Government increasingly leverages its regulatory function by embodying in law standards that are promulgated and copyrighted by non-governmental organizations. Departures from such standards expose citizens to criminal, civil and administrative sanctions, yet private actors generate, control and limit access to them. Despite governmental ambitions, no one is responsible for evaluating the legitimacy of this approach and no framework exists to facilitate analysis. This Article contributes an analytical framework and, for the federal government, nominates the Director of the Federal Register to implement it. Analysis is animated using among the oldest and broadest examples of this pervasive but stealthy phenomenon: embodiment by Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission of privately-promulgated accounting standards in public law. With accounting standards as a case study, the framework delineates three routes through which private standards are embodied in public law - denominated as strong, weak and semi-strong - and articulates associated copyright and lawmaking consequences. As to copyright, the framework mediates conflicts between public access to legal materials and private incentives to produce standards. It addresses the effect of copyright protection that biases standard setters to focus on quantity instead of quality and prevents third parties from improving standards through derivative works. As to lawmaking, the Article explains alternative governmental strategies to achieve regulatory leverage while adhering to private non-delegation doctrines and publication requirements. The Article appeals to scholars of administrative law, theorists concerned with intellectual property law and its broader political and public policy contexts, and those interested in informational and standard-setting aspects of accounting. Contributions will be of practical use to governmental officials who look to private standards in their regulatory functions, standard-setters in developing standards to aid those officials, and judges in resolving disputes involving citizens subject to or using these standards. While driving new avenues in three specific legal areas (copyright law, administrative law and securities regulation), the Article's inquiry into contemporary lawmaking is of general significance.


Searching for signatures of cosmic-scale archaeological artifacts such as Dyson spheres or Kardashev civilizations is an interesting alternative to conventional SETI. Uncovering such an artifact does not require the intentional transmission of a signal on the part of the original civilization. This type of search is called interstellar archaeology or sometimes cosmic archaeology. The detection of intelligence elsewhere in the Universe with interstellar archaeology or SETI would have broad implications for science. For example, the constraints of the anthropic principle would have to be loosened if a different type of intelligence was discovered elsewhere. A variety of interstellar archaeology signatures are discussed including non-natural planetary atmospheric constituents, stellar doping with isotopes of nuclear wastes, Dyson spheres, as well as signatures of stellar and galactic-scale engineering. The concept of a Fermi bubble due to interstellar migration is introduced in the discussion of galactic signatures. These potential interstellar archaeological signatures are classified using the Kardashev scale. A modified Drake equation is used to evaluate the relative challenges of finding various sources. With few exceptions interstellar archaeological signatures are clouded and beyond current technological capabilities. However SETI for so-called cultural transmissions and planetary atmosphere signatures are within reach.


Background: Ectopic pregnancy can present as an acute life-threatening emergency when it ruptures and accounts for about 10% of all maternal mortalities. The fallopian tube is the most common site for ectopic pregnancy (90–95%). With an increasing incidence of ectopic pregnancy worldwide, a histopathological study of the resected fallopian tubes becomes important to look for predisposing/associated findings such as chronic salpingitis, salpingitis isthmica nodosa (SIN), and tuberculosis. Aim: The aim was to study the histomorphology of the fallopian tubes with ectopic gestation and note the presence of predisposing factors such as chronic salpingitis, SIN, and granulomas in association with ectopic. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective study. The study was conducted on fallopian tube specimens with a clinical diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy. Sections from the fallopian tubes were studied for the presence of chorionic villi confirming the tubal gestation. The fallopian tubal wall was screened for features of chronic salpingitis, SIN, granulomas, Walthard cell rests, and any other related pathological findings. Results: Ninety cases were included in the study. The age of the patients ranged from 18 to 40 years with a peak in the third decade (71.11%). Chronic salpingitis was seen in 20 cases (22.22%), SIN in 11 cases (12.22%), and tuberculous salpingitis in one case. Conclusion: Histopathological examination of the resected fallopian tubal ectopics can provide an insight into the etiopathogenesis of ectopic pregnancy. In some cases, it can also aid in the treatment modality to prevent a recurrent ectopic.


Preparation of this issue of Africa Development started under the direction of Prof. Ibrahim Oanda Ogachi while he served at the CODESRIA Secretariat in Dakar. Oanda, as we call him, was Senior Programme Officer in the Training, Grants and Fellowships (TGF) Programme and Acting Head of the Publication and Dissemination Programme. In August 2022, his contract with CODES- RIA came to an end. The Council retained his services under CODESRIA's sabbatical arrangement until October 2022, when he formally resigned to join Mastercard Foundation as Head of Research Strengthening. A few of the forthcoming issues of CODESRIA journals, including Africa Development, Journal of Higher Education in Africa (JHEA) and CODESRIA Bulletin will still bear Prof. Oanda's name as editor because he edited the manuscripts and over- saw the production of these articles before he left the service of the Council.
Oanda, as he is popularly known at the Secretariat, first engaged with CODESRIA during the 1997 Democratic Governance Institute. Then a young lecturer at Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya, he acquitted himself admirably at the Institute, whose director was the late Jean-Marc Ela. His first ever peer-reviewed publication was titled 'Economic Reform, Political Liberalisation and Economic Ethnic Conflict in Kenya', published in 1999 in Africa Development, Vol. 24, Nos 1&2 (10.4314/ad.v24i1.22118). Since then, Oanda has published on several platforms of intellectual engagement but especially in his area of expertise, the field of higher education stud- ies. His accomplished interventions in this field led him to be appointed one of the editors of the Journal of Higher Education in Africa and he con- tributed significantly to revitalising the journal to its current standing. He also scaled the heights of academia to become Associate Professor at Kenyatta University before he joined CODESRIA.
At CODESRIA, Oanda served as Programme Officer in the Research Programme from June 2015 to August 2016, before being appointed by the Executive Committee to the position of Senior Programme Officer in TGF from September 2016 to 31 August 2022. Oanda revived several programmes at CODESRIA, including the higher education component of CODESRIA's work and, briefly, the economic justice aspect of the Council's programme. He was a key proponent of investing in what he justifiably understood to be CODESRIA's core areas of work and in doing so he went the extra mile to secure funding to establish the Economic Justice Institute, which ran until 2017. While the initiative did not last, it remains a good illustration of Oanda's belief that issues of economic justice ought always to be core to CODESRIA's research agenda.
Oanda stands out for his ability to raise funds for the Council. Over the period he worked at CODESRIA, he developed funding proposals to the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Andrew Mellon Foundation and Open Society Institute of Southern Africa (OSISA). By our internal calculations, he single-handedly raised USD 6,380,000. He also contributed to other funding proposals the Council developed, most importantly the proposed project on the Sahel. This project, developed jointly with the Arab Council for the Social Sciences, was meant to enable a reflection on the Sahel using the humanities as an entry point. Oanda developed and nurtured the Council's relationship with funding partners and left a rich legacy of fundraising on behalf of the Council. Indeed, among CODESRIA's senior programme staff he holds the record for fundraising, which he was focused on up to his last days at CODESRIA. To the last day, he remained concerned about the health of the Council especially in the context of the series of audits the Council went through after 2020.
But perhaps Ibrahim Oanda's greatest legacy to CODESRIA is its publish- ing system. By the end of 2019, the Council had accumulated a backlog in all its core journals, including Africa Development. I requested senior colleagues in the Secretariat to work together to resolve this challenge. Ibrahim Oanda agreed to step in as Acting Head of Publications and deal with the problem. Through a consultative process, he reorganised the different editorial and production elements of the programme, secured qualified and competent external service providers for copy-editing, cover design, typesetting, proof- reading and indexing, and put them to work. He created an editorial and production pipeline, set targets for staff and worked meticulously to reduce and eliminate the backlog.
Oanda facilitated the development of a new database for peer review, created a systematic process of tracking articles and ensured that a proper system of feedback to researchers was established. He nudged the Council to invest in proper dissemination channels so that the work of the Council would be easily and effectively projected to the wider society and the impact of its research would be felt beyond the academy. He even fundraised for dissemination and ensured that modest resources were available in budgets to facilitate dissemination. A significant component of the recent advancements in CODESRIA's communication and dissemination is in large measure due to Oanda's effort.
Once the publication system was running smoothly, CODESRIA was able to generate enough content to sustain a daily update to the community through our different platforms, including our website and social media. This was in no small measure due to the effort, commitment and hard work of Oanda. By the time he departed from the Council, both Africa Development and JHEA had a sufficient number of articles. He left behind enough fully edited and typeset articles to cover all the available issues of Africa Develop- ment for 2023. This is the reason his name will appear as editor of some of the forthcoming issues of Africa Development, even though he has formally left the Council.
On behalf of the Executive Committee, staff of the Secretariat, and the community in general, I want to express our gratitude to Prof. Ibrahim Oanda Ogachi for his excellent service to CODESRIA and its community of schol- arship. His dedication to work, his commitment and loyalty to CODESRIA as an institution, and the humility with which he engaged with everyone, are all attributes worth emulating. As a Council, we wish him the very best in his new roles and look forward to reunion whenever opportunity allows.


ABSTRACT The use of geodynamic information contained in sedimentary rocks has only recently been extended into the tectonic reconstruction studies of the Philippine archipelago vis-à-vis the rest of the Southeast Asian region. We present here a comparative assessment of clastic units from the western Central Philippines, particularly from the islands of Mindoro, Panay and Palawan, and propose their likely association with sources of Cathaysian origin. Geochronological data from sedimentary formations in the study areas register U–Pb dating peaks at 185–140 Ma, 140–120 Ma and 112–90 Ma. These are similar to those observed of detrital zircons from rocks of Cathaysian origin in Taiwan and Southern China that chronicle the Yanshanian magmatic events. These same formations also record an older intercept at 1.9–1.85 Ga that likely corresponds to a regional continental orogenic episode recorded in the late Paleoproterozoic Cathaysian block. Major (e.g. Al2O3/TiO2) and trace-element (e.g. Y/Ni vs Cr/V) signatures of these sedimentary formations reflect stronger influences from granitic sources than mafic–ultramafic inputs that should otherwise be expected, considering their current oceanic island arc settings. Their La/Th and Th–Co–Zr/10 ratios also reveal continental island arc and active or passive continental margin depositional settings typical of rocks from the Palawan Microcontinental Block. New geochronological and geochemical data from the clastic rocks of northwest Mindoro, in addition to those already published for the other regions of the Palawan Microcontinental Block, provide further evidence for the amalgamation of fragments of Cathaysian origin within the Philippine island arc system.


pathologic finding about one or more characteristics of intrahepatic bile duct cancer, following the rules of the TNM AJCC v8 classification system as they pertain to staging of regional lymph nodes.


The current study sought to investigate the mediating role of emotional intelligence in the correlation between parenting style and happiness. The research method adopted was correlational and descriptive in nature. The population of the study was all the male and female highschool students studying in the school year 2014-2015 in NoorabadMamasani. The sample of the study was 345 high school students chosen through multistage random cluster sampling. For the purpose of data collection, use was made of three questionnaires, namely Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire by Petrides and Furnham and Parenting Style Questionnaire by Baumrind. The findings showed that parenting styles could predict happiness. In addition, the two variables of self-awareness and optimism could act as mediators between the internal variables of authoritatarian and authoritative styles and happiness. Generally speaking, it could be said that in addition to parenting styles, emotional intelligence plays an important role in happiness.


Since January 2020 there have been over 97 million reported cases and 2 million deaths worldwide from COVID-19 and it is not over yet. In many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic is a slow-motion disaster and an 'external intervention' that suddenly began in early 2020 and has maintained its grip on the world. The pandemic has influenced the education sector strongly as well, and Ph.D. candidates enrolled in Ph.D. programs during COVID-19 ('the Ph.D. corona generation') at Western Norway Graduate School of Educational Research II (WNGER II) were examined in this case study. WNGER II is a research school consortium with seven universities and universities colleges, 97 Ph.D.-candidates, and 48 supervisors and was established in 2018 to complement the Ph.D.-programs and strengthen the Ph.D. education in Western Norway. A pilot phase (2016–2017) was used to identify and address specific challenges in Ph.D. education as experienced in the seven universities and university colleges in Western Norway. The pandemic has presented an urgent need for a better knowledge base to understand the professional, social, and existential conditions for doctoral fellows when society is shut down for an extended period. This explorative case study examined what the doctoral fellows experienced when home office, digital teaching, and digital supervision suddenly replaced physical presence in the workplace (more or less) from March 12, 2020 to November 30, 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. A mixed-methods research, formative dialog research, and case study design was applied to try to bridge the conceptual and contextual understanding of this phenomenon. The main data sources were a survey (N = 62, 85% women, 15% men, response rate 70%) and semi-structured interviews (with six Ph.D. fellows). Supplementary data collection was based on formative dialog research and comprised field dialog (13 seminars, eight Ph.D. courses, three Ph.D. supervision seminars, and two Ph.D. gatherings, N = 26), one focus group (n = 11), 21 online observations, and document analysis of Ph.D. policy documents and course evaluations (N = 15). The explorative case study found that the WNGER II Ph.D. fellows are satisfied with the educational quality concerning digital teaching and supervision (micro-level) but have experienced several research-related and psycho-social challenges during the pandemic (meso-level). These changed frame factors have impeded their feasibility and doctoral progression. Even if the WNGER II Ph.D. fellows experienced support during the pandemic, it seems like it entailed incremental measures that have not been sufficient. The Ph.D. regulations were created before the pandemic under normal conditions for normal conditions, but it appears that no substantial adjustments have been made for these extraordinary pandemic conditions in which frame factors attached to data collection, publication delays, childcare responsibilities, social distancing, etc. have changed the premises for their feasibility. This has been particularly critical for these Ph.D. fellows, who have been in this slow-motion disaster for up to 20 months (55% of their 3-year scholarship). Therefore, results from the case study indicate it is more important than ever to understand the gap between formulation, -transformation, and realization arena when it comes to the distinction between incremental, semi-structural changes and fundamental changes in Ph.D. regulations and guidelines caused by societal crises. Even if time compensation has been offered, it seems like the overall Ph.D. guidelines, regulations, and assessment norms have remained unchanged in the transformation arena (meso-level), which might have given some unforeseen implications for some Ph.D.-candidates, which calls for better crisis preparedness on a doctoral level in the years to come.


When more than one user uses a system with a single input device, the person in charge of the control is often active, and the by-sitters become passive. This situation can lead to frustration and boredom among the by-sitters. One way to solve this problem could be to distribute the con-trol over the system so that more than one user can control the system simultaneously. These systems, where many users can work simultane-ously with separate input devices connected to the same, shared screen, are called Single Display Groupwares. In this report, a single display groupware prototype for surfing news co-operatively was developed. The purpose of the prototype was to find out if the use of SDGs is likely to be a successful way to engage by-sitters and support co-operation while surfing news through a media terminal. The system was tested on pairs of users. The subjects of thestudy were observed while using the system, and a number of patterns in the users' strategies in dealing with the si-multaneous input situation emerged. The main conclusions that were drawn from the study were that multiple input can be a good solution when the system is so complex that the use can be divided into several parallel sub-activities. When the use of the system can't be split into parallel sub-activities, the users will only hinder each other, and the ex-tra input device will just make the division of control unclear without giving any benefit.


Large-scale environmental patterns in the Humboldt Current System (HCS) show major changes during strong El Nino episodes, leading to the mass mortality of dominant species in coastal ecosystems. Here we explore how these changes affect the life-history traits of the surf clam Meso- desma donacium. Growth and mortality rates under normal temperature and salinity were compared to those under anomalous (El Nino) higher temperature and reduced salinity. Moreover, the repro- ductive spatial-temporal patterns along the distribution range were studied, and their relationship to large-scale environmental variability was assessed. M. donacium is highly sensitive to temperature changes, supporting the hypothesis of temperature as the key factor leading to mass mortality events of this clam in northern populations. In contrast, this species, particularly juveniles, was remarkably tolerant to low salinity, which may be related to submarine groundwater discharge in Hornitos, northern Chile. The enhanced osmotic tolerance by juveniles may represent an adaptation of early life stages allowing settlement in vacant areas at outlets of estuarine areas. The strong seasonality in freshwater input and in upwelling strength seems to be linked to the spatial and temporal patterns in the reproductive cycle. Owing to its origin and thermal sensitivity, the expansion and dominance of M. donacium from the Pliocene/Pleistocene transition until the present seem closely linked to the establishment and development of the cold HCS. Therefore, the recurrence of warming events (par- ticularly El Nino since at least the Holocene) has submitted this cold-water species to a continuous local extinction-recolonization process.


Abstract The set of environmental conditions under which a taxon can survive and maintain viable populations, known as the ecological niche, is a fundamental determinant of a taxon's distribution. Because of the central importance of ecological niches, they have been assumed to remain relatively stable during intervals of morphological stasis. However, the assumption of niche stability has rarely been tested directly with fossil data spanning multiple temporal intervals. Thus, the conditions under which this assumption is likely to be accurate are not well understood. In this study, we use ecological niche modeling (ENM) to reconstruct the ecological niche for 11 genera of marine benthos (crinoids, trilobites, molluscs, bryozoans, and corals) from the Type Cincinnatian Series (Late Ordovician, Katian Stage) across nine temporal intervals spanning approximately three million years. This interval includes both abiotic environmental change (gradual sea-level fall) and biotic change (rapid pulses of the Richmondian Invasion), thus allowing the relative effect of different environmental perturbations to be constrained. A previous symmetrical analysis of niche stability of brachiopod species recovered an increase in niche evolution following the Richmondian Invasion. Herein we test the generality of the brachiopod pattern within the community. Niche stability was evaluated in geographic space, ecological space, and niche parameter space. Niche stability varied through time; during the Pre-Invasion interval, taxa exhibited niche stability during gradual shallowing of sea level in the basin, whereas niche evolution became more common during the Richmondian Invasion. Taxa adjusted to the increased competition by altering aspects of their niche. Notably, surviving taxa contracted their niche into a subset of their previous niche parameters. This represents an adaptive response to increased competition for resources with the newly established invader taxa, and it was employed most successfully by generalist taxa. Patterns of niche evolution were congruent between clades, among feeding styles, and across taxonomic levels.


The production of J/ψ mesons with rapidity 1.5 < y < 4.0 or −5.0 < y < −2.5 and transverse momentum pT < 14 GeV/c is studied with the LHCb detector in proton-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy √ sNN = 5 TeV. The J/ψ mesons are reconstructed using the dimuon decay mode. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 1.6 nb−1. For the first time the nuclear modification factor and forward-backward production ratio are determined separately for prompt J/ψ mesons and J/ψ from b-hadron decays. Clear suppression of prompt J/ψ production with respect to proton-proton collisions at large rapidity is observed, while the production of J/ψ from b-hadron decays is less suppressed. These results show good agreement with available theoretical predictions. The measurement shows that cold nuclear matter effects are important for interpretations of the related quark-gluon plasma signatures in heavy-ion collisions.


Oil-producing countries have benefited from rising oil prices in recent years. The increase in oil exports and oil revenues has had major implications for these countries. These developments have revealed how governments manage their fiscal policies in light of changing oil-market conditions and the role of special fiscal institutions (SFIs). In this Occasional Paper, IMF experts examine the fiscal response of oil-producing countries to the recent oil boom and the role of SFIs in fiscal management, they review the experiences of selected countries, and they draw general lessons. In doing so, they link findings on best practice in the design of SFIs with broader fiscal management advice.


The authors describe ongoing work in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Florida as we offer an Online MS degree in Electrical Engineering and as we proceed with the development of major components of a BS degree in Electrical Engineering. In particular, we describe the implementation of the "lectures on demand" method using multimedia streaming technologies within the now widely accepted Asynchronous Learning Network (ALN) model. Each class in the program is delivered on campus via the traditional face to face lecture mode. However, the classes make explicit use of computer and communication technology to facilitate an asynchronous mode of learning for both on-campus as well as distance education students. The lecture and in-class interactions including computer demonstrations are captured as video or computer animations. This digital video is compressed and broadcast 'live' via the Internet so that students who cannot attend the class can join the lecture. After the class, a student assistant is engaged to generate high quality image and graphical copy of material developed spontaneously in the class by the instructor. These are then integrated with class notes into a synchronized multimedia presentation.


The statistical validation of database search results is a complex issue in bottom-up proteomics. The correct and incorrect peptide spectrum match (PSM) scores overlap significantly, making an accurate assessment of true peptide matches challenging. Since the complete separation between the true and false hits is practically never achieved, there is need for better methods and rescoring algorithms to improve upon the primary database search results. Here we describe the calibration and False Discovery Rate (FDR) estimation of database search scores through a dynamic FDR calculation method, FlexiFDR, which increases both the sensitivity and specificity of search results. Modelling a simple linear regression on the decoy hits for different charge states, the method maximized the number of true positives and reduced the number of false negatives in several standard datasets of varying complexity (18-mix, 49-mix, 200-mix) and few complex datasets (E. coli and Yeast) obtained from a wide variety of MS platforms. The net positive gain for correct spectral and peptide identifications was up to 14.81% and 6.2% respectively. The approach is applicable to different search methodologies- separate as well as concatenated database search, high mass accuracy, and semi-tryptic and modification searches. FlexiFDR was also applied to Mascot results and showed better performance than before. We have shown that appropriate threshold learnt from decoys, can be very effective in improving the database search results. FlexiFDR adapts itself to different instruments, data types and MS platforms. It learns from the decoy hits and sets a flexible threshold that automatically aligns itself to the underlying variables of data quality and size.


Background: Clinical information about stroke in the vertebrobasilar territory has lagged behind that for anterior circulation syndrome. This is the first report from posterior circulation syndrome registry in Iran. Methods: Consecutive patients with brain infarction in vertebrobasilar territory admitted to Ghaem hospital, Mashhad were enrolled in a prospective study during 2006-2007. Diagnosis of ischemic stroke in the posterior circulation was made by a stroke neurologist based on the clinical manifestations and neuroimaging. Vertebrobasilar territory infarcts were classified into five groups according to the location involved: brainstem, thalamus, cerebellum, posterior cerebral artery, and mixed categories. All of the stroke patients underwent a standard battery of diagnostic investigations and the etiology of ischemic stroke was determined by the Practical Iranian Criteria classification. The 72-hour stroke course determined as regressive, stable, and deteriorative. Results: Total of 302 patients (147 females, 155 males) with mean age 62.5 years (±17.2) were investigated. Posterior cerebral artery, thalamus, brain stem, cerebellum, and mixed categories consisted 31.3%, 4.3%, 32.8%, 17.9%, and 13.9% of the stroke topographies respectively. Atherosclerosis consisted 50.6% of etiologies in our patients followed by uncertain (25.5%), cardioembolism (12.5%), both atherosclerosis and cardioembolism (6.3%), and miscellaneous causes (4.6%). Rheumatic mitral stenosis was the cause in 34.2% of our patients with cardiac emboly. The distribution of stroke etiologies based on its localization was not significantly different (df=16, and P=0.421). Stable status was the most common early stroke course (57.7%) followed by deteriorative (22.1%), and regressive (20.2%). A significant association between stroke localization in the vertebrobasilar territory and its course was not found (df=8, and P=0.901). Conclusion: Atherosclerosis is the most common cause of posterior circulation syndrome in Iranian patients. The cause of stroke in the posterior circulation could not reliably be derived from infarct topography. Iran J Med Sci 2008; 33(2): 67-73.


growing number of states have banned abortion after twenty weeks on the grounds that the fetus at that stage experiences pain. Such laws run contrary to current abortion law, and so are almost certain to be challenged in court. In Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court said that the constitutional right to abortion extends until the fetus is viable, between twenty-four and twenty-eight weeks. After viability, states may ban abortion entirely except where continuing the pregnancy would threaten the woman's life or health. The viability threshold was upheld in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Why viability? The Roe court said that this is "the 'compelling' point . . . because the fetus then presumably has the capability of meaningful life outside the mother's womb." Some commentators point out that this is no justification; the capacity for independent life does not explain the significance of viability. It merely gives the meaning. Another problem with viability is that it seems to depend on medical technology. What if fetuses under twenty-three weeks could be placed in an artificial uterus and brought to development there? Would we then say that even a firsttrimester fetus was viable? This focuses on one aspect of viability only—namely, the capacity for independent existence. Another aspect is development. The justification for viability is that a fetus of twenty-four to twenty-eight weeks is so substantially developed, so similar to a newborn, that it has a claim to societal protection—so long as this does not threaten the pregnant woman's life or health. Any attempt to ban abortions much earlier in pregnancy—as in a bill passed by the Ohio state legislature in June that would ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detectable, which can occur as early as six weeks—would be so restrictive as to vitiate the right to abortion altogether. It could be argued that sentience is a more rational threshold than viability because of the connection between sentience and moral considerability. If, as many experts believe, sentience and viability occur around the same time, then from a practical standpoint, it does not matter whether sentience or viability is chosen. But if sentience is the standard, and if it occurs earlier than viability, then abortion rights are restricted. Thus, much of the debate has turned on when fetal sentience occurs. Some are adamant that fetal sentience prior to twenty-four weeks is impossible, but other researchers do not rule it out. The development of neural networks necessary for the experience of pain might be present as early as seventeen weeks. Opposition to these laws should not be based on when sentience occurs, since this might change with more evidence. All we can say now is that the fetus almost certainly cannot feel pain during the first trimester and almost certainly can during the third. The exact onset of sentience in the second trimester is not just unknown; it may even be unknowable. It depends on the development of neural connections, which is a process, not an event. Drawing any exact line within a process is likely to be arbitrary. The choice between sentience and viability to justify the prohibition of late abortions is not the real issue. What really matters—and what pro-choice advocates should stress— is that late abortions are not denied to women who need them to preserve their own lives or health. Roe makes this clear, and subsequent cases have affirmed it. That is what is so upsetting about the story of Danielle Deaver. Deaver was at twenty-two weeks in a wanted pregnancy when her water broke, and the amniotic fluid did not rebuild. Her doctors said that fetal development had stopped and that the fetus stood only a remote chance of being born alive. Deaver also faced a risk of serious infection. She and her husband opted for inducing labor. But because inducing labor, if not done to save the life of the fetus, is legally defined as abortion, and Nebraska law prohibits abortion after twenty weeks, doctors and hospital lawyers concluded that the procedure would be illegal. After ten days, Deaver went into labor naturally. The baby died within fifteen minutes, and Deaver had to be treated with intravenous antibiotics for infection. Her health was considered secondary to the brief life of the fetus. That is unconstitutional, and outrageous. perspective


SUMMARY Little is known about local extinctions of finfish species in the most biodiverse marine ecosystem in the most marine biodiverse and anthropogenically threatened region on Earth. This paper examines coral reef associated finfish species that disappeared in the catches around the island of Bohol over the period 1950 to 2007, based on the only available data, namely traditional ecological knowledge. Generalized least squares (GLS) tests showed steep declines to zero among species formerly recorded in catches. Finfish species recommended as priority for further monitoring based on life history and disappearances in fish catch are giant grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus) and African pompano (Alectis ciliaris). Twenty out of the 21 species that disappeared from catches were moderate to very large-bodied, six were slow-growing fish and four were late-maturing fish. Species of large body size and subject to high fishing pressure may be particularly vulnerable. Traditional ecological knowledge when applied to population dynamics studies can add value to development of new monitoring methods. This knowledge can moreover inform the prioritization of species for fisheries assessment and conservation action.


Virtualization is a rapidly evolving technology that can be used to provide a range of benefits to computing systems, including improved resource utilization, software portability, and reliability. Virtualization also has the potential to enhance security by providing isolated execution environments for different applications that require different levels of security. For security-critical applications, it is highly desirable to have a small trusted computing base (TCB), since it minimizes the surface of attacks that could jeopardize the security of the entire system. In traditional virtualization architectures, the TCB for an application includes not only the hardware and the virtual machine monitor (VMM), but also the whole management operating system (OS) that contains the device drivers and virtual machine (VM) management functionality. For many applications, it is not acceptable to trust this management OS, due to its large code base and abundance of vulnerabilities. For example, consider the "computing-as-a-service" scenario where remote users execute a guest OS and applications inside a VM on a remote computing platform. It would be preferable for many users to utilize such a computing service without being forced to trust the management OS on the remote platform. In this paper, we address the problem of providing a secure execution environment on a virtualized computing platform under the assumption of an untrusted management OS. We propose a secure virtualization architecture that provides a secure runtime environment, network interface, and secondary storage for a guest VM. The proposed architecture significantly reduces the TCB of security-critical guest VMs, leading to improved security in an untrusted management environment. We have implemented a prototype of the proposed approach using the Xen virtualization system, and demonstrated how it can be used to facilitate secure remote computing services. We evaluate the performance penalties incurred by the proposed architecture, and demonstrate that the penalties are minimal.


The design of a physical space can and should take advantage of information architecture (IA) deliverables, in particular when designing an integrated model of IA. The user must be able to easily-consult [...] technology-dependent environments, e.g. digital medium or printed paper catalogue, in line with the information flow conveyed through the website. Conveying the relevance of information to the user/consumer by means of applying information architecture principles with a view to designing a crisscross-connecting model of human-information interaction is the focus of this work.


The purpose of this paper is to weave critical retail success factors into a retail operational model. This research integrates principles of traditional literature review with conceptual analysis and a reflective inquiry of a practitioner. This paper reveals a scarcity in research attempting to entwine success factors into workable models. Consequently, a retail approach towards the principles of evidence-based management is proposed, a new methodology for developing a retail management theory is provided, and an operational model is crafted. While the study provides evidence for the complexity of success in retail, it does not address all success factors such as e-retail, for example. Further, as an emerging theory this paper invites scholars and practitioner to build on its premise towards a comprehensive theory for retail success. To this author's knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to integrate evidence-based management into retail management. It provides a specific rationale to encourage practitioners to use the principles of evidence-based management in daily operations. It also opens the door for academics to critique and complement this model. As such, it benefits both practitioners and academics.


True gazelles (genus Gazella) are a prime example of a mammalian group with considerable taxonomic confusion. This includes the descriptions of several dark grey taxa of questionable validity. Here, we examined captive dark grey putative Neumann's gazelle Gazella erlangeri. Our concerted efforts to retrieve mitochondrial sequence information from old museum specimens of two dark grey gazelles, putative G. erlangeri and putative Muscat gazelle G. muscatensis, were unsuccessful. We did, however, find the mtDNA haplotypes of extant putative G. erlangeri to be nested within the haplotype variation of the Arabian gazelle G. arabica. The observed population genetic divergence between G. arabica and putative G. erlangeri (based on 11 nuclear microsatellites) was driven by genetic impoverishment of putative G. erlangeri. These results, along with morphological signatures of domestication (e.g., reduced brain case size), suggest genetic bottle necks and domestication effects as a consequence of prolonged captive breeding. Three hypotheses are discussed: (a) G. erlangeri and/or G. muscatensis are valid species but are now extinct; (b) one or both taxa represent phenotypic variation within G. arabica and, therefore, are synonyms of G. arabica; and (c) captive stocks, exhibiting the effects of domestication and inbreeding, are the sources for the descriptions of G. erlangeri and G. muscatensis. As concerns the conservation of gazelles, based on current knowledge, we strongly advise against using putative G. erlangeri for any introduction initiative but recommend the continued captive management of putative G. erlangeri.


According to Hansard, in the parliament of John Howard's first term of government the adjective "medieval" was used eight times. In the following term, however, it cropped up 46 times. What happened? Why did our members and senators suddenly need to describe things as medieval? What happened was 9/11. The spectacle of planes crashing into skyscrapers prompted myriad politicians, in Australia and elsewhere, to denounce the perpetrators as "medieval" What we have seen in recent weeks is medieval barbarism, perpetrated and spread with the most modern of technology. Abbott is not alone; it has become commonplace to describe Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS or ISIL) as a brutal throwback to a murky violent past called, interchangeably, the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages. Why the Middle Ages? Why now? Historians of the Middle Ages will tell you that al-Qaeda and IS bear little resemblance, in their words or deeds, to actual medieval people. The religious fundamentalism that characterises al-Qaeda and IS, for example, is a relatively recent phenomenon. Broadcasting choreographed violent spectacles as a means of creating shock and fear owes its strategy more to Hollywood and viral media than it does to the Middle Ages. .


A novel series of substituted pyrazolopyrimidine derivatives have been synthesized from substituted hydrazine derivatives and ethoxy (methylene) malanonitrile gives an intermediate (5-amino-1substituted phenyl pyrazole-4-carbonitrile) (1) which on further react with formic acid, acetic acid/HCl and formamide gives series of (1substitutedphenyl)1H pyrazole [3,4-d] pyrimidine-4(5H)-one (2). The synthesized compounds were characterized on the basis of IR, 1H NMR and Mass spectral data. Furthermore, these newly synthesized compounds were screened for their antioxidant activity by DPPH free radical scavenging method. Unfortunately none of the compound shows antioxidant activity.


This paper presents a method for vision based estimation of the pose of human hands in interaction with objects. Despite the fact that most robotics applications of human hand tracking involve grasping and manipulation of objects, the majority of methods in the literature assume a free hand, isolated from the surrounding environment. Our hand tracking method is non-parametric, performing a nearest neighbor search in a large database (100000 entries) of hand poses with and without grasped objects. The system operates in real time, it is robust to self occlusions, object occlusions and segmentation errors, and provides full hand pose reconstruction from markerless video. Temporal consistency in hand pose is taken into account, without explicitly tracking the hand in the high dimensional pose space.


Attempts by policy-makers to encourage diasporas to engage in development in the Global South rely on conceptions of behaviour drawn from economics that emphasize individual choice, stimuli and motivations. This article argues that diasporas are better understood as 'communities of practice' in which actions are conceptualized as part of a wider social system based on embodied knowledge acquired through socialization, technology and the habituation of particular lifestyles. Using social theories of practice to analyze remittances draws attention to the symptomatic silences of dominant theorizations of behaviour. Existing theorizations underpin, and thereby uncritically endorse, potentially unsustainable development policies based on remittances. The alternative approach presented here opens up new areas for policy and research based on medium to long-term changes in the socio-technical remittance regime.


This study investiged the concentrations of carbon (C) in different water reservoirs in different forms in relation to the weathering rate and the C content in the soils of five nested catchments belonging to the Nyong basin in South Cameroon. This forested granitic watershed is representative of the humid tropical domain. The five nested catchments (from upstream to downstream) are : the experimental Mengong catchment near Nsimi village, the Awout watershed (tributary of the So'o) at Messam, the So'o watershed (tributary of the Nyong) at Pont So'o, the upper Nyong basin at Mbalmayo, and at Olama station after the Nyong and So'o confluence. Soil samples were collected and analysed only in the Mengong catchment for different horizons. The C contents exhibited a very heterogeneous distribution in the different soil profiles. The organic C stock was estimated at 32 000 t in soils of this catchment. For the hydrolic year 1998/99, the mean annual DOC concentration was 0.31 mg/litre in the spring and 14.3 mg/litre in the stream at the outlet of the Mengong catchment. the mean dissolved organic C (DOC) river fluxes were between 4700 and 9300 kg/km2 per year. In coloured river and swamp waters, DOC fluxes were between 4700 and 9300 kg/km2 per year, whereas POC fluxes were between 600 and 1400 kg/km2 per year. In contrast, clear spring waters or groundwaters contain low DOC contents. The mean annual bicarbonate concentrations were 3.6 mg/litre in the spring water, and between 3.4 and 7.7 mg/litre in different rivers. In a non-carbonated environment, the dissolved inorganic carbon fluxes are normally low. Whereas for the Nyong River basin, these fluxes are lower than for other tropical silicatedd catchments due to low chemical weathering rate of silicate rocks for the upper Nyong Basin at Olama. Particulate organic C (POC) was measured (17 samples) during the flood event of 28 and 29 April 2002 on the Mengong River. These measurements indicated that POC content represented on average 25.3% if the TSS content, with relatively low variations compared to water discharge fluctuations.


Most project impacts on environment, climate, and health are not valued in markets or in choice situations similar to market transactions. Analysts have to go beyond revealed preferences to stated preference interviews and even to deliberative processes in order to elicit preferences from which the trade-off values ('prices') of the expanded cost-benefit analysis (CBA) can be deduced. The comprehensiveness dilemma of social CBA arises with the choice between calculation of 'prices' from revealed preferences and communicative construction of 'prices' on the basis of preferences stated in deliberation. New methods for eliciting preferences, such as deliberative monetary valuation, yield preferences influenced by ethical and political values. The interpretation of the analytic results then becomes problematic. The comprehensiveness dilemma is that planners must choose between a narrow CBA making good economic sense, and a comprehensive CBA with dubious economic content. By aiming for completeness, CBA changes character from being a summation of changes in individual wellbeing to being a mix of this and the summation of monetary expressions of ethical and political viewpoints and attitudes.


Cortical neurons rely on atypical Rho proteins Rnd2 and Rnd3 to inhibit RhoA in different compartments to allow proper migration during embryonic development. Cortical neurons undergo a complex series of morphological changes as they migrate from their "birth site," the ventricular zone and subventricular zone, to their final destination, the cortical plate. In mammals, the neurons are bipolar when they begin to migrate from their birth site; they become transiently multipolar in the intermediate zone; and then, before they enter the cortical plate, the cells reassume a bipolar morphology. Bipolar neurons exhibit nucleokinesis, a process by which the nucleus translocates into the leading process, and then the trailing process retracts, resulting in net forward motion. Rnd2 and Rnd3 are two members of an atypical family of Rho proteins that lack guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase) activity and are thus constitutively bound to GTP. These proteins function in cellular migration and inhibit RhoA. Expression of Rnd2 is stimulated by the proneural factor Neurog2 (also known as Neurogenin2), and deficiency in Rnd2 causes cortical neuron migration defects. Pacary et al. showed that expression of Rnd3 in cortical progenitors is stimulated by another proneural transcription factor, Ascl1, and that loss of Ascl1 or Rnd3 activity impaired cortical neuron migration. With in utero electroporation into the cerebral cortex, the authors showed that coexpression of Rnd2 and the Rnd3-silencing construct failed to rescue the migration defects of Rnd3-silenced neurons, and coexpression of Rnd3 with the Rnd2-silencing construct failed to rescue the migration defects of Rnd2-silenced neurons. In vivo examination of the morphologies of the silenced neurons that reached the cortical plate revealed that the Rnd3-silenced neurons exhibited enlarged leading processes and multiple thin processes that extended from the cell body, suggesting that nucleokinesis may be impaired in these cells. The distance from the nucleus to the centrosome was increased in the Rnd3-silenced neurons compared with wild-type or Rnd2-silenced neurons. The Rnd2-silenced neurons that reached the cortical plate had normal leading processes; however, most of the Rnd2-silenced neurons that did not complete migration failed to leave the intermediate zone, where they exhibited a multipolar morphology. Measurement of RhoA activity in the silenced cortical neurons in vivo showed that RhoA activity was enhanced by knockdown of either Rnd2 or Rnd3, and knockdown of RhoA rescued the migration defects produced by knockdown of either Rnd2 or Rnd3. Rescue experiments with mutant forms of Rnd3 that disrupted its ability either to inhibit the Rho effector ROCK1 (Rho-associated kinase 1) or to stimulate the Rho GTPase–activating protein p190RhoGAP suggested that the interaction with p190RhoGAP was required for the role of Rnd3 in migration. In contrast, Rnd2 mutants that could not stimulate p190RhoGAP were capable of rescuing the migration defects of the Rnd2-silenced neurons. Although knockdown of either Rnd2 or Rnd3 disrupted the actin cytoskeleton, rescue experiments with a constitutively active mutant form of cofilin, an active depolymerizing protein, restored the migration of Rnd3-silenced neurons only. These rescue experiments indicate that although both Rnd3 and Rnd2 inhibit RhoA to control migration, they regulate this process through different mechanisms. Immunofluorescence analysis of isolated cortical neurons showed that Rnd3 was present in both the cell processes and the soma, whereas Rnd2 was present only in the soma. Furthermore, Rnd3 was present at the plasma membrane and in endosomal compartments, whereas Rnd2 was detected only in endosomal compartments. Mutations that disrupted the plasma membrane localization of Rnd3 impaired its ability to rescue the migration defects of Rnd3-silenced neurons, and forcing Rnd2 to the plasma membrane allowed this protein to rescue the migration defects of the Rnd3-silenced neurons. Thus, Rnd2 and Rnd3 appear to function in distinct cellular compartments to inhibit RhoA activity locally and thus control different steps in cortical neuron migration. E. Pacary, J. Heng, R. Azzarelli, P. Riou, D. Castro, M. Lebel-Potter, C. Parras, D. M. Bell, A. J. Ridley, M. Parsons, F. Guillemot, Proneural transcription factors regulate different steps of cortical neuron migration through Rnd-mediated inhibition of RhoA signaling. Neuron 69, 1069–1084 (2011). [PubMed]


Despite the large increases in economic inequality since 1970, American survey respondents exhibit no increase in support for redistribution, contrary to the predictions from standard theories of redistributive preferences. We replicate these results but further demonstrate substantial heterogeneity by demographic group. In particular, the two groups that have most moved against income redistribution are the elderly and African Americans. We find little evidence that these subgroup trends are explained by relative economic gains or growing cultural conservatism, two common explanations. We further show that the trend among the elderly is uniquely American, at least relative to other developed countries with comparable survey data. While we are unable to provide definitive evidence on the cause of these two groups' declining redistributive support, we provide additional correlations that may offer fruitful directions for future research on the topic. One story consistent with the data on elderly trends is that older Americans worry that redistribution will come at their expense, in particular through cuts to Medicare. We find that the elderly have grown increasingly opposed to government provision of health insurance and that controlling for this tendency explains about 40 percent of their declining support for redistribution. For blacks, controlling for their declining support for race-targeted aid explains nearly 45 percent of their differential decline in redistributive preferences, which raises a further question: Why has support for race-targeted aid fallen during a period when black economic catch-up to whites has stalled?


Asthma has been defined as variable airflow obstruction. The symptoms of asthma are not specific for the condition and, therefore, the presence of variable airflow obstruction needs to be objectively confirmed. When airflow obstruction is present and when it can be completely reversed with treatment, confirmation of the diagnosis is easy. When spirometry is normal or when there is chronic airflow limitation, however, other methods of investigation are required. These methods include inhalation tests with histamine or methacholine, diurnal variation of peak flow rates and tests with exercise or hyperventilation. When spirometry is normal, methacholine or histamine tests appear to be the most sensitive method but, if results are normal, they do not exclude past or future asthma. However, when there is chronic airflow limitation neither variable airflow obstruction nor methacholine or histamine hyperresponsiveness are specific for asthma; tests with hyperventilation (and probably others that act through mediator release) may be more specific. The presence of asthma probably requires the release of chemical mediators, from mast cells and other cells, which can produce inflammation. This has been particularly studied after inhalation of allergens or chemical sensitizers which can trigger both early and late asthmatic responses. The late responses are associated with prolonged increases in airway responsiveness and are considered to be a result of the cellular phase of inflammation. It is possible that persistent or recurrent inflammation, due to these and other stimuli, is the cause of the persisting airway hyperresponsiveness and variable airflow obstruction in asthma, as well as the other features of cough and sputum, but this requires further investigation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Grid integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) is increasing rapidly. Integration of various types of energy storage technologies like batteries, ultra capacitors (UCAPs), superconducting magnets and flywheels to support intermittent DERs, such as solar and wind, in order to improve their reliability is becoming necessary. Of all the energy storage technologies UCAPs have low energy density, high power density and fast charge/discharge characteristics. They also have more charge/discharge cycles and higher terminal voltage per module when compared to batteries. All these characteristics make UCAPs ideal choice for providing support to events on the distribution grid which require high power for short spans of time. UCAPs have traditionally been limited to regenerative braking and wind power smoothing applications. The major contribution of this dissertation is in integrating UCAPs for a broader range of applications like active/reactive power support, renewable intermittency smoothing, voltage sag/swell compensation and power quality conditioning to the distribution grid. Renewable intermittency smoothing is an application which requires bi-directional transfer of power from the grid to the UCAPs and vice-versa by charging and discharging the UCAPs. This application requires high active power support in the 10s-3min time scale which can be achieved by integrating UCAPs through a shunt active power filter (APF) which can also be used to provide active/reactive power support. Temporary voltage sag/swell compensation is another application which requires high active power support in the 3s-1min time scale which can be provided integrating UCAPs into the grid through series dynamic voltage restorer (DVR). All the above functionalities can also be provided by integrating the UCAPs into a power conditioner topology." The proposed concept is implemented to PV Applications by using Mat lab/simulink Software.


James Wright's Address Unknown: The Homeless in America focused on the problem of homelessness during the mid-to-late 1980s, making an important contribution to the then-emerging public debate of a rapidly growing and increasingly visible social problem. Beside the Golden Door updates the story and our knowledge of homelessness through the middle 1990s, advancing the thesis that an emphasis on factors such as mental illness or substance abuse is descriptively accurate but fails as a causal account of the rise of homelessness as a social problem. The authors reject efforts to cast the issue in "either-or" terms, as social structure versus individual deficiencies, arguing that poverty and housing trends have created a situation where some people are destined to be homeless, but personal factors such as mental illness or substance abuse are critical in predicting who those people turn out to be. Beside the Golden Door details numerous dimensions of the homelessness issue: the rise in poverty; the decline of low-income housing; conceptual, measurement, and practical problems of counting the homeless and the Census Bureau's ill-fated 1990 effort to do so; the role of familial estrangement, mental illness, and substance abuse; and health status and behaviors. It concludes with discussions and comparisons of rural versus urban homelessness, street children in North and Latin America, and homelessness in post-industrial societies. The material in Beside the Golden Door will be accessible to undergraduate students and interested lay readers as well as specialists. "Both the content and style of this book make an excellent instructive read for students, practitioners, and scholars, alike."--Social Forces James D. Wright is Charles and Leo Favrot Professor of Human Relations, Department of Sociology, Tulane University and author of over thirteen books including Address Unknown and Crime and Violence in America. Beth A. Rubin is associate professor, Department of Sociology, Tulane University. She is the author of Shifts in the Social Contract: Understanding Change in American Society. Joel A. Devine is professor, Department of Sociology, Tulane University, and coauthor of The Greatest of Evils: Urban Poverty and the American Underclass.


In this study, we report that intercalation of tin into montmorillonite clay (Sn‐MMT) boosts catalytic activity for the synthesis of polyoxymethylene dimethyl ethers, a promising diesel fuel additive. This increase in activity is attributed to the formation of a hierarchical catalyst displaying high surface area with accessible Brønsted and Lewis acid sites. Extensive characterization such as MAS‐NMR, XRD and in‐situ DRIFTS confirmed that tin insertion induced reorganization of the clay layers into a disorganized house‐of‐cards structure. It also revealed that tin resided between the clay layers as defective SnO2 nanocrystals stabilized by the negative charge of MMT. The source of acidity in Sn‐MMT was studied by comparing it with two similar materials, namely Sn(OH)4, and thermally treated Sn‐MMT. Low activity measured for isolated hydroxylated SnO2 nanoparticles illustrates the importance of having clay and tin in close proximity. Meanwhile, deactivation upon thermal treatment occurred via sintering of the tin phase and diffusion of the protons inside the layers. Sn‐MMT acidity is attributed to the combination of Si−OH−Al groups, formed as a by‐product of SnO2 crystallization, and undercoordinated Sn surface sites, stabilized by the negative charge of MMT.


ABSTRACT Many scholars believe that the proliferation of large-scale datasets will spur scientific advancement and help us to predict the future using sophisticated statistical techniques. Indeed, a team of researchers achieved astonishing success using the world's largest event dataset, produced by the icews project, to predict complex social outcomes such as civil wars and irregular government turnovers. However, the secret of their success lay in transforming epistemically difficult questions into easy ones. Forecasting the onset of civil wars becomes an easy task if one relies on explanatory variables that measure how often newspapers report on tensions, fights, or killings. But news reports on prewar conflicts are just variations of the variable that researchers want to predict; the finding that more conflicts are likely to occur when journalists report about conflicts carries little scientific value. A similar success rate in "predicting" interstate wars can also be achieved by a simple Google News search for country names and conflict-related news shortly just before a conflict is coded as a war. Big data can help researchers to make predictions in simple situations, but there is no evidence that predictions will also succeed in uncertain environments with complex outcomes—such as those characteristic of politics.


Today, on Italian stages, the Spanish Golden Age theatre is almost unknown. To explain this absence, we must take into account both reasons related to Italian stage culture and linguistic reasons. First of all, it should be noted that this theatre is perceived as something far from our scenic customs, especially because it has been transmitted according to a very partial and topical vision. This is the reason why, when translating texts, it is necessary to deepen the knowledge of the starting context (Baroque Spanish culture, Lope de Vega, his comedies, other texts belonging to the same years and genre). Secondly, this absence is due to formal reasons, mostly the problem of verses.


The largest commercial bank stocks, ranked by total size of the balance sheet, have significantly lower risk-adjusted returns than small- and medium-sized bank stocks, even though large banks are significantly more levered. We uncover a size factor in the component of bank returns that is orthogonal to the standard risk factors, including small-minus-big, which has the right covariance with bank returns to explain the average risk-adjusted returns. This factor measures size-dependent exposure to bank-specific tail risk. These findings are consistent with government guarantees that protect shareholders of large banks, but not small banks, in disaster states.


The purpose of CAM research is to inform clinical CAM practice but often developments in knowledge do not translate into practice. I make three suggestions for how this situation may be improved: First, carrying out different types of study; second, enhancing dissemination; third, improving engagement. Because of the weight of prior evidence, the best interpretation of even a well-conducted positive trial of a gravely implausible CAM modality is to invoke chance. Thus no clinical trial could ever provide adequate evidence for such a modality. A way out of this problem is not to test treatment modalities for individual indications, but to test predictions of the theories of these modalities at the point at which they diverge from mainstream knowledge. Testing of this 'basic science of CAM' is likely to be easier, cheaper and have a larger explanatory footprint than clinical studies. Better dissemination of results can only improve the chances of research findings influencing practice, both directly by reaching practitioners, but also by reaching clients and commissioners. Suggested models include open access publishing and open data, as well as thorough use of the old and new media. Over the long term, better population health may be found through better science literacy, and the place to start is with outreach programmes in schools. In conclusion, I describe some threats and opportunities for the future and express my optimism that ineffective treatments will disappear to be replaced by effective variants which will be incorporated into evidence-based clinical practice.


Most inventors work as employees for the majority of their careers and are often required as a condition of employment to sign a contract drafted by the firm's lawyers giving the firm exclusive control over as broad a range of economically valuable information and innovation that the lawyers think is legally feasible. Such contracts typically claim as firm property - both during and after an employee's term of employment - the nebulous category of "proprietary information," along with the slightly more clearly (though still poorly) defined category of "trade secrets." These contracts, variously known as "invention assignment agreements" or "holdover clauses" or "trailer clauses," also claim as firm property any invention the employee might make that has any relationship to the firm's business or, less frequently, to the business of the firm's subsidiaries and affiliated companies. In Ingersoll-Rand v. Ciavatta, the New Jersey Supreme Court adopted a new and influential approach to the enforceability of such contracts. The enforcement of patent assignment agreements presents vexing policy problems. On the one hand, many inventors believe that their former employers have unfairly claimed their ideas and refused to share the profit or the credit for the invention. Some tell a story of a bureaucratic research and development culture that fails to stimulate, support, or reward innovation and regard contractual provisions that would enable the employer to claim any invention of former employees as unconscionable. Employers, on the other hand, point out that innovation is notoriously expensive and difficult, particularly in those fields where complex modern technology requires the sustained inventive efforts of many people to develop new products. When one employee claims as his own all the profit and all the credit for an invention to which many of his co-workers and predecessors at the firm contributed, the firm is entitled to resist that opportunism by insisting that the patent and the profits should belong to the firm that fostered the culture and financed the work. As these disputes filter through litigation, employment contracts become increasingly important. In addition to their significance to the legal issues, interpretation and enforcement of these contracts shapes the ethical, economic, and political debates about reconciling individual creativity with collaborative work, about how credit and profit for creativity should be allocated, and about desirable incentives for individual entrepreneurship and corporate investment in research and development. One of the principal jurisprudential accomplishments of the Ciavatta decision was its melding of the law of holdover clauses with the law of restrictive covenants and trade secrets. The court's multi-factor reasonableness analysis, which explicitly relied on decisions in the restrictive covenant area, attempted to create a unified reasonableness rule to govern a wide range of disputes between employees and firms over the control of economically valuable workplace knowledge. That approach has meant that Ciavatta has been as significant for its contribution to the law of restrictive covenants (an area that produces more published decisions) as it has been to the law of holdover agreements (an area of law that produces fewer published decisions). To the extent that the opinion's analytic approach has caught on in other jurisdictions, it has brought greater coherence and pragmatism to the effort to identify the employer, employee, and public interests in the enforcement of these contracts. That is a worthy accomplishment in a field of law that was previously characterized, at least in some states, by uncertain standards and archaic formalism.


Opening the epoxide rings of poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) with imidazole produces poly(3-imidazolyl-2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate) (PiGMA). PiGMA is soluble in room-temperature water due to protonation of the unsubstituted imidazole nitrogen atom at pH values below 5.9 but becomes insoluble at pH values above 6.5 due to deprotonation. At pH values between 6.2 and 6.5, partially protonated PiGMA is insoluble in water at low temperatures but becomes soluble upon heating. The transmittance variation of aqueous PiGMA solutions at 500 nm has been measured and used to monitor the dissolution or aggregation of PiGMA samples. The cloud temperature Tc determined from these transmittance curves increases at pH = 6.30 from 23.2 ± 0.3 to 93.2 ± 0.3 °C as the repeat unit number of PiGMA increases from 15 to 140. Increasing the solution pH from 6.2 to 6.5 for a PiGMA sample with 50 repeat units increases its Tc from 20.4 ± 0.6 to 89.7 ± 0.5 °C. Since PGMA can be readily synthesized and the reaction between imidazole and PGMA occurs under mild conditions, this paper offers a ready recipe for a family of pH- and thermo-responsive polymers.


Biological and social life of human beings is punctuated by rites of passage. Although some of them are documented in detail, rites of passage in ancient Near Eastern cultures have not previously been presented comprehensively and parallel to each other. A thorough study is achieved in this volume by combining various approaches and disciplines. The basic rites of passage are examined: birth, adolescence, changes of social status, and death.
The present volume consists of twenty-one contributions by specialists of ancient Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Egypt, and neighbouring cultures. It is structured around three main axes: "Becoming someone: The social dimension of rites of passage", where the interface between the religious sphere and the socio-political structure is examined; "Real life, symbolic life: Ritualized life and death in rites of passage", or how each threshold crossed by an individual is perceived as a new beginning; and "Liminality and impurity: The dangers of transformation", which defines the complex relation between notions of purity and impurity and rites of passage.
The contributors of this volume are (in alphabetical order): M.-L. Arnette (Egyptology), J. Bidmead (Assyriology), S. Boehringer (Ancient Greek), Cl. Calame (Ancient Greek), V. Dasen (Classics), S. Donnat (Egyptology), Chr. Eyre (Egyptology), A. Gilan (Hittitology), J.-J. Glassner (Assyriology), S. Gorke (Hittitology), Chr. Greco (Egyptology), R. Hawley (Ugaritology), F. Huber Vuillet (Assyriology), D. Katz (Sumerology), S. Laribi-Glaudel (Assyriology), D. Lefevre-Novaro (Greek Archaeology), M. Gr. Masetti-Rouault (Assyriology), Gr. Mobley (Biblical studies), J. C. Moreno Garcia (Egyptology), A. Mouton (Hittitology), J. Patrier (Near Eastern Archaeology), C. Roche (Assyriology), I. Rutherford (Ancient Greek), I. Sachet (Near Eastern Archaeology), C. van den Hoven (Egyptology) and N. Yoffee (Assyriology).


This study is descriptive study in service firm of banking sector which listing in BEJ to title: Cash Flow Statement Alternatively Assessment of Company Achievement (Study at service firm which listing in BEJ). The goal of this study to help a firm in valuing of performance and ability firm in produce a clean cash flow. Data analysis technique which writer use refer to cash flow statement firm of year 1999 up to year 2002 as data source that is process with comparing firm standart what have state. Beside it the analysis technique follow ratios analysis namely efficiency analysis quality of profit, analysis ratio sufficiency of cash flow and effort efficiency ratio analysis. And it uses trend analysis tool so that may be known firm which have a good performance. Base on the ratio analysis of quality of profit show decrease of seventeen of sample firm is elected, 9 firm follow a bad performance. 9 of the firm are PT. Bank Niaga, PT. Bank ANK, PT. Bank Interpacific, PT. Bank BII, PT Bank Bali, Pt. Bank Nusantara Parahyangan, PT. Bank NISP, PT. Bank Mega, PT Bank PAN. While 8 of others firm have a good performance, are: PT Bank Lippo, PT Bank Mayapada, PT Bank Pikko, PT Bank Buana, PT Bank BNI, PT Bank BCA, PT Bank Danamon, PT Bank CIC. Using of cash flow ratio for request necessities of firm show that cash flow of the activity of operation was not used for request of necessities of firm. Efficiency ratio show that almost all of the firm have a good perfomance but there are about 4 firm which have a less performance, are: Bank Lippo, Bank Pikko, Bank Danamon, and Bank Nusantara Parahyangan, although the selling experience improving but the result of profit firm precisely experience decreasing so it can not increase fund of firm. Base of the result of operation suitable ratio which used firm in infestation taking of plant assets have to consider return of the assetss and a enter cash from the operation activity. It is caused if the cash which is used to find infestation of plant assets small relative, so it will increase production of firm and efficiency of firm. Efficiency level need to improving, the maner increase cash flow enter and operation activity, it has meaning the credit have to be decreased. The result of trend analysis show that analysis of cash flow statement may be used aas valuing of good or bad of firm performance, it is sign by ability of firm to produce cash from operation activity, which will influence operation of firm. Base of the summary, it may be suggested that better to the firm use cash flow statement as alternative to value performance of firm. And any firm need to increase the efficiency. Keyword : laporan arus kas; penilaian prestasi perusahaan Link Terkait : http://skripsi.umm.ac.id/files/disk1/21/jiptummpp-gdl-s1-2004-afifahzuhr-1026-pendahul-n.pdf


Professional competency, capacity-building and academia empowerment are the concepts, with marginal differences and interchangeably need. The prime purpose is equipping the academia with the technology of effective teaching. University tertiary academia has been academically regarded the symbol of knowledge. In many ways this subject knowledge, although a matter in its own right, formed the classical nation. Many other sets of variables associated with human aspects, increases participation in higher education of all students advantaged and dis advantaged, mixed campus environments, learning materials and technologies are the grown concern which calls for a new vision and strategy. Within this frame work, this study focused on identification of the contents of professional competency, the patterns of academic performance and judges their wholesome effects on students' performance. In depth review of relevant literature in major areas (professional Competency, roll of academia, teaching strategy, factor effective teaching, teaching learning styles, diversified types influencing academia competency, indicators of professional competency, interpersonal relationships, ethics, reflections, communication skills, knowledge of subject matters, pedagogical/androgogical knowledge, students assessment, academics performance and its indicators, tertiary students study skills, and associations aspects) indicated the variables and form the basis of the study KeywordsProfessional, Academia, Student, Competency,


Most existing digital identity solutions are either centralized (e.g., national identity cards) or individualistic (e.g., most "self-sovereign" identity proposals). Outside of digital life, however, identity is typically social (for instance, "individual" data such as birthdate is shared with parents) and intersectional (viz., different data and trust are shared with different others). We formalize these ideas to provide a more robust and realistic framework for decentralized identity. We build upon the concepts web-of-trust and social collateral, from cryptography and economics, to provide a system of defining, verifying, and making use of identity through networks. We exploit the redundancy created by intersectionality together with the fragmentation of identity suggested by self-sovereign schemes to minimize social collateral required for verification. We exploit the probabilistic structure of Bloom filters to provide uniqueness proofs to prevent Sybil attacks while conveying minimal compromising information to verifiers. We discuss applications to "proof-of-personhood" blockchains and Radical Markets.


SOMMARIO: 1. La presenza religiosa nella sfera pubblica - 2. La liberta religiosa collettiva nella CEDU - 3. La condizione giuridica delle confessioni religiose nel diritto della UE - 4. Identita confessionali e identita nazionali europee - 5. Il ruolo "pubblico" delle istituzioni religiose negli Stati europei - 6. In particolare: a) la rilevanza costituzionale dei soggetti confessionali in Germania - 7. Segue: b) la condizione giuridica delle confessioni religiose in Italia. Public relevance of religious communities in the European legal dimension The religious phenomenon appears relevant both on an individual level and on a social level. In many cases religious experience, on the one hand, helps to draw the personal identity of the subject; on the other, it is an element that characterizes various aspects of civil society, up to the influence of the political and institutional dynamics of many contemporary state systems. This paper intends to demonstrate that the religious phenomenon does not appear confined only in the strictly private sphere, but lives and manifests itself also in the public dimension. This approach seems to be confirmed, among other things, by the new public role that religious communities are progressively taking on in the European legal sphere, as well as within individual state systems in Europe. From the analysis of the rules in force both at the European and national level, this work therefore derives a significant legal recognition of the public relevance of religions and religious communities that are direct institutional expression, paying particular attention to the experience gained in the German law and in the Italian legal system.


OBJECTIVE
Exposure to even physiologic doses of glucocorticoids can reduce one's bone mass and increase risk for osteoporotic fracture. There currently exists a wide variation in clinician approach to the assessment and management of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (GIO). Our objectives were to characterize Pacific Northwest dermatology providers' general practices, assessment of risk for GIO, and preferred GIO prophylaxis measures by way of survey. To identify whether knowledge deficits exist with respect to preventing and managing GIO in dermatology patients.

DESIGN
A self-administered, 22-question survey was sent electronically to respondent population. Surveyed population composed of 392 dermatology providers of the Washington State Dermatology Association and Oregon Dermatology Society registries. Survey responses were collected anonymously via Catalyst WebQ.

RESULTS
Respondents over-estimated fracture risk and reported they would prescribe antiresorptive medications at a less-than-adequate rate. When given clinical scenarios and asked to assess risk of major osteoporotic fracture, respondents frequently overestimated risk compared to that estimated by the FRAX tool (67%-71%). When asked directly if one would prescribe bisphosphonates as GIO prophylaxis for a high-risk patient, only 49% responded always/almost always.

CONCLUSIONS
This study suggests that a knowledge deficit exists within dermatology with respect to prevention and screening of GIO. The resultant practice gap is likely contributing to morbidity and mortality for dermatology patients requiring chronic glucocorticoid use for dermatologic disorders. Provider variability in practices suggests that dermatology could benefit from additional education in assessment and treatment of GIO, as well as a clear set of guidelines for GIO management.


Literacy Becomes "Popular" for a Male Student assesses the multitude of obstacles that a struggling male student faces in regard to literacy based instruction. Many of the struggles that this student faces are directly related to his intrapersonal viewpoint on reading and writing, based upon prior encounters throughout his educational experience. This study focuses on the impact that the inclusion of popular culture and text choice have upon the engagement and interest level of one fourth grade male student. The study utilizes interviews, structured observations and work samples as sources of data. The findings of this study indicate that the struggling male student's literacy instruction benefits from the use of choice to promote accountability, the inclusion of popular culture within instruction to improve engagement, an emphasis on notable success to positively impact attitude, and the use of technology to promote engagement. The conclusions of this study indicate that strategic feedback and success promote a growth mindset and that the inclusion of elements from popular culture improve engagement. LITERACY BECOMES "POPULAR" FOR A MALE STUDENT 3 Table of


Extensive study has been conducted on the identification of peptide sequences with mass spectrometry. With the development of computer hardware and algorithms, de novo sequencing has drawn attention from researchers for many years. Because it does not require a protein database, de novo sequencing is able to serve as either a complement of database searching or a stand alone method. As shown by Novor [1], the speed of de novo sequencing significantly exceeds the speed of protein database searching. Improving the accuracy of de novo sequencing is essential. Overlapping peptides occur quite frequently in a typical heavy chain proteomics sample. In this thesis, we have proposed an algorithm to efficiently and reliably detect the overlapping peptides. In addition, two strategies named labeling and voting are designed to utilize overlapping peptides so as to improve the accuracy of de novo sequencing. According to the results, the effect of our labeling strategy is not obvious with the current version of Novor. Although the improvemnt made by the labeling strategy is not significant, we still demonstrate the potential of the method. However, the performance of our voting strategy is surprising and noteworthy. It is able to achieve significant improvement of de novo sequencing with little running time.


In this study, the unconfined compression experiments of the intervertebral disc were conducted by applying an optimized digital image correlation (DIC) technique, and the internal strain distribution was analyzed for the disc. It was found that the anulus fibrosus (AF) radial displacement was outward in all the six test regions: inner AF, middle AF and outer AF both in anterior and posterior region. Middle AF exhibited the highest radial strains both in posterior AF and anterior AF with the increase of loads. It was noted that all samples demonstrated a nonlinear axial stress-axial strain profile in the process of deforming, and demonstrated an elastic region once the sample was deformed beyond its toe region. Inner AF exhibited the highest axial strains, while outer AF exhibited the lowest axial strains during static compressive loading. This study provides important new data in understanding the internal strain distribution, and provides a technique and baseline data for evaluating surgical treatments.


This paper demonstrates the way in which institutional learning has been adopted by a post-harvest technology research project in India to cope with the institutional constraints associated with various public agencies, as well as to help formulate broader lessons for institutional reform in horticultural R&D systems. The case study presents an institutional history of public and private efforts to assist farmers from the Vijaya Association of Fruit and Vegetable Growers' Cooperative Societies of Andhra Pradesh to produce and sell export quality mangoes. Problems in the relationships between stakeholders reveal the need to see technology transfer in a much more holistic light than is conventionally understood.


We present a case series of cornea and anterior segment disorders investigated by an office-based polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT). Blebs of glaucoma patients treated by trabeculectomy, and corneas of keratoconus and keratoplasty patients were measured by PS-OCT. Birefringence formations in trabeculectomy bleb were measured in 1 control eye and 3 eyes of trabeculectomy model rabbits. Polarization insensitive scattering OCT and the depth-resolved birefringence were measured simultaneously by PS-OCT. Abnormal birefringence was observed in keratoconus cases with advanced thinning and with a rupture of Descemet's membrane. The graft-host interface of the keratoplasty case showed abnormal birefringence. The appearance of abnormal birefringence in the cornea was likely to be an indication of cross-linking of collagen fibrils. The measurement of rabbit showed abnormal birefringence in the scarring eyes. Wide regions of strong birefringence were observed in the eyes of trabeculectomy patients who had high intraocular pressure. Visualization of scarring in bleb by PS-OCT may be useful for the planning of secondary surgery. PS-OCT showed promising for the study and diagnosis diseases related to abnormal fibrous tissues of the cornea and anterior eye segment.


This article explores the recent emergence of community sponsorship of refugees in Europe, an approach which shares responsibility between civil society and the state for the admission and/or integration of refugees. Originally a Canadian model developed to support the resettlement of Indochinese refugees, the model has gained momentum in Europe, with a number of states piloting or establishing community sponsorship schemes. This proliferation, while generally seen as positive for international protection of refugees, has led to conceptual confusion and a significant range of approaches under the "umbrella" concept of community sponsorship. As a result, community sponsorship today may be understood both as a form of resettlement and a complementary pathway to protection. While interest and momentum around community sponsorship is high, little work currently exists mapping and analysing how jurisdictions adopt the community sponsorship model. With reference to existing work on policy transfer, this contribution takes stock of community sponsorship models in Europe; analyses how community sponsorship may become a viable policy option in European states as a form of transnational policy transfer; and sets out a number of challenges for the future development of community sponsorship in Europe.


One iteration of standard $k$-means (i.e., Lloyd's algorithm) or standard EM for Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) scales linearly with the number of clusters $C$, data points $N$, and data dimensionality $D$. In this study, we explore whether one iteration of $k$-means or EM for GMMs can scale sublinearly with $C$ at run-time, while improving the clustering objective remains effective. The tool we apply for complexity reduction is variational EM, which is typically used to make training of generative models with exponentially many hidden states tractable. Here, we apply novel theoretical results on truncated variational EM to make tractable clustering algorithms more efficient. The basic idea is to use a partial variational E-step which reduces the linear complexity of $\mathcal{O}(NCD)$ required for a full E-step to a sublinear complexity. Our main observation is that the linear dependency on $C$ can be reduced to a dependency on a much smaller parameter $G$ which relates to cluster neighborhood relations. We focus on two versions of partial variational EM for clustering: variational GMM, scaling with $\mathcal{O}(NG^2D)$, and variational $k$-means, scaling with $\mathcal{O}(NGD)$ per iteration. Empirical results show that these algorithms still require comparable numbers of iterations to improve the clustering objective to same values as $k$-means. For data with many clusters, we consequently observe reductions of net computational demands between two and three orders of magnitude. More generally, our results provide substantial empirical evidence in favor of clustering to scale sublinearly with $C$.


MAST plasmas with a safety factor above unity and a profile with either weakly reversed shear or broad low-shear regions, regularly exhibit long-lived saturated ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities. The toroidal rotation is flattened in the presence of such perturbations and the fast ion losses are enhanced. These ideal modes, distinguished as such by the notable lack of islands or signs of reconnection, are driven unstable as the safety factor approaches unity. This could be of significance for advanced scenarios, or hybrid scenarios which aim to keep the safety factor just above rational surfaces associated with deleterious resistive MHD instabilities, especially in spherical tokamaks which are more susceptible to such ideal internal modes. The role of rotation, fast ions and ion diamagnetic effects in determining the marginal mode stability is discussed, as well as the role of instabilities with higher toroidal mode numbers as the safety factor evolves to lower values.


Melanterius servulus Pascoe is a seed-feeding weevil that has been introduced into South Africa for biological control of Paraserianthes lophantha (Willd.) Nielsen, a leguminous perennial tree from Australia. Since the initial releases of the weevil on the Cape Peninsula in 1989, no attempts had been made to determine the impact of M. servulus on seed production of the weed. In this study, surveys were conducted throughout the Peninsula to obtain seeds that were X-rayed to distinguish those which were healthy from those that had been damaged by adults or larvae of M. servulus or other types of insects. Levels of seed damage caused by M. servulus increased with the length of time that the beetles had been established in the vicinity of infestations of the weed, and decreased with increasing distance from the nearest release site. Seed damage peaked at 75 % on isolated P. lophantha plants but never surpassed 65 % in thickets of the weed. The beetles showed no apparent preference for anyparticular type of habitat in which the host plants were growing, and damage was not related to the position of the seed pods within the tree canopy. The study indicated that M. servulus disperses slowly (approximately 1 km per year) and that population numbers increase gradually. The beetles are thus expected to fulfill a much greater role as biological control agents of P. lophantha in the future.


2022 TD1 Federal Personal Tax Credit Return [3] 2022 Worksheet for Federal TD1 [4] 2022 TD1 Ontario Personal Tax Credit Return [5] 2022 Worksheet for Ontario TD1 [6] CPT30 [7] Election to Stop Contributing to the Canada Pension Plan Group RRSP [8] Record of Employment (ROE) The University of Guelph submits all ROEs electronically through Service Canada's online services. The ROE will be issued within 5 days after the end of the pay period when an employee's interruption of earnings occurs. If you would like to obtain a copy of your ROE, you can do this online at My Service Canada Account [9]. From My Service Canada Account, you can view and/or print copies of ROEs on the same day the ROE is submitted.


Backgrounds : Nowadays, the science of genetics in Indonesia has not touched the world of nursing education and practice in health care. As the first step in order to introduce genetics topic into nursing education, an assessment is needed to identify student's knowledge and comfort toward genetics topic. Purpose : The aim of this pilot study was to identify nursing students' knowledge about genetics. Methods : Research design used in this pilot study was descriptive with cross-sectional approach. The survey was conducted using a questionnaire that adopted and adapted from "The Genetic Needs Assessment Survey" developed by Maradique et.al. This questionnaire was distributed to nursing students at one state school of nursing in Central Java, Indonesia. Result : There were 170 nursing students participated in the pilot study. Descriptive statistic was performed and the results indicated that they were lack of knowledge about genetics topic. Most of students were not familiar to genetic terms, for example locus, missense mutation, nonsense mutation, frameshift mutation, and karyotype. Students were not comfortable to use OMIM and draw pedigree. Respondents argued that more education strategy could be applied to improve student knowledge and understanding of the genetics. Conclusion : Introduction and recognition of genetics topic in nursing education was needed. Integration of genetics topic into nursing education can be applied by the existing subject or by itself subject to students; either individually or classically.


Rice husk constitutes the largest by-product of the rice milling industry. Numerous research studies have been conducted on the utilization of rice husk powder (RHP), but research on incorporating RHP into natural rubber latex foam (NRLF) is lacking. The purpose of this study was to use RHP as a filler for NRLF. A compression test was performed on RHP-filled NRLFs, and they were compared with the control NRLF. The compression set increased, while the recovery percentage decreased, as RHP loading increased. The stress versus strain curve showed increasing stress with increasing RHP loading. The increase in thermal stability and decreased (Qf/Qg) value of RHP-filled NRLFs indicated good interaction between RHP and NRLF. RHP incorporation can contribute to NRLF industries with environmentally friendly products such as mattresses and cushioning materials by lowering costs.


One recent change in the U.S. media landscape is the shift toward specialized audiences consuming specialized news content. With this trend as a backdrop, this study argues that viewers of a news talk show are more involved with the show's content when the style of the show is compatible with their psychological needs. This proposition is tested across two instances of compatibility: a host promoting critical debate and viewers with a high need for cognition, and a host promoting humorous commentary and viewers with a high need for humor. Results from an experimental design support the compatibility argument. When compatibility occurred, respondents perceived the program as more relevant, which in turn increased cognitive and behavioral activity regarding the program's content.


Geophysical methods are becoming an increasingly valuable tool for agricultural applications. Agricultural geophysics investigations are commonly (although certainly not always) focused on delineating small- and/or large-scale objects/features within the soil profile (~ 0 to 2 m depth) over very large areas. The three geophysical methods predominantly employed for agricultural applications, both past and present, are resistivity, electromagnetic induction (EMI), and ground penetrating radar (GPR). Some of the more important past developments for agricultural geophysics include: soil water content monitoring using resistivity methods beginning in the 1930s and 1940s; soil salinity assessment with resistivity and EMI methods beginning in the 1960s and 1970s; updates and improvements in U.S. national program soil survey mapping using GPR beginning in the late 1970s and on into the 1980s; and for precision farming purposes, the delineation of spatial variations in soil properties with resistivity and EMI methods beginning in the 1990s. There has been significant recent advancements in agricultural geophysics, with resistivity, EMI, GPR, and other geophysical methods presently being used or evaluated for applications ranging from soil hydrologic characterization, determination of clay-pan depth, soil nutrient monitoring at confined animal feeding operation sites, crop/tree root biomass surveying, subsurface drainage system infrastructure detection, identification of subsurface flow pathways, soil compaction evaluation, etc. However, before agricultural geophysics can reach its full potential, new developments are needed, such as: expanding possible agricultural applications for resistivity, EMI, and GPR methods; greater employment of geophysical methods that have not traditionally been applied to agriculture; construction of multi-sensor geophysical equipment platforms, perhaps integrated with agricultural machinery; development of agricultural geophysics expert system computer software; etc. Achieving these future advancements in agricultural geophysics will require close collaboration between those in both the agricultural and environmental/engineering geophysics communities.