advantage to multi-VM per host configurations: virtualized TeraSort is now up to 12% faster than the optimized native configuration. The apples-to-apples case of a single virtual machine per host again shows performance close to that of native Linux. The origins of the improvements are examined and recommendations for optimal hardware and software configurations are given.


Deletion studies were performed in 26 Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients through amplification of nine different exons by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR). DNA from paraffin-embedded muscle biopsies was analyzed in 12 of the 26 patients studied. Optimization of this technique is of great utility because it enables analysis of material stored in pathology archives. PCR deletion detection, useful in DMD-affected boys, is problematic in determining the carrier state in female relatives. For this reason, to perform familial linkage diagnosis, we made use of a dinucleotide repeat polymorphism (STRP, or short tandem repeat polymorphism) located in intron 49 of the gene. We designed a new pair of primers that enabled the detection of 22 different alleles in relatives in the 14 DMD families studied. The use of this marker allowed familial diagnosis in 11 of the 14 DMD families and detection of de novo deletions in 3 of the probands.


Chlorambucil (CLB) derivatives with long fluorous (referred to as 1 and 2) or hydrocarbon (3) chains have been evaluated in a series of in vitro and in vivo assays. In cell viability inhibition assays, both derivatives 2 and 3 show selective cytotoxicity towards human immortalized endothelial cells (ECRF24), while lacking activity against human ovarian carcinoma cell lines, contrary to the activity of CLB. Compound 3 also significantly inhibits sprout formation in an in vivo model of induced angiogenesis following photodynamic vascular occlusion in the chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) model. Moreover, intravenous administration of CLB and its derivatives in the non-perturbed CAM vasculature resulted in important changes in the vascular morphology. Notably, the growth of human ovarian carcinoma tumors implanted on the CAM was significantly inhibited by 2 and 3, i.e. by 70 and 53%, respectively, compared to vehicle treated tumors. Taken together, these results show that anchoring long fluorous or hydrocarbon chains to the carboxylic group of CLB leads to compounds showing increased anti-angiogenic activity which also effectively inhibit tumor growth in vivo.


This entertaining and highly readable book gives anyone writing in the sciences a clear and easy-to-follow guide to the English language.
 English is often regarded as one of the most difficult languages to master. Yet while the English language has a vocabulary of upwards of 500,000 words, it only uses nine parts of speech, and all of these words fall into one (or more) of those nine categories. Scientific English: A Guide for Scientists and Other Professionals, Third Edition contains many simple revelations like this that make effective scientific writing in English easy, even for those whose fluency is in another language.
 The book is organized around a basic guide to English grammar that is specifically tailored to the needs of scientists, science writers, science educators, and science students. The authors explain the goals of scientific writing, the role of style, and the various kinds of writing in the sciences, then provide a basic guide to the fundamentals of English and address problem areas such as redundancies, abbreviations and acronyms, jargon, and foreign terms. Email, online publishing, blogs, and writing for the Web are covered as well. This book is designed to be an enlightening and entertaining read that can then be retained as a practical scientific writing reference guide.


Introduction: Over the past two decades, there has been an exponential advancement in treating signs of facial aging. The growing demand for less invasive therapies has stimulated the development of biomaterials toward better products, seeking to fulfill safety criteria, such as biocompatibility and reversibility. Hyaluronic acid (HA) is the most widely used facial filler worldwide, being routine in plastic surgery clinics. Even with low complication rates, it is prudent for the plastic surgeon to be attentive to the signs of vascular occlusion because the interruption of the progression towards necrosis and permanent sequelae depends on rapid medical action. Thus, our service saw the need to create a prevention and treatment protocol, since such complications are serious and sometimes even irreversible. Methods: A systematic review of the literature was conducted from January 2003 to January 2018, using descriptors of vascular complications after facial filling with HA and its treatment. Results: Filling with HA presents a low potential for complications when performed by qualified professionals. Hyaluronidase, which is currently used off-label, can hydrolyze HA, even in its cross-linked form. If used correctly in a timely manner, it can treat possible vascular complications that would progress to irreversible damage. Accordingly, we prepared a treatment protocol given the current evidence. Conclusion: Every plastic surgeon who works with fillers and HA must have a protocol and be aware of the necessary material for early intervention. ■ ABSTRACT


Lymphomas originate in and spread primarily along the lymphatic system. However, whether lymphatic vessels contribute to the growth and spreading of lymphomas is largely unclear. Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) represents an aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. We found that MCL exhibited abundant intratumor lymphatic vessels. Our results demonstrated that the immunomodulatory drug lenalidomide potently inhibited the growth and dissemination of MCL in a xenograft MCL mouse model, at least in part, by inhibiting functional tumor lymphangiogenesis. Significant numbers of tumor-associated macrophages expressing vascular endothelial growth factor-C were found in both human MCL and mouse MCL xenograft samples. Lenalidomide treatment resulted in a significant reduction in the number of MCL-associated macrophages. In addition, in vivo depletion of monocytes/macrophages impaired functional tumor lymphangiogenesis and inhibited MCL growth and dissemination. Taken together, our results indicate that tumor lymphangiogenesis contributes to the progression of MCL and that lenalidomide is effective in decreasing MCL growth and metastasis most likely by inhibiting recruitment of MCL-associated macrophages.


Wider participation in stockholding is often presumed to reduce wealth inequality. We measure and decompose changes in US wealth inequality between 1989 and 2001, a period of considerable spread of equity culture. Inequality in equity wealth is found to be important for net wealth inequality, despite equity's limited share. Our findings show that reduced wealth inequality is not a necessary outcome of the spread of equity culture. We estimate contributions of stockholder characteristics to levels and inequality in equity holdings, and we distinguish changes in configuration of the stockholder pool from changes in the influence of given characteristics. Our estimates imply that both the 1989 and the 2001 stockholder pools would have produced higher equity holdings in 1998 than were actually observed for 1998 stockholders. This arises from differences both in optimal holdings and in financial attitudes and practices, suggesting a dilution effect of the boom followed by a cleansing effect of the downturn. Cumulative gains and losses in stockholding are shown to be significantly influenced by length of household investment horizon and portfolio breadth but, controlling for those, use of professional advice is either insignificant or counterproductive.


Background HIV infection is associated with increased risk of cancer: AIDS-defining cancers (ADC): Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), cervix cancer. non-AIDS-defining cancers (NADC): Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), anal cancer, lung, head, neck, hepatocarcinoma. Purpose To analyse patients with antiretroviral therapy and chemotherapy, type of cancer and associated risk factors. Materials and Methods Descriptive study of patients with antiretroviral and chemotherapy between 2004–2011, extracting data from medical records and the Farmatools programme, analysing using SPSS 11.0. Results 33 patients were obtained (3.7% of all HIV patients on antiretroviral treatment); 82% men: 16 with ADC (11 NHL, 3 KS, and 2 with NHL and KS) and 17 with NADC (5 HL, 3 lung cancer, 3 head-neck, 3 anal, 1 ovary, 1 gastric and 1 chronic lymphocytic leukaemia). When cancer was diagnosed patients presented: CD4<200 cells/microliter (27.3%), detectable viral load (VL) (33.3%), C3 category (63.6%), smokers (63.6%), human papillomavirus (HPV) (6.1%), Epstein Barr virus (21.2%), human herpes virus 8 (HHV8)(21.2%), hepatitis B-C (48.5%), intravenous drug addict (24.2%). 8 patients died. 80% KS patients and 66.7% head-neck cancer had CD4<200 (P = 0.036). 62.5% of those who died presented CD4<200 (P = 0.009). 66.6% of anal cancer patients presented HPV (P = 0.006). 100% of KS presented HHV8 (P = 0.002). Conclusions 3.7% of HIV patients on treatment developed neoplasms, more than 50% were NADC, of which 88% started in patients with an undetectable VL, confirming a nice immunological status when cancer was diagnosed. No conflict of interest.


Pharmacodynamic (PD) biomarkers of drug action are common components of early clinical trials in oncology. However, how to optimally apply biomarker endpoints to rationale decision making is less clear cut. As a consequence, many biomarker programs represent expensive scientific investments in drug development infrastructure yielding little or no practical advantage at the end of the day. The Pharmacologic Audit Trail (PhAT), first proposed by Workman and colleagues, represents a well designed strategic paradigm for the rationale incorporation of PD and mechanism of action biomarkers into early drug development. The PhAT is comprised of a series of key questions addressed sequentially in early clinical trials to assess the pharmacological behavior of an experimental agent. It includes evaluation of target expression, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, target engagement, pathway modulation, biological effects and, ultimately, clinical activity in early clinical trials. This approach promotes rigorous scientific evaluation and rational decision making in early oncology drug development, culminating in the demonstration of proof of concept. However, success application of this process requires a substantial investment in target evaluation and in vivo preclinical studies. A detailed discussion of the PhAT and its application to the early drug development in oncology therapeutics will be described.


The diverse challenges associated with anti-doping work in sport can result in multiple, competing viewpoints amongst stakeholder groups working to solve the problem. Coupled with the complexity of the problem itself, this has the potential to generate chaotic or disordered work contexts that impede rather than promote progress towards a solution. A visible lack of progress can be magnified to a public perception of anti-doping work as ineffective. We offer the Cynefin Framework, informed by Complexity Theory, as a novel theoretical and methodological lens for sense-making in the changing global context of anti-doping work. The framework's applicability at both individual and collective levels makes organisational sense for managers, professionals working in the field and interested onlookers. This sense-making contributes to an environment where the use of context-tailored strategies, and suitable management and decision-making approaches can emerge. Rather than seeking impossible simple solutions, these can be aimed at the ongoing generation of complementary multiple partial solutions as contexts evolve. In this paper, we describe the Cynefin framework, its application to the global context of anti-doping work in sport and recommend its use in other complex contexts.


Nitrogen (N) is converted into different types of product during the nitrogen cycle, which is one of the most important processes conducted in the biosphere. However, ammonia (NH3), one of the intermediate products, is poisonous to the environment, animal and human health. Therefore, NH3 emissions have been considered a public health issue for long time. Atmospheric ammonia is detected increasing in major agricultural areas in the world, especially in animal husbandry. When working in those animal husbandry areas, the animal feeding operators are exposed to higher concentration of NH3 than workers who do not work in such places; therefore, are facing higher risk of ammonia-related diseases (most of which are respiratory diseases). Several solutions might be used to reduce NH3 exposure. Increasing O2 concentration in the intestine, manipulating microbiome groups in the guts, using crude protein (CP) reduced diets with amino acid supplementation, urine-feces segregation, urease inhibitor, NH4+ binding materials, and manure or slurry acidification can lower the HN3 emissions. However, such methods are either not practical, or not cost-effective. At present, a new technique of nanoparticle application, using photocatalytic TiO2 painted on livestock building walls, seems to be the most cost-effective way to reduce indoor NH3 concentrations.


This Thesis discusses issues surrounding the conduct of business in a global environment. The focus of this paper involved a major manufacturer and its business model (Deutsches Auto AG) to supply vehicles to markets in New Zealand, South Korea, Nepal, and Mongolia. Analysis was made from previously collected survey data taken in each region focused on the dealership and end-user level. Not surprisingly, it was discovered that language and cultural barriers had a significant impact on each locations operations. Observations showed that language seemed to have created a problem in every day operations in regards to management and dealership tasks. English as the lingua franca – common language of trade, was often a second or third language of the individuals conducting day to day business. Not only did everybody have their own native language but also regional dialects that affected communication, but cultural perspectives also complicated communication. This paper does not address all issues surrounding global business, but focuses its attention to personal observations and data collected to identify break downs in communications across the regions of New Zealand, South Korea, Nepal, and Mongolia. This research identified and confirmed the problems to be a lack of English skills (comprehension and speech), which is expected to be the common language between all. With this expectation, there is little emphasis given to teaching English, nor the cultural contexts and hierarchical understandings that enhances effective


Many organisations are beginning to acknowledge that strategies and practices, which incorporate environmental considerations, can be tooled to acquire a competitive advantage. While proactive and value-seeking approaches have been suggested in the management literature, very few theories and frameworks have been presented in the domain of supply chain operations. In this paper, we suggest a framework, using gap analysis to compare the greenness effort for concurrent product supply chains. This praxis would help managers to achieve the following: (1) assess and benchmark a supply chain effort for a company product against similar products produced by competitors and (2) determine the gap between the current supply chain greenness effort and the ideal or targeted green supply chain. An illustrative example is used to substantiate the main argument. The results of this research would help state authorities and industrial managers keep track of the efforts made by companies when addressing environmental issues. This study responds to the needs of researchers in the green supply chain to develop models easy to understand and to apply by managers, not operational research specialists.


Proteomics is emerging technology that is approach to the study of complete complement of protein, trnascriptomics and genomics disparity in large scale as a result of beneficial in drug discovery and development process. A handful of disease biomarker is at present worn usually for population screening disease identification, prediction, monitoring of therapy, and expect of therapeutic response. Unluckily, most of the biomarker goes through from low sensitivity, specificity, and prognostic value mainly to unusual disease in inhabitant's transmission program. Require new disease biomarkers so as to will additional improve our ability to detect, prognoses, and predict therapeutic response in many types of disease. Novel biomarker discovery and drug target justification are highly complex and supply-rigorous processes, requiring an integral use of various tools, approaches and information. The newly developed proteomic technology features elevated-throughput similar examination of thousands of proteins in individual patients and amount populations and thus opens up the opportunity of given that more details at a global level on the molecular mechanisms. With frequently efficient public databases, bioinformatics can contribute to these processes by providing functional information of target candidates and correlating this information to the biological pathways. In this review, we summarize up to role of drug discovery date advance of bioinformatics application in proteomic research on biomarker discovery and drug target rationale. Particularly, we highlight how Proteomics in identification of new targets for drug discovery and new biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis of diseases can facilitate the proteomic studies of biomarker identification and drug target validation.


Recent models have considered the problem of how a solitary animal should make efficient foraging decisions when it must acquire information while it forages. However, the presence of others likely has important consequences for this information-gathering (sampling) process. This thesis tests the hypothesis that when foraging socially, European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) use both "personal information" (gathered from their own foraging activities) and "public information" (obtained from observing the foraging activities of neighbouring conspecifics) to direct their foraging decisions in a profitable manner. In an aviary experiment, the ability of captive starlings to use environmental cues discovered via their own patch exploitations and via those of others was examined to evaluate the contribution of each source of information to individual feeding efficiency in groups. The ability to recognize "public" cues correctly enabled starlings to take advantage of the foraging activities of others both by arriving at their profitable discoveries more quickly and by actively avoiding their unprofitable discoveries, thus saving valuable foraging time. In a series of aviary experiments, starlings were found to assess poor patches more rapidly by combining information obtained from their own unsuccessful sampling efforts with information obtained from observing the unsuccessful sampling efforts of another individual foraging in the same patch. The degree to which public information was used, however, depended on the cost of patch assessment; when this cost was high, personal sampling declined and the use of public information increased. Finally, in a field experiment, the ease with which personal and public information could be acquired simultaneously and the variability in patch quality were manipulated in order to determine what sources of information free-living starlings were using to monitor patch depletion. When both personal and public information were available simultaneously, starlings were sensitive both to their own foraging rates and to those of other flock members, and used this information to estimate patch quality and direct their patch departure decisions.


In the aftermath of civil war or violent internal conflict, one of the key peacebuilding challenges is the reconciliation of former enemies who are members of the same small-scale societies. A failure of social reintegration may contribute to what is known as a conflict trap. To detect lingering hostile attitudes among a community's various factions is crucial, but the approaches adopted in previous studies tend to focus on the impact of conflict on one or other aggregated indicator of social cohesion rather than on how violence-affected individuals regard and act towards their fellow community members. Here we demonstrate the value of concentrating on this latter dyadic component of social interactions and we use behavioural experiments and a social tie survey to assess, in an appropriately disaggregated manner, social cohesion in a post-conflict setting in northern Uganda. Whereas in self-reported surveys, ex-combatants appear to be well-connected, active members of their communities, the experiments unveil the continued reluctance of other community members to share or cooperate with them; fewer resources are committed to ex-combatants than to others, which is statistically significant. The dyadic nature of our analysis allows us to detect which groups are more prone to discriminate against ex-combatants, which may help facilitate targeted interventions.


The global biodiversity of some taxonomic groups is poorly described, but thought to be decreasing rapidly. Surprisingly, this holds for a group of the world's most iconic large-bodied animals: sharks. Our analysis shows rapid and steep contemporary population declines in sharks coinciding with an increasing rate in species discovery. Larger sharks occupying lower trophic positions with wide geographic distributions (latitudinal ranges) found in shallow waters tend to be discovered first. In light of this increasing trend in species discovery and a cumulative description record far from reaching an asymptote, models cannot predict the global number of sharks. Our results highlight that while our knowledge of shark diversity improves at an accelerating rate, this diversity is under threat and declining rapidly; most shark species are vulnerable to declines, especially smaller-bodied sharks. This surprising finding may relate to mesopredator declines following periods of rapid expansion due to the demise of large sharks (apex predators). Furthermore, shark population declines are structured by phylogeny and, to a lesser extent, geography. Decline in sharks are likely to influence other species as well, e.g. via trophic cascades. The net result may be a greater loss of biodiversity in the oceans and could potentially explain why fewer extinction events are observed than predicted by models. Likewise, it is not inconceivable that species may be lost prior to their discovery.


Personalised federated learning (FL) aims at collaboratively learning a machine learning model taylored for each client. Albeit promising advances have been made in this direction, most of existing approaches works do not allow for uncertainty quantification which is crucial in many applications. In addition, personalisation in the cross-device setting still involves important issues, especially for new clients or those having small number of observations. This paper aims at filling these gaps. To this end, we propose a novel methodology coined FedPop by recasting personalised FL into the population modeling paradigm where clients' models involve fixed common population parameters and random effects, aiming at explaining data heterogeneity. To derive convergence guarantees for our scheme, we introduce a new class of federated stochastic optimisation algorithms which relies on Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. Compared to existing personalised FL methods, the proposed methodology has important benefits: it is robust to client drift, practical for inference on new clients, and above all, enables uncertainty quantification under mild computational and memory overheads. We provide non-asymptotic convergence guarantees for the proposed algorithms and illustrate their performances on various personalised federated learning tasks.


We simulate how an increase in the productivity of the North-East Arctic cod stock would affect the Russian-Norwegian cooperation on the management of the stock. The productivity increase is linked to environmental conditions in the sea and to climate change through a temperature-dependent stock-recruitment relationship, where the numbers of recruits is positively related to the sea temperature given the spawning stock biomass. Increased recruitment and productivity of the stock improved the stability of an agreement on joint management. Expressing the closed-loop solution as a series of open-loop equilibrium solutions, studying the issue of reevaluating agreements on shared and straddling fish stocks, highlights the need for better and more flexible management systems that can cope with shifting environmental conditions.


This article is a reflection on the question of whether economists have a tendency to become more classical liberal as they age. It was written in my "overseer role" on a project led by Daniel Klein on the ideological migration of the 71 individuals awarded the Nobel Prize in economic sciences through 2012. I find that, given his definitions, Klein's conclusion that, over the course of their career there was a slight movement of Nobel Prize winners in economics to become more classical liberal, is a reasonable one, and that his project was carried out with appropriate openness about his ideological orientation and the motivations behind the project. But I argue that there are several possible explanations for that movement, and also that alternate definitions of 'classical liberal' could have led to different conclusions. Specifically, I suggest that classical liberalism can be thought of as connected less with certain political views, and more with a methodological approach to the art and science of economics.


Background/Objectives Inflammation and oxidative stress are central in many disease states. The major anti-oxidative enzymes contain selenium. The selenium intake in Europe is low, and supplementation with selenium and coenzyme Q10, important anti-oxidants, was evaluated in a previous study. The aim of this study was to evaluate response on the inflammatory biomarkers C-reactive protein, and sP-selectin, and their possible impact on cardiovascular mortality. Subjects/Methods 437 elderly individuals were included in the study. Clinical examination, echocardiography, electrocardiography and blood samples were drawn. The intervention time was 48 months, and median follow-up was 5.2 years. The effects on inflammation/atherosclerosis were evaluated through analyses of CRP and sP-selectin. Evaluations of the effect of the intervention was performed using repeated measures of variance. All mortality was registered, and endpoints of mortality were assessed by Kaplan-Meier plots. Results The placebo group showed a CRP level of 4.8 ng/mL at the start, and 5.1 ng/mL at the study end. The active supplementation group showed a CRP level of 4.1 ng/mL at the start, and 2.1 ng/mL at the study end. SP-selectin exhibited a level of 56.6 mg/mL at the start in the placebo group and 72.3 mg/mL at the study end, and in the active group the corresponding figures were 55.9 mg/mL and 58.0 mg/mL. A significantly smaller increase was demonstrated through repeated measurements of the two biomarkers in those on active supplementation. Active supplementation showed an effect on the CRP and sP-selectin levels, irrespective of the biomarker levels. Reduced cardiovascular mortality was demonstrated in both those with high and low levels of CRP and sP-selectin in the active supplementation group. Conclusion CRP and sP-selectin showed significant changes reflecting effects on inflammation and atherosclerosis in those given selenium and coenzyme Q10 combined. A reduced cardiovascular mortality could be demonstrated in the active group, irrespective of biomarker level. This result should be regarded as hypothesis-generating, and it is hoped it will stimulate more research in the area.


Background: In 1994, the mortality in coronary heart disease was four times higher among Lithuanian middle-aged men than among Swedish men. Over the period 1993-1995, the LiVicordia study investigated possible causes for this difference. We have earlier reported lower serum levels of cholesterol and higher susceptibility of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol for oxidation among Lithuanian men. Objective: In this part of the study, the aim was to compare mean estimates of food intake. Design: Cross-sectional study of random samples of 50-year-old men from each of the cities of Linkoping, Sweden and Vilnius, Lithuania (n= 150). The volunteers were interviewed about their food intake with the 24-hour recall method. Results: We found no differences in total energy intake, but Vilnius men had a higher energy intake from fat. Vilnius men consumed more fat from meat and less vegetable fat, while fat intake from dairy products was almost the same. Also, Vilnius men had a higher intake of vegetables, while Linkoping men had a higher intake of fruit and berries. Conclusion: The observed differences in food consumption and dietary composition are partly consistent with the higher CHD mortality among Lithuanian men. However, data on biomarkers indicate that other dietary and lifestyle factors play a role. Key words: Coronary heart disease, Eastern Europe, food interview, nutrition, 24-hour recall


ABSTRACT UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING IN A SMOKING CESSATION PROGRAM Kia Kerrin, MSW Ram Cnaan, Ph.D. Tobacco use, particularly cigarette smoking, is the single most preventable cause of death in the United States of America. The negative health effects of cigarette smoking are a major public health concern that can be reduced through quitting. Preliminary data has shown that spirituality can aid in the success of addiction treatment programs and smoking cessation programs. However, the current data are limited in their support of the relationship between spirituality and smoking cessation. This research study further explored the relationship between spiritual well-being and smoking cessation. A sample of 178 cigarette smokers was included in the research study to assess the relationship between levels of spiritual well-being and abstinence after an 8 week nicotine patch smoking cessation treatment program. The study was conducted through the University of Pennsylvania and Northwestern University. The proposed study was completed in conjunction with an ongoing NIH-funded clinical trial (R01 DA025078; An Effectiveness Trial of Maintenance Therapy for Nicotine Dependence). The proposed study involved the inclusion of a spiritual well-being scale at the baseline session. Subjects received the 21mg transdermal nicotine patch for 8 weeks, along with smoking cessation counseling. The Spiritual Well Being scale was utilized to determine if spiritual well-being was a predictor of abstinence at the 8 week mark. This research study was intended to be a catalyst to determine whether spirituality should play a part in smoking cessation programs. Concerning the relationship between the spiritual well-being scale and quitting smoking and the spiritual well-being scale and dropping out of the smoking cessation program, there were no significant findings. Although, these main relationships were not found there were other significant relationships that may suggest these areas should be explored in more depth. Relationships were found between religious well-being and compliance with patch usage. The initial findings also suggest there is a relationship between scores of religious well being and race. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Social Work (DSW) First Advisor Ram Cnaan, PhD This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations_sp2/70 Second Advisor Robert Schnoll, PhD Third Advisor E. Paul, Wileyto, PhD


Knowledge of flow inside the human airway is very important for medical practitioner to make accurate diagnosis. With the presence stenosis inside the airway, the flow will be changed significantly and will directly affect the input to the main bronchi. In this study, patient-specific image is used and remodelled using computational fluid dynamic software to simulate the flow within the trachea. The image contains one stenosis which was then reconstructed to other locations. This procedure will enable the study of flow behaviour in the trachea with different stenosis locations. Emphasis of analysis is focused on the flow and pressure distribution along the main airway. For each model, computations were carried out in three different flow rates which are 15 l/min, 60 l/min and 100 l/min corresponding to regular human activity which are resting, normal and heavy excersice breathing, respectively. The results show as stenosis located at the upper third of the trachea, the pressure drop along the trachea are insignificant in every breathing condition but differ to the velocity where the maximum velocity is increase as the flow rate increase. For stenosis located at the lower third or the trachea, both pressure drop and velocity did effect clearly as the flow rate increase. The effect of different location of the stenosis on the velocity distribution along the centerline shows similar increment in every flow rate and the risk in breathing difficulties if the patient having a stenosis at the third location is three times higher compare to the first location if the patient in resting condition. It increases to five times higher when doing the regular activity and eight times higher if the patient doing heavy exercise. The comparison is based on the same size of the stenosis.


Accelerated soil erosion is an undesirable process that adversely affects the conservation of water and soil. This paper used a procedure linking the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and geographic information system (GIS) to map the soil erosion level from 1990 to 2010 caused by land-cover change in the Dongjiang River basin, China. Results indicate that the significant land-cover change greatly impacted soil erosion. The overall soil erosion level of the basin belonged to Level II (mild erosion) but the erosion amount shown an uptrend. Erosion areas of Levels I and II occupied more than 90% and other levels (Levels III–VI) occupied less than 10% of the total area. Approximately 90.85% of the area maintained the original levels, 5.84% converted from lower levels to higher levels, and 3.32% converted from higher levels to lower levels. The erosion in the downstream regions was more serious than that in the central and upstream regions. Although soil erosion was mild as a whole in the study region, some local areas underwent intense erosion. The study demonstrated that linking RUSLE with GIS tools is an efficient procedure for mapping soil erosion levels at basin scale. The gradual deterioration condition caused by land-cover changes at present or in the future requires further study.


The Net Reclassification Index (NRI) introduced by Pencina and colleagues [1, 2] is designed to quantify the prediction increment provided by a new biomarker. It has become popular for evaluating and selecting novel markers. The published variance formulae for NRI statistics do not account for the fact that risks are estimated based on risk models fit to data, and thus are not valid in practice when estimated risks are used [3]. Kerr and colleagues [4] showed that the confidence intervals constructed based on a bootstrap estimate of the variance and Normal approximation had the best performance among various methods they examined, including the one based on bootstrap quantiles. This paper establishes asymptotic Normality of NRI statistics when true risks are unknown and are estimated. Our results provide theoretical support for constructing confidence intervals for NRI statistics based on a Normal approximation. We also derive explicit variance formulae for NRI statistics that are calculated based on estimated risks. In addition, we examine finite sample distributional behavior of NRI statistics in a simulation study. These results provide some guidance on the sample size required for adopting a Normal approximation for NRI inference in practice. Keyworks: Net reclassification index; incremental value; asymptotic Normality; sampling distribution; biomarker; risk models 1 Hosted by The Berkeley Electronic Press


Recovering palladium (Pd) from waste streams opens up the possibility of augmenting the supply of this important catalyst. We evaluated Pd reduction and recovery as a novel application of a H2-based membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR). At steady states, over 99% of the input soluble Pd(II) was reduced through concomitant enzymatic and autocatalytic processes at acidic or near neutral pHs. Nanoparticulate Pd(0), at an average crystallite size of 10 nm, was recovered with minimal leaching and heterogeneously associated with microbial cells and extracellular polymeric substances in the biofilm. The dominant phylotypes potentially responsible for Pd(II) reduction at circumneutral pH were denitrifying β-proteobacteria mainly consisting of the family Rhodocyclaceae. Though greatly shifted by acidic pH, the biofilm microbial community largely bounced back when the pH was returned to 7 within 2 weeks. These discoveries infer that the biofilm was capable of rapid adaptive evolution to stressed environmental change, and facilitated Pd recovery in versatile ways. This study demonstrates the promise of effective microbially driven Pd recovery in a single MBfR system that could be applied for the treatment of the waste streams, and it documents the role of biofilms in this reduction and recovery process.


Objective: To investigate the reasons for the excess risk of upper limb musculoskeletal disorders among manual workers compared with other workers in a random sample of 2656 French men and women (20–59 years old) participating in a study on the prevalence of work related upper limb disorders conducted by France's National Institute of Health Surveillance. Methods: Prevalence ratios (PR) of physician-diagnosed musculoskeletal disorders of the shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand (any of six leading disorders, rotator cuff syndrome, carpal tunnel syndrome) in manual versus non-manual workers were calculated using Cox regression models with a constant time of follow up and robust variance. Results: 11.3% of men and 15.1% of women were diagnosed with an upper limb disorder. The risk was especially high in manual workers (PRs: 1.40 to 2.10). Physical work factors accounted for over 50% of occupational disparities overall, 62% (men) to 67% (women) for rotator cuff syndrome, and 96% (women) for carpal tunnel syndrome. The authors calculated that under lower levels of physical work exposures, up to 31% of cases among manual workers could have been prevented. Conclusions: In working men and women, upper limb musculoskeletal disorders are frequent. Physical work exposures, such as repetitive and forceful movements, are an important source of risk and in particular account for a large proportion of excess morbidity among manual workers.


ABSTRACT Effective permeability to water in a petroleum column was estimated from routinely-measured mercury injection capillary pressure data of reservoir rocks, by applying a well-known reservoir engineering formula. The gradient of hydraulic potential across the column for a simplified petroleum trap model was then calculated to assess the realistic magnitude of hydrodynamic effects on capillary seal capacity under abnormally pressured conditions. The estimated effective permeability to water in the column ranges from 10–2 to 10–3 mD, even at several hundreds of metres above the free water level where it must become minimal. Since this figure is significantly larger than permeability of typical seals, it results in a negligible gradient of hydraulic potential in the column. The calculation, though including inherent uncertainties, indicates that hydrodynamics play a minor role on capillary sealing of typical petroleum traps, providing the reservoirs are water-wet, their tortuosity does not change with water saturation, and their anisotropy is not significantly large.


On March 25, 2015, police officers effectuated a violent seizure of a citizen in Kenner, Louisiana: [T]he police grabbed her by the ankles and dragged her away [from the tree]. . . . [She was] lying face down on the ground, handcuffed with her face pressed so closely to the ground that she was having difficulty breathing due to the grass and dirt that was so close to her nose and mouth. An officer was kneeling on top of her, pinning her down with a knee squarely in [her] back. Several other officers, as well as several school administrators, stood around the scene watching. [She] was crying and yelling[,] "Help, I'm hurting." The handcuffed individual was a Black, ten-year-old child who has been diagnosed with autism. On the day of the incident, she "began acting up in class, running around the classroom, climbing on desks, and knocking down classroom chairs." After she climbed out of the classroom window and up a tree on school property, school officials called the police. Instead of responding to the situation in a manner appropriate for a fourth grader with autism, officers responded with handcuffs and a knee in her back. In Mississippi, a twelve-year-old diagnosed with bipolar disorder "was handcuffed in front of several classmates and put in the back of a police car outside of [his middle school]" after "los[ing] his temper in an argument with another student, and hit[ing] several teachers when they tried to intervene." Following the incident, the boy was briefly admitted to a mental health facility, then "charged with three counts of assault." In Virginia, a Black eleven-year-old boy diagnosed with autism was charged with disorderly conduct and felony assault of a police officer for his acts of kicking over a trash can in school and trying to pull away when a school resource officer grabbed him. Unfortunately, the facts in these elementary school students' cases are not rare. Over the past few decades, schools across the country have adopted extremely harsh discipline policies to control student misbehavior that may be caused by an underlying disability.


We examine a two country aid model with performance intensive aid. The aid budget is determined by a donor country legislature, but allocated by a donor agency in terms of a performance criterion of its choice. Five sources of slippage in policy delivery are introduced: the donor agency observes the performance of the aid recipient imperfectly; the donor agency and the aid recipient are subject to inefficiency; the aid recipient experiences corruption; and adjustment of aid recipient performance is costly. Incentives between the aid donor and the aid recipient are intentionally aligned - to explore the best-case for the policy intervention. Immediate implications are then that optimal level of effort and governance in the aid recipient increase under performance intensity of aid. Moreover, performance intensity of aid has fundraising effects. While the aid recipient also has an incentive to increase the measurement noise in governance, this incentive is weaker than that to raise true underlying governance, is weakest for the poorest aid recipients and provided that the donor agency is sufficiently efficient, measurement error itself will serve to raise optimal effort in the aid recipient. The importance of aid agency self-monitoring is thereby identified. Three important qualifications on the anticipated success of the policy emerge, however. Despite the elimination of incentive misalignment, aid donors may come to rely on performance intensity precisely where such a reliance is likely to be least successful in aid recipients. Second, performance intensity of aid maximizes its impact under conditions where it is supplemented by technical assistance to improve the effectiveness of own effort by the aid recipient. Finally, under convex adjustment costs the general class of optimal time paths in governance in aid recipients will be non-monotone, such that governance may get worse before they get better - optimally so. Performance intensive policy may thus appear to fail - immediately after imposition.


In this paper, we present the simulation of an abstract model of SIMD type with vertical data processing (the STAR-machine) on GPU with CUDA framework. There is a number of algorithms developed for the STAR-machine. The research conducted recently shows that such a model is extremely efficient when used to solve graph problems. Associative operations are the key properties of this model. In particular, all of them take constant time. In this paper, we present an implementation of associative operations on GPU (Graphic Processing Units). This study is aimed at providing a bridge or a general manual instruction to convert the STAR algorithms to the GPU implementation. As the architecture of the STAR-machine in modern technologies has not been built yet, this provides a possible way to implement the STAR algorithms on an alternative platform to verify their correctness and efficiency, especially, for massive data input.


Abstract In the alpine belt of the Julian Alps (glacial cirque Na Jezerih under Mt. Veliki Rokav, Jarečica, the Mangart Saddle and Prodi under Mt. Mangart as well as Mt. Plešivec in the rock wall of Loška Stena) we studied the phytosociology and ecology of snow-bed vegetation with dominating flowering plants Salix herbacea, Luzula alpinopilosa, Gnaphalium supinum, Soldanella pusilla and Salix retusa, and numerous moss species. Based on the comparison with similar snow-bed communities in the Central, Eastern and Southern Alps we described a new association Salicetum retuso-herbaceae and classified it into the alliance Salicion herbaceae and class Salicetea herbaceae. We determined several successional stages of snow-bed vegetation on mixed calcareous-silicate bedrock that we treat as variants, in two relevés also the initial association Polytrichetum sexangularis.


Richter, Brian P. M.S.C.E., Purdue University, December 2012. A New Perspective on the Tensile Strength of Lap Splices in Reinforced Concrete Members. Major Professor: Santiago Pujol. Current U.S. design provisions for lap splices of deformed bars in tension were developed primarily from tests conducted on beams with lap lengths not exceeding 40 bar diameters. But the provisions often require splices to be longer than 40 bar diameters. Recent structural failures have indicated the vulnerability of lap splices with length-to-bar-diameter ratios equal to or exceeding 40. In this study, the tensile strength of unconfined deformed-bar lap splices with different lengths is reexamined. The focus is on lap splices with length-to-bar-diameter ratios of 40 or more. The tensile strength of lap splices in configurations resembling those observed to have splice failures in the field is also examined. Three series of tests (with a total of forty-five specimens) were conducted on specimens with lap lengths varying from 20 to 85 bar diameters. In series one, twenty-seven prismatic coupons were tested monotonically to failure in tension. In the second and third series, a total of eighteen beams were tested to failure. The beam lap splices were located in a region of constant moment. The results in this study indicated that increasing the length of a lap splice beyond 45 bar diameters was an inefficient way to increase the strength of the splice. The results also indicated that a mean unit bond strength of 5√f'c (in psi) is not a lower bound, as suggested by current design provisions, to the strength of unconfined deformed-bar lap splices with a minimum clear cover of 1 bar diameter and a minimum clear spacing between bars of 2 bar diameters. To address these issues, a new perspective on the tensile strength of unconfined lap splices is explored. It is suggested that, rather than setting a lower bound to the mean unit bond strength for design, an upper bound of 900√f'c (in psi) should be set for the maximum steel stress that can be developed in unconfined deformed-bar lap splices.


We explore the use of deep learning hierarchical models for problems in financial prediction and classification. Financial prediction problems – such as those presented in designing and pricing securities, constructing portfolios, and risk management – often involve large data sets with complex data interactions that currently are difficult or impossible to specify in a full economic model. Applying deep learning methods to these problems can produce more useful results than standard methods in finance. In particular, deep learning can detect and exploit interactions in the data that are, at least currently, invisible to any existing financial economic theory.


The purpose of this study is to test the validity and reliability of three collaboration indices (quantity, equality, and shareness) proposed by Jahng et al. (2010). The present study repeated the quantitative assessment of Jahng et al., and performed a further qualitative analysis to identify possible factors that might be associated with the results of the quantitative assessment. In addition, membership trends, in terms of communication connections in whole class discussions, were examined and compared with results from both the quantitative and qualitative assessments. The quantitative assessment results were consistent with those of the qualitative assessment and the membership trends. Therefore, the study concludes that the three quantitative collaboration indices are val


This study is to investigate the effectiveness of using mobile devices such as iPhone/iPad/android phone/tablet to facilitate mobile learning in aural skills. The application Auralbook was designed in 2011 by an engineer/musician to use mobile devices to learn aural skills. This application enables students to sing, record, clap and answer questions generated by the computer based on the Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) syllabus for more than 100,000 users worldwide. This study is to a) examine the effectiveness of using application Auralbook to learn aural skills, b) observe the progress of learning during the aural musicianship development, and c) propose a theoretical framework in using mobile devices to learn aural skills. The performance scores in each area, such as clapping, singing, feature (stylistic recognition), are analyzed. Research findings indicate that the functions clapping and singing score better than the other function – feature (stylistic recognition). The frequent users show significant progress in clapping and feature (stylistic recognition) at the beginner level, and singing at the intermediate level in this study.


AbstractPurpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate to what extent Swedish listed companies comply with the disclosure requirements in IAS 36, paragraph 134. The study also aims at assessing whether certain company-specific characteristics could impact companies´ disclosure levels. A greater consideration is given to size (list) variable, among all characteristics.Method – The study was conducted using a quantitative approach, with a deductive nature. The data was collected from companies´ annual reports, which were retrieved from the database Retriever Business or directly from the entities´ websites. IAS 36, paragraph 134, was interpreted and transformed into a disclosure checklist, which was used in the assessment of the goodwill impairment notes in companies´ financial reports. The collected data was transferred into scoreboards, which made it possible to assess the compliance level. The research questions were answered through charts and tables and to confirm the findings, a regression analysis was performed.Empirical findings – The results of this research showed that Swedish listed companies do not fully comply with the disclosure requirements in IAS 36. However, modest improvements were found over a nine-year period. The greatest increase in compliance was shown between the years 2005-2006. It was evident that the highest compliance levels were related to the fundamental criteria and that the more specific criteria contained lower compliance levels. The size (list) and the industry-type turned out to be the only influential variables in this study.Contribution – The existence of non-compliance stresses the necessity of becoming conscious of this issue. By emphasizing the issue on non-optimal disclosures, different parties become aware of it, hence, have a better opportunity to counter the problem. Originality/value – This study is considered to be unique since it uses a combination of two approaches in the assessment of certain variables´ impacts on the compliance. The study further takes an extensive time perspective as it observes the disclosure behavior over a nine-year period. The subject is not completely new within the goodwill field since the topic has been debated for many years. However, previous studies have taken a shorter time perspective and have been conducted in different contexts. Statistical testing has been applied in the studies since they usually use a greater number of variables when explaining the compliance levels.


In this paper we learn to segment hands and hand-held objects from motion. Our system takes a single RGB image and hand location as input to segment the hand and hand-held object. For learning, we generate responsibility maps that show how well a hand's motion explains other pixels' motion in video. We use these responsibility maps as pseudo-labels to train a weakly-supervised neural network using an attention-based similarity loss and contrastive loss. Our system outperforms alternate methods, achieving good performance on the 100DOH, EPIC-KITCHENS, and HO3D datasets.


This article examines the laws guiding witnesses at depositions, hearings, and trials in civil actions in Illinois circuit courts. Such laws encompass norms for judicial limits ahead of any scheduled depositions or testimonies; for the taking of depositions and the presenting of testimonies once scheduled; and, for judicial sanctions arising from witness abuse during depositions, hearings, or trials. The study includes a general review of other American trial court guidelines, especially comparing Illinois and federal practices.The article concludes Illinois lawmakers, in both the Supreme Court and the General Assembly, have insufficiently protected civil case witnesses. This lack of protection is especially evident when viewing the greater protections afforded in other American jurisdictions.Amendments to Illinois civil practice guidelines are common. Yet the major federal changes involving compelled disclosures, meet and confer demands, certification standards, more limited relevancy, and discovery plans have not been added, leaving greater opportunities for witness abuse. In reviewing witness protections, the article confronts a few foundational questions, including whether all witnesses should be similarly treated and, if not, which witnesses require special protections. In other jurisdictions courts will consider, under the Apex Doctrine, the potential burden of a deposition relative to its likely benefits. Differentiated guidelines for entity leaders (and perhaps others) are often deemed necessary. The Apex Doctrine supplements written civil procedure laws promoting cost effective, convenient and nonduplicative information gathering.The article first explores appropriate guidelines for limiting future witness questioning at depositions, trials or hearings. This exploration considers the possible adoption in Illinois of the federal meet and confer mandate, or perhaps a more explicit and demanding case management conference rule on discovery scheduling.Next, current Illinois guidelines on the taking of depositions and on the giving of testimonies in trials and hearings are examined. The article explores possible new norms, including a good cause requirement for scheduling certain witnesses; a requirement that alternative routes of information or evidence procurement first be explored for certain witnesses; and, new time, place and manner restrictions that help mitigate the costs of scheduled depositions and testimonies. Finally, the article explores possible judicial actions following witness abuses during depositions and testimonies, including sanctions on parties, their lawyers and their law firms. Sanctions can involve public or private interests, thus encompassing both disciplinary referrals and costshifting.In assessing possible reforms, the article also considers whether actions by the Illinois General Assembly or the Illinois Supreme Court are most appropriate. While there is much shared civil procedure lawmaking authority, certain initiatives may need to be primarily, or exclusively, legislative or judicial in nature. Today, General Assembly authority over so-called statutory causes of action seems preeminent, while Supreme Court authority over certain civil jury trial procedures appears dominant.


The stress birefringence in a fiber with a three-component silica-glass elliptical cladding is found to be a strongly nonlinear function of temperature. The observed birefringence is a factor of 1.6 greater than that predicted from linear approximations of this dependence and estimates of the fiber material's properties. The fiber's birefrin-gence can be predicted from a linear extrapolation of the low-temperature data.


This paper attempts to examine the effects of increased capital mobility on exchange rate determination in Australia. In particular, it examines the issue of whether increased capital mobility has made the exchange rate so responsive to short-term financial market considerations that it no longer responds to longer-term fundamentals. The findings of the paper are consistent with the stylised facts of the international experience of floating exchange rates. The paper concludes that short-term capital flows are very interest sensitive but that the extent of this sensitivity is difficult to show empirically. Over the longer term, it appears that inflation differentials explain part of the movement of the nominal exchange rate. However, there have also been large movements of the real exchange rate. These fluctuations have been associated with shifts in Australia's terms of trade and commodity prices. The paper finds that commodity price shocks also explain some of the short-run volatility of the exchange rate. This long-run and short-run link between the exchange rate and commodity prices is one of the distinguishing features of the Australian dollar. Finally, it was difficult to find and quantify any systematic link between the current account and the exchange rate. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the policy implications of highly mobile capital. It is noted that in a country with a floating exchange rate and perfectly mobile capital, there is scope for a conflict between internal and external balance, particularly if there is high inflation and current account deficits. The paper notes that monetary policy should primarily be directed towards lowering the rate of inflation rather than achieving a particular exchange rate objective for current account purposes. This is particularly true when the currency is subject to export price shocks since exchange rate movements help to buffer the impact of those shocks.


Science has been a theme of marginal, though perhaps growing, importance in contemporary art. James Elkins has talked extensively about the limited nature of art engagement with science while has been limited as pointed out more optimistic critics such as Sian Ede and Arthur Miller argue for hybrid forms and suggest that arts ambiguity is apt for considering the complexity of science. This talk will look at visual representations of science from the seventeenth century to the contemporary, considering how these images reflect the cultural history of science. The focus for the historical context will be tracing the origins of the tension between science practice and science communication from the origins of modern science in the seventeenth century, through the expansion of science into the public realm in the enlightenment of the eighteenth century and into the split between art and science which began in the early romantic era and continued into the twentieth century. Finally the talk will consider how this legacy poses problems for contemporary art which addresses science as increasing numbers of contemporary artists consider the implications of science and work on art-science collaborations.

Leach's paintings deal with the relationship between humans and non human animals and between science and art. He has had numerous solo exhibitions and numerous group exhibitions, in Australia and abroad. Recent solo exhibitions include The Ecstasy of Infrastructure, TarraWarra Museum of Art, 2011, and We have never been modern at the Hong Kong Art Fair. Leach has been the subject of considerable media attention, featuring on the front page of Melbourne's Age newspaper, and in an ABC documentary about his work. Leach's work has won several awards, including the Metro Prize and the Geelong Gallery prize in 2006, the Eutick Memorial Still Life award and the Siemens Art Prize and travelling scholarship in 2007 and both the Wynne and Archibald Prizes at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2010. He is currently completing a Ph.D in Fine Art.


Melon (Cucumis melo L.) is a perishable fruit that requires refrigeration to extend its shelf life. Postharvest behavior differs substantially among melon varieties due to genetic differences. In this work, we use a collection of near-isogenic lines (NILs) derived from a cross between the Spanish cultivar Piel de Sapo (PS) and an exotic Korean accession 'Shongwan Charmi' (SC (PI161375)), each of them with a single introgressed region from SC into the PS background, to detect and map quantitative trait loci (QTLs) involved in postharvest life traits, such as total losses, water-soaking, necrosis of the placental tissue, chilling injury (CI), decay, fruit over-ripening, flesh browning, hollow flesh disorder, and flavor loss during storage. Fruit were examined at harvest and after 35 days at 8 8C. Three QTLs induced desirable quality traits:flv4.1 reduced the loss of fruit flavor after refrigeration,tl8.1 reduced total losses, and fus8.4 reduced the susceptibility to fusarium rot (Fusarium Link). Another 11 QTLs produced a detrimental effect on other quality traits. The NIL population was useful for dissecting complex, difficult-to-measure pre- and postharvest disorder traits of different degrees of development and for investigating flavor loss during storage. Further studies with the QTLs described herein will shed light on the genetic control of melon shelf life and help breeders who are interested in this fruit quality trait.


Background: Adequate self-care in diabetes improves quality of life and decreases the number of inpatient cases. The health locus of control theory is used to assess adherence to diabetes regimen in some studies in developed countries. The primary purpose of this cross-sectional study is to determine the status of diabetes locus of control in a sample of diabetic patients in Iran as a developing country. We investigated selected factors contributing to locus of control and adherence to diabetes regimen. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 120 patients referred to Yazd Diabetes Research Center. The Iranian versions of Diabetes Locus of Control scale and Diabetes Self-care Activities scale were used for data collection. Results: Men revealed more internal locus of control and women revealed more chance locus of control. The attributions of external locus of control increased by age, while the internal locus of control increased by education level and chance locus of control decreased by education level. A positive association between internal locus of control and adherence to diabetes regimen was found and there was a negative association between chance locus of control and adherence to diabetes regimen. Conclusion: Findings suggest that interventions aimed at improving internal locus of control may improve adherence to diabetes regimen but different diabetic patients have different attribution styles and interventional programs to enhance diabetes self-care will be more successful if patient's locus of control is addressed.


According to the dominant incentive-based explanation, European Union (EU) conditionality has been particularly effective when the EU offered a credible membership incentive and when incumbent governments did not consider the domestic costs of compliance threatening to their hold on power. However, after the EU's eastern enlargement the influence of international institutions could then be expected to decrease in three different contexts: (i) the new member states after accession; (ii) the current candidate countries; and (iii) the postcommunist countries in the European neighbourhood policy. Yet although the incentive-based explanation receives support in some issue areas, in others, external influence is more enduring than predicted. To the extent that our understanding of the power of incentives is complicated by post-enlargement findings, there are new avenues for research into the full range of mechanisms that international institutions have at their disposal for influencing target states.


This volume deals with the comparative study of Old Germanic languages in the Low Countries, in the middle of the seventeenth century; with special attention to the work of the philologist and lawyer Jan van Vliet (1622-1666).


Nowadays more and more people are looking for products online, and a massive amount of products are being sold through e-commerce systems. It is crucial to develop effective online product search tools to assist users to find their desired products and to make sound purchase decisions. Currently, most existing online product search tools are not very effective in helping users because they ignore the fact that users only have limited knowledge and computational capacity to process the product information. For example, a search tool may ask users to fill in a form with too many detailed questions, and the search results may either be too minimal or too vast to consider. Such system-centric designs of online product search tools may cause some serious problems to end-users. Most of the time users are unable to state all their preferences at one time, so the search results may not be very accurate. In addition, users can either be impatient to view too much product information, or feel lost when no product appears in the search results during the interaction process. User-centric online product search tools can be developed to solve these problems and to help users make buying decisions effectively. The search tool should have the ability to recommend suitable products to meet the user's various preferences. In addition, it should help the user navigate the product space and reach the final target product without too much effort. Furthermore, according to behavior decision theory, users are likely to construct their preferences during the decision process, so the tool should be designed in an interactive way to elicit users' preferences gradually. Moreover, it should be decision supportive for users to make accurate purchasing decisions even if they don't have detail domain knowledge of the specific products. To develop effective user-centric online product search tools, one important task is to evaluate their performance so that system designers can obtain prompt feedback. Another crucial task is to design new algorithms and new user interfaces of the tools so that they can help users find the desired products more efficiently. In this thesis, we first consider the evaluation issue by developing a simulation environment to analyze the performance of generic product search tools. Compared to earlier evaluation methods that are mainly based on real-user studies, this simulation environment is faster and less expensive. Then we implement the CritiqueShop system, an online product search tool based on the well-known critiquing technique with two aspects of novelties: a user-centric compound critiquing generation algorithm which generates search results efficiently, and a visual user interface for enhancing user's satisfaction degree. Both the algorithm and the user interface are validated by large-scale comparative real-user studies. Moreover, the collaborative filtering approach is widely used to help people find low-risk products in domains such as movies or books. Here we further propose a recursive collaborative filtering approach that is able to generate search results more accurately without requiring additional effort from the users.


The paper describes a protocol for Secure E-Mail Infrastructure for establishing trust between different domains in order to protect mail servers from spam messages. The protocol uses messages for trusted interactions between intra and inter E-mail domain components, Secure E-mail (SEM) servers and Secure Mail Infrastructure (SMI) servers. In addition, the protocol validates E-mail addresses thus guaranteeing to the recipient that the E-mail is coming from a trusted domain. We also use XACML-based authorization policies at the sending and receiving servers, enforced by associated Policy Enforcement Point (PEP) servers at SEM servers, in order to provide a complete protection against spam.


Post‐copulatory sexual selection processes, including sperm competition and cryptic female choice (CFC), can operate based on major histocompatibility (MH) genes. We investigated sperm competition between male alternative reproductive tactics [jack (sneaker) and hooknose (guard)] of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Using a full factorial design, we examined in vitro competitive fertilization success of paired jack and hooknose males at three time points after sperm activation (0, 15 and 60 s) to test for male competition, CFC and time effects on male fertilization success. We also examined egg‐mediated CFC at two MH genes by examining both the relationship between competitive fertilization success and MH divergence as well as inheritance patterns of MH alleles in resulting offspring. We found that jacks sired more offspring than hooknose males at 0 s post‐activation; however, jack fertilization success declined over time post‐activation, suggesting a trade‐off between sperm speed and longevity. Enhanced fertilization success of jacks (presumably via higher sperm quality) may serve to increase sneaker tactic competitiveness relative to dominant hooknose males. We also found evidence of egg‐mediated CFC (i.e. female × male interaction) influencing competitive fertilization success; however, CFC was not acting on the MH genes as we found no relationship between fertilization success and MH II β1 or MH I α1 divergence and we found no deviations from Mendelian inheritance of MH alleles in the offspring. Our study provides insight into evolutionary mechanisms influencing variation in male mating success within alternative reproductive tactics, thus underscoring different strategies that males can adopt to attain success.


Cellular metabolism is regulated by the mTOR kinase, a key component of the molecular nutrient sensor pathway that plays a central role in cellular survival and aging. The mTOR pathway promotes protein and lipid synthesis and inhibits autophagy, a process known for its contribution to longevity in several model organisms. The nutrient‐sensing pathway is regulated at the lysosomal membrane by a number of proteins for which deficiency triggers widespread aging phenotypes in tested animal models. In response to environmental cues, this recently discovered lysosomal nutrient‐sensing complex regulates autophagy transcriptionally through conserved factors, such as the transcription factors TFEB and FOXO, associated with lifespan extension. This key metabolic pathway strongly depends on nucleocytoplasmic compartmentalization, a cellular phenomenon gradually lost during aging. In this review, we discuss the current progress in understanding the contribution of mTOR‐regulating factors to autophagy and longevity. Furthermore, we review research on the regulation of metabolism conducted in multiple aging models, including Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila and mouse, and human iPSCs. We suggest that conserved molecular pathways have the strongest potential for the development of new avenues for treatment of age‐related diseases.


The auroral substorm is the manifestation of explosive energy release from the rapid and global reconfiguration of the magnetotail. The auroral substorm is marked by a sudden brightening and poleward expansion of the most equatorward auroral arc in the midnight sector of the ionosphere. The temporal sequence of magnetospheric processes which lead to the dynamic auroral substorm display remain disputed to this day. This thesis contains original research on the development and exploitation of novel data analysis techniques in order to analyse ground-based all sky imager data of the aurora, enabling the study of substorm processes in remarkable detail. Fourier analysis techniques are used to find the spatial scales of wave-like signatures (otherwise known as auroral beads/rays), which form along substorm onset arcs. Growth rates of ∼0.05 s⁻¹ are found from the exponential growth of the power spectral density of individual spatial scales. By analysing the dataset in this way, comparisons are made between observations and theoretical predictions of plasma instabilities at the near-Earth edge of the plasma-sheet which have been proposed to play a critical part in the substorm onset process. Auroral arc tracking techniques are developed to automate and increase the size of the database of events analysed. The vast majority of independently identified substorm onsets are preceded by azimuthal structuring along the onset arc with median wavelengths of ∼80 km. These beads grow and develop into a magnetospheric instability around 2 minutes prior to auroral substorm onset. Showing that beads are a common feature along the substorm onset arc provides unprecedented quantitative evidence that a near-Earth instability is a fundamental component of the substorm onset process. Finally, analysis techniques are extended to state-of-the-art high resolution multi-spectral auroral data to investigate the processes driving auroral beads. Beads can be resolved in the green-, blue- and red-line aurora with spatial scales as small as 30 km, which later develop into larger structures of ∼80 km. These observations are consistent with Alfven wave accelerated auroral particle precipitation and therefore imply that the substorm onset arc and auroral beads are driven unstable by waves.


This thesis examines questions related to the emergence of the Gilbertine Order in twelfth-century England. While scholars have noted the importance of circumstantial necessity in the order's early history, I believe that their studies fail to fully account for the origin and early development of these distinctive monastic communities. While local necessity undoubtedly played a key role in the formation of the order's early character, I believe that the peculiar personality the order's founder, Gilbert of Sempringham, played an equally important role. The Vita Sancti Gilberti provides the most detailed description of Gilbert's life. However, as a piece of hagiography, the Vita is permeated with numerous hagiographical topoi that need to be identified and discarded. It is then possible to examine the more unusual aspects of Gilbert's life in the context of other, more traditional sources. In addition to the Vita, I rely heavily upon a variety of twelfth-century documents, as well as previous scholars' interpretations of the Gilbertine Institutes and a variety of secondary source material. In the end, I conclude that Gilbert's distinctive and at times contradictory personality was largely responsible, not only for the foundation of his peculiar order, but also for the evolution of the early Gilbertine communities.


This study proposes reading of Tirant lo Blanch in the light of Vegetius' Epitoma rei militaris, the military manual par excellence of the Middle Ages. Indeed, in the prologue to what we now consider a chivalric novel, Joanot Martorell describes his book as a manual, in which military practice, beyond mere exercise and sport, is primarily an art that offers the hero a means of social advancement and the chance to command an empire.


The discovery of magnetic sleep-an artificially induced trance-like state-in 1784 marked the beginning of the modern era of psychological healing. Magnetic sleep revealed a realm of mental activity that was not available to the conscious mind but could affect conscious thought and action. This book tells the story of the discovery of magnetic sleep and its relationship to psychotherapy. Adam Crabtree describes how in the 1770s Franz Anton Mesmer developed a technique based on "animal magnetism," which he felt could cure a wide variety of ailments when the healer directed "magnetic fluid" through the body of the sufferer. In 1784 Mesmer's pupil the marquis de Puysegur attempted to heal a patient with this method and discovered that animal magnetism could also be used to induce a trance in the subject that revealed a second consciousness quite distinct from the normal waking state. Puysegur's discovery of an alternate consciousness was taken up and elaborated by practitioners and thinkers for the next hundred years. Crabtree traces the history of the discovery of animal magnetism, shows how it was brought to bear on physical healing, and explains its relationship to paranormal phenomena, hypnotism, psychological healing, and the diagnosis and investigation of dissociative phenomena such as multiple personality. He documents how the systematic investigation of alternate consciousness reached its height in the 1880s and 1890s, fell into neglect with the appearance of psychoanalysis, and is now experiencing renewed attention as a treatment for multiple personality disorders that may arise from childhood sexual abuse.


This study examined the relationship between cargo handling equipment and port productivity in Tin Can Island Port, Apapa, Lagos. This study made use of 50 plant operators as sampled size based on simple random sampling technique, in which questions like how storage capacity of Tin Can port could be analysed and what is the relationship between equipment and productivity in the port. These data were subsequently analyzed through regression analysis and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Co-efficient. The result showed that port productivity components were few, unserviceable and obsolete, storage capacity was inadequate and unable to cater for the existing volume of cargo in pre – reform era. While in post – reform era more cargo handling equipment have been procured, storage capacity have been increased and expanded, latest cargo handling equipment with high lift capacity have been procured. Therefore, the study recommended that faulty cargo handling equipment should be repaired, government and other stakeholders should encourage research into areas of post productivity. KEYWORD: Concession, Productivity, Tons of Cargo, Equipment, Cargo throughput.


Inducible T-strand mobilization from the Ti plasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens to the genome of a plant host is mediated by the activation of a cascade of bacterial virulence genes. It is initiated when the bacterium senses the presence of a low molecular weight inducer secreted by the plant. Although many hydroxyphenylpropanoid and phenolic compounds can activate the virulence cascade, the only native inducers that have been identified to date are acetosyringone and hydroxyacetosyringone. A new inducer, the phenylpropanoid glucoside coniferin, has now been isolated from Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas-fir). Agrobacterium strains that were more tumorigenic on gymnosperms were more effectively induced by coniferin.


The output power characteristics of a widely tunable erbium-doped fiber ring laser (EDFRL) have been analyzed. The effects of emission wavelength, total intracavity loss, erbium ion clustering, output coupling ratio, and active fiber length are investigated. A comprehensive theoretical model based on a two-level laser model with consideration of pair-induced quenching is proposed. To achieve good performance in an EDFRL, especially for a widely tunable bandwidth of over 100 nm and high slope efficiency, numerical results, which are in good quantitative agreement with the experimental results, indicate that minimization of the intracavity loss as well as optimization of the active fiber length and the output coupling ratio are very important. It is found that the existence of erbium ion clusters in the active fiber can help an EDFRL to emit at a longer wavelength, and hence may be favorable for achieving L-band laser although the output power is reduced and the power flatness is degraded significantly. These findings are useful for the design and optimization of erbium-doped fiber lasers, especially for tunable fiber lasers operating in the longer band or L-band.


Has corporate law and its bundles of fiduciary obligations become irrelevant? Over the last thirty years, the American public corporation has undergone a profound metamorphosis, transforming itself from a business with dispersed ownership to one whose ownership is highly concentrated in the hands of sophisticated financial institutions. Corporate law has not been immutable to these changes so that current doctrine now accords to a shareholder vote two effects: first, the vote satisfies a statutory mandate that shareholders approve a deal, and second and significantly, the vote insulates the transaction and its actors from any claim of misconduct incident the approved transaction.

This article takes issue with the courts and commentators who have so elevated the impact of shareholder approval to insulate misconduct. We develop why it is not reasonable to believe that the shareholders' competencies extend to adjudging managerial misconduct, why that conclusion is inconsistent with other modern corporate law developments, and why such shareholder ratification is likely both coerced and poorly considered. We also point out that the position of courts and commentators who pronounce the death of corporate fiduciary law is deeply qualified by the deep conflicts of interest institutional investors face when voting as well as the very real threat that today's ecology that supports shareholder activism is likely to change so that the voice of the discontented shareholder will be at least more muted in the future.

Finally, we provide strong empirical support based on a sample of 852 merger deals from 2000 to 2015 that there is a very large thumb on the scale that pushes all deals toward approval, regardless of any allegations of wrongdoing. We observe substantial ownership changes at target corporations, sometimes as high as 40 to 50% of their stock, from long-term investors to hedge funds upon the announcement of a deal and before the consummation of the transaction with a shareholder vote. This change reflects the merger arbitrageurs' actions. We further show that this change in ownership has a positive and statistically significant impact on the likelihood of merger deals garnering the required shareholder approval.

We conclude that the Delaware courts need to rethink their obsession with the shareholder vote, renounce the current doctrinal trends that are taking them in the wrong direction, and return to their historic role of evaluating whether directors have satisfied their fiduciary duties in M&A transactions.


Objective: Bioimpedance measurements are mostly performed utilizing gel electrodes to decrease the occurring electrode-skin impedance. Since in many measurement environments this kind of electrode is not appropriate, the usability of dry electrodes is analysed. Approach: The development of five different kinds of dry electrodes, including gold, stainless steel, carbon rubber and metallized textile as contact materials are proposed. All test electrodes are based on a circular printed circuit board as carrier and have the same contact surface dimensions. To compare the electrodes' characteristics, the occurring electrode-skin impedances are measured under variation of signal frequency, contact duration, contact pressure, placement position and subjects. Additionally, all measurements are performed with silver/silver chloride (Ag/AgCl) hydrogel electrodes for comparison purposes. Main results: The analysed parameters play a significant role regarding the electrode-skin impedance. Choosing a wise setup of these parameters can decrease the electrode-skin impedance of dry electrodes down to ranges of hydrogel electrodes and even below. Significance: The usage of dry electrodes is one of the most difficult challenges when transferring scientific measurement techniques to clinical environments or commercial products but it is indispensable for many applications like body composition measurements or prosthesis control.


In 1982, a congressional commission concluded that the incarceration of 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II resulted from racism, war hysteria, and failed political leadership. Against long odds, the commission's recommendation that the U.S. government offer financial redress became law on August 10, 1988, when President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act. This book is a case study of the political, institutional, and external factors that led to the passage of this controversial legislation. Based on extensive interviews with Senators, members of Congress, key members of their staffs, and lobbyists, as well as statistical analyses of roll call votes, this book provides a uniquely rich account of the passage of a federal law. It also places the campaign for redress in the broader theoretical context of the workings of Congress and the policy-making process.-Publisher description.


maize primary root zones, transition zone (TZ, 3 mm) and two non-growing zones (NGZ1 and NGZ2 at 20 and 50 mm, respectively), were studied in order to investigate the effect of the allelochemical on maize root elongation rate (ReR). The ReR, plasma membrane (pm) h + -aTPase activity, quantitative ph changes and cell membrane potentials were evaluated. The results showed that coumarin caused at the TZ (1) an increased ReR; (2) an enhancement of pm h + -aTPase activity and proton extrusion; and (3) a transient depolarization followed by a hyperpolarization of cell membrane potential. These observations were not evident in the NGZ1 and NGZ2 of the maize root. coumarin-treatment in the NGZ1 did not change ReR, but caused a membrane depolarization, while the NGZ2 was mostly insensitive to the allelochemical. These data suggested that the primary maize root was sensitive to coumarin within a 20 mm section from the root tip, but the more distal NGZ2 was not involved in coumarin-elicited physiological responses.