Together with the arrival of the information age and knowledge economy, still industrial infrastructure and related capabilities and skills for different communities is important. To achieve this objective, the strengthening and development of professional training seem necessary. This paper aimed to study the causes and motives for attending technical college and professional employing descriptive research design. The population was students of the Ayatollah Hassanzadeh Amoli Vocational- Technical Training Institute which of them a sample of 148 students have been selected using single stage clustering methodology. Data collected by questionnaire. Results showed that from the view point of students, potential employment, short-term training and technical school, society attitude have the less impact on students' enrollment. In contrast, the effect of factors such as the possibility of higher education, income, employment opportunities and families' encouragement was high. Based on demographic and contextual variables, there was significant difference among students' attitudes on seven studied factors.


This paper finds that investors learn from their experience with corporate fraud and financial misconduct and modify their investment behavior to avoid suspicious firms and increase corporate governance efforts. More specifically, mutual funds that experienced corporate fraud at one of their portfolio firms subsequently chose firms with lower probabilities of fraud and financial misconduct, compared to otherwise similar funds that did not experience any corporate malfeasance incidents. Furthermore, mutual funds that experienced corporate fraud intensify their corporate governance activities and vote significantly more against management at other firms in their portfolios, compared to the voting behavior at the same firms by otherwise similar funds but that did not experience any fraud, especially on issues related to director election, audit, and financial statement. I find that fraud-experienced investors are significantly less likely to vote for problematic directors. Finally, I find that firms held by more fraud-experienced investors observe a significant drop in the propensity to get an accounting fraud sanction in subsequent years. Taken together, my results show that learning and experience play a critical role in corporate governance spillovers, fraud detection, and deterrence.


The work reported in this thesis can be broken down into three main areas. The first describes the synthesis of a series of β-substituted thiophenes bearing long, lipophilic chains (either ether, polyether or amido in nature). Cyclic voltammetry studies on the monomers revealed their oxidation potential but did not prove to be a successful method of electropolymerisation. This was achieved using constant current electrolysis and further studies involving FTIR, ESCA and SEM were carried out on the most highly conducting polymer. This polymer was also solution processible in its conducting form. The second area also describes the synthesis of a series of β-substituted thiophenes, but this time the pendant side group consists of bulky phenoxy moieties (liquid crystals, phenol ethers and aminophenol ethers). In this case the cyclic voltammetry studies carried out did appear to provide a successful means of generating polymers. Finally, the synthesis of a series of β-substituted thiophenes bearing pendant macrocyclic substituents (an N-0-5 cycle, an oxo-cyclam and a 14-0-4 cycle) are described. Their cyclic voltammetry behaviour is reported in detail and the results of experiments to determine metal ion selectivity is also described, in the case of the 14-0-4 cycle.


This article examines the role networking has played, at local and national levels, in facilitating communication between key actors involved in challenging the marginalisation of disabled people from education and from wider Bangladeshi society. Efforts to promote awareness of the importance of including disabled children in their local schools have gained ground at national level through a complex web of networking relationships, including government departments concerned with education and social welfare, disability-focused NGOs and mainstream development agencies and networks. The article explores the experience of blind people, (in their role as members of self-help groups linked to Community-Based Rehabilitation programmes in rural areas) in supporting disabled children to access their local school, and in ensuring their safety. Some evidence is provided for the role of networking in challenging marginalising policies, in accessing services (including financial benefits), and in resisting marginalisation. In considering this evidence, the authors debate the different forms and meanings of networking in societies which prioritise collectivity and interdependence, rather than individualism.


Misalignment in turbomachinery is commonly thought to produce two-times running-speed (2N) response. The source of 2N vibration response was investigated, starting with the development of finite-element models for three flexible disk-pack couplings (four-bolt, six-bolt, and eight-bolt couplings). Parallel and angular misalignments were analyzed. The resultant lateral stiffness terms had 1N, 2N, and 3N harmonic components versus the shaft rotation angle. The four-bolt coupling had large 1N stiffness components under angular and parallel misalignment. The six-bolt coupling had only a 1N reaction component under angular misalignment, while parallel misalignment showed a strong 2N reaction component, larger than either the 1N or 3N components. Under angular misalignment, the eight-bolt model produced large 1N reaction components. Under parallel misalignment, it produced 1N, 2N, and 3N components that were similar in magnitude. All the couplings behaved linearly in the range studied. Some experts attribute observed 2N response to nonlinear bearing forces produced by bearings at high unit loads. Static tests for a five-pad tilting-pad journal bearing with unit loads up to 34.5 bars produced small 2N motion components that did not grow with increasing unit load. A Jeffcott-rotor model with shaft stiffness orthotropy and a fixed-direction side load predicts that 2N response depends on three related factors: (1) the degree of orthotropy (the 1N stiffness variation magnitude), (2) the magnitude of the side load, and (3) the relative ratio of running speed to rotor first natural frequency, (ω/ωn). The 2N response magnitude is largest when ω is close to ωn/2. The side load is required to create 2N response due to shaft stiffness orthotropy. Misaligned couplings create precisely the same (very old) physical model as a two-pole turbogenerator rotor with a gravity side load (gravity critical speed). The response of a two-rotor/coupling system with parallel and angular misalignment was simulated using a time-transient code. When the frequency ratio was 0.5, the system response with the four-bolt and six-bolt coupling had a synchronous 1N component as well as a significant 2N component. Parallel misalignment at a coupling produces stiffness orthotropy and a fixed-direction side load. For ranges of running speed near ωn/2, these two elements can combine to produce 2N response.


Chapter I:
Mitochondrial transcript maturation in African trypanosomes requires an RNA editing reaction that is characterized by the insertion and deletion of U-nucleotides into otherwise non-functional mRNAs. The reaction is catalyzed by editosomes and requires guide (g)RNAs as templates. Recent data demonstrate that the binding of pre-edited mRNAs to editosomes is followed by a chaperone-type RNA remodeling reaction. Here we map the changes in RNA folding using selective 2'-hydroxyl acylation analyzed by primer extension (SHAPE). We demonstrate that pre-mRNAs in their free state adopt intricately folded, highly stable 2D-structures. Editosome binding renders the pre-mRNAs to adopt 2D-conformations of reduced stabilities. On average about 30% of the nucleotides in every pre-mRNA are affected with a prevalence for U-nucleotides. The data demonstrate that the chaperone activity acts by increasing the flexibility of U-residues to lower their base-pairing probability. This results in a simplified RNA folding landscape with a reduced energy barrier to facilitate the binding of gRNAs. The data provide a first rational for the enigmatic U−specificity of the editing reaction.

Chapter II:
Mitochondrial transcript maturation in African trypanosomes requires a U-nucleotide specific RNA editing reaction. In its most extreme form hundreds of U's are inserted into and deleted from primary transcripts to generate functional mRNAs. Unfortunately, the evolutionary origin and the biological necessity of the process have remained enigmatic. Here we report a so far unrecognized structural feature of pre-edited mRNAs, which suggests a defined evolutionary origin. We demonstrate that the cryptic pre-mRNAs contain numerous clustered G-nt, which fold into G-quadruplex (GQ) structures. We identified 27 GQ's in the different pre-mRNAs and demonstrate a positive correlation between the steady state abundance of guide (g)RNAs and the sequence position of GQ elements. We postulate that the driving force for selecting G-rich sequences lies in the formation of DNA/RNA hybrid G-quadruplex (HQ) structures between the pre-edited transcripts and the non-template strands of mitochondrial DNA. HQ's are transcription termination and replication initiation sites and thus guarantee an unperturbed replication of the mt-genome. This is essential for maintaining the life cycle of the parasite. In the transcription-on state, the identified GQ's require editing as a GQ-resolving activity suggesting that the two processes coevolved and identifying the cell- and life-cycle of the parasite as evolutionary forces.

Chapter III:
Mitochondrial transcript maturation in African trypanosomes requires an RNA editing reaction in which non-functional pre-mRNAs are converted into translatable mRNAs. While the reaction is characterized by the site-specific insertion and deletion of exclusively U-nucleotides, some transcripts are edited through the insertion of hundreds of U's, showcasing the cryptic nature of the various pre-mRNAs. In addition to the lack of nucleotide information, the different RNAs are further characterized by an unusual high G-content and as a consequence the formation of thermodynamically highly stable 2D-structures in the majority of cases even involving multiple G-quadruplex (GQ)-folds. Unfortunately, it is not clear whether these structures resemble the in vivo folds of the different RNAs given the extreme volume exclusion i.e. "crowding" conditions within the trypanosome mitochondrion. Here we analyze the effect(s) of volume exclusion on the structure of the mitochondrial RPS12 pre-mRNA. We use polyethylene glycol (PEG)4000 as a neutral macromolecular cosolute to mimick intra-mitochondrial solvent conditions and we monitor the structure of the RNA on a global scale and with nucleotide resolution. We demonstrate that macromolecular crowding has no impact on the 2D-fold of the RPS12 pre-mRNA and we conclude that the determined minimal free energy (MFE)-structure in dilute solvent conditions represent a good proxy for the folding of the RPS12 pre-mRNA within its mitochondrial solvent context.

Chapter IV:
African trypanosomes cause a parasitic disease known as sleeping sickness. Mitochondrial transcript maturation in these organisms requires a RNA editing reaction that is characterized by the insertion and deletion of U-nucleotides into otherwise non-functional mRNAs. Editing represents an ideal target for a parasite-specific therapeutic intervention since the reaction cycle is absent in the infected host. In addition, editing relies on a macromolecular protein complex, the editosome, that only exists in the parasite. Therefore, all attempts to search for editing interfering compounds have been focused on molecules that bind to proteins of the editing machinery. However, in analogy to other RNA-driven biochemical pathways it should be possible to stall the reaction by targeting its substrate RNAs. Here we demonstrate inhibition of editing by specific aminoglycosides. The molecules bind into the major groove of the gRNA/pre-mRNA editing substrates thereby causing a stabilization of the RNA molecules through charge compensation and an increase in stacking. The data shed light on mechanistic details of the editing process and identify critical parameters for the development of new trypanocidal compounds.


The Advanced Relation Model for Genome Sequence Visualization (ARM 4 GSV) is proposed in this paper. This model is adapted from an earlier visualization model which has been applied to the visualization of computer programs. A review of the fundamental model components of the earlier visualization model is given. Enhancements so as to make it applicable in genome visualization are discussed. As part of these enhancements, a relational characterization of genome sequences in terms of bases, codons, and patterns such as close inversions is developed and described. An adapted form of the Conceptual Crown Visualization (CCV) model, a part of the earlier work, is discussed. Applications of the ARM 4 GSV to codon usage distribution and close inversion distribution are discussed. These applications are accompanied by many visualization figures of a 269 base RNA molecule, a part of the Hepatitis C virus NS5 gene, Locus AY769711. Our presentation illustrates the extent and flexibility of our approach. We conclude by observing that our objectives of showing the potential usefulness of our proposed visualization model are met.


The purpose of the current study was to assess the benefits of installed electronic hours-of-service recorders (EHSRs) on safety and hours-of-service (HOS) violations related to Class 7 and 8 trucks as they operated during normal revenue service. Data were obtained through a third-party vendor that compiled previously-generated compliance data regarding participating motor carriers. Although the final data sets included data from 11 carriers representing small, medium, and large carriers (including a total of 82,943 crashes, 970 HOS violations, and 224,034 truck-years that drove a total of 15.6 billion miles), the data set in the current study was skewed toward larger, for-hire carriers and may not represent the overall U.S. trucking population. After controlling for calendar year, carriers in the data set, onboard safety system (OBSS) status, and long-haul/regional indicator, EHSR-equipped trucks had a significantly lower total crash rate (11.7 percent reduction) and a significantly lower preventable crash rate (5.1 percent reduction) than trucks not equipped with an EHSR. Small sample sizes limited the power to detect a significant difference between the EHSR cohort and the non-EHSR cohort for U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)-recordable and fatigue-related crashes. This result is primarily attributed to the lack of sufficient data (in terms of the number of these types of crashes) to be able to detect safety benefits with statistical significance at the observed level. After controlling for year, carrier index, OBSS status, and long-haul/regional indicator, EHSR-equipped trucks had a 53 percent lower driving-related HOS violation rate and a 49 percent lower non-driving-related HOS violation rate than trucks not equipped with EHSRs. The results show a clear safety benefit, in terms of crash and HOS violation reductions, for trucks equipped with EHSRs.


BACKGROUND
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) encodes 2 small nonpolyadenylated noncoding RNAs termed EBERs. EBERs are the most common viral transcripts found in EBV-infected cells. In the present study we aimed to examine various aspects of EBER positivity in PTLD patients.

MATERIAL/METHODS
We conducted a comprehensive search for the available data by Pubmed and Google Scholar search engines for reports indicating results of EBERs in PTLD patients. Data from 27 previously published studies were included into analysis. Finally, 243 recipients of allograft were included into analysis.

RESULTS
One and 5 years survival rates for PTLD patients with EBER-positive results were 61% and 50%, respectively, compared to 55% and 49%, respectively, for EBER-negative PTLD patients. When death specifically due to PTLD was used as the final outcome, EBER-positive PTLD patients had relatively superior outcome; although p-value did not reach the significance level (p=0.09). EBER-positive patients were significantly more likely to develop PTLD lesions of B cell types (vs. T cell type; p=0.018); and early onset PTLD (p<0.001). EBER-positive PTLD patients were significantly more likely to be polymorphic versus monomorphic (p=0.05). EBER-negative PTLD patients were more likely to develop non-Hodgkin PTLD lesions (p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
We found that PTLD patients with positive results for EBER represent relatively better histopathological features than those in EBER-negative PTLD patients, and the survival rate of EBER-positive PTLD patients is not inferior to that of the EBER-negative subjects. Moreover, they were more likely to represent early onset PTLD of B cell type with polymorphic and Hodgkin-like lesions; and biopsy specimens from different organs were significantly different regarding EBER test results. Future studies with large PTLD populations are needed to confirm our findings.


Library is a place where users can find current, accurate and valuable information and knowledge. Usually, the information in the library is provided by the professional in a certain fields. Their information can be used for the research paper. Academic libraries have been comfortably serving their clientele by providing information resources and services to fulfill the needs of students and researchers, Kiran (2009). Each of institutions should have their own library to fulfill their students need in information and for their studies. Reference Department is one of the units in the library that is very important to support the library mission. Reference and Resource Coordination Department is to support the library's mission by developing the library's collections; providing liaison services to the faculty; and instructing and assisting patrons in the location, use, and evaluation of information sources, Sarah and Gary (2009). Glaister and Falshaw (2009) on Marilyn, Martin, Lisandro and William (2011) article say, SWOT analysis is categorizing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats into most respected and prevalent tools of strategic planning. With SWOT analysis, an organization can identify what is their strength, weakness, opportunity and threat of their organization. This SWOT Analysis is done by me, through the interview from the staff in the Reference Department. I have gather all the information from the staff which is En Ali Anuar B Yaakob , the Assistant Librarian, Nurul Zalila Binti Ismail, Library Assistant and En Ahmad Syarifuddin Bin Ruspin.


In her excellent and comprehensive article, Friesen argues that utilising personal responsibility in healthcare is problematic in several ways: (a) it is difficult to ascribe responsibility to behaviour; (b) there is a risk of prejudice and bias in deciding which behaviours a person should be held responsible for; (c) it may be ineffective at reducing health costs. In this short commentary, I will elaborate the critique of personal responsibility in health but suggest one way in which it could be used ethically. In doing so, I will introduce the concepts of reasonable risk and golden opportunity.

I previously argued that it is both difficult to disentangle responsibility and that we risk prejudice and bias in singling out behaviours that are socially disapproved of.1 So I am sympathetic to Friesen's concerns.

I also discussed another way in which ascribing personal responsibility for health is problematic which Friesen does not discuss and which, in my view, is the most concerning and further supports her arguments. It represents a back door assault on liberalism and neutrality towards concepts of the good life. Even if one were to accurately and in an unbiased way divine the personal contribution to disease, the greatest problem would remain: those who voluntarily take on risk would be penalised. That is, such a system would be risk-averse . Those lives which avoided risk would be prioritised, while those who chose to take on risky activities in their conception of the good life would be penalised. Yet risk is necessary, both for the good life, and social progress.

Columbus, Edmund Hilary, Florence Nightingale, Ernest Hemingway and countless monumental figures in human history took risks in order to achieve something great. Should we aim for a society of trembling, teetotalling health nuts? Surely that prospect is horrific. It is horrific because it elevates health …


Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engines have been an active research area recently due to their advantages in reducing emissions levels. Regulatory bodies, such as those in Europe, the United States and Japan, are imposing stringent vehicle emissions quality standards. Most automotive manufacturers are moving towards fuel efficient vehicles by developing hybrid (combination of two or more power sources) vehicles or improving on any conventional engine technology that can reduce emissions levels. Hybrid vehicles are receiving increasing attention from most manufacturers because they offer advantages including reduced emissions and providing good mileage per fuel tank. The HCCI engine has the potential to replace the current conventional engine used in hybrid vehicles, which can reduce the emissions levels further.

To improve the development work, simulations are undertaken to reduce research costs while maintaining good productivity because of their cost efficiency compared to experiments. For engine research, a zero-dimensional model is known for its advantage in reducing computational time compared with a multi-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach. CFD yields more accurate results but requires greater computational resources and time, while a zero-dimensional model offers versatility in a reduced simulation time. However, the zero-dimensional model has the limitation of a shorter combustion duration and rapid pressure rise compared to the experiment. Also, the zero-dimensional model is incapable of using the actual intake air temperature and needs to be set higher than the actual.

Conditional Moment Closure (CMC) is a model for the mixing in the combustion chamber at modest computational cost, which considers the turbulent-chemistry interactions. An implementation of CMC into a zero-dimensional model for an HCCI engine application is new in the literature; most of the CMC studies use the CFD approach. The combined model is expected to improve the zero-dimensional model limitation while still keeping the advantages of the latter of not using relatively modest computational resources and time.

The goals of the thesis are to write a new computer program that implements the combined model and develop a new experimental test rig for HCCI. The main focus of the thesis is to obtain an improved result for the combined model against the zero-dimensional model, while the experimental results will be used for the purpose of validation. The thesis consists of nine chapters. The first two chapters after the introduction cover the HCCI engine background and performance irrespective of the fuel being used and a background to turbulence, which introduces some turbulent theories and conservation equations. Chapter 4 discusses the details of the numerical part, which consists of all the formulations being used in the combined model. Then Chapter 5 will validate the combined models against two experimental works from others, which use diesel and gasoline fuelled HCCI engines. Chapters 6 and 7 introduce the experimental work setup and engine performance comparison between SI and HCCI modes. Chapter 8 continues the validation of the combined model based on the HCCI engine developed in the experimental work, followed by the Conclusion.

The results show that the combined model has improved the zero-dimensional model limitation by using the actual intake air temperature instead of artificially increasing it. To some extent, the combined model has shown the ability to reduce the short burn duration in the zero-dimensional model, where the maximum in-cylinder pressure trace is slightly lower than with the zero-dimensional model, with a smooth profile in the vicinity of the peak. However, the combined model has a limitation in predicting the ignition point accurately when the air-to-fuel ratio varies. Besides these observed limitations, the combined model shows good agreement with the experiments. The experimental results that were obtained are consistent with the literature, including the limitation that the HCCI engine only operates with a low load operating condition. The emissions levels also agree with the literature, where the HCCI engine produces high unburned hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide in the exhaust. Therefore, future work is recommended to improve the combined model and also further develop the HCCI engine.


Background: Currently, the leading theme in mucogingival surgery is the correction of gingival recession defects. Free gingival graft (FGG) has been successfully in use in this category of reconstructive therapeutic modality. Objectives: The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the literature with respect to efficacy of FGG in the management of Miller Class I and II localized gingival recessions. Data Sources: Search strategies were performed via electronic database which included Pubmed-Medline, Google scholar and manual search using University library resources. Two reviewers assessed the eligibility of the studies. Study Eligibility Criteria: Controlled clinical trials, randomized clinical trials and longitudinal studies evaluating recession areas treated by FGG with minimum of 6 months follow up were included. In-vitro and animal studies, studies mainly done on Miller Class III and IV gingival recession defect, studies on multiple gingival recessions and case series and case reports were excluded from the search. Results: The electronic and manual search identified a total of 557 articles. A final screen consisted of 39 articles out of which 17 articles were selected for full-text assessment. Finally, 7 articles were selected for detailed evaluation for this systematic review. FGG has shown significant results in all the studies except for one study. Conclusion: FGG produces substantial results, however, highly depends on the case selection and operator's skill and experience. FGG gives an impression of being the best alternative option in zones where gingival recession presents with inadequate width of attached gingiva and depth of vestibular fornix.


The muscles of three different arthropods, a mite, a fly, and an ostracod, show variations in the length of the A region within a given individual. There is no indication that the observed differences in A band length are related to the functional state of the muscle since little, if any, decrease in the length of the A bands was noted when sarcomeres shortened. The length of the A region was determined by polarized light microscopy and in the case of the mite and the ostracod this measurement was made on intact muscles. It is concluded that the size of the A filaments in an individual can vary in a manner unrelated to immediate functional changes. The I filaments may vary in size, but this could not be clearly demonstrated.


In this study we use Swedish population register data to examine whether parental death differentially affects educational and occupational attainment according to the socioeconomic status of the parent who dies, and the socioeconomic status of the surviving parent and extended kin. That is, we examine whether parental death has an equalizing or exacerbating effect on offspring socioeconomic attainment, and also whether the socioeconomic status of the rest of the family plays a meaningful role in compensating for parental death. Using data on cohorts born 1973 to 1982 we examine five different outcomes, which are grade point average (GPA) at age 16 in high school, the transition from lower to upper-secondary education, the transition to tertiary education, overall educational attainment, and occupational status by age 30. We match families based upon antemortem parental socioeconomic trajectories. Overall, we find mixed results in our between-family regression analyses adjusting for observables, with inconsistent evidence suggesting that losing a parent with very high socioeconomic resources is worse, and some evidence for a protective effect if the socioeconomic resources of the surviving parent and extended family members are at the top of the distribution. Using sibling fixed effects models that adjust for unobservable factors shared within the family, we see zero results for moderation by parents' occupations, but find consistent evidence that it is worse to lose a father at a younger age if grandparents have higher ranked occupations. We discuss possible interpretations of our findings.


E-learning is significant breakthrough in teaching and learning. Internet or web technologies are important because they facilitate and enhance communications among instructors and learners and provide tools to encourage creativity and initiative. If internet-based learning environments are to benefit students, then it is important from the student's perspective that they are not seen as overly complex and hard to use. The introduction of e-learning may hinder the learning process if the technology is perceived as being complex and not useful to enhanced performance, and thus a distraction to learning. In line with acceptance studies, this research proposed and tested students' acceptance behavior of agricultural higher education for application of e-learning using technology acceptance model. Results demonstrated that there was positive relationship between students' intention to use e-learning and its perceived usefulness, internet experience, computer self-efficacy and affect. Instead computer anxiety and age had negative relationship with students' intention to use e-learning.


- The process of recycling the waste of construction materials increased in most countries in the world, because of the huge quantities of waste materials result from demolition that will effect of the environment and increase landfills. This research aims to examine the recycle clay bricks aggregate in concrete mix instead of coarse aggregate and to study the effect of alkalis on this kind of concrete by partial replacement of recycle clay bricks aggregate (RCBA) instead of natural coarse aggregate. A cubic, cylinder and prisms specimens were casted to estimate the mechanical properties like dry and wet density, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and modulus of rupture for this concrete. The results shows the increasing of RCBA will decrease the compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and modulus of rupture but the addition of alkalis with 20% of mix water will increase the workability and reduce the mix water and increase the wet and dry densities, and reduce the compressive strength and splitting tensile strength and the modulus of rupture .


Abstract. In this contribution, we present a review of scientific research results that address seismo-hydromechanically coupled processes relevant for the development of a sustainable heat exchanger in low-permeability crystalline rock and introduce the design of the In situ Stimulation and Circulation (ISC) experiment at the Grimsel Test Site dedicated to studying such processes under controlled conditions. The review shows that research on reservoir stimulation for deep geothermal energy exploitation has been largely based on laboratory observations, large-scale projects and numerical models. Observations of full-scale reservoir stimulations have yielded important results. However, the limited access to the reservoir and limitations in the control on the experimental conditions during deep reservoir stimulations is insufficient to resolve the details of the hydromechanical processes that would enhance process understanding in a way that aids future stimulation design. Small-scale laboratory experiments provide fundamental insights into various processes relevant for enhanced geothermal energy, but suffer from (1) difficulties and uncertainties in upscaling the results to the field scale and (2) relatively homogeneous material and stress conditions that lead to an oversimplistic fracture flow and/or hydraulic fracture propagation behavior that is not representative of a heterogeneous reservoir. Thus, there is a need for intermediate-scale hydraulic stimulation experiments with high experimental control that bridge the various scales and for which access to the target rock mass with a comprehensive monitoring system is possible. The ISC experiment is designed to address open research questions in a naturally fractured and faulted crystalline rock mass at the Grimsel Test Site (Switzerland). Two hydraulic injection phases were executed to enhance the permeability of the rock mass. During the injection phases the rock mass deformation across fractures and within intact rock, the pore pressure distribution and propagation, and the microseismic response were monitored at a high spatial and temporal resolution.


Traditionally, the straight 'man' in stand up comedy or sitcom gives the eccentric character a presence to play against. It has long been accepted as an essential part of the process. As Mel Brooks has noted, "Well the straight guy is never given enough credit….(Bud) Abbot gets no credit for framing a gag, for the architecture, for the support, for the drive. He does everything except the punch line; he's amazing." If all or both characters were larger than life, they compete rather than compliment. Would scripted comedy work without this element or is it an essential part of the process? As a comedy writer myself, I have always been aware of this but it wasn't until I created my latest piece of work Homesick starring Alison Steadman that I realized how important it is. Homesick is a half animation and half live action pilot for a comedy drama series about a dysfunctional family. The main character, Jane, left home to avoid being part of this family. There is a death in the family and after four years of being away Jane feels obliged to come home for the funeral. Jane has reinvented herself and left the past behind or so she thinks. After only ten minutes of being back in the bosom of her family her buttons are pressed and Jane reverts back to the Jane she once knew and hated. Homesick is a comedy about a single parent family with strong female characters but in retrospect there are no "straight" characters. The difference in pace and timing between the live action and animation isn't noticeable so the film is just too loud. There is no space to frame the gags so the audience isn't given the time for the joke to work. Having the confidence to leave space or have 'down time' in scripted comedy is essential and without it, it just doesn't work.
For many comedy writers, space, or down time is an essential part, and most scripted comedy will include this component in some way. 'The Office' is filmed in a very straight way and the only over the top character is David Brent. His behavior is believable because it is framed against a very realistic setting. I then started to look at animated series, and how the straight character was used in this format and I noticed they nearly all had one thing in common – it is usually played by a women and in adult animation it seems to be reserved for the mother character. Think Marge Simpson in The Simpsons, Lois in Family Guy, Wilma in The Flintstones or even Mummy Pig in Peppa Pig.
This led me to question, why is it funny to watch a woman being the voice of reason against an illogical and over emotional man? Is it funny because it is true? Or is it because it is a given that men are organized and in control and women are hysterical so to see the reverse is ridiculous and funny.[1] Is this a reflection of society today or


The effect of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration (Ca) on the aboveground biomass of three oak species, Quercus myrtifolia, Q. geminata, and Q. chapmanii, was estimated nondestructively using allometric relationships between stem diameter and aboveground biomass after four years of experimental treatment in a naturally fire‐regenerated scrub‐oak ecosystem. After burning a stand of scrub‐oak vegetation, re‐growing plants were exposed to either current ambient (379 µL L−1 CO2) or elevated (704 µL L−1 CO2) Ca in 16 open‐top chambers over a four‐year period, and measurements of stem diameter were carried out annually on all oak shoots within each chamber. Elevated Ca significantly increased aboveground biomass, expressed either per unit ground area or per shoot; elevated Ca had no effect on shoot density. The relative effect of elevated Ca on aboveground biomass increased each year of the study from 44% (May 96–Jan 97), to 55% (Jan 97–Jan 98), 66% (Jan 98–Jan 99), and 75% (Jan 99–Jan 00). The effect of elevated Ca was species specific: elevated Ca significantly increased aboveground biomass of the dominant species, Q. myrtifolia, and tended to increase aboveground biomass of Q. chapmanii, but had no effect on aboveground biomass of the subdominant, Q. geminata. These results show that rising atmospheric CO2 has the potential to stimulate aboveground biomass production in ecosystems dominated by woody species, and that species‐specific growth responses could, in the long term, alter the composition of the scrub‐oak community.


Aims. We present a comprehensive dataset of optical and near-infrared photometry and spectroscopy of type Ia supernova (SN) 2016hnk, combined with integral field spectroscopy (IFS) of its host galaxy, MCG -01-06-070, and nearby environment. Our goal with this complete dataset is to understand the nature of this peculiar object.
Methods. Properties of the SN local environment are characterized by means of single stellar population synthesis applied to IFS observations taken two years after the SN exploded. We performed detailed analyses of SN photometric data by studying its peculiar light and color curves. SN 2016hnk spectra were compared to other 1991bg-like SNe Ia, 2002es-like SNe Ia, and Ca-rich transients. In addition, we used abundance stratification modeling to identify the various spectral features in the early phase spectral sequence and also compared the dataset to a modified non-LTE model previously produced for the sublumnious SN 1999by.
Results. SN 2016hnk is consistent with being a subluminous (MB = −16.7 mag, sBV=0.43 ± 0.03), highly reddened object. The IFS of its host galaxy reveals both a significant amount of dust at the SN location, residual star formation, and a high proportion of old stellar populations in the local environment compared to other locations in the galaxy, which favors an old progenitor for SN 2016hnk. Inspection of a nebular spectrum obtained one year after maximum contains two narrow emission lines attributed to the forbidden [Ca II] λλ7291,7324 doublet with a Doppler shift of 700 km s−1. Based on various observational diagnostics, we argue that the progenitor of SN 2016hnk was likely a near Chandrasekhar-mass (MCh) carbon-oxygen white dwarf that produced 0.108 M⊙ of 56Ni. Our modeling suggests that the narrow [Ca II] features observed in the nebular spectrum are associated with 48Ca from electron capture during the explosion, which is expected to occur only in white dwarfs that explode near or at the MCh limit.


The purpose of my research is to challenge the notion that the AFQT test strictly measures innate ability by testing a set of hypotheses that suggest that differences in AFQT test scores can be at least partially attributed to differing neighborhood effects. I hypothesize that neighborhood effects, such as crime and unemployment rates, school quality, and socioeconomic standards, do have an effect on the acquisition of human capital, including intelligence. Therefore, if the negative effects of these factors are disproportionately felt by minorities, their presence could account for racial disparities in AFQT test scores. This article is available in The Park Place Economist: http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/parkplace/vol9/iss1/17


The potential for machine learning (ML) systems to amplify social inequities and unfairness is receiving increasing popular and academic attention. A surge of recent work has focused on the development of algorithmic tools to assess and mitigate such unfairness. If these tools are to have a positive impact on industry practice, however, it is crucial that their design be informed by an understanding of real-world needs. Through 35 semi-structured interviews and an anonymous survey of 267 ML practitioners, we conduct the first systematic investigation of commercial product teams' challenges and needs for support in developing fairer ML systems. We identify areas of alignment and disconnect between the challenges faced by teams in practice and the solutions proposed in the fair ML research literature. Based on these findings, we highlight directions for future ML and HCI research that will better address practitioners' needs.


This thesis examines how relational issues of law in economic integration are being approached in Africa. At its core, relational issues deal with the legal interactions among community, national, regional and international legal systems within the context of economic integration. The theory is that effective economic integration is the product of properly structuring and managing – within well-defined legal frameworks – vertical, horizontal and vertico-horizontal relations among states, legal systems, laws and institutions. Put differently, an economic community must have well-structured and managed relations between itself and other legal systems as a necessary condition for its effectiveness. After expounding this theory and applying it to the state of affairs in Africa (focusing principally on four regional economic communities), the original contribution of the thesis to knowledge on economic integration in Africa can be captured in a few words: Africa's economic integration processes have not paid systematic or rigorous attention to relational issues. The interactions between community and member states' legal systems, among the various communities, as well as among member states' legal systems, have neither been carefully thought through nor placed on a solid legal framework. Where attempts have been made to provide a legal framework, it has been incomplete, unsatisfactory, and, sometimes, grounded on questionable assumptions. The thesis argues that, unless these shortfalls are remedied, the progress and effectiveness of Africa's economic integration will be seriously undermined. The thesis reveals that even if all the infrastructural, socio-economic and political challenges that bedevil Africa's economic integration were to disappear, - and it is these challenges that most of the scholarship on Africa's economic integration are devoted to - there remains so much in the realm of law which, if unaddressed, will hinder its success and effectiveness.


This article examines the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). There are many WTO Agreements, but TRIPS is likely to have significant implications for areas such as information, education and libraries. The article provides an overview of TRIPS in general. Various intellectual property rights (IPRs) are covered in TRIPS, including copyright, patents, trademarks, geographical indications, industrial designs, integrated circuit designs and 'trade secrets'. It then considers the implications of TRIPS for information provision, focusing in particular on copyright and patents. Finally, it examines the TRIPS within an Open Marxist theoretical perspective. The author argues that TRIPS is fundamentally about transforming IPRs into internationally tradable commodities. Marx began his analysis of capitalism in Capital volume one with 'the commodity'. We need to get back to basic Marxism and to make it applicable to the global capitalist world that we find ourselves in today. Thus, capitalism is essentially about the commodification of all that surrounds us and the TRIPS assists with this process. Value that is extracted from labour, and largely from intellectual labour, becomes embedded in internationally tradable commodities (such as patents) that are created and socially validated by TRIPS. Profit is derived from this value and through this process global capitalism is extended and intensified.


With essays by Geoffrey Batchen, Francois Brunet, Mary Ann Doane, Jose Luis Falconi, Robin Kelsey, Douglas R. Nickel, Blake Stimson, and John Tagg, and additional contributions by Lars Kiel Bertelsen, Anne McCauley, Jorge Ribalta, John Roberts, Eric Rosenberg, Eric C. Shiner, and Bernd Stiegler Photo essays by Sharon Harper, Lilla LoCurto and Bill Outcault, Fiona Tan, and Akram Zaatari How can we write the histories of photography? How should art history and visual studies integrate the special technical and aesthetic challenges posed by the medium and respond to the intense interest it has provoked in the art world in recent years? In this timely volume, fifteen leading scholars discuss the discipline, practice, historiography, and study of photography, from William Henry Fox Talbot to Louise Lawler, and reflect on the status of photography today. In addition, the book features works by important contemporary artists that probe and illustrate these same issues, together offering new perspectives on the field and what photography means to us in the early 21st century.


The paper is concerned with modeling the run time behavior
of a certain class of programs. Each program, represented by its flowgraph, is built up from one-in/one-out constructs (after the manner of Dijkstra). The programs have neither transient states nor absorbing states. Each program has one state which possesses two cycles of relatively prime length. A program which possesses these properties is called regular. Such a program may he modeled by a finite Markov chain. It is shown that if a program is regular then its Markov model has a regular transition matrix, that is, the sequence of powers of the transition matrix converges to a matrix all of whose rows are identical.
The experimental validity of the method is discussed, as are the implications of the method for program design.


This book is written by one of today's leading authorities on global branding. Establishing and managing a global brand - is made more challenging by the cultural, political, and economic differences that exist among the world's consumers. "Branding Across Borders" addresses the issue of global branding head-on, going beyond the brand itself to address how a corporation must fine-tune its own organizational structure before it can effectively extend and manage its brands in the global marketplace. "Branding Across Borders" offers key insights on developing a powerful, memorable global brand strategy. Executives of all levels can look to it for: a 10-step strategy for communicating a brand in an interactive world; examples of successful global branding as practiced by today's leading international marketers; key insights from the Corporate Branding Index [trdemark] - an annual survey designed to spotlight vital branding practices and statistics.


This paper argues that the justification defence in UK statutory indirect discrimination cases should incorporate proportionality as applied by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). It first analyses the evolution of the UK approach to proportionality before the enactment of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA), when its primary influence was the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) applying EC equal treatment directives. This assessment shows that the UK judiciary was already adopting an approach to proportionality at odds with that of the ECJ and more resonant with that of the ECtHR. An evaluation of UK practice, however, including consideration of GMB v Allen, shows that UK judges do not apply the rigorous scrutiny required by either the ECJ or ECtHR approaches. The article considers the doctrine of proportionality as developed through the discrimination jurisprudence of the ECtHR and its application under the HRA. Given the increasing relevance of European Convention on Human Rights precedent under the HRA, the article evaluates how the influence of Strasbourg teaching can (and should) enhance the UK approach to the resolution of employment discrimination claims.


Despite highlighting the implications of resource over utilization and scarcity on social systems, recent studies under explore the impact of environmental stress on culture. Specifically, further research is needed to understand the importance of natural resources for ritual practices. This study utilizes structural ritualization theory to analyze historical periods characterized by ecological degradation and deritualization. The period examined corresponds to the former and latter Han Dynasties, a moment in time that saw the first universal history of China written and where discussion of ritual appears prominently in historical documents. In addition to primary texts, secondary sources are used to examine deritualization and the continuity, abandonment, and emergence of new ritual practices. The results demonstrate that despite periods of resource unavailability social rituals survive. By tracing the introduction of Chinese ceramics and burial practices into the Korean peninsula and Japan, we see the strategies human communities employ when they can no longer obtain needed materials to practice specific rituals.

 Key words: Structural ritualization, environment, dark ages, ritual.


The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is getting increasingly assertive as a player in regional and world arenas. The group, which includes Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Viet Nam, Laos, Burma, Cambodia and Brunei, has focused on economic integration since as the 1990s. In 2003, it set the goal of forging the "ASEAN Community" by 2020. Furthermore, ASEAN sponsored the first East Asian Summit at the end of last year, gauging the qualifications of the participating nations with three preconditions : the participants must be ASEAN's dialogue partners, they must have joined the Treaty of Amity and Co-operation in Southeast Asia and they must have substantial relations with ASEAN.


This study examines graphing calculator technology availability, characteristics of teachers who use it, teacher attitudes, and how use reflects changes to algebra curriculum and instructional practices. Algebra I and Algebra II teachers in 75 high school and junior high/middle schools in a diverse region of a northwestern state were surveyed. Forty of the 75 schools (53%) returned a total of 109 individual surveys. Results indicated that: (1) While 78% of teachers have some access to the technology, only 28% use it regularly. (2) Statistically significant relationships exist between use and age, years of experience, teaching assignment, and teaching level. (3) Respondents view graphical solution methods as secondary to symbolic methods. (4) Teachers are more receptive to using technology to supplement rather than expand the curriculum.


Background: Staphylococcus aureus is the major causative agent of hospital-acquired and community-acquired infections. These bacteria produce a wide variety of exotoxins, including Toxic Shock Syndrome Toxin (TSST) and virulence factors, which are thought to contribute to its pathogenic potential. Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify tsst gene in S. aureus isolated from patients and healthy carriers. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 60 humanS. aureus isolates were collected from individuals referred to Shahid Beheshti hospital (patients, n = 40) and healthy farm workers (n = 20) in Hamadan province of Iran. Thereafter, DNA samples were extracted using the phenol-chloroform method and the samples were investigated for tsst gene using a specific PCR assay. Results: The DNA fragment corresponding to the tsst gene (326 bp) was observed in 45% (9 out of 20) of S. aureus isolated from healthy farm workers; while, 22.5% (9 out of 40) of patients' isolates were found to be positive for tsst gene, which indicated that in total 30% of the isolates possessed this gene. Conclusions: The results of the present study showed the high prevalence of the tsst gene among S. aureus isolated from healthy farm workers and patients. Therefore, appropriate precautions must be considered to decrease the risk of transmission of such isolates to other humans.


Nanofibers are promising cell carriers for tissue engineering of a variety of tissues and organs in the human organism. They have been experimentally used for reconstruction of tissues of cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, urinary, nervous and musculoskele‐ tal systems. Nanofibers are also promising for drug and gene delivery, construction of biosensors and biostimulators, and wound dressings. Nanofibers can be created from a wide range of natural polymers or synthetic biostable and biodegradable polymers. For hard tissue engineering, polymeric nanofibers can be reinforced with various ceramic, metal-based or carbon-based nanoparticles, or created directly from hard materials. The nanofibrous scaffolds can be loaded with various bioactive molecules, such as growth, differentiation and angiogenic factors, or funcionalized with ligands for the cell adhesion receptors. This review also includes our experience in skin tissue engineering using nanofibers fabricated from polycaprolactone and its copolymer with polylactide, cellulose acetate, and particularly from polylactide nanofibers modified by plasma activation and fibrin coating. In addition, we studied the interaction of human bone-derived cells with nanofibrous scaffolds loaded with hydroxyapatite or diamond nanoparticles. We also created novel nanofibers based on diamond deposition on a SiO2 template, and tested their effects on the adhesion, viability and growth of human vascular endothelial cells.


This article proposes a Bayesian treatment of uncertainty in probabilistic seismic‐hazard assessment to account for the possibility of anthropogenic changes in the properties of future earthquake occurrences. Operational factors are used to establish prior distributions for future seismicity, and observations are used to dynamically update the distributions and resulting hazard calculations. The updating process is relevant for regions of the central and eastern United States where large increases in the rate of earthquakes, apparently triggered by anthropogenic activities, are difficult to address using conventional quantitative methods for assessing seismic hazards. The approach is consistent with conventional seismic‐hazard analysis initially, allows a number of types of data to be used for updating in an informative and transparent manner, and may incentivize improved monitoring of at‐risk regions. Examples are provided to illustrate the approach, including the use of Gibbs sampling to characterize updated distributions in the case for which analytical solutions to the updating equations are not available.


The purpose of this paper is to describe one-shot-learning gesture recognition systems developed on the ChaLearn Gesture Dataset (ChaLearn). We use RGB and depth images and combine appearance (Histograms of Oriented Gradients) and motion descriptors (Histogram of Optical Flow) for parallel temporal segmentation and recognition. The Quadratic-Chi distance family is used to measure differences between histograms to capture cross-bin relationships. We also propose a new algorithm for trimming videos--to remove all the unimportant frames from videos. We present two methods that use a combination of HOG-HOF descriptors together with variants of a Dynamic Time Warping technique. Both methods outperform other published methods and help narrow the gap between human performance and algorithms on this task. The code is publicly available in the MLOSS repository.


0733 components not targeted by known kinase inhibitors. From the library of screened compounds, Shokat and colleagues identifi ed a molecule (hydroxy-PP) that, though structurally related to a known kinase inhibitor, induced morphological changes distinct from any known kinase inhibitor. What does hydroxy-PP target? An enzyme, called carbonyl reductase 1 (CBR1), that acts on xenobiotics like anticancer drugs and is thought to cause the heart damage associated with daunorubicin chemotherapy. To better understand how compound and enzyme interact, the authors solved the structure of hydroxy-PP and CBR1 bound together. Knowing their respective structures also suggests ways of enhancing a molecule's effect on a target. In this case, Shokat and colleagues used their structural analysis to increase hydroxy-PP's inhibition of CBR1 in cell culture so they could further explore the enzyme's biological function. These experiments revealed a previously uncharacterized role for CBR1 in programmed cell death. Given the enzyme's suspected role in chemotherapy-related cardiotoxicity, inhibiting CBR1 activity might enhance the effi cacy of chemotherapy treatments by reducing their debilitating side effects—a possibility that future studies can explore. But for now, Shokat and colleagues have demonstrated the power of using high-throughput image-based screening to identify small molecules both for probing cell biology and for identifying promising drug candidates.


In practical thermal light ghost imaging, the nonuniform intensity distribution of the thermal light applied causes distortion of the retrieved image. We propose uniformly weighted arithmetics, including uniformly weighted ghost imaging and uniformly weighted differential ghost imaging (UWDGI), to improve the imaging quality of ghost imaging with nonuniform thermal light fields. Two kinds of nonuniform thermal light fields are discussed, including planar Gaussian distributed thermal light and near-field three-dimensional thermal light. The retrieved image using a uniformly weighted arithmetic has a lower distortion than that using the corresponding traditional ghost imaging arithmetic. In addition, the best imaging quality is achieved with the UWDGI arithmetic.


Plant–mycorrhizal interaction is an important association in the ecosystem with significant impacts on the physical, biological and chemical properties of the soil. In the present study, potential relationships that exist between organic acid production by ectomycorrhizal pine seedlings and plant parameters in the absence of any significant environmental stress were investigated. The aim of the study was to investigate the contribution of organic acid production to plant growth. Four different ectomycorrhizal fungi were used in a mycorrhizal synthesis experiment to colonise roots of Pinus patula. Ectomycorrhizal and non-ectomycorrhizal plants were used in a pot trial experiment that lasted for 24 weeks. After harvesting, plant materials as well as soil samples underwent different analyses, which included the determination of pH, organic acids, plant biomass, and foliar and root phosphorus and potassium. The results indicated a significant interaction (P<0.0001) between fungal type and organic acid production. This reflects the influence of fungal type on organic acid production. However, it was observed that organic acids secreted into the soil are not directly linked with the quantity of nutrients detected in either the root or shoot, but seemed to positively influence plant growth as reflected in the result from root and shoot biomass.


This paper explores the possible origins of the Northern Subject Rule (NSR). In this morphosyntactic pattern, found in Northern Middle English, present-tense verbal inflection varies according to the type of subject (pronoun or noun) and (non-)adjacency of the subject to the verb. I argue that rather than languageinternal developments in the vein of Pietsch (2005), processes of language contact between early English and the Cumbrian variety of Brythonic Celtic are a likely source for the NSR. I develop a scenario for this change, based on the parallel Brythonic pattern of anti-agreement and early English differential subject positions. The Old English Lindisfarne Glosses and several Northern Middle English texts provide initial evidence in favour of this hypothesis.


The reassignment procedure has often been employed to improve readability of some time-frequency representations (TFRs). When processing noisy signals, the problem of sensitivity of the technique to noise is encountered. A simple modification of the reassignment method is proposed, based on a thresholding operation. Specifically, by preventing the reassignment of the distribution coefficients below the noise dependent threshold and replacing them with zeros, the enhanced signatures on the time-frequency plane are obtained. This method is compared with other techniques, such as the reassigned spectrogram (RSP) and the supervised reassigned spectrogram (SRSP). An experimental test of these algorithms as the instantaneous frequency (IF) estimators for a chirp signal have shown that our method improves the accuracy of the estimation for heavy noise.


This chapter offers a personal reflection on the nature of impact, based on the author's substantial experience of being involved in impact-focused research. The chapter begins with a definition of impact that relates to the UK Research Excellence Framework, before going on to consider a range of issues related to the concept. These include the difference between impact and dissemination, inhibitors of impact, and the problem of sourcing evidence for claims about the impact of a piece of research. These issues are discussed both in the abstract and with reference to a genuine case study of corpus research at Lancaster University, submitted to the 2014 REF.


Hugh Miller was many things in his life: a geologist, a journalist, a historian and a leading figure in the establishment of the Free Church in 1843. However his work also involved the sea and maritime issues to a considerable degree; in particular, his two companion narratives, The Cruise of the Betsey and Rambles of a Geologist. These addressed the experiences of coastal and island communities, and the social and religious issues they faced, but also allowed for an exploration of Scotland's fossilised deposits and its prehistoric marine wildlife. Yet the sea also allowed Miller to explore deeper issues in regards to his background, his faith and his worldview. The oceans proved a fitting canvas for Miller's childhood traumas, in the form of his father's death at sea, in addition to his own approach to romanticism and spirituality. This paper therefore explores an often nuanced and complicated, yet vivid and inspired relationship between Miller and the seas that fascinated him.


Biological diversity is considered one of today's most urgent environmental concerns, yet the term was first coined only twenty-five years ago. Why did the concept of biological diversity so quickly capture public attention and emerge as a banner issue for the environmental movement? In this book, Timothy J. Farnham explores for the first time the historical roots of biological diversity, tracing the evolution of the term as well as the history of the conservation traditions that contributed to its rapid acceptance and popularity. Biological diversity is understood today as consisting of three components--species diversity, genetic diversity, and ecosystem diversity. Farnham finds that these three tiers coincided with three earlier, disparate conservation traditions that converged when the cause of preserving biological diversity was articulated. He tells the stories of these different historical foundations, recounts how the term came into the environmental lexicon, and shows how the evolution of the idea of biological diversity reflects an evolution of American attitudes toward the natural world.


[1] We have analyzed the mean climate response pattern following large tropical volcanic eruptions back to the beginning of the 17th century using a combination of proxy-based reconstructions and modern instrumental records of cold-season surface air temperature. Warm anomalies occur throughout northern Eurasia, while cool anomalies cover northern Africa and the Middle East, extending all the way to China. In North America, the northern portion of the continent cools, with the anomalies extending out over the Labrador Sea and southern Greenland. The analyses confirm that for two years following eruptions the anomalies strongly resemble the Arctic Oscillation/Northern Annular Mode (AO/NAM) or the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) in the Atlantic-Eurasian sector. With our four-century record, the mean response is statistically significant at the 95% confidence level over much of the Northern Hemisphere land area. However, the standard deviation of the response is larger than the mean signal nearly everywhere, indicating that the anomaly following a single eruption is unlikely to be representative of the mean. Both the mean response and the variability can be successfully reproduced in general circulation model simulations. Driven by the solar heating induced by the stratospheric aerosols, these models produce enhanced westerlies from the lower stratosphere down to the surface. The climate response to volcanic eruptions thus strongly suggests that stratospheric temperature and wind anomalies can affect surface climate by forcing a shift in the AO/NAM or NAO.


ABSTRACT.This study is grounded in the considerable body of scholarship examining the enforcement powers granted to coastal states to protect their specific interests in fishing and the marine environment, pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia, aspects of the framework of the law of the sea that have particular relevance for assessing maritime security, and the changing dynamics of exclusive and inclusive claims to ocean use. The overall results provide strong evidence for the problem of attacks on shipping off the Horn of Africa, key underlying causes of the Somali piracy phenomenon, the vulnerability of ships to piratical attack and sea robbery, the increasing threat posed by piracy over the last several years, and the world public order of the oceans.Keywords: Somali piracy problem, security, ocean, sea1. IntroductionThis paper seeks to fill a gap in the current literature by examining the ship hijackings by Somali pirates, the effect of piracy on maritime trade, the interpretation and application of the law of the sea, and security interests in the oceans. Although researchers have discovered some important findings regarding the relationship between the suppression of piracy off Somalia, glaring vulnerabilities in the maritime domain and worldwide cargo chain, the laws of war in counter-piracy actions, the use of force in maritime police actions, and the increasing frequency of maritime piracy attacks, there is still a great deal that is unknown and that requires further empirical inquiry.2. The Threat to International Peace and Security Posed by PiracyGuilfoyle claims that pirate attacks have now escalated to hostage-taking for ransom: public international law grants all the authority needed for warships to engage in counter-piracy operations on the high seas. Piracy is an organized criminal activity, principally targeting foreign ships, and affecting regional trade and shipping. The laws of piracy carry with them a sufficient regime governing the use of force against pirates. The fight against piracy is a law enforcement operation (the applicable rules are those of police powers), as pirates are ordinary criminals.It follows from this that applying the laws of armed conflict to pirates would be counter-productive. Guilfoyle stresses that the laws of armed conflict have no application to the case of Somali piracy. Somali pirates operate against randomly targeted vessels of disparate nationalities to compel private parties to pay large ransoms, and are not engaged in an international armed conflict, and are not direct participants in an internal armed conflict.1Guilfoyle holds that conflict in Somalia has extended its reach into the waters off its coasts: the situation in Somalia constitutes the threat to international peace and security. The eventual disposition of criminals captured in Somalian territorial waters is either a matter for Somalia or for the interdicting State. As Guilfoyle puts it, rules governing the conduct of high seas interdictions remain embryonic. Customary international law permits any State finding a pirate within its territory to prosecute him or her as an exercise of universal jurisdiction, but that does not mean they will be eager to or will have appropriate national laws. Pirates are criminals because their acts impinge upon States' monopoly on legitimate violence and their interests in freedom of navigation.2Dutton observes that the number of maritime piracy attacks is spiraling ever upward (piracy attacks are increasing at an alarming rate), and maritime pirates are getting paid huge sums for their violent activities. Pirates cannot be deterred from their violent and criminal activities unless the world community shares the burden, expense, and difficulty of trying them. The international community is engaged in naval operations designed to repress acts of maritime piracy, expending time, energy, and resources in an effort to prevent and combat maritime piracy. …


We examine why corporate governance varies widely across countries and across firms, and why such variation matters. Using a new database from Governance Metrics International on corporate governance practices across a large number of countries and firms for 2006-2011 and employing a hierarchical linear model specification, we find that the national cultural dimension of individualism is positively associated with, whereas the national cultural dimension of uncertainty avoidance is negatively associated with, firm-level corporate governance practices. Within countries, there is a positive association between firm-level corporate governance practices and firm value; however, across countries, the association is negative or zero.


In this article, I take a discoursal perspective on intersubjectivity, exploring ways in which intersubjective meanings may be realized across texts, and the kinds of effects that arise from the combination of different forms. In particular, I focus on how writers may exploit intersubjective choices to enact interaction with their intended audience. I carry out an illustrative analysis on a small corpus of editorials from two British newspapers, one quality and one popular; and I demonstrate that there is clear connections between the readership of the two newspapers as described on their audience demographic webpages and the ways in which the editorial writers deploy the resources of interactant reference, mood and modality to construe different kinds of audience.


Despite its high relevance to current policy debates, estimating the causal effect of Information Communication Technology (ICT) investment on educational standards remains fraught with difficulties. In this paper, we exploit a change in the rules governing ICT funding across different school districts of England to devise an instrumental variable strategy to identify the causal impact of ICT expenditure on pupil outcomes. The approach identifies the effect of being a 'winner' or a 'loser' in the new system of ICT funding allocation to schools. Our findings suggest a positive impact on primary school performance in English and Science, though not for Mathematics. We reconcile our positive results with others in the literature by arguing that it is the joint effect of large increases in ICT funding coupled with a fertile background for making an efficient use of it that led to positive effects of ICT expenditure on educational performance in English primary schools.


The light stable isotope chemistry of barite and acanthite in the Pierina Au-Ag deposit, Peru, provides strong support for microbial involvement at the economically critical supergene oxidation stage. Early hypogene barite yields δ34S values of 23.6‰ to 28.5‰ and δ18O values of 5.8‰ to 10.9‰, and was precipitated with the original precious metal-enriched sulfide assemblage. In contrast, late barite, deposited during formation of supergene goethite and hematite, the main ore-hosts, yields δ34S and δ18O values of 1.4‰ to 14.2‰ and −2.8‰ to 4.7‰, correlated mutually and with the δ34S values of coprecipitated acanthite (δ34S = 0.4‰ to 3.9‰). Low δ34S values of barite and acanthite record sulfide mineral oxidation by meteoric waters. Increasing δ34S and δ18O values of barite and δ34S values of acanthite indicate enrichment of the sulfate reservoir in 34S and 18O, reflecting the preferential utilization of light isotopes by microbes during aqueous sulfate reduction. Continued sulfate reduction locally reduced supergene fluids, remobilizing iron and locally destroying the goethite-hematite assemblage. Precious metals were released but reacted with sulfide in the reduced waters to form Au-rich acanthite.


KOCH, I., BITTRICH, V. & SUMIKO KINOSHITA, L.: Reproductive biology and functional aspects of the floral morphology of Rauvolfia sellowii Mu ll. Arg. (Apocynaceae; Rauvolfioideae) — a report of dioecy in Apocynaceae. — Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 124. 83‐104. — ISSN 0006‐ 8152. During studies on the reproductive biology of Rauvolfia sellowii Mu ll. Arg. the occurrence of functional dioecy was verified. This is the first case of dioecy in Apocynaceae s. str. demonstrated unequivocally. The occurrence of gynodioecy in R. vomitoria Afzel. is also demonstrated and its occurrence in Carissa grandiflora (E.Meyer) A.DC. confirmed. Our data reveal another case of a taxon described as having hermaphroditic flowers that has in fact functionally dioecious flowers. Behaviour of the pollinators and small populations might have favoured the development of dioecy in R. sellowii to avoid endogamic depression. The nonfunctional flower organs are particularly interesting: male flowers show all female structures, including well-developed ovules. Only callose deposition in the ovules and the absence of fruit development reveal their nature. Female flowers have empty anthers. Such organs still play an important role for the reproductive mechanism and we believe that this is responsible for their persistence. Although the possibility that the evolutionary time elapsed since the development of dioecy was insufficient for their suppression cannot be completely ruled out. Although it has been suggested that stigmatic receptivity is restricted to a region below the circular scraper structure at the base of the style head, pollen tube growth demonstrated that the median secretory part is also receptive in these cases. Secondary sexual characters and mechanisms of the pollination process are also discussed. Earlier studies dealing with the functional importance of floral structures during pollination are briefly reviewed.


National Laboratory is an equal opportunity employer. USA 3 SUMMARY A Microgrid is recognized as an innovative technology to help integrate renewables into distribution systems and to provide additional benefits to a variety of stakeholders, such as offsetting infrastructure investments and improving the reliability of the local system. However, these systems require additional investments for control infrastructure, and as such, additional costs and the anticipated benefits need to be quantified in order to determine whether the investment is economically feasible. This paper proposes a methodology for systematizing and representing benefits and their interrelationships based on the UML Use Case paradigm, which allows complex systems to be represented in a concise, elegant format. This methodology is demonstrated by determining the economic feasibility of a Microgrid and Distributed Generation installed on a typical Canadian rural distribution system model as a case study. The study attempts to minimize the cost of energy served to the community, considering the fixed costs associated with Microgrids and Distributed Generation, and suggests benefits to a variety of stakeholders.


Resource planning in emergency management is a challenging task as it involves disaster situations where the demands are rapidly increasing and the resources are scarce. Conventional planning involves a centralized network structure where resources are distributed through a few prepositioning facilities located near to the disaster regions. In this research, we develop a novel multi-echelon network distribution structure for emergency resource planning. The structure at its highest echelon consists of a set of potential Supply Points (SPs), where resources are purchased and consolidated which is more practical in comparison to the conventional centralized structure. SPs are considered as typically large facilities in metropolitan cities in and around the potential disaster region from where the resources are distributed to the prepositioning facilities in order to be able to supply the materials immediately after the disaster in the area. The proposed structure also allows direct shipment of resources from SPs to the disaster regions in the response stage which is more close to the reality. Under the network structure, we formulate a new two-stage stochastic mixed integer programming model for an integrated emergency preparedness and response planning. The objective is to obtain the optimal allocations of the resources along with locations of the SPs and prepositioning facilities to satisfy the demand of disaster victims in a timely and cost-effective manner. We assume demand for supplies in the disaster hit areas are aggregated at locations called Aggregated Demand Points (ADPs). For the current study, the demands at the ADPs are obtained with a set of disaster scenarios each with a probability of occurrence. To develop the resource allocation model, we consider two distribution stages that are decided simultaneously: pre-disaster and post-disaster stages. In the pre-disaster stage, the analysis provides the location of SPs and the pre-disaster purchasing amounts to be acquired at the SPs. All or part of the purchased resources are positioned in prepositioning facilities located at selected ADPs. In the post-disaster stage, detail distribution of the resources to satisfy demands following the disaster event is considered. The demands in the post-disaster stage are met through pre-positioned resources at the prepositioning facilities and additionally, if required, through the direct shipments of resources from the SPs. We consider limited post-disaster purchasing opportunities at SPs as the quantities are to be purchased during a short and chaotic period. The optimization model proposed in this research consists of logistics and deprivation costs. The logistics costs include cost of provisioning, prepositioning, and delivering the resources. The deprivation costs represent the cost of not providing or delays in providing the supplies at the point of demand. The model is tested in a network for numerical analysis. The result shows that multiple SPs in the proposed network distribution structure helps to overcome the possible resource disruption that occurs with single sourcing in the centralized structure, resulting decrease of the demand shortage. Sensitivity of the model with different pre-disaster and post-disaster purchasing conditions at SPs are also discussed in order to represent realistic disaster scenarios. (Acknowledgement: Qatar/QNRF/NPRP Project: 5-200-5-027)


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the pilot study was to assess the feasibility and efficacy of a 4-month community health worker (CHW) intervention to improve hypertension management among Filipino immigrants in New York and New Jersey.

DESIGN
Single-arm CHW pilot intervention using a pre-post design delivered by 5 CHWs.

SETTING
New York City, NY and Jersey City, NJ.

PARTICIPANTS
Of 88 Filipino individuals recruited for the study, 39 received the full pilot intervention, 18 received a partial intervention, and 31 dropped out; 13 Filipino participants, 10 CHW Trainers, and 3 Filipino CHWs were interviewed for qualitative analysis.

INTERVENTION
Individuals participated in 4 workshops related to hypertension management and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and received monthly in-person visits, and twice monthly phone calls individually from a CHW.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Primary outcomes included blood pressure (BP) reduction and control, appointment keeping, and medication adherence; secondary outcomes included weight, body mass index (BMI), self-efficacy related to diet, exercise, and medication taking, CVD knowledge, and nutrition (salt/ sodium and cholesterol/fat).

RESULTS
A mixed method analysis was used to assess the intervention, utilizing quantitative and qualitative methods. By the end of the intervention, significant changes were exhibited for systolic and diastolic BP, weight, and BMI (P<.01). Significant changes were not seen for medication adherence and appointment keeping, however, CVD knowledge and self-efficacy related to diet and weight management all improved significantly (P<.01). Qualitative findings provided additional information on the acceptability, feasibility, and efficacy of the intervention.

CONCLUSIONS
This pilot CHW intervention showed evidence of feasibility, as well as efficacy, in improving hypertension management and reducing CVD factors in Filipino Americans.


Flooding is a natural phenomenon that regularly causes financial and human devastation around the world. In many countries the risk of flooding is managed by society through a combination of governmental agencies and the insurance industry. For both these types of organisation an estimate of the largest, or most widespread, events that can be expected to occur is useful. Such estimates can be used to help in preparing or co‐ordinating flood mitigation activities and by the insurance and re‐insurance industries to assess financial risk. In this paper we develop a method to simulate a set of synthetic flood events that can be used to estimate the probability of widespread floods. We demonstrate this method using data from a set of UK river flow gauges. The model used in this simulation process is based on the conditional exceedance model of Heffernan and Tawn, extended to incorporate features typically found in the data for extreme river floods. We also present an improved estimation method for the model parameters and demonstrate its advantages through the results of a simulation study. The benefits of the method over previous models used are that it provides a theoretical basis for extrapolation and is flexible enough to account for varying strengths of extremal dependence that are observed in flood data. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The proposed research illustrates an innovating implantable micro-apparatus to be encompassed under the scalp for monitoring and retrieving electrical cerebral activities. The illustrated system considers its theoretical realization including, design of circuital electronic components and energy harvesting, 3D package, chemical aspects concerning the utilization of UHMWPE (Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene) polymeric materials for packaging including mechanical simulations and comparison with titanium material, and electromagnetic aspects regarding the Wi-Fi radiation. A full description of necessary circuitry is included. Moreover, for chemical viewpoint, requirements of polymeric nanomaterials, embedding silver or copper nanoparticles to be used for its fabrication, are discussed illustrating antibacterial and electromagnetic wall barrier properties. The study of the proposed work concerns the whole design of the system.


This journal addresses the roles of teaching, learning and the curriculum in Higher Education in order to explore and clarify the intellectual challenges which they present. This is a broad Ž eld and the journal is interdisciplinary. It aims to open up discussion across subject areas by involving all those who share an enthusiasm for learning and teaching. The journal offers a particular challenge: to develop a discourse of teaching and learning which transcends disciplinary boundaries and specialisms while drawing upon the rigour of a range of disciplines. The journal aims to apply and develop sustained re ection, investigation and critique—which characterise the best research in any discipline—to the Ž eld of learning and teaching in higher education. By developing a questioning approach, and avoiding a narrowly technical view of teaching and learning methods, the journal will help to give intellectual and academic credibility to this aspect of our work. Higher Education institutions in many countries have recently experienced fragmentation between specialised subject areas, and a pressure to separate teaching from research as they have faced an increasing requirement to account for their output in terms of these two aspects of their work. The journal will consider how teaching and research can be brought into a closer relationship, and how teaching in higher education can itself become a Ž eld of research. Research can inform teaching, in terms of its relation to syllabus content, and the kinds of creativity, rigour and exploration which might relate to both. Teaching can also inform research by its demand that ideas be clariŽ ed and presented in an accessible fashion, and that the potentially innovative perspectives of students be taken into account. This journal has a view of learning which entails concepts of transformation and critique in relation to dominant traditions and visions. It will therefore appeal to those who wish to explore how such aims might be realised through a commitment to teaching in a variety of cultural and disciplinary contexts represented in higher education internationally. Articles are welcomed which span a wide range of teaching and learning issues. They may, for example:


The issues in new antibiotic discovery are pressing, because the frequent re-discovery of antibiotic scaffolds leads to few novel antibiotics discovered, besides, with the widespread use of antibacterial agents, multi-resistant pathogens are emerging, which poses more huge challenge in antibiotic discovery. However, next generation sequencing technology and bioinformatics have revealed that many secondary metabolite biosynthesis gene clusters possess the potential of producing new bioactive secondary metabolites (BSMs), which were ignored previously. Among the microorganisms, actinomycetes species are the best sources for those gene clusters. Synthetic biology is the enabling technology to activate those silent gene clusters, which aims to engineer organisms for expected applications with combination of various biotechnologies. The project employs the reciprocal regulation system between jadomycin (Jd) and chloramphenicol (Cm) in S. venezuelae: JadR1 activates Jd synthesis while represses Cm synthesis with ethanol shock. This system can be used to rationally engineer S. venezuelaee for heterologous production of BSMs with re-factored gene clusters containing appropriate control elements: deletion of the jadR1 gene shall lead to down-regulation of Jd production, simultaneously induce overproduction of Cm due to the relieved repression of the Cm structural genes' promoters. Besides, the cml gene cluster should be completely deleted to avoid interfering with the introduced gene cluster. The appropriate control element is an inducible promoter screened out with GUS assay among cmlFp, cmlIp, cmlXp, jadJp. The inducible promoter would be used to construct an inducible system for industrial scale production of BSMs, because constitutive heterologous expression of BSMs is harmful for producing hosts. The jadR1- cml- mutants were successfully generated with Gibson Assembly, transconjugation, double crossover and replica plating. The gene cluster MP112-09-Lac was cloned with native promoter and ermE* respectively and transconjugated to jadR1- cml- mutant, however, cloing of MPS05-B41-Lin was hindered by wrong PCR amplification. The four promoters were tested with GUS assay, based on MYM medium and cmlF is speculated to be the most desirable inducible promoter.


Human dynamics in real-world social networks has been a long lasting topic of research. Recently, the rapid growing of online social networks with their data made accessible has given researchers a door of opportunity to study large-scale social networks. Facebook has been the largest, most influential, and fastest growing social network on the Internet to date. As Facebook's userbase is extremely diverse, spreading across different countries, races, ages, professions, and interests, to name a few, this network is a good model to study our society. In this paper, we present an analysis of a regional Facebook dataset, with attention given to the correlation among user connectivity, activity, and similarity.


Background: Pregnancy is a delicate state that faces several challenges for physical and mental health, involving physiological, immunological and microbiological aspects to accept and maintain the fetus. In situations of epidemics of infectious diseases, as COVID-19, pregnancy can be a risk factor, due to all the changes caused in physiological and immunological functions, which can increase mortality rates. The lack of therapeutic protocols for this group calls attention to the urgency of developing and standardizing proposals aimed at pregnant women. Objectives: Then we performed a literature review of articles published about pregnancy and coronavirus disease was carried out, mainly through the PUBMED and Web of Science databases. Methods: Thus, articles from systematic reviews, clinical studies and epidemiologic studies, were selected in Portuguese, Spanish and English languages. Results: We selected 20 articles related to the theme in question. There is still no evidence of vertical transmission of the new coronavirus. Conclusion: The literature reports that the interaction between the mother and the newborn should be prioritized and facilitated at the beginning of breastfeeding. This choice must be defined based on the good health of the mother and her newborn child. Key words: Pregnancy, Coronavirus disease, Breastfeeding.


The atomistic scale tensile test of mixed O-terminated and Al-terminated α-Al2O3(0001)/Cu(111) interface has been examined by quasicontinuum method. The quasicontinuum method has been developed for large-scale atomistic simulations. In this approach, the number of degrees of freedom is much reduced in comparison to molecular dynamics simulation, so that the computational time is significantly decreased. In the Al2O3/Cu interface, the O-terminated interface has quite large adhesive energy, and the Cu-O bond is much stronger than the Cu-Cu bond. The Al-terminated interface has quite a small adhesive energy, and the Cu-Al bond is much smaller than the Cu-Cu bond. In the tensile test, adhesive energy of mixed interface of O-terminated and Al-terminated is the mean value of that of O-terminated interface and Al-terminated interface.


Taken together the essays in this work not only provide new research essential to the study of Islamic societies and Muslim peoples, but also set a new standard for the concrete study of local situations and illuminate the forces shaping the history of modern Muslim societies. This collection is unique in its sophisticated interpretation of the social protest and political resistance movements in Muslim countries during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The contributors take two principal approaches to the study of their subject. Utilizing "new cultural history," they explore how particular movements have deployed the cultural and religious resources of Islam to mobilize and legitimize insurgent political action. Others rely on "new social history" to study the economic, political, and social contexts in which movements of anti-colonial resistance and revolution have developed. This work brings together contributions from specialists on Islamic North Africa, Egypt, the Arab fertile crescent, Iran and India.


Chapter 19 of the NAFTA transfers judicial review of U.S., Canadian, and Mexican government investigations under the controversial anti-dumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) laws from national courts to binational panels of private international law experts. The system stands as a unique surrender of judicial sovereignty to an international body, a hybrid of national courts and international dispute settlement with as yet no parallel in the world of international trade or other international law regimes. Binational panel decisions have been controversial because agencies chafe at their intimate examination of agency findings and supporting evidence. Panels also are viewed as substantially more likely to overturn agency conclusions than national courts. Given the record of chapter 19 NAFTA panels, the paper examines whether the system created to fill a unique need among the NAFTA parties may have broader utility, albeit one perhaps less true to its original purpose. U.S. recalcitrance on proposed changes to its AD/CVD laws (and its agricultural subsidies) were the principal reasons that Brazil forced Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) talks onto the back burner to await the Doha Round results on these issues. The United States is unlikely to condone major changes to the WTO Anti-Dumping and Subsidies Agreements, which will become the final sticking point for reaching agreement after members resolve the agriculture issues now blocking conclusion of the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations. Thus, trade remedies will again surface as major issues once FTAA talks resume. Studies indicate that binational panels reverse agency decisions at a greater rate than national courts and that existence of the system has reduced the rate of filing of industry requests for AD/CVD investigations. Rather than attempting to finding an elusive middle ground of substantive revisions to these laws, might changing the method of review of agency determinations furnish a missing piece in the puzzle of FTAA negotiations? Although Brazil's (and other FTAA country) officials may at first glance see nothing in a Chapter 19 process that addresses their substantive AD/CVD conflicts with the United States in such cases as orange juice and steel, reflection may reveal that Chapter 19 has demonstrated yet again what good lawyers have always known, that procedure can become substance in the twinkle of an eye. In short, more than one way exists to reduce the trade-restricting effect of U.S. AD/CVD investigations. Improvements would have to be made, including introduction of an automatic and effective right of appeal whose absence arguably undercuts the credibility of the process by awarding enormous power to panels. Adoption of a system such as NAFTA's chapter 19 on a 34-nation basis not only may ameliorate long-intractable conflicts over trade remedy laws, but implementation of such a system also will have substantial positive effects for civil society in general. Dispute settlement systems promote timeliness, inclusive record keeping, and impartiality in the administrative decisional process. They improve governmental accountability on several levels. By improving participation of all levels of society in their governance, international trade dispute settlement systems strongly promote the rule of law.