Serious Games represent an important opportunity for improving education thanks to their ability to compel players and to present realistic simulations of real-life situations. The scientific community is aware that we are just at the beginning of a proper use of gaming technologies for education and training and, in particular, there is a need for scientific and engineering methods for building games not only as more realistic simulations of the physical world, but as means that provide effective learning experiences. This requires an ever closer cooperation among the various actors involved in the overall SG life-chain, putting pedagogy in a central role, given the educational target of the SGs. This paper addresses the till-now inadequate integration of educational and game design principles and proposes techniques, methods and mechanisms that allow designers with different background to dialogue among each other and to define games that are able to integrate – by design – entertainment and educational features. In particular, the paper follows a design path that starts from the definition of reference frameworks and then analyses the typical categories of design patterns, before focusing on the user-interaction modalities – seen from a pedagogical point of view – given their relevance for the end-users. In the end, we discuss the sandbox serious game model that looks suited to implement joint pedagogical and entertainment features. We believe that the indications provided in this paper can be useful for researchers and stakeholders to understand the typical issues in SG design and to get inspiration about possible solutions that take into account the need to implement tools that are effective both as an entertainment medium and as an education tool.


SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells have been widely used in neuroscience research to model neurotoxic processes. It is unclear how well, in their undifferentiated, immortalised state, the cells model the original tissue type. SH-SY5Y cells can be differentiated, with compounds such as retinoic acid (RA), to become more 'tissue-like', and potentially better reflect the biochemistry of a mature neuronal cell. Studies that have investigated the RA-induced differentiation process have focused on upstream changes associated with a small number of genes or proteins. This study proposed to use a novel approach in untargeted gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) metabolomic analysis to investigate the downstream biochemical changes in the metabolome, which are closer to the phenotype associated with an RA-differentiated cell. Metabolomics was utilised to profile a wide range of biochemical changes in SH-SY5Y cells exposed to RA and how these processes were affected by exposure to malaoxon, a toxic metabolite of the pesticide malathion, to assess whether differentiated cells are more appropriate in future toxicology research.

Cultured human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells were exposed to 10 μM RA for 120 hours and 1 μM malaoxon for 24 hours. The samples were quenched, harvested, extracted and derivatised before metabolomic analysis was carried out using untargeted GC-MS. The metabolites that contributed most to the variance were identified using principal component analysis. This indicated that RA-differentiated cells, and undifferentiated and differentiated cells exposed to malaoxon, were grouped in relation to metabolite profile. The important metabolites were subsequently analysed to determine changes due to RA and malaoxon exposure, with the aim to produce a profile of RA-differentiation cells and of the differential toxicity between undifferentiated and differentiated cells.

Changes were profiled in a range of metabolites including amino acids, carbohydrates, fatty acids and unknowns, indicating that exposure to RA caused a biochemical response in relation to neurite outgrowth, survival and apoptosis, decreased energy demand for cell proliferation and increased synthesis and activation of proteins involved in cell signalling. Data suggest that exposure to malaoxon induced a glutamate-mediated excitotoxic response causing oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, energy depletion and damage to the cell membrane. In the differentiated state, induction of survival and apoptotic responses may have facilitated a neuroprotective response that decreased the toxic effects of malaoxon.

This preliminary study has demonstrated that GC-MS-based metabolomic analysis can be used to detect changes in metabolite profile after RA and malaoxon exposure, illustrating the efficacy of this technique. The data indicates that there were a range of biochemical changes associated with an RA differentiated phenotype and that using such cells to study the effects of neurotoxins should be done with caution due to the potential neuroprotective response. The outcomes of this study have implications for research using RA-differentiated SH-SY5Y cells, with the decision to use differentiated cells resting on the particular neurotoxic model being investigated.


Clostridium difficile toxin B blocks Wnt signaling and damages colonic epithelial cells by binding to Frizzled. Clostridium difficile is an opportunistic pathogen that causes diarrhea and colonic inflammation that can be life threatening. C. difficile toxin B (TcdB) is one of two exotoxins produced by this bacterium that enter colonic epithelial cells through receptor-mediated endocytosis and induce cell death. TcdB is sufficient to elicit physiological symptoms and mortality in animal models. Although TcdB can enter many different types of cells by binding to chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan 4 (CSPG4), this integral membrane protein is not present in colonic epithelia. Tao et al. found that TcdB-induced death of HeLa cells required FZD2, a member of the Frizzled family of Wnt receptors. TcdB also bound to FZD1 and FZD7 on HeLa cells, and cells lacking endogenous FZD1, -2, and -7 were resistant to TcdB-induced cell death. TcdB bound to the cysteine-rich domain (CRD) of FZD2, and TcdB binding involved a region of the exotoxin distinct from that used to interact with CSPG4. Pre-incubating TcdB with a soluble, recombinant form of the FZD2 CRD prevented TcdB from entering human colonic HT-29 and Caco-2 cells. Both full-length TcdB and a form of TcdB lacking the domain that mediates the interaction with CSPG4 reduced the survival of cells in colonic organoids generated from wild-type mice. Compared with colonic organoids from wild-type mice, organoids from FZD7–/– mice exhibited reduced TcdB-induced cell death, and knocking down FZD1 and FZD2 in these mutant organoids further reduced TcdB-induced cell death. TcdB competed with Wnts for binding to FZDs in organoids and inhibited expression of a Wnt-responsive reporter in 293T cells in a dose-dependent manner. Injecting TcdB into the colonic lumen of wild-type mice disrupted the colonic epithelium and caused colonic inflammation, but these pathologies were reduced in FZD7–/– mice. By identifying FZDs as physiologically relevant receptors that mediate the toxicity of TcdB, these findings not only suggest that targeting FZDs might be of therapeutic benefit for treating C. difficile infection, they also suggest that recombinant forms of TcdB might be used to inhibit aberrant Wnt signaling in the colon, which contributes to tumorigenesis. L. Tao, J. Zhang, P. Meraner, A. Tovaglieri, X. Wu, R. Gerhard, X. Zhang, W. B. Stallcup, J. Miao, Xi He, J. G. Hurdle, D. T. Breault, A. L. Brass, M. Dong, Frizzled proteins are colonic epithelial receptors for C. difficile toxin B. Nature 538, 350–355 (2016). [PubMed]


Although antibodies directed against vascular endothelial growth factor (αVEGF) can prolong life when given to individuals with certain cancers in conjunction with chemotherapy, inhibition of VEGF signaling can elicit adverse effects and also stimulate the production of alternative angiogenic mechanisms in tumors (see Jain and Xu). Noting that placental growth factor [PIGF, a member of the VEGF family that binds VEGF receptor 1 (VEGFR-1)] is not required for normal development and maintenance of the vasculature but has been implicated in pathological angiogenesis, Fischer et al. investigated the effect on tumors of an antibody directed against PIGF (αPIGF). αPIGF inhibited the growth or metastasis or both of various tumors in mice, some of which were resistant to inhibition of VEGFR signaling. Furthermore, αPIGF enhanced inhibition of tumor growth by the chemotherapeutic agents gemcitabine and cyclophosphamide, as well as the anticancer effects of an antibody directed against VEGFR-2 (αVEGFR-2). αPIGF inhibited tumor angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis, as well as tumor recruitment of proangiogenic macrophages. αPIGF failed to increase the expression of several proangiogenic genes stimulated by αVEGFR-2, and it neither mimicked nor enhanced αVEGFR-2-dependent side effects. Indeed, pregnant mice treated with αPIGF delivered litters of healthy pups. Thus, the authors hope that αPIGF might represent a useful addition to the current anticancer armamentarium. C. Fischer, B. Jonckx, M. Mazzone, S. Zacchigna, S. Loges, L. Pattarini, E. Chorianopoulos, L. Liesenborghs, M. Koch, M. De Mol, M. Autiero, S. Wyns, S. Plaisance, L. Moons, N. van Rooijen, M. Giacca, J.-M. Stassen, M. Dewerchin, D. Collen, P. Carmeliet, Anti-PIGF inhibits growth of VEGF(R)-inhibitor-resistant tumors without affecting healthy vessels. Cell 131, 463-475 (2007). [PubMed] R. K. Jain, L. Xu, αPlGF: A new kid on the antiangiogenesis block. Cell 131, 443-445 (2007). [PubMed]


Purpose
There has been an ongoing call from various groups of stakeholders for social and environmental practices to be integrated into companies' operations. A number of companies have responded by engaging in socially and environmentally responsible activities, while others choose not to participate in these activities, which incur additional costs. The absence of consensus regarding the economic implications of social and environmental practices provides the impetus for this paper. This study aims to examine the association between corporate social and environmental practices (CSEP) and the cost of equity capital measured by four ex ante measures using a sample of UK listed companies.

Design/methodology/approach
First, we undertake a review of the extant literature on CSEP. Second, using a sample of 236 companies surveyed in "Britain's most admired companies" in terms of "community and environmental responsibility" during the period 2010-2014, we estimate four implied a cost of equity capital proxies. The relationship between a companies' cost of equity capital and its CSEP is then calculated.

Findings
The authors find evidence that companies with higher levels of CSEP have a lower cost of equity capital. This finding determines the significant role played by CSEP in helping users to make useful decisions. Also, it supports arguments that firms with socially responsible practices have lower risk and higher valuation.

Practical implications
The finding encourages companies to be more socially and environmentally responsible. Furthermore, it provides up-to-date evidence of the economic consequences of CSEP. The results should, therefore, be of interest to managers, regulators and standard-setters charged with developing regulations to control CSEP, as these practices are still undertaken on a voluntary basis by companies.

Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the association between CSEP of British companies and their cost of equity capital. The study complements Ghoul et al. (2011), who examine the relationship between CSR and the cost of equity capital of the US sample. The authors extend Ghoul et al. (2011) by using a sample of the UK market after applying International Financial Reporting Standards.


In James Cone's The Cross and the Lynching Tree, the body of Emmett Till stands in a cruciform role; yet it is through the courage of Till's mother, Mamie, that God's revelation breaks into the world.  Supplementing Cone's narrative with theologies of trauma and Till's memoir, new sites of Christic presence come into view.  At the heart of this paper, as at the heart of Cone's Cross and Lynching Tree is the cruciform body of Emmett Till, cradled in the arms of his mother and raised to public witness as she indicted White supremacy in his torture and death. The cross of Emmett Till and The Cross and the Lynching Tree have played transformative roles in insisting that the cross of Christ recreates humanity with the indictment of White supremacy.  The impact of Cone's work on the discipline of Theology, and Theology's way forward under this indictment close this investigation.


Abstract Younger adults, aged < 65 years, increasingly present to their physicians with advanced cartilage disease or post-traumatic osteoarthritis. A number of treatments exist for lessening patient pain and improving patient function. However, many patients are becoming aware of the potential of regenerative therapies and are now seeking solutions to the impaired biology underlying their conditions rather than addressing only their symptoms. Patients do not want to merely lessen their symptoms temporarily with a surgical procedure that replaces damaged tissue, but instead seek correction and repair of the underlying biology to regenerate damaged tissue and alleviate their symptoms altogether. Current therapies for patients with cartilage disease or osteoarthritis range from non-surgical intra-articular injections with biologics, such as hyaluronic acid (HA), to total joint arthroplasty for advanced stages of disease. Total joint arthroplasty is a successful procedure for patients aged ⩾ 65 years; however, the limited long-term durability of implanted prostheses decreases the preference of using such methods in more active patients aged < 65 years. The potential of cell-based orthobiologic injection therapies (pertaining to therapeutic injectables that aim to restore the biologic environment and/or structural components of diseased or damaged musculoskeletal tissue) is of tremendous interest for younger, more active patients, and is even more appealing in that such therapy can be delivered at point-of-care in the clinic during an office visit. Notably, the exponential rate of progress in biotechnology has allowed for immediate application of myriad novel therapies prior to clear evidence of benefit from randomized clinical trials. Orthobiologic intra-articular injection therapies include HA and platelet-rich plasma (PRP). We report on current, available findings for a third-generation intra-articular orthobiologic injectable therapy for cartilage disease, bone marrow concentrate (BMC). Bone marrow concentrate contains mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), hematopoetic stem cells, platelets (containing growth factors), and cytokines. The anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties of bone marrow stem cells (BMSCs) can facilitate regeneration of tissue. Additionally, BMSCs enhance the quality of cartilage repair by increasing aggrecan content and tissue firmness. Following bone marrow aspiration (BMA), BMC is easily prepared using centrifugation, and is available for a same-day procedure with minimal manipulation of cells, thus complying with US Food and Drug Association (FDA) restrictions. To date, there are no published randomized controlled trials on the efficacy of use of autologous BMC intra-articular injections performed as a same-day in-office procedure for treating patients with cartilage disease; however, several publications have reported the ease of use of this method, its strong safety profile, and the fundamental science suggesting great therapeutic potential.


Ahmed Baba Counta is the Director of Rural Education Programmes for the radio service of Senegal's national broadcasting system and one of the most adventurous radio personalities encountered by SPORE in Africa. His programme, DISSO, has been on the air for 20 years and is without a doubt one of the most original and successful on the continent.

DISSO means 'dialogue' or 'discussion' in Woloff. With such a title, our listeners know right away that our programme is not like the others. First of all, we wanted to make it clear that we speak - literally - the same language as farmers. Actually, I should say the same languages because we also broadcast in Sominke, Cerer, Mandingue and Dioulla. With these five dialects, we cover practically the entire countryside from the humid Casamance to the Ferlo desert, including market gardeners on Cape Vert and small farmers along the riverbanks.

Speaking the local tongue, however, is not always easy. To get across technical points that involve new ideas, it often means using words that haven't been developed locally. Some approaches, such as seeding in lines, fallows, or crop associations, may be totally unknown in certain communities. Local languages have absorbed many foreign words and it is now common to hear 'pump) or 'moped' in conversations between small farmers. In discussions dealing with agricultural techniques, however, it is important to ensure that there is no mis-understanding. Because we cannot always coin new words, we must be able to refer to something that local people know well. We thus get our message across by using existing words or concepts, with or without modification. As an example, we refer to feeding plants rather than applying fertilizers

The DISSO title is also meant to say that our programme doesn't settle for just transmitting information to a passive audience. It is true that our journalistic training has prepared us for simply collecting information (often from sources far removed from reality), packaging it according to their criteria, and diffusing it in a 'top-down' manner towards the pub lic. But we try to go beyond such classical methods. DISSO is designed to be a dialogue between agricultural services and small farmers in which we journalists are not just intermediaries but animators.

To understand how our programme came to be what it is, we have to remember how it began. In 1968, our government and UNESCO jointly agreed to establish the Rural Education Radio or RER. This was the result of the realization then of the enormous potential that radio has for rural areas. It appears obvious with hindsight, but 20 years ago it was innovative thinking. In Senegal and many other African countries, radio programmes were designed for collective audiences. Many villagers would group around what was often the only radio available (sometimes financed by a local project). During agricultural programmes, extension workers would act as resource persons during and after the emissions to prolong the discussion and provide further information.

Many things have changed since then, including the proliferation of individual radios which has done away with collective audiences. In 1979, during the drought, a political decision was made to promote DISSO from a weekly, one hour programme to a 45 minute show six days a week. The demise of collective audiences coincided well with this change because it would have been impossible to have extension workers available six days a week. On the other hand, individual radios mean that listeners are no longer able to benefit from a group discussion during the programme with extension workers. In an effort to maintain this kind of dialogue, we distribute hundreds of self-addressed RER envelopes through the cooperatives. This gives small farmers the possibility of providing feedback after our programmes.

These letters often turn out to be tales of sorrow which help to keep extension officials in direct contact with the problems and aspirations of their rural constituency. We also get many questions, some of which we answer directly, but in order to provide more exact and comprehensive information we often seek the help of agricultural experts who work closely with the RER. We meet twice a month with officials of the Rural Development Ministry to review our past and future programmes.

The content of DISSO is thus planned by government agencies that work in direct contact with small farmers. Agricultural technicians provide us with the raw material and we adapt it for use on the radio. I must say that if we work closely with agricultural extension services, that is not the case with researchers. We are asked, from time to time, to promote the results of certain research projects, but we do not really have a good working relationship with researchers. Whether it is because of a lack of habit, time or resources, they seem to isolate themselves from communicators like us. On the other hand, even if we spend most of our time acting as mediators between extension officials and small farmers, we try whenever possible to use our modest means to get out into the field. This not only gives us the opportunity to be in direct contact with our listeners but to play our role of rural animator. This often includes village parties during which the radio team works on information transfer in a more informal manner.

We also seek to improve our contacts with other countries. Thanks to visits that I was able to make in France and Canada, we have made contact with Radio France International and the Canadian network of rural radios. This enables us to keep up to date with scientific and technical research in Northern countries and also to bolster our contacts with other rural radio systems which often deal with the same problems as us. Such North/South and South/South exchanges are always beneficial. As an ideal medium for rural areas, radio is going to develop considerably in the years to come. To exploit this opportunity fully, we must work closely not only with our listeners but also with our neighbours. Our story began 20 years ago but it is still a day-to-day adventure for us.

Based on a series of interviews done by Radio France International and CTA with Ahmed Baba Counta, Director of the RER in Senegal.


Open Access, the movement to make scholarly and scientific information openly available, has become a prominent idea in recent years, spawning efforts to revise the publishing industry and to establish public archives of research material. In 1937 the English scholar H G Wells (best known for his science fiction stories like The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine) declared that there was no practical obstacle to the formation of a collection of the whole world's published knowledge in microfilm to render it universally accessible. Less than a decade later Vannevar Bush (Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, USA) proposed a similar system that would help researchers to capitalise on such universal access by adding mechanisms that would later come to inspire hypertext links. Neither proposal was developed into a product, but they demonstrate the drive for Open Access on a global scope stretching back over sixty years, predating not just the World Wide Web and the Internet but the digital computer as well. They expose the maturity of the need for a system to augment the publishing process and its familiar artefacts to assist scientists and to make their work more effective. The accepted role of scientific and scholarly publication is to record research activity in a timely fashion, keeping others in the research community up-to-date with current developments. Until very recently, it has been the case that printed journals were the most efficient method for the dissemination and archival of research results. Technical advances in the past two decades have allowed the process of scholarly communication to take other forms, particularly in the dissemination of articles via the World Wide Web. The scientific process critically depends on dissemination – on the exposure of the work to other scientists who can validate, replicate and build on the work as it has been communicated in a research article. Access to these articles (representing the work of other scientists) is important to me because it informs the work that I wish to undertake. Conversely, my access to the other scientists' work is important to them because it signifies the impact of their work (as eventually evidenced by a citation of their article). Hence improving access (the objective of the Open Access movement) inevitably improves impact – the observed influence of the work (the basis of a scientist's promotion and career advancement) and ultimately the advancement of science. The effect of facilitating access does not end with scientists reading more; providing open access to scientific information allows new kinds of interaction and engagement with the literature. At their most basic, services can collect and aggregate the literature providing global access. By examining the full texts they can provide search engines and undertake categorisation and classification. More sophisticated services extract citations from each article to enable ranking and co-citation community mapping.


Two representatives of Florida's system of nine public universities share their views on how accreditation fits into the process of preparing the best educators possible. We have been asked, as representatives of Florida's system of nine public universities, to share a few of our thoughts about teacher education and, particularly, about how accreditation fits into the process of preparing the best educators possible. We are pleased to have the opportunity to do so. We have chosen a format in which we respond to a series of questions that capture some of the major concerns regarding accreditation in the field of education. These may not be the best questions, and we certainly do not have the only answers. However, these questions do touch on the burning issues in Florida's education system today as it continues to face very difficult economic times and ever-increasing social challenges. Q: Some people argue that accreditation of teacher education programs is unnecessary. Why should accreditation be sought at all? A: Let us begin with two of our favorite subjects: money and quality. Last year Florida's state university system invested more than $76 million in its colleges of education. That is an enormous sum, and it is imperative that we receive a return on that investment in the form of high-quality programs capable of producing acceptable numbers of competent graduates ready to teach in Florida's public schools. This is a tremendous challenge for Florida. We have made great strides in producing more and better Florida-trained teachers; still, there is a great deal of work to be done. The initial question, then, is one of investment: are we producing a larger and a better-prepared work force with the dollars that we have? One tool for evaluating our investment is the accreditation process. If programs can prove their viability through a national accrediting process involving peer review, then we can begin to feel comfortable that high-quality programs are in place. Q: What about the position that some academic programs are above review? A: This may be the belief in some other states; happily, it is not the case in Florida's state university system. Our own program review process reviews each and every one of our academic programs, including those offered in our law schools and medical schools. It is especially the case that we need accreditation in the field of education, and there are at least two reasons for this. First, education should be viewed as a professional program. We need to ensure that our clients - public schools, parents, and the young people of Florida in particular - are going to receive the best service that can possibly be afforded. Educators are professionals, and they need to be seen as such. Scrutiny by a national accrediting body with impeccable standards and the courage to call things the way it sees them can help in this regard. Second, there is a widespread perception that our country's education system is not working as well as it should. As educators of educators, we need to be ready to respond to that perception. The greater the public interest and the greater the doubt as to how well we are performing, the more important it is to submit ourselves to the best peer review possible, to prove our worth, and to go on. Q: You used the term "investment." How does the allocation of resources fit into the picture? A: Education is the most humane and honorable of businesses - but it is a business, and it should be treated as one, with the full complement of consequences. When good ideas work in education, they should be rewarded. When the outcomes are not worth the investment, then the resources devoted to them should be reallocated to the implementation of new ideas or to existing areas of need. The problem that we face in Florida is that we do not have an initial investment that is sufficient to permit us to use a rational, businesslike system of reward. …


BACKGROUND
The burden of infection with antibiotic-resistant gram-positive cocci, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE), continues to increase, leading to substantial morbidity and high mortality rates, particularly in intensive care units (ICUs). Creative interventions may be required to reverse or stabilize this trend.

METHODS
The efficacy of empiric cycling of antibiotics active against gram-positive organisms was tested in a before-after intervention in a single surgical ICU. Four years of baseline data were compared with two years of data compiled after the implementation of a strategy where the empiric antibiotic of choice for the treatment of gram-positive infections (linezolid or vancomycin) was changed every three months. Whatever the initial choice of drug, if possible, the antibiotic was de-escalated after final culture results were obtained. The rates of all gram-positive infections were analyzed, with a particular focus on MRSA and VRE. Concurrently, similar outcomes were followed for patients treated on the same services but outside the ICU, where cycling was not practiced.

RESULTS
During the four years prior to cycling, 543 infections with gram-positive organisms were acquired in the ICU (45.3/1,000 patient-days), including 105 caused by MRSA (8.8/1,000 patient days) and 21 by VRE (1.8/1,000 patient-days). In the two years after implementation of cycling, 169 gram-positive infections were documented (28.1/1,000 patient-days; p < 0.0001 vs. non-cycling period), including 11 caused by MRSA (1.8/1,000 patient-days; p < 0.0001 vs. non-cycling period). The percentage of S. aureus infections caused by MRSA declined from 67% to 36%. The rate of infection with VRE was unchanged. Outside the ICU, the yearly numbers of infections with both MRSA and VRE increased over time.

CONCLUSION
Quarterly cycling of linezolid and vancomycin in the ICU is a promising method to reduce infections with MRSA.


The hearsay rule is the best known of the common law exclusionary rules of evidence. Its raison d'etre, however, has long been the subject of debate among academics and our courts. Whether it stems from judicial distrust of witnesses or a concern about adversarial fairness, it has long been trite law that hearsay evidence is generally inadmissible in court proceedings. Ironically, however, the Law of Evidence Amendment Act (45 of 1988), does not impose a total moratorium on the introduction of hearsay evidence in court proceedings.


This paper analyses disposable income as it relates to consumer demand for gambling products in Australia and New Zealand from Financial years (FY) 1998 to 2008. The hypothesis is that income elasticity of demand for gambling products is greater than one i.e. gambling products are a luxury good. The alternate hypothesis is that the income elasticity of demand for gambling products are less than one and are classed as either necessity or inferior goods. Data compiled by the Queensland Treasury and Trade department, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Statistics New Zealand and the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs was used to calculate income elasticities for all gambling products. The results indicate that income elasticity for gambling products varies over time and is greater than one pre FY2003 and less than one post FY2003. However, once the change in market share of different gambling products and the large increase in supply in the gaming industry sector (pre FY2003) was accounted for, income elasticities were estimated to be less than one in support of the alternate hypothesis.


Abstract Current monitoring systems for the invasive Halyomorpha halys (Stål) (Hemiptera; Pentatomidae) in orchard agroecosystems rely on ground-deployed tall black pyramid traps baited with the two-component H. halys aggregation pheromone and pheromone synergist. Pyramid traps are comparatively costly, require considerable time to deploy and service, and may not be best suited to grower needs. Therefore, we evaluated other traps for H. halys, including modified pyramid traps (lures deployed on the outside), a canopy-deployed small pyramid, a pipe trap, delta traps, and yellow sticky cards in 2015 and 2016 in commercial apple and peach orchards. We also compared various H. halys killing agents for use in standard pyramid trap collection jars, including VaporTape kill strips, cattle ear tags, and plastic netting treated with various pyrethroids. Finally, we evaluated the effect of positioning the lures inside versus outside the collection jar on standard pyramid traps on overall captures. Among trap types, modified pyramid and pipe traps were most effective, capturing more adults than all other trap designs. Adult captures in small canopy-deployed pyramid, delta, and yellow sticky traps were lower, but significantly correlated with the standard black pyramid. Placing lures on the outside of collection jars on pyramid traps resulted in significantly greater captures and insecticide-impregnated netting was as effective for retaining bugs as VaporTape strips. These studies demonstrate that trapping systems for H. halys can be simplified and improved by modifying the trap design, lure deployment location, and/or killing agent.


The study applies institutional theory and organizational learning theory to the study of foreign market entry in newly opening economies. It is proposed that as these markets open they experience three main stages: Stage (I) Prescriptive, Stage (II) Partly Open / High Uncertainty and, Stage (III) Fully Open / Low Uncertainty. In stage one, foreign organizations are expected to have little choice but to conform to indigenous regulations regarding entry mode which are often very limiting. At this stage, entry mode choice will depend heavily on the coercive isomorphism of the state. Later, in stage two, regulations ease and more entry modes are made available, but little is yet known about the country and the extreme uncertainty of the environment is expected to greatly influence the entry mode decision. At this stage, entry mode choice will depend heavily on mimetic isomorphism as new entrants imitate each other for mutual support but without any real insight into the nature of successful strategies. Finally, in stage three, as potential entrants develop a degree of comfort with the new market, foreign entry choice will depend on two potentially competing influences: success stories from previous entries by other organizations into the country (vicarious learning) and success stories from their own organization's entry into other countries (experiential learning). By looking at the internationalization process of Canadian post-secondary institutions in mainland China, the paper reconceptualizes standard entry mode choices for the education services sector while presenting a comprehensive picture of the internationalization of higher education of Canadian schools using survey data. Research findings indicate the following: In Stage (I), the hypothesis that coercive adaptation would drive entry mode choice could not be tested with the limited data available from that period. In Stage (II), results were dispersed across the various means of access without a clear indication that external mimicry was the dominant influence. In Stage (III), while the study could only say conclusively that learning effects were stronger than coercive or mimetic influences, vicarious learning appeared to be the strongest influence on the entry mode decisions made by Canadian colleges, while universities favoured experiential learning. [


The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (the Royal Commission) is required to inquire into, among other things, 'what institutions and governments should do to achieve best practice in encouraging the reporting of, and responding to reports or information about, allegations, incidents or risks of child sexual abuse and related matters in institutional contexts'. Across Australia, oversight bodies enable monitoring of aspects of child welfare, particularly for children in the care and protection system. For this report, the Royal Commission examined oversight bodies including ombudsmen offices (including children's ombudsmen); reportable conduct schemes; children's commissions; community visitors schemes ; child advocates and children's guardians; and crime and misconduct commissions. In some instances, these agencies facilitate oversight and responses to child sexual abuse; in other instances , this facility is an implicit or consequential aspect of their authority. These bodies differ across jurisdictions in their form, scope and power. In addition, various regulatory mechanisms exist in Australia. For this report , the Royal Commission has examined regulatory bodies including non - government schools ' accreditation boards ; early childhood and care regulators ; and medical sector regulators. In some instances, agencies ' express purpose is to prevent or minimise the likelihood of child sexual abuse; in other instances , this function is an implicit or consequential aspect of their authority. These bodies also have different features across jurisdictions. To assist the Royal Commission in addressing its terms of reference, the report initially focuses on understanding the nature of these oversight and regulatory bodies . This is presented in Part 2 T h e report then assess es the efficacy of these bodies in protecting children from sexual abuse, focusing on institutional contexts. To fulfil the aims of the study as stated by the Royal Commission, this report covers narrow efficacy and broad efficacy . The report has been informed by regulatory theory , and has used legal analysis, policy analysis and public health research methods , to review and analyse literature for its evaluative purpose . Appendix 2 explains in more detail the concepts of narrow efficacy and broad efficacy, and how they are measured. In sum, the evaluation of narrow efficacy explores the presence and nature of key requirements enabling the protection of children from child sexual abuse in institutional contexts ; it does so through synthesis and doctrinal analysis . Broad efficacy is conceptualised as the effect in practice of the oversight or regulatory mechanism in protecting children from sexual abuse in institutional contexts . T he evaluation of broad efficacy asks whether the oversight or regulatory body achieves the policy goal of improving protection of children from sexual abuse in institutional contexts .


Widespread use of glyphosate-resistant (GR) corn in rotation with cotton increases the incidence of volunteer GR corn in subsequent cotton stands. Experiments were conducted in Mississippi in 2011 and 2012 to determine cotton response to volunteer corn present at 0.3, 1.6, or 3.2 plants per m of crop row allowed to persist for zero, one, two, six, eight, 10 and 12 weeks after emergence or until cotton harvest. Cotton maturity was accelerated at a density of 3.2 plants per m of crop row. Neither cotton height nor yield was affected by corn removal timing at the low corn density. Cotton height and yield decreased as the time of corn removal was delayed at the medium and high corn densities. No differences in cotton height were observed from increasing corn density at removal timings up to two weeks after cotton emergence (WACE). At each corn removal timing four WACE and beyond, increasing corn density led to reductions in cotton height. No differences in cotton yield were observed from increasing density at corn removal timings zero or one WACE; increases in corn density at removal timings beyond one WACE generally led to reductions in cotton yield. These data indicate medium to high populations of volunteer corn generally should be removed by four to six WACE to prevent height reductions and yield loss.


A complete, winning approach to the number one small business solution Do you have 75 or fewer users or devices on your small-business network? Find out how to integrate everything you need for your mini-enterprise with Microsoft's new Windows Server 2008 Small Business Server, a custom collection of server and management technologies designed to help small operations run smoothly without a giant IT department. This comprehensive guide shows you how to master all SBS components as well as handle integration with other Microsoft technologies. Focuses on Windows Server 2008 Small Business Server, an integrated server solution for small business, and part of the new Windows Essential Server Solutions Covers the essentials of SBS deployment and setup, as well as integration with Windows Server 2008, Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Windows Update Services 3.0, Web Server technologies, and Windows Live OneCare for Server Walks you step-by-step through instructions and practical applications and provides plenty of real-world examples to reinforce concepts Get the very most out of Windows Server 2008 SBS with this comprehensive guide.


Objectives: In 2000, the first "Dutch Manual for Costing: Methods and Reference Prices for Economic Evaluations in Healthcare" was published, followed by an updated version in 2004. The purpose of the Manual is to facilitate the implementation and assessment of costing studies in economic evaluations. New developments necessitated the publication of a thoroughly updated version of the Manual in 2010. The present study aims to describe the main changes of the 2010 Manual compared with earlier editions of the Manual. Methods: New and updated topics of the Manual were identified. The recommendations of the Manual were compared with the health economic guidelines of other countries, eliciting strengths and limitations of alternative methods. Results: New topics in the Manual concern medical costs in life-years gained, the database of the Diagnosis Treatment Combination (DBC) casemix System, reference prices for the mental healthcare sector and the costs borne by informal care-givers. Updated topics relate to the friction cost method, discounting future effects and options for transferring cost results from international studies to the Dutch situation. Conclusions: The Action Plan is quite similar to many health economic guidelines in healthcare. However, the recommendations on particular aspects may differ between national guidelines in some respects. Although the Manual may serve as an example to countries intending to develop a manual of this kind, it should always be kept in mind that preferred methods predominantly depend on a country's specific context.


OBJECTIVE
The distribution of different antidepressants between plasma and red blood cells (RBCs) or between water and erythrocyte membranes (ghosts) has not been sufficiently compared so far.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Distribution of seven antidepressants (amitriptyline, nortriptyline, imipramine, desipramine, didesmethylimipramine, dothiepin, and citalopram) was measured in vitro in small volumes of blood or erythrocyte membrane suspension using radiolabeled drugs. Blood samples were taken from healthy subjects.

RESULTS
The distribution of antidepressants between plasma and RBCs is strongly affected by temperature; however, it does not depend on the antidepressant concentration in the range of their therapeutic concentrations. The data analysis proved that the ratio of RBCs to plasma volume concentrations is the suitable parameter characterizing antidepressant distribution in whole blood. Significantly higher ratios of RBCs to plasma concentrations were found for demethylated metabolites of tricyclic antidepressants and in the case of citalopram. Citalopram showed the highest accumulation in intact RBCs and at the same time the lowest binding to isolated membranes. The binding of drugs to isolated erythrocyte membranes was much higher than in whole blood.

CONCLUSION
The concentration ratio of antidepressant in RBCs and in plasma is sensitive not only to the binding properties of plasma proteins and cell membranes, but also to changes in drug molecule, both in aminopropyl chain and in aromatic rings. This ratio is to a large extent characteristic of a particular antidepressant.


The present study examines the genetic variability and the taxonomic relationships among five lacertid species, i.e. Podarcis taurica, P. milensis, P. peloponnesiaca, Lacerta graeca and Algyroides moreoti- cus, representing the three main genera of this family in Europe. The last four of the above species are endemic to Greece and three of them live sympatrically in Peloponnisos. These relationships were studied by allozyme analysis. Of the loci analyzed, the Mpi-1 locus was found to be a convenient molecular marker for discrimi- nation of the genera Podarcis (allele a), Lacerta (allele b) and Algyroides (allele c). The values of Nei's genetic distances between the examined species ranged from 0.025 to 0.484. According to the UPGMA-dendrogram plotted using the Nei's genetic distances, two species groups are formed indicating that the genera Lacerta and Algyroides show a stronger relationship to one another than either does to Podarcis. These results are in agree- ment with DNA sequence data but are not in accordance with previous electrophoretic and immunological studies, which suggest that Lacerta is more closely related to Podarcis than to Algyroides. The studied Podarcis taxa were found to be close relatives (Nei's distances <0.18), especially P. taurica and P. milensis. These values are lower than those usually given in the literature for the distinction of lacertid species.


In the late 1980s, declining real estate values led to an increase in nonperforming loans, which forced the shrinkage or failure of many banks. Has a "credit crunch" resulted, as many small business representatives insist? This article offers an overview of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's 1992 economic conference, which examined the crisis. The first sessions explored the causes of the sharp fluctuations in real estate values and construction activity, and the significance of economic fundamentals, tax and regulatory policy, and speculation. The next two sessions dealt with the effects of the real estate cycle on financial institutions and credit availability. The final sessions considered the implications of these problems for public policy. ; The research presented at the conference and the discussions that followed suggest that real estate markets are prone to speculative bubbles and overshooting, because of construction lags and expectations created by past price appreciation. But procyclical regulatory policy and tax code changes exacerbated both the boom and the succeeding bust in real estate activity. This experience suggests that greater attention be paid to the short-term transition effects of policy changes, and to excessive risk concentrations in lending institutions.


Objective Virtual chromoendoscopy (CE) is expected to enhance adenoma yield and reduce variation in performance between colonoscopists. This study aimed to compare the efficacy of narrow band imaging (NBI), flexible spectral imaging CE (FICE) and white light (WL) colonoscopy and their impact for less experienced endoscopists. Methods We performed a randomised tandem colonoscopy trial controlling for withdrawal time and bowel preparation. Average-risk adults undergoing screening colonoscopy were enrolled and randomly assigned to first withdrawal with one of the three imaging modalities (NBI (NBI-WL group), FICE (FICE-WL group) and WL (WL-WL group)). Eight colonoscopists were categorised into expert and non-expert subgroups. Results 1650 subjects (mean age 51.4 years, 63.9% men) were included (550 in each group). Compared with WL, neither NBI nor FICE increased the mean number of adenomas detected per patient (0.37 vs 0.35 and 0.36; p=0.591) or the percentage of patients with adenoma (25.3% vs 24.5% and 23.6%; p=0.753). For all three modalities, expert subgroups had higher yields of adenomas than non-expert subgroups. Learning curves were observed only for non-expert subgroups with all three modalities. The percentage of missed adenomas did not differ between the three groups (20.8% by WL vs 22.9% by NBI and 26.0% by FICE, p=0.300) and was not affected by endoscopists' expertise. Conclusions Neither NBI nor FICE improved adenoma detection or miss rates, with no difference in diagnostic efficacy between the two systems. Virtual CE had no additional benefits over WL for non-experts. Clinical trial registration number: KCT0000570.


We present TransPhoner: a system that generates keywords for a variety of scenarios including vocabulary learning, phonetic transliteration, and creative word plays. We select effective keywords by considering phonetic, orthographic and semantic word similarity, and word concept imageability. We show that keywords provided by TransPhoner improve learner performance in an online vocabulary learning study, with the improvement being more pronounced for harder words. Participants rated TransPhoner keywords as more helpful than a random keyword baseline, and almost as helpful as manually selected keywords. Comments also indicated higher engagement in the learning task, and more desire to continue learning. We demonstrate additional applications to tasks such as pure phonetic transliteration, generation of mnemonics for complex vocabulary, and topic-based transformation of song lyrics.


Abstract The global fluxes of carbon in the ecosystem of Earth, with particular attention drawn to the cycle of CO2 were characterised. The sequestration of carbon dioxide in the biomass of plants, especially the ones which can be cultivated as catch crops is described. It was shown that the cultivation of catch crops may play an important role in the mitigation of CO2 emissions.


Recently attention has been focused on quasi-phase-matched self-frequency-conversion (SFC) laser generation in rare-earth-doped optical superlattice crystals, mainly because of their ability to generate multicolor lasers simultaneously across the visible portion of the spectrum through a single crystal. We present a general model for quasi-phase-matched SFC lasers in rare-earth-doped optical superlattice crystals that we fabricated by combining quasi-phase-matching theory and self-sum-frequency mixing (or self-frequency doubling) laser patterns. This model takes into account the TEM00 distribution of Gaussian beams with loose focusing, absorption, and coupling of pump beams and the effects of imperfect periodic structures. We analyze two types of errors, random period errors and linearly tapered period errors, in the periodicity of these structures to determine their effects on SFC laser properties (e.g., on effective nonlinear coefficients and phase-matching curves). Finally the model is applied to simulate SFC laser generation in a Nd3+ doped aperiodically poled lithium niobate crystal. By choice of one set of parameters, the calculated results, especially for threshold, total visible laser output power, and spectrum of relative laser intensity in the visible, explain the experimental phenomena in detail and indicate the validity of this model. Most significantly, the model presented makes understandable the simultaneous laser generation of multiple visible wavelengths (686, 605, 542, 482, 441, and 372 nm) from a single crystal.


This study presents tools to select the optimum solutions recommended for the design of energy-efficient house in Montreal, Canada. The computer model of the base case house was developed using BLAST program and using on-site measurements such as air leakage based on blower door test, short-term monitoring of indoor air temperature and electricity consumption derived from utility bills. Several design alternatives have been developed using both parametric and non-parametric approaches. The developed design alternatives included: (i) the modifications of the characteristics of building envelope, (ii) the modifications of the architectural design and (iii) the building operating conditions. The energy performance of selected design alternatives was evaluated using the calibrated model of base case and BLAST program. Results show that although the base case house is already energy efficient, there is still potential to improve its energy performance via developing the design tools of the house. The concept of energy efficiency includes more than the total energy consumption. The performance of the selected alternatives has been evaluated by using the multi-attribute life-cycle analysis. Three objective functions were used in the life-cycle analysis: (1) the total energy consumption, including the embodied energy and the operating energy; (2) the life-cycle cost, including the initial and the energy operating costs and (3) the environmental impacts, evaluated by using the Global Warming Potential (GWP) index, which is calculated in terms of equivalent CO 2 emissions. A database of design alternatives and related life-cycle performance has been developed in this study. A Decision Support System based on previous database for evaluating the design alternatives has been established to select the best set of alternatives during the energy-efficient design of low-residential buildings in Canada.


Over the past two decades there has been a good deal of "official" accounting of organisational change and the restructuring of post-compulsory education in New Zealand. Some key players in the administration of the educational reforms have given accounts of these changes. However. this research raises a different set of voices. My study gives accounts of change, different from the official accounts, based on the experiences of office systems lecturers teaching in the polytechnic sector during the 1990s. By the late 1980s the rate of change in polytechnics had begun to accelerate within the context of general political upheaval and the policies of the .. new right'". Throughout the same period. computer technology advanced at an unprecedented rate having a profound effect on the polytechnic environment and especially upon women teaching in office systems. This resea rch measures the effect of .. reforms .. that reshaped the polytecl111ic environment. particularly in the 1990s. in terms of their impact on the experience of office systems lecturers involved. It offers an interpretation of how these women made sense of these changes to the institution in which they worked. My thesis utilises feminist perspectives to demonstrate that women teaching in office systems departments are both subject to, and draw upon a number of gendered and c lassed discursive fields to make sense of the changes in their workplace. These discursive fields are identified in the research as "working class", "maternal" and " professional". This thesis concludes with reflections about positive opportunities, and some constraints, for office systems women, sex-typed within the identified discursive fields , shaping and making accessible "new" subject positions in the polytechnic of the 21 s t century.


Light rail operating costs vary with a system's scale of operations, traffic density, vehicle and passenger outputs, and input prices. Previous attempts at estimating these cost relationships have been hampered by inadequate data and methodologies that restrict their functional forms, limit their output measures, omit factor prices, and fail to account for technical inefficiencies. With more data now available from an increased number of systems operating during longer time periods, new cost specifications that improve the precision and reduce the bias of cost estimates can be estimated. Here, light rail cost functions are estimated with 1994 to 2005 data for 21 U.S. light rail systems. The cost functions relate operating and maintenance costs to passenger and vehicle outputs, input prices, route densities, vehicle capacities, and latent cost inefficiencies. Four estimation methods are used: (a) iterative seemingly unrelated regression, (b) least-squares dummy variable, (c) maximum likelihood stochastic frontier, and (d) hierarchical Bayesian frontier models. Economies of size and density, input productivities, input substitution elasticities, and transit system inefficiencies are measured.


Kupffer cells, which have a characteristic morphology and a kind of phenotype, are the resident macrophages in liver, serve as the largest population mononuclear phagocytes in the body, and are localized in the periportal zone. They have phagocytosis capacity and release all kinds of cytokines, chemokines, and soluble biological mediators. Owing to the different functions of Kupffer cells, they play an important role in liver diseases. In this chapter, we review the role of Kupffer cells in infectious disease, fatty liver disease, liver fibrosis, liver ischemia-reperfusion injury, liver transplantation immunology, as well as liver cancer and metastases.


The objective of this work was to validate the morphoagronomic descriptors used in the protection processes of plant cultivars in Brazil, by characterizing six cultivars of ornamental passion fruit. The BRS Rubiflora, BRS Rosea Purpura, BRS Ceu do Cerrado, BRS Roseflora, BRS Estrela do Cerrado, and BRS Perola do Cerrado cultivars, 33 morphoagronomic descriptors, and two molecular markers were used. The categorical morphoagronomic descriptors were analyzed by frequency distribution and multivariate analyses. The quantitative morphoagronomic descriptors were subjected to the analysis of variance and to the comparison of the means of each cultivar. The random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and the inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR) markers were used for molecular analysis. A high-validation rate was observed for the morphoagronomic descriptors used in the protection of plant cultivars. The analyses of variance showed significant differences between the quantitative descriptors, and the molecular markers confirmed the genetic differences among the cultivars. There was a high correlation between the calculated distances based on the categorical morphoagronomic descriptors and molecular markers. The morphoagronomic descriptors and molecular markers are useful and complementary for the characterization and differentiation of cultivars.


This paper presents a design method for a reconfigurable single degree-of-freedom mechanism for robotic assisted finger therapy following a stroke. The mechanism is a four-bar linkage that in combination with variable link lengths is capable of reproducing a power grasp finger motion for a wide variety of finger sizes. This is accomplished through an optimization procedure that determines the parameters of the four-bar linkage needed to fit the sampled range of finger trajectories. The linkage is located behind the hand and attaches to the medial phalanx of the finger just above the distal interphalangeal joint. In addition, the mechanism is designed so that it does not interfere with finger motion and so that the subject's fingertips and palm are free to touch real objects and experience tactile feedback. In future implementations, the mechanism could be used for a single finger or in parallel with other similar mechanisms to exercise multiple fingers simultaneously. Although the specific application presented here is the four-bar mechanism and finger power grasp motion, the developed design methods may be applied to a much broader range of mechanisms and applications where scalability for human-machine interface is required.


The goal of this study is to identify if regret theory may be used to decide between different road design alternatives to ensure the resilience of the design given future uncertainties. It formulates a matrix for the regret factor in the decision-making process. There are different, and often conflicting, parameters and variables that are taken into account whenever different road designs are considered. This paper uses an example of five variables and constraints such as planning (i.e. optimal usage of land use), traffic flow, traffic safety (i.e. to ensure low crash rates), along with constraints such as construction economics and time to completion. It is assumed that each variable may have its own performance indicator based on its own modelling techniques and each is weighed based on the objectives of the decision-makers. However, each model may have inherent uncertainties that may propagate in a multi-attribute decision system. The proposed theoretical framework allows the system to analyze different roads construction alternatives to aid in decision-making. This study does not induce a specific strategy to be utilized by decision-makers, but provides a systematic methodology to help making decisions once an objective-driven strategy has been established. Using a multi-attribute matrix, the framework considers how to practically use regret theory in deciding between different road designs given the uncertainties inherent in each model. It is found that the usage of regret theory can be beneficial. However, furthermore research needs to be conducted to illustrate how this framework would be utilized in a real-world scenario and how it may impact decision in road designs.


We propose a novel rank aggregation method based on converting permutations into their corresponding Lehmer codes or other subdiagonal images. Lehmer codes, also known as inversion vectors, are vector representations of permutations in which each coordinate can take values not restricted by the values of other coordinates. This transformation allows for decoupling of the coordinates and for performing aggregation via simple scalar median or mode computations. We present simulation results illustrating the performance of this completely parallelizable approach and analytically prove that both the mode and median aggregation procedure recover the correct centroid aggregate with small sample complexity when the permutations are drawn according to the well-known Mallows models. The proposed Lehmer code approach may also be used on partial rankings, with similar performance guarantees.


This project looks specifically at the concepts of presence and performance in multi-user virtual environments (Second Life) and first life, and attempts to bridge these two spaces through mixed reality techniques and interfaces. The project further examines the notion of telepresence through the blurring between 'online' and 'offline' identities, and the signifiers and conditions that make us feel present in this world. This work questions how subjectivity is articulated in relation to embodiment and disembodiment. It explores the avatar in relation to its activating first life agent, focusing on the avatar's multiple identifications, such as gender roles, human/animal hybrids, and other archetypes, identifiable through visible codes and body forms in Second Life. The project aims to evaluate the diversity of personas and social life styles of the avatar. So as to explore this emerging relationship between the virtual and physical I have developed a number of interactive installations using "Second Life" that focus on the interaction and exchange between online and offline identities through social practices, such as performance, narrative, embodiment, activism, place and identity construction. Their collaborative experiments seek to question whether Second Life is a platform for potential social and cultural change - appropriated as a mirror image of first life. By consciously deciding to refer to this image that is mirrored as 'first' life rather than 'real' life, the central question in my work poses a paradox in Second Life when we consider Jacques Lacan's proposition that the 'self' (or ego) is a formulation of our own body image reflected in the 'mirror stage'. However, there is no 'mirror stage' in Second Life, which would suggest that the computer screen itself is the very mirror we are looking for, one that allows the user to formulate her/his 'second self'.


The dissolution of the monasteries ravaged England in the 1530s and resulted in the greatest destruction of the built fabric of the country. It was also, however, a time in which many new initiatives emerged. In the following century, former monasteries were adapted to a variety of uses in both public and private buildings: royal palaces and country houses, town halls and schools, almshouses and re-fashioned parish churches. No new towns were built in England, but the urban environment changed rapidly to reflect the needs of both national and local government. Patrons of buildings spent sometimes wisely, sometimes extravagantly, in managing a balance between their own domestic projects and sponsoring civic buildings that promoted their charitable image in post-Reformation society. In this beautiful and elegantly argued book, Maurice Howard reveals that changes of style in architecture emerged from the practical needs of construction and the self-image of major patrons in the revolutionary century between Reformation and Civil War, and he shows how the transformation of the country's stock of buildings was accompanied by a new language both of word and of vision, as building accounts, government regulation and theoretical writing on the one hand, and pictorial representation on the other, directed new ways of documenting the changed appearance of the buildings in which people lived, worshipped and worked.


It is often claimed that realism about normativity entails that it is difficult for us to know anything about it. I refine this thought by characterizing realism as a thesis which is committed to explaining a semantic thesis about possible uses of normative language: that normative terms like 'ought' are semantically stable, in the sense that the term refers to the same property even if it is used differently. There are independent arguments which show that a realist view, if it is plausible, should entail semantic stability for 'ought'. In this paper I argue that, if the realist succeeds in explaining semantic stability, the realist view implies that normative beliefs will be at risk of being false, and hence not knowledge. Central to this argument is a phenomenon I call meta-semantic risk. I argue that the phenomenon of meta-semantic risk gives rise to a significant dose of normative skepticism for the realist, but it does not entail wholesale skepticism, since the epistemic threats are only contingent, and threatens only precise normative beliefs. I close by sketching two arguments that may show that even this limited form of skepticism counts significantly against the realist view.


Land degradation and deforestation connote loss of biological and economic productivity, and confounds the widespread and increasing need for environmental conservation in the tropics and elsewhere in the world. Vast expanse of land are left bare, degraded and subjected to accelerated erosion and threat of desertification as a result of mining, agricultural and urban development activities in the tropics. Such degradation manifests in form of soil disturbance, accelerate environmental pollution, changes in physical and chemical properties of the soil, loss of forest covers and biodiversity, nutrient cycling and energy balances, and climatic stress factors. The accompanying deforestation brings about shifts in plant community and structure and strongly affect the survival and competitive advantage of native and alien (invaded) plant species. Abiotic stress factors will affect the ec-ophysiological attributes of plant species important to species diversity and adaptation or tolerance to degraded ecosystems characterised by microclimatic gradients and other stress factors. Remediation measures had been achieved through organic wastes amendments, topsoil replacement (soil reconstruction). Biorestoration of degraded landscapes for environmental protection may also be built on the recruitment of native components of biodiversity (tracts of vegetation from existing plant communities and remnants of primary forests and late successional species) for revegetation. In the tropics, there is therefore increasing and urgent need for remediation of degraded lands and to restore productive (functional) ecosystem. These efforts will assist in the development and sustainable management of degraded landscapes for agricultural production, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem health. The recuperation (restoration of the ecological balance and productivity of degraded lands) of degraded ecosystems will provide alternative land uses such as wild life/amenity parks, forest reserves, pasture/range lands and horticultural plantations, and preserve environmental quality. The reclamation and revegetation of degraded/eroded soils will improve ecosystem functioning and arrest further degradation.


Abstract The existence of country-specific commodities that have to be bought and consumed locally plays an essential role in tourism. This paper discusses how optimal taxation rules are modified when the taxable goods include goods demanded by tourists. The main point is that tax rates can be manipulated to shift some of the tax burden from domestic residents onto tourists. There is indeed a reason why an optimum taxation approach is useful for tourism, as the goods are consumed inside the host country, and discrimination is difficult. This paper combines several scenarios where tourism may be relevant for optimal tax policy. It begins by considering the determinants of tourist demand. Then, the well-known optimal commodity tax rules are modified to include the effect of foreign demand. Tourists are assumed to trade at the same prices as domestic consumers, but to have zero welfare weight. Thus, the government must balance the desire to tax tourists with the deadweight loss suffered by its own residents. The government should raise some taxes, when tourism begins. Tourism-oriented goods with low price elasticities should bear the highest taxes. However, tourism-related pollution cannot be taxed at prohibitive rates or tourist revenue would be lost altogether. Possible extensions are introduced, for example competition among destination countries. Should tourism dependent countries that are geographical neighbours and substitutes have closely linked tax systems? What kind of tax policy is best when the tourist destinations serve as complements to each other?


The mainstream paradigm behind continual learning has been to adapt the model parameters to non-stationary data distributions, where catastrophic forgetting is the central challenge. Typical methods rely on a rehearsal buffer or known task identity at test time to retrieve learned knowl-edge and address forgetting, while this work presents a new paradigm for continual learning that aims to train a more succinct memory system without accessing task identity at test time. Our method learns to dynamically prompt (L2P) a pre-trained model to learn tasks sequen-tially under different task transitions. In our proposed framework, prompts are small learnable parameters, which are maintained in a memory space. The objective is to optimize prompts to instruct the model prediction and ex-plicitly manage task-invariant and task-specific knowledge while maintaining model plasticity. We conduct comprehen-sive experiments under popular image classification bench-marks with different challenging continual learning set-tings, where L2P consistently outperforms prior state-of-the-art methods. Surprisingly, L2P achieves competitive results against rehearsal-based methods even without a re-hearsal buffer and is directly applicable to challenging task-agnostic continual learning. Source code is available at https://github.com/google-research/12p.


Abstract Promoting the rule of law in Afghanistan has been a major U.S. foreign policy objective since the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001. Policymakers invested heavily in building a modern democratic state bound by the rule of law as a means to consolidate a liberal post-conflict order. Eventually, justice-sector support also became a cornerstone of counterinsurgency efforts against the reconstituted Taliban. Yet a systematic analysis of the major U.S.-backed initiatives from 2004 to 2014 finds that assistance was consistently based on dubious assumptions and questionable strategic choices. These programs failed to advance the rule of law even as spending increased dramatically during President Barack Obama's administration. Aid helped enable rent seeking and a culture of impunity among Afghan state officials. Despite widespread claims to the contrary, rule-of-law initiatives did not bolster counterinsurgency efforts. The U.S. experience in Afghanistan highlights that effective rule-of-law aid cannot be merely technocratic. To have a reasonable prospect of success, rule-of-law promotion efforts must engage with the local foundations of legitimate legal order, which are often rooted in nonstate authority, and enjoy the support of credible domestic partners, including high-level state officials.


In this contribution, which serves as orientation for this special edition, the accent falls chiefly on the contemporary manifestation of Kaaps as colloquial variety of Afrikaans, but also on its historic roots and the challenges regarding its future. Besides a reflection on the name "Kaaps" and other alternative names, this language form is described with reference to its origin, traditional speakers, geographic situation, sociolectic nature, linguistic character and its contextual usages. Kaaps is presented as a variety of the dialect group Southwestern Afrikaans which as a form of colloquial Afrikaans refers back historically to the seventeenth century influence of slaves on the formation of Afrikaans and which is currently chiefly manifested as a sociolect associated with the working class of the Cape Peninsula. The social assessment, lingua-political treatment and survival potential of this variety are also reviewed.


This study presents a conceptual design for a concentrated solar power plant by using direct steam generation and a stand-alone power system based on a concentration of solar parabolic troughs. The system is located at the solar research site (SRS) of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS in Ipoh, Malaysia. The model system uses an integrated turbine with 1.2 kW generators, and steam is generated by a flow loop powered by solar parabolic trough concentrators. An in-situ calculation of normal direct irradiance was conducted in SRS and used as an input for the mathematical model. The model was developed to assess the transient behaviour of the system and the behaviour of the projected power generation under seasonal variations and daily solar radiation. The parabolic trough power plant achieved the highest average output of 8.85% during the low rainfall season in March.


Recently, researchers have demonstrated state-of-the-art performance on sequential prediction problems using deep neural networks and Reinforcement Learning (RL). For some of these problems, oracles that can demonstrate good performance may be available during training, but are not used by plain RL methods. To take advantage of this extra information, we propose AggreVaTeD, an extension of the Imitation Learning (IL) approach of Ross & Bagnell (2014). AggreVaTeD allows us to use expressive differentiable policy representations such as deep networks, while leveraging training-time oracles to achieve faster and more accurate solutions with less training data. Specifically, we present two gradient procedures that can learn neural network policies for several problems, including a sequential prediction task and several high-dimensional robotics control problems. We also provide a comprehensive theoretical study of IL that demonstrates that we can expect up to exponentially-lower sample complexity for learning with AggreVaTeD than with plain RL algorithms. Our results and theory indicate that IL (and AggreVaTeD in particular) can be a more effective strategy for sequential prediction than plain RL.


In the late 1970's, declines were noticed in the breeding populations of Black-headed Gulls and various tern species on the Ravenglass Local Nature Reserve, Cumbria. By 1983, terns were extinct as breeding species and Black-headed Gull numbers had fallen from 10,000 breeding pairs in 1976 to only 2,290.The annual cycle of Black-headed Gulls was examined and a number of hypotheses constructed as to possible causes of the declines. These hypotheses were tested using historical information and field data collected at Ravenglass and a number of other Cumbrian Black-headed Gull colonies.Historical data from Ravenglass suggest that Black-headed Gull breeding success was poor in a number of years. The reasons for this poor breeding success are not known but disturbance, predation and food shortage caused by agricultural change, vegetation change or weather factors appear to have been important. In 1984 the 1,514 pairs of gulls that settled at Ravenglass produced no young, probably as a result of predation by foxes on eggs and small chicks. No gulls settled to breed at Ravenglass in 1985 and none have done so since.Studies at other Cumbrian colonies since 1985 revealed different causes of reduced breeding success at different sites in different years. This may have been important in reducing the number of potential recruits to Ravenglass from other colonies. Other ground-nesting birds breeding at Ravenglass (except She1duck which breed in rabbit burrows) suffered fox predation in 1984-87.Gulls from both inland and coastal gulleries fed predominantly inland. Levels of heavy metal and radionuclide contaminants in gulls are below those recorded to be harmful.It is concluded that the decline was probably caused by a combination of a number of factors (see above). A number of changes in the colonial behaviour of Black-headed Gulls at Ravenglass were noted in the later stages of the decline suggesting ways In which the gulls responded to the reduction in colony size.


There are various conceptually different strategies to improve bone regeneration and to treat osteoporosis, each with distinct inherent advantages and disadvantages. The use of RNA interference strategies to suppress the biological action of catabolic factors or antagonists of osteogenic proteins is promising, and such strategies can be applied locally. They are comparably inexpensive and do not suffer from stability problems as protein-based approaches. In this study, we focus on sclerostin, encoded by the SOST gene, a key regulator of bone formation and remodeling. Sclerostin is expressed by mature osteocytes but also by late osteogenically differentiated cells. Thus, it is difficult and requires long-term cultures to investigate the effects of SOST silencing on the expression of osteogenic markers using primary cells. We, therefore, selected a rat osteosarcoma cell line, UMR-106, that has been shown to express SOST and secrete sclerostin in a comparable fashion as late osteoblasts and osteocytes. We investigated the effects of differentiating supplements on SOST expression and sclerostin secretion in UMR-106 cells and found that addition of 100 ng/ml of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-2 strongly induced sclerostin secretion, whereas dexamethasone inhibited secretion. Effects of silencing SOST in UMR-106 cells cultured in various differentiation media including BMP-2 and/or dexamethasone were determined next with the aim to find promising test conditions for a readout system for the evaluation of future small interfering RNA release formulations for local induction of bone formation. We found a direct correlation between attenuated SOST expression and an increase in the osteogenic potential of UMR-106 cells. The combination of SOST silencing and BMP-2 could synergistically improve osteogenic factors. A lowered proliferation rate in silenced groups may indicate a faster switch to differentiation.


The innovation process, defined here to incorporate the full cycle from invention to full commercialization, is slow. It cannot be encompassed with time horizons of less than 26 years. Many innovations require half a century or more to reach commercial maturity.

Management of the innovation process is critical to the management of technology, but the slowness of the process makes it difficult for conventional economists or policy makers, who typically consider 15 years a long-term forecast or plan, to understand or control.

The situation, in short, is one in which the absence of theoretical understanding limits the effectiveness of managerial practice. Accordingly one appropriate niche for applied systems analysis in this case is development, application and testing of theoretical models.

Toward this end the innovation-task of IIASA's Management and Technology Area is studying the mechanisms of technological substitution. One phase of this work is being conducted through construction and analysis of dynamic simulation models.

The present paper describes TECH1, the first of these models. TECH1 is generic and views technological substitution as the interaction of product and process improvements (learning) and capacity acquisition under circumstances of market competition between an old and a new technology. Accompanying working papers, entitled "Technological Shift: A Graphical Exploration of Progress Functions, Learning Costs and Their Effects on Technological Substitution" and "Technological Shift: as Related to Technological Learning and Technological Change" develop concepts derived from TECH1 in, respectively, graphical and philosophical terms.

Discussion of TECH1 with colleagues from socialist countries suggests that the model could be made more descriptive of technological substitution through making price and investment respond in non-smooth fashion to both exogenous policy goals and to extended product delivery waiting times (or inventory pile-ups) resulting from disequilibria of supply and demand. TECH2 will be developed to take these structural features into account and will be described in a later working paper.

Another likely extension of this work is case application. If time permits the model will be adapted to describe four historical incidences of technological substitution.

In the first six months of 1980 the entire series of working papers will be collected into a IIASA Research Report. Various parts of the series are being adapted for separate journal publication. The author welcomes comments, questions, criticisms and suggestions on this or any related work.


We study the effects of competition (in procurement of raw materials) on relational contracts (RC) using Rwanda coffee mills as a case study. We measure several dimensions of RC between mills and farmers and find i) dispersion across mills in the use of RC, ii) RC practices are correlated with each other, iii) RC are correlated with capacity utilization and unit processing costs. We develop a model highlighting the relationship between competition, RC, mill and farmer outcomes. We estimate an engineering model for the optimal placement of mills to instrument for competition to test the predictions of the model. Competition reduces RC, lowers utilization and increases mill's processing costs. As a result of RC breakdown, we can reject a positive effect of competition on farmers, including increases in prices. The evidence rationalizes policies, such as zoning regulations, monopsony licensing and other entry restrictions, commonly observed in the developing world and emphasizes the importance of promoting contractual enforcement in agricultural value chains.


Today's managers – drawing on the expertise of their IT professionals – can use technology for both effective monitoring of employee output and achieving unprecedented degrees of control over their workers. On the other hand Australian workers reportedly spend 3.6 hours per week using the Internet for personal reasons. Top Fortune 500 U.S companies have also reported losing billions of dollars because of 'cyber-bludging'. Yet workplace surveillance – taken to extremes may also entail important "control" issues. It may impact negatively on both the organisation's communication climate and its culture, contribute to employees' increased stress and decreased job dissatisfaction, and affect productivity. It may also create role ambiguity for the IT professional whose loyalties may be divided between management and co-workers. This interactive presentation identifies current trends in workplace privacy, highlights key communication and control issues, points to the current legal climate, addresses IT professionals' areas of concern and –using a 'control' framework – suggests future research directions.


Ocean acidification (OA) is usually thought to change the speciation of trace metals and increase the concentration of free metal ions, hence elevating metal bioavailability. In this study, embryos of the oyster Crassostrea angulata and abalone Haliotis discus hannai were cultured under 4 pCO2 conditions (400, 800, 1500 and 2000 μatm) with Cu and Zn added. Fertilization rate was measured 2 h post-fertilization (hpf), while larval deformation and larval shell length were measured 24 hpf. Our results show that OA can alleviate Cu and Zn inhibition of C. angulata fertilization by 86.1 and 26.4% respectively, and Zn inhibition of H. discus hannai fertilization by 43.7%. However, OA enhanced the inhibitory effect of Cu on fertilization of H. discus hannai by 34.7%. OA enhanced the toxic effect of Cu on larval normality of C. angulata by 22.0% and the effect of Cu and Zn on larval normality of H. discus hannai by 71.4 and 37.2%, respectively. OA also enhanced the inhibitory effects of Cu and Zn on larval calcification in H. discus hannai by 8.8 and 8.6%, respectively. However, OA did not change the effect of Cu on the calcification of C. angulata larvae. OA decreased Zn inhibition of oyster larval calcification from 3.1 to 1.5%. Based on our results, the toxic effects of metal on early development of molluscs are not always increased by rising pCO2 and differ across developmental stages, egg structure and species. This complexity suggests that caution should be taken when carrying out multiple environmental stressor tests on molluscan embryos.


One of the first rules of investing is diversification: spreading resources over many types of investments in order to minimize financial risk. Mutual funds have been the diversification vehicle of choice for the last several decades. In recent years, however, other opportunities for diversification --such as separately managed accounts and exchange-traded funds --have enjoyed rapid growth. What lies ahead for the mutual fund industry in light of this increasingly competitive environment? In this volume, experts from the United States and Japan look at forces of change in their securities markets and offer their views of the future for mutual funds and other forms of securities diversification. Contributors include Harold Bradley (Kauffman Foundation), Koichi Iwai (Nomura Institute of Capital Markets Research),Ajay Khorana (Georgia Institute of Technology),Allan Mostoff (Mutual Fund Directors Forum), Brian Reid (Investment Company Institute), Henri Servaes (London Business School), Paula Tkac (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta), and Peter Wallison (American Enterprise Institute).


The Permian pyroclastic deposits on the Principalek Hill SW of Vrchlabi (Czech Republic) were investigated by means of geological mapping and geophysics. The pyroclastic rocks are exposed in several small coherent outcrops, yet many interpretations are based on debris. The preserved textures enable reconstruction of eruptive styles. The volcanism started with phreatomagmatic eruptions documented by the fine-grained tuff with accretionary lapilli at the base. Subsequently, the activity changed to phreato-Strombolian/Surtseyan producing lapilli-tuffs and lapillistones. These events were followed by a Strombolian phase as evidenced by ill-sorted scoriaceous tuff-breccias with volcanic bombs. The uppermost unit consists of welded lava agglutinates and basaltic lavas suggesting a Hawaiian style of eruption. One of the basaltic feeder necks is exposed in a small abandoned quarry. Geophysical surveys were carried out over the extent of pyroclastic deposits. These included gravimetry, magnetometry, and DC resistivity tomography. The magnetic data indicate the occurrence of basaltic dykes in the central part of the pyroclastic deposits. The DC tomography confirms the presence of dykes, enables estimation of the pyroclastic deposits thickness, and provides evidence for the size and position of the maar-diatreme. Gravity data yield an insignificant low associated with the diatreme, which is likely a product of low rock-density contrast between the diatreme and country rocks. We argue that this is due to short time gap between sedimentation and volcanic activity and also related to conjoint burial and diagenetic history of the diatreme and the surrounding country rocks.


A number of studies have been performed on growth and development of ewe lambs of Tsigay breed and Bentheimer cross breeds at birth, and when they were 3-3.5, 6-7 and 12-13 months-old. At the age of 12-13 months, body measurements have been done and build indexes have been calculated. Milk productivity of Tsigay ewes and ♀Tsigay х ♂Bentheimer cross breeds of first and second lactation has been measured during first 20 days after parturition. Milk productivity is presented during milking period, and chemical composition of Tsigay sheep milk is compared with that of mixed bred ewes produced by crossing with Bentheimer rams at first lactation.


We have analyzed the popularization activities undertaken by ten thousand CNRS researchers by means of their annual reports for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006. This is the first time that such an extensive statistical study on science popularization practices is carried out. Our main findings are : - the majority of researchers is not involved in popularization (51% has not done any popularization over the three-year period, two thirds have been involved in no more than one popularization action). - popularization practices are extremely diverse, both at the individual level (we have identified three subpopulations that feature distinctive attitudes towards popularization), and at the level of scientific disciplines (researchers in Humanities are twice as active as the average), as well as in laboratories or geographical regions. - the number of actions reported in 2005 greatly increased compared to 2004 (+ 26%), while they slightly diminished in 2006.


Summary form only given. There is well documented evidence of clinical cases that iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) were induced by neurosurgical instrument contamination. The associated risk is of particular concern, since infective agents of CJD and indeed the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy are resistant to conventional decontamination procedures. This fundamental healthcare challenge calls for new decontamination strategies that can effectively remove protein from surgical instruments. Given the positive benefits and replacement cost of the current healthcare infrastructure, it is desirable that any new procedure is introduced as an additional step in the conventional cleaning cycle. Technically, this translates to a bio-burden challenge in the form of a minimum surface protein density of 10 mug/cm2 . In this contribution, we present a systematic study of protein removal using an atmospheric glow plasma jet. Bovine serum albumin (BSA) were used as a model protein and coated on surgical-grade stainless-steel disks. Protein was measured using epifluorescence microscopy by labeling BSA with fluorescein isothiocyanate, supplemented with scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Using He-O2 mixture as the background gas, rapid protein removal was achieved from 100 mug/cm2 to 50 ng/cm2. Greater removal efficiency is highly feasible and can be quantitatively confirmed when the detection limit of our epifluorescence microscope is extended. So atmospheric pressure glow discharges can remove proteins from stainless-steel surfaces. Also presented is a parallel study of possible removal mechanisms using atmospheric glow discharges. Firstly, the protein reduction kinetics is shown to have three phases. Fluorescence images of protein-containing stainless-steel disks were topologically profiled and used to show a preferential removal of sub-areas of the disk surface. To understand possible mechanisms, protein removal experiments were performed under different plasma conditions. Specifically, atmospheric plasma jets in both He-O2 flow and He-N2 flow were used to remove surface proteins. Protein reduction rates are then correlated to intensities of optical emission lines. Systematic comparison between protein reduction with the two different atmospheric plasma jets suggest that oxygen species particularly oxygen atoms were among the main cleaning agents whereas UV photons played a much minor role. These results are valuable in the future development of atmospheric-plasma based decontamination procedures


The question of Islam's compatibility with modernity (and other interrelated aspects like democracy, rationality, nationalism, etc.) has been debated for more than two centuries. In the Subcontinent, this debate started with British imperialism (the so-called British Raj, 1857-1947). Scholars like Chirag Ali (d. 1895), Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (d. 1898), Allama Iqbal (d. 1938), Abul Kalam Azad (d. 1958), Shibli Numani (d. 1914), Mumtaz Ali (d. 1974), Syed Mawdudi (d. 1979), Amin Ihsan Islahi (d. 1997), and Abul Hassan Ali Nadwi (d. 1999) offered various critical responses. The debate still manifests in different forms, whether regarding nationalism or secularism, rationality or progressive politics. A plethora of mostly apologetic literature has been produced on the question. A recent addition to this literature is Parray's Mediating Islam and Modernity.
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Web 2.0 applications allow individuals to manage their content online and to share it with other users and services on the Web. Such sharing requires access control to be put in place. Existing access control solutions, however, are unsatisfactory as they do not offer the functionality that users need in the open and user-driven Web environment. Additionally, such solutions are often custom-built and require substantial development effort, or use existing frameworks that provide benefits to developers only.
 New proposals such as User-Managed Access (UMA) show a promising solution to authorization for Web 2.0 applications. UMA puts the end user in charge of assigning access rights to Web resources. It allows users to share data more selectively using centralized authorization systems which make access decisions based on user instructions. In this paper, we present the UMA/j framework which implements the UMA protocol and allows users of Web applications to use their preferred authorization mechanisms. It also supports developers in building access control for their Web 2.0 applications by providing ready-to-use components that can be integrated with minimum effort.


Current heterogeneous meta-computing systems, such as computational clusters and grids offer a low cost alternative to supercomputers. In addition they are highly scalable and flexible. They consist of a host of diverse computational devices which collaborate via a high speed network and may execute high-performance applications. Many high-performance applications are an aggregate of modules. Efficient scheduling of such applications on meta-computing systems is critical to meeting deadlines. In this dissertation, we introduce three new algorithms, the Heterogeneous Critical Node First (HCNF) algorithm, the Heterogeneous Largest Task First (HLTF) algorithm and the Earliest Finish Time with Dispatch Time (EFT-DT) algorithm. HCNF is used to schedule parallel applications of forms represented by directed acyclic graphs onto networks of workstations to minimize their finish times. We compared the performance of HCNF with those of the Heterogeneous Earliest Finish Time (HEFT) and Scalable Task Duplication based Scheduling (STDS) algorithms. In terms of Schedule Length Ratio (SLR) and speedup, HCNF outperformed HEFT on average by 13% and 18% respectively. HCNF outperformed STDS in terms of SLR and speedup on an average by 8% and 12% respectively. The HLTF algorithm is used to schedule a set of independent tasks onto a network of heterogeneous processors to minimize finish time. We compared the performance of HLTF with that of the Sufferage algorithm. In terms of makespan, HLTF outperformed Sufferage on average by 4.5%, with a tenth run-time. The EFT-DT algorithm schedules a set of independent tasks onto a network of heterogeneous processors to minimize finish time when considering dispatch times of tasks. We compared the performance of EFT-DT with that of a First in First out (FIFO) schedule. In terms of minimizing makespan, on average EFT-DT outperformed FIFO by 30%.


Abstract: I investigated dispersal of adult water frogs between local ponds containing Rana lessonae, R. ridibunda and their hybridogenetic associate R. esculenta. Recent models indicate a strong influence of species specific dispersal on the dynamics of such mixed populations. However, empirical data on dispersal are still rare and populations are often defined through individuals which reproduce at the same site. In my study area near Zurich, Switzerland, 12.2% of the animals changed ponds in 1995 and 1996. Dispersal occurred throughout the whole year and was not restricted to specific periods. The dispersal rate decreased with increasing pond-to-pond distance and degree of isolation. In addition, I found differences in dispersal rate and distance related