Fire is a ubiquitous component of the Earth system that is poorly understood. To date, a global-scale understanding of fire is largely limited to the annual extent of burning as detected by satellites. This is problematic because fire is multidimensional, and focus on a single metric belies its complexity and importance within the Earth system. To address this, we identified five key characteristics of fire regimes—size, frequency, intensity, season, and extent—and combined new and existing global datasets to represent each. We assessed how these global fire regime characteristics are related to patterns of climate, vegetation (biomes), and human activity. Cross-correlations demonstrate that only certain combinations of fire characteristics are possible, reflecting fundamental constraints in the types of fire regimes that can exist. A Bayesian clustering algorithm identified five global syndromes of fire regimes, or pyromes. Four pyromes represent distinctions between crown, litter, and grass-fueled fires, and the relationship of these to biomes and climate are not deterministic. Pyromes were partially discriminated on the basis of available moisture and rainfall seasonality. Human impacts also affected pyromes and are globally apparent as the driver of a fifth and unique pyrome that represents human-engineered modifications to fire characteristics. Differing biomes and climates may be represented within the same pyrome, implying that pathways of change in future fire regimes in response to changes in climate and human activity may be difficult to predict.


ABSTRACT Transparency has been upheld by the dominant Zeitgeist of the twenty-first century as an all-purpose recipe for addressing the ills associated with resource-led developmental transformation. However, little attention has been paid to the bargains and contestations accompanying its institutionalisation in resource-rich countries. To gain a fuller understanding of how transparency interventions interact with the deeper vectors of power and politics embedded in resource governance, this article examines the dynamics of NGO participation in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an international auditing and multi-stakeholder oversight initiative, adopted by Ghana in 2003. By recasting the analytic problem around the optic of NGO contestation and representation, the article offers a more nuanced engagement with the material politics of negotiability, contestation, and representation that drive EITI compliance, non-compliance, and de-compliance. Drawing from an overall comparative political economy approach and a heuristic model highlighting the intricate dynamics of transparency, the overriding argument ranks the understated contestations within the NGO community around the EITI and the disparity between its platforms and the representational processes of democratic accountability among the most formidable threats to the EITI's noble ambition of securing optimum resource-led transformation.


Drawing on original documentation - sketches, photographs and the iconic axonometrics - the book explores the creative process of James Stirling: from the early inspirations of Liverpool's docks to his devotion to Le Corbusier, acknowledging the fundamental role of the partnerships with James Gowan and Michael Wilford. Described by his mentor Colin Rowe as an architectural connoisseur, Stirling analyses the past through relentless observational skills and elaborates it as a source of creativity and as a context to respect. The most eccentric British architect leaves a legacy that is not confined to history alone, but it continues to be paradigmatic for generations of architects to come.


Shame and guilt are moral emotions that result from deviations from internalized standards. Both constructs differ with respect to their genesis, to the emotions accompanying them, and to their behavioral consequences. Shame is associated with a loss of self-respect, social withdrawal, anger, and aggression. Guilt, on the other hand, supports prosocial behavior and motivates compensation for the inflicted loss. Based on repeated interviews with 1,243 offenders from six prisons for young offenders, the study examined to what extent feelings of shame and guilt experienced during a prison term influenced recidivism after release. An event-history analysis indicated that feelings of guilt at the beginning of a prison term correlated with lower rates of recidivism, and feelings of shame correlated with higher rates. Results are discussed with regard to their implications for further research and the justice system.


Online consumers are largely unaware of the extent to which their actions are governed by legal terms in the form of clickwraps or browsewraps. These contracts are enforced without any evidence of knowing assent to the terms, but only if the consumer has some notice that a contract exists. The standards for notice are low and consumers routinely click and browse without forming a single thought relative to the legal obligations that arise with online conduct – legal obligations that frequently would not arise with procuring the same goods and services in the real world. Commentators have been hopelessly scrambling to propose various schemes for bringing home to consumers the fact that they are entering enforceable contracts.This article debunks the idea that notice of the existence of a contract should be the measure of enforceability. The concept of notice relies on the purely fictional notion that a reasonable consumer with notice of legal provisions will stop, read them, understand the terminology, appreciate their legal significance, and decide to proceed or not. The relish for notice is irreconcilable with our knowledge that consumers do not, and cannot, read and comprehend even a fraction of the wrap contracts they encounter. Moreover, the law punishes those few who read because any hope for persuading a court to undertake an unconscionability analysis of a contract is lost to parties who admit to having read the contract. Thus, the law does not offer consumers a reasonable option for making better decisions about legal commitments online. Wrap contracts are merely the means for the powerful drafters to legislate legal results.This Article contains a review of cases addressing clickwraps and browsewraps in the last decade, which amply illustrates that courts are enforcing them without much, if any, discussion of the length, print, density, or sophistication of the language or the parties, in part, because no one expects consumers to read them. This article then reviews the duty to read rule, and its meager exceptions, as well as the status of the unconscionability doctrine. This analysis supports little hope that courts will begin to police wrap contract excesses. This Article then evaluates various proposals for addressing the problem of wrap contracts and concludes that, while most proposals are some improvement, none hold any significant promise for real change. Finally, this Article concludes with several proposals for reform, including an example of the kind of notice that would be required to give meaning to the theoretical concept that the market will adjust as actors make informed choices.


As the world's second largest recipient of Foreign Direct Investment, Brazil received 50% of the Private Equity funds directed towards Latin America in 2000. However Brazil's Venture Capital and Private Equity industries still face many challenges. The high level of real interest rates during the last decade, the small participation of pension funds in the market, and the poor development of the capital markets are among the main limitations going forward. Striking differences exist between the private equity industries in Brazil and the United States, and some interesting alternative development models for Brazil are explored.


Looking for something to read or listen to this summer? Check out the latest books, graphic novels, magazines, music, eBooks and audiobooks. Select a tab below to get started! Try this great reads.


Efficient management and propagation of temporal constraints is important for temporal planning as well as for scheduling. During plan development, new events and temporal constraints are added and existing constraints may be tightened; the consistency of the whole temporal network is frequently checked; and results of constraint propagation guide further search. Recent work shows that enforcing partial path consistency provides an efficient means of propagating temporal information for the popular Simple Temporal Network (STN). We show that partial path consistency can be enforced incrementally, thus exploiting the similarities of the constraint network between subsequent edge tightenings. We prove that the worst-case time complexity of our algorithm can be bounded both by the number of edges in the chordal graph (which is better than the previous bound of the number of vertices squared), and by the degree of the chordal graph times the number of vertices incident on updated edges. We show that for many sparse graphs, the latter bound is better than that of the previously best-known approaches. In addition, our algorithm requires space only linear in the number of edges of the chordal graph, whereas earlier work uses space quadratic in the number of vertices. Finally, empirical results show that when incrementally solving sparse STNs, stemming from problems such as Hierarchical Task Network planning, our approach outperforms extant algorithms.


The ability to perceive structure using motion information was examined using a reaction time task with two primate species. Homo sapien and Macaca mulatta subjects were quantitatively tested under identical conditions to detect the change from a control unstructured to a test structured motion stimulus. The structures underlying the test were rotations of a plane, expansion of a plane, and a rotation of a three-dimensional cylinder. On many of the stimulus conditions, the two species performed similarly, although there were some species differences. These differences may be due to the extensive training of the monkeys or the use of different cognitive strategies by the human subjects. These data provide support for the existence of a neural mechanism that uses flow fields to construct two- or three-dimensional surface representations.


From April 2012-July 2013 Kingston University's Centre for Iris Murdoch Studies and Archives and Special Collections developed a project supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund relating to our new Collection of over 200 letters from novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch to her close friend and fellow philosopher Philippa Foot. The letters cover over forty years in the lives of these remarkable women and refer to many major events that took place during this time. The letters also explore their friendship as it evolved, continuing when Philippa was based in the USA while Iris continued to work and live in the UK. To celebrate this, the project became known as 'The Arc of Friendship'.

While the Iris Murdoch collections held in Kingston University Archives are well used by our students and Murdoch scholars from around the world, there is no denying that researchers have predominantly come from academic backgrounds. The challenge of this project was to open up the collection to those who would not otherwise use it – particularly school groups and local community groups, including Kingston Carers, Mind in Kingston, Age Concern Kingston and Adults with Learning Difficulties Kingston.

This paper showcases this successful project, explaining the preparatory work that took place in order to open up the collection to a wider audience. This work included close liaison with the community groups. It describes the archive visits and activities and also the lessons we learned from the experience. The presentation has a particular focus on our encounter with Adults with Learning Difficulties and how they were enabled to create work related to a literary collection in response to their exposure to the archive. This work was included in the Exhibition at Kingston Museum (3 – 25 May 2013) which formed a public focus for the project.


Hazard mapping in poorly known volcanic areas is complex since much evidence of volcanic and non-volcanic hazards is often hidden by vegetation and alteration. In this paper, we propose a semi-quantitative method based on hazard event tree and multi-hazard map constructions developed in the frame of the FP7 MIAVITA project. We applied this method to the Kanlaon volcano (Philippines), which is characterized by poor geologic and historical records. We combine updated geological (long-term) and historical (short-term) data, building an event tree for the main types of hazardous events at Kanlaon and their potential frequencies. We then propose an updated multi-hazard map for Kanlaon, which may serve as a working base map in the case of future unrest. The obtained results extend the information already contained in previous volcanic hazard maps of Kanlaon, highlighting (i) an extensive, potentially active ~5 km long summit area striking north–south, (ii) new morphological features on the eastern flank of the volcano, prone to receiving volcanic products expanding from the summit, and (iii) important riverbeds that may potentially accumulate devastating mudflows. This preliminary study constitutes a basis that may help local civil defence authorities in making more informed land use planning decisions and in anticipating future risk/hazards at Kanlaon. This multi-hazard mapping method may also be applied to other poorly known active volcanoes.


Infectious diseases are among the most important common diseases worldwide that bring stupendous costs for human community. Medicinal plants are considered a rich source of antimicrobial agents and therefore can be used as antimicrobial remedies because of producing secondary metabolites. This article was designed to review the effective medicinal plants on fungi and fungal disease. In this study, the relevant articles published in Persian and English languages were searched for in the databases Magiran, Iranmedex, Irandoc, PubMed, Scopus, SID, Web of Science, and Science Direct using the search engine Google Scholar. To maximize the comprehensiveness of the search, the general terms antimicrobial, dermatophyte, mycotic, Iran, and anti-Candida as well as their Persian equivalents were used. AND and OR were used for combining searches. Medicinal herbs such as Zataria multiflora, Thymus vulgaris, Thymus kotschyanus, Punicagranatum L., Rosmarinus officinalis L., Matricaria chamomilla L., Urtica dioica L., Mentha piperita L. and Salvia officinalis L., Thymus vulgaris, Salvia officinalis, Eucalyptus globulus, Myentha piperita, Oliveria decumbens, Echinophora Platyloba, Thymus eriocalyx and Thymus X-porlock, Achillea millefolium, Artemisia sieberi, Cuminum cyminum, Nigella sativa, Heracleum persicum, Hyssopus officinalis, Matricaria recutital, Menta spicata, Foeniculum vulgare, Pimpinella anisum, Plargonium graveolens, Rosmarinus officinalis, Saturia hortensis, Zataria multiflora, Thymus kotschyanus, Zataria multiflora, Ziziphora clinopodioides, Mentha piperita L., Physalis alkekengi L., Hymenocrater longiflorus Benth and are the most important Medicinal herbs effective on fungal diseases. Medicinal herbs mentioned in this study due to phenolic compounds and antioxidant activities have antifungal effects.


This one-day workshop seeks to reflect on the notion of fab- rication in both personal and industrial contexts. Although these contexts are very distinct in their economical and polit- ical vision, they share important characteristics (e.g., users interacting with specific fabrication equipment and tools). The workshop topic spans from personal fabrication to (au- tomated) production, from applied to theoretical considera- tions, from user requirements to design as a crafting practice. We will address changes in production that affect humans, e.g., from mass production to Do-It-Yourself (DIY) produc- tion, in order to discuss findings and lessons learned for in- dividual and collective production workplaces of the future. We aim to explore the intersections between different dimen- sions and processes of production ranging all the way from hobbyist to professional making. Furthermore, the workshop will critically reflect on current developments and their conse- quences on personal, societal, and economical levels includ- ing questions of the reorganization of work and labor, inno- vation cultures, and politics of participation.


Session types allow communication protocols to be specified type-theoretically so that protocol implementations can be verified by static type checking. We extend previous work on session types for distributed object-oriented languages in three ways. (1) We attach a session type to a class definition, to specify the possible sequences of method calls. (2) We allow a session type (protocol) implementation to be modularized, i.e. partitioned into separately-callable methods. (3) We treat session-typed communication channels as objects, integrating their session types with the session types of classes. The result is an elegant unification of communication channels and their session types, distributed object-oriented programming, and a form of typestate supporting non-uniform objects, i.e. objects that dynamically change the set of available methods. We define syntax, operational se-mantics, a sound type system, and a sound and complete type checking algorithm for a small distributed class-based object-oriented language with structural subtyping. Static typing guarantees that both sequences of messages on channels, and sequences of method calls on objects, conform to type-theoretic specifications, thus ensuring type-safety. The language includes expected features of session types, such as delegation, and expected features of object-oriented programming, such as encapsulation of local state.


Abstract. Mechanical damage by floodwaters is frequently invoked to explain the distribution of riparian plant species, but data have been lacking to relate vegetation to specific estimates of flood damage potential. This research uses detailed estimates of unit stream power (an appropriate measure of the potential for mechanical damage) in conjunction with vegetation cover data to test this relationship at 37 valley-bottom sites in the Transverse Ranges of Southern California. A computer program, HEC-2, was used to model the slope and the variation in flow depth and velocity of the 20-yr flood across the sites. Regression models tested the influence of stream power (and of height above the water table) on the woody species composition of 393 4-m cross-section segments of the valley-bottom sites. Results indicate that unit stream power does have a significant effect on the riparian vegetation, but that the amount of that influence and its importance relative to the influence of height above the water table varies between watersheds. Some species are found primarily in locations of high stream power, while others are limited to portions of the valley bottom that experience only low stream power.


Since Rose's (2004) striking finding of negligible WTO trade effects, numerous studies have at- tempted to solve the so-called WTO puzzle. These studies adopt novel model specifications to control for potential sources of bias, but often lead to conflicting results. Multilateral resistance terms (MRTs), unobserved country-pair heterogeneity (UCPH) and heteroskedastic errors in log- linear model are considered the most crucial controls. What has gone unnoticed, however, is that the first two controls lead to identification problems in the estimation of WTO trade effects. We show that controlling for MRTs leads to near-prefect multicollinearity because of a structural rela- tionship between the variables that measure the GATT/WTO membership statuses of any country- pairs. Also because of this structural relationship, accounting for UCPH using country-pair fixed effects (CPFEs) could reduce the number of observations that contribute to the identification of WTO trade effects by more than 98%. These identification problems make the estimates of WTO trade effects very imprecise and sensitive to model specifications, partly explaining the diverse re- sults in the literature. We propose a two-stage method that avoids these identification problems.


ECOLOGY OF FOOTHILL YELLOW-LEGGED FROGS IN UPPER COYOTE CREEK, SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA by Thomas Earl Gonsolin Jr. Visual encounter surveys, mark-recapture technique, and telemetry were used investigate breeding, movement, growth, habitat preferences, and predators of foothill yellow-legged frogs on Coyote Creek in Santa Clara County, California, from March 2004 to March 2006. The main stem and tributaries were intermittent in summer in all three years. Thermal conditions for breeding initiation were alike during 2004, 2005, and 2006. Breeding occurred in the main stem on descending limbs of the hydrograph. No breeding occurred in the middle main stem reach, which is ephemeral. Breeding occurred at less than an order of magnitude greater than base flows. Typically, larger females bred earlier, and egg mass size decreased as the breeding season progressed during 2004 and 2005. Males arrived earlier and remained in breeding areas longer. Resident tributary frogs moved greater distances than main stem frogs to breed. Females tended to travel farther than males and occupied habitats farther from the breeding areas. Frogs on Coyote Creek showed faster growth during their first year than Sierra Nevada and north Coast Range populations. Both sexes preferred pools and boulder-dominated habitat on both the main stem and tributary. Santa Cruz garter snakes were the most frequently encountered predator in the study area. However, all diurnal predators were scarce on the tributaries. Perennial water is a limiting factor within the study area, as illustrated by the movement patterns and timing of breeding.


Family business is an ideological arena of three cultural forces – entrepreneurialism, managerialism, and paternalism, all of which influence the succession implementation. This study analyses paternalism, managerialism and entrepreneurialism as ideological tensions in family business succession from viewpoint of non-family employees' experiences. Nonfamily employees offer resources for succession, but simultaneously different ideologies offer threats in the form of founder centrality and delayed succession. Six small family firms were chosen for the qualitative case studies to understand non-family employees' perceptions. The results show that the change of ideological tensions that come with the change of generation is related to the commitment and well-being of non-family employees.


Background We sought to evaluate the associations between frequency of daily laughter with heart disease and stroke among community-dwelling older Japanese women and men. Methods We analyzed cross-sectional data in 20 934 individuals (10 206 men and 10 728 women) aged 65 years or older, who participated in the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study in 2013. In the mail-in survey, participants provided information on daily frequency of laughter, as well as body mass index, demographic and lifestyle factors, and diagnoses of cardiovascular disease, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and depression. Results Even after adjustment for hyperlipidemia, hypertension, depression, body mass index, and other risk factors, the prevalence of heart diseases among those who never or almost never laughed was 1.21 (95% CI, −1.03–1.41) times higher than those who reported laughing every day. The adjusted prevalence ratio for stroke was 1.60 (95% CI, 1.24–2.06). Conclusions Daily frequency of laughter is associated with lower prevalence of cardiovascular diseases. The association could not be explained by confounding factors, such as depressive symptoms.


SUMMARY
This article provides a structured analysis for conceptual and theoretical developments in the field of supply chain management. The article proposes a conceptualization of the supply chain problem domain called the "3S Model." The model highlights three dimensions of interest to supply chain scholars and practitioners alike: the synthesis of the business and resources network; the characteristics of synergy between different actors in the network; and the synchronization of all operational decisions related to the control of the production and delivery of goods and services.


Background Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA)-dependent pseudothrombocytopenia is a rare phenomenon. Spurious pseudothrombocytopenia has also been described in other circumstances, while artifactual platelet count in whole blood samples anticoagulated with sodium citrate is an exceptional occurrence. Case report In this study, we describe the case of a 44-year-old ostensibly healthy woman who attended the local outpatient clinic for routine laboratory testing, including platelet count in EDTA and sodium citrate, for suspected artifactual pseudothrombocytopenia previously identified in another center. The results of hematological testing on both specimens were essentially normal, except for mild anemia. Nevertheless, the platelet number was 425 × 109/L in K2EDTA and 266 × 109/L (293 × 109/L after correcting for sample dilution) in sodium citrate, respectively. Microscopic revision of blood smears revealed the presence of platelet aggregates and satellitism only in the sodium citrate specimen. Conclusion Unlike previous occasional reports of concomitant EDTA- and sodium citrate-dependent pseudothrombocytopenia, we first describe a paradigmatic case of artifactual platelet count attributable to platelet clumping and satellitism, exclusively developing in blood anticoagulated with sodium citrate.


Turn Off Youth Our neurons regenerate better when we are young than when we are more mature. Studying the mechanosensory anterior ventral microtubule (AVM) neuron of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, Zou et al. (p. 372; see the Perspective by Nix and Bastiani) found that worms lacking microRNA machinery had unusually robust axon regeneration and youthful-looking growth cones. Under- and overexpression of let-7 microRNA confirmed its involvement in depressing axon regeneration. Reciprocal signals promote axon regeneration in young worms and repress axon regeneration in older worms. [Also see Perspective by Nix and Bastiani] Like mammalian neurons, Caenorhabditis elegans neurons lose axon regeneration ability as they age, but it is not known why. Here, we report that let-7 contributes to a developmental decline in anterior ventral microtubule (AVM) axon regeneration. In older AVM axons, let-7 inhibits regeneration by down-regulating LIN-41, an important AVM axon regeneration–promoting factor. Whereas let-7 inhibits lin-41 expression in older neurons through the lin-41 3′ untranslated region, lin-41 inhibits let-7 expression in younger neurons through Argonaute ALG-1. This reciprocal inhibition ensures that axon regeneration is inhibited only in older neurons. These findings show that a let-7–lin-41 regulatory circuit, which was previously shown to control timing of events in mitotic stem cell lineages, is reutilized in postmitotic neurons to control postdifferentiation events.


We report on our high efficiency n-type metal-wrap-through (MWT) cell and module technology. In this work, bifacial n-type MWT cells are produced by industrial processes in industrial full-scale and pilot-scale process equipment. N-type cells benefit from high recombination lifetime in the wafer and bifaciality. Also low-cost screen printed cells can yield over 20% efficiency. When combined with MWT technology, high-power back-contact modules result, which can employ very thin cells. We report a cell conversion efficiency of 20.5% (in-house measurement, certification pending), a significant gain compared to our earlier work. We will discuss performance of thin cells relative to thicker cells, comparing experimental results to modeling. Recently, two aspects of (mainly p-type) MWT technology have received increased attention: paste consumption and performance under reverse bias. We will discuss MWT paste consumption, showing how MWT technology, like multi-busbar technology, can support very low paste consumption. We also report on behavior of cells and modules under reverse bias. We also discuss the robustness of MWT technology to dissipation in hot spots under reverse bias. Finally, full-size modules have been made and cell-to-module ratios of the different I-V parameters were analysed. Modules from cells with average efficiency over 20% are pending. This work shows that low-cost n-type bifacial cells are suitable for industrial high efficiency back-contact technology.


Simply Stairs is a 'how to' book which guides the reader through all aspects of the design and construction of a wide range of timber staircases, step-by-step. It provides anyone with a basic knowledge of woodwork with the know-how and confidence to build this most important of building elements – from start to finish! The author's philosophy of methodical working, checking and double-checking, avoiding pitfalls and mistakes, and reaping the rewards of producing strong, well-designed staircases which fit beautifully in their intended locations will be appealing to all readers. This is recounted in a relaxed and informal writing style which maintains the reader's interest.

 Simply Stairs features the author's acclaimed 'Rise & Going Calculator' – a unique, colourful, and easy-to-read chart which aids stair calculations by eliminating the need for geometry and trigonometry.

 The book will be indispensable for students of carpentry and joinery, and apprentices for whom stairs remain a vital part of the qualification at all levels, requiring both practical and theoretical knowledge of the subject to be demonstrated. It will be an invaluable teaching handbook for lecturers and provide trades people and professionals with the means to expand their knowledge. Joinery manufacturing companies will find it a useful aide memoire to help them seek an additional revenue source and streamline their existing stair-building operations. Simply Stairs will also become the handbook of choice for those involved with DIY and self-build projects.

 Quite simply, there is nothing comparable in the market today.

 OTHER BOOKS DESCRIBE THE SKILLS, SIMPLY STAIRS DEMONSTRATES THEM.


The Ethiopian government has been promoting a package-driven extension that combines credit, fertilizers, improved seeds, and better management practices. This approach has reached almost all farming communities, representing about 2 percent of agricultural gross domestic product in recent years. This paper is the first to look at the extent and determinants of the adoption of the fertilizer-seed technology package promoted in Ethiopia using nationally representative data from the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia. We estimate a double hurdle model of fertilizer use for four major cereal crops: barley, maize, teff, and wheat. Since maize is the only crop that exhibits considerable adoption of improved seed, we estimate a similar model for the adoption of improved seed in maize production. We find that access to fertilizer and seed is related to access to extension services and that production specialization together with wealth play a major role in explaining crop area under fertilizer and improved seed. One of the most important factors behind the limited adoption of the technological package is the inefficiency in the use of inputs, which implies that changes are needed in the seed and fertilizer systems and in the priorities of the extension service to promote more efficient use of inputs and to accommodate risks associated with agricultural production, especially among small and poor households.


ABSTRACT The E2 envelope glycoprotein of hepatitis C virus (HCV) binds to the host entry factor CD81 and is the principal target for neutralizing antibodies (NAbs). Most NAbs recognize hypervariable region 1 on E2, which undergoes frequent mutation, thereby allowing the virus to evade neutralization. Consequently, there is great interest in NAbs that target conserved epitopes. One such NAb is AP33, a mouse monoclonal antibody that recognizes a conserved, linear epitope on E2 and potently neutralizes a broad range of HCV genotypes. In this study, the X-ray structure of AP33 Fab in complex with an epitope peptide spanning residues 412 to 423 of HCV E2 was determined to 1.8 Å. In the complex, the peptide adopts a β-hairpin conformation and docks into a deep binding pocket on the antibody. The major determinants of antibody recognition are E2 residues L413, N415, G418, and W420. The structure is compared to the recently described HCV1 Fab in complex with the same epitope. Interestingly, the antigen-binding sites of HCV1 and AP33 are completely different, whereas the peptide conformation is very similar in the two structures. Mutagenesis of the peptide-binding residues on AP33 confirmed that these residues are also critical for AP33 recognition of whole E2, confirming that the peptide-bound structure truly represents AP33 interaction with the intact glycoprotein. The slightly conformation-sensitive character of the AP33-E2 interaction was explored by cross-competition analysis and alanine-scanning mutagenesis. The structural details of this neutralizing epitope provide a starting point for the design of an immunogen capable of eliciting AP33-like antibodies.


A new automated electrical resistivity tomography (A‐ERT) system is described that allows continuous measurements of the electrical resistivity distribution in high‐mountain or polar terrain. The advantages of continuous resistivity monitoring, as opposed to single measurements at irregular time intervals, are illustrated using the permafrost monitoring station at the Schilthorn, Swiss Alps. Data processing was adjusted to permit automated time‐effective handling and quality assessment of the large number of 2D electrical resistivity profiles generated. Results from a one‐year dataset show small temporal changes during periods with snow cover, and the largest changes during snowmelt in early summer and during freezing in autumn, which are in phase with changes in either near‐surface soil moisture or subsurface temperature. During the snowmelt period, spatially variable infiltration processes were observed, leading to a rapid increase in soil moisture and corresponding decrease in electrical resistivity over a period of a few days. This infiltration led to the onset of active‐layer thawing long before the seasonal snow cover vanished. Statistical analyses showed that both spatial and temporal variability over the course of one year are similar, indicating the significance of spatial heterogeneity regarding active‐layer dynamics. As a result of its cost‐effective ability to monitor freezing and thawing processes even at greater depths, the new A‐ERT system can be widely applied in permafrost regions, especially in the context of long‐term degradation processes. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The U.S. Global Change Research Program (http://globalchange.gov) coordinates and integrates federal research on changes in the global environment and their implications for society. The USGCRP is developing a Global Change Information System (GCIS) that will centralize access to data and information related to global change across the U.S. federal government. The first implementation will focus on the 2013 National Climate Assessment (NCA) . (http://assessment.globalchange.gov) The NCA integrates, evaluates, and interprets the findings of the USGCRP; analyzes the effects of global change on the natural environment, agriculture, energy production and use, land and water resources, transportation, human health and welfare, human social systems, and biological diversity; and analyzes current trends in global change, both human-induced and natural, and projects major trends for the subsequent 25 to 100 years. The NCA has received over 500 distinct technical inputs to the process, many of which are reports distilling and synthesizing even more information, coming from thousands of individuals around the federal, state and local governments, academic institutions and non-governmental organizations. The GCIS will present a web-based version of the NCA including annotations linking the findings and content of the NCA with the scientific research, datasets, models, observations, etc. that led to its conclusions. It will use semantic tagging and a linked data approach, assigning globally unique, persistent, resolvable identifiers to all of the related entities and capturing and presenting the relationships between them, both internally and referencing out to other linked data sources and back to agency data centers. The developing W3C PROV Data Model and ontology will be used to capture the provenance trail and present it in both human readable web pages and machine readable formats such as RDF and SPARQL. This will improve visibility into the assessment process, increase understanding and reproducibility, and ultimately increase credibility and trust of the resulting report. Building on the foundation of the NCA, longer term plans for the GCIS include extending these capabilities throughout the U.S. Global Change Research Program, centralizing access to global change data and information across the thirteen agencies that comprise the program.


Blood lithium levels may be both genetically and environmentally regulated. The genetic component is evidenced mainly from studies in twins who were either normal or had a manic-depressive disorder. An environmental contribution is adduced from the relationship between the blood lithium level and the amount of the element ingested. No such information is available for boron, another element present in ultra trace amounts in human blood. Unusually high levels of lithium and boron in the waters of northern Chile offer an opportunity to study the genetic and environmental regulation of these elements in the blood of healthy subjects. Samples of blood (n = 40) and water (n = 47) were collected at seven locations in the province of Tarapaca. Most of the healthy subjects were Aymara who had been resident in the respective communities for at least 3 years. The samples were transported to Canada and then freeze-dried. Neutron irradiation was performed in a highly thermalized flux to induce the reactions 6Li (n, alpha) t and 10B (n,7Li) alpha. Assays of 6Li and 10B were conducted in a static mass spectrometer by measurement, respectively, of 3He, produced from decay of tritium, and 4He from alpha-particles. Lithium concentrations in water and blood exhibited a linear relationship, as did the boron concentrations in these fluids. Because some of the individual subjects (n = 15) were first-degree relatives, a genetic component to the regulation of blood levels was explored. The variance in blood levels of lithium and boron was significantly greater between than within families (p < 0.0001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


This research was conducted from the student low level toward student problem solving strategies. The student problem solving strategies were affected by interpersonal communication. This research was intended to describe the contribution of the interpersonal communication toward student problem solving strategies. This correlational descriptive research applied quantitative methods. The sample of this research were 240 students of SMA Negeri 2 Pariaman on grade XI and XII, students there were chosen by proportional stratified random sampling technique. The instrument of the research was a questionnaire interpersonal communication inventory and problem solving strategies inventory. The data obtained were analyzed by using descriptive statistic, simple regression. The research findings that the interpersonal communication contributed on toward student problem solving strategies, The implications of the results of this study can be used as advice to School Counselor in providing guidance and counseling services.


Since the 1980s, commonly referred to as the 'golden era' of sport psychology (Biddle 1989), there has been a consistent stream of evidence surrounding the usefulness and positive impact of sport psychology upon athletic performance (Zakrajsek et al 2013). However, the process and factors which impact upon the transference of such knowledge into the coaching environment has been limited. Thus, while sport psychology as an academic field is well established, its use in the applied setting is reported to be sporadic but with little understanding as to why. This thesis examines the use of Rogers' Theory of Diffusion of Innovations within the athletics domain. Specifically, the focus is to examine the process of diffusion and adoption and its associated constructs affecting athletics coaches' decision-making process surrounding the learning about and subsequent use of sport psychology. Consequently, the aim of the study was to critically analyse and explore the diffusion process, and factors which influence the adoption of sport psychology, thus providing a synthesis of research in the form of a conceptual framework. To achieve this, from the post-positivist standpoint, a mixed-methods multi-strand design was implemented to guide the methodological process. Phase 1 involved the undertaking of semi-structured interviews in order to establish initial insights into the understanding of coaches and the subjective reality of sport psychology in athletics coaching. Results from the representative sample of licensed athletics coaches authenticated the use of the Theory of Diffusion of Innovations as a mechanism for evaluating coaches' decision-making surrounding the use of sport psychology. Information gathered informed the development of Phase 2 which incorporated the concurrent collection of quantitative data (strand A) and qualitative data (strand B) thus providing deeper insights into the process of diffusion and the driving forces that influence the adoption decision. 160 UK licensed athlete coaches completed the quantitative survey which was divided into five sections pertaining to each stage of the Innovation-Decision Process and additional information surrounding the driving forces affecting the process. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 24 participants representing the varying roles within the athletic social system. The results showed there to be two component parts to the diffusion and adoption of sport psychology. The cognitive aspect incorporated knowledge, understanding and perception development and led to a decision for or against the use of sport psychology. The behavioural aspects included implementation and confirmation of previously made decisions regarding the use of sport psychology. Each stage of the Innovation-Decision Process was found to be affected by intra and inter personal and structural barriers. Those experiences were dependent on coaches' classification as a participation or performance coach along with their level of educational background in sport. However, barriers could be overcome by facilitating factors. The study raises both theoretical and practical implications and recommendations for facilitating an improved diffusion and adoption process.


This article presents an exploratory multivariate statistical approach to gaining a more comprehensive understanding of variation in subaerial bone weathering in a British context. Weathering is among the most common taphonomic modifications and provides a crucial line of evidence for reconstructing the taphonomic trajectories of faunal assemblages and archaeological deposits. It provides clear evidence for prolonged subaerial exposure either before deposition in a context or because of later disturbance. In combination with other taphonomic indices such as gnawing, trampling, abrasion and fracture patterns, weathering can be used to reconstruct depositional histories and to investigate the structured treatment of different body parts or taxa in deposition. However, a broad range of factors affect the prevalence and severity of weathering, and therefore patterns can rarely be interpreted at face value. Many variables such as predepositional microenvironment cannot be traced archaeologically. Other contributory factors pertaining to the structural properties of elements and taxa can be discerned and must be taken into account in interpreting weathering signatures. However, disagreement exists regarding which variables are most important in mediating weathering. In addition for zooarchaeologists to interpret modification patterns, it is necessary for elements and taxa that are most likely to be affected by weathering to be defined. This is the case as deposits that are dominated by those classes of remains are likely to exhibit greater modification than those that are not, even if depositional histories were similar. Through a combination of classification tree and ordinal regression analysis, this article identifies which archaeologically recoverable variables explain the greatest variance in weathering and which anatomical elements and taxa are most likely to be affected in archaeological deposits in the UK. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In the realm of art music, Leo Brouwer (1939-) is widely considered as the most significant living composer for the guitar. Since the latter part of the 20th century, students of the guitar at most, if not all, recognized music institutions have increasingly sought to perform Brouwer's works. Correspondingly, at the South African College of Music (University of Cape Town) respected instructors like Elspeth Jack, Neefa van der Schyff, and others, have over many years consistently and devotedly incorporated Brouwer's guitar literature into their teaching programmes. Cape Town's prized composer-conductor Alan Stephenson has similarly developed a keen interest in Brouwer's large-scale works, inspiring in 1998 a memorable rendition of Brouwer's acclaimed Elegiaco Concerto, performed by the talented soloist Christiaan Van der Vyver and the University of Cape Town Orchestra. In line with this, one of Brouwer's underlying goals has been to create works that are accessible to players of varying standards of performance. As a consequence, young, inexperienced, moderate, advanced as well as top internationally-acclaimed virtuosic players have all found some measure of contentment in performing Brouwer's guitar works.


Create multiplatform computer vision desktop and web applications using the combination of OpenCV and Java About This BookSet up Java API for OpenCV to create popular Swing-based Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs)Process videos and images in real-time with closer to native performanceMake use of rock solid Java web application development practices to create engaging augmented reality experience and work with depth images from a Kinect deviceWho This Book Is ForIf you are a Java developer, student, researcher, or hobbyist wanting to create computer vision applications in Java then this book is for you. If you are an experienced C/C++ developer who is used to working with OpenCV, you will also find this book very useful for migrating your applications to Java.All you need is basic knowledge of Java, with no prior understanding of computer vision required, as this book will give you clear explanations and examples of the basics.What You Will LearnCreate powerful GUIs for computer vision applications with panels, scroll panes, radio buttons, sliders, windows, and mouse interaction using the popular Swing GUI widget toolkitStretch, shrink, warp, and rotate images, as well as apply image transforms to find edges, lines, and circles, and even use Discrete Fourier Transforms (DFT)Detect foreground or background regions and work with depth images with a Kinect deviceLearn how to add computer vision capabilities to rock solid Java web applications allowing you to upload photos and create astonishing effectsTrack faces and apply mixed reality effects such as adding virtual hats to uploaded photosFilter noisy images, work with morphological operators, use flood fill, and threshold the important regions of an imageOpen and process video streams from webcams or video filesIn DetailOpenCV 3.0 Computer Vision with Java is a practical tutorial guide that explains fundamental tasks from computer vision while focusing on Java development. This book will teach you how to set up OpenCV for Java and handle matrices using the basic operations of image processing such as filtering and image transforms. It will also help you learn how to use Haar cascades for tracking faces and to detect foreground and background regions with the help of a Kinect device. It will even give you insights into server-side OpenCV. Each chapter is presented with several projects that are ready to use. The functionality of these projects is found in many classes that allow developers to understand computer vision principles and rapidly extend or customize the projects for their needs.


Structural-Functional Brain Connectivity Underlying Integrative Sensorimotor Function after Stroke In this dissertation research project we demonstrated the relationship between the structural and functional connections across the brain in stroke survivors. We used this information to predict arm function in stroke survivors, suggesting that the tools developed through this research will be useful for prescribing individualized rehabilitation strategies in people after stroke. Current clinical methods for rehabilitating sensorimotor function after stroke are not based on the locus of injury in the brain. Instead, therapies are generalized, treating symptoms such as weakness and spasticity. This results in outcomes that are highly variable, with severity of impairment immediately following stroke as the best predictor of recovery. By using measures of brain structural and functional relations, we can better prognosticate and plan rehabilitation interventions. This research study utilized diffusion and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to quantify anatomical connectivity and functional networks of the brain after stroke. In the first aim, diffusion MRI was used to track the white matter pathways throughout the entire brain. A new imaging biomarker sensitive to stroke lesions was developed that quantifies the level of anatomical connections between every point in the brain. It was found that cortical areas most responsible for integration of sensorimotor and multisensory integration were the best predictors of motor impairments in chronic stroke subjects. Our second aim investigated the role of multisensory integration during sensorimotor control in healthy adults and stroke survivors. A novel functional MRI task paradigm involving wrist movement was developed to gain insight into the effects of multimodal sensory feedback on brain functional networks in stroke subjects. We found that the loss of functional interactions between the cerebellum and lesioned sensorimotor area were correlated with loss of movement function. Our final aim investigated the relationship between structural and functional connectivity after stroke. A model that marries diffusion MRI fiber tracking and resting-state functional MRI was designed to enhance indirect functional connections with structural information. The technique was capable of detecting changes in cortical networks that were not seen in functional or structural analysis alone. These changes were associated with movement performance. In conclusion, structure is essential to functional networks and ultimately, recovery of functional movements after stroke.


I. INTRODUCTION In creating the modern environmental regulatory state, Congress assigned the primary responsibility for implementation of the statutes to federal and state regulators. (1) Environmental statutory schemes tend to provide only broad guidelines, and executive agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are expected to fill in the gaps through rulemakings, permit issuance, and enforcement actions. Given their technical expertise, the agencies are supposed to be well equipped to create detailed regulations that implement Congress's goal of a clean and healthy environment. This delegation of authority is significant because, in most cases, EPA and state regulators are given freedom to choose the content of environmental regulations. In the context of the Clean Air Act, the subject of this article, they choose what pollutants will be regulated, which sources of pollutants will be among the regulated entities, what standards will be imposed upon those regulated entities, the deadline by which those standards will be met, and, finally, whether or not the regulations will be enforced. (2) In light of this broad delegation of authority, Congress plays a surprisingly small role in overseeing the content of EPA's regulations. Congress rarely takes legislative action in response to perceived inadequacies in EPA's regulatory approach. Instead, its oversight actions are largely limited to appropriations legislation and oversight hearings, which create no binding legal authority. (3) The role of federal oversight of EPA and other executive agencies has fallen on the judiciary. Under the Clean Air Act, federal courts are given authority to hear petitions challenging final agency actions such as rulemakings, petitions asserting that EPA has failed to undertake nondiscretionary duties such as regular review of National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), and civil and criminal enforcement matters. Thus, with respect to virtually every aspect of agency action (or inaction) there is at least an opportunity to challenge EPA's regulatory decisions in federal court. Although it is often taken for granted that the federal judiciary plays a substantial role in shaping environmental law, a closer examination reveals considerable variability based on the type of action that is before the court. Specifically, this article examines the significance of the federal judiciary's role in shaping environmental law by comparing the relative power of EPA and the courts under the various provisions for judicial oversight. The article finds that a federal court's power is at its apex when engaging in statutory interpretation of specific provisions of the Clean Air Act during challenges to final agency action under section 307. (4) From this high point, the federal judiciary's power is diminished as the standards of review become more deferential, the content of the courts' decisions becomes less substantive, and EPA retains additional authority to resolve disputes without judicial intervention. In order to assess the judiciary's role in shaping environmental law, this article focuses on EPA action (or inaction) under the Clean Air Act. Under the Clean Air Act, EPA and the federal courts can interact in two primary ways: through suits challenging EPA's regulatory approach and through EPA enforcement actions alleging violations of the Act. With respect to each type of interaction, this article will articulate the legal basis for the judiciary's oversight role, a description of the content of those interactions, and, finally, an analysis of the significance of the federal judiciary's role in shaping the content of the Clean Air Act. Sections II and III of the article will address judicial review of citizens' suit petitions challenging final EPA action under section 307(b) (5) and allegations that EPA has failed to act to regulate under section 304(a)(2). (6) Section IV will address the federal judiciary's role in enforcement of the Clean Air Act. …


The last thirty years have seen a rapid proliferation of social scientific research into happiness and well-being. In particular, social indicators research has emphasised the importance of happiness measures at a national level, alongside more traditional economic or 'objective' measures like GDP-growth and per-capita income, for the monitoring of societal progress. Much of this work - which mainly utilises measures of happiness derived from survey variables - has been undertaken within the disciplines of economics and psychology. Despite all of this, the study of happiness within sociology has remained a rather under-researched area. This paper seeks to demonstrate the way in which sociology can problematise the idea of happiness that is conceived by both the public and other social scientists alike; what is it that is actually being measured? Why is it seen to be so important to have measures of happiness with which to monitor progress? Why is there this apparent 'obsession' with the achievement of happiness in contemporary western societies? And what are the different factors that make up the socio-cultural landscape upon which 'being happy' is located? Such questions are often overlooked in happiness research; instead, it is assumed to be a natural or inevitable goal toward which we as individuals aim in our everyday lives. This paper will put forward some arguments from sociological theory that help to answer these questions. The paper then goes on to present some preliminary findings from a qualitative study in which in-depth interview data from a small sample of British adults highlight a number of ideas that together form a sociological understanding of people's perceptions of and reflections upon the idea of happiness. Two further questions are then raised: what can this tell us about the way in which happiness is socially constructed? And what are the implications of all of this for the measurement of happiness?


CONTEXT
Depression is common in old age. Nevertheless, few incidence studies have established how often depression occurs in elderly persons with and without a history of depression.

OBJECTIVES
To determine the incidence and recurrence rates of depression in an elderly population.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
A cohort study of community-dwelling elderly persons aged 56 years or older residing in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, performed between September 1993 and October 2005 and encompassing baseline and 2 follow-up examinations as well as continuous procedures. The study population consisted of 5653 participants free of dementia. Depression was identified through standardized psychiatric examinations, monitoring of medical records, registration of antidepressant use, and self-reported histories of depression. We categorized the depression as depressive syndromes, including DSM-IV-defined major depression, or clinically relevant depressive symptoms.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Incidence and recurrence rates for depressive syndromes as well as for depressive syndromes and symptoms combined. In addition to overall rates, sex- and age-specific rates were calculated.

RESULTS
During the follow-up period of 8 years on average, 566 depressive syndromes and 1073 episodes of clinically relevant depressive symptoms occurred. For depressive syndromes, the incidence rate was 7.0 (95% confidence interval, 6.0-8.3) per 1000 person-years and the recurrence rate was 27.5 (95% confidence interval, 23.7-32.1) per 1000 person-years. The incidence and recurrence rates more than doubled when episodes of depressive symptoms were included. The recurrence rate of depressive syndromes was equal for women and men, but all other rates were almost twice as high for women compared with men. No rates seemed to change with age.

CONCLUSIONS
The incidence rate of depression in the elderly population is low except when episodes of clinically relevant depressive symptoms are accounted for. Most late-life depression occurs in persons with a history of depression. Moreover, the recurrence rate of depressive syndromes does not differ between men and women.


We propose improved Deep Neural Network (DNN) training loss functions for more accurate single keyword spotting on resource-constrained embedded devices. The loss function modifications consist of a combination of multi-task training and weighted cross entropy. In the multi-task architecture, the keyword DNN acoustic model is trained with two tasks in parallel the main task of predicting the keyword-specific phone states, and an auxiliary task of predicting LVCSR senones. We show that multi-task learning leads to comparable accuracy over a previously proposed transfer learning approach where the keyword DNN training is initialized by an LVCSR DNN of the same input and hidden layer sizes. The combination of LVCSRinitialization and Multi-task training gives improved keyword detection accuracy compared to either technique alone. We also propose modifying the loss function to give a higher weight on input frames corresponding to keyword phone targets, with a motivation to balance the keyword and background training data. We show that weighted cross-entropy results in additional accuracy improvements. Finally, we show that the combination of 3 techniques LVCSR-initialization, multi-task training and weighted cross-entropy gives the best results, with significantly lower False Alarm Rate than the LVCSR-initialization technique alone, across a wide range of Miss Rates.


Inquiry-based teaching has become the most recommended approach in science education for a few decades; however, it is not a common practice yet in k-12 school classrooms. In order to prepare future teachers to teach science through inquiry, a Microteaching Lesson Study (MLS) approach was employed in our science methods courses. Instead of asking teacher candidates to simply share (present) their inquiry-based lesson plans with peers, we requested teacher candidates to develop, teach, and collaboratively reflect upon their lessons. This paper reports our findings from a recently finished study that investigated teacher candidates" learning from and perspectives about MLS. Data were collected through teacher candidates" lesson plans, teaching performances, and reflective reports. The study concluded that MLS provided teacher candidates valuable practical opportunity and their learning through such collaborative action was significant. Participating teacher candidates highly valued MLS approach even though a few of them raised some concerns about it.


Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is an effective technique for examining functional brain activity during cognitive tasks by enabling the measurement of the concentration changes of oxy-hemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin. In NIRS data analysis, accurate estimation of the hemodynamic response function (HRF) is still under investigation. Most existing methods assume that the shape of the HRF to be known. This assumption may not be appropriate because the HRF may vary from subject to subject and/or from region to region. In this paper, a deconvolution algorithm to estimate the HRF is presented. The advantage of this method is no prior hypothesis about the shape of the HRF is required. In addition, in order to increase the sensitivity of NIRS to functional brain activity, an adaptive filter is designed to remove physiological noises from the noisy NIRS data. The effectiveness of the proposed methods was verified by numerical simulations, the results of which are provided herein.


The purpose of this essay is to show the research opportunities that the TTC-ATENEA system offers to scholars interested in art-theory, paying special attention to its potentiality to work as an interactive tool and networked environment. Throughout the exposition, I will address different notions of interactivity, interaction and network in order to contextualize the thread of this article. This has been arranged in two sections. Firstly, I will outline a brief description of the TTC-ATENEA system by explaining how it currently works. Secondly, I will introduce the implementations that we are integrating in the new version of the system, since the objective of these updates is indeed to increase the interactive possibilities of the TTC-ATENEA. In general terms, it can be said that we are migrating from an informational system – devoted to storing and retrieving information – into an intellectual, collaborative and productive environment according to the 2.0 philosophy and the so-called open and shared knowledge culture.1
1. The


Lithiated NiO cathode dissolution has been a major problem for the development of molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs). Many studies have been contributed to find new alternative cathodes; here, lithium cobalt oxide, LiCoO2, was coated onto the commonly used NiO cathode by the electroplating method and the resulting cathode showed much reduced solubility compared with that of the common nickel oxide cathode. Thin film lithium cobalt oxide was prepared by the oxidation of Co metal deposited on a nickel plate in molten (Li,K)2CO3 at 650 °C under a CO2–O2
(2 ∶ 1 vol%) atmosphere. When this coated nickel plate was oxidized, the open circuit potential (OCP) decayed gradually, indicating two well-defined potential plateaux; the oxide films produced at each potential plateau were identified by X-ray diffraction methods. The surface product at the first plateau was CoO. LiCoO2 was formed at the second OCP plateau [around −0.47 V vs. CO2–O2
(2 ∶ 1 vol%) reference electrode]. By the same method, LiCoO2 was coated onto a porous nickel cathode in order to produce a MCFC.
 For 300 h steady operation of the cells, the mean voltages of the cells were 0.80 V using a NiO cathode and 0.85 V for a LC-NiO(EP) cathode at a current density of 150 mA cm−2. In addition to the cell efficiency improvement, the solubility of the LC-NiO(EP) cathode was much lower than that of the NiO cathode.


In September 2006, Amaranth Advisors, LLC collapsed under the weight of losses, which were reported as $6.6-billion. This collapse triggered a debate on current risk management practices as well as a major investigation by the United States Senate. There are many surprising aspects of this debacle. How could a well-respected hedge fund implode so quickly? Could this multi-strategy hedge fund really have become one big bet on winter natural gas prices? How could Amaranth have amassed such huge derivatives positions in natural gas without any regulators noticing? Given the scale of Amaranth's losses, why didn't this debacle lead to wider systematic distress in the financial markets? This article will provide some answers to these questions by reviewing and analyzing the publicly available information that is known as of this point. Specifically it will address, Amaranth's energy trading strategies, the fundamental rationale for these strategies, basic risk analyses and the U.S. government's response.


Combining hardware components with an executable specification language facilitates the specification prototyping of embedded distributed systems. The specification language should cover process management, timing, and communication commands that real-time executive and communication task services of every node prototype can interpret. We use a technique that employs attribute grammars and either a macro processor or Prolog to execute the language.


This article focuses on key property challenges appearing as part of the West Virginia Marcellus Shale play. The paper opens with an introduction to the Marcellus Shale region that is the focus of our analysis. The paper explains the horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing process that is an essential part of shale oil and gas development. To help readers understand the property challenges related to shale development, we include an introduction to the concept of severed estates, which can create separate ownership of the surface estate and the mineral estate. The article then focuses on two keys issues. First, the article discusses whether horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing constitute a "reasonably necessary" use of surface land to develop mineral rights, and concludes they are, at least in most instances. Second, the article discusses difficulties in analyzing deed language related to minerals rights and royalty interests, which has created challenges for mineral owners, leasing companies, and oil and gas developers. Please note that although the publication date is 2015, the article was not in print until January 2017 and discusses cases from 2016. Ultimately, the article concludes, legislators and regulators may choose to add surface owner protections and impose other measures to lessen the burden on impacted regions to ease the conflict between surface owners and mineral developers. Such efforts may, at times, be necessary to ensure continued economic development in shale regions. Communities, landowners, interest groups, companies, and governments would be well served to work together to seek balance and compromise in development-heavy regions. Although courts are well-equipped to handle individual cases, large-scale policy is better developed at the community level (state and local) than through the adversarial system.


A 24-year-old G2P1001 African American female at 38.2 weeks of gestation was induced for labor for a fetus with prenatally diagnosed intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). She subsequently delivered via normal spontaneous delivery. The infant initially latched well at the breast, was normoglycemic and normothermic, but shortly after birth had had a significant episode of blood-tinged emesis (not deemed to be swallowed maternal blood) and was transferred to the transitional nursery for further evaluation.


This article provides an overview of conceptual models which detail the nature of attribution change over time. A critical evaluation of the current evidence base identified several emerging trends in the literature. Current hypotheses may not adequately describe how attributions change over time in sport and other achievement contexts, and an alternative hypothesis is presented. This hypothesis details changing perceptions of competition importance, and the corresponding significance to personal self-esteem, as the critical factor influencing changes in attributions over time. Self-serving attributions of athletes, teams and coaches should decline over time, with attributions for unsuccessful outcomes also becoming more unstable, controllable and specific. This paper also discusses the concept of attributions as behaviour predictions whereby the same processes involved in attributing past events are transferable to future events. How attributions develop and change over time is an area in much need of further research. To this end, a review of key concepts should help clarify important advances and stimulate further research into this important field.


ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to examine whether 'attentive movement', is an effective method for treating depression. A quantitative research methodology design was used. Fifty participants took part in attentive movement group therapy sessions once a week for 12 weeks. All completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and a demographic questionnaire. A mixed-design ANOVA was performed; the between-group variables included the study groups (control/experimental) and the within-test group comparison examined measurement time (time1/time2). Results revealed a significant effect for measurement time (F (1,44) = 27.78, p < .001), which indicated a significant reduction in the symptoms of depression from the first measurement (M = .98, SD = .39) to the second measurement (M = .72, SD = .50). The level of depression following treatment in the experimental group was significantly lower than in the control group. The research hypothesis was confirmed.


Valles del Tuy adduction network presented a great lack of knowledge concerning the system operational behavior. The discontinuity of water supply, water rationing by sector, nonexistence of operational control and changing regulation during the day by means of valves opening and closing made the system unpredictable. It was a real challenge to take into account all these factors and introduce them in a mathematical model. The result was a long-extended period model that was able to reproduce the system behavior with reliability in extended-period simulations. Based on it, a diagnosis of the critical points of the system was developed, that led to an improvement proposal. The proposals were focused on designing a controlled adduction system with the optimal operational behavior and without the necessity of making day-time changes for achieving a continuous and reliable water supply.


Globally there has been a concerted effort to isolate Bt strains from different environments for use as microbial pesticides and in transgenic plants. In our study, 106 soil samples were collected from different altitude in Gunung Jerai forest, an undisturbed rain forest ecosystem, Kedah Darul Aman State, Malaysia. Preliminary screening included temperature selection methods to isolate Bacillus-like colonies, followed by phase contrast microscopy to screen presumptive Bt isolates. Twenty three isolates were selected for PCR analysis with Cry1 general primer (gcry1), PCR to identify the presence of cry1-type genes. Out of 23 isolates, only 17 isolates showed the presence of cry1-type genes with the product size of 558 bp. Subsequently, the 17 Bt isolates which showed the presence of cry1-type genes were subjected to pathotype PCR to predict the insecticidal activity against lepidopteran pests. The results of the pathotype PCR revealed that out of 17 Bt isolates, only 11 isolates showed PCR product indicating their possible anti lepidopteran activity. Plasmid profiling studies indicated the presence of a major plasmid of size 22.5 to 28.5kb.Then the hemolytic positive strains were subjected to one step bioassay against the second instar larvae of Aedes aegypti. One Bt isolate, Bt 02, showed elevated larvicidal activity, which was compared to that of the reference strain Bt.subsp. israelensis. The crystal protein studies of the Bt isolate 02 indicated the presence of cuboidal crystals. SDS-PAGE analysis of the Bt isolate 02 showed a major protein of 101.77 kDa. However, presence of a protein of 32.68 kDa, indicted the possible presence of cytolytic toxin. Finally to study the diversity, two Bt isolates, Bt 22 and Bt 42 were subjected to partial DNA sequencing of the PCR amplicon. The results indicated that these two strains have different nucleotide sequences and each strain showed homology with the reported Bt strains which are also different from each other, thus indicating the presence diverse Bt strains in this environment. The Bt isolates showing anti lepidopteran and anti dipteran activity can be used in integrated pest management to control agricultural pests and to control the selected mosquito vectors.


Flankers can strongly deteriorate performance on a target (crowding). The neural mechanisms of crowding are largely unknown. We have recently shown that the N1 component of the EEG is suppressed during crowding. Because it is difficult to disentangle the neural correlates of target and flanker processing with standard visually evoked potentials, here, we used a frequency-tagging technique to analyze EEG responses separately for flankers and target. Subjects discriminated the offset direction of a vernier that was slowly increasing in size either to the left or right. The vernier and the flankers were either green or red and flickered at two different frequencies. Flankers of the same color as the vernier (green-green or red-red) crowded more strongly than flankers of a different color (green-red or red-green) because the former, as we propose, grouped with the vernier. EEG responses to the vernier were suppressed during crowding (same color flankers) compared to uncrowding (different color flankers). EEG responses to the flankers were slightly larger when the flankers grouped with the target compared to when they ungrouped from the target. Hence, EEG frequency tagging dissociates target and flanker processing. Our results suggest that, in crowding, the target is suppressed when it groups with the flankers while flanker-related activity increases or stays constant.


Real world illumination, captured by digitizing devices, is beneficial to solve many problems in computer graphics. Therefore, practical methods for capturing this illumination are of high interest. In this paper, we present a novel method for capturing environmental illumination by a mobile device. Our method is highly practical as it requires only a consumer mobile phone and the result can be instantly used for rendering or material estimation. We capture the real light in high dynamic range (HDR) to preserve its high contrast. Our method utilizes the moving camera of a mobile phone in auto-exposure mode to reconstruct HDR values. The projection of the image to the spherical environment map is based on the orientation of the mobile device. Both HDR reconstruction and projection run on the mobile GPU to enable interactivity. Moreover, an additional image alignment step is performed. Our results show that the presented method faithfully captures the real environment and that the rendering with our reconstructed environment maps achieves high quality, comparable to reality.


Abstract. West African Dwarf (WAD) goat plays an important socio-economic role, hence the effect of 82 days of feeding Gmelina leaf meal (GLM) diets on feed intake, body weight change and blood indices of WAD goats were investigated. A total of 36 WAD goats averaging 9.04 kg in weight were randomly divided into four groups of nine goats each with three goats constituting a replicate. The groups were randomly assigned four experimental diets (T1, T2, T3, and T4, containing GLM at 0%, 12%, 24% and 36%, respectively) in a completely randomized design. Results indicated significant (p<0.05) improvement for body weights and feed conversion ratio for T2, T3, and T4. There was significant difference (p<0.05) for all the haematological parameters except packed cell volume (PCV). White blood cells (WBC) increased in their number (p<0.05) with incremental levels of GLM in the diets. All the serum biochemical indices showed significant (p<0.05) difference with glucose and cholesterol concentration reduced (p<0.05) with incremental levels of GLM. It could be concluded that GLM can be included in the diets of goats up to 36% without deleterious effects on the productive and physiological indices of WAD goats.


A system is described that aims to modify the performance of a musical recording (classical music) by changing the basic performance parameters tempo, sound level and tone duration. The input audio file is aligned with the corresponding score, which also contains extra information defining rule-based modifications of these parameters. The signal is decomposed using analysis-synthesis techniques to separate and modify each tone independently. The user can control the performance by changing the quantity of performance rules or by directly modifying the parameters values. A prototype Matlab implementation of the system performs expressive tempo and articulation modifications of monophonic and simple polyphonic audio recordings.


In conventional speech recognition, phoneme-based models outperform grapheme-based models for non-phonetic languages such as English. The performance gap between the two typically reduces as the amount of training data is increased. In this work, we examine the impact of the choice of modeling unit for attention-based encoder-decoder models. We conduct experiments on the LibriSpeech 100hr, 460hr, and 960hr tasks, using various target units (phoneme, grapheme, and word-piece); across all tasks, we find that grapheme or word-piece models consistently outperform phoneme-based models, even though they are evaluated without a lexicon or an external language model. We also investigate model complementarity: we find that we can improve WERs by up to 9% relative by rescoring N-best lists generated from a strong word-piece based baseline with either the phoneme or the grapheme model. Rescoring an N-best list generated by the phonemic system, however, provides limited improvements. Further analysis shows that the word-piece-based models produce more diverse N-best hypotheses, and thus lower oracle WERs, than phonemic models.


We present near-infrared spectro-imaging of the young planetary nebula NGC 7027 between 2.10 and 2.20  μ m with high spatial (0.5″) and high spectral ($\rm 8.7 \, km \, s^{-1}$) resolution. The observations, made using BEAR at the CFHT, reveal the detailed morphology and kinematics of the ionized nebula (in the Br γ line and 16 other atomic lines) and the surrounding molecular envelope (in the 1–0 S(1) line of H 2 ). The observations show that the ionized gas forms an elongated (${\sim} 6 \arcsec\times 12\arcsec$, ${\rm PA} = 32\degr$), limb-brightened shell with an expansion velocity of 19.5  along the line of sight. The shell is composed of numerous small condensations and has nearly parallel sides with flattened ends that are not well matched by a uniform ellipsoidal model. Low level Br γ emission is detected at high red- and blue-shifted velocities ($\pm 55$ ) along a bipolar axis at ${\rm PA} = 60\degr$ that deviates significantly from that of the main nebula. The $\rm H_2$ emission is distributed at the periphery of the ionized gas, in a limb-brightened, bi-conical shell (${\sim} 10\arcsec \times 13\arcsec$, ${\rm PA} = 28\degr$) with enhanced emission at the equator and complex structure at the ends of the major axis. The H 2 emission traces the inner edge of the extended molecular envelope seen in CO, and its distribution and intensity are well matched by model predictions of a high-density ($n\rm _H \sim 10^6{-}10^5 \, cm^{-3}$) photo-dissociation region. The kinematic structure of the H 2 emission reveals a remarkable series of lobes and openings in the molecular shell. These features are point symmetric about the center, and the most prominent pair aligns with the high velocity, bipolar emission seen in Br γ . These observations demonstrate recent activity by collimated outflows in NGC 7027, with a multiple, bipolar geometry. The interaction of the outflows with the surrounding envelope has significantly affected the morphology of the developing nebula and its environment, and their presence in this well-studied archetype underscores the general importance of outflows in the early shaping history of planetary nebulae.


Mdm2 is a ubiquitin-protein ligase known to ubiquitinate p53, promoting its degradation by the ubiquitin-proteasome system. Shenoy and co-workers showed that Mdm2 can act as a key factor in the sequestration of the cell surface β2-adrenergic receptor (β-AR) through interactions with β-arrestin. Strous and Schantl discuss how Mdm2 may be a switch connecting extracellular signals mediated through G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) to p53 and its functions in apoptosis and cell cycle progression.


Thermokarst lakes are important emitters of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. However, accurate estimation of methane flux from thermokarst lakes is difficult due to their remoteness and observational challenges associated with the heterogeneous nature of ebullition (bubbling). We used multi-temporal high-resolution (9–11 cm) aerial images of an interior Alaskan thermokarst lake, Goldstream Lake, acquired 2 and 4 days following freeze-up in 2011 and 2012, respectively, to characterize methane ebullition seeps and to estimate whole-lake ebullition. Bubbles impeded by the lake ice sheet form distinct white patches as a function of bubbling rate vs. time as ice thickens. Our aerial imagery thus captured in a single snapshot the ebullition events that occurred before the image acquisition. Image analysis showed that low-flux A- and B-type seeps are associated with low brightness patches and are statistically distinct from high-flux C-type and Hotspot seeps associated with high brightness patches. Mean whole-lake ebullition based on optical image analysis in combination with bubble-trap flux measurements was estimated to be 174 ± 28 and 216 ± 33 mL gas m−2 d−1 for the years 2011 and 2012, respectively. A large number of seeps demonstrated spatio-temporal stability over our two-year study period. A strong inverse exponential relationship (R2 ≥ 0.79) was found between percent surface area of lake ice covered with bubble patches and distance from the active thermokarst lake margin. Our study shows that optical remote sensing is a powerful tool to map ebullition seeps on lake ice, to identify their relative strength of ebullition and to assess their spatio-temporal variability.


It was my pleasure to enjoy a long chat with Fr. Pierre Paul, director of music at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. In a time of transition for Catholic Church--toward solemnity, chant, and the propers of the Mass--Fr. Paul has been leading the push at the Vatican to be an example to the entire world of excellence and solemnity in sacred music. His choir sings Sunday Mass and Vespers (but is not usually the choir heard at televised papal Masses). He has held this position since 2008, having been director at the North American College. After leaving that position, he came back to home in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, only to be called back to head the music program at St. Peter's under the guidance of Benedict XVI. Since then, he has embarked on a spectacular program that amounts to the musical application of the principle of the hermeneutic of continuity: What was holy then is holy now. He has infused the entire program at the Vatican with a new love of the distinct qualities of liturgical music, and thereby embracing the program legislated by the Second Vatican Council and taking seriously the call for Gregorian chant to assume the primary role in liturgy. This has meant, in the first instance, and above all else, using Gregorian ordinary settings for all Masses. For ordinary time, he is using Mass XI (Orbis Factor). For Advent and Lent he is using Mass XVII (Kyrie Salve), switching out the Kyrie for respective seasons. For Easter, he chooses Mass I (Lux et Origo), along with Mass IV (Cunctipotens Genitor Deus) for feasts of the Apostles. He also uses Credo I, III, and IV, and, periodically, the whole of Mass IX (Cum Jubilo). He is trying minimize the use of Mass of the Angels, though it is still programmed for large international Masses since this is the one that most people know. These are all huge advances, and he is thrilled to hear that people are singing with gusto! Actually, people are singing as never before. He is careful to print large booklets for every Mass with translations. He is dedicated to making sure that he does not use modern notation in the booklets. He believes in neumes, the notation of the church, because he regards them as easier to sing than modern notes and because they convey the sense that the music of the church is different from other forms of music. Following the phonecall, he was kind enough to send along copies of the seasonal booklets that he has put together and which are printed by the Vatican. The typesetting is outstanding and they are easy to follow, especially given the complexities of providing the text in Latin, English, Spanish, Italian, and German. The biggest advances have been made in the area of propers, which had long been displaced by hymns that are extraneous to the Mass. The introit of the day is sung at every Mass as the celebrant approaches the altar, following a hymn or organ solo. The communion chant is always sung with psalms from the Richard Rice editions posted at MusicaSacra.com. These are major steps toward a restoration of a very early practice for papal Masses. CMAA members need to take special note of this: the website of the organization has become a primary source of music for the Vatican. The offertory chant is also sung periodically and increasingly so as more and more singers can handle the material. For the psalm, St. Peter's is alternating the use the of the gradual from the Graduale Romanum and the simpler psalms from the Graduale Simplex. Just now, the choirs are moving into the polyphonic repertoire of the masters of the Italian Renaissance, such as Palestrina and Victoria, and will be increasingly exploring polyphonic propers along with new compositions. Other major changes made by Fr. Paul include instituting rehearsals on Wednesday nights. Yes, you read that right. …


Agricultural organizations often struggle to have their messages heard on television news. Stories about agriculture often contain interview sources that are sometimes not equipped with the first hand knowledge to answer questions about the subject, leaving agricultural organizations wondering why their experts were not interviewed. The purpose of this study was to explore factors that influence the selection of stories and interview sources for television stories in an effort to improve agricultural organizations' presence in television news. Fifteen participants from four Texas television markets were interviewed. The data indicate that newsworthiness of agricultural stories depended on market size, with larger markets airing agricultural stories only when highly newsworthy—usually some sort of crisis— events occurred, and smaller markets were more willing to run agricultural stories that could include seasonal stories (harvest, planting, etc.), agricultural innovations, weather's impact on a crop, or agriculture's impact on a community. In addition, although opinions on the credibility of certain agricultural sources varied from person to person, governmental sources were considered to be credible in general, with commodity groups, corporations, and interest groups being perceived as a bit less credible. Conclusions were drawn that familiarity and acquaintanceship play a large role in the selection of sources by reporters, and the researchers recommend that agricultural organizations strive to cultivate these relationships to allow for better information transfer.


20–21 April 1974 Joint meeting of the Marine Studies Group and the British Micropalaeontological Group held in the Department of Geology, University of Bristol. Micropalaeontology of the NW European continental shelf. Sediment distribution on the British Continental Shelf R. E. Eden and J. E. Wright. Sediment distribution on the British continental shelf has been studied as part of the marine survey of the Institute of Geological Sciences, and published data from other workers, have been incorporated into a compilative map. To date, representative sediment samples have been collected by IGS from nearly half of the total shelf area, using grabs, vibrocorers and gravity corers. Over wide tracts the topmost sediments are thin, denoting a recent change in sedimentary facies. It is generally possible to set up a sequence for the underlying post-glacial sediments, but details of glacial stratigraphy offshore are obscure in many areas, although drilling by MV Whitethorn and commercial operators is producing some useful results. The value of ostracods in continental shelf studies J. Neale. Ostracods provide a valuable tool in continental shelf studies and may be used in a number of ways. In Mesozoic rocks (other than non-marine Triassic) they provide an excellent means of correlation and the 'classical' biostratigraphical approach is generally of paramount importance whilst ecological considerations are often secondary. Conversely in Pleistocene and Recent studies the vastly different time scale ensures that the ecological approach is often the more rewarding. The Tertiary systems occupy an intermediate position in this respect. Factors of universal importance


The problem of dispersion and flushing of contaminants from estuarine waters is of ever-increasing importance to engineers. To determine this reduction in concentration and removal of contaminants from estuarine water, several basic methods have been established. They are: (1) the classical tidal prism method, where the flushing is a function of the amount of water brought in and removed on each tide; (2) Ketchum's modified tidal prism method, where flushing is a function of tidal action and river discharge; and (3) a diffusion-advection method which may be based on a coefficient of eddy diffusivity. This third method, diffusion-advection, would seem to give the most realistic answer provided that confidence can be had in the coefficient of eddy diffusivity. This discussion will be confined to the third method. Furthermore, we will concern ourselves only with that portion of a contaminant that goes into solution and partakes of the motion of the water. Such factors as absorption onto particulate matter, settling out onto the bottom, and uptake of the contaminant by marine organisms will be neglected.


From Compton to Cairo and Bahia to Brixton, Black women have been disproportionally affected by poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, discrimination, and violence. Despite being one of the largest and most geographically dispersed groups in the world, they are rarely referenced or considered as a subject of analysis in international law literature. Thus, it is vital that scholars refashion global discourse by reconceptualizing international law and relations from their unique experiences and perspectives. This unique and eclectic collection covers a broad range of topics and issues that examine the complex interactions – as subjects and objects – between Black women and international law. The book critically explores the manifold relationships between them with a view toward highlighting the historic and contemporary ways in which they have influenced and been influenced by transnational law, doctrine, norms, jurisprudence, public policy, public discourse, and global governance. It purports to unearth old law and fashion new paradigms born out of the experiences of Black women.


Ubiquitous deployment of middleboxes has resulted in ossification of the transport layer, with TCP and UDP becoming part of the narrow waist of the Internet. This is a necessary stage in the evolution of the network, caused by its progression from research, to production, to increasingly critical infrastructure. New transport layer protocols will be needed in future, but since we are working with essential infrastructure, we cannot expect to have scope to make wholesale rapid changes. Future development must be done using the existing protocols as substrates, always maintaining on-the-wire compatibility. To advance, we must embrace the ossification of the network, and learn to reinterpret and extend the existing protocols.


Should investors in emerging markets focus on diversifying across countries or diversifying across industries? This question, widely debated in developed markets, and particularly in Europe, has received little attention in emerging markets. Using a normative approach that disentangles the impact of investor behavior from the opportunities offered by capital markets, the authors find that country effects dominate industry effects. It follows from these results that, despite the increasing globalization of emerging markets, investors should focus their diversification efforts on countries rather than on industries.


Information and Communication Technology (ICT) adoption research especially in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has moved from a simple adopters' participation process to involving diverse actors that continually interact and influence the process. Small businesses need constantly interact with various human and non-human actors to keep up with the emerging ICT development and benefit from the emerging opportunities (Eze et al 2012, Eze, 2013; Eze et al 2014). However; this has proved difficult. This paper reviews three prominent theories of ICT adoption, integrates and develops a model from them to assist researchers make substantial theoretical advancements in this area.


The United States Supreme Court's evolving standards of decency jurisprudence has come to be understood as having forged an irreversible one-way ratchet moving only toward greater leniency. The seemingly irreversible ratchet emerges both from practical challenges for state legislatures in pursuing stricter sanctions under the evolving standards of decency framework of analysis and an underlying assumption that moral evolution in criminal justice only moves towards lesser not greater sanctions. This Article offers a challenge to the latter assumption, the view that moral evolution can only be towards lesser not greater sanctions being imposed. This Article also attempts to provide a solution to the practical problem of the Eight Amendment ratchet puzzle, rendering reversible the seemingly irreversible ratchet. In doing so, the Article sets forth two critical mechanisms — contingent legislation and the active use of resolutions — which if utilized by state legislatures will enable them to more effectively engage in a constitutional dialogue with the United States Supreme Court in defining societal evolving standards of decency.


Finding proper design patterns has always been an important research topic in the software engineering community. One of the main responsibilities of the software developers is to determine which design pattern fits best to solve a particular problem. Design patterns support the effort of exploring the use of artificial intelligence in better management of software development and maintenance process by providing faster, less costly, smarter and on-time decisions (Pena-Mora & Vadhavkar, 1996). There has been a permanent interest in finding new design patterns, especially in the last two decades. Many new design patterns apply in various areas of computer science, such as software security, software parallelism, large-scale software evolving, artificial intelligence, and more. To the best of our knowledge, the "Obligation Link" and "History Reminder" design patterns are new and can be applied in software development in many areas of computer science including artificial intelligence.


Academic coursework on restorative justice is rapidly emerging in professional schools. As members of applied disciplines entrusted to serve the public good, students must be readily able to transfer classroom-based learning into real world application. This paper describes a weekend intensive, multidisciplinary graduate school course and how three 'real world' assignments are used to integrate restorative justice values, principles, and practices. The assignments include interviews with criminal justice representatives, group projects that propose restorative justice practices for addressing social issues and legal cases, and participation in community-based programs. The assignments use processes grounded in experiential learning theory to underscore various dimensions of restorative justice. They also convey and deepen the understanding of restorative justice principles and practices while at the same time develop a sense of moral agency in students.