Occasionally, criminals correctly interpret the law while courts err. Litigation pursuant to the federal Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) includes numerous examples. The ACCA imposes harsher sentences upon felons in possession of firearms with prior "violent felony" convictions. Over time, courts defined "violent" so contrary to its common meaning that it eventually came to encompass driving under the influence, unwanted touching, and the failure to report to correctional facilities. However, in a series of recent decisions, the Supreme Court has attempted to clarify the meaning of violent in the context of the ACCA and, in the process, excluded such offenses. The ultimate definition of violent and resulting litigation also implicate career offender sentences imposed under the Sentencing Guidelines, because of similarities in the language of the Guidelines and the ACCA. This Article is the first to examine the availability of collateral review of erroneously imposed career offender sentences resulting from the fluctuating definition of the term "violent." The following offers an overview of the two traditional methods of collateral review available to federal prisoners, motions to vacate and habeas corpus petitions, and assesses the viability of each method. This Article argues for use of the relatively obscure writ of error coram nobis, a safety valve for those who are unable to obtain relief through a motion to vacate or a traditional habeas proceeding. This Article concludes that, despite the writ's disfavored status, courts should dust off the 16th century remedy. This would alleviate both the injustice of telling prisoners who correctly interpreted the law that they were right, but are now without remedy, and the social waste associated with unnecessary incarceration.


Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in the study of structural transformation. However, Africa has received little attention despite the fact that its rural areas seem to be very poor and unproductive relative to urban areas. This case study provides a reflection on challenges faced and development strategies adopted by successive governments in Malawi. Malawi is a country with a complex history of rural-urban transformation. On one hand, Malawi has long been, and still is, a predominantly agrarian economy that has seemingly undergone relatively little rural-urban transformation. Malawi is still predominantly rural, most migration is rural-to-rural, and its economic base is heavily dominated by the production of maize (largely for domestic consumption) and tobacco (largely for exports). In this paper we analyze the macroeconomic policy situation and document patterns and trends in Malawi's rural-urban transformation in a systematic manner. To that end, we focus on a number of dimensions of this transformation, including urban population growth, migration patterns, employment trends, and a spatial analysis of agglomerations and connectivity to major urban centers. We then turn to explain these patterns, largely in terms of colonial, post-independence, and more recent history of agricultural policies. We also examine migration patterns (both rural-urban and rural-rural), and constraints on the development of the nonfarm sector. In conclusion it becomes apparent that Malawi must diversify its economy to sustain poverty reduction and economic growth. However, it is not clear whether Malawi has an obvious comparative advantage in any sizeable nonfarm sector and how exactly the economic diversification process is to be achieved.


Abstract Hydrogen forms of natural mordenite and clinoptilolite were used as catalysts for styrene oligomerization and as matrices to hold the resultant oligomers in order to prepare intense and light-resistant pigments. In contrast to synthetic zeolites of similar pore sizes (mainly H-ZSM-5, H-mordenite), the natural zeolites did not form products with an intense (pink) colouration. H-mordenite samples treated with styrene developed some colour due to styrene oligomers (the chromophore) whereas, in treated clinoptilolites, colour formation was negligible due to the lack of access of styrene molecules into the elliptical channels. The results of catalytic tests for cracking of cumene (cumene and styrene have similar molecular sizes) were consistent with the styrene oligomerization results. They indicate a noticeable catalytic activity with natural H-mordenite and a lack of activity with clinoptilolite. On the other hand, catalytic tests for propan-2-ol decomposition indicate a high activity with both natural zeolites, which confirms the presence of acid sites and their accessibility to small alcohol molecules.


This study frames and records creative and technical processes behinda body of original glass artworksinspired by ethnic contexts.Foregrounded by my practice as a glass artistand post-colonial experiences as a Filipino-American, the content of the work isrooted in expressions of hybrid ethnicity.Encounters with foreign cultures stimulate the creative process inmywork, an approach that is inspired by contemporary art in its various appropriations of ethnographic methods. This is also an important and emerging discourse within the field of glass art.The graphic image in glass offers potentials for using unique qualities of the material to express this contentin artworks.This research aims to identify, develop and demonstrate how the graphic image in glass might be used to express aspects of ethnicity. The methodology consists of subject finding through personal experiences, interpretation of cultural contexts, and their visualisation through developing techniques to fabricate artworks in glass.Three case studies addressspecific cultural sitesas the source of inspiration for glass artworks. A field studyin the Baltic StatesobservedSoviet-eraarchitecture and interpreted its social impact.A study of ethnographic artefacts in Sunderland Museum revealed local connections to historical and contemporary Northeast England.The developmentof alayered plan explores one way of making acommissionedcultural map of Liverpool.My contributionto knowledge is the interpretationof a multiplicity of perspectivesin ethnic contexts, a working method utilising graphic images, layered and encapsulated in unique glass sculptures thatconveycomplexnarratives. These are created through anovel combination ofscreenprinting, waterjet cutting,kilnforming and glass grindingtechniques.As a model of practice for meaningful making, this researchadds toconceptual discourse and technical innovation in the field of glass art


The ways in which evidence derived from the mineralogy of uraninite-bearing quartz pebble orthoconglomerates has hitherto been used in attempts to determine the oxygen content of the early Proterozoic atmosphere are critically reviewed in the light of recent studies of the conglomerates of the Quirke Ore Zone, Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada (Robinson 1982; Robinson & Spooner 1982 Robinson & Spooner in press). The presence of detrital uraninite and pyrite in the ores is not, as once was thought, evidence for a 'reducing' atmosphere because persistence of these minerals as detrital phases has been documented in recent sediments of the Indus fluvial system. Theoretical models of the kinetics of uraninite dissolution are hard to interpret quantitatively in terms of atmospheric partial oxygen pressures because of the large number of assumptions that need to be made. Post-depositional uranium mobility, which has been conclusively documented at Elliot Lake and in Upper Witwatersrand ores, does not necessarily indicate the presence of free-oxygen-rich groundwaters, even if transport was as hexavalent species. In addition, post-depositional uranium mobility was a diagenetic, groundwater-mediated process. Hence, while the chemistry of groundwaters may be inferred from mineralogy, that of surface waters, and by extension that of the atmosphere, may not, because surface and groundwaters are not necessarily in mutual chemical equilibrium. The same restriction applies to the analogous use of the diagenetic mineralogy of any rock type. Sulphur isotope systematics of pyrite concentrates from the Elliot Lake and Upper Witwatersrand ores do not unequivocally demonstrate the involvement of sulphate reducing bacteria or, thus, the presence of aqueous sulphate. The presence of sulphidized limonitic pebbles in Upper Witwatersrand ores can only place an extremely low, lower limit on the oxygen content of the atmosphere at the time. It is concluded that it is by no means as straightforward a matter as has hitherto been assumed to make deductions concerning the oxygen content of the early Proterozoic atmosphere from evidence provided by either the detrital or Secondary mineralogy of uraninite-bearing quartz pebble orthoconglomerates, and that, to date, the problems involved have not been sufficiently considered.


A self-consistent quasiparticle random-phase approximation (QRPA) model that employs the canonical Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) basis and an energy-density functional with a Skyrme mean-field part and a density-dependent pairing is used to study the monopole collective excitations of spherical even-even nuclei. The influence of the spurious state on the strength function of the isoscalar monopole excitations is clearly assessed. We compare the effect of different kinds of pairing forces (volume pairing, surface pairing, and mixed pairing) on the monopole excitation strength function. The energy of the isoscalar giant monopole resonance (ISGMR), which is related to the nuclear incompressibility K(infinity), is calculated for tin isotopes and the results are discussed.


Deamidation of a critical glutamine residue in certain G protein α-subunits by a bacterial toxin causes their constitutive activation. Modification of the α-subunits of heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide–binding proteins (G proteins) by bacterial toxins is a well-known phenomenon; ADP-ribosylation of Gαs subunits by cholera toxin renders them constitutively active, whereas a similar modification of many Gαi proteins by pertussis toxin blocks their interactions with G protein–coupled receptors. Pastuerella multocida toxin (PMT) causes the activation of G proteins containing Gαq, Gαi, and Gα13 subunits. Although the mechanism involved is unknown, a C-terminal domain of PMT is required for its activity. Orth et al. showed that the guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase) activity of recombinant Gαi2 was inhibited by incubation with the C-terminal domain of wild-type PMT (PMT-Cwt) but not with that of a mutant PMT that is inactive (PMT-CC1165S). Mass spectrometric analysis showed that Gαi2 that was coexpressed in Escherichia coli with PMT-Cwt, but not PMT-CC1165S, underwent deamidation of a glutamine residue (Gln205), a conserved residue that is critical for the intrinsic GTPase activity of G protein α-subunits. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis showed that endogenous Gαi2 in mouse embryonic fibroblast membranes was deamidated by PMT. In HEK293 cells, a mutant Gαi2 protein in which Gln205 was replaced by glutamate, thus mimicking the deamidation reaction, was constitutively active, as assessed by measurement of the abundance of adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (cAMP). Further studies showed that Gαq was also deamidated by PMT; however, the closely related Gα11 subunit, which is not a target of PMT, did not undergo deamidation. Although the mechanism by which PMT deamidates its specific targets is still unclear, this modification is consistent with the potent mitogenic activity of PMT, because constitutively active G protein α-subunits trigger cellular transformation. J. H. C. Orth, I. Preuss, I. Fester, A. Schlosser, B. A. Wilson, K. Aktories, Pasteurella multocida toxin activation of heterotrimeric G proteins by deamidation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 106, 7179–7184 (2009). [Abstract] [Full Text]


One facet of cytokine receptor signaling involves the activation of signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs). STATs are rapidly activated via tyrosine phosphorylation by Janus kinase (JAK) family members and subsequently inactivated within a short period. We investigated the effect of proteasome inhibition on interleukin-3 (IL-3) activation of the JAK/STAT pathway following stimulation of Ba/F3 cells. Treatment of Ba/F3 cells with the proteasome inhibitor, N -acetyl-l-leucinyl-l-leucinyl-norleucinal (LLnL), led to stable tyrosine phosphorylation of the IL-3 receptor, beta common (βc), and STAT5 following stimulation. The effects of LLnL were not restricted to the JAK/STAT pathway, as Shc and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) phosphorylation were also prolonged in LLnL-treated cells. Further investigation showed these stable phosphorylation events were the result of prolonged activation of JAK2 and JAK1. These observations were confirmed using pharmacologic inhibitors. In the presence of LLnL, stable phosphorylation of STAT5 and βc was abrogated if the tyrosine kinase inhibitor, staurosporine, was added. The effect of staurosporine on STAT5 phosphorylation could be overcome if the phosphatase inhibitor, vanadate, was also added, suggesting phosphorylated STAT5 could be stabilized by phosphatase, but not by proteasome inhibition per se. These observations are consistent with the hypothesis that proteasome-mediated protein degradation can modulate the activity of the JAK/STAT pathway by regulating the deactivation of JAK.


Relational data may have access limitations, i.e., relations may require certain attributes to be selected when they are accessed; this happens, for instance, while querying Web data sources (wrapped in relational form) or legacy databases. It is known that the evaluation of a conjunctive query under access limitations requires a recursive algorithm that is encoded into a Datalog program. In this paper we consider the problem of optimising query answering in this setting, where the query language is that of conjunctive queries. We review some optimisation techniques for this problem, that aim to reduce the number of accesses to the data in the query plan. Then we argue that checking query containment is necessary in this case for achieving effective query optimisation. Checking containment in the presence of access limitations would amount to check containment of recursive DATALOG programs, which is undecidable in general. We show however that, due to the specific form of the DATALOG programs resulting from encoding access limitations, the containment problem is indeed decidable. We present a decision procedure, first presented in a paper by the authors and based on chase techniques, and we analyse its computational complexity


Success on mine rehabilitation areas can be assessed on the basis of completion criteria. Argyle Diamond Mine (ADM) processes alluvial deposits along Limestone and Smoke Creeks in the Kimberley region and has mined over 1000 hectares of land that is in the process of being revegetated. ADM requires completion criteria to be formulated for mined terrace areas at their alluvial minesite. Few studies worldwide have addressed the issue of practical completion criteria for mined lands in dry tropical savannas, which are characterised by highly variable and strongly season rainfall, frequent fires and a mosaic of herbaceous and woody plant communities. This paper examines the plant ecological aspects of the alluvial mine rehabilitation process at ADM, and rehabilitation progress in relation to objectives. The characteristics of the tropical savanna system are compared with those of the southwest of Western Australia where rehabilitation of mine sites has a longer research record than in the far north. In both systems, understanding the biology of species and the impact of fire is critically important However, there are also important differences related to the environment and the species and communities that occur in the respective locations. The vegetation on the terraces beside the creeks (Plains vegetation) was suitable as a reference community on which to base completion criteria for assessing the success of the alluvial mining rehabilitation areas. It appears unrealistic in the short-term, to expect rehabilitated communities to be closely similar to what existed before mining. However, reinstated plant communities should contain dominant local species that are functionally similar to those that were present before mining. During the development of completion criteria for the dry tropics it is necessary to take into account the patchy structure of the natural vegetation and the highly variable climatic conditions.


This article explores Catholic missionaries' use of emotions to promote conversions in the duchy of Chablais from 1597 to 1598, highlighting in particular three Forty Hours Devotions celebrated in the Alpine villages of Annemasse and Thonon. Evoking early Christianity through images of the Eucharist and the Crucifixion, a small band of missionaries, led by Francois de Sales and Capuchin Cherubin de Maurienne, hoped to spark overt emotions in their audience and to distinguish baroque Catholicism from the more introspective Calvinist faith of nearby Geneva. Published accounts of the devotions, correspondence of the organizers, and records of the reactions from Geneva indicate the success of the Forty Hours Devotions and demonstrate the missionaries' willingness to shape the presentation of their message to appeal to people's senses rather than to their intellects.


Thermal contact resistance/conductance is very important in many heat transfer applications, such as electronic packaging, nuclear reactors, aerospace and biomedicine, among others. The determination of the thermal contact resistance/conductance is often a very difficult task. Previously, the authors presented a computationally fast inverse problem methodology to estimate thermal contact conductance without intrusive measurements, in steady-state heat conduction problems. This paper is an extension of such methodology, applied to transient problems. The methodology presented is formulated in terms of a reciprocity functional approach, together with the method of fundamental solutions. The solution is composed of two steps. In the first step, two steady-state auxiliary problems, which do not depend on the thermal conductance, are solved. With the results of the first step, different thermal conductances can then be recovered through an integration process of the boundary data. Thus, the methodology is fast and can be used to detect contact flaws in different materials with small computational effort. Test cases with simulated measurements containing measurement errors are presented in order to illustrate the robustness of the proposed technique.


The profitability of PV production and its possibilities for backup power were studied in this report. The idea was to study the additional value offered by PV, with investments already made, as backup in conjunction with batteries. In a typical backup power solution, backup units are only used during outages. With a PV and battery sourced backup system, production units operate the whole year round, collecting revenues and providing backup power value, on top of revenue from sales to market. These systems are similar to microgrids, which are usually defined as small-scale power systems shared by multiple buildings, with the ability to operate independently from the main distribution system for short periods. The backup power capability of fluctuating production units is, however, limited, and cannot be the only source in long outages. Small-scale production units can, however, reduce the operating costs in longer outages by reducing, for example, diesel fuel costs and generator investment costs, by reducing the size requirement for the main backup generator. The case study was made for an area of buildings located in Närpiö. The potential and the cost-efficiency of PV panels were investigated, as well as the cost effect of using PV together with battery in backup operation. The results indicate that 22% of yearly energy could be produced with PV panels, when most of the roof is utilised for this. The profitability depends on the cost of financing and the investment cost. The system could be profitable if the interest rate was 3% or lower. In practice, financing would have to be provided by entities with low financing costs, like municipalities. PV production was best suited to the load profile of the supermarket in the case area, the load of which was concentrated in the daytime. There are many sources of information available regarding renewable power in Finland in general, but information about combined small-scale production and backup systems is rare. This is understandable, because the power infrastructure in Finland is quite mature and outages rare.


Abstract The article presents constructional, technological and operational issues associated with the compensation of thermal deformations of ball screw drives. Further, it demonstrates the analysis of a new sensorless compensation method relying on coordinated computation of data fed directly from the drive and the control system in combination with the information pertaining to the operational history of the servo drive, retrieved with the use of an artificial neural networks (ANN)-based learning system. Preliminary ANN-based models, developed to simulate energy dissipation resulting from the friction in the screw-cap assembly and convection of heat are expounded upon, as are the processes of data selection and ANN learning. In conclusion, the article presents the results of simulation studies and preliminary experimental evidence confirming the applicability of the proposed method, efficiently compensating for the thermal elongation of the ball screw in machine tool drives.


The United States' approach to China since the Communist regime in Beijing began the period of reform and opening in the 1980s was based on a promise that trade and engagement with China would result in a peaceful, democratic state. Forty years later the hope of producing a benign People's Republic of China utterly failed. The Communist Party of China deceived the West into believing that the its system and the Party-ruled People's Liberation Army were peaceful and posed no threat. In fact, these misguided policies produced the emergence of a 21st Century Evil Empire even more dangerous than a Cold War version in the Soviet Union. Successive American presidential administrations were fooled by ill-advised pro-China policymakers, intelligence analysts and business leaders who facilitated the rise not of a peaceful China but a threatening and expansionist nuclear-armed communist dictatorship not focused on a single overriding strategic objective: Weakening and destroying the United States of America. Defeating the United States is the first step for China's current rulers in achieving global supremacy under a new world order based an ideology of Communism with Chinese characteristics. The process included technology theft of American companies that took place on a massive scale through cyber theft and unfair trade practices. The losses directly supported in the largest and most significant buildup of the Chinese military that now directly threatens American and allied interests around the world. The military threat is only half the danger as China aggressively pursues regional and international control using a variety of non-military forces, including economic, cyber and space warfare and large-scale influence operations.


Nighttime crashes at work zones are major concerns for construction workers and motorists. Although in a majority of the U.S. states, department of transportation specifications for work zone lighting mention that contractors should reduce glare for workers and drivers, only two states advocate detailed specifications like light positions, orientation, and light levels. Although some studies have examined the impact of glare from work zone lights on workers and others have calculated veiling luminance levels for drivers in the work zone, the effect of work zone lighting on drivers' visual performance and glare perception has never been studied in a realistic setting. The goal of this study was to understand the impact of commercially available portable light towers (metal halide, LED, and balloon) and their orientation on drivers' visual performance and their perceptions of glare. Participants drove through a realistic work zone simulated on the Virginia Smart Road. Visual performance was assessed by a detection task and perception of visibility and glare were assessed by questionnaires. Results indicated that the type of light tower and its orientation affect visual performance and perceptions of visibility and glare. Light towers aimed toward the driver resulted in lowering drivers' visual performance, both objectively and subjectively. When the light towers were aimed away from or perpendicular to the driver, the visual performance was higher and the differences in visual performance between the types of light towers were minimal. These findings indicate that these orientations should be preferred for work zone light towers.


Although tidally locked habitable planets orbiting nearby M-dwarf stars are among the best astronomical targets to search for extrasolar life, they may also be deficient in volatiles and water. Climate models for this class of planets show atmospheric transport of water from the dayside to the nightside, where it is precipitated as snow and trapped as ice. Since ice only slowly flows back to the dayside upon accumulation, the resulting hydrological cycle can trap a large amount of water in the form of nightside ice. Using ice sheet dynamical and thermodynamical constraints, I illustrate how planets with less than about a quarter the Earth's oceans could trap most of their surface water on the nightside. This would leave their dayside, where habitable conditions are met, potentially dry. The amount and distribution of residual liquid water on the dayside depend on a variety of geophysical factors, including the efficiency of rock weathering at regulating atmospheric CO2 as dayside ocean basins dry up. Water-trapped worlds with dry daysides may offer similar advantages as land planets for habitability, by contrast with worlds where more abundant water freely flows around the globe.


High-performance composites are used in many applications due to their design flexibility, corrosion resistance, high strength-to-weight ratio, and many other excellent mechanical properties. In this study, the location and magnitude of failure initiation in horizontal axis water turbine carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) blades with different lay-up orientations were investigated. Unidirectional [0°]4 and cross-ply [0°/90°]S layups were selected to study the effect of the buildup direction on the failure of the composite water turbine blades. A finite element analysis (FEA) model was generated to examine the stresses along blade span under both flexural and hydrodynamic loads. Flexural destructive tests were conducted to validate the results obtained from the numerical simulations. In addition, a blade element momentum theory model was created to calculate the hydrodynamic forces acting along the span to determine the maximum loading radial location, which was used for the fixture design and FEA simulation input. Both unidirectional and cross-ply composite blades were tested for failure. There was a general agreement between the experiments and simulations, which validated the results. Moreover, FEA simulations were performed to apply the load to the samples with different pitch angles (−10°, −5°, 0°, 5°, and 10°). Even though the unidirectional CFRP composite blades showed higher strength at 0° pitch angle than the cross-ply blades, the strength of the unidirectional blade dropped significantly when the load was applied with different pitch angles other than 0°, while the strength of the cross-ply blades was less responsive to this pitch angle variation.


Background: Providing treatment to patients with diabetes mellitus in rural areas at a cost they can afford is a public health challenge. Aims: This study aims to measure the rate of compliance to oral hypoglycemic agents among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus attending peripheral mobile clinics in rural South India. To study factors that impact glycemic control. Setting and Design: A cross-sectional study was done among patients attending peripheral mobile clinics in a rural block in Southern India. Materials and Methods: Pill counts were done to assess compliance. Participants' dietary intake was measured using a 24 h diet recall and their level of physical activity was measured using the WHO Global Physical Activity Questionnaire. Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) was measured for all participants. Statistical Analyses Used: Data were entered on EpiData and analyzed using SPSS. The prevalence of good glycemic control and good compliance was measured. A multiple linear regression was done to study factors affecting glycemic control. Results: Overall 52% of the participants were compliant to at least one drug and 50% had achieved good glycemic control. Compliance increased by 2.1% with every passing year since the diagnosis of diabetes. HbA1c reduced by 0.09% for every 10% increase in overall compliance. Conclusions: Levels of compliance and glycemic control achieved through this primary care team is comparable to those achieved through other systems.


This text summarizes and explains the fundamental law applicable to a broad variety of current payment systems. Coverage includes issues of liability, transfer, holder in due course status, and check collection applicable to negotiable instruments (checks, notes, drafts) governed by UCC Articles 3 and 4, as well as letters of credit and documents of title governed by UCC Articles 5 and 7. The text further examines the rights, obligations, and federal protection applicable to credit and debit cards. Finally, this title addresses recent legal developments in regard to a variety of electronic fund transfers, prepaid cards and digital currencies.


Public sector performance is currently a significant issue for management practice and policy, and especially the turnaround of those organizations delivering less than acceptable results. Theories of organizational failure and turnaround derive largely from the business sector and require adaptation to the public service. The performance of public organizations is more complex to measure, is related to institutional norms, and the idea of 'failure' is problematic. Empirical findings from a real-time, longitudinal study of poorly performing English local authorities are used to develop an initial theory of performance failure and turnaround suited to public organizations. The paper argues that the typical performance of public organizations over time is cyclical. Where cognition and leadership capability are absent, organizations fail to self-initiate turnaround. In this situation authoritative external intervention is necessary. The strategies applied are principally concerned with building a leadership capability that engages senior politicians and managers in order to overcome inertia and collective action problems. The theory is presented in the form of seven propositions that provide a basis for further research across the public sector.


Educators are increasingly using social networks and exploiting their affordances as a mode of delivery. There is a consequent need to evaluate teaching strategies within this new context, uncovering important caveats and promoting the most effective approaches.

Masters students at the University of Huddersfield had expressed dissatisfaction with Blackboard, perceiving it to lack the personalisation and community feeling associated with social networks like FaceBook and Ning. Consequently, a Ning network was created to support a single, Masters level module. This study explored how best to use the platform to promote interaction and improve learning outcomes.

Tutors gathered ethnomethodological data, documenting the seemingly trivial interactions between members of the network in order to uncover the social processes at work and shed light on the meaning which members attach to this behaviour. The case study was conducted over 3 months, involving twenty students and two tutors.

Learners were polled at the end of this period with over ninety percent preferring Ning to Blackboard. Some clear indicators for what they expected of a tutor in this kind of environment were also uncovered.

The findings endorse the use of social networks in educational contexts and inform optimal teaching strategies in future iterations. Where the results concur with wider studies of learner perceptions of e-learning, they are potentially generalisable to similar contexts.


Background Overall, 30%–45% of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) are non-adherent and have difficulties taking their medications; this non-adherence increases the risk of clinical relapse 1.4- to 5.5-fold. This study aimed to clarify the strategies patients employ to facilitate adherence and determine whether the strategies had an impact on good adherence. Methods This was a cross-sectional survey using a self-administered questionnaire and review of medical records. Patients diagnosed as having UC and attending one of the outpatient clinics of four urban hospitals from June 2009 to December 2012 were enrolled. A questionnaire was developed to identify the strategies patients employ to facilitate adherence and then administered to patients with UC. Adherence to 5-aminosalicylic acid was calculated, and univariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the strategies that were associated with good adherence. Results The final analyses included 671 participants (mean age 40.2 years; 54.3% males). The valid response rate was 96.9%; 186 (27.7%) participants were classified as non-adherent, the mean adherence rate being 86.1% (standard deviation [SD] 17.9). Seven strategies that patients employ to facilitate adherence were identified, the following two being significantly associated with good adherence: "I keep my medicines where I eat meals" and "I keep each day's medicine in a pill case or something similar to make sure I have taken them". Conclusion The identified strategies might be used to develop a program to improve medication adherence in patients with UC.


Rainfall and air temperature variations resulting from climate change are important driving forces to change hydrologic processes in watershed ecosystems. This study investigated the impacts of past and future rainfall and air temperature variations upon water discharge, water outflow (from the watershed outlet), and evaporative loss in the Lower Yazoo River Watershed (LYRW), Mississippi, USA using the HSPF model. Four future climate change (i.e., rainfall and air temperature change) scenarios, namely the CSIROMK35A1B, HADCM3B2, CSIROMK2B2, and MIROC32A1B scenarios, were used as input data to perform simulations in this study. Results showed that monthly variations of water discharge, evaporative loss, and water outflow were primarily due to the monthly fluctuations of rainfall rather than air temperature. On average, for all of the four scenarios, a 6.4% decrease in rainfall amount resulted in, respectively, 11.8 and 10.3% decreases in water outflow and evaporative loss. Our study demonstrated that rainfall had profound impacts upon water outflow and evaporative loss. In light of this predicted future decrease in water outflow, water resource conservation practices such as reducing ground and surface water usages that help to prevent streams from drying are vitally important in mitigating climate change impacts on stream flow in the LYRW.


Techniques based on the properties of isotopes and water chemistry are being used by researcher world over in various fields e.g. hydrology, geothermics, water pollution etc. A brief review of some the application made by others and relevant to the work is present in this thesis. General principles of these techniques are also described.. As specialized equipment and laboratory environment are generally necessary for the application of these techniques, description of the facilities established at PINSTECH is included in this thesis.

In Pakistan, the isotope techniques and water chemistry have been applied to study the interrelationship between surface water and groundwater, movement of water in the unsaturated zone, artificial; recharge of groundwater by a delay action dam, sources of groundwater salinity and water logging, pollution of shallow groundwater, geothermal waters of Northern Areas etc. In particular, tritium in the sources of input to groundwater i.e. precipitation and river water was measured and the data accumulated over several years is discussed. A number of radioactive tracers have been used to determine groundwater flow velocity by single well method, aquifer parameters by multi well technique, layout plan of about 350 years old terracotta pipeline in Shalimar Gardens, Lahore. The uniqueness and effectiveness of these techniques in studying various problems are evident from the results achieved in the aforesaid application which would have been extremely difficult if not impossible by other methods.


In the present study the research objective was to gain insights into parental communication on an open Internet forum where parents had the opportunity to discuss issues related to ADHD. In order for clinicians to help troubled children brought to the health clinic it may be important to learn more about the life situations of these troubled families as treatment options can require complex interventions for the whole family. Our aim was thus to go beyond theneurobiological medical model of ADHD, which does not take into account contextual factors. In today's society specialized online discussion forums are available for parents who seek support for various difficulties that arise in the family. The online forums are sources of research data. As research tools we used the narrative psychological approach for the analysis of 72 online narratives. These narratives provided support for that the parents embraced medical explanations for the difficulties experienced when raising children, despite obvious challenging life circumstances, such as for example being a single parent without social support. Even very young children had been given serious psychiatric medical diagnoses such as ADHD, Bipolar disorder, Mood disorders and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Some of them had been diagnosed with more than one of these disorders. The complexity of the parental narratives in the present study indicates that the neurobiological model is not sufficient enough to form the basis of a personalized and comprehensive care for vulnerable families.


The United States faces two economic challenges: slow growth and an ever-increasing ratio of debt to GDP. Many policymakers believe they face a dilemma because the policy solutions to the two problems are opposite. To address the slow recovery, standard — Keynesian — economics suggests further fiscal stimulus in the form of lower taxes or higher spending. But that recommendation runs head-first into the economy's second crucial challenge, the long-run fiscal imbalance. Yet policymakers are wrong to see this as a dilemma. The Keynesian model does not evaluate government expenditure using the standard microeconomic concepts of economic efficiency (cost-benefit analysis); rather, it assumes that all expenditure is beneficial. Some government purchases, however, are not a productive use of resources, and transfer payments distort economic incentives and thus can reduce economic output. In contrast, broad-based tax cuts, especially those that lower marginal tax rates, enhance economic growth. The implication is that tax cuts are the most appealing kind of fiscal stimulus because they are beneficial on both Keynesian and efficiency grounds. Higher transfers and government purchases — increased expenditures — are questionable because any Keynesian benefits must be balanced against potentially large efficiency costs. Thus the United States should cut unproductive expenditures while keeping tax rates low. A high deductible for Medicare would save money and improve the efficiency of the health care market. With rising life expectancies, Social Security is more generous than necessary to accomplish any reasonable goal of the program. Much military spending goes to programs not related to the defense of the United States. Business subsidies, drug prohibition, and pork-barrel spending should be cut. The United States therefore has a simple path to a brighter economic future: slash expenditures and keep tax rates low. Reducing expenditures will improve the debt outlook and make the economy more productive, implying higher levels of output and further debt reductions for any given tax rates. Keeping tax rates low will improve the incentives for labor effort, savings, and entrepreneurship, which promotes a more productive economy.


Background: Primary Health Care (PHC) is considered to be a more appropriate approach to health, and the health system, improving access to health services, as well as disease prevention. The availability and efficiency of PHC is a key determinant of the overall health and wellbeing of a people, and a useful yardstick for assessment of a nation's health system. Hence, PHC workforce are at the vanguard of essential health service delivery through direct contact with grassroots community members, within and without the health facilities, for provision of preventive, treatment, referral and follow-up health services. Poor motivation and non-retention of PHC workers weakens the health systems' ability to meet the above goals.Aim: To assessed the job satisfaction of primary health care workers in Rivers State, Nigeria.Methodology: The study utilized the descriptive cross-sectional design and the mixed methods of data collection. The quantitative method used semi-structured, pretested, self- administered questionnaires to obtain information on socio-demographic and occupational characteristics, job satisfaction, motivation, frustration, retention potentials and awareness of existing policies and incentives of respondents. The respondents which included Community Health Extension Workers (CHEW), Community Health Officers (CHO), nurses and doctors in Primary health facilities in the State, were selected using the multistage sampling method. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 software and results presented using tables and charts.Results: A total of 378 respondents participated in the study. Nurses constituted 47.6% of the respondents, with equal proportions of CHEWs and CHOs [23.8% and 23.8% respectively] and 4.8% were doctors. The mean age of the respondents was39.8±8.1 years; with 89.7% females and 10.3% males. Of all the respondents, 79.6% were married,82% were senior cadre staff and 78.8% were Pentecostal Christians. Ikwerre, Ogoni and Kalabari had the highest distribution in ethnicity (19.3%, 14.8% and14.0% respectively). Among the respondents, 75.7% had worked for less than 7 years in their current facility while 82.9% had worked for same duration in their previous facility. Almost two third 240 (63.5%) reported that their workplace was far from their residence while 12 (3.2%) stated that it was very close. A high proportion of the respondents (78.3%) were satisfied with the general working condition in their Primary Health Care facility while 21.7% of the respondents were satisfied with the pay and promotion potentials of their work place. Notably, while 97.9% of the respondents were satisfied with their work relationships, 57.7% were satisfied with the use of their skills and abilities at their workplace and 88.1% of the respondents were satisfied with their work activities. These gave a good job satisfaction score for 88.9% of the respondents. Profession, community, distance from work and duration of work were significant factors (p < 0.05).Conclusion: This study concluded that age, marital status, profession, and location of health facility, duration of work played vital roles in level of satisfaction of PHC workers. Hence, offering opportunities for professional advancement through training of the healthcare workers though already included in the Nigerian National Healthcare policy, should be efficiently implemented and monitored by the government and other relevant stakeholders to improve job satisfaction and in turn quality health service delivery.Keywords: Job Satisfaction, Healthcare Workers


Levelt's blueprint of speech production and perception (Levelt 1989; Levelt, Roelofs, & Meyer 1999) has been widely accepted and is well established. One of the crucial characteristics of the model is its modularity, which is required to account for the speed with which we speak (about two to three words per second). At the same time, the modular principle of the model is also its Achilles heel. In current dynamic approaches to language processing, it is assumed that the language system is not stable and static, but instable and dynamic. In these approaches, language production and comprehension are not seen as sequential processing in a series of separate modules, but as an integrated dynamic system that is characterised by a multidimensional state space with numerous attractors at different levels. In the wake of earlier suggestions to adapt the Levelt model to the multilingual speaker (De Bot 1992; De Bot 2000), this paper discusses the robustness of the model to a dynamic language system and tests to what extent it is in line with a dynamic, usage based approach to language processing.


A new random sampling strategy, designed for retrieving subsets consisting of two edge pixels from an input image, is proposed as the sampling process for RANSAC circle detection using coaxal transform. The proposed strategy is shown to have the following advantages over the conventional random sampling strategy. First, a poll size can be planned in a principled manner. Second, once a poll size is set, the probability that a circle is missed by the sampling process is kept relatively constant regardless of noise. Third, the actual number of subsets taken is automatically adjusted for different image complexities. Experimental results in agreement with the claimed advantages are presented.


We present SurfaceLink, a system where users can make natural surface gestures to control association and information transfer among a set of devices that are placed on a mutually shared surface (e.g., a table). SurfaceLink uses a combination of on-device accelerometers, vibration motors, speakers and microphones (and, optionally, an off-device contact microphone for greater sensitivity) to sense gestures performed on the shared surface. In a controlled evaluation with 10 participants, SurfaceLink detected the presence of devices on the same surface with 97.7% accuracy, their relative arrangement with 89.4% accuracy, and various single- and multi-touch surface gestures with an average accuracy of 90.3%. A usability analysis showed that SurfaceLink has advantages over current multi-device interaction techniques in a number of situations.


Summary
The relation of canned salmon diet to amebic colitis was studied in two groups of dogs comprising twelve fed exclusively on canned salmon and four on normal diet, either inoculated with Entamoeba histolytica or not inoculated. One group of dogs was intubated transrectally with a glass tube three times a week; the other group was not intubated. Hookworms and whipworms were eliminated or reduced to negligible numbers. The character of the stools was recorded daily and the condition of the cecum and colon, fixed immediately after sacrifice, was observed histologically.
The dogs on salmon diet developed varying degrees of mucoid diarrhea and dysentery, the intensity of which was in direct relationship to the amount of salmon consumed. The pathology observed in such dogs was characteristic of a chronic nonspecific inflammation of the intestinal mucosa. Infection with E. histolytica, when present, did not have any determining effect upon the enteric symptoms; neither did amebae markedly change the pathology observed. The irritative action of the diet was clearly enhanced by frequent colonic aspiration, the combination of the two factors regularly producing dysentery in the dogs thus treated. In one dysenteric dog infected with mixed cysts of three ameba species a colony of amebae (presumably Entamoeba coli) was seen in the sloughed mucosa in approximately the same location where colonies of E. histolytica had been found in other dogs. The control dogs on horse meat diet passed consistently normal stools, regardless of whether or not they were infected with E. histolytica or harbored hookworms or whipworms. Transrectal intubation of such dogs produced only small amounts of blood and mucus in the stools following aspiration.
It is felt that the salmon diet is the main causative factor in the development of this dysenteric syndrome in the dog, acting as a local irritant upon the intestinal mucosa and causing a nonspecific type of colitis with sloughing of the mucosa and output of bloody mucus. Amebae may aid, when present, in the causation of symtoms but no evidence was found of their being primary invaders of the tissues of the dog. Hookworms are not considered to be an important factor in this process.


Cloud computing has become the new face of computing and promises to offer virtually unlimited, cheap, readily available, "utility type" computing resources. Many vendors have entered this market with different offerings ranging from infrastructure-as-a-service such as Amazon, to fully functional platform services such as Google App Engine. However, as a result of this heterogeneity, deploying applications to a cloud and managing them needs to be done using vendor specific methods. This "lock in" is seen as a major hurdle in adopting cloud technologies to the enterprise. IBM Altocumulus, the cloud middleware platform from IBM Almaden Services Research, aims to solve this very issue of managing applications across multiple clouds. It provides a uniform, service oriented interface to deploy and manage applications in various clouds and also provides facilities to migrate instances across clouds using repeatable best practice patterns. In this demonstration we will present the latest version of the IBM Altocumulus platform and also reveal some of the latest additions on scaling and the ability to perform map-reduce type computations.


From images of distance education (DE) in advertisements to examples of extant DE theory and practice, and finally to a possible dystopia and utopia for DE, this dissertation investigates the rich representations at the intersection of feminism, pragmatism, and web based distance education. It is composed of three parts. The first part is the construction of a feminist-pragmatic theoretical and analytical tool, motivated by images of DE in commercial advertisements. These images include control of nature (and the natural body), gendered experience, transactions of bodies and tools, loss of bodies, and atomic individualism. In response to these images, the main unifying theme of the tool is organic holism where the world as a dynamic system connects with culture, biology, history, and context. It draws heavily on the work of John Dewey, Charlene Haddock Seigfried, Timothy Kaufman-Osborn, Shannon Sullivan, Nancy Fraser, Donna Haraway, Sandra Harding, and Carolyn Merchant in order to form a rich weaving useful to instructional technologists and philosophers of education. The second part explores three examples of extant web based distance education using this tool. Lastly, I explore alternatives to current instantiations of distance education including a dystopia and a melioristic option that I call sustainable technology.


This article presents ACLED, an Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset. ACLED codes the actions of rebels, governments, and militias within unstable states, specifying the exact location and date of battle events, transfers of military control, headquarter establishment, civilian violence, and rioting. In the current version, the dataset covers 50 unstable countries from 1997 through 2010. ACLED's disaggregation of civil war and transnational violent events allow for research on local level factors and the dynamics of civil and communal conflict. Findings from subnational conflict research challenges conclusions from larger national-level studies. In a brief descriptive analysis, the authors find that, on average, conflict covers 15% of a state's territory, but almost half of a state can be directly affected by internal wars.


Orbital-free density-functional theory (OF-DFT) with modern kinetic-energy density functionals (KEDFs) is a linear scaling technique that accurately describes nearly-free-electron-like (main group) metals. In an attempt towards extending OF-DFT to transition metals, here we consider whether OF-DFT can be used effectively to study Ag, a metal with a localized d shell. OF-DFT has two approximations: use of a KEDF and local pseudopotentials (LPSs). This paper reports construction of a reasonably accurate LPS for Ag by means of inversion of the Kohn-Sham (KS) DFT equations in a bulk crystal environment. The accuracy of this LPS is determined within KS-DFT (where the exact noninteracting kinetic energy is employed) by comparing its predictions of bulk properties to those obtained from a conventional (orbital-based) nonlocal pseudopotential (NLPS). We find that the static bulk properties of fcc and hcp Ag predicted within KS-DFT using this LPS compare fairly well to those predicted by an NLPS. With the transferability of the LPS established, we then use this LPS in OF-DFT, where several approximate KEDFs were tested. We find that a combination of the Thomas-Fermi (T(TF)) and von Weizsacker (T(vW)) functionals (T(vW)+0.4T(TF)) produces better densities than those from the linear-response-based Wang-Teter KEDF. However, the equations of state obtained from both KEDFs in OF-DFT contain unacceptably large errors. The lack of accurate KEDFs remains the final barrier to extending OF-DFT to treat transition metals.


Abstract The integral kinetic model is applicable to space-dependent kinetic analysis for any weakly coupled system because of its applicability to any geometry. Transient parameters that describe the time distribution of neutron transport between regions in a system are essential for this model. This paper presents a formula for calculating the parameters based on the nonanalog Monte Carlo neutron transport simulation technique. A continuous-energy Monte Carlo code MVP2.0 was modified to calculate the parameters, and the modification was verified using the static coupled reactor theory. The parameters were calculated in a simple fast-thermal coupled reactor. The results showed a difference in fission starting times between a fast region and a thermal region, which can cause a time lag in the transient behavior between the two regions. The results also revealed the time distribution of neutron energy groups that trigger fissions in each region. A space-dependent kinetic analysis code based on the integral kinetic model is under development, and these parameters can be used in the integral kinetic model to perform space-dependent kinetic analysis for weakly coupled systems.


Yeast and mammalian MAF1 are both regulated by the TOR (target of rapamycin) pathway. However, the exact mechanisms of regulation diverge at TOR, with yeast Maf1 phosphorylated mainly by the TORC1 (TOR complex 1) substrate Sch9 kinase and mammalian MAF1 by mTORC1 (mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1) itself. Sch9 phosphorylation of yeast Maf1 regulates Maf1 localization, but it is less clear whether phosphorylation of human MAF1 regulates its localization. Replacement of phosphosites with alanine decreases Pol III (RNA polymerase III) transcription, but the effect is much more pronounced for human MAF1 than for the yeast protein. In both cases, Pol III repression can be further increased by rapamycin treatment or, in mammalian cells, serum starvation, suggesting that the TOR pathway controls another aspect of Pol III transcription that is closely linked to MAF1, as it depends on the presence of MAF


We dispute the claim made by Dubbelman and colleagues [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A22, 1216 (2005); this issue] that "incorrect statistical methods" were used to compare the MRI and Scheimpflug data. We clearly stated that we "analyzed the covariance of regression lines" in the results section. We believe the analysis of covariance of regression lines, as shown by Snedecor and Cochran [Statistical Methods (Iowa State U. Press, Ames, Iowa, 1989)] is as "correct" as the "straightforward statistical comparison" of confidence intervals employed by Dubbelman and colleagues; however; our statistical method has the benefit of being more precise and stringent than a simple comparison of confidence intervals.


Background
The International Psycho-Oncology Society (IPOS) is a multidisciplinary professional network that aims to improve psychosocial care for individuals impacted by cancer. IPOS encourages research activity, recognizing that a high-quality evidence base is essential to provide best-practice, data-driven clinical care. This study aimed to determine the barriers to research involvement and the training needs and priorities of IPOS members, with the goal of facilitating the development of training resources tailored to the needs of IPOS members.

Methods
A link to an online, cross-sectional survey was disseminated to all registered members of IPOS via email. The online survey platform SimpleSurvey was used, and questions included demographic characteristics and items related to research interests, involvement, and training needs. High priority research training needs were identified as research tasks respondents rated as highly important, yet possessed a low perceived skill level in.

Results
Thirty-two percent of IPOS members (n = 142) completed the survey. Participants represented 49 countries and were at a variety of career stages. Overall, participants reported spending an average of 17.3 hours per week on research (range 0-80 hours per week), with 69% of respondents wanting to increase their research involvement. The main barriers to research participation included lack of research funding (80%) and lack of protected time (63%). IPOS members identified 5 high-priority training needs: preparing successful grant applications; preparing research budgets; community-based participatory research; working with decision makers; and finding collaborators or expert consultants. Participants suggested funding access, statistical advisors, and networking and mentorship opportunities as ways to enhance research involvement. Members preferred online training modules (39%) and mentorship programs (19%) as methods by which IPOS could provide research support. IPOS was viewed as being able to contribute to many aspects of research capacity building such as networking, training, and dissemination of research findings.

Conclusions
IPOS has an important role in encouraging research capacity building among members. This survey provides an agenda for workshops and training opportunities. Mainly, for respondents it was less about training in research methods and more about training in how to prepare successful grant applications, including budgets, and receiving mentorship on this as well as having opportunities to collaborate with other researchers.


Within Australia's federal system, responsibility for preventing, preparing for, responding to and recovering from natural disasters is shared between the three tiers of government. Intergovernmental policy and funding arrangements are premised on shared responsibility and aim to foster individual, business and community resilience. These arrangements underpin Australia's international reputation for effectiveness in its management of natural disasters. The capacity of the diverse networks that comprise the disaster management system to coordinate and deliver in the preparedness and response phases of a disaster, and to provide relief in the immediate aftermath, has been developed over time and tested and refined through the experience of frequent, severe disaster events over recent decades. Less well developed is the system's ability to support economic recovery in disaster-affected communities over the longer term. This paper presents case studies of regional communities affected by two of Australia's most expensive and deadly natural disasters—the 2009 Victorian bushfires and the cyclones and floods that struck the state of Queensland in 2010–2011. It highlights significant gaps in policy and funding arrangements to support recovery and offers lessons for aligning recovery within a resilience framework.


Little research exists about whether sexual orientation is addressed in counsellor supervision. This study examined supervisees' and supervisors' perceptions of how knowledge, awareness, and skills related to lesbian, gay, or bisexual issues were addressed in supervision. Results indicated there was no correlation between supervisors' own sexual orientation identity and their perception of exploration of awareness, knowledge, and development of skills as related to issues of sexual orientation in clinical work. This study did find a significant difference between supervisors' and supervisees' perceptions of supervisors' explorations related to awareness of issues of sexual orientation in counselling. Implications for counsellor supervision are discussed.


We consider a quantum particle as a wave packet, and find that the group velocities in the coordinate and momentum spaces are in agreement with the Hamilton equations only when the Lagrangian is considered in the time dependent phases, instead of the Hamiltonian in the conventional forms of these waves as solutions of the Schrodinger equation. We define a relativistic quantum principle, and derive a wave equation for a relativistic quantum particle, the relativistic kinematics and dynamics of the particle waves, the Maxwell equations and the Lorentz force of a field interacting with the particle waves, the relativistic transform of such a field, and the spin as a characteristic of the particle waves. We consider a quantum particle as a distribution of conservative matter propagating according to the General Theory of Relativity. We obtain the dynamics of this matter in a gravitational field, the propagation in plane waves perpendicular to geodesic tracks, and equations of conservation.


Variability in receptor protein abundance affects the sensitivity of T cells to the cytokines IL-2 and IL-7. This is an interview with Grégoire Altan-Bonnet, senior author of a Research Article by Cotari et al. published in the 12 March 2013 issue of Science Signaling. The outcomes of many cell signaling events depend not only upon the presence or absence of proteins involved in signaling but also upon the amount of these proteins that are present in cells. The amount of any given protein may vary between genetically identical cells, and individual cells in an isogenic population may respond differently to identical stimuli. Cotari et al. used a technique called cell-to-cell variability analysis to exploit this inherent variability in protein abundance to explore the quantitative regulation of signal transduction. They found that inherent variability in the abundance of cytokine receptor subunits determined the sensitivity of T cells to the cytokines IL-2 and IL-7. This variability in cytokine sensitivity is essential for proper T cell–mediated immune responses.


Citrus vein enation virus (CVEV), a tentative species of the genus Enamovirus , family Luteoviridae, which causes vein enation and trunk woody gall symptoms on citrus, has been recently reported from Iran. In the present research, biological and molecular properties of CVEV different isolates were studied. Following graft transmission of 29 CVEV isolates on sour orange ( Citrus aurantium ), volkamer lemon ( C. volkameriana ) and rough lemon ( C. jambhiri ), the results indicated that the incidence, type and severity of symptoms depend on the CVEV isolate and host (rootstock), accordingly virus isolates were classified into three groups. CVEV was transmitted by Aphis fabae with a significantly higher efficiency than that by Aphis gossypii. This is the first report of CVEV transmissibility by A. fabae in the world. Based on RT-qPCR results, the maximal and minimal concentrations of CVEV were determined in young bark and petioles tissues of infected sour orange seedlings, respectively. Monthly monitoring of the virus throughout the year by RT-PCR showed that CVEV was only detectable during two periods of late April to early July along with mid-September to early October, however, sensitivity of virus detection raised up to 60 percent in early December by using RT-qPCR. In the phylogenetic analysis of CVEV isolates based on nucleotide sequence of overlapped regions of ORF1 and ORF2, isolates were grouped into three clades which showed some correlation with symptomology groups.


Corporate greenwashing has accelerated in recent years, bringing in its wake growing skepticism about corporate green claims. Although a theory of the drivers and deterrents of greenwashing has begun to emerge, it is static in nature and does not incorporate the full range of ways in which firms can misrepresent their environmental performance. Our contribution is threefold. First, we extend the theory of organizational information disclosure to incorporate the possibility of undue modesty about a firm's environmental, social, and governance practices. Second, we hypothesize about the drivers of exaggeration and undue modesty based on which of a firm's stakeholders are salient at a given point in time; to do so, we place the firm within a dynamic context that has largely been missing in the prior literature. Third, we test our hypotheses using a data set that allows us to directly compare corporate green claims against actual performance. Results reveal that corporate output growth, deregulation, and low profits under deregulation significantly affect the choice between greenwashing and brownwashing. The effects of growth and profits are mitigated by external scrutiny.


Insurance as Governance is the first major sociological study of the insurance industry. It examines how the industry controls our institutions and daily lives in ways that are largely invisible, and how it thereby functions as a form of government beyond the state. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research on industry practices, the work penetrates the complexities of the insurance industry and demonstrates why it is such a powerful and pervasive institution. The authors advance the concept of moral risk as they consider how insurance companies partner with governments and corporations in the negotiation of economic policy. In effect, Insurance as Governance documents liberal theory at work. It offers a major case study of liberal governance beyond the state and explores such larger issues as how insurance is increasingly liberal rather than welfarist in orientation, and how insurance is the vanguard of liberalization in governance throughout postindustrial societies. Wide-ranging in scope and original in approach, the text provides a sophisticated integration of empirical data and theoretical approaches relating to insurance, risk, governance, and security.


Abstract Introduction There are few studies on the association between serum uric acid (UA) level and mortality in incident dialysis patients. We aimed to clarify whether the serum UA level at dialysis initiation is associated with mortality during maintenance dialysis. Methods We enrolled 1486 incident dialysis patients who participated in a previous multicenter prospective cohort study in Japan. We classified the patients into the following five groups according to their serum UA levels at dialysis initiation: G1 with a serum UA level <6 mg/dL; G2, 6.0–8.0 mg/dL; G3, 8.0–10.0 mg/dL; G4, 10.0–12.0 mg/dL; and G5, ≥12.0 mg/dL. We created three models (Model 1: adjusted for age and sex, Model 2: adjusted for Model 1 + 12 variables, and Model 3: stepwise regression adjusted for Model 2 + 13 variables) and performed a multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis to examine the association between the serum UA level and outcomes, including infection-related mortality. Results Hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated relative to the G2, because the all-cause mortality rate was the lowest in G2. For Models 1 and 2, the all-cause mortality rate was significantly higher in G5 than in G2 (HR: 1.63, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.14–2.33 and HR: 1.78, 95% CI: 1.19–2.68, respectively). For Models 1, 2, and 3, the infection-related mortality rate was significantly higher in G5 than in G2 (HR: 2.75, 95% CI: 1.37–5.54, HR: 3.09, 95% CI: 1.45–6.59, HR: 3.37, and 95% CI: 1.24–9.15, respectively). Conclusions Extreme hyperuricemia (serum UA level ≥12.0 mg/dL) at dialysis initiation is a risk factor for infection-related deaths.


The stagnation of car demand had been observed in many countries. A similar phenomenon had emerged in Taiwan. From the perspective of socio-demographic characteristics, this study employs quantile regression for count data to investigate generational differences in household car ownership in Taiwan. The results show that the socio-demographic characteristics affected household car ownership. Due to the seniority effects, households in the later life-cycle stages and households with a higher proportion of elderly members would reduce car demand. But, households with the middle-aged heads owned more cars due to their better economic ability. The income effects are greater for higher income households. Household car ownership varied across generations, which was related to the income effects, the life course, and household structure. Hence, the demographic changes and generational differences in travel preferences should be considered in urban transportation planning. Seamless transportation and senior-friendly facilities would be important for transportation demand management.


The current understanding of the characteristics of solar and inner heliospheric electron events is inferred almost entirely from observations made by spacecraft located at 1 astronomical unit (au). Previous observations within 1 au of the Sun, by the Helios spacecraft at ∼0.3–1 au, indicate the presence of electron events that are not detected at 1 au or may have merged during transport from the Sun. Parker Solar Probe's close proximity to the Sun at perihelion provides an opportunity to make the closest measurements yet of energetic electron events. We present an overview of measurements of electrons with energies between ∼17 keV and ∼1 MeV made by the Parker Solar Probe Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (IS⊙IS) instrument suite during Encounter 2 (2019 March 31–April 10 with perihelion of ∼0.17 au), including several small electron events. We examine these events in the context of the electromagnetic and solar wind environment measured by the FIELDS and SWEAP instruments on Parker Solar Probe. We find most of these electron enhancements to be associated with type III radio emissions that reach the local plasma frequency and one enhancement that appears to be primarily associated with abrupt changes in the local magnetic field. Together, these associations suggest that these are indeed the first measurements of energetic electron events within 0.2 au.


Credit Risk: from transaction to portfolio management provides high level, focused analysis of the nature of credit risk in investment bank portfolio management. Written by experienced international practitioners, it offers in-depth information and advice that will help all those charged with managing credit risk at the sharp end. Credit Risk Management strives to protect the capital and reputation of the bank while preserving its franchise and optimising long-term profitability. These goals are achieved by: Recommending suitable credit policies and guidelines Performing due diligence on the banks' customers Incorporating both quanitative and qualitative analysis to balance risk and return Providing creative advice to facilitate client transactions Coordinating legal and operational issues Embracing technological change to enhance bank effectiveness Credit Risk provides financial institutions and their staff with everything they need to know about how to control and manage credit risk. It gives sound analysis of trading strategies and complex derivative product, offers an understanding of settlement procedures and legal issues, and shows how to accurately quantify and measure related risks. Written by professionals for professionals - authors are from two of the world's largest international investment banksIn-depth, focused informationHigh level, comprehensive analysis of the subject


The health of people and society at large is a product of the social circumstances in which we live, our networks of relationships with other human beings, and our interactions with our built environment, with nature and so with the planet. Our genetic make up and our health care service are of lesser importance.

Global warming is already having an impact on these wider determinants of health. Unpredictable exposure to extremes of weather will cause important problems for food growing and water availability. A sea level rise of one metre will displace 120 million people. The female anophelene mosquito responsible for malaria will increase its range, producing an estimated 60 million additional cases of malaria each year. All these will provoke social, economic, and demographic dislocation. For our continuing good health we must control global warming. Most observers now agree that the only practical way of doing this is to regulate our carbon use by implementing a carbon cap and trade mechanism, as detailed in Contract and Converge.

While technological fixes are important they cannot in the foreseeable future completely replace …


This thesis is about an organised group or 'squad' of young men in Port Vila, the capital of the Pacific Islands nation-state of Vanuatu, and their practices of place making in the rapidly developing context of 'town'. The young men studied are second-generation migrants and thus first-generation born and raised 'urbanites'. Based on twenty months of fieldwork, this thesis examines how these young men are transforming Freswota Community - the residential area in which they live - from a place with no shared and relevant social meaning into a place imbued with greater collective significance.
First, I demonstrate how these young men experience themselves as 'unplaced', a condition which entails two aspects. They are displaced from the social structure and kinship systems within which their parents previously ordered their lives and from which they have drawn their social identity. Additionally, the young men experience themselves as marginalised from the formal education and employment structures of town. Following this, I show that it is through practices of place making, which they refer to as 'planting roots', that these young men are emplacing themselves in the Freswota area. 'Planting roots' includes such processes as developing their own shared history, naming roads, building topogeny and developing their own community social structure and social order. I argue that these processes are leading to the emergence of a new phenomenon: primary town emplacement. By coming into relationship with Freswota land, these young men are not only transforming it from virtual no-place into some place, they are also transforming themselves from 'unplaced' persons into emplaced 'Freswota men'. I conclude that this is generating a new locative identity: it is now the Freswota community rather than their parents' home island places that is emerging as their primary location of belonging and the source both of their sense of self and their social identification.
A central aim of this thesis is to draw attention to the positive and creative ways in which unemployed young men, usually criticised and stigmatised as delinquents in newly and rapidly urbanising contexts, are actively engaged in developing their community and their relationships in order to live more viable and socially productive lives.


Background and Aims: Metabolically unhealthy overweight (MUO) individuals and metabolically healthy overweight (MHO) individuals differ in biomarkers of atherogenesis. Metabolomic approaches enable studies of the metabolic variables underlying these differences. Methods: We determined the metabolomes in plasma samples from 34 MUO and 34 MHO individuals matched for sex, age, and body mass index (BMI) to identify potential metabolic markers or pathways associated with atherogenic traits. Results: This analysis revealed that the MUO group had significantly higher levels of glycolic acid, 6 lysophosphatidylethanolamines (lysoPEs), and 12 lysophosphatidylcholines (lysoPCs). Although the two groups had similar total body fat percentages and lean body masses, MUO individuals had larger visceral fat areas (VFAs). They also had greater circulating lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) activity and higher levels of oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) and urinary 8-epi-prostaglandin F2α (8-epi-PGF2α), reflecting higher risks for oxidative and lipid-related tissue damage. The following measures were positively correlated: VFA and ox-LDL; ox-LDL and Lp-PLA2 activity; and lysoPC, lysoPE, and 8-epi-PGF2α levels. Chronic plasma lysoPC increases were associated with atherogenic traits, higher levels of mean ox-LDL, 8-epi-PGF2α, Lp-PLA2, and visceral fat accumulation in MUO compared to MHO individuals. Conclusions: This panel of plasma metabolites distinguishes MUO from MHO individuals and will enable future research on fat dysregulation and obesity. Disclosure Y. Han: None. M. Kim: None. H. Yoo: None. J. Lee: None. Funding National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2017R1C1B2007195, NRF-2012M3A9C4048762)


In challenging times for international law, there might be a heightened need for both analysis and prescription. The international rule of law as a connecting thread that goes through the global legal order is a particularly salient topic. By providing a working understanding of the content and contexts of the international rule of law, and by taking the regime of international investment law as a case study, this paper argues that assessing 'rise' or 'decline' motions in this sphere warrants a nuanced approach that should recognise parallel positive and negative developments. Whilst prominent procedural and substantive aspects of international investment law strongly align with the international rule of law requirements, numerous challenges threaten the future existence of the regime and appeal of international rule of law more broadly. At the same time, opportunities exist to adapt the substantive decision-making processes in investor-State disputes so to pursue parallel goals of enhancing rule of law at both international and national levels. Through recognising the specificities of interaction between international and national sphere, arbitrators can further reinvigorate the legitimacy of international rule of law through international investment law - benefitting thus the future of both.


Background: Successful waste management programs are linked to internal factors, SW (strength and weakness points), and external factors, OT (opportunities and threats), and at the macro level are grounds for sustainable development. Studies may be related to David's study which presented a method to quantify strength, weakness, opportunity, threats (SWOT) analysis.Methods: In this study, designed to investigate recycling and managing dry residues in District 1, threat factors were studied and internal factors evaluation (IFE) and external factors evaluation (EFE) matrixes were scored. Tehran Municipality District 1 has 10 subdistricts and 26 neighborhoods. The dry residues from Municipality District 1 that currently weigh approximately 2678 tons per day.Results: Results showed that WO strategies for improving weaknesses and employing opportunities available in District 1 are ideal. After constructing the Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM), WO strategies were prioritized.Conclusion: The evaluation matrix of internal and external factors in the city of Tehran indicated that waste management has weak internal factors. Meanwhile, evaluation points of external factors showed that, in the current situation, SWOT could achieve good results. Waste management systems are involved with different multi-disciplinary factors; therefore, trends in the development of waste treatment technologies have been led by various social, economic, and environmental drivers in Tehran.


The move from hardware middleboxes to software network functions, as advocated by NFV, has proven more challenging than expected. Developing new NFs remains a tedious process, requiring that developers repeatedly rediscover and reapply the same set of optimizations, while current techniques for providing isolation between NFs (using VMs or containers) incur high performance overheads. In this paper we describe NetBricks, a new NFV framework that tackles both these problems. For building NFs we take inspiration from modern data analytics frameworks (e.g., Spark and Dryad) and build a small set of customizable network processing elements. We also embrace type checking and safe runtimes to provide isolation in software, rather than rely on hardware isolation. NetBricks provides the same memory isolation as containers and VMs, without incurring the same performance penalties. To improve I/O efficiency, we introduce a novel technique called zero-copy software isolation.


CYP2C9 and CYP2C19 are highly polymorphic pharmacogenes; however, clinically actionable genetic variability in drug metabolism due to these genes has been limited to a few common alleles. The identification and functional characterization of less-common open reading frame sequence variation might help to individualize therapy with drugs that are substrates for the enzymes encoded by these genes. The present study identified seven uncharacterized variants each in CYP2C9 and CYP2C19 using next-generation sequence data for 1013 subjects, and functionally characterized the encoded proteins. Constructs were created and transiently expressed in COS-1 cells for the assay of protein concentration and enzyme activities using fluorometric substrates and liquid chromatography– tandem mass spectrometry with tolbutamide (CYP2C9) and (S)-mephenytoin (CYP2C19) as prototypic substrates. The results were compared with the SIFT, Polyphen, and Provean functional prediction software programs. Cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase (CPR) activities were also determined. Positive correlations were observed between protein content and fluorometric enzyme activity for variants of CYP2C9 (P < 0.05) and CYP2C19 (P < 0.0005). However, CYP2C9 709G>C and CYP2C19 65A>G activities were much lower than predicted based on protein content. Substrate intrinsic clearance values for CYP2C9 218C>T, 343A>C, and CYP2C19 337G>A, 518C>T, 556C>T, and 557G>A were less than 25% of wild-type allozymes. CPR activity levels were similar for all variants. In summary, sequencing of CYP2C9 and CYP2C19 in 1013 subjects identified low-frequency variants that had not previously been functionally characterized. In silico predictions were not always consistent with functional assay results. These observations emphasize the need for high-throughput methods for pharmacogene variant mutagenesis and functional characterization.


Title of Document: WEED SUPPRESSION BY FORAGE RADISH WINTER COVER CROPS. Yvonne Lawley, Ph.D., 2010 Directed By: Professor Ray Weil, Department of Environmental Science and Technology Forage radish (Raphanus sativus L. var. longipinnatus) is a new winter cover crop in the Mid-Atlantic region. This study had three objectives: 1) to characterize the repeatability, amount, and duration of weed suppression during and after a fall-planted forage radish cover crop 2) to quantify its subsequent effect on direct seeded corn, and 3) to identify the mechanisms of this weed suppression. Forage radish cover crops were grown in ten site-years and followed by a corn crop in seven site-years in the coastal plain of Maryland. Forage radish was compared to rye (Secale cereale L.), oat (Avena sativa L.), and no cover crop treatments. Early and typical corn planting dates along with contrasting herbicide management strategies were compared over four site-years. Forage radish did not reduce population or yield in subsequent corn crops. Forage radish provided complete suppression of winter annual weeds in the fall and early spring but the suppression did not persist into the following cropping season. When forage radish cover crops were used in place of pre-plant burn down herbicide treatments to control weeds in early planted corn, some weeds were present at the time of corn emergence but corn yields were not reduced if emerged weeds were controlled with a postemergence herbicide. Controlled environment bioassays involving cover crop amended soil, aqueous plant extracts, and aqueous soil extracts along with a field experiment involving planted weed seeds did not provide evidence of allelopathy. In a residue moving experiment, no difference in spring weed suppression was observed if forage radish residues were removed prior to killing frost in November or left in place to decompose in three of four site-years. These results were supported by planting date experiments where fall ground cover and spring weed suppression was greatest for earlier planting dates of forage radish cover crops. Thus, rapid and competitive fall growth, rather than allelopathy, is the most likely mechanism of weed suppression by forage radish winter cover crop. Strategies to utilize the weed suppression of forage radish cover crops should focus on fall weed suppression and the early spring pre-plant window of weed control. WEED SUPPRESSION BY FORAGE RADISH WINTER COVER CROPS.


In this study I investigated the mechanisms of neuronal network oscillatory activity in rat M1 using pharmacological manipulations and electrical stimulation protocols, employing the in vitro brain slice technique in rat and magnetoencephalography (MEG) in man. Co-application of kainic acid and carbachol generated in vitro beta oscillatory activity in all layers in M1. Analyses indicated that oscillations originated from deep layers and indicated significant involvement of GABAA receptors and gap junctions. A modulatory role of GABAB, NMDA, and dopamine receptors was also evident. Intracellular recordings from fast-spiking (FS) GABAergic inhibitory cells revealed phase-locked action potentials (APs) on every beta cycle. Glutamatergic excitatory regular-spiking (RS) and intrinsically-bursting (IB) cells both received phase locked inhibitory postsynaptic potentials, but did not fire APs on every cycle, suggesting the dynamic involvement of different pools of neurones in the overall population oscillations. Stimulation evoked activity at high frequency (HFS; 125Hz) evoked gamma oscillations and reduced ongoing beta activity. 20Hz stimulation promoted theta or gamma oscillations whilst 4Hz stimulation enhanced beta power at theta frequency. I also investigated the modulation of pathological slow wave (theta and beta) oscillatory activity using magnetoencephalography. Abnormal activity was suppressed by sub-sedative doses of GABAA receptor modulator zolpidem and the observed desynchronising effect correlated well with improved sensorimotor function. These studies indicate a fundamental role for inhibitory neuronal networks in the patterning beta activity and suggest that cortical HFS in PD re-patterns abnormally enhanced M1 network activity by modulating the activity of FS cells. Furthermore, pathological oscillation may be common to many neuropathologies and may be an important future therapeutic target.


The neocortex, especially that of humans, is considered to be the most complex structure in the known universe. Functionally, it is involved in higher order brain functions such as sensory processing, generation of motor commands, and cognitive processes. Structurally, it encloses the cerebral hemispheres as a one to four millimeter thick sheet and consists of a highly complex network of interconnected cells. Even though a wealth of anatomical and physiological data has been collected over the past decades, the functional organization of the neocortical microcircuitry is still a mystery. What is known for sure, however, is that information is represented and processed in the neocortex as membrane potential fluctuations travelling through the neuronal network. We refer to such fluctuations as neuronal activity. Due to its tissue penetration capabilities of up to one millimeter combined with threedimensional spatial resolution, two-photon laser-scanning microscopy (2PM) has become the method of choice to image populations of neurons inside the neocortex of living animals. In combination with techniques that allow to load populations of several hundred cells with
fluorescent indicators of neural activity (in particular: calcium indicators), it is possible to observe neuronal population activity inside the brain in vivo. Researchers performing in vivo 2PM often use custom-built microscopy setups controlled by custom-written software due to the high flexibility they require. The continuous technical advancement of the field created a need for new control software that is flexible enough to supply both the biological researcher with the newest image acquisition techniques and the developer with a solid platform from which various new extensions can be implemented and ideas quickly realised. In the first part of this thesis, I introduce HelioScan, a software package written in LabVIEW. It serves i) as a component collection allowing to flexibly
assemble a microscopy control software according to the own needs, and ii) as a framework within which new functionality can be implemented in a quick and structured manner. A specific HelioScan application assembles at run-time from individual software components and subcomponents, based on user-definable configuration files. This concept allows high flexibility with regard to different hardware or functional requirements. Currently
implemented components enable i) camera-based imaging such as intrinsic optical signal (IOS) imaging, as well as different laser-scanning modes employing ii) galvanometric
mirrors, iii) acousto-optic deflectors (AODs) or iv) resonant scanners. Components are implemented in an object-oriented fashion, with generic interface classes defining the component types as well as their possible interactions. New components can be implemented by inheriting from existing base classes. Various scaffold classes derived from the generic component classes allow to extend quickly on already existing functionality. Due to its component-based architecture, HelioScan fosters collaborative efforts in which several developers can work in parallel when implementing new functionality. The cellular components of the neocortical neural network are diverse with respect to their precise morphology, physiology and molecular composition. Their diversity does not form a continuum, however. As a consequence, they can be grouped into different classes based on common or at least similar features. Different functional roles can be attributed to these classes (cell types). It is thus important to be able to distinguish different cell types in two-photon calcium imaging. In the second part of this thesis, I present three methods for cell type discrimination in two-photon calcium imaging of the neocortex. The first of these methods allows to distinguish GABAergic cells, astrocytes and excitatory neurons and is based on a three fluorescent labels that can be simultaneously imaged and spectrally resolved. In particular, it involves the GAD67-GFP transgenic mouse line
(in which GABAergic neurons express green fluorescent protein (GFP)), uses the red dye sulforhodamine 101 (SR101) for astrocyte-specific labelling and unspecific loading with the green calcium indicator OGB-1.

The second method uses post hoc immunostaining to discriminate cells according to their expression of molecular markers. Specifically, after in vivo two-photon calcium imaging and acquisition of a three-dimensional reference image stack, the brain is cut into coronal sections. Slices containing parts of the volume-of-interest are selected based on the blood vessel pattern on their thin stripe of pial surface. After immunostaining, the
slices are imaged and rotation-fitted to the reference mage stack. Cell-to-cell assignment between reference image stack and slice image stacks allows cell type discrimation according to different combinations of molecular markers. I demonstrated the applicability of this approach by discriminating different GABAergic cells based on their expression of calciumbinding proteins both in GAD67-GFP mice and in wildtype mice expressing a genetically encoded calcium indicator (GECI). The third method is similar to the second one, but uses a cutting procedure that provides intrinsic rotation-fitting and results in tangential sections. Although further exploration of this approach is still pending, first results indicate that cells previously imaged in vivo can be easily re-identified in the sectioned brain.

In summary, I introduced two flexible and extendible tools. I expect HelioScan to become the software of choice in two-photon imaging laboratories that have to deal with diverse and frequently changing hardware and functionality requirements. The rise of chronic preparations based on viral-induced GECI expression allows activity read-outs to be recorded over weeks or months. Due to the associated decrease in the relative overhead, I expect post hoc cell-type discrimination to become a technique that is routinely applied in future experiments.


Human genomes are routinely compared against a universal reference. However, this strategy could miss population-specific or personal genomic variations, which may be detected more efficiently using an ethnically-relevant and/or a personal reference. Here we report a hybrid assembly of Korean reference (KOREF) as a pilot case for constructing personal and ethnic references by combining sequencing and mapping methods. KOREF is also the first consensus variome reference, providing information on millions of variants from additional ethnically homogeneous personal genomes. We found that this ethnically-relevant consensus reference was beneficial for efficiently detecting variants. Systematic comparison of KOREF with previously established human assemblies showed the importance of assembly quality, suggesting the necessity of using new technologies to comprehensively map ethnic and personal genomic structure variations. In the era of large-scale population genome projects, the leveraging of ethnicity-specific genome assemblies as well as the human reference genome will accelerate mapping all human genome diversity.