Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are faced with multiple challenges both in the classroom and in the homework situation. While there are many studies on pedagogical interventions by teachers in the classroom, this is hardly the case when it comes to support staff in after-school homework supervision. In this study, 196 support staff with different qualifications were asked not only about their knowledge of ADHD, their subjective level of stress, and whether they felt trained enough to work with children with ADHD, but also to assess the effectiveness and feasibility of 25 interventions in homework supervision. Overall, the respondents rated effectiveness higher than feasibility. Higher qualifications, greater knowledge, and better preparation went hand in hand with higher ratings of effectiveness. The more stressed the support staff feel themselves to be, the less feasible they rate the measures. The results underline the necessity of employing well-trained pedagogical staff to supervise children with ADHD. A number of interventions can be identified that the support staff deem to be both effective and feasible, and that promise a high level of implementation in practice. At the same time, more attention should be given to potential obstacles to using recommended measures in training and further education.


Purpose: Little is known about the molecular signatures associated with specific metastatic sites in breast cancer. Using comprehensive multi-omic molecular profiling, we assessed whether alterations or activation of the PI3K–AKT–mTOR pathway is associated with specific sites of breast cancer metastasis. Experimental Design: Next-generation sequencing–based whole-exome sequencing was coupled with reverse-phase protein microarray (RPPA) functional signaling network analysis to explore the PI3K–AKT–mTOR axis in 32 pretreated breast cancer metastases. RPPA-based signaling data were further validated in an independent cohort of 154 metastatic lesions from breast cancer and 101 unmatched primary breast tumors. The proportion of cases with PI3K–AKT–mTOR genomic alterations or signaling network activation were compared between hepatic and nonhepatic lesions. Results: PIK3CA mutation and activation of AKT (S473) and p70S6K (T389) were detected more frequently among liver metastases than nonhepatic lesions (P < 0.01, P = 0.056, and P = 0.053, respectively). However, PIK3CA mutations alone were insufficient in predicting protein activation (P = 0.32 and P = 0.19 for activated AKT and p70S6K, respectively). RPPA analysis of an independent cohort of 154 tumors confirmed the relationship between pathway activation and hepatic metastasis [AKT (S473), mTOR (S2448), and 4EBP1 (S65); P < 0.01, P = 0.02, and P = 0.01, respectively]. Similar results were also seen between liver metastases and primary breast tumors [AKT (S473) P < 0.01, mTOR (S2448) P < 0.01, 4EBP1 (S65) P = 0.01]. This signature was lost when primary tumors were compared with all metastatic sites combined. Conclusions: Breast cancer patients with liver metastasis may represent a molecularly homogenized cohort with increased incidence of PIK3CA mutations and activation of the PI3K–AKT–mTOR signaling network. Clin Cancer Res; 23(16); 4919–28. ©2017 AACR.


As the global population continues to grow, age and urbanise, it is vital to provide accessible transport so that neither ageing nor disability constitutes barriers to social inclusion. While technology can enhance urban access, there is a need to study the ways by which transport technologies – real-time information, pedestrian navigation, surveillance and road pricing – could be more effectively adopted by users. The reason for this is that some people, and particularly vulnerable populations, are still likely to be reluctant to use (or even avoid using) technologies perceived as 'unknown' and 'complicated'. On the basis of evidence from British and Swedish case studies on older people's perceptions of the aforementioned transport technologies, as well as of a Swedish case study of visually impaired people's perceptions, this paper makes the case that technology is only one tool in a complex sociotechnical system, and one that brings challenges. The authors also suggest that although vulnerable populations are not homogeneous when expressing their attitudes towards transport technologies, their assessment criteria tend to be 'prosocial' as they usually consider that the societal benefits of the assessed technologies outweigh the personal benefits. Emphasising aspects linked to the technologies' prosocial potential or relevance to the individual user could therefore increase acceptance.


The paper follows the history of a neutral atom or molecule into a plasma--ionization, dissociation, radiation,--until it becomes a set of charged particles moving in the electromagnetic fields of the plasma system. The various useful forms of the method of averaging are displayed and applied to calculation of constants of motion. The breakdown of these constants is discussed along with some of the implications for fusion systems.


The article is devoted to surface hardening of steels by alloying with the use of laser energy. Two combined technologies were proposed: first—laser alloying by nitride-forming elements followed by nitriding, and second—the local laser alloying followed by metallization in atmosphere of ammonia. It is shown that laser alloying in continuous radiation forms a layer with a homogeneous fine-grained structure with thickness of 600 microns. The subsequent nitriding increases the microhardness of the surface layer of low-carbon steels to 20,000 MPa, increases wear-resistance in a 3 - 15 times and crack resistance in a 1.5 times. Two-stage technology of metallization allows getting diffusion layer on the surface of steels with the thickness, which is 1.5 - 2 times higher than after traditional metallization. In addition, this method of surface modification can significantly reduce the temperature of diffusion metallization and reduce the processing time to 3 hours. The optimal regimes of both technologies, which provide homogeneous multiphase diffusion layers with high hardness and wear resistance, were determined.


Hippocampus barbouri is one of the seahorse species found in shallow water of Malaysia. It is used as known as a global trade species in ornamental fish industry. To date, there is no documented report on seahorse aquaculture especially for H. barbouri in Malaysia even in Southeast Asia region. Seahorse aquaculture should be considered as an alternative source of seahorses to reduce the pressure on wild population. Therefore, this study was conducted to establish suitable techniques for broodstock maintenance and reproduction by focusing on culture system and feeding. Hippocampus barbouri were maintained and bred successfully in a controlled culture system. Minimum water depth required for the spawning of H. barbouri is 38 cm. Best reproductive performances was observed in broodstock fed with post-larvae shrimp. However, frozen mysid can also be used in the culture of H. barbouri. The minimal requirement of n-3 and n-6 fatty acids for the reproduction of H. barbouri was 5.13 ± 0.04 % and 14.83 ± 0.10 % respectively.


This paper considers the adaptability of estimation methods for binary response panel data models to multiple fixed effects. It is motivated by the gravity equation used in international trade, where important papers such as Helpman, Melitz and Rubinstein (2008) use binary response models with fixed effects for both importing and exporting countries. Econometric theory has mostly focused on the estimation of single fixed effects models. This paper investigates whether existing methods can be modified to eliminate multiple fixed effects for two specific models in which the incidental parameter problem has already been solved in the presence of a single fixed effect. We find that it is possible to generalize the conditional maximum likelihood approach of Rasch (1960, 1961) to include two fixed effects for the logit. Surprisingly, despite many similarities with the logit, Manski's (1987) maximum score estimator for binary response models cannot be adapted to the presence of two fixed effects. Monte Carlo simulations show that the conditional logit estimator presented in this paper is less biased than other logit estimators without sacrificing on precision. This superiority is emphasized in small samples. An application to trade data using the logit estimator further highlights the importance of properly accounting for two fixed effects.


Within the fashion industry sustainability is a hot topic, however the idea of recycling unwanted clothing into new is one that isn't being explored as intensively as other areas. This study brings to light the valuable source that is recycled cotton fibres and to explore ways in which consumers can be made more aware of these garments. Fabrics from two pairs of jeans, one made of standard cotton fibre and the other made of recycled cotton, have been studied. Their mechanical properties were studied and comparisons were made to identify the quality of the recycled cotton fibres as sustainable alternative to standard cotton fibres.


Sm-Nd model ages of sandstones and shales from the Oligocene Frio Formation of south Texas and the Paleocene-Eocene Wilcox Group of south-central Texas increase with increasing depth of burial. Depleted-mantle model ages (Tdm) of Frio shales increase from ca. 800 Ma at 1 km of burial to ca. 1000 Ma at ∼4km; in Frio sandstones, Tdm increases from ca. 750 Ma at 1 km to over 1200 Ma at 4 km of burial. In Wilcox shales, Tdm increases from ca. 1300 Ma to ca.1500 Ma over a burial depth of 1.5 to 4.5 km; Tdm of Wilcox sandstones increases from ca. 1450 Ma at 2.5 km of burial to as much as ca. 2000 Ma at 4.0 km. The sampling scheme employed minimizes, but does not eliminate, the possibility that these trends in Tdm are due to detrital variability. Close correlation of these trends with diagenetic changes in the rock and evidence of rare earth element mobility preserved in the diagenetic products suggests that diagenesis has modified Tdm.

Diagenetic modification of Tdm in Frio sandstone and Wilcox shale is due primarily to loss of radiogenic Nd, whereas increased 147Sm/144Nd produces elevated Tdm in deeper Wilcox sandstones. The Tdm of Frio shales does not change appreciably with depth, owing to the opposite effects on Tdm of decreased 147Sm/144Nd and decreased ϵNd(0). Loss of radiogenic Nd is due primarily to reactions involving unstable volcanic detritus, which is more abundant in the Frio than in the Wilcox. Decreased 147Sm/144Nd in authigenic illite, and consequent increased 147SM/144Nd in pore fluids, results in elevated Tdm in Wilcox and Frio sandstones containing late-diagenetic cement, and in decreased 147Sm/144Nd in deeper Frio shale. The similar Tdm trends observed in both units, which have different detrital characteristics, suggest that modification of Sm-Nd model ages in siliciclastic rocks may be commonplace during burial diagenesis.


Researchers at Rhodes University conducted investigations into the anaerobic co-disposal of primary sewage sludge (PSS) and high sulphate acid mine drainage (AMD) resulting in the development of the Rhodes BioSURE Process ® which forms the basis for the operation of a pilot recycling sludge bed reactor (RSBR). Further research has been conducted by researchers at the University of Cape Town (UCT), with the principle aim of determining the rate of hydrolysis of PSS under rnethanogenic, acidogenic and sulphate reducing conditions in laboratory-scale anaerobic digesters. The University of Cape Town's Anaerobic Digestion Model No.1 (UCTADMI) which integrates various biological anaerobic processes for the production of methane was extended with the development of a mathematical model incorporating the processes of biosulphidogenic reduction and the biology of sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB). Kinetic parameters used in the model were obtained from SOtemann et al. (2005b) and Kalyuzhnyi et al. (1998). The WEST software was used as a platform in translation of the basic UCTADMI from AQUASIM, and subsequently applied to data sets from UCT laboratory experiments. Incomplete closure of mass balances was attributed to incorrect reaction stoichiometry inherited through translation of the AQUASIM model into WEST . The WEST implementation of the model to the experimental methanogenic systems gave fairly close correlations between predicted and measured data for a single set of stoichiometric and kinetic constants, with regressed hydrolysis rate constants. Application of the extended UCTADMI to experimental sulphidogenic systems demonstrated simulation results reasonably close to measured data, with the exception of effluent soluble COD and sulphate concentrations. Except for a single system with a high COD:Sat ratio, sulphidogens are out competed for substrate by methanogens within the model. Therefore the model does not properly represent the competition between methanogenic and sulphidogenic organism groups. Trends observed in application of the model to available pilot plant RSBR data were similar to those observed in sulphidogenic systems, resulting in methanogens out-competing sulphidogens. The model was used as a tool to explore various scenarios regarding operation of the pilot plant. Based on the work conducted in this study, various areas for further information and research were highlighted and recommended.


The functions of vegetation for the behaviour of gregarious desert locust hop- pers (Schistocerca gregaria (ForskaKl)) are considered in respect to different scales: single plant (taxon, life form), plant community (species composition, dominance, density), and patterns in vegetation and landscape. In the semi-desert of Mauritania, two typical desert locust habitats are phytosociologically characterized. The perennial communities of the tree and shrub layer belong to the alliance Acacio-Panicion with an oceanic Euphorbia balsamifera -Salvadora persica community in a dune-wadi complex characterized by Zy- gophyllum waterlotii , and a more continental Acacia ehrenbergiana -Panicum turgidum community in the inselberg landscape of the Mauritanides. The spatial-temporal move- ment of a hopper band was observed. Hopper band movement depends mainly on wind direction, but is also influenced by patterns in vegetation and landscape morphology. Places giving protection and for moulting are provided by perennials and dense vegetation patches. Length of stay is determined by predation, moulting and food availability. Feed- ing behaviour in the natural habitat depends on food plant preference and the availability of palatable plant species within the plant community. In this study, feeding damage is evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively using the method Density Analysis with Estimation of Feeding Damage.


Something about the word "missional" has captured the
 imagination of many Christians in Western societies and beyond. The term, though
 relatively new as a description of the church, is now used widely across
 confessional traditions and within both "Emergent" and "Missional" Church movements.
 The employment of the term "missional" includes the superficial along with the
 profound, the culturally captive alongside the richly biblical. At its best, the
 word "missional" describes not a specific activity of the church, but the very
 identity and vocation of the church as it takes up its role in God's story in the
 context of its culture, and participates in his mission. This article will engage
 the Emergent Church movement and summarize its contributions toward the development
 of the missional identity and vocation of the church in the West. In the next
 article, the Missional Church movement will be engaged and its contributions toward
 the development of a missional identity and vocation for the church in the West will
 be summarized.


The article "Implementation of creditors rights in the bankruptcy procedure" is dedicated to the analysis of the purposes of judicial enterprise bankruptcy procedure and implementation of rights and legal interests of creditor as a principal individual of the bankruptcy procedure. The article does not confine to enumeration and comment of the rights granted to the creditor, but also analysis, systematical explanation, development of their essence, elaboration of machinery of implementation of creditors rights pending the bankruptcy procedure. The author pursues to answer the question, whether the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law provides enough possibilities to ensure rights and legal interests of both bankruptcy enterprise and creditors pending the bankruptcy procedure. The author tries to answer this question by analyzing laws, regulating execution of bankruptcy procedure, practice of the courts dealing with bankruptcy cases, also other materials, representing different views of scientists on the matters of bankruptcy.


Purpose
This paper presents NASA's experience using a Center of Excellence (CoE) to scale and sustain an open innovation program as an effective problem-solving tool and includes strategic management recommendations for other organizations based on lessons learned.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper defines four phases of implementing an open innovation program: Learn, Pilot, Scale and Sustain. It provides guidance on the time required for each phase and recommendations for how to utilize a CoE to succeed. Recommendations are based upon the experience of NASA's Human Health and Performance Directorate, and experience at the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard running hundreds of challenges with research and development organizations.

Findings
Lessons learned include the importance of grounding innovation initiatives in the business strategy, assessing the portfolio of work to select problems most amenable to solving via crowdsourcing methodology, framing problems that external parties can solve, thinking strategically about early wins, selecting the right platforms, developing criteria for evaluation, and advancing a culture of innovation. Establishing a CoE provides an effective infrastructure to address both technical and cultural issues.

Originality/value
The NASA experience spanned more than seven years from initial learnings about open innovation concepts to the successful scaling and sustaining of an open innovation program; this paper provides recommendations on how to decrease this timeline to three years.


An introductory overview of the use of microfluidic devices for tissue engineering is presented. After a brief description of the background of tissue engineering, different application areas of microfluidic devices are examined. Among these are methods for patterning cells, topographical control over cells and tissues, and bioreactors. Examples where microfluidic devices have been employed are presented such as basal lamina, vascular tissue, liver, bone, cartilage and neurons. It is concluded that until today, microfluidic devices have not been used extensively in tissue engineering. Major contributions are expected in two areas. The first is growth of complex tissue, where microfluidic structures ensure a steady blood supply, thereby circumventing the well-known problem of providing larger tissue structures with a continuous flow of oxygen and nutrition, and withdrawal of waste products. The second, and probably more important function of microfluidics, combined with micro/nanotechnology, lies in the development of in vitro physiological systems for studying fundamental biological phenomena.


Minimal hitting sets (MHSs) meliorate our reasoning in many applications, including AI planning, CNF/DNF conversion, and program debugging. When following Reiter's "theory of diagnosis from first principles", minimal hitting sets are also essential to the diagnosis problem, since diagnoses can be characterized as the minimal hitting sets of conflicts in thebehavior of a faulty system. While the large amount of application options led to the advent of a variety of corresponding MHS algorithms, for diagnostic purposes we still lack a comparative evaluation assessing performance characteristics. In this paper, we thus empirically evaluate a set of complete algorithms relevant for diagnostic purposes in synthetic andreal-world scenarios. We consider in our experimental evaluation also how cardinality constraints on the solution space, as often established in practice for diagnostic purposes, influence performance in terms of run-time and memory usage.


On Jan. 17, Kobe, Japan became the first post-World War II, heavily populated, industrialized area to bear the full brunt of a high-magnitude earthquake. Engineers hope the resulting destruction will stir other cities from a dangerous complacency. People will study Kobe, Japan for years, looking for lessons in the ruins. They will examine crumpled concrete, buckled steel, collapsed spans of bridges, sunken port jetties and snapped gas pipes. They will study the variously damaged buildings--some standing, some out of plumb and some reduced to a pile of rubble. The most important lesson, however, has already hit home with a force comparable to the one that struck Kobe at 5:46 a.m. on Jan. 17. What happened to Japan's sixth largest city could happen to any number of cities in the U.S. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Boston and New York are, like Kobe, densely populated and, in most cases, largely unprepared for a direct hit from a high-magnitude quake. Cities with a large inventory of structures that don't conform to modern standards must step up retrofitting efforts. Officials need to encourage better lifeline protection so that, when damage does occur and fires break out, rescue workers have the means and the ability to help.


Received: Aug. 2009 Accepted: Feb. 2010 Corresponding author: Shariat E e-mail: email@example.com Background & Aim: The prevalence of cardiovascular diseases is high in most of the countries. Cardiac catheterization is a routine diagnostic test for coronary heart diseases. In order to minimize the post-procedure complications, patients are restricted to bed for 8-24 hours in flat position. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of changing position and early ambulation on back pain and the amount of bleeding after cardiac catheterization. Methods & Materials: In this quasi-experimental study, 90 patients undergoing diagnostic angiography were selected using convenience sampling method in Shariati hospital. The patients were allocated in two intervention and control groups. The control group remained in supine position for 8-24 hours and the sandbag remained for eight hours. The patients' position in the intervention group was intermittently changed during the first hour after catheterization. The head of bed was set at 15 degree angle. In the second hour, the position changed to flat and the head of bed raised to 30 degree. In the third hour, the head of bed angle was set in 45 degree. In the first three hours sandbag was placed in catheter insertion site. After the third hour, patients could rest in any position (15-30 degree). Patients were ambulated in the sixth hour. Back pain intensity and level of bleeding were assessed immediately after admission, in the sixth, 24 hour; and after the seventh day of catheterization. Results: The results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in age, gender, education level, back pain intensity, and the level of bleeding immediately after the catheterization. Back pain intensity was lower in the intervention group than the control one after 6 and 24 hours of catheterization (P<0.001). There was no statistically significant difference between the intervention and control groups in the level of bleeding after 6 hours, 24 hours, and seven days of catheterization (P>0.05). Conclusion: Patients should be allowed to change their positions in bed cardiac catheterization. Patients can be ambulated earlier (in the sixth hour) after cardiac diagnostic catheterization.


Splicing is a critical step in gene expression, responsible for the excision of introns, producing the mature form of mRNA. Also, the possible arrangements of exons enlarge the proteome in 80%, enabling one gene to encode more than one protein isoform, thus increasing proteome. Growing data show deregulation of splicing events in cancer, being breast cancer the most studied. This aberrant pattern of splicing has an important role in breast tumor progression. These alterations are mainly caused by misexpression of some critical alternative splicing factors. The behavior of these splicing factors is implicated with important clinical features, such as chemoresistance, aggressiveness, and also metastases. In this chapter, the role of five splicing factors is discussed in the light of relevant data about in vitro , in vivo , and ex vivo studies to construct a represen‐ tative scheme of their behavior in breast cancer progression. Although the presented five splicing factors have important role in breast cancer, only three of them (ESRP1, RBFOX2, and SRSF1) have a more prominent role in tumorigenesis and tumor progression. These concepts will elucidate their role in tumorigenesis and a prospective use as biomarkers in breast cancer.


Australia's largest schooling system, the NSW Department of Education, is in a period of unprecedented change as the Department of Education initiates a range of reforms. One critical reform occurred in 2014 when the Department of Education and the New South Wales Teachers' Federation agreed to link teachers' salaries with accreditation. For the first time, all Department of Education principals, executives and teachers must complete an annual Performance and Development Plan. This article describes the work of a team of academics from the School of Education, Southern Cross University, and the Department of Education school leaders in northern NSW, exploring opportunities to accomplish school improvement through the "North Coast Initiative for School Improvement" (NCISI). The impetus for this initiative is based on the work of Alberta academics and researchers, Dr. David Townsend and Dr. Pamela Adams. The approach is based upon small teams, comprising a member of a school district's central office, a district principal and university academics, who once a month visit the leadership team of a school in order to build instructional leadership. This process involves the use of a guiding question, generative dialogue and a collaborative inquiry methodology. Early findings indicate the NCISI's approach is having positive impact leadership growth, through collaboration. Key elements of trust and professional identity have developed within teams. The very positive reaction of school communities to the project in its early stages is heartening and shows that there is a strong desire by school leaders to draw upon collaborative support in order to grow professionally. The project also demonstrates a strong level of commitment from a regional university to build productive relationships with schools.


Although criticized from a scientific perspective, the belief in entrepreneurial education as a transformation practice seems to be growing strong rapidly. Among a variety of critical studies, we find Nylund and Rosvall (2011) who argue that the wordings characteristic of entrepreneurial learning are no more than empty words, difficult to relate to specific knowledge (academic or content area matters), and supposedly difficult to operationalize in specific teaching situations. Among critical studies we also find Holmgren and From (2005) who stress that the benefits of entrepreneurial education lack empirical foundation.


We consider the information relaxation approach for calculating performance bounds for stochastic dynamic programs DPs. This approach generates performance bounds by solving problems with relaxed nonanticipativity constraints and a penalty that punishes violations of these nonanticipativity constraints. In this paper, we study DPs that have a convex structure and consider gradient penalties that are based on first-order linear approximations of approximate value functions. When used with perfect information relaxations, these penalties lead to subproblems that are deterministic convex optimization problems. We show that these gradient penalties can, in theory, provide tight bounds for convex DPs and can be used to improve on bounds provided by other relaxations, such as Lagrangian relaxation bounds. Finally, we apply these results in two example applications: first, a network revenue management problem that describes an airline trying to manage seat capacity on its flights; and second, an inventory management problem with lead times and lost sales. These are challenging problems of significant practical interest. In both examples, we compute performance bounds using information relaxations with gradient penalties and find that some relatively easy-to-compute heuristic policies are nearly optimal.


Aim: A cardiovascular disease increases the burden of mortality and morbidity across the globe. The aim of the study was to assess and evaluate the prescribing pattern of the cardiovascular drugs among the patients admitted in the intensive care unit of Department of Cardiology of a tertiary care hospital. Materials and methods: It is a single centered, observational, non-interventional, prospective study which has been carried out in a tertiary care hospital of Hyderabad, Princess Esra Hospital for a period of 6 months. The data was collected in the specifically designed form. Total 70 study sample was collected and analyzed in terms of descriptive and inferential analysis. The continuous variables were presented as mean ± SD and categorical variables were presented as numbers. Statistical analysis was done using graph pad version 7.03. Results: The percentage of male (51%) patients were slightly higher than females (49%). Most of the patients were in the age group of 51 to 60 years. Atorvastatin (82.85%) were found to be the most highly prescribed drug and the fixed drug combination of aspirin and clopidogrel (72.85%) was present in most of the prescriptions. Conclusion: The drugs were found to be prescribed according to the current guidelines. This study analyzes the present prescribing trends of the cardiovascular drugs in the clinical scenario. The study has found that majority of the drugs prescribed were in alliance with the current guidelines. In addition to the proper prescription auditing, patients should be educated regarding the modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors causing cardiovascular diseases.


Lysozyme is a low-molecular-weight protein with antimicrobial properties. An experiment was conducted to investigate the response of piglets receiving a water-soluble lysozyme supplement [Entegard (EG), Neova Technologies Inc., Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada; 4,000 lysozyme units/mg] after oral challenge with enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC). A total of 36 individually housed weanling pigs were randomly allotted to 1 of the 4 treatments, with 9 replicates per treatment. Treatments were a control (CONT, no additive), antibiotic (AB; 2.5 g/kg of feed of antibiotic with chlortetracycline, sulfamethazine, and penicillin), and EG delivered in the drinking water at concentrations of 0.1% (EG1) and 0.2% (EG2). All pigs received a basal diet similar in composition and nutrients, except for pigs receiving the AB diet, which had an added antibiotic. Pigs were acclimated to treatments for a 7-d period to monitor growth performance. On d 8, blood samples were collected from each pig to obtain serum, and each pig was gavaged with 6 mL (2 × 10(9) cfu/mL) of ETEC solution. Pigs were monitored for another 7 d to assess incidences of diarrhea and growth performance, and then all pigs were killed to obtain intestinal tissue and digesta samples. Treatments did not influence growth performance throughout the study. Greater ETEC counts were observed in the ileal mucosal scrapings (P = 0.001) and colonic digesta (P = 0.025) of pigs in the CONT group compared with pigs in the AB and EG1 groups. Pigs receiving AB and EG1 had greater (P < 0.05) small intestinal weights and ileal villus heights than pigs receiving CONT; however, the ileal villus height-to-crypt depth ratio was greater in pigs fed the AB diet (1.69) compared with those fed the CONT diet (1.34), whereas pigs receiving EG1 were intermediate. Pigs in the EG1 group showed greater (P < 0.001) serum tumor necrosis factor α and IL-6 concentrations before ETEC challenge; however, at 7 d postchallenge, pigs receiving EG2 showed the least (P < 0.05) circulating tumor necrosis factor α and IL-6 concentrations. Overall, better intestinal growth and development, as well as decreased ETEC counts on the intestinal mucosa and serum proinflammatory cytokines, suggest that EG can maintain gut health and function in piglets commensurate with antibiotics. However, it is noteworthy that at the largest dose tested, EG seemed to have a dramatic effect on proinflammatory cytokines but had a minimal or no effect on the other response criteria.


Yam cultivar Gunung ( Dioscorea alata ) is resistant to anthracnose ( Colletotrichum gloeosporioides Penz.). It has an extraordinary yield potential. Yet its acceptability has been limited because of the frequent production of large-sized and off-shaped tubers which are difficult to market. Local growers will increasingly accept this cultivar if tuber size can be reduced without an undue loss in yield. A study was conducted to determine whether ethephon [(2-chloroethyl) phosphonic acid] can induce multiple stem sprouting and hence multiple tuber production as a means of reducing tuber size and improving shape. Head, middle, and tail tuber sections were treated with a 1% ethephon solution and planted in the field. The ethephon treatment significantly increased stem sprouting in the middle and tail sections but not in the head section. A significant reduction in mean tuber weight was observed in all treated sections. However, this reduction was compensated for by a significant increase in the number of tubers produced per plant. The hormone treatment did not significantly affect total yield but did lead to more production of uniform tubers. Mean yield of marketable tubers was 73,123 kg/ha.


Regression models are extremely popular in different areas conjunct with systems analysis. The variety of these models is immense and now, as a consequence, there exist many computerized versions of the corresponding statistical methods. In this paper, we attempt to unify (from the computational viewpoint) at least some statistical approaches. We understand that similar attempts have repeatedly been made in statistical practice, but none of them can be considered completely successful. Nevertheless, any new attempt (this one, we hope) gives a more profound and comprehensive understanding of the situation and the future directions of the investigations.


In this viewpoint article we seek to make the farming community aware of the increasing presence of organised criminals and crime within the farming community. In the past decade there has been a discernable rise in the level of organized criminality in rural areas especially in relation to farm crime across Britain and Europe. This has been reported in the media in many European States and is exacerbated by the financial crisis and by a lack of cooperation between member states and agencies.


Abstract. CloudSat observations are used in combination with collocated European Centre
for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis to simulate space-borne
W-band Doppler observations from slant-looking radars. The simulator also
includes cross-polarization effects which are relevant if the Doppler
velocities are derived from polarization diversity pulse pair correlation. A
specific conically scanning radar configuration (WIVERN), recently
proposed to the ESA-Earth Explorer 10 call that aims to provide global
in-cloud winds for data assimilation, is analysed in detail in this study. One hundred granules of CloudSat data are exploited to investigate the impact
on Doppler velocity estimates from three specific effects: (1) non-uniform
beam filling, (2) wind shear and (3) crosstalk between orthogonal
polarization channels induced by hydrometeors and surface targets. Errors
associated with non-uniform beam filling constitute the most important source
of error and can account for almost 1 m s−1 standard deviation, but this
can be reduced effectively to less than 0.5 m s−1 by adopting
corrections based on estimates of vertical reflectivity gradients.
Wind-shear-induced errors are generally much smaller (∼0.2 m s−1).
A methodology for correcting these errors has been developed based on
estimates of the vertical wind shear and the reflectivity gradient. Low
signal-to-noise ratios lead to higher random errors (especially in winds) and
therefore the correction (particularly the one related to the wind-shear-induced error) is less effective at low signal-to-noise ratio. Both errors
can be underestimated in our model because the CloudSat data do not fully
sample the spatial variability of the reflectivity fields, whereas the ECMWF
reanalysis may have smoother velocity fields than in reality (e.g. they
underestimate vertical wind shear). The simulator allows for quantification of the average number of accurate
measurements that could be gathered by the Doppler radar for each polar
orbit, which is strongly impacted by the selection of the polarization
diversity H−V pulse separation, Thv. For WIVERN a selection close to
20 µs (with a corresponding folding velocity equal to 40 m s−1)
seems to achieve the right balance between maximizing the number of accurate
wind measurements (exceeding 10 % of the time at any particular level in
the mid-troposphere) and minimizing aliasing effects in the presence of high
winds. The study lays the foundation for future studies towards a thorough
assessment of the performance of polar orbiting wide-swath W-band Doppler
radars on a global scale. The next generation of scanning cloud radar systems
and reanalyses with improved resolution will enable a full capture of the
spatial variability of the cloud reflectivity and the in-cloud wind fields,
thus refining the results of this study.


Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the major cause of death worldwide. Initially balloon angioplasty (BA) seemed to be a commonly available treatment for such disease. The major limitation of this method is restenosis. With the advancement of coronary stenting, the incidence rate of restenosis after ballon angioplasty has been greatly reduced. However, in-stent restenosis (accounting for 1040% of patients: mainly due to neointimal proliferation) has been a major drawback for such coronary interventions. To overcome this, drug eluting stents (DES) have evolved as a prospective proposal. Stents coated with various anti-inflammatory, anti-migratory or anti-proliferative agents are under investigation. These additives suppress the inflammatory response, smooth muscle cell migration and proliferation, thereby inhibiting in-stent restenosis. In this context, it is proposed that honey with diverse polyphenolic and flavonoid composition may prevent in-stent restenosis. Recent research demonstrated that crude honey could exert an anti-proliferative effect against various cancer cell lines such as colon, breast, bladder, oral squamous cell carcinoma and osteosarcoma. Flavonoids and phenolic compounds present in honey have been attributed individually for their anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative potential and it has been shown that usage of honey in wound healing reduces inflammation and pain. Therefore, we hypothesize that crude honey which is rich in flavonoid and phenolic compounds may be a potential agent in preventing the in-stent restenosis. If our hypothesis is proven correct, honey will be a valuable candidate for saving millions of lives by preventing in-stent restenosis.


In this book, Isaiah Friedman examines one of the most complex problems that bedeviled Middle East politics in the interwar period, one that still remains controversial. The prevailing view is that during World War I the British government made conflicting commitments to the Arabs, to the French, and to the Jews. Through a rigorous examination of the documentary evidence, Friedman demolishes the myth that Palestine was a "twice-promised land" and shows that the charges of fraudulence and deception leveled against the British are groundless. Central to Arab claims on Palestine was a letter dated 24 October 1915, from Sir Henry McMahon, the British High Commissioner in Egypt, to King Hussein, the Sharif of Mecca, pledging Arab independence. Friedman shows that this letter was conditional on a general Arab uprising against the Turks. Predicated on reciprocal action, the letter committed the British to recognize and uphold Arab independence in the areas of the Fertile Crescent once it was liberated by the Arabs themselves. As all evidence shows, few tribes rebelled against the Turks. The Arabs in Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia fought for the Ottoman Empire against the British. In addition to its non-binding nature, McMahon's letter has been misinterpreted with respect to the territories it covers. Friedman's archival discovery of the Arabic version actually read by Hussein indisputably shows that Palestine was not included in the British pledge. Indeed, Hussein welcomed the return of the Jews just as his son Emir Feisal believed that Arab-Jewish cooperation would be a means to build Arab independence without the interference of the European powers. Myth-shattering and meticulously documented, Palestine: A Twice-Promised Land? is revisionist history in the truest sense of the word.


The main focal point in Ottoman and Turkish antisemitism is the figure of the Dönme—the descendants of Jews who converted to Islam along with their messiah Shabbatai Tzevi. The focus on the Dönme arises from the perception of the Salonikan-based Young Turks as a cabal of Dönme, or secret Jews. It was immediately in the wake of the 1908 constitutional revolution—which culminated in the dethronement of Abdülhamid II, and ultimately led to the construction of the secular Turkish republic—that antisemitic conspiracy theories centering on the Dönme were first voiced. These arguments were expanded after 1923 to claim that the man who abolished the caliphate and established the secular state, the Salonikan Atatürk, was a Dönme. Turkish antisemitism was fed by Nazism and Turkish anti-Zionism from the mid 1920s to 1945, and was more openly articulated after the creation of Israel, but it remained a retelling of the events of 1908.From 1908 to today, the Dönme character—a secret Jew hiding in the guise of the nation's leader who surreptitiously aims to destroy Turkey on behalf of world Jewry—has been the stock figure in anti-government conspiracy theories promoted by Islamists dispossessed of their authority, extreme rightists, and secularists divested of their power. Antisemitic conspiracy theories gain traction among all elements of Turkish society based on the racist assumption that only a Turkish Muslim can have Turkey's interests at heart, while a Jew—here the false convert, the secret Jew Dönme—can only serve foreign interests at odds with those of the Turks.


We study pure neutron matter in the BEC-BCS crossover regime using renormalization group based low-momentum interactions within the Nozi\`eres-Schmitt-Rink framework. This is an attempt to go beyond the mean field description for low-density matter. We work in the basis of so-called Weinberg eigenvectors where the operator $G_0V$ is diagonal, which proves to be an excellent choice that allows one to use non-local interactions in a very convenient way. We study the importance of correlations as a function of density. We notice that there is a significant reduction of the BCS critical temperature at low-densities as the neutron matter approaches the unitary limit.


We have previously described a rat model that responds to repetitive episodic hypoxia (FiO2 nadir 3-5% for 12 seconds every 30 seconds for 7 hr/day for 35 days) with chronic increase in arterial blood pressure. The purpose of the current study was to determine if peripheral sympathetic nervous system denervation blocks this persistent blood pressure elevation. Chemical sympathetic denervation was achieved and maintained by three intraperitoneal injections (100 mg/kg 6-hydroxydopamine) on days 1, 3, and 27 of a 47-day experiment in two groups of rats. One denervated group was subjected to episodic hypoxia for 40 consecutive days beginning on day 7 and the other remained unhandled in their usual cages. A third group was injected with vehicle only and subjected to the same episodic hypoxia while a fourth group remained unhandled for 40 days. The vehicle-treated, episodic hypoxia-exposed group showed a 7.7 mm Hg increase in mean arterial blood pressure (conscious, unrestrained) over the 40-day period, whereas all other groups showed a decrease in mean arterial pressure. The left ventricle and septum/whole body weight ratio was higher in both episodic hypoxia-exposed groups at the end of the study. Plasma epinephrine in both groups administered 6-hydroxydopamine was higher on day 6 than in the vehicle-injected rats. Measurement of catecholamines in cardiac muscle homogenate confirmed denervation in 6-hydroxydopamine animals. These results indicate that the peripheral sympathetic nervous system is necessary for the persistent increase in blood pressure in response to repetitive episodic hypoxia.


By the time of Nelson Mandela's release from prison, in 1990, television and film had brought South Africa's history of racial injustice and human rights violations into living rooms and cinemas across the United States. New media formats such as satellite and cable television widened mobilization efforts for international opposition to apartheid. But at stake for the U.S. based anti-apartheid movement was avoiding the problems of media misrepresentation that previous transnational movements had experienced in previous decades. Movement participants and supporters needed to connect the liberation struggles in South Africa to the historical domestic struggles for racial justice. What resulted was the romanticizing of a domestic civil rights memory through the mediated images of the anti-apartheid struggle which appeared between 1968 and 1994. Ultimately, both the anti-apartheid and civil rights movements were sanitized of their radical roots, which threatened the ongoing struggles for black economic advancement in both countries.


Educators are being challenged to prepare students to effectively participate in our increasingly globalised society. Contemporary views of pedagogy suggest supporting learners by providing scaffolds for their engagement in real world tasks - tasks that provide opportunities to both explore and apply their learning through multi-modal expressions 'within their diverse contexts. This article describes a project that draws upon the emerging views of multiliteracies in the design of a K-12 education excursion program. The multiliteracies learning design developed for the program is applied to specific discipline-focused learning objectives and implemented within a technology-enhanced environment, which provides learners with access to the multi-modal texts and tools. A geographybased curriculum application is specifically detailed in this article.


Literature presents the benefits of physical activity programs for people with intellectual disability (ID), but aspects such as those related to physical exercise prescription, benefits of the type of exercise program, most recommended exercises, load control, limitations of the interventions for adults with ID are subjects awaiting scientific research. The aim of this study was to verify, through a systematic review, the effects of physical activity programs for adults with ID. The procedure included an electronic search of the literature published from January 1960 to August 2014, considering terms related to physical activity, ID and physical activity program. Eight manuscripts met the eligibility criteria and were included in the study. Based on the systematic review, we found a limited number of studies that investigated, in a structured way, the effect of physical activity programs for adults with ID. In general, the systematized programs of physical exercise promoted consistent and significant benefits for adults with ID. However, there seems to be no consensus on the type of intervention to be used to promote the practice of physical activity in adults with ID. In addition, the methodological quality of the studies appears to be limited. We conclude that intervention studies with physical activity in adults with ID that involve aerobic exercise, sports specialization and a combination of muscular and aerobic exercise performed two or three times a week for more than 40 minutes seem to be the most recommended for adults with ID.


Complex products and systems (CoPS) are one of the factors that create competitive advantage in the modern economy. Features such as network structure and the presence of multiple actors with diverse knowledge backgrounds make the integrator organization (hub) forced to choose different types of collaboration with each actor. This research seeks to answer the question of what kind of technological collaboration is proposed on the basis of the various characteristics associated with each actor, the content of the interaction knowledge and technology and other communication features between the parties. After reviewing the literature, six key indicators were identified to determine the type of technology collaboration with three major actor groups including large and medium-sized companies, new technology base firm, and universities and research centers then Six main approaches were considered in integrating collaboration with other actors, including outsourcing, licensing, strategic alliances, joint research and development, joint ventures and merge and acquisitions. Finally, using the cluster mode analysis method and calculating the internal * Corresponding author: firstname.lastname@example.com coefficient of agreement, the proposed method for collaboration based on cooperation status in each of the six indicators was identified.


To protect the integrity of the United State's waters, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 promoted the establishment of Best Management Practices (BMPs) for forestry. A commonly used BMP is the reservation of Streamside Management Zones (SMZs). In this study the effectiveness of three different SMZ widths, 30.5 m (100 ft), 15.3 m (50 ft), and 7.6 m (25 ft), as well as thinning in 15.3 m SMZs were studied. The objectives of the study were to determine the effects these SMZ treatments had on carbon pools, carbon fluxes and environmental conditions in the SMZ. The benthic macroinvertebrate populations present within the stream were also examined because of their relationship to ecosystem carbon dynamics. Carbon storage in plant communities, litter layer, soil (upper 10 cm), and total organic carbon present (TOC) within streams were measured and quantified. Total CO2 efflux and the major environmental drivers of soil CO2 efflux, soil moisture and soil temperature, were monitored along a single transect within each SMZ. This study showed that carbon dynamics and stream biota (benthic macroinvertebrates) were not adversely effected by more narrow SMZ width and thinning within the SMZ. SMZ width did affect soil temperature, one of the environmental drivers affecting soil respiration. Based on these short-term results a 15.3 m SMZ with thinning or without thinning appears adequate to prevent changes in ecosystem function and water quality for forest applications.


ABSTRACT With respect to supporting student well-being and success, the current research developed a peer support scheme, built on the principles of Social Identity Theory (SIT). This was targeted towards first year undergraduate psychology students, in which measures of collective identity, sense of belonging, group efficacy, happiness and resilience were obtained, along with attendance and academic attainment. Following one academic year of being part of our peer support scheme, participants (N = 90) completed a questionnaire and consented to their attendance and attainment data to be used. It was found that students' collective identity was positively related to their sense of belonging, group efficacy beliefs and happiness. Further, the sense of belonging was a reliable predictor of happiness, but not attendance or academic attainment. Therefore, there is some evidence to suggest that an SIT-driven peer support scheme can support students' psychosocial well-being, although more is needed to ascertain whether this could be developed further to observe any course-related outcomes. Theoretical contributions to SIT are therefore presented, in which the insights can be applied to Higher Education beyond the UK.


1. Contemporary Issues in Climate Change: The Role of PaleoclimatologyModels and ObservationsPaleoclimatology: The Time DimensionEarly Thoughts and Contemporary SourcesA Brief Outline of This Book2. Principles of PaleoclimatologyIntroduction: A Multidisciplinary Approach in PaleoclimatologyDefining the Principles of PaleoclimatologyCauses of Climate Change: The Climate System"Time is of the essence"Strategies to Study Climate HistoryThe Development of an Annual-Resolution Deglacial ChronologyProxies of ClimateThe Evolution of Glacial-Age Climatology3. Vital Effects: Biological Aspects of PaleoclimatologyBiological Principles in PaleoclimatologyA Conceptual Framework of Biology and Climate ChangeScale in PaleoclimatologyReal Biological Entities or Heuristic Constructs?Biological Concepts in PaleoclimatologySummary4. Orbital Climate ChangeThe Jia-Li MonumentEarly Development of Orbital TheorySupport for Orbital Theory from GeochronologyThe Deep-Sea Record of Orbital Climate ChangeFundamental Tenets of Modern Orbital TheoryGeologic and Biotic Evidence for Orbital Climate ChangeChallenges to Orbital TheoryModeling Orbital Climate ChangeClosing Comments5. Millennial-Scale Climate ChangeDryas octopetalaEarly Evidence for Rapid Climate ChangeIce and Millennial-Scale Climate ChangeThe Younger Dryas and Other Rapid Climate Events During DeglaciationHeinrich Events and Dansgaard-Oeschger Cycles: Millennial-Scale Climate Change During Glacial PeriodsThe Eemian: Climatic Variability During the Last Interglacial PeriodSummary6. Holocene Centennial and Decadal Climatic VariabilityPolar Bears and Potatoes: Human History and Holocene ClimateClassical Holocene Climate ChronologyEarly and Middle Holocene Climatic HistoryLate Holocene Climate HistoryForcing Mechanisms of Centennial and Decadal Holocene ClimateConcluding Remarks7. Interannual Climate Change in the Tropics: ENSOLa Corriente del NinoInterannual PaleoclimatologyAspects of Modern El Nino--Southern OscillationPaleoclimate Records of Tropical Seasonal and Interannual ClimateGoddard Institute of Space Studies General Circulation Model of Isotopic Response to Interannual Climate8. Sea-Level ChangeBy Land or by Sea?Early Concepts of Sea-Level ChangeGeological Geochemical, Geophysical, and Biological Evidence for Sea-Level ChangeProcesses Affecting Sea-Level ChangeCenozoic Sea Level: Tectono-eustasy Versus Glacio-eustasyQuaternary Sea-Level HistoryHistorical Sea-Level ChangeSummary9. Paleo-Atmospheres: The Ice-Core Record of Climate ChangeAtmospheric Change: Human and Natural FactorsThe Ice-Core Record of Paleo-atmospheres and Climate Change"One Thousand Centuries:" The Camp Century Climate RecordClimate Proxies from Ice CoresThe Dating and Correlation of Ice CoresGlacial-Interglacial Climate Carbon Dioxide, and MethaneMillennial-Scale Atmospheric Variability and Climate ChangeThe "Flickering Switch" of ClimateMechanisms of Climate Change


Endothelial nitric-oxide synthase (type III) (eNOS) was reported to form an inhibitory complex with the bradykinin receptor B2 (B2R) from which the enzyme is released in an active form upon receptor activation (Ju, H., Venema, V. J., Marrero, M. B., and Venema, R. C. (1998) J. Biol. Chem. 273, 24025–24029). Using a synthetic peptide derived from the known inhibitory sequence of the B2R (residues 310–329) we studied the interaction of the receptor with purified eNOS and neuronal nitric-oxide synthase (type I) (nNOS). The peptide inhibited formation of l-citrulline by eNOS and nNOS with IC50values of 10.6 ± 0.4 μm and 7.1 ± 0.6 μm, respectively. Inhibition was not due to an interference of the peptide with l-arginine or tetrahydrobiopterin binding. The NADPH oxidase activity of nNOS measured in the absence of l-arginine was inhibited by the peptide with an IC50 of 3.7 ± 0.6 μm, but the cytochrome c reductase activity of the enzyme was much less susceptible to inhibition (IC50 >0.1 mm). Steady-state absorbance spectra of nNOS recorded during uncoupled NADPH oxidation showed that the heme remained oxidized in the presence of the synthetic peptide consisting of amino acids 310–329 of the B2R, whereas the reduced oxyferrous heme complex was accumulated in its absence. These data suggest that binding of the B2R 310–329 peptide blocks flavin to heme electron transfer. Co-immunoprecipitation of B2R and nNOS from human embryonic kidney cells stably transfected with human nNOS suggests that the B2R may functionally interact with nNOS in vivo. This interaction of nNOS with the B2R may recruit the enzyme to allow for the effective coupling of bradykinin signaling to the nitric oxide pathway.


We have successfully assembled graphene nanosheets into spherical shells using polystyrene spheres as templates. Compared with stacked planar graphene, the as-prepared graphene spherical shells have more free space in between the spheres, which results in a larger accessible surface area for adsorption of electrolyte ions in supercapacitors. Electrochemical tests show that the graphene hollow spheres exhibit a high specific capacitance of 273 F g−1 and excellent electrochemical stability.


Summary: In the late twentieth century, most European states have adopted legislation on unfair contract terms. The Directive 93/13/EEC on unfair terms in consumer contracts has effectively made the European Court of Justice (ECJ) the final arbiter in interpreting much of this legislation. The present paper explores the impact which the ECJ case law and foreign legal writing has had in an individual Member State, that is, the Netherlands. Seven issues are highlighted. (i) First, especially in the United States, information requirements as to contract terms have been investigated and found wanting. Although it must be conceded that not every consumer will read the small print even when enticed by the legislature to do so, this paper submits that such requirements do have some value. (ii) Contra proferentem interpretation is one of three age-old weapons against unfair contract terms; but, unlike the common law, Dutch law has not made much use of it. (iii) Dutch law has used the overt control over the introduction into the contract and the content of standard contract terms, but the result is of little use to guide parties, attorneys, and judges. Dutch case law, unlike that in Germany, is so much attuned to the circumstances of the case that it hardly establishes useful precedents. (iv) One of the first cases on unfair contract terms decided by the ECJ, the Océano case, caused a major discussion in the Netherlands. Should the Dutch legislature step in and change the sanction of avoidance or nullification into that of considering an unfair term not binding, or should the consequences of ex officio avoidance or nullification be left to the existing statutory provisions? The Hoge Raad eventually came to terms with Océano and the following ECJ case law in Heesakkers v. Voet. (v) An issue with regard to which Dutch courts have not yet had the opportunity to tie in with the case law of the ECJ is the problem of geltungserhaltende Reduktion, rejected in the Banesto case, which is in line with German case law. Until Banesto, Dutch case law had in fact accepted the device of geltungserhaltende Reduktion. This paper strongly supports the approach applied by the ECJ and German case law. (vi) Dutch law does not extend the control of unfair contract terms to the main subject matter. This is in line with the EC Directive and the case law of the ECJ (Kásler), and it is an expression of the rejection of the iustum pretium doctrine. The Nordic experience with handling unfair contract terms, without the exception for the main subject matter, demonstrates that the exception is not necessary. (vii) Finally, with regard to enforcement, the Dutch experience shows some surprising discrepancies with that in Germany. The two models may be described as the Dutch poldermodel and the German 'battle' model. The final paragraph sets out the conclusion of the foregoing analysis. In dealing with unfair contract terms, a collective approach should be favoured. Indeed, the Unfair Contract Terms Directive itself directs Member States to do so. Unfortunately, this is hidden for practitioners, because their understanding of the Directive will usually be limited to the part which has been transposed into national legislation, and the national legislation usually does not include the relevant provisions of the Directive. Also, it may be argued that a collective breach needs a collective remedy. This has been illustrated by two issues concerning unfair contract terms. The first one is the validity or invalidity of exemption clauses in standard terms. A second example is the question of the (in)validity of an arbitration clause in standard building terms.


Choosing Life, Choosing Death: The Tyranny of Autonomy in Medical Ethics and Law. By Charles Foster. Portland, OR: Hart Publishing, 2009. 189 pp. $45.00 paper. Autonomy grew up as a street fighter, and was blooded in some genuinely noble battles against medical paternalism. But like so many rulers with this sort of pedigree, it has quickly forgotten its democratic roots, and grown fat and brutal in power. (Preface, ix) Charles Foster minces no words. Choosing Life, Choosing Death is a comprehensive and passionately argued attack against the ''tyranny of autonomy'' in medical ethics and law. While autonomy has fought the good battle in the patients rights movement, articulating important concepts of informed consent, advance directives, confidentiality and reproductive rights, it has, according to Foster, become an ''orthodoxy that is policed with terrifying vigour'' (p. 4). He seeks to temper this tyranny with other well-established principles of medical ethics, such as beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. As a barrister and a professor in medical ethics at Oxford University, Foster is uniquely situated to expose the ways that the autonomy principle has been celebrated in the academy but then fails to deliver on its own principles when applied on the ground. It is the lived practice of autonomy that reveals its messy underbelly. This surely is the strength of this slim volumeFit is replete with court cases, primarily from the United Kingdom and the European Court of Human Rights, but it also cites landmark cases from the United States, describing the ways that the autonomy principle can obscure the complexities and contradictions of people's own assessment of their best interest and that of their loved ones. Foster proceeds chronologically, beginning with questions that occur before birth (reproductive autonomy), between birth and death (such as informed consent, confidentiality, capacity, medical research on human participants, advance directives, and physicianassisted suicide), and then ending with questions that occur after death, such as transplants and ownership of body parts. Each question cites landmark cases, demonstrating the great gulf between autonomy on the books (primarily Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights) and in action (in the hospital, the genetic database company, the courtroom). The limits of autonomy are explored in useful detail in the largest section of the book dealing with informed consent, which Foster calls ''the fundamentalist heartland of traditional autonomy'' (p. 82). Here, he critically examines the practice of giving minors access to reproductive health services without parental consent, the practice of giving medically necessary C-sections to women who had withdrawn their consent, the duty to prevent suicide by prisoners, and the right to sustain serious injury during consensual sadomasochism. Related are issues of capacity (was the woman with the needle phobia refusing the C-section temporarily incapacitated to refuse her consent?) and confidentiality (is there a duty to honor a patient's request for confidentiality not to reveal a genetically carried disease to family members who may be potential carriers?). Medical ethicists have long cast a critical glance on the notion of informed consentFsuggesting that what people want most from doctors is the ability to trust them (O'Neill 2002)Fand Foster's case studies usefully link readers to this work. When it comes to reproductive autonomy, however, Foster's critique is curiously lacking. He begins his attack with a case of two British women claiming a right to reproduce by using stored embryos without their sperm-providing partners' consent (in one case the husband was deceased; in the other case, the ex-boyfriend objected). …


Cellulolytic enzymes are promising candidates for the use of cellulose in any bioprocess operations and for the disposal of the cellulosic wastes in an environmentally benign manner. Cellulases from thermophiles have the advantage of hydrolyzing cellulose at wider range of operating conditions unlike the normal enzymes. Herein we report the modeled structures of cellulolytic enzymes (endoglucanase, cellobiohydrolase and βglucosidase) from a thermophilic bacterium, Clostridium thermocellum and their validation using Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD) and Ramachandran plot analyses. Further, the molecular interactions of the modeled enzyme with cellulose were analyzed using molecular docking technique. The results of molecular docking showed that the endoglucanase, cellobiohydrolase and β-glucosidase had the binding affinities of -10.7, -9.0 and -10.8 kcal/mol, respectively. A correlation between the binding affinity of the endoglucanase with cellulose and the enzyme activity was also demonstrated. The results showed that the binding affinities of cellulases with cellulose could be used as a tool to assess the hydrolytic activity of cellulases. The results obtained could be used in virtual screening of cellulolytic enzymes based on the molecular interactions with the substrate, and aid in developing systems biology models of thermophiles for industrial biotechnology applications.


In order to improve the accuracy of rainfall estimates from next generation radar (NEXRAD) uncertainties, data assimilation technique is performed by considering NEXRAD and available rain gauges which can be used to assimilate spatially uniform Multisensor Precipitation Estimator (MPE) scheme and non-uniform (based on rainfall interpolation and bias interpolation) NEXRAD bias estimations during a storm event by Kalman filtering. Even though NEXRAD provides a better spatial representation of rainfall variability than rain gauge information, it suffers from uncertainties and biases due to Z–R (reflectivity–rainfall) conversion method and limitation of available rain gauge information for NEXRAD bias correction in a particular river basin. Analysis of correcting NEXRAD bias rainfall with three different bias correction schemes is described in this study. The prediction accuracy of the STORE DHM (Storage Released based Distributed Hydrologic Model) simulations is also evaluated by using three different NEXRAD bias corrected rainfall inputs. The Upper Wabash River (17,907 km 2 ) and the Upper Cumberland River (38,160 km 2 ) basins are selected as the study areas to evaluate rainfall input sensitivity on different spatial characteristics. Use of spatially non-uniform NEXRAD bias correction schemes results has better rainfall and prediction accuracy compared to that of spatially uniform NEXRAD bias correction rainfall.


Although biases against homosexuals (and bisexuals) are well established, potential biases against a largely unrecognized sexual minority group, asexuals, has remained uninvestigated. In two studies (university student and community samples) we examined the extent to which those not desiring sexual activity are viewed negatively by heterosexuals. We provide the first empirical evidence of intergroup bias against asexuals (the so-called "Group X"), a social target evaluated more negatively, viewed as less human, and less valued as contact partners, relative to heterosexuals and other sexual minorities. Heterosexuals were also willing to discriminate against asexuals (matching discrimination against homosexuals). Potential confounds (e.g., bias against singles or unfamiliar groups) were ruled out as explanations. We suggest that the boundaries of theorizing about sexual minority prejudice be broadened to incorporate this new target group at this critical period, when interest in and recognition of asexuality is scientifically and culturally expanding.


This paper considers both one-way and two-way relaying systems with multiple relays between two terminal nodes where all nodes have multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas. We propose a unified algorithm which computes the optimal linear transceivers jointly at the source node and the relay nodes for amplify-and-forward (AF) protocols. First, optimization designs based on the sum-rate and the mean-square error (MSE) criteria are formulated for the two-way AF relaying channel. Due to non-convexity of the given problems, the proposed schemes iteratively identify local-optimal source and relay filters by deriving the gradients of the cost functions for a gradient descent algorithm. Then, the proposed algorithm can optimize a one-way multiple relay system as a special case of the two-way channel. Finally, we prove the global optimality of the maximum sum-rate scheme under an asymptotically large antenna assumption. From simulation results, it is confirmed that the proposed methods yield the near optimum result for the MIMO multiple relay channel even with a moderate number of antennas. Consequently, we show that the proposed algorithm outperforms conventional schemes in terms of the sum-rate and the error performance for both one-way and two-way protocols.


Darwin Turner once wrote of Jean Toomer's literary masterpiece, Cane, that "[Cane] inspires critical rhapsodies rather than analysis" (In a Minor Chord 207). Turner's observation is suggestive of the critical challenges that Cane poses. While there is no consensus regarding Cane's formal structure, critics have often described it in thematic terms as a pastoral work. Bernard Bell's reading of Cane as "a pastoral work, contrasting the values of uninhibited, unlettered Black rustics with those of the educated, class consciousness Black bourgeoisie," privileges the lyrical elements of the novel and its indebtedness to a "Afro American tradition of music as a major structural device" ("Portrait of an Artist" 13). Yet his analysis here only extends to the poetic pieces that intersperse Cane without comparing them to the prose narratives that provide a thematic and structural counter-point to them. Lucinda MacKethan also offers a reading of the novel as a pastoral narrative, arguing that Toomer "mold[ed] [Cane] into a version of Southern pastoral perceived with the black man's double vision of deep belonging and forced alienation" ("A Pastoral Problem" 425). MacKethan's description of Toomer's "ironic pastoral vision" in Cane does not adequately attend to the rural and urban conflict that frames the novel's portrayal of culturally displaced blacks in the North. In this essay, I will argue that Cane is best understood as what Michael Denning has described as a ghetto pastoral, a variant of the complex pastoral form that emphasizes the unique racial and ethnic conflicts associated with stories of deracinated (im)migrant peoples. Thus, my reading of the novel as a ghetto pastoral examines the racial and cultural tensions that necessarily shape Toomer's aesthetic vision in the novel. In The Cultural Front, Denning calls the ghetto pastoral as a "yoking of naturalism and the pastoral," stories that dialectically represent urban experience as an "allegorical cityscape composed in a pidgin of American slang and ghetto dialect, with traces of old country tongues" (231). According to Denning, these stories sought to provide a more accurate portrayal of ethnic working class experience. In contrast to traditional pastoral narratives, which privileged a transcendent pastoral ideal in response to the alienating aspects of modern society, the ghetto pastoral narrative revealed the ways in which ethnic and racial categories "mapped" the experience of working class immigrants in the city. These are stories about how displaced immigrants in the city attempt to reimagine themselves in relation to a pastoral landscape "back home," but they are also stories about how race and ethnicity complicate that transformative ideal. As Denning writes, "Ethnicity and race had become the modality through which working class peoples experienced their lives and mapped their communities" (239). Denning offers as examples of the ghetto pastoral mode the work of authors such as Mike Gold, Claude McKay and Anzia Yezierska, novelists whose works arose out of the proletarian moment of the 1920s and 1930s. As Denning points out, ghetto pastoral novels such as McKay's Home to Harlem and Mike Gold's Jews Without Money revealed the ways in which race and ethnicity challenged the transcendent ideal of a green landscape that was at the core of conventional pastoral narratives. Instead, these ghetto pastoral narratives portrayed a contested urban landscape composed of the old and the new, past and present--at once bringing together the symbolic elements of ethnic folk culture and the harsh material realities of urban life. Rather than the boundless potential expressed in traditional pastoral narratives, ghetto pastorals were stories that revealed how racial and ethnic boundaries delimited the lives of displaced (im)migrants. At the same time, these stories expressed the ways in which migrants pushed on these boundaries to create liminal spaces of existence, spaces formed at the interstices between the pastoral dream of transcendence and the urban realities of "working class tenements, sweatshop and factory labor, and cheap mass entertainments" (239). …


In geotechnical engineering, soil stabilization provides practical and cost-effective solutions related to problematic soils. With the growing necessity for environmentally friendly and sustainable materials, researchers have been exploring alternative methods such as biological approaches for soil stabilization. Biopolymers are produced from living organisms and are considered to be environmentally friendly soil stabilizers. A detailed study on stabilization of soil using Guar Gum biopolymer was carried out through intensive laboratory testing. For this purpose, low plastic (CL) and high plastic (CH) clays were treated with varying contents of Guar Gum biopolymer (1%, 2%, 3% and 4%) by the weight of dry soil. The experimental program mainly focused on compaction characteristics, unconfined compressive strength, California Bearing Ratio (CBR) and swell potential tests. All the samples were prepared on dry mix basis. The UCS of cured and soaked samples was tested after 2, 7, 14 and 28 days of curing and soaking. Strengthening effect of Guar Gum biopolymer was observed with the increasing biopolymer content and curing period. An increase of 182.64% and 243.30% was observed in the UCS of CL and CH respectively at the end of curing period using 2% biopolymer content. The results indicated a significant increase in the CBR of both CL and CH under soaked and unsoaked conditions. The incorporation of Guar Gum biopolymer has shown significant improvement in geotechnical properties of low plastic and high plastic clays and can be adopted as a potentially sustainable soil stabilizer.


Engineered wood composites are being crafted with increasingly smaller and smaller components, yet a search of the literature indicates a lack of intra-ring mechanical property data for almost all commercial wood types, particularly the underutilized low density hardwoods. In addition, there is no universally accepted testing regime for determining micromechanical properties of wood samples. As a result, we developed a testing system for determining compression, tension, and bending properties of growth ring regions of wood samples. Our microtesting system consists of a 45.4 kg load stage, motor drive, data acquisition system, motor control, load cell, strain transducer, and software. In this study, intra-ring compression strength parallel to the grain was determined for small samples (a few millimeters3 in volume) of sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), and red maple (Acer rubrum). It was determined that compression strength is weakly correlated with specific gravity but unrelated to growth rate. Specific gravity was also unrelated to growth rate. Sweetgum values were intermediate between yellow-poplar and red maple


New Edition of Best Selling Official Cert Guide: Updated Content, New Exercises, and Expanded Coverage -- PLUS includes CCNA Network Simulator Lite The new edition of bestselling CCNA ICND2 640-816 Official Cert Guide by Wendell Odom has been updated to refresh the content, add new exercises, and enhance certain topics that are key to understanding for success on the CCNA exams. Chapters on VLSM, route summarization, and IP access control lists have been completely revised. In addition the book contains new practice exercises for all three of these topics to help reinforce the concepts and increase computation speed for exam preparation. Learn, prepare, and practice for exam success Master CCNA ICND2 exam topics Assess your knowledge with chapter-opening quizzes Review key concepts with exam preparation tasks Practice with realistic exam questions on the DVD Learn from 60 minutes of Video mentoring Apply concepts within Network Simulator lab exercises CCNA ICND2 640-816 Official Cert Guide, Third Edition is a best of breed Cisco exam study guide. Best-selling author and expert instructor Wendell Odom shares preparation hints and test-taking tips, helping you identify areas of weakness and improve both your conceptual knowledge and hands-on skills. The book presents you with an organized test preparation routine through the use of proven series elements and techniques. The master table of exam topics makes referencing easy. Do I Know This Already? quizzes open each chapter and enable you to decide how much time you need to spend on each section. Chapter-ending Exam Preparation Tasks help you drill on key concepts you must know thoroughly. A final preparation chapter guides you through tools and resources to help you craft your final study plan. Special troubleshooting sections help you master the complex scenarios you will face on the exam. The companion DVD contains the powerful Pearson IT Certification Practice Test engine, complete with hundreds of well-reviewed, exam-realistic questions. The assessment engine offers you a wealth of customization options and reporting features, laying out a complete assessment of your knowledge to help you focus your study where it is needed most. This new edition also includes a free copy of the CCNA ICND2 640-816 Network Simulator, Lite Edition, complete with meaningful lab exercises, which help you hone your hands-on skills with the Cisco user interface for routers and switches. The DVD also contains more than 60 minutes of personal video mentoring from the author focused on subnetting. Well-regarded for its level of detail, assessment features, and challenging review questions and exercises, this official study guide helps you master the concepts and techniques that will enable you to succeed on the exam the first time. CCNA ICND2 640-816 Official Cert Guide, Third Edition is part of a recommended learning path from Cisco that includes simulation and hands-on training from authorized Cisco Learning Partners and self-study products from Cisco Press. To find out more about instructor-led training, e-learning, and hands-on instruction offered by authorized Cisco Learning Partners worldwide, please visit www.cisco.com/go/authorizedtraining. Wendell Odom, CCIE No. 1624, is the most respected author of Cisco networking books in the world. His past titles include books on the entry-level Cisco certifications (CCENT and CCNA), the more advanced CCNP, and the industry-renowned CCIE. His books are known for their technical depth and accuracy. Wendell has worked as a network engineer, consultant, instructor, course developer, and book author, and he has produced videos, software, and blogs related to Cisco certifications. His website with links to various study tools and resources is at www.certskills.com. The official study guide helps you master all the topics on the CCNA ICND2 exam, including VLANs and Spanning Tree Protocol Static and connected routes VLSM and route summarization IP Access Control Lists (ACLs) Routing protocol theory OSPF and EIGRP Troubleshooting Point-to-point WANS and Frame Relay Frame Relay Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) Network Address Translation (NAT) IPv6 Companion DVD The DVD contains two free, complete ICND2 practice exams and two free, full CCNA practice exams, CCNA ICND2 Network Simulator, Lite Edition, and 60 minutes of video training. Includes Exclusive Offer for 70% Off Premium Edition eBook and Practice Test. Pearson IT Certification Practice Test minimum system requirements: Windows XP (SP3), Windows Vista (SP2), or Windows 7; Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 Client; Microsoft SQL Server Compact 4.0; Pentium class 1GHz processor (or equivalent); 512 MB RAM; 650 MB disc space plus 50 MB for each downloaded practice exam This volume is part of the Official Cert Guide Series from Cisco Press. Books in this series provide officially developed exam preparation materials that offer assessment, review, and practice to help Cisco Career Certification candidates identify weaknesses, concentrate their study efforts, and enhance their confidence as exam day nears.


This study uses the 1992 Health and Retirement Study to examine consumer preferences for four health care reform options: tax-financed national health insurance, personally subsidized Medicare extensions, publicly subsidized nursing home insurance, and tax credits for health insurance purchases. Males, non-Caucasians, the self-employed, those in excellent health, and those who reside in the Northeast favor national health insurance, while those with high levels of liquid and non-liquid assets tend to disfavor it. Males and those with higher expectations of living in nursing homes tend to favor personally subsidized Medicare extensions to cover nursing homes and home health care. Those with higher expectations of living in nursing homes also favor publicly subsidized nursing home insurance. Relatively little support for subsidized nursing home insurance is found among males and those with high levels of liquid and non-liquid assets. The self-employed tend to support tax credits for health insurance premiums. Many alternatives for financing health care in the United States have been proposed. Currently, modifications of the radical health care financing reforms of the 1960s, Medicare and Medicaid, are in question. The feasibility of a universal health care plan for all persons in the nation is a primary theme of the continuing debate over health care reform. While there is a general consensus that reform is necessary, the nature of that reform is unclear. Health insurance coverage is currently the primary means for access to medical services when unexpected medical crises arise and for everyday health concerns. The high costs of health insurance and medical services has led to reliance on (1) employer-provided health insurance coverage, and (2) federal- and state-funded Medicare and Medicaid programs. However, increasing numbers of people find themselves without access to medical services (Posey 1995). This lack of access to medical services is due partially to the inability of employers or federal and state governments to finance the rising costs of health care. The key question is, "What options are available for financing health care?" In September 1995 proponents of Medicaid reform proposed that the federal government reduce its obligations to finance health care, cutting $182 billion in costs by reforming the Medicaid program (Haveman 1995). The changes suggested were (1) to give nursing homes more flexibility to discharge senior citizens without their consent; (2) to allow states to require spouses of nursing home residents to sell their homes, cars, and other assets to finance the nursing home care; (3) to require adult children to pay for the nursing home care of their parents; (4) to institute annual federal and state block grants to replace the current system of open-ended federal matching; and (5) to encourage states to develop innovative ways of providing services for low-income persons. At the same time reformations were proposed, efforts to reform Medicare had begun. Dollar amounts for possible savings from Medicare reform were estimated at $270 billion over a seven-year period (Pianin and Rich 1995). The proposed alternatives of Medicare reform included five specific changes: (1) minimizing the growth of reimbursements to medical providers, (2) increasing premiums for physician insurance and increasing the annual deductibles of Medicare beneficiaries, (3) allowing people insured by Medicare to switch to managed care plans, (4) increasing the age of eligibility from 65 to 67 years, and (5) increasing premiums according to income for persons with incomes greater than $100,000. Changes in Medicare and Medicaid have been fragmented, and there were short-term strategies for reforming the health care system. These changes typically addressed the needs of particular subgroups of the population, such as the elderly and poor. Because political support for completely overhauling the health care system is difficult to obtain, comprehensive reform of health care has been a secondary objective. …


In the last few decades social networking sites have encountered their first large-scale security issues. The high number of users associated with the presence of sensitive data (personal or professional) is certainly an unprecedented opportunity for malicious activities. As a result, one observes that malicious users are progressively turning their attention from traditional e-mail to online social networks to carry out their attacks. Moreover, it is now observed that attacks are not only performed by individual profiles, but that on a larger scale, a set of profiles can act in coordination in making such attacks. The latter are referred to as malicious social campaigns. In this paper, we present a novel approach that combines authorship attribution techniques with a behavioural analysis for detecting and characterizing social campaigns. The proposed approach is performed in three steps: first, suspicious profiles are identified from a behavioural analysis; second, connections between suspicious profiles are retrieved using a combination of authorship attribution and temporal similarity; third, a clustering algorithm is performed to identify and characterise the suspicious campaigns obtained. We provide a real-life application of the methodology on a sample of 1,000 suspicious Twitter profiles tracked over a period of forty days. Our results show that a large set of suspicious profiles behaves in coordination (70%) and propagates mainly, but not only, trustworthy URLs on the online social network. Among the three largest detected campaigns, we have highlighted that one represents an important security issue for the platform by promoting a significant set of malicious URLs.


Closed depressions (pan or playa basins) are very common landscape features in arid or formerly arid regions. Many have associated downwind dune assemblages (lunettes) that have been explained in terms of deflation of sediments from the basin. These widespread features have also been used as proxies of late Quaternary rainfall and atmospheric circulation change. We use a detailed program of optically stimulated luminescence dating at Witpan, South Africa, to show that lunette construction may be rapid and spatially complex. This study presents 33 ages from 9 sample sites on the dune that show how accumulation of the present dune largely occurred over the past 2 k.y., but with marked sectoral variability in accumulation rates and timing. Variability is attributed largely to local sediment supply factors. Geochemical analysis shows that primary deflation from the pan has not contributed significantly to the construction of much of the current lunette; most sand is derived from recycling of older lunette sediments, preserved today at only a few locations, and from neighboring linear dunes. These findings, if representative of lunettes in other localities, have marked implications for the types of paleoclimatic information that these features may yield.


In a previous publication, Jensen's scheme for the logical structure of chemistry was employed to identify a logical structure for physical chemistry, which was further used as a tool for analyzing the organization of twenty physical chemistry textbooks. In addition, science education research was considered for the study of the psychological structure of physical chemistry. In this companion paper, the findings are presented of a semi-structured interview study with seventeen chemistry graduates, which aimed to find out their opinion about the difficulties of the various areas of physical chemistry, their disposition towards the subject, and their explanations for the difficulties identified, and in this way to study further the psychological structure of physical chemistry. A mixture of an intensive inductive and a confirmatory data analysis was carried out that revealed ideas and trends and allowed for a reliable portrait of learners to emerge by identifying similarities and differences in the data. Students unanimously found the phenomenological subjects (classical thermodynamics, electrochemistry, chemical kinetics) easier than the submicroscopic subjects of quantum chemistry and statistical thermodynamics. The reasons invoked included that the latter subjects deal with more difficult and abstract concepts, and also their highly mathematical nature. Many students found classical thermodynamics simpler than quantum chemistry, because it "has logic", includes "tangible examples", and they had encountered related topics before (especially in high school). The findings for electrochemistry and chemical kinetics were more or less similar to those for classical thermodynamics. Implications, generalizability, and limitations of the findings and prospects for further research are discussed.


In its 1967 decision in Loving v. Virginia, the United States Supreme Court struck down Virginia antimiscegenation laws prohibiting and criminalizing interracial marriages, holding that the challenged laws violated the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In recent federal appeals court decisions, Loving has been invoked as an authoritative analogy supporting plaintiffs' claims that same-sex marriage bans violate the Constitution. This Essay considers the posited Loving analogy and the contentions (1) that different-race marriage and same-sex marriage prohibitions present similar, albeit not identical, instances of unconstitutional state limitations on an individual's freedom to marry the person of his or her choice, and (2) that interracial marriage bans are conceptually distinguishable from laws forbidding same-sex marriages and therefore do not violate the Constitution. The Essay concludes that Loving is a useful and authoritative analogy supporting the claims of plaintiffs who contend, among other things, that states may not constitutionally deny same-sex couples the right to marry based solely on the traditional view that marriage is, and should only be, the legal union of one man and one woman. * Alumnae Law Center Professor of Law, University of Houston Law Center. J.D., University of Pennsylvania Law School; B.A., Wilberforce University. The author acknowledges and is thankful for the research support provided by the Alumnae Law Center donors and the University of Houston Law Foundation. SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AND LOVING V. VIRGINIA 265


This letter presents the first experimental investigation on the impact of mechanical vibration on the performance of MEMS evanescent-mode tunable resonators. It is shown both conceptually and experimentally that mechanical vibration can introduce distortions to the RF signal. Signal distortions are found to be very small (<; -40 dBc of sideband or <; 0.5% change in-error vector magnitude) for a diaphragm based MEMS tunable resonator with a diaphragm size of 7 × 7 mm2 and mechanical vibration amplitude of 1g. A novel MEMS tunable evanescent-mode resonator based on two arrays of cantilever beams that replace the diaphragm is also presented to achieve even lower distortion in the presence of mechanical vibration. A 15-25 dB reduction in the vibration-induced sideband is observed.


The construction industry has undergone a transformation in the use of data to drive its processes and outcomes, especially with the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM). In particular, project collaboration in the construction industry can involve multiple stakeholders (architects, engineers, consultants) that exchange data at different project stages. Therefore, the use of Cloud computing in construction projects has continued to increase, primarily due to the ease of access, availability and scalability in data storage and analysis available through such platforms. Federation of cloud systems can provide greater flexibility in choosing a Cloud provider, enabling different members of the construction project to select a provider based on their cost to benefit requirements. When multiple construction disciplines collaborate online, the risk associated with project failure increases as the capability of a provider to deliver on the project cannot be assessed apriori. In such uncontrolled industrial environments, "trust" can be an efficacious mechanism for more informed decision making adaptive to the evolving nature of such multi-organisation dynamic collaborations in construction. This paper presents a trust based Cooperation Value Estimation (CoVE) approach to enable and sustain collaboration among disciplines in construction projects mainly focusing on data privacy, security and performance. The proposed approach is demonstrated with data and processes from a real highway bridge construction project describing the entire selection process of a cloud provider. The selection process uses the audit and assessment process of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and real world performance data from the construction industry workloads. Other application domains can also make use of this proposed approach by adapting it to their respective specifications. Experimental evaluation has shown that the proposed approach ensures on-time completion of projects and enhanced collaboration performance.


In this informative volume, first published in 1833, the author brings together a wealth of fascinating detail on every aspect of lifea s it then was in Nubia (now part of Sudan) and Abyssinia (Ethiopia). His information is drawn from the accounts of well-known explorers, such as James Bruce, who discovered the source of the Blue Nile, as well as previously unpublished material from travellers known personally to the author. Geographical and historical surveys are given of this area which extends from the Nile in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The reader is taken on perilous journeys over the cataracts of the Nile and into remote regions to discover temples long buried under the desert sand. The customs of the inhabitants are described through the experiences of an Englishman who lived for some years in the region. As a clergyman, the author discusses in some detail the history of Christianity in Abyssinia through the medium of his own religious views. The volume is rounded off by accounts of the architecture, zoology and botany of this fascinating region.


This paper explores the ability of undergraduate engineering students to write effective design rationales that describe the reasoning driving their decisions as they create solutions for open-ended design problems. This study sought to uncover the ability that students have to write design rationales that effectively capture their justifications for key design decisions, identify the strengths and weaknesses found in the design rationales prepared by the students, and determine if the quality of the students' design rationales improved with practice over the course of a 10-week academic quarter. While the students' attitudes toward activities associated with design rationale were generally more negative than their attitudes toward the rest of the class activities, their written design rationales indicated improvement over the quarter in their ability to provide concise, discipline-specific justification for their design decisions. This paper presents findings that include students' initial perceptions of their ability to justify design, their attitudes toward design rationale, the strategies that students used to justify key design decisions, and students' ability to write design rationales based on principles from their academic discipline.