Prior to the mid-nineteenth century, most Americans "heard" rather than "read" national history. They absorbed lessons from the past more readily by attending Patriots' Day orations and anniversary commemorations than by reading expensive, multivolume works of patrician historians. By the 1840s, however, innovations in publishing led to the marketing of inexpensive, mass-produced "popular" histories that had a profound influence on historical literacy and learning in the United States. In this book, Gregory M. Pfitzer charts the rise and fall of this genre, demonstrating how and why it was born, flourished, and then became unpopular over time.Pfitzer begins by exploring how the emergence of a new literary marketplace in the mid-nineteenth century affected the study of history in America. Publishers of popular works hoped to benefit from economies of scale by selling large numbers of inexpensive books at small profit. They hired authors with substantial literary reputations to make the past accessible to middle-class readers. The ability to write effectively for wide audiences was the only qualification for those who dominated this field. Privileging narration and effusive literary style over dispassionate prose, these artists adapted their favorite fictional and poetic conventions with an ease that suggests the degree to which history was viewed as literary art in the nineteenth century.Beginning as a small cottage industry, popular histories sold in the hundreds of thousands by the 1890s. In an effort to illuminate the cultural conditions for this boom, Pfitzer focuses on the business of book making and book promotion. He analyzes the subscription sales techniques of book agents as well as the aggressive prepublication advertising campaigns of the publishers, including the pictorial embellishments they employed as marketing devices.He also examines the reactions of professional historians who rejected the fictionalizing and poetic tendencies of popular history, which they equated with loose and undisciplined scholarship. Pfitzer explains how and why these professionals succeeded in challenging the authority of popular histories, and what the subsequent "unpopularity of popular history" meant for book culture and the study of history in the twentieth century.


Understanding plant response to herbivory facilitates the prioritisation of guilds of specialist herbivores as biological control agents based on their potential impacts. Prickly acacia (Acacia nilotica ssp. indica) is a weed of national significance in Australia and is a target for biological control. Information on the susceptibility of prickly acacia to herbivory is limited, and there is no information available on the plant organ (i.e. leaf, shoot and root in isolation or in combination) most susceptible to herbivory. We evaluated the ability of prickly acacia seedlings, to respond to different types of simulated herbivory (defoliation, shoot damage, root damage and combinations), at varying frequencies (no herbivory, single, two and three events of herbivory) to identify the type and frequency of herbivory that will be required to reduce the growth and vigour. Defoliation and shoot damage, individually, had a significant negative impact on prickly acacia seedlings. For the defoliation to be effective, more than two defoliation events were required, whereas a single bout of shoot damage was enough to cause a significant reduction in plant vigour. A combination of defoliation + shoot damage had the greatest negative impact. The study highlights the need to prioritise specialist leaf and shoot herbivores as potential biological control agents for prickly acacia.


BACKGROUND
There is controversy regarding whether, and how frequently, other cranial nerve deficits accompany Bell's palsy. We sought to determine prospectively the presence of signs indicating an associated cranial neuropathy in patients with Bell's palsy.

METHODS
All subjects presenting to an emergency department with Bell's palsy over a 2-year period were evaluated. The study included 51 consecutive patients. One patient with Bell's palsy was not examined by a neurologist at the time of presentation and was excluded. The main outcome measure was presence of other cranial nerve deficits.

RESULTS
We identified 4 patients with additional cranial neuropathies (contralateral trigeminal [n=1], glossopharyngeal [n=2], and hypoglossal [n=1]). We also identified 13 patients with ipsilateral facial sensory loss, suggesting an ipsilateral trigeminal neuropathy; 3 patients with a contralateral facial palsy; and 3 patients with hearing impairment.

CONCLUSION
This prospective study indicates that a small percentage (approximately 8%) of patients with otherwise typical Bell's palsy may harbor additional cranial neuropathies.


Recruitment and retention of participants to lifestyle modification studies can be challenging within a primary care setting. The management of factors such as travel, busy lifestyles and lack of regular follow up of participants can result in considerable attrition rates over the lifecycle of the project. The aim of the study was to understand from a research participant perspective the perceived barriers and facilitators in retaining community participants in primary health care research. This is a qualitative study with data collected from four focus groups facilitated at the end of each of three community forums focusing on sharing the findings of the Fremantle Primary Prevention Study. Overall twelve focus groups were facilitated with participants that had usual care or who were in the intervention arm of the Fremantle Primary Prevention study. Group size ranged from 6 to 10 participants with the interviewer following a semi structured focus group schedule. Thematic analysis extracted common themes from each focus group around contributing factors to participation. The key message was that relationships built over a longer time period with a GP, practice nurses and other practice staff was an important factor in retention of participants. In addition, ease of travel, convenience and regular check ups with the practice were all significant enticement to remain in a study over the course of the research. Being part of their regular GP practice's involvement in a study was clearly worthwhile as an incentive for participants and offers hope for practice-based research networks undertaking other community-based studies in the future.


We present ongoing work on PAStE, a system that supports a narrative director by describing a virtual world and managing the behavior of its characters. Rather than operating in the action domain of each individual actor, PAStE works at the scope of events -- pre-authored multi-actor sequences describing interactions between groups of actors and props. A director can select which event to perform, and populate that event with characters in the virtual world. Once an event is chosen, PAStE handles the event's execution with support for high-fidelity character animation on fully-featured 3D virtual humans. Events are an accessible tool for assembling narrative arcs, invoking contextual activities, and conceptualizing user intervention. We explore the possibilities presented by an event-centric behavior environment for conducting stories, and address some of the potential limitations.


In this paper, limited managerial capacity gives rise to a timing option: agents can implement projects now-or-later. Because each agent cares only about the project he implements, while the principal cares about the projects undertaken in aggregate, the timing option may be valued differently by the principal and the agents. Under a fair assignment rule (one that treats the agents symmetrically), these conflicting valuations result in agents sometimes not implementing the principal's desired projects. We identify conditions under which the optimal assignment rule necessarily exhibits favoritism. Favoritism is beneficial because it provides appropriate incentives to the unfavored agent by reducing his option value of waiting.


This investigation was carried out to explore EFL teachers' understating and perception of postmethod paradigm in English language teaching (ELT). It also aimed at EFL teachers' evaluation and implementation of this pedagogy in their profession. To do so, as a qualitative research method, semi-structured interview was applied. Seven Iranian EFL teachers participated in the interview sessions. The sessions were audio recorded for further analysis. The results of the data analysis showed that majority of the teachers were not fully aware of the nature of postmethod pedagogy. In addition, most of the EFL teachers were found to make the least use of this paradigm in their teaching career. The study ends with recommendations for ELT in educational system of Iran.


This work aims to evaluate Heterosgima akaskiwo and Chattonella subsalsa as biodiesel feedstocks when grown on CO2 and NO rich model flue gas. The growth rates of H. akaskiwo and C. subsalsa where higher when the cultures were bubbled with flue gas compared to when bubbled with air. The ability of H. akashiwo and C. subsalsa to survive high concentrations of NO may be due to a hydrid nitrate reductase, (NR22/2HbN), that may detoxify and convert nitric oxide to nitrate. H. akashiwo was able to grow to a higher cell density when bubbled with flue gas compared to when bubbled with air under nitrate deficient conditions, indicating that H. akashiwo may be able to use NO as an inorganic nitrogen source. When grown on flue gas, both H. akashiwo and C. subsalsa accumulated significantly more carbohydrates than when grown on air. This indicates that the high CO2 concentration in the flue gas was assimilated as carbohydrates, a direct product of photosynthesis. When H. akashiwo was grown at a high light intensity, the growth rate was not significantly different from that at a low light intensity, which suggests that light limitation during mass cultivation would not be an issue during biodiesel production. This work also explored the transcript abundance of key fatty acid synthesis genes to further understand fatty acid synthesis in microalgae. β-ketoacyl-ACP synthase transcript abundance varied with almost every treatment and may be a key regulator when H. akashiwo and C. subsalsa are under environmental stress. Overall, this works demonstrates that both H. akaskiwo and C. subsalsa can grown on model flue gas and be producers of high quality biodiesel.


In generalized linear estimation (GLE) problems, we seek to estimate a signal that is observed through a linear transform followed by a component-wise, possibly nonlinear and noisy, channel. In the Bayesian optimal setting, generalized approximate message passing (GAMP) is known to achieve optimal performance for GLE. However, its performance can significantly degrade whenever there is a mismatch between the assumed and the true generative model, a situation frequently encountered in practice. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm, named generalized approximate survey propagation (GASP), for solving GLE in the presence of prior or model mis-specifications. As a prototypical example, we consider the phase retrieval problem, where we show that GASP outperforms the corresponding GAMP, reducing the reconstruction threshold and, for certain choices of its parameters, approaching Bayesian optimal performance. Furthermore, we present a set of state evolution equations that exactly characterize the dynamics of GASP in the high-dimensional limit.


The behaviour of aggregate Australian private business investment has attracted relatively little attention in the literature over the past decade or so, probably reflecting the well-known difficulties associated with modelling it. This paper reviews the main drivers of Australian business investment through a discussion of some long- and short-run trends and estimation of error-correction models for its main components. Two innovations are introduced in the modelling approach. The first is that investment in computing equipment is excluded from the models, recognising that it cannot be treated in the same way as other types of investment, particularly in light of the dramatic falls in its relative price over recent decades. The second is that standard techniques are used to exclude influential observations when modelling the short-run variation in the data as a means of accounting for the considerable volatility in these variables. This improves the robustness of the estimation. The different types of investment – equipment, building and engineering – are found to be influenced by their own idiosyncratic factors, though for each type of investment, an inverse relationship between the investment-to-output ratio and its corresponding measure of the cost of capital is found.


While the long history of the fantastic is often critically examined, contemporary epic fantasy requires attention. This thesis will address a gap in genre scholarship and will focus on authors who have published from 1990 onwards. While this thesis will focus on close readings of a select few authors in order to delve into the complexity of these texts in greater detail, a wide sample of exemplars will be referred to, establishing the significance of this study on contemporary genre fantasy as a whole. This thesis introduces new ways of perceiving current productions of fantasy genre. It explores how the subgenre of heroic epic fantasy fiction exhibits a conscious awareness of its own form. By examining repetitive patterns of genre fantasy, the thesis argues that, rather than being simplistic, reductive, and formulaic, these structures create a layer of complexity and depth with each iteration. In doing so, heroic epic fantasy uses a resonance similar to that of epic mythology in order to create a new world with its own rational laws, one which follows the rationale of our own world. Thus, the thesis investigates structural and narrative patterns of heroic epic fantasy using models from science and philosophy. In this way, although the genre is generally viewed as irrational, the structure of the narrative reveals logical devices derived from real-world principles. Fantasy fiction is not an illogical form. It is, in fact, governed by a sense of rules and structure, one that reflects our current understanding of space-time and cosmology. More importantly, these real-world models are themselves an embedded facet of the narrative and essential to the way both story and character develops. Accordingly, the thesis depicts how these models are an integral part of the structure of heroic epic fantasy itself.


, 33(1), 2014, pp. 102-130 The four Seasons of Wellbeing (Discover, Transform, Awaken, and Integrate) refer to distinct rhythms, periods, and factors that inf luence the accessibility of an individual's resources during the journey of life. Each season is explicitly and implicitly related to an individual's experience, focus, and capacity for self-organizational states. Each can be used to understand, organize, and foster behavior change, positive growth, transformation, and human development. A genealogy of the seasons is described, emphasizing the empirical and theoretical foundations of Reorganizational Healing and its roots in models such as Grof 's Systems of Condensed Experiences (or COEX Systems) and Wilber's Integral Theory and Pre/Trans Fallacy. In the context of transpersonal medicine, the seasons offer a framework through which various levels and states associated with an individual's growth can be mapped and utilized for personal evolution. In this context, seasons are applicable for practitioners and clients who have used transpersonal states to avoid painful emotions or difficult actions. The seasons can guide transpersonal medical clients on a path towards transpersonal being and integration of various states leading to a higher organizational baseline. As a practical tool, the seasons have pertinence in the development of "transpersonal vigilance," a term defined in this article. The seasons offer resources to practitioners to support clients toward transpersonal being, in a reorganizationally informed or reorganizational way. Simon A. Senzon Private Practice Asheville, NC, USA Dan Lemberger Private Practice Boulder, CO, USA Donald M. Epstein Association for Reorganizational Healing Practice Washington, DC, USA


Community-based cross sectional study done to assess the awareness and attitude of rural young men and women toward HIV/AIDS.The study population included 850 young men and women in the age group of 18-30 years, belonging to Kuppam Mandal,Andhra Pradesh, using a two stage sampling design. Data collection was done using a semi structured pretested questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted a total of 60 questions, 40 regarding awareness about the cause and modes of transmission of HIV / AIDS, & 20 to assess the attitude toward people living with HIV / AIDS (PLHA). Statistical package SPSS version 11.5 was used, chi-square test was conducted & P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. In all, 18% of the women and 7% of men had not heard of AIDS at all. The findings showed that the rural women's knowledge was poor when compared to men (P<0.05). Level of literacy of men & women was significantly associated with their knowledge of HIV/AIDS (P<0.05), showing that literates had better knowledge than illiterates. There were several misconceptions and false beliefs about cause & spread of the infection which were found to be more prevalent among illiterates. Only about 12% of the respondents were willing to undergo the HIV test. The respondents with less than secondary school education had a discriminatory attitude toward HIV positive people, which was found statistically significant. Only 46% of the youth responded that it could be prevented and 20% knew that HIV could be present in apparently healthy looking persons. This study suggests a need for innovative, comprehensive scientific information particularly targeting the rural youth in order to impart better knowledge and understanding on HIV/AIDS.


Objective: To determine the impact of a family-based assessment-and-intervention healthy lifestyle programme on health knowledge and beliefs of children and families affected by obesity. Second, to compare the health knowledge of the programme cohort to those of a national cohort in Aotearoa/New Zealand (NZ). Design: This mixed-methods study collected health knowledge and health belief data in a questionnaire at baseline and 12-, 24-, and 60-month follow-up assessments. Health knowledge over time was compared with baseline knowledge and with data from a nationally representative survey. A data-driven subsumption approach was used to analyse open-text responses to health belief questions across the study period. Setting: Taranaki region, a mixed urban–rural setting in NZ. Participants: Participants (caregiver/child dyads) from the Whānau Pakari randomised trial. Results: A greater proportion of the cohort correctly categorised foods and drinks as healthy or unhealthy at 12 months compared to baseline for most questionnaire items. Retention of this health knowledge was evident at 24- and 60-month follow-ups. More than twice as many participants correctly reported physical activity recommendations at follow-up compared to baseline (p < 0.001). Health knowledge of participants was similar to the national survey cohort at baseline, but surpassed it at 12 and 24 months. Participant beliefs around healthy lifestyles related to physical functioning, mental and emotional wellbeing, and enhancement of appearance, and gained greater depth and detail over time. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the important role that community-level healthy lifestyle programmes can have in knowledge-sharing and health promotion.


The main objective of this study is to define an emergency response team's location in a specific area based on the risk of refinery's plants. The Centre of Gravity and Hakini network methodologies are both used to define the team's location in a network based on index values and distance between locations. These methodologies are different with respect to one basic concept concerning the possibility of defining critical locations in the network in the first case and boundaries on the second case. The index in this case will be the frequency of hazardous events in each plant located in the network. The two methodologies will be implemented and the results will be assessed. A sensitivity analysis will be carried out, looking at specific elements such as alternative routes and population dislocation in case of accidents. Furthermore, the real historical data and usual data used in Brazil for hazardous events will be assessed to check the influence on the final results. A third methodology, the Monte Carlo simulation, will be carried out to check the emergency team's availability, safety reliability and number of expected unwanted events to support the final decisions and verify if the best location takes some influence in emergency attendance efficiency. The refinery case study will be carried out to define emergency response team location in a Brazilian refinery.


This article proposes a comparison between the UK and the Italian rules on Related Parties Transactions. The differences found in the aforementioned systems may reveal complementarities with their ownership structure, both from a qualitative and quantitative point of view. However, the two set of norms are also the products of different underlying logics. Italian rules look adaptable to the needs and features of each company, whereas British rules look more rigid. The sophistication of recently adopted Italian rules potentially allows a dramatic reduction of transaction costs connected to the lacks in disclosure of business information and to mistakes in their assessment. However, such sophistication may well increase legal contracting costs. Our comparison shows as there may be trade-offs between certain categories of transaction costs, which can be reduced through sophisticated legal provisions, and other categories such as those related to legal consulting, which may well be increased precisely as a consequence of legal sophistication. Whereas the task of finding the right equilibrium between different sources of transaction costs may be approached in different ways by different legislators, deterrence may be definitely obtained in a more straightforward way. In this regards the British system still looks comparatively more efficient than the Italian one.


The MITRE Corporation's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are currently developing a set of enhancements to the User Request Evaluation Tool (URET) conflict probe. These enhancements are designed to further the support provided by URET for strategic Air Traffic Control, by extending the URET analysis and detection capabilities to new types of problems (e.g., severe weather), and facilitating the delivery of clearances using data link communications. The URET enhancements described in this paper provide support for the implementation of Traffic Flow Management (TFM) Flow Initiatives, severe weather avoidance, and assistance in clearance delivery using the FAA's Controller Pilot Data Link Communications capability. The URET problem detection capabilities are enhanced to indicate where controller action may need to be taken to implement a Miles in Trail Flow Initiative, or assist with severe weather avoidance. Analysis capabilities for these situations are provided by enhanced URET displays and Trial Planning capabilities. This paper provides a description of these enhancements as currently implemented in the CAASD En Route Research Prototype, their Concept of Use, and the methodology and results of initial laboratory evaluations.


When you're talking about the nation's seventh-largest financial holding company, complying with financial privacy laws means a beck of a lot more than printing and mailing a bunch of privacy notices once a year. For FleetBoston Financial--and Agnes Bundy Scanlan in particular--privacy represents a year-round challenge. Bundy Scanlan, an attorney, is FleetBoston's chief privacy officer and its chief compliance officer, and carries the corporate rank of managing director. She came to FleetBoston from the U.S. Senate staff in 1994. Privacy represents a major balancing act for FleetBoston, and Bundy Scanla, is right at the fulcrum of the issue. On one side of the see-saw is FleetBoston's legal, ethical, and moral obligations to comply with and respect customers' assorted rights to privacy and information security. On the other side is the bank's need to market products aggressively and competitively. Bundy Scanlan notes that FleetBoston has been working intensively on a major cross-selling effort. Bundy Scanlan, speaking during a privacy session at ABA's Regulatory Compliance Conference earlier this year, gave bankers a glimpse at how her $190 billion-assets organization manages to monitor and balance privacy issues in a network that involves 65 business lines. FleetBoston has already been through two privacy compliance examinations, a broad one in 2001 and a more-targeted effort in 2002. Structuring for the challenge At the top of the privacy coordination hierarchy at FleetBoston is the Privacy Executive Council, a high-ranking group that meets monthly to monitor the overall range of privacy issues and their impact on FleetBoston. A "hands on" body, the Privacy Working Task Force is comprised of middle managers who meet biweekly. Tackling more specialized aspects of privacy are other groups. These include the bank's USA Patriot Act Council, another group tasked with dealing with the recently passed California privacy legislation, and a working group that has been handling the privacy implications of HIPAA--the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Bundy Scanlan's compliance staff includes five employees dedicated to privacy full-time, and there are other bankers within FleetBoston who have dotted-line involvement with her area. An intelligence unit that is part of the bank's compliance department handles privacy aspects of the Bank Secrecy Act and Patriot Act and other anti-money-laundering requirements. FCRA as the centerpiece There are many issues dealing just with the laws that are already, on the books. However, there are also pending matters in Congress and various state legislatures. The top federal issue for the industry, of course, is what happens with the Fair Credit Reporting Act in Congress this year. Key parts of the act that place a limited restriction on state financial privacy laws expire at the end of 2003, with information sharing with affiliates of particular concern to many bankers. As an organization doing business nationwide, FleetBoston considers FCRA its prime privacy issue right now. If Congress fails to extend the act before yearend, FleetBoston's business model will be upset by potential, unexpected limitations on cross-selling ability. …


When optical coherence tomography (OCT) is used for human retina imaging, its transverse resolution is limited by the aberrations of human eyes. To overcome this disadvantage, a high resolution imaging system for living human retina, which consists of a time domain OCT system and a 37-elements adaptive optics (AO) system, has been developed. The AO closed loop rate is 20 frames per second, and the OCT has a 6.7-μm axial resolution. In this paper, this system is introduced and the high resolution imaging results for retina are presented.


The heme-heme oxygenase system has recently been recognized to possess important regulatory properties. It is tightly involved in both physiological as well as pathophysiological processes, such as cytoprotection, apoptosis, and inflammation. Heme functions as a double-edged sword. In moderate quantities and bound to protein, it forms an essential element for various biological processes, but when unleashed in large amounts, it can become toxic by mediating oxidative stress and inflammation. The effect of this free heme on the vascular system is determined by extracellular factors, such as hemoglobin/heme-binding proteins, haptoglobin, albumin, and hemopexin, and intracellular factors, including heme oxygenases and ferritin. Heme oxygenase (HO) enzyme activity results in the degradation of heme and the production of iron, carbon monoxide, and biliverdin. All these heme-degradation products are potentially toxic, but may also provide strong cytoprotection, depending on the generated amounts and the microenvironment. Pre-induction of HO activity has been demonstrated to ameliorate inflammation and mediate potent resistance to oxidative injury. A better understanding of the complex heme-heme


Although it is now well established across diverse samples that the frequency of offending 'decays' as distance from the home/base increases, it remains unclear what form of decay function best characterises this relationship. Different forms of decay function refl ect different patterns and rates of decrease in the likelihood of offending as distance from the home/base increases. These different patterns imply rather different underlying psychological processes. Therefore, considerations of the particular function characterising distance decay elucidate explanations of offender spatial behaviour. To bring to light the possible psychological and behavioural processes inherent in offending distance decay, the present study examined the fit of logarithmic, negative exponential, and quadratic decay functions to the distribution of the distances travelled to offend by a sample of 70 prolific burglars from the UK. It is argued that these functions are consistent with the operation of perceptual processes of magnitude estimation, friction or effort effects, and the influences of cost-benefit assessments, respectively. The results indicate that offending distance decay patterns most closely fit the logarithmic function, consistent with Stevens' perceptual processes of distortion in magnitude estimation, whilst not ruling out additional processes relating to the increased effort required in travelling greater distances to offend. Because most geographical profiling systems are built upon the distance decay function, the impact of utilising the different forms of function on the accuracy of geographic profiles was also assessed utilising 'search cost' calculations. The results showed little impact of applying different decay functions. Thus, whilst the decay function does have important theoretical implications for understanding offender spatial behaviour, it is noted that the particular variant used does not significantly impact on the effectiveness of geographical profiling systems as they currently exist.


Higher-order process calculi are formalisms for concurrency in which processes can be passed around in communications. Higher-order (or process-passing) concurrency is often presented as an alternative paradigm to the first order (or name-passing) concurrency of the pi-calculus for the description of mobile systems. These calculi are inspired by, and formally close to, the lambda-calculus, whose basic computational step ---beta-reduction--- involves term instantiation.

The theory of higher-order process calculi is more complex than that of first-order process calculi. This shows up in, for instance, the definition of behavioral equivalences. A long-standing approach to overcome this burden is to define encodings of higher-order processes into a first-order setting, so as to transfer the theory of the first-order paradigm to the higher-order one. While satisfactory in the case of calculi with basic (higher-order) primitives, this
indirect approach falls short in the case of higher-order process calculi featuring constructs for phenomena such as, e.g., localities and dynamic system reconfiguration, which are frequent in modern distributed systems. Indeed, for higher-order process calculi involving little more
than traditional process communication, encodings into some first-order language are difficult to handle or do not exist. We then observe that foundational studies for higher-order process calculi must be carried out directly on them and exploit their peculiarities.

This dissertation contributes to such foundational studies for higher-order process calculi. We concentrate on two closely interwoven issues in process calculi: expressiveness and decidability. Surprisingly, these issues have been little explored in the higher-order setting. Our
research is centered around a core calculus for higher-order concurrency in which only the operators strictly necessary to obtain higher-order communication are retained. We develop the basic theory of this core calculus and rely on it to study the expressive power of issues
universally accepted as basic in process calculi, namely synchrony, forwarding, and polyadic communication.


We interviewed VR users $(\mathrm{n}=25)$ about their experiences with harassment, abuse, and discomfort in social YR. We find that users' definitions of 'online harassment' are subjective and highly personal, making it difficult to govern social spaces at the platform or application level. We also find that embodiment and presence make harassment feel more intense. Finally, we find that shared norms for appropriate behavior in social VR are still emergent, and that users distinguish between newcomers who unknowingly violate expectations for appropriateness and those users who aim to cause intentional harm.


An enquiry into the causes of migrations out of Nigeria should begin by rejecting the assumption that every migrant was escaping from poverty, squalor, deprivation and want. Another widely held assumption that should be discountenanced is that the focus of such migrations out of the country is Europe, North America, and other advanced countries of the world. Such popular assumptions have neglected an important aspect of migration out of Nigeria – the social parameters that determine emigration. This work concentrates on a little-studied aspect of what engendered migration out of Nigeria. This is the gap between social need and social reality and the tension engendered between the middle-class ideology of consumption and the reality of social upward mobility. There developed a new level of interest and a lively counterculture on the heels of social needs, social acceptance and upward social mobility. This became the phenomenon of 'Checking out'. This was euphemism for leaving the country not as a result of indigence but as a matter of or in search of prestige and, or, comfort. As a result of this, a whole new generation of youths from 1989 or thereabout, out of personal and social considerations became 'embassy crawlers'' and "visa hunters"- these in themselves became forms of social status. Since then it is roughly estimated that two of every five University undergraduates and College students became interested not in seeking gainful employment after graduation, but in leaving Nigeria. Similarly, gainfully employed young men and women preferred to leave their jobs in search of glamour and excitement abroad. Salaries and wages became visa application fees rather than money deployed in search of material comfort.


Campylobacter organisms are the most commonly reported bacterial causes of foodborne infection in the world, with Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli responsible for over 99% of reported infections. Traditionally, Campylobacter species detection is an arduous process, requiring a special incubation environment as well as specific growth media for an extended growth period. The development of a rapid and reliable diagnostic tool for the detection of Campylobacter species would be a valuable aid to the medical diagnostic decision process, especially to rule out Campylobacter infection during the enteric pre-surgical time period. Improved patient outcomes would result if this rapid assay could reduce the number of enteric surgeries. Assays performed during this dissertation project have demonstrated that both SYBR® green and hydrolysis probe assays targeting an 84 nucleotide portion of cadF, a fibronectin-binding gene of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli, were able to detect from 101 to 108 copies of organism from stool specimens, did not detect nonspecific targets, and exhibited a coefficient of variation (CV) of 1.1% or less. Analytical validation of sensitivity, specificity and precision, successfully performed in these studies, warrants additional clinical validation of these assays.


A particular phenotype is generated through numerous networks of interactions from within the cell to the whole ecosystem. The level of the environmental noise and the ability of a given genotype to render different phenotypes under different environmental conditions, called phenotypic plasticity, determine survival or death at individual and/or population level. It is important to highlight that non-lethal environmental changes are important for generating genetic variability and promoting biological adaptations. However, when the level of environmental noise starts to be stressed, the developmental stability (DS) of the organism can be perturbed. The DS has been analysed through the symmetry deviations in organs or organisms with bilateral structure. The symmetry deviations occur due to inability to contain disorders from environmental or endogenous conditions during its development. This deviation is called fluctuating asymmetry (FA) when is a non-directional deviation in the symmetry of a bilateral structure normally distributed in a population. Low FA has been associated with greater DS. The analysis of FA has often been used to measure the effects of environmental perturbations. In this review, I discuss the concept of plant stress and phenotypic plasticity connecting both to the generation of an asymmetry phenotype, highlighting the usefulness of FA as an indicator of the level of stress which the organism is subjected to. Further, although this review explores mainly the connection between FA and stress in plants, the ecological context of symmetry in animals and plant-insect interaction is also discussed. Finally, I provided some methodologies used to detect symmetry variations in organs or organisms with bilateral structure.


The personal income tax has a critical effect on the rate of return that households earn on their investments. Taxes reduce the rate of return, and they do so to different degrees for different assets. Assets that generate mostly capital gains, for example, historically have faced lower tax burdens than those that generate either interest or dividend income. Assets that are held in tax-deferred retirement savings accounts, such as Individual Retirement Accounts or 401(k) plans, face lower tax burdens than assets that are held outside such accounts. Much of my recent research has explored the impact of income tax rules on household portfolio behavior. Investigating whether households recognize the incentives that are built into the income tax code, and then studying whether they change their behavior in response to these incentives, is one of the perennial research missions of empirical public economics. Investigating these issues in the portfolio choice setting is particularly attractive because the tax rules are reasonably clear and subject to frequent change. Many of the behavioral changes that one might expect in response to capital income taxes, such as selling assets with accrued losses or holding tax-exempt rather than taxable bonds, are also easier to implement than the behavioral changes that might be associated with tax incentives for labor supply or homeownership. Households may choose to invest in a wide array of financial assets, and there are often asset-specific tax rules that determine the relationship between pretax and aftertax returns. Part of my research has focused on taxpayer response to specific tax rules on particular classes of assets, while another part has explored more broadly how the structure of household portfolios, and the allocation of portfolio assets between taxable and tax-deferred accounts, is affected by taxation. Capital Gains Taxation and Investor Behavior The capital gains tax is one of the most widely-studied components of the U.S. tax code. Because gains are taxed only when they are realized, investors have some control over their tax burden. By delaying the sale of an asset that has increased in value, investors can defer their capital gains tax and thereby reduce the present discounted value of their tax liability. Conversely, by realizing a loss as soon as it accrues, an investor can benefit immediately from any tax relief that may be provided on loss realizations. A critical issue in the design of the capital gains tax is the extent to which capital gains taxation distorts trading behavior by taxable investors. Zoran Ivkovich, Scott Weisbenner, and I (1) have investigated capital gains lock-in using data on individual brokerage account transactions. We compare the trading decisions of individuals who own both taxable and tax-deferred accounts. Since the capital gains tax affects gains and losses realized in the taxable account, but not those in tax-deferred accounts such as IRAs and Keogh plans, we can test whether taxes affect trading behavior. We find pronounced differences in trading between the two accounts. While there is a high degree of turnover in both accounts in the first few months after a stock is purchased, we find that by six months after purchase, realization probabilities for gains in the taxable account are substantially below those for tax-deferred accounts. We also find that losses are more likely to be realized if they occur in a taxable account rather than a tax-deferred account. "Basis step-up at death" is an aspect of the current capital gains tax that figures prominently in the estate planning and asset trading decisions of many investors, particularly those at advanced ages. The tax on capital gains that accrue during an investor's lifetime, but are never realized, are not taxed if the assets are bequeathed to another individual. The tax basis in such assets is "stepped up" to the market value at the time of death. …


Abstract According to the cognitive‐developmental theory, intellectual development is best understood in terms of age‐related changes. This has been found to be a valid theory in the case of mentally subnormal subjects as well, although their development proceeds at a speed and up to a level different from their normal age‐mates. The same theory has been applied to moral development and describes it, likewise, as a stage‐like progress of moral reasoning with age. The present study tries to answer the following question: Does the moral reasoning of the subjects classified as subnormal change with age so that it can be said to develop? According to the results obtained (dealing with subjects nine‐, 11‐, 13‐, 15‐ and 17‐years‐old), the cognitive‐developmental hypothesis of moral development is only partially confirmed. Namely, there is a development from the less to the more mature forms of moral reasoning, but the course of that development is not entirely such as the theory assumes. Moreover, moral reasoni...


Abstract Mental health professionals are well versed in addressing multiple adolescent risky behaviours and play a primary role in the identification of and referral process and service provision for young people who engage in such behaviours. Given their 'person-in-environment' approach, training in multi-sectoral collaboration, and awareness of social policies, social workers are especially equipped to provide needed mental health services to young people. The aim of the current study was to examine Israeli mental health professionals' awareness of and attitudes towards adolescent high-risk behaviours, including gambling. Child psychologists, social workers and school counsellors (N = 273) completed an online survey addressing concerns related to high-risk behaviours. Findings revealed that social workers perceived gambling as being among one of the least concerning adolescent mental health issues and reported feeling the least confident in their abilities to provide services to young people with gambling problems. The results suggest the importance of youth gambling addictions being incorporated into social work training curricula.


Sex determination from bones is of vital importance in anthropological studies and medico-legal cases. The present study focused on measurements of the Humerus and to evaluate the differences in sex present in the morphology through statistical analysis. Method: In our study, 120 dry adult humeri (56 right side & 64 left side) were studied of known sex. Damaged bones were excluded from the study. Each Humerus was measured for 11 parameters; measurements were taken by using a sliding caliper as described in the textbook of anthropology and previous studies. The osteometric data of the Humerus of present study is statistically analyzed and compared with other similar studies. Results: Statistical tests were applied to the metrical data obtained to assess whether the differences between the means of each parameter are statistically significant or not. Length of Humerus, the weight of the Humerus, Mid-shaft circumference, Transverse and Vertical diameter of superior articular surface, Bi-epicondylar width of the Humerus have been found to be more discriminatory parameters for the identification of sex from Humerus.


Mohseni, Z., i. Bernousi, B. A. MAndoulAkAni and r. dArvishZAdeh, 2015. Genetic diversity in Papaver bracteatum and Papaver somniferum populations revealed by issr markers. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 21: 485–493 inter-simple sequence repeat (issr) markers were used to assess genetic diversity and structure of two populations of Papaver bracteatum and one population of Papaver somniferum. Fifteen ISSR primers amplified 135 lociwhich 117 (86.6%) were polymorphic. The genetic diversity estimated by Shannon's information index (I) was 0.283 and 0.1 for P. bracteatum and P. somniferum, respectively. Eighty-three (61%) fragments were found to be useful as species-specific markers and 52 fragments were conserved between two species. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed that the genetic variation mostly allocated to among species (64%). UPGMA clustering algorithm differentiated and classified studied genotypes and populations in three distinct groups. The result of the present study indicated a wide range of variation in the phenetic relationship among P. bracteatum and P. somniferum. Also, species-specific bands generated could be used to develop the species-specific sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) markers.


In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the use of remotely sensed data to address global issues. With the open data policy, the data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) sensors have become a critical component of numerous applications. These two sensors have been operational for more than a decade, providing a rich archive of multispectral imagery for analysis of mutitemporal remote sensing data. This paper focuses on evaluating the radiometric calibration agreement between MODIS and ETM+ using the near-simultaneous and cloud-free image pairs over an African pseudo-invariant calibration site, Libya 4. To account for the combined uncertainties in the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance due to surface and atmospheric bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF), a semiempirical BRDF model was adopted to normalize the TOA reflectance to the same illumination and viewing geometry. In addition, the spectra from the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) Hyperion were used to compute spectral corrections between the corresponding MODIS and ETM+ spectral bands. As EO-1 Hyperion scenes were not available for all MODIS and ETM+ data pairs, MODerate resolution atmospheric TRANsmission (MODTRAN) 5.0 simulations were also used to adjust for differences due to the presence or lack of absorption features in some of the bands. A MODIS split-window algorithm provides the atmospheric water vapor column abundance during the overpasses for the MODTRAN simulations. Additionally, the column atmospheric water vapor content during the overpass was retrieved using the MODIS precipitable water vapor product. After performing these adjustments, the radiometric cross-calibration of the two sensors was consistent to within 7%. Some drifts in the response of the bands are evident, with MODIS band 3 being the largest of about 6% over 10 years, a change that will be corrected in Collection 6 MODIS processing.


People are constantly craving for attention. People often have to divide their attention towards many different subjects (and their own personal daily life) – attention, then, has become a thing to compete for and it has become limited. In today's world, it is often deemed that the economy is driven by "the production and exchange of information than by the production and exchange of material goods." However, it is actually the attention of the customer/audience, in its limited state, that leads to the competition for attention to keep the economy running – thus, the concept of 'Attention Economy' – where it is considered as a form "currency between industries/individual to industries/individual." Using Davenport and Beck's concept of "Attention Economy" as the point of departure, this paper endeavors to showcase the understanding of the interplay between industries and the audience – the Indonesian Middle-Class Muslims. Locating the issues in the contexts of the Fashion, Celebrity, and the Entertainment industries, the paper then analyzes the benefit and the possible effects of the industries' practice of the concept – in terms of their focus allocation in gaining and sustaining attention of the audience. Keywords: Attention Economy; Audience; Celebrity; Fashion; Middle-Class Muslims


The presence or absence of magma exerts a fundamental control on the distribution of strain in continental rift zones, yet the time scales of magma intrusion remain unconstrained. Using more than a decade of measurements from interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), we detected geodetic activity at four of the eleven central rift volcanoes in the Kenyan sector of the East African Rift. Subsidence of 2–5 cm occurred at Suswa and Menengai over the period 1997–2000, ~9 cm of uplift was recorded at Longonot in 2004–2006, and ~21 cm of uplift occurred at Paka during 2006–2007. The deformation is episodic, and no deformation was observed at these volcanoes during other time periods. Preceding the infl ation at Paka, we observed transient uplift and subsidence of a second, nearby source, likely associated with fl ow through a complex plumbing system. The best-fi tting source models for each episode include infl ation or defl ation of a horizontal penny-shaped crack at a depth of 2–5 km. The episodic nature of the activity, its lack of correlation with seasons, and the preferred source geometry are all consistent with activity in the volatile-rich cap to a crystal-rich magma chamber beneath each of the four volcanoes. The presence of active magmatic systems beneath more than 40% of the volcanoes, and the 2007–2008 explosive eruptions at nearby Oldoinyo Lengai volcano, have implications for models of continental rifting, caldera volcanoes, geothermal resources, and volcanic and seismic hazard in rift zones.


Dialysis catheter‐related bacteremia (CRB) can frequently be treated with systemic antibiotics, in conjunction with an antibiotic lock, in an attempt to salvage the catheter. It is unknown whether CRB associated with an exit‐site infection can be treated with such an approach. We retrospectively queried a prospective, computerized vascular access database, and identified 1436 episodes of CRB, of which 64 cases had a concurrent exit site. The frequency of concurrent exit‐site infection was 9.6% with Staphylococcus epidermidis, 6.1% with Staphylococcus aureus, and only 0.7% with Gram negative CRB (p < 0.001 for Staphylococcus vs. Gram negative rods). Five serious complications (four major sepses and one endocarditis) occurred in 24 patients with S. aureus infection, but none in 32 episodes of S. epidermidis infection (p = 0.01). Catheter survival was significantly shorter in patients with S. aureus infections. The median catheter survival (without infection or dysfunction) was 14 days with S. aureus vs. 30 days with S. epidermidis infection (p = 0.035). In conclusion, concurrent exit‐site infection is seen most commonly in association with Staphylococcal CRB. When the infecting organism is S. epidermidis, attempted salvage with systemic antibiotics and an antibiotic lock is reasonable. However, prompt catheter removal is indicated when the pathogen is S. aureus.


Abstract This paper presents a phylogenetic analysis of the "Fallotaspidoidea," a determination of the biogeographic origins of the eutrilobites, and an evaluation of the timing of the Cambrian radiation based on biogeographic evidence. Phylogenetic analysis incorporated 29 exoskeletal characters and 16 ingroup taxa. In the single most parsimonious tree the genus Fallotaspidella Repina, 1961, is the sister taxon of the sutured members of the Redlichiina Richter, 1932. Phylogenetic analysis is also used to determine the evolutionary relationships of two new species of "fallotaspidoids" distributed in the White-Inyo Range of California that have been previously illustrated but not described. These species had been referred to Fallotaspis Hupé, 1953, and used to define the occurrence of the eponymous Fallotaspis Zone in southwestern Laurentia. However, these two new species need to be reassigned to Archaeaspis Repina in Khomentovskii and Repina, 1965. They are described as Archaeaspis nelsoni and A. macropleuron. Their phylogenetic status suggests that the Fallotaspis Zone in southwestern Laurentia is not exactly analogous to the Fallotaspis Zone in Morocco, where that division was originally defined. Thus, changes to the biostratigraphy of the Early Cambrian of southwestern Laurentia may be in order. Furthermore, specimens of a new species referable to Nevadia Walcott, 1910, are recognized in strata traditionally treated as within the Fallotaspis Zone, which is held to underlie the Nevadella Zone, suggesting further biostratigraphic complexity within the basal Lower Cambrian of southwestern Laurentia. Phylogenetic analyses of the Olenellina and Olenelloidea, along with the phylogenetic analysis presented here, are used to consider the biogeographic origins of the eutrilobites. The group appears to have originated in Siberia. Biogeographic patterns in trilobites, especially those relating to the split between the Olenellid and Redlichiid faunal provinces are important for determining the timing of the Cambrian radiation. Some authors have argued that there was a hidden radiation that significantly predated the Cambrian, whereas others have suggested that the radiation occurred right at the start of the Cambrian. The results from trilobite biogeography presented here support an early radiation. They are most compatible with the notion that there was a vicariance event relating to the origin of the redlichiinid trilobites, and thus the eponymous Redlichiid faunal province, from the "fallotaspidoids," whose representatives were part of the Olenellid faunal province. This vicariance event, based on biogeographic patterns, is likely related to the breakup of Pannotia which occurred sometime between 600–550 Ma, suggesting that the initial episodes of trilobite cladogenesis occurred within that interval. As trilobites are relatively derived arthropods, this suggests that numerous important episodes of metazoan cladogenesis precede both the earliest trilobitic part of the Early Cambrian, and indeed, even the Early Cambrian.


Oyster populations in Virginia's waters of Chesapeake Bay were lightly exploited until the early 1800s, when industrial fishery vessels first arrived, driven south from New England due to the collapse of northeastern oyster fisheries. Early signs of overexploitation and habitat degradation were evident by the 1850s. The public fishery, where oyster fishers harvest on state-owned bottom, rapidly developed after the Civil War and peaked in the early 1880s. Declines were noted by the late 1880s and prompted the creation of Virginia's shell-planting and oyster-seed (young-of-the-year, YOY) moving repletion program in the 1920s. Despite management and increasing repletion efforts, the public fishery collapsed (annual landings < 10% of peak historical landings) by the early 1960s. The private leasehold fishery, in which individuals rent areas outside the public grounds to plant shells and oysters for their own private use, surpassed the public fishery by the late 1920s, partly masked this decline due to overfishing, habitat degradation and diseases until both public and private fisheries completely collapsed in the mid-1980s after a third disease outbreak. This disease outbreak was likely related to warming waters. Overfishing and concomitant habitat loss followed a pattern of sequential population collapses observed in wild oyster fisheries along the Coastlines of the United States and worldwide. In recent years, expanding hatchery-produced seed oysters and aquaculture significantly increased leasehold landings. The wild fishery has also increased as disease resistance developing naturally in the wild stocks, but remains approximately 5% of peak landings. Improved management has assisted in this recent limited recovery, improving these efforts further by enhancing stock recovery via large no-take sanctuaries, among other actions, could assist in stock recovery.


A Controlled Parking Zone was implemented in Barnet in January 1990. The aim was to give more opportunity for residents' and shoppers' parking by reducing the extent of long-stay non- resident parking. Following the introduction of the controlled zone the number of parking acts recorded on-street fell by around a fifth, and mean durations also fell. At off-street car parks the number of vehicles recorded remained almost constant, but mean durations dropped. The introduction of parking meters to the High Street has created more legal parking opportunities and reduced parking on yellow lines. Mean journey times through the High Street have decreased southbound, and northbound an increase in flow has occurred. The level of illegality has increased only marginally between the "before" and "after" situation, despite the introduction of different types of parking regulation. Decrementing pre-payment cards have proved operationally successful, although their use has only accounted for 4.5% of revenue at pay-and-display machines. The controlled zone is operating successfully: more parking space has been provided for residents and shoppers, at the expense of non-resident commuters. (A)


The main onus of responsibility for the current global economic predicament is on the financial system, not on a lack of fiscal discipline. Nonetheless, the crisis is having an extremely severe impact on the real economy, which is felt most acutely in the southern Eurozone member states. Since the end of the deepest phase of the crisis in 2009, European governments have committed themselves to fiscal consolidation. The results of these policies have been perverse: the impact of fiscal tightening during a depression may result in depressed output and high unemployment, without lowering the debt-Gross Domestic Product ratio. In light of this, we make a case for restoring growth in Europe without further delay, and discuss the role of the EU budget as an instrument for setting and implementing a real EU growth strategy.


The production of a primordial stochastic gravitational-wave (GW) background by processes occuring in the early Universe is expected in a broad range of models. Observing this background would open a unique window onto the Universe's evolutionary history. Probes like the cosmic microwave background (CMB) or the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) can be used to set upper limits on the stochastic GW background energy density &OHgr; GW ?> for frequencies above 10−15 Hz. We perform a profile likelihood analysis of the Planck CMB temperature anisotropies and gravitational lensing data combined with WMAP low-ℓ polarization, BAO, South Pole Telescope and Atacama Cosmology Telescope data. We find that &OHgr; GW h 0 2 < 3.8 × 10 − 6 ?> at a 95% confidence level for adiabatic initial conditions, which improves over the previous limit by a factor 2.3. Assuming that the primordial GW has been produced by a network of cosmic strings, we have derived exclusion limits in the cosmic string parameter space. If the size of the loops is determined by gravitational back-reaction, string tension values greater than ∼4 × 10 − 9 ?> are excluded for a reconnection probability of 10−3.


We investigated the effect of the fasting-induced reduction in triiodothyronine (T3) on metabolic changes that occur during fasting. In five obese women (T3 group) the serum T3 level during a 2200 kcal/day diet was 3.34 +/- 0.23 nmol/l while taking 20 micrograms T3 8-hourly, 0.65 +/- 0.04 after one week of fasting while not taking T3, and 2.9 +/- 0.3 after a second week of fasting while taking T3 20 micrograms 8-hourly. In three other obese women (control group) who did not take T3, T3 concentrations decreased during fasting and remained low at the end of both the first and second week of fasting. In the T3 group, resting metabolic rate (RMR) (O2 ml/min) decreased 11.7 percent at the end of one week of fasting, but then increased by 5.3 percent at the end of the second week of fasting, whereas in the control group RMR decreased by 13.1 percent after one week of fasting and a further fall of 13.3 percent occurred by the end of the second week of fasting. The RMR at the end of 2 weeks of fasting of the control group was significantly lower (P less than 0.05) than predicted using the equation of Dore, whereas that of the T3 group was as predicted using the same equation. The changes in leucine flux, leucine oxidation and non-oxidative portion of leucine flux were not different during fasting between the T3 group and the control group. Plasma concentrations of glucose, insulin and C-peptide increased from the end of one week of fasting to the end of 2 weeks of fasting in the T3 group, whereas they decreased in the control group. It is concluded that the changes in T3 concentration during fasting affected RMR, glucose metabolism and insulin secretion but failed to influence leucine metabolism.


This thesis is an assessment of interreligious dialogue in India developed as an approach to other religions in the context of exclusivist attitudes. While dialogue is important in such a context, nevertheless, in terms of its wider objectives of creating better relationships in society, it has some limitations which need to be addressed for it to be more effective in society. Studying the past 60 years of dialogue in India and undertaking field-research in south India, this thesis discusses three such limitations. Firstly, critiquing the notion of world-religion categories which is fundamental to dialogue, it argues that such categories are products of the western Enlightenment and colonialism leading to framing colonised people's identities largely in terms of religion. Dialogue, emphasising the plurality of religions, has appropriated these notions although people live with multiple identities. Secondly the idea of religious conflicts serves as the basic context for dialogue in which dialogue should take necessary actions to contain them. While the concern to do away with conflicts through dialogue needs to be furthered, this thesis considers the multiple factors involved in such conflicts and works for solutions accordingly. Analysing through a case study a clash in 1982 in Kanyakumari district which continues to be termed as Hindu-Christian conflict, this thesis shows that there are multiple factors associated with each communal conflict, and dialogue needs to understand them if it is to work effectively. Thirdly it critiques the elite nature and methods in dialogue which ignore grass root realities and call for 'taking dialogue to grassroots.' The argument is that grassroot experiences of relating with each other in everyday living should be incorporated in dialogue for better results. What is proposed at the end is a necessity of re-visioning dialogue which can lead to fostering 'inter-community relations based on multiple identities and everyday living experiences of ordinary people' that invites one to enlarge the horizons to comprehend the plurality of relations and identities, not just plurality of religions, understand and address real-life conflicts and question naming conflicts as religious, and incorporate grassroot experiences of everyday living in continuing to work for a more peaceful society.


A large number of approaches have been developed to simplify construction of, and to reduce errors in, data-driven applications. However, these approaches have not been particularly concerned with compile-time type safety. Type mismatch errors between program and the database schema occur quite often during program development, and the techniques used in these approaches often defer error checking on database operations until runtime. In this thesis, we take a different approach from those previously proposed, based on strict type checking at compile time, type inference, higher-order functions, phantom types, object relational mapping, and loosely coupled database interaction. Instead of using external, literal XML file and string type SQL, we embed the mapping meta data and user defined queries directly in the program, the type safety of which is guaranteed by the program compiler. Such a result is achieved by introducing additional database schema information and using type avatars, a dummy structure used to extend the type checking to embedded queries, during compilation. We show that this approach is practical and effective by implementing a compile-time type-safe object relational framework, called Qanat, in the OCaml programming language and using a loosely coupled SQL database. We further report experimental results obtained by running a number of benchmark tests, and compare the resulting Qanat applications with the equivalent, raw database driver based applications.


Saudi Arabia is home to the world's third largest migrant population. Under mounting pressure to increase the private sector employment of Saudis during the last decade, a series of nationalization policies on the labor force have been imposed since late 2011. In this paper, we study how the first nationalization policy, Nitaqat, affected the overall labor market and non-oil firms in the private sector, especially exporting firms. Our rich and novel data allow us to assess the effect of the policy on a wide set of outcomes: employment decisions by composition and size, the output and productivity of exporting firms, labor costs, and exit from the market. Using a difference-in-difference analysis, we compare the 2011 to 2012 change in outcomes between firms above and firms below the threshold required for the minimum share of Saudi workers in a firm. Our results suggest that the policy succeeded in encouraging firms to increase the share of Saudis in private firms. It also increased the share of Saudi women in the workforce, suggesting that the policy had a positive effect on increasing female labor force participation. However, these gains came at a very high cost to firms: our findings suggest that the policy led to a reduced firm size, reduced productivity and output of exporting firms, increased wage bill, increased share of low-skilled Saudi workers, and higher firm exit rates.


Industry and universities around the world invest time and money to develop digital computer programs to predict gas turbine performance. This study aims to demonstrate a brand new digital model developed with the ability to simulate gas turbine real time high fidelity performance. The model herein described run faster than 30ms per point, which is compatible with a high-definition video refresh rate: 30 frames per second. This user-friendly model, built in Visual Basic in modular structure, can be easily configured to simulate almost all the existing gas turbine architectures (single, 2 or 3 shaft engines mixed or unmixed flows). In addition, its real time capability enables simulations with the pilot in the loop at earlier design phases when their feedback may lead to design changes for improvements or corrections. In this paper, besides the model description, it is presented the model run time capability as well as a comparison of the simulated performance with a commercial gas turbine tool for single, 2 and 3 shaft engine architecture.


This paper discusses the development of women's football on the predominantly Muslim island of Zanzibar as portrayed in two documentary films: "Zanzibar Soccer Queens" (2006, Florence Ayisi) and "Zanzibar Soccer Dreams" (2013, Florence Ayisi, Catalin Brylla). "Zanzibar Soccer Queens" contributed to the development of local women's football by challenging traditional gender divisions, promoting the renegotiation of female self-identity and subverting stereotypical media portrayals of African women. Thus, the film encouraged a paradigm shift within Zanzibar, as well as within an international public, medial and academic context. This impetus resulted in considerable transformations in the local community, which "Zanzibar Soccer Dreams" maps in relation to education, emancipation and the new status of women's football.
Both documentaries focus on Zanzibar's first women's football club, Women Fighters FC, and its coach, Nassra Mohammed, who founded the club in the 1980s. Nassra has been a driving force in developing women's football in Zanzibar, despite obstacles generated out of orthodox socio-cultural and religious traditions. Women Fighters is not only a club but also a community of women that has resisted traditional definitions of womanhood and the male-dominated oppressions impeding women's participation in outdoor sports.
The government has listened to Nassra and responded positively by changing its policy to allow girls to participate in football as part of sports education in schools. Times have truly changed in the playing fields of football in Zanzibar since the 1980s.
This presentation will include two short video clips from both films.


Clinically speaking, the term "amebiasis" refers to human infection with the pathogen Endamoeba histolytica. While an experienced physician may obtain considerable evidence that his patient is suffering from amebiasis, his presumptive diagnosis needs laboratory confirmation. Moreover, a large proportion of infected individuals present no clear-cut symptoms referable to this disease and the first evidence is provided when a stool specimen of the patient is sent to the laboratory for microscopic examination. Thus, amebiasis, like brucellosis, depends primarily on the laboratory for its diagnosis.
REQUIREMENTS FOR DEPENDABLE LABORATORY DIAGNOSIS OF AMEBIASIS 1. Demonstration of Endamoeba histolytica. Although the time may come (or possibly soon be at hand) when relatively dependable diagnosis of amebiasis can be made by serologic methods, today, just as a quarter of a century ago, proof of infection requires that the ameba itself must be demonstrated under the microscope.
In unformed stools and tissue aspirates E. histolytica typically occurs in the trophozoite stage.


The process of normalizing drones throughout Africa has received little scholarly attention. Discussions of drone proliferation tend to assume that the drone industry is a monolithic, geographically concentrated entity, and that drone use will look the same and engender the same controversies, regardless of geography. The article aims to think through African drone proliferation by analyzing how drones and Africa are being construed as solutions to each other's problems, and by exploring the interface between images of Africa and the notion of the drone as a game changer for development and security.  The article also reads the African drone in the context of the early deployment of surveillance drones in Africa in the 1970s, as well as the legacy of technological imperialism and colonial airpower. The perception of Africa as being in need of external drone intervention dovetails with the drone industry's efforts to identify and promote good uses for drones—efforts that are central to increasing the legitimacy of drones in the eyes of the Global North.  Hence, the article argues that the 'African drone' has become a vehicle for the production and distribution of norms, resources, and forms of legitimacy that have implications for drone proliferation, both within and outside Africa.


The Federal Circuit has been the target of a flurry of criticism regarding its claim construction jurisprudence. District judges, members of the bar, academics, and even the court's own judges have been highly critical of the court's rate of reversal of claim construction appeals, which peaked above 40%. Partially in response to the critics, the Federal Circuit undertook to reassess its claim construction jurisprudence in the Phillips case in 2005. The empirical and theoretical studies that have emerged since Phillips suggest that little has changed: the Federal Circuit's high reversal rate persists and the court's procedures remain unaltered. This Article contradicts those perceptions based on a comprehensive empirical analysis of the Federal Circuit's claim construction jurisprudence from 2000 through 2011. We find that the reversal rate has dropped significantly since Phillips, dipping to 16.5% in 2009 from a high of 44% in 2004. Not only has the reversal rate plummeted, it has done so across the board: all judges on the Federal Circuit are now more likely to affirm claim construction decisions than they were previously, and nearly every technology sector case is more likely to be affirmed on appeal. Phillips signaled the beginning of an era of increasing yet "informal deference" to district court claim construction decisions. The current era of informal deference does not mean, however, that the problems of claim construction have been adequately resolved. Notwithstanding the drop in the reversal rate, the Federal Circuit's adherence to the de novo standard has frustrated district courts' distinctive capabilities for apprehending and resolving the factual disputes inherent in claim construction determinations, undermined the transparency of the claim construction process, discouraged detailed and transparent explanations of claim construction reasoning, and produced alarming levels of appellate reversals. The Supreme Court's Markman decision supports a balanced, structurally sound, legally appropriate, hybrid standard of appellate review that would promote more accurate, efficient patent dispute resolution. Under this standard, the Federal Circuit would defer to trial judges' factual determinations in claim construction rulings-such as how a person having ordinary skill in the art would understand technical terms


Many animals regulate their population density by patterns of behavior that would be easy to explain if the forces of natural selection acted to optimize group properties. But Darwinian selection acts on individuals, not groups, and most simple theories have shown group selection to be too slow ever to oppose individual selection successfully. In this book Michael Gilpin presents a model, based on predator-prey dynamics, wherein nonlinear effects are important, so that small advantages to the selfish individual are nonlinearly amplified into disaster for his group. The result is that group selection can be rapid and powerful. Of course many instances of apparent group selection can be explained by kin selection; in other cases, close examination reveals that seemingly altruistic behavior directly benefits the individual genotype as well as the group. The value of the monograph is that it provides a robust model in which group selection, pure and unadulterated, can be seen to work.


The use of plastics and composite materials as the base structure for a floating solar photovoltaic system commonly known as floatovoltaic system can cause negative impact to the environment especially the aquatic life and human. Additive materials are infused to form the plastics by which giving adverse effect to our metabolism. Despite the fact that the plastics are durable, to create and recycle it will produce toxic materials of many kinds in addition to the higher expenses for floatovoltaic installation. The unique approach of floatovoltaic is further discussed withstanding the continuous constraint of limited and suitable land for solar PV farms. This paper presents field analysis of the development of coconut-trunk as the base structure for a floatovoltaic system with regards to the environmental impact. A framework based on the density and buoyancy of the coconut trunk material is considered for the design


Organic dyes are examined in photoelectrochemical systems wherein they engage in thermal (rather than photoexcited) electron donation into metal oxide semiconductors. These studies are intended to elucidate fundamental parameters of electron transfer in photoelectrochemical cells. Development of novel methods for the structure/property tuning of electroactive dyes and the preparation of nanostructured semiconductors have also been discovered in the course of the presented work. Acceptor sensitized polymer oxide solar cell devices were assembled and the impact of the acceptor dyes were studied. The optoelectronic tuning of boron-chelated azadipyrromethene dyes has been explored by the substitution of carbon substituents in place of fluoride atoms at boron. Stability of singlet exited state and level of reduction potential of these series of aza-BODIPY coumpounds were studied in order to employ them as electron-accepting sensitizers in solid state dye sensitized solar cells.


Leptomeningeal anastomoses or pial collateral vessels play a critical role in cerebral blood flow (CBF) restoration following ischemic stroke. The magnitude of this adaptive response is postulated to be controlled by the endothelium, although the underlying molecular mechanisms remain under investigation. Here we demonstrated that endothelial genetic deletion, using EphA4f/f/Tie2-Cre and EphA4f/f/VeCahderin-CreERT2 mice and vessel painting strategies, implicated EphA4 receptor tyrosine kinase as a major suppressor of pial collateral remodeling, CBF and functional recovery following permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion. Pial collateral remodeling is limited by the cross talk between EphA4-Tie2 signaling in vascular endothelial cells, which is mediated through p-Akt regulation. Furthermore, peptide inhibition of EphA4 resulted in acceleration of the pial arteriogenic response. Our findings demonstrate EphA4 is a negative regulator of Tie2 receptor signaling which limits pial collateral arteriogenesis following cerebrovascular occlusion. Therapeutic targeting of EphA4 and/or Tie2 represents an attractive new strategy for improving collateral function, neural tissue health and functional recovery following ischemic stroke.


The aim of this study was to investigate seroprevalences to zoonotic pathogens in hunters, to compare the results with other predisposed occupational groups already investigated and to propose preventive measures. Blood samples were taken from 146 male and 3 female hunters from the provinces of Styria and Burgenland in the south-east of Austria and anamnestic data were obtained using a questionnaire. The serological investigations included the following bacterial, viral and parasitic zoonotic agents or zoonoses, respectively (antibody prevalence rates in brackets): borreliosis (IgG 42%, IgM 7%), brucellosis (1%), chlamydiosis (3%), ehrlichiosis (IgG 15%, IgM 3%), leptospirosis (10%), tularaemia (3%), Q fever (0%), encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV, 15%), Puumala-Hantavirus (10%), Newcastle Disease virus (4%), Echinococcus multilocularis/E. granulosus (5%/11%), toxocariasis (17%). Particularly striking in comparison with the control group and the veterinarians, farmers and slaughterhouse workers examined in earlier projects were the high seroprevalences to Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, Ehrlichia spp., Leptospira interrogans, E. granulosus and E. multilocularis, encephalomyocarditis, Puumala-Hantavirus and Newcastle Disease virus as well as to Brucella abortus and Francisella tularensis. The present study indicates that hunters are especially exposed to zoonotic pathogens.


Pre-empting novels such as the Booker Prize-winning 'Time's Arrow' by as much as twenty years, Counter-Clock world is a story of racial tensions told against the background of the year 1998 in which time flows in reverse as people are born old only to grow younger and younger. Time runs backwards in the Counter-Clock World. Old people emerge from their graves, grow to middle age, youth, adolescence and childhood to be finally unborn in their mothers wombs. The most powerful - and most feared - organisation in the world is the Library, in charge of expunging the written records of events, which have no longer happened. When a powerful black leader is reborn, the Library's one concern is to eliminate him before the renewal of racial violence tears the country apart. But in this counter-clock year of 1998 it isn't that simple...This eerie and unforgettable premise encapsulates Philip K Dick's ambitious and inimitable approach to fiction writing. The attempts of his characters to cope with the bizarre reality of a world that runs backwards while their minds run forwards like ours, operate as a stunning critique of the way in which we perceive our own civilization.


It is generally believed in India that works of art are made on the basis of the normative works. The same is true in the case of Tamil literature of South India: especially the case between the oldest grammar and poetics, Tolkāppiyam, and the ancient literature ( Sangam literature) of the 1st-3rd Century A.D., consisting of about 2400 poems of love and war. This book deals with the relationship between them with special focus on love poetry, investigating a large number of its technical terms concerning their original meanings and historical changes. The ancient love poems had a considerable influence on later literature, such as Bhakti literature, epics, and purāṇas. This is an indispensable work of reference for Tamil love poetry and is also useful for Tamil and Indian literatures.


In sub-Saharan Africa, property relationships around land and access to natural resources vary across localities, districts and farming regions. These differences produce patterned variations in relationships between individuals, communities and the state. This book captures these patterns in an analysis of structure and variation in rural land tenure regimes. In most farming areas, state authority is deeply embedded in land regimes, drawing farmers, ethnic insiders and outsiders, lineages, villages and communities into direct and indirect relationships with political authorities at different levels of the state apparatus. The analysis shows how property institutions - institutions that define political authority and hierarchy around land - shape dynamics of great interest to scholars of politics, including the dynamics of land-related competition and conflict, territorial conflict, patron-client relations, electoral cleavage and mobilization, ethnic politics, rural rebellion, and the localization and 'nationalization' of political competition.


This briefing is referring to research which has taken place during the last three years in the
Building Construction Laboratory in EPSEB. For this work we relied on the help of two
students of the Building Construction School of Barcelona (Spain)
In our first research project, we discovered that Barcelona has two registers of war damaged
buildings during the bombardments that took place in the city during the Spanish Civil War
between 1936 and 1939. These registers identify the rate of damage to the buildings in
various parameters (Total ruin, partial ruin and slight damage).
The first register belongs to the Passive Defence Council that registered, more or less, about
1800 buildings. The second register relates to all the calls that were made by the Barcelona's
firemen during the bombardments, and these account for approximately 1600 buildings. The
difference between the two registers, about 200 buildings, is due to differences of viewpoint
between both organisations. In spite of this, there is not a significant difference, so for this
research we have used the Barcelona's firemen call's register.
From all this data and the cartographic information that is currently available in Barcelona's
Administrative Archive, we began, first of all, to work on identifying and later cataloguing the
actual condition of all buildings that were damaged during the bombardments in Barcelona.
This research has allowed us to study the current condition of the damaged buildings, though
we centred the research only on the facades. Accordingly, we have been able to conclude
that, nowadays, most of the war-damaged heritage buildings are still in existence, and also
we have examined the cracks and fissures that appeared in the buildings during the
bombardments.
This research has allowed us to explore new work and research lines which we intend to
develop shortly. At the present, for example, we are analyzing the impact caused to those
buildings which were directly affected by bombs, as well as the buildings surrounding those
that received the impacts.


A combination of large tidal range, high temperatures and low rainfall in NW Western Australia markedly restricts mangrove development to a narrow belt which fringes the shores and short tidal creeks. Nonheterocystous cyanobacterial mats cover a large proportion of the extensive saline flats behind the most landward mangroves (Avicennia marina). These mats are predominantly composed of Microcoleus chthonoplastes and Phormidium sp. and show significant nitrogen fixation rates. From 1-128 kg of nitrogen could be fixed per hectare annually. The nitrogen contained within these mats may be leached by tidal inundation and by the sporadic, but intense, rainfall. Leaching rates were 3-7 mg N m-2 h-1 in seawater. Enclosure experiments estimated that 68 kg N ha-1 could be exported annually to the adjacent mangrove systems.


Abstract. Rotating multi-beam LIDARs mounted on moving platforms have become very successful for many applications such as autonomous navigation, obstacle avoidance or mobile mapping. To obtain accurate point coordinates, a precise calibration of such a LIDAR system is required. For the determination of the corresponding parameters we propose a calibration scheme which exploits the information of 3D reference point clouds captured by a terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) device. It is assumed that the accuracy of this point clouds is considerably higher than that from the multi-beam LIDAR and that the data represent faces of man-made objects at different distances. After extracting planes in the reference data sets, the point-plane-incidences of the measured points and the reference planes are used to formulate the implicit constraints. We inspect the Velodyne HDL-64E S2 system as the best-known representative for this kind of sensor system. The usability and feasibility of the calibration procedure is demonstrated with real data sets representing building faces (walls, roof planes and ground). Beside the improvement of the point accuracy by considering the calibration results, we test the significance of the parameters related to the sensor model and consider the uncertainty of measurements w.r.t. the measured distances. The Velodyne returns two kinds of measurements – distances and encoder angles. To account for this, we perform a variance component estimation to obtain realistic standard deviations for the observations.


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In the Federal Republic of Germany, with its parliamentary system of democratic governance, threats posed by natural hazards are of key national relevance. Storms cause the majority of damage and are the most frequent natural hazard, the greatest economic losses are related to floods, and extreme temperatures such as heatwaves cause the greatest number of fatalities. In 2002 a New Strategy for Protecting the Population in Germany was formulated. In this context, natural hazard governance structures and configurations comprise the entirety of actors, rules and regulations, agreements, processes, and mechanisms that deal with collecting, analyzing, communicating, and managing information related to natural hazards.
 The federal structure of crisis and disaster management shapes how responsible authorities coordinate and cooperate in the case of a disaster due to natural hazards. It features a vertical structure based on subsidiarity and relies heavily on volunteer work. As a state responsibility, the aversion of threats due to natural hazards encompasses planning and preparedness and the response to disaster. The states have legislative power to create related civil protection policies. The institutional and organizational frameworks and measures for disaster response can, therefore, differ between states. The coordination of state ministries takes place by activating an inter-ministerial crisis task force. District administrators or mayors bear the political responsibility for disaster management and lead local efforts that can include recovery and reconstruction measures. The operationalization of disaster management efforts on local levels follows the principle of subsidiarity, and state laws are implemented by local authorities.
 Based on this structure and the related institutions and responsibilities, actors from different tiers of government interact in the case of a natural hazard incident, in particular if state or local levels of government are overwhelmed:
 • states can request assistance from the federal government and its institutions;
 • states can request assistance from the police forces and authorities of other states; and
 • if the impact of a disaster exceeds local capacities, the next higher administrative level takes on the coordinating role.
 Due to the complexity of this federated governance system, the vertical integration of governance structures is important to ensure the effective response to and management of a natural hazard incident. Crisis and disaster management across state borders merges the coordination and communication structures on the federal and state levels into an inter-state crisis management structure.
 Within this governance structure, private market and civil society actors play important roles within the disaster cycle and its phases of planning and preparedness, response, and recovery/reconstruction, such as flood insurance providers, owners of critical infrastructure, volunteer organizations, and research institutions.
 • critical infrastructure is a strategic federal policy area in the field of crisis management and is considered a specific protection subject, resulting in particular planning requirements and regulations;
 • volunteer organizations cooperate within the vertical structure of disaster management;
 • flood insurance is currently available in Germany to private customers, while coverage is considered low; and
 • research on natural hazards is undertaken by public and private higher education and research institutions that can form partnerships with governmental institutions.


A good moral theory should provide useful norms for our day-to-day moral perceptions, deliberations, choices, and practices. It should accommodate human cognitiveconstraintsandrespondtothecomplexitiesofactualexperiencedlives.In other words, our moral theories should be psychologically and socially realistic.A number of contemporary moral philosophers agree. They have taken an empirical turn by drawing on research from cognitive science, neuroscience, and the social sciences and by conducting their own experiments. We now have edited volumes with such titles as The Neuroscience of Morality (Sinnott-Armstrong 2008b), The Cognitive Science of Morality (Sinnott-Armstrong 2008a), and Experimental Philosophy (Knobe and Nichols 2008). Much of this work centers on folk intuitions about moral dilemmas and the brain processes underlying the making of moral judgments. In order to control these neurological and psychological experiments, subjects are usually presented with a paragraph of text and then asked to reason about and make judgments on the situation described in the text. Rather than have subjects read and respond to paragraphs of text, social scientists such as Lee Ross and John Nisbett (1991) have placed subjects in actual, real-life situations. Their research has shown how much our social situations can influence our perceptions and behaviors. Moral philosopher John Doris (2002) has used Nisbett's and similar social science research to argue that supposed moral character traits are not so trait-like after all. So far, however, moral philosophers have had little to say about how an agent should (1) decide that a situation is one of ethical import to begin with, (2) determine what is relevant to the moral reasoning process, and (3) compensate for implicit biases. It is impossible for an agent to be morally responsive if she fails to identify the morally salient aspects of her experience. A handful of moral philosophers have noticed this oversight, but they fail to engage with recent work in cognitive science. Barbara Herman (1993), for example, who describes her project as a "normative reconstruction of Kant," argues that the Kantian account of moral judgment can and should be supplemented with an account of moral perception. She provides such an account but concedes that Kant himself did not (73‐93). In what follows I first describe a morally responsive agent and the role that moral perception plays in moral responsiveness. I then discuss problems tied to rule-based norms for moral perception. Next, I examine in more detail the thought processes that comprise moral perception and the built-in constraints on these processes by drawing on recent advances in cognitive science. I focus primarily on bs_bs_banner


Background : To determine the net clinical benefit of a new treatment strategy, information on both survival and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) is required. However, to make an adequately informed decision, PRO evidence should be of sufficiently high quality. Objective : To investigate the methodological quality of PRO reporting in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in patients with brain tumours, and to assess the proportion of studies that should impact clinical decision-making. Methods : We conducted a systematic literature search in several databases covering January 2004 to March 2012. We selected relevant RCTs and retrieved the following data: (1) basic trial demographics and PRO characteristics, (2) quality of PRO reporting, and (3) risk of bias. Studies that should impact clinical decision-making based on their methodological robustness were analysed systematically. Results : We identified 14 RCTs, representing over 3000 glioma patients. Only two RCTs (14%) satisfied sufficiently many key methodological criteria to provide high-quality PRO evidence, and should therefore impact clinical decision-making. Important methodological limitations in other studies were lack of reporting of the extent (43%) and reasons (86%) of missing data and statistical approaches to handle this (71%). PRO results were not interpreted in 79% of the studies and clinical significance was not discussed in 86%. Studies with high-quality PRO evidence generally showed lower risk of bias. Conclusions : Investigators involved in brain tumour research should pay special attention to methodological challenges identified in current work. The level of PROs reporting should continue to improve in order to facilitate a critical appraisal of study results.


Accepted: 23 Jul 2015 Abstract Introduction: Hypertension contributes significantly to worldwide cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. As a matter of fact, hypertension appears to have a complex association with endothelial dysfunction. Hence, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of 4-week isometric handgrip exercise on changes of flow mediated dilation (FMD) and blood pressure within females suffering from hypertension. Methods: The study participants consisted of 14 women aged 30-55, who were selected on the basis of their BMI as well as sort of consumed medicine for their hypertension. All the participants were trained three times per week for 4 weeks. FMD brachial artery and blood pressure were assessed before the exercises beginning and 24 hours after the last exercise session. The study data were analyzed using dependent t-test (pretest-posttest design) at significance level of p=0.05. Results: According to the study results, significant changes were observed in regard with FMD, systolic, and diastolic blood pressure (p= 0.001, p=0.006, and p= 0.001 respectively) in the experimented group. Conclusion: The findings of the present study demonstrated that isometric handgrip exercise, producing a positive effect on the endothelial function, can potentially reverse the endothelial dysfunction in N, 4-week isometric on of flow dilation