Abstract: Connectionism as a model of the mind has recently been challenging the Classical model, in which the mind is regarded as symbol manipulating system. The main arguments against Connectionism concern its inability to form mental representations for complex expressions, which can be used for structure sensitive operations. Some argue for hybrid models which combine some of the most attractive features of the Classical and Connectionist models. This paper starts off by examining the definitions of the different approaches and also their strengths and weaknesses. One section is devoted to the debate between the advocators of the different paradigms, including the arguments about the lack of compositionality and systematicity in Connectionist cognitive models. We then argue for the Connectionist approach as the most attractive model of the mind. This includes performing the "miracle" of defining structure sensitive operations on non-symbolic representations of concepts. Annotation: Published in Connectionism in a Broad Perspective, (Eds) Niklasson & Boden, Ellis Horwood, 1994


Decision making usually involves uncertainty and risk. Understanding which parts of the human brain are activated during decisions under risk and which neural processes underly (risky) investment decisions are important goals in neuroeconomics. Here, we reanalyze functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data on 17 subjects which were exposed to an investment decision task from Mohr et al. (2010b). We obtain a time series of three-dimensional images of the blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) fMRI signals. Our goal is to capture the dynamic behavior of specific brain regions of all subjects in this high-dimensional time series data, by a flexible factor approach resulting in a low dimensional representation. We apply a panel version of the dynamic semiparametric factor model (DSFM) presented in Park et al. (2009) and identify task-related activations in space and dynamics in time. Further, we classify the risk attitudes of all subjects based on the estimated lowdimensional time series. Our classification analysis successfully confirms the estimated risk attitudes derived directly from subjects' decision behavior.


An expanding economy, new technologies, and changing consumer preferences provided growth opportunities for firms in interwar Australia. This period saw an increase in the number of large-scale firms in mining, manufacturing, and a wide range of service industries. Firms unable to rely solely on retained earnings to fund expansion turned to the domestic stock exchanges. A new data set of capital raisings constructed from reports of prospectuses published in the financial press forms the basis for the conclusion that many firms used substantial injections of equity finance to augment internally generated sources of funds. That they were able to do so indicates a strong increase in the capacity of local stock exchanges and a greater willingness of individuals to hold part of their wealthin transferable securities.


Wheat production in Ethiopia is widely affected by diseases and attacked by a number of insect pests. Wheat disease diagnosis needs sufficient and knowledgeable agricultural experts to identify the diseases and describe the methods of treatment and protection at early stage of infestation. But, agricultural specialist assistance may not always available and accessible to every farmer when the need arises for their help. Hence, this study presents a rule based knowledge based system for wheat disease diagnosis in order to identify wheat disease timely and apply the control measures effectively. The system aims to provide a guide for research centers and development agents to facilitate the diagnostic process. To develop the system, data and knowledge are acquired from documented and non- documented sources. The acquired knowledge is modeled by using decision tree structure that represents concepts and procedures involved in the diagnosis of wheat disease. The system is developed using SWI Prolog programming language. The system has been tested and evaluated to ensure whether the performance of the system is accurate and the system is usable by research centers and development agents. The system has been registered overall performance of 87.78%. So, the developed system has potential to use as a decision tool for diagnosing and treating wheat disease.


Phytoestrogens influence a variety of biological processes. As 17beta-estradiol alters adrenocortical cell function, we examined whether the dietary phytoestrogens, genistein and daidzein, have related effects. In cultured human fetal and postnatal adrenal cortical cells, genistein and daidzein (both 0.4-40 micromol/L) decreased ACTH-stimulated cortisol production to basal levels (ED50, 1-4 micromol/L). In the adult adrenocortical cell line, H295, genistein, daidzein, and 17beta-estradiol (10 micromol/L) decreased cAMP-stimulated cortisol synthesis in a similar fashion. Neither genistein nor daidzein altered basal or ACTH-stimulated dehydroepiandosterone sulfate (DHEA-S) production in fetal adrenocortical cells, whereas in postnatal adrenocortical cells, DHEA and DHEA-S were markedly increased (ED50, 1-4 micromol/L). In H295 cells, basal and cAMP-stimulated DHEA production were similarly increased by the phytoestrogens and 17beta-estradiol. Genistein and daidzein did not affect the expression of steroid-metabolizing enzymes. However, genistein and daidzein specifically inhibited the activity of 21-hydroxylase (P450c21); the activities of other steroidogenic enzymes were not affected. Thus, phytoestrogens may decrease cortisol synthesis by suppressing the activity of P450c21 and, as a consequence, increase DHEA/DHEA-S synthesis by shunting metabolites away from the glucocorticoid synthetic pathway. Therefore, consumption of foods containing phytoestrogens may alter adrenocortical function by decreasing cortisol and increasing androgen production.


The ever increasing demand for higher power devices at higher frequencies has prompted much research recently into the aluminium nitride/gallium nitride high electron mobility transistors (AlN/GaN HEMTs) in response to theoretical predictions of higher performance devices. Despite having superior material properties such as higher two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) densities and larger breakdown field as compared to the conventional aluminium gallium nitride (AlGaN)/GaN HEMTs, the AlN/GaN devices suffer from surface sensitivity, high leakage currents and high Ohmic contact resistances. Having very thin AlN barrier layer of ∼ 3 nm makes the epilayers very sensitive to liquids coming in contact with the surface. Exposure to any chemical solutions during device processing degrades the surface properties, resulting in poor device performance. To overcome the problems, a protective layer is employed during fabrication of AlN/GaN-based devices. However, in the presence of the protective/passivation layers, formation of low Ohmic resistance source and drain contact becomes even more difficult.
In this work, thermally grown aluminium oxide (Al2O3) was used as a gate di- electric and surface passivation for AlN/GaN metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS)-HEMTs. Most importantly, the Al2O3 acts as a protection layer during device processing. The developed technique allows for a simple and effective wet etching optimisation using 16H3PO4:HNO3:2H2O solution to remove Al from the Ohmic contact regions prior to the formation of Al2O3 and Ohmic metallisation. Low Ohmic contact resistance (0.76Ω.mm) as well as low sheet resistance (318Ω/square) were obtained after optimisation.
Significant reduction in the gate leakage currents was observed when employing an additional layer of thermally grown Al2O3 on the mesa sidewalls, particularly in the region where the gate metallisation overlaps with the exposed channel edge. A high peak current ∼1.5 A/mm at VGS=+3 V and a current-gain cutoff frequency, fT , and maximum oscillation frequency, fMAX , of 50 GHz and 40 GHz, respectively, were obtained for a device with 0.2 μm gate length and 100 μm gate width. The measured breakdown voltage, VBR, of a two-finger MOS-HEMT with 0.5μm gate length and 100 μm gate width was 58 V.
Additionally, an approach based on an accurate estimate of all the small-signal equivalent circuit elements followed by optimisation of these to get the actual element values was also developed for AlN/GaN MOS-HEMTs. The extracted element values provide feedback for further device process optimisation. The achieved results indicate the suitability of thermally grown Al2O3 for AlN/GaN-based MOS-HEMT technology for future high frequency power applications.


In a life-and-death situation of being sword-tip to sword-tip with the enemy, where should the swordsman put his mind? This is the first question posed in the first of three essays written by a Zen master for the guidance of samurai swordsmen. Among the other questions that arise are the difference between the right mind and the confused mind, what makes life precious, the nature of right-mindedness, the Buddhist paradigm of form and consciousness, and what distinguishes the True Mind. So succinct are the author's insights that these writings have outlasted the dissolution of the samurai class to come down to the present as sources of guidance and inspiration for captains of business and industry, as well as those devoted to the practice of the martial arts in their modern forms. The history of the sword in Japan goes back to antiquity. Zen and its meditative practices also have a long history, but it was not until the rule of the Tokugawa shoguns, beginning in the early 1600s, that the techniques of swordsmanship fused with the spirit of Zen. And if one man can be said to have been the prime mover in this phenomenon, it was none other than Takuan Soho, confidant and religious instructor to an emperor, to a great sword master, and to the heads of the most important sword schools of the time. Takuan's meditations on the sword in the essays presented here are classics of Zen thinking.


Since she first came to the attention of the art world nearly ten years ago, Kara Walker has become one of the most important artists of her generation. Championed by the art world for her fearless embrace of challenging subject matter, Walker has created a body of work that looks unflinchingly at racial inequality in the United States. Known for her bold images using the traditional silhouette, Walker upends the genteel, Victorian origins of the medium by graphically portraying scenes from the antebellum South to explore the politics of slavery, race, and gender. Inspired by the tragedy that beset the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, Walker has created a volume exploring the interconnectedness of the subject of the sea, race, and poverty by juxtaposing examples of her work and historical works from the 19th century. This unique and important book capitalizes on Walker's deftness at graphic and visceral storytelling, affording the reader a deeply intimate experience of the difficult themes the artist explores.


Few studies have specifically measured and documented the large-scale loading behavior and durability of ventilation stoppings to mining induced movements, particularly from longwalls. Ventilation stoppings are more commonly the concern of ventilation engineers, and ventilation stopping response to ground movement has only been documented in an incidental manner. This paper presents the investigations of underground measurements that have been conducted to determine the loading response of stoppings constructed from lightweight aggregate concrete masonry units (CMU). These investigations have produced some interesting results that may prove beneficial, not only for developing and assessing alternative stopping construction techniques, but also for designing and selecting standard construction methods for use in varying mining conditions. For instance, the interface friction that results from wedging a CMU stopping during construction plays a substantial role in its ability to resist both lateral and vertical loads. Although they are not intended for ground support, the study showed that block stoppings can resist vertical loads of at least 2,700 to 3,000 kN. Asymmetric loading of a stopping may result in localized failure of blocks within a stopping, which, depending on the severity, can be a precursor of impending stopping failure. In addition to measurement results and implications, the paper will also present details of field measurement methods used to assess stopping response. Stopping stiffness and material strength characteristics will also be presented.


This thesis deals with the production of entangled photons using spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC). We start with a short overview of some important theoretical concepts. First we provide a brief reminder of the theory of entanglement. We then discuss how the state of quantum systems can be determined using quantum state tomography. We also explain SPDC, the physical process which we use to produce entangled photons. Finally, we give an overview of the methods which have been used to produce entangled photons in the past, both for twoand three-photon entanglement. The first experiment is the design of an efficient source of entangled photon pairs based on a polarizing Sagnac interferometer configuration. With this configuration, we can use quasi-phasematched materials which allow for higher efficiencies than standard bulk nonlinear materials. The source is pumped by a low-power continuous-wave laser diode, and produces degenerate photon pairs at 809nm. It has a spectral brightness of 87, 500 pairs/s ·mW · nm, and the fidelity of the produced quantum states with a Bell state is 98.9%. The source is used for experiments in quantum key distribution, cluster state quantum computing, remote state preparation, state discrimination, and entanglementenhanced classical communication. The second experiment discussed in this thesis is the generation of photon triplets using cascaded SPDC. In this experiment, a primary SPDC source is pumped with a low-power, continuous-wave laser diode, producing photon pairs. Single photons from these pairs serve as the pump for a second down-conversion, resulting in photon triplets. This is the first demonstration of the direct production of photon triplets, and the first observation of SPDC at the single photon level. This method could potentially be used to produce entangled photon triplets without post-selection, and as a source of triggered Bell pairs.


In this paper, we show a novel sustainable route for the production of sorption materials for carbon capture technologies by utilizing a general plastic waste. By supporting aminated poly(vinyl chloride) on mesoporous silicas, a family of polymer/silica composites was synthesized, characterized and tested gravimetrically for adsorption of CO2 from the 1 : 1 v/v CO2–N2 mixture. The composites show good adsorption capacity for CO2 peaking at 12 cm3 g−1 for ethylenediamine-treated PVC products on SBA-15 support. The adsorption efficiency (CO2 : N ratio) is comparable to those observed for other nanoporous materials, such as amine-grafted mesoporous silicas. Ethylenediamine was found to be the best aminating reagent for PVC as the composite prepared from EDA–PVC gave the highest CO2 adsorption efficiency. Moreover, contact angle measurements suggested a significant improvement in hydrophobicity of the selected composites when they were compared with the unfunctionalized silica supports. This very useful development could make the composites suitable for applications in elevated moisture content environments found in flue vapours of gas-fired power plants.


This paper reports on a study of the implementation of sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) in two Spanish towns (Xativa and Benaguasil) as part of the EU LIFE+ Project AQUAVAL, which has been conceived to introduce examples of sustainable drainage to the Valencia Region of Spain. Six sites in a range of common urban spaces and land uses are selected and appropriate SUDS techniques proposed by means of a decision-support process. This primarily consisted of the systematic application of key selection criteria through matrices and scores, followed by a brief sustainability analysis. Stakeholders' preferences and opinions as well as educational and social opportunities are highly considered throughout the process. General monitoring requirements and major limitations in using the methodology are outlined, stressing the need for improvement of four main aspects: local data regarding SUDS performance, detail of the sustainability analysis, support through comprehensive modelling tools, and level of stakeholder engagement. The importance of creating showcases for SUDS in Mediterranean Regions, thus adapting key selection criteria as to foster sustainable drainage understanding and expertise is highlighted.


Two shallow gas-injection tests were carried out in a minor fault within the Siena Graben, Italy. Helium and carbon dioxide were injected 20 m below the ground surface through an inclined borehole intercepting the fault plane, into a sandy aquifer overlain by a clay formation. The gas-injection pressure was above hydrostatic plus capillary pressure, but below lithostatic pressure. Soil-gas, soil-exhalation flux and groundwater analyses were carried out to monitor gas breakthrough and behaviour. The experiment simulated gas rising naturally up a fault, where most of the geological boundary conditions were known. Despite its very low permeability to groundwater flow, the clay formation did not act as a complete barrier to gas rising via the fault. The gas velocity and migration pattern (namely gas channelling along the fault) were consistent with theoretical models of the migration of gas columns and gas slugs. Gas–water partitioning and the evolution of soil-gas and groundwater anomalies clearly reflected the conservative behaviour of He and the partial dissolution of CO2 into the aquifer. A general model of gas migration and behaviour is suggested which may have implications in natural resource exploration, geological storage of toxic or nuclear waste, and tectonic studies.


There are (at least) four ways that an agent can acquire information concerning the state of the universe: via observation, control, prediction, or via retrodiction, i.e., memory. Each of these four ways of acquiring information seems to rely on a different kind of physical device (resp., an observation device, a control device, etc.). However it turns out that certain mathematical structure is common to those four types of device. Any device that possesses a certain subset of that structure is known as an "inference device" (ID).
Here I review some of the properties of IDs, including their relation with Turing machines, and (more loosely) quantum mechanics. I also review the bounds of the joint abilities of any set of IDs to know facts about the physical universe that contains them. These bounds constrain the possible properties of any universe that contains agents who can acquire information concerning that universe.
I then extend this previous work on IDs, by adding to the definition of IDs some of the other mathematical structure that is common to the four ways of acquiring information about the universe but is not captured in the (minimal) definition of IDs. I discuss these extensions of IDs in the context of epistemic logic (especially possible worlds formalisms like Kripke structures and Aumann structures). In particular, I show that these extensions of IDs are not subject to the problem of logical omniscience that plagues many previously studied forms of epistemic logic.


Solvation dynamics, the process of solvent reorganization upon electronic excitation of a solute, is central to our understanding chemical reactions in liquid phase. Ultrafast optical studies of solvation dynamics have so far been carried out on polyatomic molecules, which have internal degrees of freedom. This property does not allow the unambiguous extraction dynamics of the solvent shell. Because of their atomic character (i.e. lacking internal degrees of freedom) and of their solvent sensitive absorption bands (the so-called CTTS or charge-transfer-to-solvent bands), atomic halides represent ideal systems for the study of electronic solvation dynamics. Although these systems have received detailed attention in femtosecond optical studies, very little has been learned about the response of the caging solvent, which results from the fact that optical tools do not extract structural movement in a direct fashion. In this thesis, we combined ultrafast laser and structure-sensitive X-ray spectroscopies to probe in real-time the formation and decay of a nascent iodine atom created by photodetachment of a valence electron from the parent iodide anion. Optical pump-probe experiments are used to assess the photoproduct concentrations on time scales ranging from femtoseconds to nanoseconds. We also carried out detailed optical studies employing 1- and multiphoton detachment of the valence 5p electron from iodide, and confirmed an ultrafast thermal heating of the entire sample on a ps time scale. Static L1 and L3-edge X-ray absorption spectra of aqueous iodide have been recorded and analysed in terms of simulations based on classical, quantum mechanical molecular mechanics (QMMM) and density functional theory (DFT) molecular dynamics. QMMM yields the solvent shell structure that best fits the EXAFS spectrum. Picosecond X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectra were recorded from 50 ps up to several tens of nanoseconds. They were analyzed with respect to the different photoproducts observed on these time scales, delivering for the first time new spectra for the intermediate reaction products, I0 and I-2. By analyzing the transient extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) data of the iodine atoms, we derived a dramatic expansion of ∼0.6 A of the solvent shell with respect to that of iodide. Femtosecond XANES studies reveal an increase in the binding energies of the 5p and 2s, with respect to those at 50 ps. An increase in the 2s →5 p transition probability is consistent with the increase of the ionization energy of 2s electron of iodine atom at 300 fs, as compared to 50 ps. The 2s →5 p transition probability is found to decrease by ∼1.1 times from 300 fs to 50 ps.


Book synopsis: In his new book, Walker offers a radical reassessment of the German realist novel in the nineteenth century. Especially in the English-speaking world, German narrative realism has persistently been interpreted as the literary expression of an 'ideology of the aesthetic'. The German realist novel is alleged to reflect philosophical idealism: to reject the 'prose' of modern society in favour of the 'poetry' of the inner aesthetic life. This book challenges that received view. Walker argues that German narrative realism should be read not only in relation to, but in crucial respects against, the dominant philosophical idiom of nineteenth century Germany. German narrative realism often functions as a critique of the idea and ideology of inwardness in nineteenth century German culture. To understand this, the author argues, we must reread German realist novels above all as narratives, not as the supposed reflection of philosophical categories. The core of the book is therefore the close reading of eight of the best known realist novels in German by Keller, Raabe and Fontane. This reading shows how the German realist novel, far from transposing the assumptions of aesthetic idealism into narrative form, exposes the real consequences of those assumptions in the culture and society of its time.


The Eurozone crisis and the ensuing public disaffection towards what many view as deficient EU institutions and policies have resulted in a surge of euroscepticism across member states. Although euroscepticism is not a new phenomenon, the rise of mass anti- establishment movements notably in southern Europe is. Despite their different political and structural features, Five Star Movement in Italy, Syriza in Greece and several social movements sprung from the Indignados in Spain have recently become key actors in their national political arena by opposing, inter alia, EU-imposed austerity. Yet these movements are not anti-EU in toto; while they criticize what they view as the EU's lack of democracy and rigid economic policies, they are not opposed to the EU integration project as such. While a fine line distinguishes Euro-scepticism from Euro-criticism, provided such distinction is made, the critique of these movements could be galvanized into a constructive force for a more integrated EU political space.


Walking is the most common form of mobility in humans. For lower limb mobility impairments, a common treatment is to prescribe an ankle-foot orthosis (AFO) or brace, which is a passive device designed to resist undesired ankle-foot motion. Recent advances in actuator technology have led to the development of active AFOs (AAFOs). However, these devices are generally too bulky for everyday use and are limited to applications such as gait training for rehabilitation. The aim of this research was to investigate the feasibility of developing a novel Active Ankle-Foot Stabilizer (AAFS). The design criteria were mainly based on the strengths and limitations of existing AFOs. The sagittal plane functional requirements were determined using simulated gait data for elderly individuals and drop foot patients; however, it is intended that the device would be suitable for a wider range of disabilities including ankle sprains. A model of the foot was introduced to modify the moment of a deficient ankle where young healthy adult kinematics and kinetics were assumed. A moment deficit analysis was performed for different gait periods resulting in an AAFS model with two components: a linear rotational spring to modify the ankle joint rotational stiffness, and a torque source. The frontal plane functional requirements for the AAFS were modeled as a linear rotational spring which responded to particular gait events. A novel Variable Rotational Stiffness Actuator (VSRA) AFO was also investigated. It consisted of an actuated spring medial and lateral to the ankle to control sagittal plane ankle stiffness and a passive leafspring posterior to the ankle to control frontal plane ankle stiffness. Due to high forces and profile limitations, a spring and rotation actuator that satisfied the design criteria could not be developed, resulting in an infeasible design. Considering the high forces and moments required by the AAFS, a pneumatic approach was adopted. A novel Airbeam AFO, which consisted of a shank cuff and a foot plate to which airbeams were attached proximally and distally to the ankle, was examined. The joint rotational stiffness of the ankle would be controlled by the inflation of these individual cylindrical airbeams. To satisfy the functional requirements, the airbeam diameters and pressures were too large to meet the design criteria and were unrealistic for a portable device. Finally, a Pneumatic Sock AFO, which proved to best satisfy the functional requirements within the design criteria, was examined. The design consisted of an inner sock worn on the ankle, surrounded by anterior, posterior, medial, and lateral bladders which inflate against outer fabric shells. Although promising, the Pneumatic Sock AFO requires further investigation in regards to manufacturing and behaviour characterization before a functional prototype can be developed. Mechanical test methods to characterize the behaviour of the Pneumatic Sock AFO in the sagittal and frontal planes were developed including the control components required, the configuration of a test rig, and test procedures.


Monitoring solutes in precipitation inputs and stream water exports at small watersheds has greatly advanced our understanding of biogeochemical cycling. Surprisingly, although inputs to and outputs from ecosystems are instrumental to understanding sources and sinks of nutrients and other elements, uncertainty in these fluxes is rarely reported in ecosystem budgets. We illustrate error propagation in input-output budgets by comparing the net hydrologic flux of Ca in a harvested and reference watershed at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire. We identify sources of uncertainty and use a Monte Carlo approach to combine many sources of uncertainty to produce an estimate of overall uncertainty. Sources of uncertainty in precipitation inputs included in this study were: rain gage efficiency (undercatch or overcatch), gaps in measurements of precipitation volume, selection of a model for interpolating among rain gages, unusable precipitation chemistry, and chemical analysis. Sources of uncertainty in stream water outputs were: stage height-discharge relationship, watershed area, gaps in the stream flow record, chemical analysis, and the selection of a method for flux calculation. The annual net hydrologic flux of Ca in the harvested and reference watersheds was calculated from 1973 through 2009. Relative to the reference watershed, the harvested watershed showed a marked increase in Ca flux after it was cut in 1983-1984, and slowly declined toward pretreatment levels thereafter. In 2009, the last year evaluated, the 95% confidence intervals for the annual estimates approach the 95% confidence intervals of the pretreatment regression line, suggesting that the increased net loss of Ca in the harvested watershed may soon be indistinguishable from the reference. Identifying the greatest sources of uncertainty can be used to guide improvements, for example in reducing instances of unusable precipitation chemistry and gaps in stream runoff. Our results highlight the value of estimating uncertainty in watershed studies, including those in which replication is impractical.


A motor task can be performed via different patterns of muscle activation that show regularities that can be factorized in combinations of a reduced number of muscle groupings (also referred to as motor modules, or muscle synergies). In this study we evaluate whether an acute noxious stimulus induces a change in the way motor modules are combined to generate movement by neck muscles. The neck region was selected as it is a region with potentially high muscular redundancy. We used the motor modules framework to assess the redistribution of muscular activity of 12 muscles (6 per side) in the neck region of 8 healthy individuals engaged in a head and neck aiming task, in non-painful conditions (baseline, isotonic saline injection, post pain) and after the injection of hypertonic saline into the right splenius capitis muscle. The kinematics of the task was similar in the painful and control conditions. A general decrease of activity was noted for the injected muscle during the painful condition together with an increase or decrease of the activity of the other muscles. Subjects did not adopt shared control strategies (motor modules inter subject similarity at baseline 0.73±0.14); the motor modules recorded during the painful condition could not be used to reconstruct the activation patterns of the control conditions, and the painful stimulus triggered a subject-specific redistribution of muscular activation (i.e., in some subjects the activity of a given muscle increased, whereas in other subjects it decreased with pain). Alterations of afferent input (i.e., painful stimulus) influenced motor control at a multi muscular level, but not kinematic output. These findings provide new insights into the motor adaptation to pain.


Welcome to the inaugural issue of Innovations in Global Medical and Health Education. This first issue, with Robert Crone, M.D. as Guest Editor, consists of articles based on presentations at a symposium, "Globalization of Medical Education", organized at the November 12, 2012 annual meeting of the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) in San Francisco. We are indebted to the AAMC and its Global Health Learning Opportunities (GHLO™) program for its vision in hosting this event.  With the arrival of the era of global medical and health education, we anticipate competing arguments from two major schools of thought: those who are in favor of exactly replicating admission policies, curricular standards, and promotion and graduation processes from well-established, parent institutions in the West; and those who argue for maintaining the central objective of producing the highest quality graduates while flexibly using innovations that cater to local needs. We find ourselves leaning toward those espousing the latter point of view. Further, we hope that innovations introduced globally and tested successfully, will increasingly become a part of the mainstream medical and health education in the West. While not bold enough to predict this as yet, we venture to guess that such reciprocal exchange would lead to reduced costs of medical education and even improvement in certain areas at well-established schools. Our philosophy is firmly rooted in our own personal experience in establishing (VD) or running (JIS) medical schools overseas that are producing world-class graduates while introducing innovations that have contributed greatly to their success. However, we are mindful that this process has just begun. Internationally accredited, culturally adapted, postgraduate medical training programs have recently been initiated in Singapore and Qatar. In time, these will lead to certification by internationally recognized bodies, to be followed by appropriate infrastructure preparing practicing physicians for maintenance of certification (MOC). Similar processes would apply broadly to health education outside the narrow domain of medical education. Finally, achieving these objectives will require paradigm shifts, innovations, the use of online and interactive pedagogical methods, globally accepted assessment methodologies and standards, and a much greater emphasis on inter-professional learning and collaborations. In the first article, Drs. Crone and Samaan set the stage by identifying major trends in global medical education and pointing out the workforce challenges for the US healthcare system that such trends portend. They stress the need for standardized assessment and benchmarking of physician competence regardless of where the student is trained and practices. In the second article, Drs. Sheikh, Badr, Kamei, and Arayssi present a case study of three successful adaptations of the standard American model in diverse cultures. Their article makes a strong claim that the graduates of these programs are not only of high quality, but they also will be trail blazers for "One World, One Medicine" in which every person would have access to high quality care and the providers could cross borders freely to practice a consistently high standard of medicine irrespective of location. The third article by Dr. Cassimatis describes how the globalization of medical education is changing the mission of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) that was originally established to assess and certify the quality of international medical graduates (IMGs) for US-based residency education. Now ECFMG is broadening its scope to include support for those individuals searching for training opportunities in other countries and to develop a new system of accreditation for medical schools that reflects changing needs in the field. Dr. Melnick, President and CEO of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), describes the innovations needed to adjust the assessment systems to align their robustness with local needs. These changes would entail developing a more comprehensive assessment of mastery of competencies, using naturalistic data longitudinally to simulate real world patterns of skills and competencies. The article by Dr. Nasca addresses how Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), which currently accredits about 9200 residency education programs in the US, is responding to globalization of medical education by creating ACGME-International (ACGME-I). Finally, Ms. Albee and Dr. Nora provide the context on the founding of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and delineate its mission. They then provide a strong rationale for expanding their efforts internationally and elaborate on ABMS-International's (ABMS-I's) recent efforts in Singapore and how such efforts will contribute to advancement of global standards for medical care. We believe that we are in the beginning phases of a movement that will gain momentum with each passing year. By providing a platform for a healthy debate about the achievements, challenges, and innovations in global medical and health education, this journal intends to be in the vanguard of this paradigmatic shift.


With global demand for energy poised to increase by more than half in the next three decades, the supply of safe, reliable, and reasonably priced gas and oil will continue to be of fundamental importance to modern economies. Central to this supply are the pipelines that transport this energy. And while the fundamental economics of the major pipeline networks are the same, the differences in their ownership, commercial development, and operation can provide insight into the workings of market institutions in various nations. Drawing on a century of the world's experience with gas and oil pipelines, this book illustrates the importance of economics in explaining the evolution of pipeline politics in various countries. It demonstrates that institutional differences influence ownership and regulation, while rents and consumer pricing depend on the size and diversity of existing markets, the depth of regulatory institutions, and the historical structure of the pipeline businesses themselves. The history of pipelines is also rife with social conflict, and Jeff D. Makholm explains how and when institutions in a variety of countries have controlled pipeline behavior - either through economic regulation or government ownership - in the public interest.


SUMMARY Odontamblyopus lacepedii is an eel goby that inhabits both coastal waters and intertidal zones in East Asia, including Japan. The fish excavates burrows in mudflats but, unlike the sympatric amphibious mudskippers, it does not emerge but stays in the burrows filled with hypoxic water during low tide. Endoscopic observations of the field burrows demonstrated that the fish breathed air in the burrow opening; air breathing commenced 1.3 h following burrow emersion, when water PO2 was ∼2.8 kPa, with an air-breathing frequency (fAB) of 7.3±2.9 breaths h–1 (mean ± s.d., N=5). Laboratory experiments revealed that the fish is a facultative air breather. It never breathed air in normoxic water (PO2=20.7 kPa) but started bimodal respiration when water PO2 was reduced to 1.0–3.1 kPa. The fish held air inside the mouth and probably used the gills as gas-exchange surfaces since no rich vascularization occurred in the mouth linings. As is known for other air-breathing fishes, fAB increased with decreasing water PO2. Both buccal gas volume (VB) and inspired volume (VI) were significantly correlated with body mass (Mb). At a given Mb, VI was nearly always equal to VB, implying almost complete buccal gas renewal in every breathing cycle. A temporal reduction in expired volume (VE) was probably due to a low aerial gas exchange ratio (CO2 elimination/O2 uptake). Air breathing appears to have evolved in O. lacepedii as an adaptation to aquatic hypoxia in the burrows. The acquisition of the novel respiratory capacity enables this species to stay in the burrows during low tide and extends the resident time in the mudflat, thereby increasing its chances of tapping the rich resources of the area.


We consider the prospects for detecting solar-like oscillations in the "super-Nyquist" regime of long-cadence (LC) Kepler photometry, i.e., above the associated Nyquist frequency of approximately 283 {\mu}Hz. Targets of interest are cool, evolved subgiants and stars lying at the base of the red-giant branch. These stars would ordinarily be studied using the short-cadence (SC) data, since the associated SC Nyquist frequency lies well above the frequencies of the detectable oscillations. However, the number of available SC target slots is quite limited. This imposes a severe restriction on the size of the ensemble available for SC asteroseismic study.We find that archival Kepler LC data from the nominal Mission may be utilized for asteroseismic studies of targets whose dominant oscillation frequencies lie as high as approximately 500 {\mu}Hz, i.e., about 1.75- times the LC Nyquist frequency. The frequency detection threshold for the shorter-duration science campaigns of the re-purposed Kepler Mission, K2, is lower. The maximum threshold will probably lie somewhere between approximately 400 and 450 {\mu}Hz. The potential to exploit the archival Kepler and K2 LC data in this manner opens the door to increasing significantly the number of subgiant and low-luminosity red-giant targets amenable to asteroseismic analysis, overcoming target limitations imposed by the small number of SC slots.We estimate that around 400 such targets are now available for study in the Kepler LC archive. That number could potentially be a lot higher for K2, since there will be a new target list for each of its campaigns.


Established middleware platforms such as CORBA and DCOM are not flexible enough to meet the needs of emerging distributed applications. This article discusses the architecture of Open ORB 2, a middleware platform based on reflection and component technology. Middleware has emerged as an important architectural component in modern distributed systems largely because it offers a high-level, platform-independent programming model that helps mask distribution problems. Examples of key middleware platforms include DCE, CORBA, DCOM, .NET, and the Java-based series of technologies, including RMI, Jini, and EJBs (for more information on these platforms, see the Middleware Platforms sidebar). Traditionally, developers have deployed such platforms in areas such as banking and finance to overcome heterogeneity and support the integration of legacy systems. More recently, however, developers have applied middleware technologies in a wider range of areas, including safety-critical, embedded, and real-time systems. It is now becoming apparent that middleware technologies cannot respond to such diverse requirements or technical challenges because of the limitations of the black-box philosophy maintained by developers of most existing middleware platforms. In particular, existing middleware platforms offer fixed services to their users; it is typically impossible to view or alter the implementation of these services. Inevitably, the architecture of this platform then represents a compromise design that features, for example, general-purpose protocols and associated management strategies. It is not possible to specialize platforms to meet the needs of more specific target domains. Other researchers in the field have also recognized these problems.1,2 Middleware designers are aware of these problems and have responded with several initiatives. The Object Management Group, focusing on CORBA, introduced a series of platform specifications that includes real-time CORBA and Minimal CORBA. But these specifications are specific solutions for specific domains, not general solutions to this problem. Modern middleware platforms also typically offer more flexibility through mechanisms such as interceptors and configurable protocol stacks. While these are important developments, they do not offer a complete solution to the problem. We believe next generation middleware platforms should be configurable, to meet the needs of a given application domain, dynamically reconfigurable, to enable the platforms to respond to changes in their environment, and evolvable, to meet the needs of changing platform design. Recently, several reflective middleware technologies have emerged in response to such requirements (see the Related Work sidebar). Reflection is a technology that has previously been deployed successfully in the design of languages and operating systems. The key to the approach is to offer a meta-interface supporting the inspection and adaptation of the underlying virtual machine. In the context of middleware, the meta-interface would support operations to discover the internal operation and structure of the middleware platform (such as the deployed protocols and management structures) and to make changes at runtime. The design of such a meta-interface is central to studies of reflection: The interface should be sufficiently general to permit unanticipated changes to the platform but should also be restricted to prevent the integrity of the system from being destroyed. This article presents the design and implementation of Open ORB, a reflective middleware platform developed at Lancaster University. Specifically, we focus on Open ORB 2, a significant redesign that builds on our experience from the first implementation.3 Note that, for simplicity, we generally refer to Open ORB 2 as simply Open ORB in the rest of this article.


A versatile procedure for the low-temperature bonding of silicon and indium-phosphide to silicon is proposed and demonstrated. The procedure relies on the deposition and functionalization of self-assembled, single molecular layers on the surface of one substrate, and the subsequent attachment of the monolayer to the surface of the other substrate with or without its own monolayer coating. The process is applicable to the fabrication of hybrid-silicon, active photonic devices.


1. Introduction Part I. Algebraically Defined Sequences: 2. Sequences 3. Linear feedback shift registers and linear recurrences 4. Feedback with carry shift registers and multiply with carry sequences 5. Algebraic feedback shift registers 6. d-FCSRs 7. Galois mode, linear registers, and related circuits Part II. Pseudo-Random and Pseudo-Noise Sequences: 8. Measures of pseudo-randomness 9. Shift and add sequences 10. M-sequences 11. Related sequences and their correlations 12. Maximal period function field sequences 13. Maximal period FCSR sequences 14. Maximal period d-FCSR sequences Part III. Register Synthesis and Security Measures: 15. Register synthesis and LFSR synthesis 16. FCSR synthesis 17. AFSR synthesis 18. Average and asymptotic behavior of security measures Part IV. Algebraic Background: A. Abstract algebra B. Fields C. Finite local rings and Galois rings D. Algebraic realizations of sequences Bibliography Index.


It is commonly thought that if one is in favor of strong protection for property rights, liberty, and the free market, one must believe in a minimal state that limits "regulation." But if we pay attention to the history of property law, it becomes clear that all these things can only exist with a robust regulatory structure. Libertarian calls for small government fail to recognize that modern property rights came into existence because of laws that prohibited feudalism, slavery, caste status, and discriminatory barriers to entry to the marketplace. Modern statutes go beyond these foundational regulations to protect consumers by establishing minimum standards for market relationships. Property law (including consumer protection laws) functions as a private constitutional structure that shapes the contours of economic and social relationships; it is the infrastructure of democracy. Its core mission is to define the framework for a free and democratic society that treats each person with equal concern and respect. This talk was the Fourth Wolf Family Lecture on the American Law of Real Property delivered April 4, 2011, at the University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law and will be published in Powell on Real Property (Michael Allan Wolf ed., LexisNexis Matthew Bender).


Background: Higher body mass index (BMI) is associated with incident colorectal cancer but not consistently with colorectal cancer survival. Whether weight gain or loss is associated with colorectal cancer survival is largely unknown. Methods: We identified 2,781 patients from Kaiser Permanente Northern California diagnosed with stages I–III colorectal cancer between 2006 and 2011 with weight and height measurements within 3 months of diagnosis and approximately 18 months after diagnosis. We evaluated associations between weight change and colorectal cancer–specific and overall mortality, adjusted for sociodemographics, disease severity, and treatment. Results: After completion of treatment and recovery from stage I–III colorectal cancer, loss of at least 10% of baseline weight was associated with significantly worse colorectal cancer–specific mortality (HR 3.20; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.33–4.39; Ptrend < 0.0001) and overall mortality (HR 3.27; 95% CI, 2.56–4.18; Ptrend < 0.0001). For every 5% loss of baseline weight, there was a 41% increased risk of colorectal cancer–specific mortality (95% CI, 29%–56%). Weight gain was not significantly associated with colorectal cancer–specific mortality (Ptrend = 0.54) or overall mortality (Ptrend = 0.27). The associations were largely unchanged after restricting analyses to exclude patients who died within 6 months and 12 months of the second weight measurement. No significant interactions were demonstrated for weight loss or gain by gender, stage, primary tumor location, or baseline BMI. Conclusions: Weight loss after diagnosis was associated with worse colorectal cancer–specific mortality and overall mortality. Reverse causation does not appear to explain our findings. Impact: Understanding mechanistic underpinnings for the association of weight to worse mortality is important to improving patient outcomes. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 26(1); 30–37. ©2016 AACR. See all the articles in this CEBP Focus section, "The Obesity Paradox in Cancer: Evidence and New Directions."


The hydroboration oxidation of high molecular weight α-olefins (C18-C30+) with sodium malonyloxyborohydride (SMB) to generate the corresponding primary alcohols is described. α-Olefins undergo hydroboration upon treatment with sodium borohydride (NaBH4) and malonic acid, methyl malonic acid, dimethyl malonic acid or ethyl malonic acid, and a straightforward oxidation of these alkyl boranes yields the anti-Markovnikov primary alcohols. Following recrystallization in n-hexane, n-octane, n-decane or ndodecane, the target alcohols were isolated in high purity (>99%). The use of SMB and its derivatives will allow synthesis of larger (C18-C30+) primary alcohols on an industrial scale without the costs and hazards of current methods.


Words cannot adequately convey the human dimension of the devastation wreaked on New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. Thomas Neff's photographs can. As a volunteer in the city in the early days after the flood, this Baton Rouge photographer witnessed first hand the confusion and suffering that was New Orleans - as well as the persistence and strength of those who stuck it out. Neff subsequently spent forty-five days interviewing and photographing the city's holdouts, and his record is a heartbreaking but compelling look at the true impact of the disaster. At a time when New Orleans residents felt isolated and abandoned, Neff provided the ear that many needed. The friendship he extended enabled him to capture remarkable images and to write sensitive commentaries that approach his subjects from a uniquely personal perspective. Here are Antoinette K-Doe assessing the future of her ruined Mother-in-Law Lounge; Juan Parke, who ferried scores of people to safety in his silver canoe; Ashton O'Dwyer defending his property from looters; Ride Hamilton pausing in his work as a freelance medic. These portraits and dozens more tell the story of the storm through many voices - and collectively they tell a story of their own. Other books have documented the wrath of Katrina, but none has captured the human dimension as powerfully as "Holding Out and Hanging On". Through these intimate, intense images, readers will meet people from all walks of life who are exhausted by grief and shock but who are determined to hold on to their culture and their city. Neff's gripping black-and-white images and equally poignant narratives show individuals who are reorganizing their lives, trying to maintain their individuality, and even enriching their souls as they help one another. These are the stories that New Orleans citizens told each other - a view of the disaster not captured by the news cameras - and photographs that show the city as it knows itself. Together, Neff's portraits and stories form a sensitive documentary of survival and stand as a testament to the extraordinary individuals who endured one of the most calamitous disasters of our time.


Recently, the main theme of world is urbanization as well as industrialization as a result, there has been a growing concern about increase in toxic metals contamination i.e. chromium that affect the environment, living organisms and human health. Recently, laboratory and clinical reports about the pathogenesis of the toxicity, carcinogenicity and allergenicity of chromium compounds have been reviewed as a basis for consideration of the mechanisms involved for pathogenecity. Chromium compounds have been proofed as a redox cycling environmental carcinogenic agent that provoke apoptosis as the most important mode of cell death. Defects in apoptosis regulatory mechanisms contribute to carcinogenesis induced by Cr (VI). Activation of apoptosis signaling pathways is tightly linked with the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Exposure to Cr [VI] can result in various point mutations in DNA and to chromosomal fragment, and also the oxidative alteration in proteins. In recent report, we have collected the previous reports and overviewed the cytotoxic as well as genotoxic mechanisms of Cr [III] and Cr [VI]. In conclusion, chromium induced cytotoxicity can be attributed to oxidative stress started from glutathione mediated metal reductive activation and continued by mitochondrial/lysosomal toxic interaction.


According to the grid code requirements, doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG) based wind turbines should remain connected to gird during fault conditions for specific time frame depending voltage sag level. A simple DC chopper is employed in DC-link to protect the DFIG from over-voltage; however it is not capable to keep high transient over-currents in an acceptable level in stator side and rotor side of the DFIG. Therefore, an effective current limiting strategy should be incorporated with the DC chopper to improve fault ride-through (FRT) capability of the DFIG. In this paper, a modified DC-link chopper is proposed to keep both the DC-link voltage and the high current level in stator and rotor sides in a permissible level without incorporating any extra fault current limiting strategy. Unlike the general DC chopper configuration, in the proposed DC chopper, it is not required to cease rotor side converter (RSC) switching and employ high rated current antiparallel diodes. The proposed modified DC chopper is placed between the DC-link capacitor and the RSC. In the proposed switching strategy, three extra semiconductor switches are included, which are trigged to insert DC chopper resistance either in parallel or series connections with the DC-link. To prove effectiveness and robustness of the proposed modified DC-link chopper, symmetrical and asymmetrical faults are applied in a power system containing DFIG based wind turbine modelled in PSCAD/EMTDC software. The results are promising in terms of both limiting the fault current and controlling the DC-link voltage of the DFIG.


The FTO gene has been shown to have a small but robust effect on body mass index (BMI) and to increase the risk for diabetes. Both high BMI and diabetes are vascular risk factors that might play a role in the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and dementia. Thus, our aim was to explore the impact of FTO on AD and dementia risk. Nine years of follow-up data was gathered from the Kungsholmen project, a prospective population-based study on 1,003 persons without dementia. Cox-regression models were used to assess the relative risks of developing AD and dementia (DSM-III-R criteria) according to FTO genotypes (rs9939609), taking into account APOE, physical inactivity, BMI, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Compared to carriers of the FTO TT-genotype, AA-carriers had a higher risk for AD (RR 1.58, 95% CI: 1.11-2.24) and for dementia (RR 1.48, 95% CI: 1.09-2.02) after adjustment for age, gender, education, and APOE genotype. This effect remained after additional adjustment for physical inactivity, BMI, diabetes, and CVD. An interaction between FTO and APOE was found, with increased risk for dementia for those carrying both FTO AA and APOE ϵ4. Importantly, the effect of the AA-genotype on dementia/AD risk seems to act mostly through the interaction with APOE ϵ4. Our findings suggest that the FTO AA-genotype increases the risk for dementia, and in particular AD, independently of physical inactivity, BMI, diabetes, and CVD measured at baseline. Our results are in line with the recently reported association between FTO and reduced brain volume in cognitively healthy subjects.


This thesis focuses on the study, implementation and improvement of a digital Generator Control Unit (GCU) for a high-speed synchronous brushless generator. The control of variable frequency power system, a preferred candidate in More Electric Aircraft (MEA), becomes a big challenge. Compared with conventional analog GCU, digital GCU is a future trend due to the properties such as easy tuning, modification and no aging. Control approaches adopted in the new GCU design is introduced. It has multiloop structure and model-based characteristics. Sensorless rotor position detection was used to finish Park transformation. DSP+FPGA based controller hardware was developed in the lab. A set of hardware was designed to implement the control algorithms. VHDL-based software was developed for FPGA, which is working as a bridge between DSP and peripheral circuits. C-based software was designed to implement control algorithm inside DSP. A testbed system was developed according to the lab capacity of CPES. The complete load transit responses were tested according to the standard ISO1540 and EN8420. Good match between simulation and experiment has been reached. Compared with benchmark controller, great improvement in both steady state and dynamic performance is realized. A feasibility of using digital GCU in the next generation aircraft has been proved preliminarily. However, the challenge of reliability issues in digital system and software still needs further attention.


As Islam does not recognize the separation between sacred and secular matters, it requires all economics activities to be carried out in accordance to shariah. As a result, the need for shariah approved companies (SACs) becomes undeniable. Similar to the Western setting, Islamic CSR disclosure has also become an important issue for SACs. Nevertheless, studies on Islamic CSR disclosure are limited. Most of the prior studies focus on CSR disclosure by Islamic financial institution. They also tend to utilize the concept of CSR disclosure from the West, leading to the need for understanding CSR and its disclosure from an Islamic perspective.

The aim of this study is to investigate Islamic corporate social responsibility disclosure by SACs in Organization Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries. Particularly, it is intended to achieve four specific objectives: firstly, to develop an Islamic CSR disclosure instrument that can measure the level of Islamic CSR disclosure; secondly, to document the content and level of Islamic CSR disclosure in the sample of OIC countries; thirdly, to identify the differences in Islamic CSR disclosure across OIC countries; and fourthly, to determine factors influencing Islamic CSR disclosure level in OIC countries.

This study applied deductive reasoning based on the concept of tawhid and maqasid ashshari'ah as well as current literature on CSR disclosure to develop Islamic CSR disclosure instrument. Then, the instrument was used as a benchmark for documenting the content and level of Islamic CSR disclosure in annual reports of SACs through content analysis. A total of 90 SACs from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan were selected as the sample of the study. Next, qualitative comparison analysis was applied to identify the differences in the content of Islamic CSR disclosure across OIC countries. Additionally, quantitative comparison using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Kruskall Wallis test were also applied to identify whether there was any difference in the level of Islamic CSR disclosure across countries. Lastly, this study performed regression analyses to test six hypotheses formulated based on prior studies and the existing theories. In turn, the findings of the analyses were used to identify the determinants of Islamic CSR disclosure level in the sample of OIC countries.

The empirical investigation observed several findings. Firstly, the results of the content analysis show that SACs in the sample countries disclosed 34% of the benchmark, on average. Employee category was considered as the most disclosed category followed by shareholder, community, environment, customer, government, debtor, supplier and other business partners. Secondly, there were noticeable differences in Islamic CSR disclosure by SACs from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan. In general, Indonesian SACs tended to focus their disclosure on social and environmental issues, whereas Malaysian SACs tended to focus on economical issues. For Pakistani SACs, their disclosure was more religious. Thirdly, the regression analyses found state-ownership, company size, and country variable as significant variables in determining Islamic CSR disclosure. In more specific analyses conducted by category, the results provided evidence for state-ownership, company size, country, profitability, industry sensitivity and media exposure as significant determinants of Islamic CSR disclosure level. All regression models observed in this study can be considered good as the values of adjusted R2 ranged from 37% to 59%.

This study may have contribution for knowledge, methodological, theoretical and practical. In term of knowledge contribution, this study introduces the notion of dual responsibilities, Islamic CSR pyramid and Islamic CSR disclosure instrument. For methodological contribution, this study offers three different measurements to gauge the quality of Islamic CSR disclosure, which are quantitative index, comprehensiveness index, and Islamic index. With regard to the theoretical contribution, this study may provide an opportunity to understand CSR disclosure in a well-defined and different cultural that happens to be driven by religion. Additionally, it provides an initial conclusion that CSR from the West has a potential to bridge Islamic accounting and accounting from the mainstream theory. Lastly, the practical contribution of this study is that it may help Islamic capital market regulator in enhancing the screening process of SACs. Additionally, it may guide manager and business practitioners how to operate their business in accordance to shari'ah if they want to remain acceptable in Islamic countries or Muslim majority countries.


Senna obtusifolia (sicklepod) is an invasive weed of northern Australia, where it significantly impacts agricultural productivity and alters natural ecosystem structure and function. Although currently restricted to northern regions, the potential for S. obtusifolia to spread south is not known. Using the eco-climatic model CLIMEX, this study simulated the potential geographic distribution of S. obtusifolia in Australia under two scenarios. Model parameters for both scenarios were derived from the distribution of S. obtusifolia throughout North and Central America. The first scenario used these base model parameters to predict the distribution of S. obtusifolia in Australia, whilst the second model predicted the distribution of a cold susceptible S. obtusifolia ecotype that is reported to occur in the USA. Both models predicted the potential for an extensive S. obtusifolia distribution, with the first model indicating suitable climatic conditions occurring predominantly in coastal regions from the Northern Territory, to far north Queensland and into northern Victoria. The cold susceptible ecotype displayed a comparatively reduced distribution in the southern parts of Australia, where inappropriate temperatures, a lack of thermal accumulation and cold stress restrict the invasion south to the coastal regions of central New South Wales. The extent of the predicted distribution of both ecotypes of S. obtusifolia reinforces the need for strategic management at a national scale.


Abstract Households in the USA spend about $70 billion annually on pets. Dogs, the most common pet, can be found in nearly half of American households. An important shadow price in the analysis of policies affecting human mortality is the value of statistical life (VSL), which is imputed from how people make decisions involving tradeoffs between small mortality risks and other goods. The value of statistical dog life (VSDL) is also an important, but until now unavailable, shadow price for use in regulation of such goods as pet foods and environmental toxins. Additionally, an estimate of the VSDL would have uses outside the regulatory process in valuing programs involving zooeyia, in setting tort awards for wrongful dog death, and in property divisions in divorce settlements where joint custody of dogs is not feasible. In order to estimate the VSDL, we conducted a contingent valuation of a national sample of dog owners that elicited willingness-to-pay for changes in mortality risk for pet dogs. Specifically, respondents were asked about willingness-to-pay for a vaccine that would reduce the risk of canine influenza. The design included both quantity (different magnitudes of risk reduction from the offered vaccine) and quality (differences in nature of death from the influenza) treatments as scope tests. It also included treatments involving spillover effects to other dogs and a priming question about disposable income. Based on the analysis and consideration of its assumptions, we recommend $10,000 as the VSDL.


Abstract This article discusses the aetiology and evolution of musical structure, specifically the sonata-form exposition, from a memetic perspective. It regards established musical forms as replicated schemata arising from the conglomeration of foreground-level memes, the resultant archetypes (structural memes or Memesätze) being replicated (reinstantiated) by different collections of functionally analogous (allelic) memes. After a discussion of the theoretical background — including the top-down/bottom-up generative dichotomy as it applies to form, and some attributes of memes affecting conglomeration — three sonata expositions, by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, are discussed as specific evidence in support of the general hypotheses advanced.


OBJECTIVE--To determine whether interferon alpha-2a, when utilised as adjuvant chemotherapy following ablation of condylomata acuminata (genital warts) by cryotherapy, is effective in the prevention of recurrences. DESIGN--Randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind study. Statistical analysis was by 2-tailed Fisher's Exact Test. PATIENTS--97 patients with recurrent condylomata acuminata. INTERVENTION--49 patients were treated with cryotherapy plus subcutaneously administered interferon alpha-2a, and 48 received cryotherapy plus placebo. Of these, 36 and 37 patients, respectively, completed the study and were evaluable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE--Clinical eradication of condylomata for six months following adjuvant chemotherapy. RESULTS--By completion of the adjuvant chemotherapy, 10 (28%) interferon recipients and 16 (43%) placebo recipients experienced recurrences. At six months follow-up, 25 (69%) interferon and 27 (73%) placebo recipients experienced recurrences. In the six months following interferon therapy, only 31% of interferon and 27% of placebo recipients remained free of recurrences (p = 0.99). CONCLUSIONS--Interferon alpha-2a administered subcutaneously offers no benefit as a chemotherapeutic adjuvant to cryotherapy when used alone in the therapy of genital warts in this population of patients with recurrent condylomata.


The aim of this study was to examine the meaning constructed in BDSM sexuality, a sexuality predominantly composed of dominance and submission, and also to relate these findings to existing theory. A semi-structured interview guide was constructed. Then seven interviews were conducted with individuals self-identified as sexually submissive and/or
dominant. The interviews were interpreted with IPA (Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis). The interpretation resulted in six different themes: individual sexual development, BDSM and normative society, the subculture, to define and accept ones sexuality and identity, sexual practice and core meaning. The results indicate that the subculture and
relation to society at large is important for self-esteem and sexual identity. The core meaning revolves around giving up and receiving control and agency and also around the illusion of coercion. These meanings exist in a space between reality and fantasy. These findings
corroborate to a high degree with existent theory on the subject. "Sadomasochism" has until recently been a psychiatric diagnosis in the Swedish version of ICD-10.


Climate change is expected to exacerbate the already serious challenges to food security and economic development; especially on the African continent where people are already struggling to meet challenges posed by existing climatic variability. Change in temperature caused by climate change is considered the most important abiotic factor affecting the future distribution and abundance of pests. Early predictions of pest risks could help to adapt to climate change by developing and supporting farmers with adequate pest management strategies. The relationship between insect development and temperature is best described by process-based phenology models. The ILCYM software, an open-source computer-aided tool developed by CIP, supports the development of pest phenology models that can be used through simulations for estimating life table parameters (e.g., net reproduction rate). In its GIS component, it estimates three risk indices (establishment (EI), generation (GI) and activity index (AI)) to map and quantify changes on global and regional scales using either actual (WorldClim database) or future temperature data (downscaled data of scenario A1B). Higher spatial (pixel size of 90 m) and temporal resolution (daily data) analysis for capturing insect potential distribution and abundance on small regional scales and variable altitude gradient can also be conducted. In a collaborative effort between CG-Centers (CIP, IITA) and its partners (icipe) the effects of temperature change are assessed on a wide range of insect pests (e.g., cassava mealybug, maize stem borers, potato tuber moths) of important food crops. Preliminary results will be presented; the applied methodology is proposed as a very helpful tool for adaptation planning in integrated pest management.


─ In pathological conditions such as Diabetes Mellitus (DM), increased oxidative stress can cause a decrease in endogenous activity in the body so the body is unable to detoxify free radicals that cause cell damage. Some of natural antioxidant sources are moringa leaves (Moringa oleifera Lamk.) and clove flowers (Syzygium aromaticum Merry & Perril). The purpose of this study was to determine the enzyme activity of Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) and Glutathione Peroxidase (GPx) in a mixture composing of ethanol extract of moringa leaf and clove flower towards animals with DM conditions. This research is an experimental laboratory study using a post test only group design. The subjects of this study were 40 white male Wistar rats (Rattus norvegicus) strain which were DM conditioned by streptozotocin induction. Rats were randomly grouped into 8 groups, and each group consisted of 5 rats. The combined dosage of the ethanol extract of moringa leaves and clove flowers used is a combination I : 150: 40 mg / kg body weight rat, combination II 100: 80 mg / kg body weight rat and III 50: 120 mg / kg body weight rat. The results showed that the combination of ethanol extract of moringa leaves (Moringa oleifera L. and clove flower (Syzygium aromaticum Merry & Perril) increased the antioxidant enzyme activity of SOD and GPx in animals with DM conditions. Keywords─ Moringa leaves (Moringa oleifera Lamk.), clove flowers (Syzygium aromaticum Merry & Perril), SOD, GPx, Diabetes mellitus.


This paper explores the process of digital materialization through robotic fabrication techniques by presenting three wooden projects. The analysis of the case studies is oriented to underline the impact that computation had on architectural construction due to its methodological and instrumental innovations over the last decades. The absorption of computing and digital fabrication logics within the discipline is explored from either an architectural point of view and from the improvements related to automation of the constructive process. On the one hand the case studies are caught because of the desire to expand material complexity and, on the other hand because of the integration with other technological systems. The narrative allows gathering pros and cons in three different investigative macro areas: material culture, methodological oversights, and operative setbacks coming from digital machine and communicational constraints. This analytical investigation helps the definition of a new pathway for future researches, looking forward the assimilation of digital materiality learning in building construction.


Much has been written about the importance of engaging students in the learning process. However, studies have shown that students today spend significantly less time on their studies than their forebears. Given the limitations of the existing body of knowledge, this study reviews what is currently known about full-time college students' time use and its consequences in terms of exam performance and skill acquisition. In particular, the results of our initial investigation suggest the ubiquity of today's technologies, especially the Internet, has significant and frequently overlooked consequences for student engagement in general and for their consumption of content for learning in particular. Further, future studies are needed to unravel the complex relationship that exists between learning technologies, students' time use and their academic performance. The paper concludes by highlighting a number of possible avenues for future research in this area.


Fusarium moniliforme, the imperfect stage of the ascomycete Gibberella fujikuroi, is an economically important pathogen with a very wide host range. The genetic characteristics of isolates of the fungus collected from different regions of Ghana from maize, rice and sorghum were determined using the random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) techniques. The pathogenicity of the isolates was also compared on maize and rice. DNA fingerprints detected as RFLPs of ribosomal DNA and RAPDs separated the isolates into discrete groups which were generally host-related. The possibility of a sub-structuring of the maize population of the fungus into tissue-related subgroups was suggested by the results. A dendrogram of the relatedness of the isolates is presented. However, the pathogenicity of the isolates on rice, measured by their ability to cause 'bakanae' symptoms, did not resolve the isolates into the clearly defined groups suggested by the genetic studies, and maize isolates of the fungus could cause 'bakanae' symptoms to the same extent as rice isolates. Similarly, some isolates identified as rice-type isolates caused as much shoot stunting in maize as maize isolates. However, the effects of the isolates on root growth of maize seedlings showed a broad correlation with the defined genetic groups, with maize isolates of the fungus showing the greatest tendency to cause root stunting


Objective: To describe the clinical, neuroimaging, immunologic, and virologic characteristics of JC virus–associated granule cell neuronopathy (JCV GCN) in a natalizumab-treated patient with multiple sclerosis (MS) who developed immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS) after natalizumab withdrawal. Methods: We obtained longitudinal clinical data as well as MRI and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy from this patient with MS. We measured JCV-specific cellular immune response in his peripheral blood by intracellular cytokine staining and sequenced a fragment of JCV VP1 capsid gene detected in his CSF. We contrast our findings with the first recently reported case. Results: This patient presented with worsening cerebellar symptoms and progressive cerebellar atrophy without new MS lesions on MRI after 63 months of natalizumab monotherapy. JCV DNA was detected in his CSF by PCR and harbored novel GCN-type mutations in the VP1 gene. He developed IRIS upon discontinuation of natalizumab and plasma exchange, which manifested itself by a worsening of clinical symptoms and contrast enhancement in the cerebellum on MRI. Treatment with corticosteroids resulted in resolution of IRIS, as demonstrated by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The patient had a strong JCV-specific T-cell response in his peripheral blood and remains alive after 15 months from onset of symptoms, although with significant disability. He did not have MS relapse on glatiramer acetate. Conclusions: JCV GCN should be considered in patients on natalizumab presenting with progressive cerebellar symptoms and cerebellar atrophy, and is associated with mutations in the JCV VP1 gene. Natalizumab withdrawal may be complicated by JCV GCN IRIS, and require treatment with corticosteroids.


Query optimizers of current relational database systems use several statistics maintained by the system on the contents of the database to decide on the most efficient access plan for a given query. These statistics contain errors that transitively affect many estimates derived by the optimizer. We present a formal framework based on which the principles of this error propagation can be studied. Within this framework, we obtain several analytic results on how the error propagates in general, as well as in the extreme and average cases. We also provide results on guarantees that the database system can make based on the statistics that it maintains. Finally, we discuss some promising approaches to controlling the error propagation and derive several interesting properties of them.


We study the round complexity of minimizing the average of convex functions under a new setting of distributed optimization where each machine can receive two subsets of functions. The first subset is from a random partition and the second subset is randomly sampled with replacement. Under this setting, we define a broad class of distributed algorithms whose local computation can utilize both subsets and design a distributed stochastic variance reduced gradient method belonging to in this class. When the condition number of the problem is small, our method achieves the optimal parallel runtime, amount of communication and rounds of communication among all distributed first-order methods up to constant factors. When the condition number is relatively large, a lower bound is provided for the number of rounds of communication needed by any algorithm in this class. Then, we present an accelerated version of our method whose the rounds of communication matches the lower bound up to logarithmic terms, which establishes that this accelerated algorithm has the lowest round complexity among all algorithms in our class under this new setting.


The correlation of Earth's orbital parameters with climatic variations has been used to generate astronomically calibrated geologic time scales of high accuracy. However, because of the chaotic behavior of the solar system, two initially close calculations of Earth's orbit diverge exponentially and have a large uncertainty beyond several million years in the past. This chaotic behavior is related to a combination of angles in the precession motion of the orbits of Earth and Mars, ?, which currently is in resonance. How long ? stays in libration critically depends on the dynamical model and initial conditions for the solar system. Here we show that geologic data can differentiate between astronomical solutions that do and do not exhibit a transition in ? since 40 Ma and that sediments can thus provide a history for the evolution of ?. We find that the chaotic transition of ? from libration to circulation did not occur after ca. 30 Ma. We can thus constrain the chaotic diffusion of the solar system in the past, and our results provide new and challenging constraints for astronomical models.


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Droplet microfluidic-based cell screening has the potential to surpass time- and cost efficiency of established screening platforms by several orders of magnitude, but so far lacks sufficient and homogeneous oxygen supply for large droplet numbers (>106), which is a key parameter affecting metabolism and growth of encapsulated cells. Here, we describe and validate an approach based on continuous carrier oil recirculation that ensures enhanced and homogeneous oxygen availability during mid and long-term incubation of picoliter droplets retained in a 3D-printed storage device. Using biotechnologically relevant microorganisms, we demonstrate that improved oxygen transfer results in three to eleven-fold increased biomass and highly elevated protein production with minimal inter-droplet variation. In fact, obtained yields are comparable to those achieved in conventional cultivation devices, so that screening strategies commonly applied in microtiter plates or shaking flasks can now be scaled down to pL-droplets, which offer highly enhanced throughput. In contrast to mere single-cell screening, this approach allows monoclonal cell and metabolite accumulation inside droplets resulting in elevated read-out signals and reduced variability associated to stochasticity in gene expression. Additionally, the range of screening strategies is broadened, since screening for increased biomass yields or mining for microbial natural products from complex environmental samples can now be targeted with pL-droplets. This development substantially improves the robustness and versatility of droplet-based cell assays, further consolidating pL-droplets as a powerful ultrahigh-throughput experimentation platform.


Abstract Background South African research indicates that the highest death rates between 2004 and 2005 were from diabetes mellitus. There is minimal research information on interactions between what patients know about their disease and what health professionals perceive that patients should know to control their disease well. Objectives This study determined the knowledge that patients with type 2 diabetes have about the management of their disease, as well as the perceptions of the health care team about the services given to patients. Method Qualitative data were collected using two focus groups and in-depth interviews. Patient focus group (n = 10) explored patients' knowledge about management of type 2 diabetes. Patients were recruited from Dr George Mukhari Hospital outpatients' diabetes clinic. Professional focus group (n = 8) explored the health care team's experiences, barriers and facilitators in managing the disease. Professional focus group participants were recruited because of their expertise in chronic disease management, working in the community (public health) or working directly with patients with type 2 diabetes. Five health care professionals were interviewed using the same guide of questions as for the focus group. Results Participants identified type 2 diabetes as a chronic disease that needs behaviour change for good control. Five major themes were identified: patients' knowledge; education programmes; behaviour change; support; and a patient-centred approach. Conclusion Management of type 2 diabetes may be enhanced by reinforcing patients' knowledge, encouraging behaviour change whilst taking into consideration patients' backgrounds. The health care team needs to utilise a patient-centred approach.


This paper reports the follow-up at age 15 of a group of children who were diagnosed at age 5 as having delayed motor development. The group of children who were clumsy and the control group still differed in motor performance 10 years later: 46% of the members of the early motor delay group were classified as different from the control group on motor and perceptual tasks. The remainder made up an intermediate group that could not be clearly distinguished from the other groups. Adolescents with stable motor problems had fewer social hobbies and pastimes and had lower academic ambitions for their future than the controls, although the lower academic ambitions also reflect their lower academic achievements. The adolescents who were clumsy believed they were less physically and scholastically competent than the controls. However, they did not have poor opinions of their social acceptance or self-worth. The intermediate group, although they showed motor delay at age 5, had good school performance and high amb...


But now we have found that the soul is immortal; and so her only refuge and salvation from evil is to become as perfect and wise as possible. For she takes nothing with her to the other world but her education and culture; and these, it is said, are of the greatest service or the greatest injury to the dead man, at the very beginning of his journey thither. PLATO, Phaedo The universe, created in and by the eternal Word, the "image of the invisible God," is destined for and addressed to man, himself created in the "image of God" and called to a personal relationship with God. CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH WHAT MIGHT HISTORY LOOK LIKE if it were practiced and taught from a Catholic worldview? Is this even a legitimate question? Certainly there is at least some justification for raising it; after all, Catholicism makes claims about the why, how, and what of the world and the people who inhabit it (i.e., ontological claims), and it has much to say about the value of all these things and people (i.e., axiological claims). What strangely superfluous claims these would be, if they made no difference in how one understands the world of human action. Conversely, might not one's account suffer if, for one reason or another, one felt pressured or obliged to bracket ontological and axiological claims that have the potential to illuminate one's understanding of human action? And so, it would seem that there are reasonable grounds for the endeavor. All the same, the question is frustratingly elusive, threatening to evaporate the moment one touches it. To bring a religious point of view to bear upon the study of history cuts across the grain of received academic wisdom. It is simply a matter of common sense that the pursuit of truth must be unencumbered by personal commitments, value judgments, religious bias, and so on. So deeply engrained is this methodological common sense in the discipline of history--a common sense that history shares with the social and natural sciences in general--that any attempt to approach an academic discipline from a Catholic worldview is likely to sound a bit silly and Bible-schoolish, perhaps even heretical, not only to secular academics, but to many Catholic academics as well. One cannot simply ignore this and swim against the current. Without first understanding the way in which this common sense operates, practicing an intellectual discipline with full and open Catholic intentionality is likely to run aground rather quickly or perhaps never even make it out of port. Therefore, the goal of this article will be relatively circumscribed and propaedeutic in nature. (1) My central argument is that the common sense that seems to preclude, or at least marginalize religious insight in the practice and teaching of history and other academic disciplines is itself the manifestation of a worldview, a "way of seeing," characterized especially by naturalism. It is all too common to adopt what Hans-Georg Gadamer calls the Enlightenment "prejudice against prejudice," and mistake this naturalistic worldview as if it were the view of a "neutral" observer, or some democratically chosen common denominator among all views. (2) Such is the blindness to which the world of education has long been prone. As will become clear in the course of this article, I think this pervasive masking of a naturalistic worldview as either a "scientific" or "democratic" method is a source of the deep and widespread confusion in the world of Catholic education. (3) Therefore, what follows is the beginning of a critical project, the goal of which is to clear and prepare a space for Catholic seeing in the practice and teaching of academic disciplines such as history. This project hinges upon coming to a critical awareness of worldview as a hermeneutic problem. How the Problem Manifests Itself: Everywhere I go, I see you ONE EVENING AT DINNER ... Some time ago, at a conference in which the question of religion and history seemed to knock persistently on the door, I witnessed a dinner conversation as fascinating as it was puzzling. …


We show that, in the high wave-vector-mismatch (cascading) limit, the well-known paraxial description of parametric frequency conversion in quadratic media entails effective lensing effects, which can have a self-focusing or a self-defocusing nature, critically depending on the mismatch sign, the selected wave, and the launching condition (second-harmonic generation or downconversion). Numerical and experimental evidence of this behavior is reported.


INTRODUCTION Capital budgeting decisions are among the most important decisions facing business entities. An important aspect of the capital budgeting process is the relationship and impact of post completion audits (PCAs) on the capital budgeting decision process. Feedback environment is an inherent aspect of a PCA. Behavioral researchers have conducted no studies we are aware of on the effect of feedback environment, as incorporated in PCAs, on capital budgeting decisions. The use of PCAs in practice is controversial since they can have both beneficial and deleterious effects on decision makers (Neale, 1993). This is not surprising since the use of different feedback environments, in general, can be either beneficial or deleterious. (Kluger and DeNisi, 1996) The effect of PCAs on the decision maker could depend on the type of feedback environment that exists for the decision maker. We can apply the concept of accountability to the capital expenditure decision process. Unlike a PCA, which is an external monitoring source, accountability is a psychological concept influencing an individual's behavior. Simonson and Nye (1992) state that if decision makers perceive they know the desired preferences of someone to whom they are accountable, they will make a decision that is consistent with their perception. Birnberg and Heiman-Hoffman (1993) suggest the need to address accountability explicitly when managers make decisions "where the ability to ascertain the outcomes is limited" (p.57). Birnberg and Heiman-Hoffman (1993, p. 51) cite Ouchi (1979) to show that accountability is a means by which other organizational members are made aware of an individual's performance, in the real world, to enforce or reinforce organizational values. Accountability research affords an opportunity to see how "various control mechanisms are currently balanced in the natural environment." (Birnberg and Heiman-Hoffman (1993), p. 59) As Birnberg and Heiman-Hoffman (1993) recommend, this paper examines the impact of multidimensional control mechanisms on decision-maker behavior. McDaniel (1990) suggests the necessity to examine the interactive effects of control mechanisms as well. The use of PCAs is an exogenous process control mechanism to the individual proposing a capital budgeting project, and accountability is an endogenous psychological control mechanism. Therefore, both the use of PCAs and the presence of accountability can independently or interactively influence how capital budgeting decisions are made. Our research questions concern how PCAs and accountability, alone or interactively, affect capital budgeting decision makers and their decisions. The next section of this paper contains a discussion of post-completion audits, accountability and development of our hypotheses. We present the experimental design and procedures in section three followed by the results and conclusions in section four. THEORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF HYPOTHESES Post-Completion Audits The capital budgeting decision is one part of the capital budgeting process. Haka (2006) provides a comprehensive review of the capital budgeting and investment appraisal literature. Horngren, Datar, and Foster (2006) list six stages in the process. The stages are identification, search, information acquisition, selection, financing, and implementation and control. The PCA is part of the implementation and control stage and is included to decrease the likelihood that a firm will "fund and forget." Soares, Coutinho, and Martins (2007) state that we do not know enough about the benefits of the post audit because: (1) firms protect the confidentiality of their practices and (2) the practices, where investigated, tend to be deficient. For these reasons, they see the area of post completion audits as a fruitful area for research. We can loosely group the literature on PCAs into three categories. The first category is surveys on the extent of usage of PCAs such as Scapens and Sale (1981), Neale and Buckley (1992), and Klammer, Wilner, and Smolarski (KWS) (2002). …


A key challenge facing humanity in the coming decades will be ensuring food supply to a growing human population without compromising the sustainability of many agro-ecosystems worldwide. Although agricultural soils remain firmly at the foundation of human life-support systems, human domination of terrestrial ecosystems over the last century has greatly affected their long-term sustainability as well as reducing soil biological diversity. This has mainly occurred through widespread land-use changes and through the chronic deposition of biologically available nutrients, such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P). Here I argue that a better understanding of the ecological role of symbiotic N-fixers could help in developing more sustainable multifunctional agro-ecosystems. N-fixers are beneficial for the delivery of multiple ecosystem services such as greater primary productivity (i.e. increased crop yields), increased soil carbon (C) and N sequestration, and higher soil biological diversity. Understanding the ecological mechanisms responsible for the provision of these ecosystem services may also be critical for reducing the global-warming potential of many agricultural practices worldwide.


Developments over the last twenty years have fueled considerable speculation about the future of the book and of reading itself. This book begins with a brief historical overview the history of electronic books, including the social and technical forces that have shaped their development. The focus then shifts to reading and how we interact with what we read: basic issues such as legibility, annotation, and navigation are examined as aspects of reading that eBooks inherit from their print legacy. Because reading is fundamentally communicative, I also take a closer look at the sociality of reading: how we read in a group and how we share what we read. Studies of reading and eBook use are integrated throughout the book, but Chapter 5 "goes meta" to explore how a researcher might go about designing his or her own reading-related studies. No book about eBooks is complete without an explicit discussion of content preparation, i.e., how the electronic book is written. Hence, Chapter 6 delves into the underlying representation of eBooks and efforts to create and apply markup standards to them. This chapter also examines how print genres have made the journey to digital and how some emerging digital genres might be realized as eBooks. Finally, Chapter 7 discusses some beyond-the-book functionality: how can eBook platforms be transformed into portable personal libraries? In the end, my hope is that by the time the reader reaches the end of this book, he or she will feel equipped to perform the next set of studies, write the next set of articles, invent new eBook functionality, or simply engage in a heated argument with the stranger in seat 17C about the future of reading. Table of Contents: Preface / Figure Credits / Introduction / Reading / Interaction / Reading as a Social Activity / Studying Reading / Beyond the Book / References / Author Biography