This paper presents a new analytical framework of 'grassroots innovations' which views community-led initiatives for sustainable development as strategic green niches with the potential for wider transformation of mainstream society. This framework is applied to a low-carbon, low-impact, community-based sustainable housing initiative in the USA which pioneers straw bale housing techniques within a strong community-building ethos. The project is evaluated according to New Economics criteria of sustainable consumption, and is found to be successful at localising the construction supply chain, reducing ecological footprints, community-building, enabling collective action, and building new institutions and systems of provision around housebuilding. However, viewing it as a strategic niche with aims to influence wider society, it is clear that it faces significant challenges in diffusing its ideas and practices beyond the niche. Its model is not necessarily suitable for scaling up or widespread replication; however, the scope for niche lessons to be adopted by mainstream builders is greater, given a supportive policy environment. Recognising the innovative nature of green niches at the policy level could lead to new approaches to governance of bottom-up community action for sustainable development.


Security sector reform (SSR) is a key concern in th e current transformations which are sweeping across much of the Arab world. Given the crucial role security institutions have played in sustaining authoritarian regimes in the region, any transformation towards more democratic rule will necessarily also have to include a reform of these countries' security sectors towards greater transparency, accountability and democratic control. This article explores the challenges and prospects of security sector reform in the first Arab country to have overthrown its autocratic leader, Tunisia. The main arguments advanced in this article are that the key SSR challenges in Tunisia since the fa ll of Ben Ali have been the reform of the country's internal security apparatus and the judiciary, whereas military reforms are of limited importance. Even though in both of these ar eas actual reforms have been rather modest so far, and have focused more on purges rath er than on structural transformations, Tunisia remains the most promising of all Arab countries which have toppled their longstanding leaders when it comes to achieving effecti ve security sector reforms. September


A cyclotron named ARRONAX is being built in Nantes (France). It is mainly devoted to radiochemistry and nuclear medicine research and will be operational the last quarter of 2008. This machine will accelerate both protons and α-particles at high energy (up to 70MeV) and high intensity (2 simultaneous proton beams with intensity up to 350 µA). In nuclear medicine, these characteristics will allow the cyclotron to produce a large variety of radionuclides on a regular schedule and in sufficient amount to perform clinical trials. A priority list of 12 radioisotopes, which contains isotopes for therapeutic use as well as for PET imaging, has been established by an international scientific committee. In radiochemistry, a vertical pulsed α-beam will allow fundamental studies of radiolysis in aqueous media, which is of great interest for radiobiology and for nuclear waste management.


Order statistics have an important place in probability theory and statistical inference, especially reliability analysis. It is aimed to compare the dependency structure with some copula families of min-max copula for the extreme order statistics in this study. Suitability of Clayton, Frank, Gumbel from Archimedean copula families, Gaussian, Farlie-Gumbel-Morgenstern and       min-max copula are examined by simulation study. To find the most suitable copula family, some model selection criteries are used and important inferences are obtained.


Analog electronic cochlear models need exponentially scaled filters. CMOS Compatible Lateral Bipolar Transistors (CLBTs) can create exponentially scaled currents when biased using a resistive line with a voltage difference between both ends of the line. Since these CLBTs are independent of the CMOS threshold voltage, current sources implemented with CLBTs are much better matched than current sources created with MOS transistors operated in weak inversion. Measurements from integrated test chips are shown to verify the improved matching.


We compare two ways of obtaining lexical knowledge for antecedent selection in other-anaphora and definite noun phrase coreference. Specifically, we compare an algorithm that relies on links encoded in the manually created lexical hierarchy WordNet and an algorithm that mines corpora by means of shallow lexico-semantic patterns. As corpora we use the British National Corpus (BNC), as well as the Web, which has not been previously used for this task. Our results show that (a) the knowledge encoded in WordNet is often insufficient, especially for anaphor' antecedent relations that exploit subjective or context-dependent knowledge; (b) for other-anaphora, the Web-based method outperforms the WordNet-based method; (c) for definite NP coreference, the Web-based method yields results comparable to those obtained using WordNet over the whole data set and outperforms the WordNet-based method on subsets of the data set; (d) in both case studies, the BNC-based method is worse than the other methods because of data sparseness. Thus, in our studies, the Web-based method alleviated the lexical knowledge gap often encountered in anaphora resolution and handled examples with context-dependent relations between anaphor and antecedent. Because it is inexpensive and needs no hand-modeling of lexical knowledge, it is a promising knowledge source to integrate into anaphora resolution systems.


Studying structural genesis of the Mežica lead and zinc deposits situated in the eastern Karavanke Mountains, north of the Periadriatic lineament, we discovered a comprehensive thrust (Peca thrust sheet). The Peca massif was thrusted approksimately toward the east to northeast on to the central part of the Mežica deposits. This caused eastward rotation of the structural blocks (macrolithons) in the Mežica deposits. It can hypothetically be connected with strike slip along the Peri adriatic lineament and is probably the result of the transpressive effect. The rela tion of the structural blocks in the deposits could be, at least in certain sense, con nected with the epigenesis and oxidation of the lead and zinc ores.


The nested logit model has become an important tool for the empirical analysis of discrete outcomes. There is some confusion about its specification of the outcome probabilities. Two major variants show up in the literature. This paper compares both and finds that one of them (called random utility maximization nested logit, RUMNL) is preferable in most situations. Since the command nlogit of Stata 7.0 implements the other variant (called non-normalized nested logit, NNNL), an implementation of RUMNL called nlogitrum is introduced. Numerous examples support and illustrate the differences of both specifications.


Since the global financial crisis ten years ago, a mature research programme has developed on the austerity policies imposed, especially in European states, to counter perceived threats from excessive public debt and deficits. While many scholars have criticised austerity for digging the hole deeper, fewer have provided clear alternatives. Yet, the economic school of Modern Money Theory encourages analysis into the operational realities of monetary systems to examine mechanisms, which allow countries with their own currency to spend unhindered. In this paper, the Danish monetary system is analysed to answer to what extent the Danish government is financially constrained and how economic policymaking in Denmark is aligned with the operational realities of the monetary system?
First, the two main theories of money, metallism and chartalism, are reviewed to ground the analysis in a monetary ontology in coherence with historical and social scientific proof. The metallist theory conceives money as a market phenomenon, which emerged spontaneously from a money-less barter economy, while states later intervened and compromised the natural monetary system. However, empirical evidence favours chartalism, which takes money as inherently a political phenomenon devised by central authorities to access real resources by levying taxes to be paid in its own unit of account. However, the advent of independent central banking appears to have subjected governments to 'market discipline'.
This puzzle is investigated through a case analysis of the Danish monetary system. Six hypotheses derived from Modern Money Theory guides the analysis into the cooperation between Nationalbanken, the Ministry of Finance and the private banks who hold accounts with Nationalbanken. The monetary system is shown to be quite a closed arrangement, tightly controlled by Nationalbanken in its management of the liquidity in the system. Crucially it is argued that the state's and Nationalbanken's balance sheets ought to be viewed in consolidation as one, whereby money is a liability of the Danish government, not an asset to be obtained before spending is possible. The government's fiscal space is determined by what is for sale in its own currency and not its tax revenues. This consolidated view is substantiated by Nationalbanken's ongoing activity to establish a benevolent financial environment when the government sells bonds. Yet, Denmark may eventually face domestic constraints due to the self-imposed fixed exchange rate policy, if persistent balance of payment deficits return.
Finally, a constructivist case analysis of the 'Restoration Package' of 2010 is conducted to highlight how misrepresentation of the government as a currency user, rather than issuer, facilitated the imposition of austerity and fortified a sound finance paradigm. The paradigm was shared by the oppositional coalition and prevented them from later achieving their goal of a strong, equitable recovery.


A novel 8-transistor (8T) static random access memory cell with improved data stability in subthreshold operation is designed. The proposed single-ended with dynamic feedback control 8T static RAM (SRAM) cell enhances the static noise margin (SNM) for ultralow power supply. It achieves write SNM of 1.4× and 1.28× as that of isoarea 6T and read-decoupled 8T (RD-8T), respectively, at 300 mV. The standard deviation of write SNM for 8T cell is reduced to 0.4× and 0.56× as that for 6T and RD-8T, respectively. It also possesses another striking feature of high read SNM 2.33×, 1.23×, and 0.89× as that of 5T, 6T, and RD-8T, respectively. The cell has hold SNM of 1.43×, 1.23×, and 1.05× as that of 5T, 6T, and RD-8T, respectively. The write time is 71% lesser than that of single-ended asymmetrical 8T cell. The proposed 8T consumes less write power 0.72×, 0.6×, and 0.85× as that of 5T, 6T, and isoarea RD-8T, respectively. The read power is 0.49× of 5T, 0.48× of 6T, and 0.64× of RD-8T The power/energy consumption of 1-kb 8T SRAM array during read and write operations is 0.43× and 0.34×, respectively, of 1-kb 6T array. These features enable ultralow power applications of 8T.


Summary
1The use of stable isotopic techniques to study animal diets and trophic levels requires a priori estimates of discrimination factors (Δ13C and Δ15N, also called fractionation factors), which are the differences in isotopic composition between an animal and its diet. Previous studies have shown that these parameters depend on several sources of variation (e.g. taxon, environment, tissue) but diet as a source of variation still needs assessment.
2We conducted an extensive review of the literature (66 publications) concerning estimates of animal-diet Δ13C (n = 290) and Δ15N (n = 268). We analysed this data set to test the effect of diet isotopic ratio on the discrimination factor, taking into account taxa, tissues, environments and lipid extraction treatments. Our results showed differences among taxonomic classes for Δ13C, but not for Δ15N, and significant differences among tissues for both Δ13C and Δ15N. We found a significant negative relationship between both, Δ13C and Δ15N, with their corresponding diet isotopic ratios. This relationship was found also within taxonomic classes for mammals (Δ13C and Δ15N), birds (Δ13C), fishes (Δ13C and Δ15N) and invertebrates (Δ13C and Δ15N). From these relationships, we propose a method to calculate discrimination factors based on data on diet isotope ratios (termed the 'Diet-Dependent Discrimination Factor', DDDF).
3To investigate current practice in the use of discrimination factors, we reviewed studies that used multi-resource isotopic models. More than 60% of models used a discrimination factor coming from a different species or tissues, and in more than 70% of models, only one Δ13C or Δ15N was used for all resources, even if resources had very different isotopic ratios. Also, we estimated DDDFs for the studies that used isotopic models. More than 40% used Δ15N values and more than 33% used Δ13C values differing > 2‰ from estimated DDDFs.
4Synthesis and applications. Over the last decade, applied ecologists have discovered the potential of stable isotopes for animal diet reconstruction, but the successful adoption of the method relies on a good estimation of discrimination factors. We draw attention to the high variability in discrimination factors, advise caution in the use of single discrimination factors in isotopic models, and point to a method for obtaining adequate values for this parameter when discrimination factors cannot be measured experimentally. Future studies should focus on understanding why discrimination factors vary as a function of the isotopic value of the diet.


Abstract In this paper we review recent econometric studies focusing on how nonindustrial private forest landowners make decisions. We use our synthesis of previous work and a discussion of emerging problems involving these landowners as motivation for future research. The majority of research undertaken prior to the late 1980's involved determining variables affecting reforestation or harvesting decisions. In the past decade, researchers have studied a broader set of issues, including the interrelationship between nontimber activities and other important decisions, such as bequests, examination of how landowner type and preferences affects decision making, and incorporation of landowner level responses into spatial landscape models. Using these trends as motivation, we end by proposing several new research directions. These include characterizing landowner reservation prices for various activities as a way of assessing market participation, evaluating the importance of adjacent landowners to a given landowner's behavior, investigating the substitution between various types of land use decisions, continuing to integrate landowner-level data into spatial landscape models, and broadening our understanding of institutional arrangements and landowner willingness to enter evaluating informational asymmetries, into such arrangements.


Written in a conversational tone, Freed, Understanding Business Statistics presents topics in a systematic and organized manner to help students navigate the material. Demonstration problems appear alongside the concepts, making the content easier to understand. By explaining the reasoning behind each exercise, students are more inclined to engage with the material and gain a clear understanding of how to apply statistics to the business world. Freed, Understanding Business Statistics is accompanied by WileyPLUS, a research-based, online environment for effective teaching and learning. This online learning system gives students instant feedback on homework assignments, provides video tutorials and variety of study tools, and offers instructors thousands of reliable, accurate problems (including every problem from the book) to deliver automatically graded assignments or tests. Available in or outside of the Blackboard Learn Environment, WileyPLUS resources help reach all types of learners and give instructors the tools they need to enhance course material.


In earlier papers it was shown that a group of phosphors show an approximately linear increase of their efficiency with increasing intensity of excitation in certain ranges of that intensity. Tentatively, these observations and the interdependence of the effects of intensity, temperature, and "poisoning" found in the same phosphors were interpreted by the assumption that a non-radiative process of first-order kinetics competes with an emission process of the second order. This type of hypothesis, however, does not easily account for more than linear dependences of efficiency on intensity. Indications of such dependences had been found in our earlier work. In view of the possible theoretical significance of these results, a number of measures were taken to eliminate possible sources of errors. New measurements were carried out on a suitable series of poisoned zinc-cadmium sulfide phosphors. The existence of regions in which the intensity dependence of efficiency was even stronger than quadratic was ascertained. Furthermore,a remarkably strong dependence of the efficiency on the carefully controlled concentrations of the poison was found. The problems raised by these effects are briefly discussed.


This study documents fatalities and risk factors in alpine winter sports. The authors have tracked all known fatalities (n=854) occurring to recreational skiers and snowboarders within the boundaries of ski resorts in the United States since January 1978 through the winter of 2004/05. Data are limited to trauma deaths. Medical emergency deaths, deaths to employees, and deaths involving uphill lift facilities were excluded. Fatality data came from three sources: the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA), and public news sources. Information concerning the accident, the injury, and the equipment used, were recorded. Data on skier and snowboarder resort utilization and demographic variables were obtained from NSAA annual reports. This particular analysis covers the 14 seasons 1991/92 through 2004/05. Five hundred sixty-two deaths were recorded; 97 to snowboarders and 465 to skiers during 761 million resort visits. During that time, helmet utilization went from essentially zero to 33.2 % for the general at-risk population. The fatality rate for skiers was 0.75 deaths per million visits (D/MV), and the snowboarder rate was 0.53 D/MV. These rates have not changed significantly over time. Most fatalities occurred to experienced males between the ages of 18 to 43. The most common scenario is a severe head injury resulting from high speed impact with a tree on or beside an intermediate trail. During the three most recent seasons, the known average prevalence of helmet utilization was 38.7 % among the fatally injured. Helmet utilization does not appear to affect fatality incidence, but it does shift primary cause of death patterns, from mostly head injuries for those not using a helmet to mostly chest and torso for those wearing a helmet. The fatality rate for alpine skiers remained significantly higher than for snowboarders. The demographic profile of the fatally injured remained unchanged from previous research.


Mobile broadband (MBB) networks underpin numerous vital operations of the society and are arguably becoming the most important piece of the communications infrastructure. In this demo paper, our goal is to showcase the potential of a novel multi-homed MBB platform for measuring, monitoring and assessing the performance of MBB services in an objective manner. Our platform, MONROE, is composed of hundreds of nodes scattered over four European countries and a backend system that collects the measurement results. Through a user-friendly web client, the experimenters can schedule and deploy their experiments. The platform further embeds traffic analysis tools for real-time traffic flow analysis and a powerful visualization tool.


In the recent decision of the Constitutional Court in Masiya v Director of Public Prosecutions, Pretoria & another (Centre for Applied Legal Studies & another, Amici Curiae) 2007 (5) SA 30 (CC); 2007 (2) SACR 435 (hereafter Masiya) the court extended the scope of the common-law crime of rape to include, in addition to penile non-consensual penetration of the complainant's vagina, such penetration of her anus. The court held (para 18) that this was necessary in order duly to recognize a woman's right to dignity (s 10 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996), equality (s 9(1)) and freedom and security of her person (s 12).


Semantic role labelling (SRL) is a task in natural language processing which detects and classifies the semantic arguments associated with the predicates of a sentence. It is an important step towards understanding the meaning of a natural language. There exists SRL systems for well-studied languages like English, Chinese or Japanese but there is not any such system for the Vietnamese language. In this paper, we present the first SRL system for Vietnamese with encouraging accuracy. We first demonstrate that a simple application of SRL techniques developed for English could not give a good accuracy for Vietnamese. We then introduce a new algorithm for extracting candidate syntactic constituents, which is much more accurate than the common node-mapping algorithm usually used in the identification step. Finally, in the classification step, in addition to the common linguistic features, we propose novel and useful features for use in SRL. Our SRL system achieves an F1 score of 73.53% on the Vietnamese PropBank corpus. This system, including software and corpus, is available as an open source project and we believe that it is a good baseline for the development of future Vietnamese SRL systems.


An ensemble of new, high-resolution records of surface ocean hydrography from the Indian-Atlantic oceanic gateway, south of Africa, demonstrates recurrent and high-amplitude salinity oscillations in the Agulhas Leakage area during the penultimate glacial-interglacial cycle. A series of millennial-scale salinification events, indicating strengthened salt leakage into the South Atlantic, appear to correlate with abrupt changes in the North Atlantic climate and Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). This interhemispheric coupling, which plausibly involved changes in the Hadley Cell and midlatitude westerlies that impacted the interocean transport at the tip of Africa, suggests that the Agulhas Leakage acted as a source of negative buoyancy for the perturbed AMOC, possibly aiding its return to full strength. Our finding points to the Indian-to-Atlantic salt transport as a potentially important modulator of the AMOC during the abrupt climate changes of the Late Pleistocene.


Studies of power and gender identity form part of the dominant discourses of various scholars such as Judith Butler, Julia Kristeva, Margaret Hall, Michel Foucault, and Gloria Anzaldua who have explored the concepts of power and gender identity at various levels and contexts.  This paper, while contending that gender is one of the most important components of social identity and cultural classification across human cultures, investigates how the politics of gender identity intersects with power in the Kenyan society. To do this, we examine two selected Kenyan plays: Francis Imbuga's  Aminata and Dennis Kyallo's The Hunter is Back. The study perceives gender as a multi-layered structure in which the perpetuation and re-creation of gender concepts, social divisions and individual identities take place and are in a continuum of struggle. In this regard, we explore how the gendered self (re)configures her position in society as portrayed in the selected texts. Anchored within a multiple complementary theoretical framework in interrogating the nexus between power and gender, the paper argues that the gendered self is in a constant struggle for space within her socio-cultural context. Conscious of the inferior position and roles assigned to her by societal structures, the woman, as the gendered self, confronts socio-cultural practices, politics, and agency among others in an attempt to re-create her own space. Ultimately, these actions (re)define and (re)configure the woman in echelons of power and authority and enable her to participate actively in public spaces. This paper proffers new insights in exploring the representation of power and the gendered self in society through creative works of art in Kenya.  Keywords : Power, Gender, Identities, Gendered Self and (Re)configuration


In the avalanche of analyses about what went wrong in Iraq, one area should be of particular interest to communications scholars: the development of a media system in Iraq. The emerging media system incorporates many significant strands: the conflict-related and post-conflict actions concerning media policy, the considerable growth of faction-related and entrepreneurial broadcasters after the conflict, the efforts by interests in the region (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and others) to affect the media environment, interventions by the United States and other Western countries, and their complex and often inept mediarelated reconstruction initiatives, the effort of non-government organizations (NGOs) to repeat or adopt practices from other conflict zones. There's a tendency in the communications studies literature to be concerned with particular U.S.-centric frames of discussion: access by Western journalists to information, depiction of the United States on AlJazeera and other satellite broadcasters, the combination of media and Islam as a mode of altering general public attitudes. I focus here — as an introduction to the two accompanying papers — on the emerging structure of media or media influences domestically in Iraq to understand the influence of the successor to Saddam's state television, the relationship between external state-sponsored influences, and pluralism within, and what consequence "media policy" or subsidy and private or party patronage has had on media institutions there. Finally, it will become increasingly important to understand the relationship between these media institutions and the actuality of continuing conflict and search for political solutions within Iraq. This "Occasional Paper" includes two reports. The first is a paper written by Ibrahim Al-Marashi, one of the few scholars systematically tracking media developments within Iraq. Dr. Al-Marashi was a Visiting Scholar at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania in 2006 and has, for the last year, been an Open Society Institute (OSI) Policy Scholar at the Center for Policy Studies at Central European University in Budapest. He has recently joined the faculty at Koc University in Istanbul. The second was commissioned by the Republic of Iraq Communications and Media Commission (CMC), the agency established first under the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) then maintained by the Iraqi governing authorities, and presented at a conference at UNESCO in January 2007. The report is the result of a contract between the CMC and the Stanhope Centre for Communications Policy Research in London. This book is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/59 CGCS Occasional Paper Series Toward an Understanding of Media Policy and Media Systems in Iraq: A Foreword and Two Reports NUMBER ONE ‐ MAY 2007 Monroe E. Price • Douglas Griffin • Ibrahim Al-Marashi


Objectives Recently, improvements have been made to diagnostics for gambiense sleeping sickness control but their performance remains poorly documented and may depend on specimen processing prior to examination. In a prospective study in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we compared the diagnostic performance of several parasite detection techniques, immune trypanolysis and of m18S PCR on whole blood stored in a stabilisation buffer or dried on filter paper. Methods Individuals with CATT whole blood (WB) titer ≥1∶4 or with clinical signs indicative for sleeping sickness were examined for presence of trypanosomes in lymph node aspirate (LNA) and/or in blood. Blood was examined with Capillary Centrifugation Technique (CTC), mini-Anion Exchange Centrifugation Technique (mAECT) and mAECT on buffy coat (BC). PCR was performed on whole blood (i) stored in guanidine hydrochloride EDTA (GE) stabilisation buffer and (ii) dried on filter paper, and repeatability and reproducibility were assessed. Immune trypanolysis (TL) was performed on plasma. Results A total of 237 persons were included. Among 143 parasitologically confirmed cases, 85.3% had a CATT-WB titre of ≥1/8, 39.2% were positive in LNA, 47.5% in CTC, 80.4% in mAECT-WB, 90.9% in mAECT-BC, 95.1% in TL and up to 89.5% in PCR on GE-stabilised blood. PCR on GE-stabilised blood showed highest repeatability (87.8%) and inter-laboratory reproducibility (86.9%). Of the 94 non-confirmed suspects, respectively 39.4% and 23.4% were TL or PCR positive. Suboptimal specificity of PCR and TL was also suggested by latent class analysis. Conclusion The combination of LNA examination with mAECT-BC offered excellent diagnostic sensitivity. For PCR, storage of blood in stabilisation buffer is to be preferred over filter paper. TL as well as PCR are useful for remote diagnosis but are not more sensitive than mAECT-BC. For TL and PCR, the specificity, and thus usefulness for management of non-confirmed suspects remain to be determined.


Many online communities present user-contributed responses, such as reviews of products and answers to questions. User-provided helpfulness votes can highlight the most useful responses, but voting is a social process that can gain momentum based on the popularity of responses and the polarity of existing votes. We propose the Chinese Voting Process (CVP) which models the evolution of helpfulness votes as a self-reinforcing process dependent on position and presentation biases. We evaluate this model on Amazon product reviews and more than 80 StackExchange forums, measuring the intrinsic quality of individual responses and behavioral coefficients of different communities.


Settlements of 1.83 m have been observed at the switchyard of the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant over a 22-year period since 1970. Rockfill had been placed on the site, a flood plain of the Columbia River, to a relatively uniform depth of 7 m. The fill bears directly on 33 m of soft, compressible silts and clays which are underlain by relatively incompressible sand deposits. Because the fill covers a very wide area (380 m times 750 m), the loading conditions offer a rare opportunity to observe the rate of settlement behavior of a deep stratum of layered alluvium under one-dimensional (vertical) settlement. The results show that the alluvium essentially follows the Terzaghi theory of one-dimensional consolidation, i.e. the layered alluvium behaves as if one `composite' material is being loaded. The practical significance of this result is that it demonstrates that the Terzaghi theory can be used to monitor settlements of alluvium in the field as, for example, in preloading construction sites. The settlement analysis also showed that the total settlement observed to date, at the end of the primary consolidation, is in good agreement with the calculated settlement from laboratory consolidation tests.


Free trade is always under attack, more than ever in recent years. The imposition of numerous U.S. tariffs in 2018, and the retaliation those tariffs have drawn, has thrust trade issues to the top of the policy agenda. Critics contend that free trade brings economic pain, including plant closings and worker layoffs, and that trade agreements serve corporate interests, undercut domestic environmental regulations, and erode national sovereignty. Why are global trade and agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership so controversial? Does free trade deserve its bad reputation? This book aside the misconceptions that run rampant in the debate over trade and gives readers a clear understanding of the issues involved. In its fifth edition, the book has been updated to address the sweeping new policy developments under the Trump administration and the latest research on the impact of trade.


Narrowing of the lumen of the renal artery is termed renal artery stenosis (RAS) and can be a cause of hypertension and chronic kidney disease (CKD).1 When hypertension is caused by RAS the term renovascular hypertension is used, but the only way to be certain of the diagnosis is to demonstrate that relief of the renal artery narrowing results in a return to a normal blood pressure. This is because essential hypertension is considerably more common than, and a risk factor for, RAS so the coexistence of RAS and hypertension in a patient does not infer causality. In addition, even where clinically significant RAS is the initial cause of hypertension, reversal of the stenosis may not result in a normal blood pressure or renal function if longstanding hypertension has produced irreversible contralateral renal injury.2

RAS is most commonly due to atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis (ARAS) and has been reported to be present in around 30% of patients having routine coronary angiography and up to 50% of patients undergoing peripheral angiography.2 The presence and anatomical location of RAS can be confirmed by non-invasive imaging with duplex ultrasound, …


PURPOSE
To synthesize existing literatures on the impact of gymnastics participation on the skeletal health of young male gymnasts.

METHODS
Following a systematic search, 12 studies were included in this review. Quality of included studies was assessed using the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE modified) criteria.

RESULTS
Assessment of skeletal health varied between and within imaging modality protocols. Gymnasts had higher total bone content, greater total and trabecular bone density, larger bone size, a thicker cortex, and higher estimates of bone strength than controls. Recreational studies reported no difference in height or weight between gymnasts and controls; however, elite gymnasts were shorter and lighter than nongymnasts. STROBE scores ranged from 65% to 95%.

CONCLUSION
Gymnastics participation may be beneficial to the bone health of young males as gymnasts had higher bone density and bone mineral content, larger bones, and greater estimates of bone strength than controls.


Elevated tissue concentrations of metals have been shown to
defend metal-hyperaccumulating plants against both herbivores
and pathogens. Tolerance of metal-based defences presents
a challenge to herbivores, because heavy metals cannot be
degraded or metabolized. One strategy that herbivores can employ
to counter high-metal defences is dietary dilution, or host switching.
Highly mobile herbivores are most likely to use this strategy,
but less mobile lepidopteran larvae can also improve their performance
on toxic hosts if early instar development occurs on more
favourable hosts. We examined the effects of host switching on
growth and survival of a generalist folivore. Specifically, we tested
the hypothesis that early larval development on non-toxic hosts
could improve larval performance of the beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua , on high-Ni Streptanthus polygaloides , a Ni
hyperaccumulator. Initial larval performance (weight gain) was
lowest for insects switched to high-Ni hosts. Decreased initial larval
performance was also noted for insects switched from lettuce to
low-Ni S. polygaloides , but these larvae recovered quickly. Original
host identity (lettuce or low-Ni S. polygaloides ) did not affect subsequent
larval performance. By day 8 of the feeding trials, all larvae
switched to high-Ni hosts had died.We conclude that polyphagous
lIgSpodopteral/Ig larvae are unable to counter Ni-based defences via
host switching.


Genetic engineering technology has become sophisticated enough to allow precise manipulation of bacterial genetic material. Engineering efforts with these technologies have created modified bacteria for various medical, industrial, and environmental purposes, but organisms designed for specific functions require improvements in stability, longevity, or efficiency of function. Most bacteria live in multispecies communities, whose composition may be closely linked to the effect the community has on the environment. Bacterial engineering efforts will benefit from building communities with regulated compositions, which will enable more stable and powerful community functions. We present a design of a synthetic two member bacterial community capable of maintaining its composition at a defined ratio of [cell type 1]: [cell type 2]. We have constructed the genetic motif that will act in each cell in the two member community, containing an AHL-based negative feedback loop that activates ccdB toxin, which caps population density with increasing feedback strength. It also contains one of two ccdB sequestration modules, either the ccdA protein antitoxin, or an RNA device which prevents transcription and translation of ccdB mRNA, that rescues capped population density with induction. We compare absorbance and colony counting methods of estimating bacterial population density, finding that absorbance-based methods overestimate viable population density when ccdB toxin is used to control population density. Prior modeling results show that two cell types containing this genetic circuit motif that reciprocally activate the other's ccdB sequestration device will establish a steady state ratio of cell types. Experimental testing and tuning the full two member community will help us improve our modeling of multi-member bacterial communities, learn more about the strengths and weaknesses of our design for community composition control, and identify general principles of design of compositionally-regulated microbial communities.


One of main consequences of the Global Financial Crisis is stricter banking regulation. In fact, the black and white of the regulators' output misleads people to believe that there will be no more bailouts in the future. But history teaches us that this statement should not be taken too seriously. Therefore we may speak of 'spurious regulation'. To judge upon the degree to which implicit guarantees are pre-supposed by the credit and capital markets we investigate empirically whether there is a link between the creditworthiness of a country and the prospects of an investment in a bank's equity. Specifically, we check whether there is a significant impact of sovereign CDS spreads on stock returns using panel econometrics within a CAPM-type context. The findings are model-dependent: Using SUR we find eight cases, whereas using DCC we get only four. Hence, there might be some work to do for the regulators. Hence, using only SUR can be misleading.


The effort to understand human nature in a political context is a daunting challenge that has been undertaken in a variety of ways and by a myriad of disciplines through the ages. From Plato to Hobbes and Burke, to Wallas and Oakeschott in our era, efforts have been made to provide some organic framework for the political study of mankind. What has added greatly to the complexity of the task is the increasing denial, even rejection, in the positivist and behaviorist traditions, of the very notion of a human nature. The work can be described as a series of interlocking propositions: the proverbial view of human nature can be explained by evolutionary theory. Biological differences between men and women are responsible for family, community and group life. Social evolution goes through stages which are recapitulated in the moral life of individuals. A well-defined federal system mirrors human development. And finally, for Fleming, most problems in social and political life stem from violations of this federalist system. Fleming's volume takes up a variety of issues: sex and gender differences, democracy and dictatorship, individual and familial patterns of association. He does so in the context of showing how forms of legitimate authority such as families, communities and nations establish such authority by appeals to human nature, and that these appeals, while presumably resting on empirical evidence, also confirm the existence of normative structures. Fleming's work is an effort of synthesis that is sure to arouse discussion and debate. It represents a serious addition to a literature retrieved from the historical dustbins to which it has been repeatedly consigned.


Performances and artefacts of student learning provide tangible evidence of their understanding of classroom instruction. Hattie (2012, 2015) uses the term visible learning to focus attention on the need for teachers to gather and consider these as evidence of students' ongoing learning, linking these tightly to teachers' pedagogical repertoire identified for having impact value. This article describes and illustrates a progression of learning tasks in an Initial Teacher Education (ITE) program that affords insights into students' beginning ability to complete and execute lesson plans in their first year, first semester of the program.


Accurate lineage reconstruction of mammalian pre-implantation development is essential for inferring the earliest cell fate decisions of mammalian development. Lineage tracing using global labeling techniques is complicated by increasing cell density and rapid embryo rotation, impeding automatic alignment and rendering accurate cell tracking of obtained four-dimensional imaging data sets highly challenging. Here, we exploit the advantageous properties of primed convertible fluorescent proteins (pr-pcFPs) to simultaneously visualize the global green and the photoconverted red population to minimize tracking uncertainties over prolonged time windows. Confined primed conversion of H2B-pr-mEosFP labeled nuclei combined with light-sheet imaging greatly facilitates segmentation, classification, and tracking of individual nuclei from the 4-cell stage up to the blastocyst. Using green and red labels as fiducial markers, we computationally correct for rotational and translational drift and accomplish high fidelity lineage tracing combined with a reduced data size – addressing majors concerns in the field of volumetric embryo imaging.


Driven by the cooperation of metal coordination and multiple hydrogen bonds, a squaramide-based bisimidazole ligand forms structurally novel metallogels involving one-dimensional (1D) nanofibrils with linearly and infinitely extended Cl–Cu or Br–Cu bonds wrapped up with organic ligands. The resulting soft material enables us to discriminate bromides from other salts and, of special significance, from other halides both in aqueous solutions and in powder forms by the naked-eye. Raman spectroscopy clearly unravels the discrimination mechanism associated with a key step of anion ligand exchange, which has witnessed the exceptional ability of Raman spectroscopy in the investigation of metallogels.


The LIBOR Market Model (LMM) is rapidly becoming the industry standard approach for pricing interest rate derivatives like caps and swaptions. But while fast and exact calibration of model parameters to market cap quotes is possible, the problem is much more complicated for swaptions. The Cascade Calibration Algorithm (CCA) offers a solution, but implementing it can present serious numerical difficulties. Brigo and Morini explore how these can arise, and how they can be corrected by reducing the rank of the correlation matrix, for specific correlation structures. Numerical problems also arise when the data are not complete across maturities and swap lengths, which requires missing values to be introduced by interpolation. A new algorithm, the Endogenous Interpolation Cascade Calibration Algorithm, is presented to deal with this situation. The article shows that it is fast and accurate, and that it eliminates the numerical problems suffered by the CCA.


BACKGROUND: A frozen section diagnostic service is often not directly available in small rural or mountain hospitals. In these cases, it could be possible to provide frozen section diagnosis through telepathology systems. Telepathology is based on two main methods: static and dynamic. The former is less expensive, but involves the crucial problem of image sampling. AIMS: To characterise the differences in image sampling for static telepathology when undertaken by pathologists with different experience. METHODS: As a test field, a previously studied telepathology method based on multimedia email was adopted. Using this method, three pathologists with different levels of experience sampled images from 155 routine frozen sections and sent them to a distant pathology institute, where diagnoses were made on digital images. After the telepathology diagnoses, the glass slides of both the frozen sections and the definitive sections were sent to the remote pathologists for review. RESULTS: Four of 155 transmissions were considered inadequate by the remote pathologist. In the remaining 151 cases, the telepathology diagnosis agreed with the gold standard in 146 (96.7%). There was no significant divergence between the three pathologists in their sampling of the images. Each case comprised five images on average, acquired in four minutes. The overall time for transmission was about 19 minutes. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that in routine frozen section diagnosis an inexperienced pathologist can sample images sufficiently well to permit remote diagnosis. However, as expected, the internet is too unreliable for such a time dependent task. An improvement in the system would involve integrated real time features, so that there could be interaction between the two pathologists.


Racket is a descendant of Lisp, a programming language renowned for its elegance, power, and challenging learning curve. But while Racket retains the functional goodness of Lisp, it was designed with beginning programmers in mind. Realm of Racket is your introduction to the Racket language.In Realm of Racket, you'll learn to program by creating increasingly complex games. Your journey begins with the Guess My Number game and coverage of some basic Racket etiquette. Next you'll dig into syntax and semantics, lists, structures, and conditionals, and learn to work with recursion and the GUI as you build the Robot Snake game. After that it's on to lambda and mutant structs (and an Orc Battle), and fancy loops and the Dice of Doom. Finally, you'll explore laziness, AI, distributed games, and the Hungry Henry game.As you progress through the games, chapter checkpoints and challenges help reinforce what you've learned. Offbeat comics keep things fun along the way.As you travel through the Racket realm, you'll: Master the quirks of Racket's syntax and semantics Learn to write concise and elegant functional programs Create a graphical user interface using the 2htdp/image library Create a server to handle true multiplayer gamesRealm of Racket is a lighthearted guide to some serious programming. Read it to see why Racketeers have so much fun!


This study examines marine fisheries sector in Cambodia, especially the offshore fishery which provides the potential for further exploitation. -- The report introduces the Cambodian fishery sector including economic, resources, harvesting, processing and marketing. It then focusses on the offshore marine fishery and its future. -- The fishing industry was the activity that provided the original basis for the economic development of Cambodia. Due to lack of investment, there are few Cambodian offshore vessels and there is no offshore patrol capability in Fisheries. Consequently there is little enforcement of legislation and foreign vessels are able to fish unhindered. Cambodia is trying to address this situation by encouraging fishers to invest in this area and displace the foreign fishers. At the same time, due to lack of investment and ability to harvest offshore. Cambodia actively seeks joint ventures with other countries to exploit the resources. -- The report concluded that, if properly managed, the offshore fishery can add significantly to the country's food supply and economy. Proper management will depend on: the collection and analysis of ecological information and accurate harvesting data; creation and enforcement of appropriate regulations; and strengthening of human resource development for the sector.


A G protein–coupled receptor helps to localize regulatory T cells in the large intestine. The large intestine is the site that is typically most inflamed in Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, which are thought to result when the immune system is not able to keep the peace with trillions of resident gut microbes. The immune system does this by recruiting specific cell populations, like regulatory T cells (Tregs), to the gut. Kim et al. now suggest that the orphan G protein–coupled receptor GPR15 is expressed by Tregs and required for Treg homing to the large intestine in mice. S. V. Kim, W. V. Xiang, C. Kwak, Y. Yang, X. W. Lin, M. Ota, U. Sarpel, D. B. Rifkin, R. Xu, D. R. Littman, GPR15-mediated homing controls immune homeostasis in the large intestine mucosa. Science 340, 1456–1459 (2013). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Taxation and its implications are an increasingly debated topic since taxation is a very important tool for the governments of all countries in controlling public finances. At the same time, taxation regulates in one way or another the wealth of a country and, implicitly, of its citizens. In this sense, through this paper we aim to analyse the impact of taxation on economic growth felt by citizens, and our attention has been focused on EU Member States from the former Communist Bloc: Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. To measure the economic growth felt by the citizens, the best proxy is GDP per capita. Regarding taxation, we resorted to the use the revenues registered from personal income tax, corporate income tax and VAT. The chosen countries share a similar past and had in one way or another the same starting point in the 1990s. These countries are also from the same geographical region (Central and East European countries) and have to some extent comparable economies. Furthermore, we performed an econometric analysis with panel data for the period 2003-2018. The results thus obtained from the econometric tests indicated by an econometric model with random effects showed a direct positive relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variables. The coefficients obtained were statistically significant in the case of independent variables represented by the revenues from personal income tax and VAT, while the coefficient related to revenues from corporate income tax proved to be statistically insignificant.


The in vivo residence of nail lacquers (which are ideal topical drug carriers for the treatment of nail diseases) determines their frequency of application, and is thereby expected to influence patient adherence and success of treatment. Thus in vitro measurements to indicate lacquers' in vivo residence are routinely conducted during formulation development. However the literature on in vitro-in vivo correlations is severely limited. Thus, the aim of the work discussed in this paper was to investigate correlations between in vivo residence and in vitro film resistance to water, in vitro film adhesion and surface energy of lacquer films. In vivo measurements were conducted on fingernails in six volunteers. Seven commercially available nail lacquers were tested in commonly-used measurements. Correlations between in vivo residence and in vitro water resistance and adhesion were found to be extremely poor. The surface energies of the lacquer films (which were between 33 and 39 mJ/m2) were also not predictive of in vivo residence. High density polyethylene (HDPE) sheet – whose surface energy was determined to be similar to that of the human nailplate – was found to be a suitable model for the nailplate (when investigating surface energy) and was used in a number of experiments.


The criteria for zoning the surface fault rupture hazard (SFRH) along thrust faults are defined by analysing the characteristics of the areas of coseismic surface faulting in thrust earthquakes. Normal and strike–slip faults have been deeply studied by other authors concerning the SFRH, while thrust faults have not been studied with comparable attention. Surface faulting data were compiled for 11 well-studied historic thrust earthquakes occurred globally (5.4≤M ≤ 7.9). Several different types of coseismic fault scarps characterize the analysed earthquakes, depending on the topography, fault geometry and near-surface materials (simple and hanging wall collapse scarps, pressure ridges, fold scarps and thrust or pressure ridges with bending-moment or flexuralslip fault ruptures due to large-scale folding). For all the earthquakes, the distance of distributed ruptures from the principal fault rupture (r) and the width of the rupture zone (WRZ) were compiled directly from the literature or measured systematically in GIS-georeferenced published maps. Overall, surface ruptures can occur up to large distances from the main fault (∼ 2150 m on the footwall and∼ 3100 m on the hanging wall). Most of the ruptures occur on the hanging wall, preferentially in the vicinity of the principal fault trace (>∼ 50 % at distances <∼ 250 m). The widest WRZ are recorded where sympathetic slip (Sy) on distant faults occurs, and/or where bending-moment (B-M) or flexural-slip (F-S) fault ruptures, associated with large-scale folds (hundreds of metres to kilometres in wavelength), are present. A positive relation between the earthquake magnitude and the total WRZ is evident, while a clear correlation between the vertical displacement on the principal fault and the total WRZ is not found. The distribution of surface ruptures is fitted with probability density functions, in order to define a criterion to remove outliers (e.g. 90 % probability of the cumulative distribution function) and define the zone where the likelihood of having surface ruptures is the highest. This might help in sizing the zones of SFRH during seismic microzonation (SM) mapping. In order to shape zones of SFRH, a very detailed earthquake geologic study of the fault is necessary (the highest level of SM, i.e. Level 3 SM according to Italian guidelines). In the absence of such a very detailed study (basic SM, i.e. Level 1 SM of Italian guidelines) a width of ∼ 840 m (90 % probability from "simple thrust" database of distributed ruptures, excluding B-M, F-S and Sy fault ruptures) is suggested to be sufficiently precautionary. For more detailed SM, where the fault is carefully mapped, one must consider that the highest SFRH is concentrated in a narrow zone, ∼ 60 m in width, that should be considered as a fault avoidance zone (more than one-third of the distributed ruptures are expected to occur within this zone). The fault rupture hazard zones should be asymmetric compared to the trace of the principal fault. The average footwall to hanging wall ratio (FW :HW) is close to 1 : 2 in all analysed cases. These criteria are applicable to "simple thrust" faults, without considering possible B-M or F-S fault ruptures due to large-scale folding, and without considering sympathetic slip on distant faults. Areas potentially susceptible to B-M or F-S fault ruptures should have their own zones of fault rupture hazard that can be defined by detailed knowledge of the structural setting of the area (shape, wavelength, tightness and lithology of the thrust-related large-scale folds) and by Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 242 P. Boncio et al.: Surface rupture zone for thrust earthquakes geomorphic evidence of past secondary faulting. Distant active faults, potentially susceptible to sympathetic triggering, should be zoned as separate principal faults. The entire database of distributed ruptures (including BM, F-S and Sy fault ruptures) can be useful in poorly known areas, in order to assess the extent of the area within which potential sources of fault displacement hazard can be present. The results from this study and the database made available in the Supplement can be used for improving the attenuation relationships for distributed faulting, with possible applications in probabilistic studies of fault displacement hazard.


Focused freewriting, broadly defined as writing without stopping and editing about a specific topic, has been viewed and used as a powerful tool for developing student writing in a wide spectrum of educational contexts. This study aimed to further explore the use of focused freewriting in the context of promoting students' academic skills development, particularly in the area of academic writing. The study was conducted in an intensive writing course provided for students from diverse disciplines during which focused freewriting was employed throughout the entire program to help students develop understanding of academic writing and effective writing strategies. The analysis of student freewriting and student feedback to the course reveals several emerging themes, which highlight the beneficial effects of using focused freewriting as a pedagogical tool in the intensive writing course. The study provides suggestions for utilising focused freewriting as an empowering learning tool beyond the writing class to enhance student learning in the disciplines.


Human populations are exposed to climate change directly through changing weather patterns as manifested in the more frequent extreme events and indirectly through changes in ecosystem functions. Rainstorm disasters are common events associated with environmental change and settlements in Kwara state, Nigeria were ravaged by rainstorm events between 2003 and 2006. More than 1000 households were displaced from their habitual homes with consequences for human health and other adjustment challenges. #is paper examines the variations in the post-disaster adjustment challenges of rural and urban households so as to identify location speci$c intervention strategies in the domains of environ ment and health of the victims. A sample of 200 households was drawn from all households a%ected by rainstorm disaster as re&ected in the FEMA records during the period. A structured questionnaire was administered in addition to the secondary data and analyzed using relevant statistical techniques. #e $ndings include that most households required support before replacing the roofs and/or walls of their homes. Sources of support however vary. Urban households received more institutional support but lower than the amount required for the renovation. A signi$cant proportion of urban households moved to poorer homes where they faced challenges relating to the quality of environmental services. Many urban respondents also reported increases in the occurrence of water-borne and weather-related diseases and ailments. Rural households indicated no signi$cant ecological di%erences between their former homes and the areas to which they relocated. #e paper concludes that signi$cant variations exist in the adjust ment challenges faced by rural and urban dwellers after a disaster. Community e%orts hold promise for emergency response particularly during disasters in rural areas.


Abstract. Reactive halogens, and in particular bromine oxide (BrO), have frequently been observed in regions with large halide reservoirs, for example during bromine catalyzed coastal polar ozone depletion events. Much less is known about the presence and impact of reactive halogens in areas without obvious halide reservoirs, such as the polar ice sheets or continental snow. We report the first LP-DOAS measurements of BrO at Summit research station in the center of the Greenland ice sheet at an altitude of 3200 m. BrO mixing ratios in May 2007 and June 2008 were typically between 1–3 pmol mol −1 , with maxima of up to 5 pmol mol −1 . These measurements unequivocally show that halogen chemistry is occurring in the remote Arctic, far from known bromine reservoirs, such as the ocean. During periods when FLEXPART retroplumes show that airmasses resided on the Greenland ice sheet for 3 or more days, BrO exhibits a clear diurnal variation, with peak mixing ratios of up to 3 pmol mol −1 in the morning and at night. The diurnal cycle of BrO can be explained by a changing boundary layer height combined with photochemical formation of reactive bromine driven by solar radiation at the snow surface. The shallow stable boundary layer in the morning and night leads to an accumulation of BrO at the surface, leading to elevated BrO despite the expected smaller release from the snowpack during these times of low solar radiation. During the day when photolytic formation of reactive bromine is expected to be highest, efficient mixing into a deeper neutral boundary layer leads to lower BrO mixing ratios than during mornings and nights. The extended period of contact with the Greenland snowpack combined with the diurnal profile of BrO, modulated by boundary layer height, suggests that photochemistry in the snow is a significant source of BrO measured at Summit during the 2008 experiment. In addition, a rapid transport event on 4 July 2008, during which marine air from the Greenland east coast was rapidly transported to Summit, led to enhanced mixing ratios of BrO and a number of marine tracers. However, rapid transport of marine air from the Greenland east coast is rare and most likely not the main source of bromide in surface snow at Summit. The observed levels of BrO are predicted to influence NO x chemistry as well as impact HO x partitioning. However, impact of local snow photochemistry on HO x is smaller than previously suggested for Summit.


Motor Neurone Disease is one of the most difficult conditions to manage medically and socially. A disease which leads to the loss of control of most muscle systems of the body, it has no known cause and no cure. For this reason, clinicians have traditionally been reluctant to reveal the diagnosis to sufferers or their families and the condition has become known as one of the best kept secrets of medical practice. However in recent years a number of organizations have set up to support sufferers and their families and consequently, the public profile of the condition has changed dramatically. Motor Neurone Disease provides an extremely helpful guide to the medical facts relating to the condition and considers the psycho-social effects on sufferers and those who care for them. It will be essential reading for doctors, nurses, social workers, physio-, speech and occupational therapists as well as all those suffering from Motor Neurone Disease, their families and carers.


Existential rules are an expressive knowledge representation language mainly developed to query data. In the literature, they are often supposed to be in some normal form that simplifies technical developments. For instance, a common assumption is that rule heads are atomic, i.e., restricted to a single atom. Such assumptions are considered to be made without loss of generality as long as all sets of rules can be normalised while preserving entailment. However, an important question is whether the properties that ensure the decidability of reasoning are preserved as well. We provide a systematic study of the impact of these procedures on the different chase variants with respect to chase (non-)termination and FO-rewritability. This also leads us to solve open problems related to chase termination of independent interest.


Abstract. Urbanisation has been associated with a reduction in the long-term correlation within a streamflow series, quantified by the Hurst exponent (H). This presents an opportunity to use the H exponent as an index for the classification of catchments on a scale from natural to urbanised conditions. However, before using the H exponent as a general index, the relationship between this exponent and level of urbanisation needs to be further examined and verified on catchments with different levels of imperviousness and from different climatic regions. In this study, the H exponent is estimated for 38 (deseasonalised) mean daily runoff time series, 22 from the USA and 16 from Australia, using the traditional rescaled-range statistic (R∕S) and the more advanced multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA). Relationships between H and catchment imperviousness, catchment size, annual rainfall and specific mean discharge were investigated. No clear relationship with catchment area was found, and a weak negative relationship with annual rainfall and specific mean streamflow was found only when the R∕S method was used. Conversely, both methods showed decreasing values of H as catchment imperviousness increased. The H exponent decreased from around 1.0 for catchments in natural conditions to around 0.6 for highly urbanised catchments. Three significantly different ranges of H exponents were identified, allowing catchments to be parsed into groups with imperviousness lower than 5 % (natural), catchments with imperviousness between 5 and 15 % (peri-urban) and catchments with imperviousness larger than 15 % (urban). The H exponent thus represents a useful metric to quantitatively assess the impact of catchment imperviousness on streamflow regime.


Oxidative stress (OS) is involved in pathophysiological events of different diseases. Antioxidants mitigate and suppress the adverse effect of OS in the body. Due to lesser side effects and cost effectiveness natural antioxidant is a choice of people nowadays. The present study was designed to characterize/analyze phytochemicals and antioxidant potential in Parthenium hysterophorus (Asteraceae) stem (PHS) sequentially extracted fractions. Chemical characterization of PHS samples was carried out using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and Spectrophotometric techniques. Comparative antioxidant potential in PHS fractions was studied using  in vitro antioxidant models. Thin layer chromatography (TLC) was performed to show a differential occurrence of phytochemicals in test fractions and related radical scavenging potential. PHS fractions showed differential presence of compounds. Appreciable radical scavenging, reducing power, and metal ion chelation potential was found in PHS fractions. In conclusion, P. hysterophorus stem may be considered a good source of natural antioxidant compounds.


Background: Computer-based learning (CBL) is an effective form of medical education. Educators have developed recommendations for instructional design but there is only minimal research that evaluates these recommendations. Aim: To evaluate the effect of case-based questions contained in computer modules on learning efficacy. Methods: The authors conducted a randomized controlled trial in 124 medical students of two CBL PowerPoint modules-based on Medicare. The modules were identical except one contained 11 case-based scenarios followed by multiple choice questions. The primary outcome measurement was a previously validated, 11-item knowledge test taken at the end of the module and at the end of the academic year to test retention. Results: The students who studied the module with case-based questions answered one more item correctly in the first test (8.9 vs. 10.00 correct answers, p = 0.001). This difference had disappeared by the time of the second test (4.2 vs. 4.7, p = 0.095). Conclusions: This study shows that computer modules with case-based questions enhance learning in the short-term but at the expense of increased time and so decreased learning efficiency. This learning benefit was not maintained.


Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a recent but hugely popular phenomenon in the online learning world. They are hailed by many as a solution for the developing world's lack of access to education because MOOCs can provide learning opportunities to a massive number of learners from anywhere in the world as long as they can access the course through Internet. However, a close consideration of the ability of learn- ers from most developing countries to make use of MOOCs seems to contradict this rhetoric. This paper discusses features of MOOCs and looks at them from a developing countries' perspective to conclude that due to a complicated set of conditions ('access', language, computer literacy among others) prevailing in developing countries, MOOCs may not be a viable solution for education for a large proportion of people in these ar- eas of the world. The paper further shows the need for more data on the demograph- ics of MOOC participants from developing countries to form a better understanding of MOOCs role in educating people from developing countries.


Immigration, Diversity, and Broadcasting in the United States, 1990-2001. Vibert C. Cambridge. Athens: The Ohio University Press, 2005. 309 pp. $28.00 pbk. The topic of immigration is timely, especially in light of recent regulatory endeavors by various states to facilitate, or exclude, immigrant access to public services. As broadcast and other mass media, which disseminate their product to nearly every home in the United States, may yet be given universal service status (e.g., for disaster warnings), it is also timely that we turn attention to the quality of service these media provide for our multicultural communities. The third installment in the Ohio University Global and Comparative Studies series, Vibert C. Cambridge's Immigration, Diversity, and Broadcasting in the United States, 1990-2001, provides the foundation for this attention. Cambridge, associate professor in the School of Telecommunications and chair of the Department of African American Studies at Ohio University, is uniquely attuned to the relationship between broadcasting and immigration. He, himself, immigrated to the United States from Guyana after working for some time in the broadcasting industry. His personal experience as an immigrant has no doubt fueled his interest in how mass media and multicultural population growth intersect. The extensive research into the multicultural programs and opportunities provided by the U.S. media is evident in the breadth of information shared in this book. The major strength of this book is the wealth of historical details presented for each topic covered. Logically, the major waves of immigration into the United States, beginning with colonization, are introduced first, with special attention paid to the changing demographics of the immigrants, ranging from country of origin to age and sex. Settlement patterns are also discussed, which gives readers a context in which to place the specific histories of minority-focused media outlets subsequently presented. The greater part of the book provides historical origins, general descriptions, facts and figures regarding the ethnic press, radio and minority radio, commercial broadcast and public television, cable, and community access. Attention is paid to a wide set of minority communities, including peoples of African, Caribbean, Indian, Native American, Asian, and Hispanic descent. The sheer amount of information offered provides ample opportunities to develop one's own research questions, as well as draw one's own conclusions on a number of dimensions. It is on this merit that I would encourage those interested in minority broadcasting and minority depictions in mass media to read this book, as well as suggest its use in the classroom. A few criticisms are offered. For example, the first chapter outlines three sets of questions Cambridge hopes to address with his research. …


The post implementation period of an ERP implementation in an Australian manufacturing organisation is examined with the aim of understanding and explaining the business consequences that occurred. The description of the case is followed by an analysis using the structurational model of technology. The radical change in the way users needed to understand the business in terms of the new system, coupled with insufficient training and support post implementation, and user resistance to change, impacted on the benefits the organisation gained from the system.


Lignin is the only plant biomass that contains aromatic groups in its structure and can provide a wide range of low molecular weight aromatic chemicals if its depolymerisation can be achieved successfully. Currently, lignin is mainly produced as a waste by-product by the paper and pulp industry and biorefineries. Therefore, the transformation of the phenolic-rich lignin into value added aromatic platform chemicals can be regarded of primary concern to improve the economic profitability of biorefining. Moreover, being a renewable resource, the consumption of fossil fuels will be reduced if lignin can be utilised efficiently. Between chemical degradation and enzymatic degradation, the latter could be a more sustainable method to break down lignin due to its enhanced substrate specificity and ability to preserve the aromatic ring structure compared with chemical processing. Therefore, laccase from Trametes versicolor (LTV), lignin peroxidase (LiP) and manganese peroxidase (MnP) were studied to determine the scope to depolymerise both water-soluble and insoluble lignins nder mild reaction conditions. The enzymatic activity and stability of all three enzymes was investigated and optimum assay conditions were achieved. LTV was found to be the most stable enzyme as it maintained 55 % of its activity at least for the first 6 h at 30 °C whereas LiP was deactivated after 2 h at 25 °C, and MnP was deactivated after 1 h at 28 °C. However, LTV stability decreased at higher temperatures during the oxidation of 2,2'-azino-bis (3- ethylbenthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS). One of the non-phenolic lignin model compounds, veratryl alcohol, was oxidised by LTV in the presence of ABTS, thus confirming the published data. The enzymatic degradation of Organosolv lignin (OSL) by LTV resulted in the formation of 2,6-dimethoxy-1,4-benzoquinone (DBQ). The OSL degradation by LTV was not improved by ethanol addition as a co-solvent although ethanol could stabilise LTV at 40 % (v/v). LTV catalysed the degradation of Kraft lignin although it indicated little effect on lignosulphonates. Lastly, the effect of varying the concentrations of 92 ionic liquids (ILs) and their equivalent metal salts on LTV activity was investigated to find a suitable co-solvent to improve the poor mass transfer in OSL degradation. The study showed that 62 ILs were laccase compatible at an IL concentration of 6 % (w/v) and more than 50 % laccase activity was retained in 18 ionic liquids up to 10 % (w/v), and 80 % (v/v) of dioctyl sulfosuccinate quaternary ammonium salt, [N4,4,4,4][AOT]. However, there was a progressive loss of activity when the concentrations of the ILs increased. Further study on the enzymatic degradation of ILs-pre-treated OSL is currently ongoing in our research group so that the decomposition of water-insoluble lignin will be understood more comprehensively.


Patent law is usually thought to be the domain of the federal government, not state governments. Yet over half the states have recently passed statutes outlawing unfair or deceptive assertions of patent infringement. The statutes are aimed at fighting so-called patent trolls, particularly those who send letters to users of allegedly infringing technology — as opposed to the manufacturers of that technology — demanding that each user purchase a license for a few thousand dollars or else face an infringement suit. The Federal Circuit, however, has held that state law claims challenging acts of patent enforcement are preempted by the federal Patent Act unless the patent holder made infringement allegations with knowledge that the allegations were objectively baseless. No court has yet applied this rule to the new state statutes, but it will likely provide patent holders with nearly absolute immunity from liability under the new laws. Although the Federal Circuit has called this immunity a matter of "preemption," a close examination of the court's decisions reveals that the rule is not grounded in the Supremacy Clause but in the First Amendment right to petition the government. Unlike the Supremacy Clause, the First Amendment limits the power of the federal government, not just state governments, so patent holders will also be able to invoke this immunity to thwart impending federal initiatives to fight abusive patent enforcement, such as unfair competition proceedings brought by the Federal Trade Commission and proposals in Congress to outlaw false or misleading statements made in patent demand letters. This article argues that the broad immunity the Federal Circuit has conferred on patent holders is wrong as a matter of doctrine, misguided as a matter of policy, and inconsistent with a long history of courts enjoining unfair and deceptive acts of patent enforcement. Accordingly, the article suggests a reimagined immunity standard that would not shield extortionate schemes of patent enforcement but would still respect a patent holder's right to make legitimate allegations of infringement.


Humanity has always faced threats to its global survival, such as asteroid impacts and supervolcanoes. Yet now the greatest risks we face may be a result of our own scientific and civilizational progress. We are developing technologies of unprecedented power, such as nuclear weapons and engineered organisms. We are also wiping out species, changing the climate, and burning through the earth's resources at an unsustainable rate as the global population soars. However, the coming century's breakthroughs in science and technology will also provide powerful solutions to many of the greatest challenges we face.


"A Measure of Malpractice" tells the story and presents the results of the Harvard Medical Practice Study, the largest and most comprehensive investigation ever undertaken of the performance of the medical malpractice system. The Harvard study was commissioned by the government of New York in 1968, in the midst of a malpractice crisis that had driven insurance premiums for surgeons and obstetricians in New York City to nearly $200,000 a year. The Harvard-based team of doctors, lawyers, economists, and statisticians set out to investigate what was actually happening to patients in hospitals and to doctors in courtrooms, launching a far more informed debate about the future of medical liability in the 1990s. Careful analysis of the medical records of a representative sample of 30,000 patients hospitalized in 1984 showed that approximately 1 in 25 patients suffered a disabling medical injury, one-quarter of these as a result of the negligence of a doctor or other provider. After assembling all the malpractice claims filed in New York State since 1975, the authors found that just one in eight patients who had been victims of negligence actually filed a malpractice claim, and more than two-thirds of these claims were filed by the wrong patients. The study team then interviewed injured patients in the sample to discover the actual financial loss they had experienced: the key finding was that for roughly the same dollar amount now being spent on a tort system that compensates only a handful of victims, it would be possible to fund comprehensive disability insurance for all patients significantly disabled by a medical accident. The authors, who came to the project from very different perspectives about the present malpractice system, are now in agreement about the value of a new model of medical liability. Rather than merely tinker with the current system - which fixes primary legal responsibility on individual doctors who can be proved medically negligent - legislatures should encourage health care organizations to take responsibility for the financial losses experienced by all patients injured in their care.


Cancers are composed of populations of cells with distinct molecular and phenotypic features, a phenomenon termed intratumor heterogeneity (ITH). ITH in lung cancers has not been well studied. We applied multiregion whole-exome sequencing (WES) on 11 localized lung adenocarcinomas. All tumors showed clear evidence of ITH. On average, 76% of all mutations and 20 out of 21 known cancer gene mutations were identified in all regions of individual tumors, which suggested that single-region sequencing may be adequate to identify the majority of known cancer gene mutations in localized lung adenocarcinomas. With a median follow-up of 21 months after surgery, three patients have relapsed, and all three patients had significantly larger fractions of subclonal mutations in their primary tumors than patients without relapse. These data indicate that a larger subclonal mutation fraction may be associated with increased likelihood of postsurgical relapse in patients with localized lung adenocarcinomas. Different mutations are present in different regions of any given lung cancer, and their pattern may predict patient relapse. [Also see Perspective by Govindan] Space, time, and the lung cancer genome Lung cancer poses a formidable challenge to clinical oncologists. It is often detected at a late stage, and most therapies work for only a short time before the tumors resume their relentless growth. Two independent analyses of the human lung cancer genome may help explain why this disease is so resilient (see the Perspective by Govindan). Rather than take a single "snapshot" of the cancer genome, de Bruin et al. and Zhang et al. identified genomic alterations in spatially distinct regions of single lung tumors and used this information to infer the tumor's evolutionary history. Each tumor showed tremendous spatial and temporal diversity in its mutational profiles. Thus, the efficacy of drugs may be short-lived because they destroy only a portion of the tumor. Science, this issue p. 251, p. 256; see also p. 169


A direct competitive chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay was developed by using the molecularly imprinted 96-well plate as an artificial antibody to detect chloramphenicol (CAP). The artificial antibody was synthesised on the well surface of MaxiSorp polystyrene 96-well plate and CAP was conjugated with the horseradish peroxidase. The results showed that the imprinted plate exhibited antibody-like binding ability. The plate showed fast adsorption rate, 66% adsorption was finished within 20 min. The cross-reactivity for CAP, florfenicol and thiamphenicol were 100%, 1.25% and 2.08%, respectively. And the imprinted plate could be reused for many times without loss of sensitivity. The IC50 and the detection limit values under optimum conditions were 30±2 µg·L−1 and 0.9±0.01 µg·L−1, respectively. The plate was used to detect CAP in sea cucumber, which showed excellent recoveries ranging from 89% to 98.7%. And the result correlated well with that obtained by the CAP enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit.


This paper describes how one research team uses a variety of qualitative, cultural anthropological research techniques and qualitative survey research techniques to better understand the characteristics of young people who drink and do not drink alcohol. The team used qualitative methods of cultural anthropology for initial small-group studies of three mental constructs known to predict behaviors. These mental constructs are: what young people expect to happen when they drink alcohol (alcohol expectancies), how they view Chinese and Western cultural values (cultural orientation), and how confident they are in believing they can manage pressures to drink alcohol (self-efficacy). Data from the qualitative study were used to construct surveys to measure expectancies, cultural orientation, and self-efficacy. The surveys were then tested on large groups of adolescents. The statistical analysis showed these surveys were capable of detecting differences in expectancies, cultural orientation, and self-efficacy between drinkers and nondrinkers. The insights gained from the survey data suggest ways policy and educational initiatives can be designed to reduce alcohol-related risks among adolescents.


The imprinting control region (IC1) of the human IGF2 and H19 genes is represented by a chromatin insulator located between the two genes that prevents the activation of IGF2 and allows the activation of H19 on the maternal chromosome. Deletions removing part of IC1 have been found in patients affected by the overgrowth- and tumour-associated Beckwith–Wiedemann syndrome (BWS). These mutations result in the hypermethylation of the remaining IC1 region and loss of IGF2/H19 imprinting. However, other IC1 microdeletions are associated with incompletely penetrant phenotypes and do not affect the methylation of the locus. Our results indicate that the mutant IC1 alleles with abnormally longer cluster of sites for CTCF have reduced affinity for this factor with respect to the alleles with spacing similar to the wild type sequence, suggesting that the organization rather than the number of CTCF sites in the deleted alleles is critical for the gain of methylation and loss of insulator function. Furthermore, a detailed methylation analysis of BWS patients with IC1 hypermethylation and no accompanying deletion showed that the abnormal methylation is mosaic in the majority of the cases and can affect either the entire or only the 3' half of the regulatory region. In these cases, the epimutation and the phenotype did not cosegregate with the 11p15.5 region. In both the cases with the microdeletions and those without sequence change, the epigenetic abnormalities are usually present in the patients in the mosaic form and probably acquired by post-zygotic de novo methylation.


Abstract:In the months preceding her death on May 15, 1886, Emily Dickinson requested that Emily Brontë's poem "No coward soul is mine" be read at her funeral, thereby enlisting Brontë's defiant declaration of immortality in what can be interpreted as Dickinson's own equally defiant final statement on the relation of fame to enduring art. Dickinson expressed the logic behind this request four years earlier in an 1882 letter to Roberts Brothers editor Thomas Niles in which she refused his request for a "volume of poems" (L749b) and instead sent him "How happy is the little Stone" (Fr1570E), a poem in which she alludes to "the rock of immortality" (l. 16) and the "atom" (l. 26) that appear in Brontë's poem. These allusions inform Dickinson's figurative declaration to Niles that the fame she seeks is based on fusion with the elemental fabric of the universe, not immediate approval from the contemporary reading public. Dickinson's refusal to send Niles the volume he requested is consistent with the approach to fame she develops through poems such as "To earn it by disdaining it" (Fr1445) and her 1862 letter to Higginson in which she declares, "If fame belonged to me, I could not escape her" (L408). The path to fame Dickinson lays out through her funeral and other works like these paradoxically requires that the aspirant author risk obscurity by rejecting fame in the immediate present with the hope of attaining a more enduring form in the future. Dickinson's association of lasting fame with rock takes on literal as well as metaphoric meaning when read in the context of Edward Hitchcock's 1851 volume, The Religion of Geology and Its Connected Sciences, and contemporary linguistic theories espoused by Elizabeth Palmer Peabody and Richard Chenevix Trench.


The Alexander terrane is an unusual tectonic fragment in the North American Cordillera in that it contains a long and very complete stratigraphic record, including sedimentary or volcanic rocks representing every period and nearly every epoch between Neoproterozoic and Late Triassic time. The terrane is also unusual in that the southern portion of the terrane experienced arc-type magmatism during Neoproterozoic−early Paleozoic time, whereas the northern portion of the terrane consists mainly of Paleozoic shelf-facies strata. This long and diverse history provides opportunities to reconstruct the evolution and displacement history of the terrane, and specifically test the prevailing interpretation that the terrane formed in the paleo-Arctic realm.
This study presents U-Pb geochronologic data and Hf isotopic information for detrital zircons from arc-type rocks in the southern portion of the terrane. Information has been generated from seven samples of Ordovician through Devonian age, complementing the information available from previous studies of Ordovician through Triassic strata. Together, these data sets yield a robust record of the magmatic history of the southern Alexander terrane, with dominant age groups of 640−550 Ma, 490−400 Ma, 380−340 Ma, and 310−275 Ma (dominant ages of 579, 441, 361, and 293 Ma). There are few pre−640 Ma grains in any of the samples. Hf isotope compositions of the detrital zircons are exceptionally juvenile, with most epsilon Hf (t) values between +15 and +5.
Collectively, the available geologic, U-Pb geochronologic, and Hf isotopic evidence suggests that the southern Alexander terrane formed within a juvenile Neoproterozoic−early Paleozoic arc system, with little continental influence, whereas the northern portion of the terrane formed in proximity to a continental landmass that experienced similar Neoproterozoic−early Paleozoic ages of continental-affinity magmatism. Our data are consistent with previous suggestions that the Alexander terrane resided in the paleo-Arctic realm during early Paleozoic time, with the northern portion of the terrane adjacent to Baltica and the Caledonides, and the southern portion of the terrane forming further offshore as a juvenile north-facing oceanic arc.


In many economic contexts, the most credible source of information about the quality of products is one's friends. In this paper, we develop a word-of-mouth model of search for an experience good where the quality is unknown. We find the characteristics of the social net-work that result in exclusively low quality, a mixture of qualities and exclusively high-quality products. When consumer search is costly, an exclusively high-quality equilibrium is not possible. Moreover, markets may become stuck in a low-quality equilibrium when equilibria with better quality are possible. Market inefficiencies are characterized by an under-investment in friends and a market's misallocation of low-quality firms.


A field experiment was conducted during rainy season (kharif of 2002 on sandy clay-loam soil of Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New DeIhi to assess the effect of crop establishment methods and weed control practices on weed dynamics, productivity, nutrients removal by weeds vis-Avis crop and quality of aromatic rice. The total weed population at 100 days after sowing was significantly lower under broadcast method than zero-till and bed planting. Among herbicidal treatments, flufenacet @ 0.20 kg ai/ha as pre-emergence + hand weeding at 40 days after sowing brought about maximum reduction in weed population and their weed dry weight followed by butachlor @ 1 kg ai/ha as pre-emergence + hand weeding at 40 days after sowing. Depletion of N, P and K by weeds was markedly higher in weedy check (85.3 kg N, 10 kg P and 117.4 kg m a ) . Broadcast and zero till methods resulted an increase of 50 and 42% in grain yield and 42 and 46% in straw yield, respectively over bed planting. The former two methods proved statistically superior to later one. Uptake of N, P and K by rice grain as well as straw was significantly higher under broadcast and zero-till methods than bed planting. Hand weeding resulted in maximum increase in effective tillers (105.5/m2) and number of grainslpanicle (157.8) and proved superior to the rest of the weed control treatments. Hand weeding recorded in significant increase in both grain (2 401 kglha) and straw (5 229 kgka) yields followed by flufenacet @ 0.20 kg aiha as pre-emergence + hand weeding at 40 days after sowing. Grain quality parameters, viz hulling (%), milling (%), head rice recovery (%), grain length and breadth before and after cooking, grain length: breadth ratio before and after cooking of aromatic rice remained unaffected due to different crop establishment methods and weed control treatments. In broadcast method, protein yield (1 35 kgha) was significantly higher compared to bed planting but similar to zero till method (128 kg/ha). All the weed control treatments resulted in significant increase in protein yield compared to weedy check


The aim of this paper is to analyze to what extent social mediation can be regarded as a productive means of solving disputes between migrant communities bearing in mind the often structural roots of these conflicts. The analysis of social mediation and its relevance is further carried out in the explicit light of the concepts of inclusion and exclusion. What this paper is intended to show is that it is in the housing neighborhoods that the primary experience of inclusion can take place. No political right is enough if the people are deprived of their right to live in peace in their local communities. Being accepted as a full worthy agent in the local level can give migrants a sense of belonging and empower them also on other levels of the society. Also, as social mediation involves a direct encounter of the two parties the underlying differences can be taken into account yet making way for a shared understanding of the past conflict and of how to prevent them in the future.


The temporal variation of suspended sediment concentration and turbidity is an important component of the riverine environment. The maximum rate of discrete volumetric sample collection for laboratory determination of sediment concentration is one sample per minute for our field data collection on the effects of navigation on the Upper Mississippi River System. In an effort to obtain truly continuous measurements, another set of intakes and pumps were used to obtain and record continuous turbidity data while discrete samples were being collected. Ambient suspended sediment concentration samples and turbidity values were collected continuously for a three-hour period to measure variability over time. A turbidity-concentration correlation was also developed and used to estimate sediment concentrations for a point at which only turbidity was measured. Exponential decay curves were fitted to each of the three data sets. A regression equation between the turbidity and sediment concentration at one level was used to generate estimated sediment concentrations from the turbidity values at another level. Graphical and statistical characteristics of the continuous ambient data are presented and compared with the more common ambient measurements taken every few hours during a day of field data collection. This unique data set from the Illinois River illustrates the range of suspended sediment concentrations over a several hour period during steady flow conditions.


This study examines the relationship between vulnerable emotions typically associated with masculinity and compensatory eating behaviors in response to alcohol consumption for college students. The increase in problematic behaviors such as binge drinking, associated compensatory exercise, and eating disorders during the college years predict lifetime physical and mental health concerns. Finding emotional or behavior predictors for these behaviors would allow clinicians to identify or prevent many of these problems. This study utilized the Compensatory Eating Behaviors Related to Alcohol Consumption Scale (CEBRACS) and the Masculine Behavior Scale (MBS) and found a significant positive relationship between college students' responses on the two scales as well as several of the subscales.


We report results from spectral measurements in the optical and near infrared region performed with a Fourier transform wavemeter. Characteristics of a variety of lasers and the performance of the wavemeter have been studied. The group of cw lasers measured in this work is comprised of a 1550-nm multimode diode laser, an 820-nm single-mode diode laser, a 594.5 nm dye laser, and He-Ne lasers at wavelengths of 1523, 633, and 543 nm. The Fourier transform wavemeter is powerful in multimode laser investigations and in long-term frequency stability determinations. The measurements show that the wavemeter also easily reveals very low power laser modes; it is suitable for the investigation of the single-mode purity of lasers. The line position uncertainty <10(-8) can be concluded in the measurements with polarization-stabilized 633- and 543-nm He-Ne lasers.


Because image sensor chips have a finite bandwidth with which to read out pixels, recording video typically requires a trade-off between frame rate and pixel count. Compressed sensing techniques can circumvent this trade-off by assuming that the image is compressible. Here, we propose using multiplexing optics to spatially compress the scene, enabling information about the whole scene to be sampled from a row of sensor pixels, which can be read off quickly via a rolling shutter CMOS sensor. Conveniently, such multiplexing can be achieved with a simple lensless, diffuser-based imaging system. Using sparse recovery methods, we are able to recover 140 video frames at over 4,500 frames per second, all from a single captured image with a rolling shutter sensor. Our proof-of-concept system uses easily-fabricated diffusers paired with an off-the-shelf sensor. The resulting prototype enables compressive encoding of high frame rate video into a single rolling shutter exposure, and exceeds the sampling-limited performance of an equivalent global shutter system for sufficiently sparse objects.


The petroleum hydrocarbon dist1ibution in the Port Dichson coastal waters was studied over a period of three years
from 1986 to 1989. Generally, there was no significant difference (P > 0.05) of hydrocarbon levels in water among
the sampling stations on each of the sampling dates. However a pronounced fluctuation was found at different
samping dates. Similarly, a pronounced fluctuation of hydrocarbon content in the sediment with different sampling
dates was also detected. The mean hydrocarbon level in the water ranged between 14.69ppb and 150.28 ppb, ESSO
'Tapis A crude oil equivalent (or between 0.77 ppb and 7.87 ppb, chrysene equivalent), while for the sediment it
ranged between 21. 73 mg/kg and 74.50 mg/kgdry sediment, Esso Tapis A crude oil equivalent (or between 1.12
mg/hgand 3. 90 mg/kgdry sediment, chrysene equivalent). The oil pollution level in the PortDickson coastal waters
was comparable or higher than that found in the Exclusive Economic Zone watels off Pahang and Sabah, but was
lower than that detected in the Terengganu and Sanl1uak waters. The saUTce of hydrocarbon pollution in the POTt
Dichsm~ coastal waters was probably from the open sea and the nearby harbour and oil refineries rather than from
land TUn off