As the many Native American nations gamer economic strength and come into increasing contact with state and local forums, so do the chances that those forums will come face to face with questions of tribal law. The challenges posed by an AngloAmerican court answering questions of tribal law present both danger and opportunity. Opportunities come with strengthened inter-sovereign relationships and with the acknowledgement of tribal legal potency by other forums. Dangers inhere in crosscultural illiteracy and particularly in the temptation to ignore abstention principles and to attack tribal jurisdiction. It may be possible for tribal courts to gain some of the advantages and ameliorate some of the dangers by entering into a variety of cooperative arrangements with state courts. In an arrangement of true parity, these options may also provide avenues for tribal courts to obtain assistance in answering important questions of state law in tribal court cases. The purpose of this article is to bring together the various options for tribal and state court cooperation for the analysis of tribal law questions. They may include cooperative organizations, abstention, certification, and even formal consultation agreements between particular courts, such as the recent, historic accord between the high courts of New York and New South Wales. The article further concludes that each option has costs and benefits, and that individual tribal nations must each undertake their own costlbenefit analyses to determine which action - or none at all - is the most likely to benefit tribal sovereignty and institutions based on their goals, history, relationships with state and local entities, and even relationships between individual leaders in the state and tribal justice systems.


Intel Corporation developed the Teraflops supercomputer for the US Department of Energy (DOE) as part of the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI). This is the most powerful computing machine available today, performing over two trillion floating point operations per second with the aid of more than 9,000 Intel processors. The Teraflops machine employs complex hardware and software fault/error handling mechanisms for complying with DOE's reliability requirements. This paper gives a brief description of the system architecture and presents the validation of the fault tolerance mechanisms. Physical fault injection at the IC pin level was used for validation purposes. An original approach was developed for assessing signal sensitivity to transient faults and the effectiveness of the fault/error handling mechanisms. Dependency between fault/error detection coverage and fault duration was also determined. Fault injection experiments unveiled several malfunctions at the hardware, firmware, and software levels. The supercomputer performed according to the DOE requirements after corrective actions were implemented. The fault injection approach presented in this paper can be used for validation of any fault-tolerant or highly available computing system.


We argue that the efficiency of the Danish flexicurity Model, which combines high unemployment benefits with low job protection and high participation rate, relies on strong public-spiritedness. We also argue that Continental and Mediterranean European countries are unlikely to be able to implement the Danish Model because the lack of public-spiritedness of their citizens raises moral hazard issues which hinder the implementation of efficient public unemployment insurance.


Femtocell Base Stations (FBSs) are widely used to improve data rates and cell coverage to the indoor service in Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks. With a proper network's design, a network deployment cost will be worth and a network performance will satisfy the users. Nevertheless, with an improper design, besides all of the foregoing will not achieve, an unpleasant problem such as a leakage signal from an indoor to outdoor area will occur. In this paper, we propose an optimization technique which is a collaboration between a Linear Programming (LP) and a Simulated Annealing heuristic technique (SA). We separate our optimization technique into two steps. In step one, we focus on minimizing the number of FBS to be installed by formulating a linear programming problem. In step two, we optimize the placement location and the transmit power level of installed FBS by using the SA heuristic. Our results show that the proposed technique can achieve a better performance trade-off between computation time and solution quality. Besides, when compared to linear programming technique, the proposed technique can reduce the summation of leakage signal up to 90%, the total power usage up to 45% and reduce a computation time more than 70%.


If we accept natural landscape the result of the first interaction of human and nature, cultural landscape is natural selecting for interaction during the time, which may have different causes in different periods. Ritual landscape as an important part of the cultural landscape is the community reaction to the spiritual needs. In ancient times, people lived in a directly deep link with nature. The biological landscape and the ritual landscape from ancient time was influenced by the natural landscape. This becomes important when we know natural elements of landscape in ancient time had spiritual concepts in addition to its function. So there has been direct and inseparable link between religion and nature. Due to dominant mountain landscapes in Georgian, the mountains always have had a fundamental role to the structure of public life as a landscape element, it has been three aspects of functional, meaning and the aesthetic. The importance of these three aspects from the ritual landscape view is different due to the time and place of ritual and cultural landscape formation. In this paper, by choosing three sets of ritual in Mestia, Uplistisikhe and Mtskheta in Georgia, first the ritual landscape of mountain formation is discussed in each of these three categories, due to the mountain association with the cultural community, the cultural landscape is formed differently. So that in Mestia the functional aspects was the dominant for creating meaning role and shaping the landscape of the mountain, In Uplistisikhe the aesthetic and meaning aspects of the mountain was overcome and in Mtskhetalocation of mountain is importantas the strategically region. After comparing these three aspects of ritual landscape, the relation between natural and cultural landscape will be discussed.


The prototype of force transducer with the AT-cut quartz resonator serving as the sensitive to force element is described. The operating principle of this transducer is based on the relation between the resonator vibration frequency and the force acting on this resonator. Since the quartz resonator is sensitive to ambient temperature, the force transducer has been also equipped by the LC-cut resonator, which plays the role of temperature sensor with frequency output signal. This signal is used to compensate the thermal influences.


In this paper, we investigate how government transparency depends on economic distortions. We first consider an abstract class of economies in which a benevolent policy maker is privately informed about the exogenous state of the economy and contemplates whether to release this information. Our key result is that distortions limit communication: even if transparency is ex ante Pareto superior to opaqueness, it cannot constitute an equilibrium when distortions are sufficiently high. We next confirm this broad insight in two applied contexts, in which monopoly power and income taxes are the specific sources of distortions.


This paper presents the results of the analysis of the fishbone mate rial from a kitchenmidden in southern Sweden, dated ta the younger Bronze Age. 11,196 elements from marine fishes have been identified and size diagrams have been made for Gadus morhua and Pleuronectidae. Quantification of the material has been made according ta two methods and the dif.ferent results are presented in diagrams. Local fishing and seasonality are discussed.


Faced to Global Environmental Change, Ethics is applied to new (and old) questions, specially if we take into account the three dominating problems modern science has to face today: criticism to the possibility of the existence of an objective, universal and necessary truth, in favor of the existence of multiple interpretations and the recognition of other means of knowledge and the necessary intercultural dialogue; criticism of totalitarianism in a wide sense, in favor of necessary democratic consensus and politic pluralism; and the criticism to an universal concept of ?good? which crushes plurality of opinions, in favor of certain ethical criteria of peaceful co-existence, based upon mutual respect. Besides, a debate where modern western notions of nature and human practices in relation to the environment are questioned appears and forces a revision of the bases of our civilization process and a re-examination of the social representation of the relation society-nature.
In this paper, Hans Jonas?s proposal of a new ethics in present time for future is remarked, based in human responsibility towards society nowadays, society in future and nature, due to uncertainty caused by science and technique advance and power.


The aim of the study is to present an application of laddering technique which is commonly used in consumer behavior studies although rarely used in Turkish literature. With this aim determining the means – end chain of young consumers soft drink consumption and creating the hierarchical value map for them will be issued. Scientific values regarding soft drink consumption and related variables, young consumers soft drink consumption habits and, young consumers given value to soft drink consumption will be disscussed. Soft drink consumption, related variables about soft drink consumption, laddering technique, , and this application will be discussed. Findings of this study is matched with the relevant literature. As a result of this study happiness, to be able to belong to a group, achievement, relaxiation is seen among young consumers.


Developing a Sustainable Economy in Cameroon is an ambitious effort as the authors try to set a blue print for Cameroon's economy. In the 1980s facing economic crisis, and as dictated by the structural adjustment programme, Cameroon sharply cut public investment expenditures before later cutting government consumption which were followed by privatisation, liquidation of public companies and reduction in the size of the public sector. All these measures are believed to have had devastating effects on the economy. Given the performance of the economy so far the authors suggest that much more effort, with a strong commitment of the main stakeholders, is required to guarantee sustainable economic development in Cameroon. Truly, very few countries in Africa possess such enormous human and natural resources as Cameroon does. This volume brings out the challenges Cameroon faces in its quest for development as well as for designing appropriate strategies for addressing those development challenges.


Often the probability of responding depends directly on the outcome value. This case can be treated by postulating a parametric model for the distribution of the outcomes before nonresponse and a model for the response mechanism. The two models define a parametric model for the joint distribution of the outcomes and response indicators, and therefore the parameters of these models can be estimated by maximization of the likelihood corresponding to this distribution. Modeling the distribution of the outcomes before nonresponse, however, can be problematic since no data is available from this distribution. We propose an alternative approach that allows estimation of the parameters of the response model by first estimating the outcomes distribution of the respondents, and then solving an estimating equation defined by the census likelihood of the response indicators.


Oikopleura dioica is a ubiquitous marine zooplankton of biological interest owing to features that include dioecious reproduction, a short life cycle, conserved chordate body plan, and a compact genome. It is an important tunicate model for evolutionary and developmental research, as well as investigations into marine ecosystems. The genome of north Atlantic O. dioica comprises three chromosomes. However, comparisons with the genomes of O. dioica sampled from mainland and southern Japan revealed extensive sequence differences. Moreover, historical studies have reported widely varying chromosome counts. We recently initiated a project to study the genomes of O. dioica individuals collected from the coastline of the Ryukyu (Okinawa) Islands in southern Japan. Given the potentially large extent of genomic diversity, we employed karyological techniques to count individual animals' chromosomes in situ using centromere-specific antibodies directed against H3S28P, a prophasemetaphase cell cycle-specific marker of histone H3. Epifluorescence and confocal images were obtained of embryos and oocytes stained with two commercial anti-H3S28P antibodies (Abcam ab10543 and Thermo Fisher 07-145). The data lead us to conclude that diploid cells from Okinawan O. dioica contain three pairs of chromosomes, in line with the north Atlantic populations. The finding facilitates the telomere-to-telomere assembly of Okinawan O. dioica genome sequences and gives insight into the genomic diversity of O. dioica Open Peer Review


Frequency domain adaptive antenna array (FDAAA) is an effective method to suppress interference caused by frequency selective fading and multiple-access interference (MAI) in single-carrier (SC) transmission. However, the performance of FDAAA receiver will be affected by the antenna placement parameters such as antenna separation and spread of angle of arrival (AOA). On the other hand, hybrid frequency reuse can be adopted in cellular system to improve the cellular capacity. However, optimal frequency reuse factor (FRF) depends on the channel propagation and transceiver scheme as well. In this paper, we analyze the impact of antenna separation and AOA spread on FDAAA receiver and optimize the cellular capacity by using hybrid FRF.


Thesis. M.Sc. American University of Beirut. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics. Faculty of Medicine 2015. W 4 K455d 2015


Adaptation is an important feature to be studied in animals when thinking about maintenance and raise of productivity. Although Nellore breed is widely disseminated in Brazil, the knowledge related to its thermotolerance in tropical climate conditions remains unknown. Hence, the aim of this study was to understand the Nellore breed cellular adaptation when exposed to heat shock in vitro, using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). The comprehension of the most expressed and sensible heat shock proteins in Bos taurus indicus may elucidate a molecular marker for genetic improvement related to thermotolerance. Previous to blood sampling, the physiological parameters of 16 cows were measured in order to classify them in efficient and non-efficient on heat loss. For this experiment, the blood was collected in three different heparin tubes by jugular venipuncture only in 10 cows, 5 efficient and 5 nonefficient, at morning. The molecular analyzes were performed in Physiology and Molecular Endocrinology Laboratory, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of São Paulo. After sampling, each blood tube were placed in three different water bath devices calibrated for: 38°C, 40°C and 42°C for two consecutive hours. The PBMCs were separated, washed with hemolysis solution, the RNA extracted, the cDNA synthetized and performed the qPCR for the genes HSP60, HSP70 and HSP90. There was a maintenance on HSPs transcripts on 38°C and 40°C and a decrease on all HSPs transcripts at 42°C. Among all, the HSP70 was the most expressed at 38°C and 40°C, elucidating its protective importance. No difference was observed between gene expression and heat loss efficiency. In conclusion, the Nellore cell adaptability was confirmed by the maintenance of heat shock proteins 60, 70 and 90 kDa. The pathway for understanding responses involving thermotolerance is still long and requires more knowledge of cell signaling, either in vitro or in vivo conditions. Taken together, these informations may contribute in future keys for genetic selection of adapted animals.


This paper develops a four-parameter change-point model of energy consumption as a function of dry-bulb temperature, along with accompanying error diagnostics for the model's parameters. The model is a generalization of the widely used three-parameter, or variable-base degree-day method. The model is applied to data from a case study grocery store, is compared to the three-parameter PRISM CO model of the store data, and is shown to provide a statistically better fit to consumption data below about 15{degrees}C. This model appears to be useful for diagnosing unexpected energy use in some buildings and should be useful for determining retrofit energy savings from monitored pre-retrofit and post-retrofit data for the class of buildings whose pre-retrofit consumption is fit by a four-parameter linear change-point model.


A lot of studies are showing an increased tendency to use more than one
mode of administration to collect data for a particular analysis ([10];[1];[16];[9]).
Thus, understand if different data collection methods influence answers becomes
a concern. The problem of self selection into different interview modes demands
attention especially when the assignment to one or another collection method is
not randomly controlled and respondents might self select in one data collection
method over another. This paper shows an empirical case concerning the evalua-
tion of two different data collection method: the CAWI (Computer Assisted Web
Interview) method and the CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interview) method.
If self-selection exists both mode of data collection and characteristics of the re-
spondents influence answers. Hence, the mode effect may be confounded. In order
to estimate an unbiased mode effect, this paper proposes a data driven multivariate
approach to monitor self-selection that allows to disentangle interview's modes ef-
fects on answers from the effect of self-selection. We will work through the use of
the monitoring system with an empirical case. In particular, we will use AlmaLaurea
data and compare results of our approach to PS adjustment method that AlmaLaurea
usually applies to control data quality as documented in various reports and analysis
conducted by the AlmaLaurea Consortium .


The study of generic properties of quantum states has led to an abundance of insightful results. A meaningful set of states that can be efficiently prepared in experiments are ground states of gapped local Hamiltonians, which are well approximated by matrix product states. In this work, we introduce a picture of generic states within the trivial phase of matter with respect to their non-equilibrium and entropic properties: We do so by rigorously exploring non-translation-invariant matrix product states drawn from a local i.i.d. Haar-measure. We arrive at these results by exploiting techniques for computing moments of random unitary matrices and by exploiting a mapping to partition functions of classical statistical models, a method that has lead to valuable insights on local random quantum circuits. Specifically, we prove that such disordered random matrix product states equilibrate exponentially well with overwhelming probability under the time evolution of Hamiltonians featuring a non-degenerate spectrum. Moreover, we prove two results about the entanglement Rényi entropy: The entropy with respect to sufficiently disconnected subsystems is generically extensive in the system-size, and for small connected systems the entropy is almost maximal for sufficiently large bond dimensions.


Beginning a new journey as an international student in a foreign country is no easy task, the same story applies to the international students in University of Washington, Tacoma. Yet, due to current inadequate supply of student housing units and the lack of a domestic host family housing program, international students in UW, Tacoma face even harsher challenges when looking for a place to live. Without many options, most international students would, therefore, choose to rent apartment units that are within reasonable proximity to the campus and other amenities as their homes. However, many international students might be unfamiliar with the area and its spatial components such as grocery stores, restaurants, banks and ATMs, and bus stops, etc. While not being informed, such unfamiliarity would drastically affect the students' ability to adopt a new livelihood since they might make inferior decisions on residency. Nevertheless, they might also unfamiliar with the apartment renting procedure which involves screening process over their immigration status, proof of financial sufficiency, and previous rental history. For some apartment managements, these elements reduce the likelihood of renting to international students.


Ceramic StereoLithography (CSL) is used to fabricate complex shaped ceramic powder compacts by laser photocuring a concentrated ceramic dispersion in photocuring solutions layer-by-layer. The main processing parameters in CSL such as layer thickness, resolution, hatch spacing, and overcure depend on knowledge of the light propagation in a concentrated dispersion. In studies dealing with the processing of ceramic-filled organics, we investigated the depth of curing for model resin systems as a function of photoinitiator concentration. An optimal photoinitiator concentration that maximized the gel cure depth was observed The study showed that photoinitiator plays a significant role in controlling the quality and performance of the formed gel network, with special regard to thickness of cured layers. This has potential application to fields as diverse as industrially cured coatings and dental fillings, and more generally, 3-dimensional fabrication techniques.


During the last decade best management practices have been gradually implemented in Heber Valley to maintain and enhance the qualities of surface waters that flow into Deer Creek Reservoir. The Heber Valley Special Service District was created to collect and treat the wastewater from Heber City and Charleston. The treated water is used to irrigate a 369 acre 'sewer farm'. As part of the research program that is reported herein, twelve vadose-zone samplers were installed at six siTes within this sewer farm during the spring of 1988 to depths of 1 to 3 feet. Five additional samplers were installed adjacent to 2 dairy waste water lagoons. Water samplers were collected every other week (or longer periods) during the summers of two years and occasional during other seasons of the year, and these samples were analyzed for nitrogen, phosphate and other chemicals. Laboratory column leaching studies were also carried out using undisturbed samples to determine sorption properties of the soil. Modeling of the unsaturated flow within top soil of the sewer farm was used in connection with field and laboratory data to assist in evaluating nutrient amount that enter groundwater from the Heber Valley sewer farm and the dairy lagoons. The conclusion is that relatively small quantities of phosphate and modest amounts of nitrogen enter the groundwater from the sewer farm, at least during a below normal water years such as occurred during the study. The potential exist for 'flushing of nutrients' from large amounts of precipitation or farming practices that apply excessive irrigation amounts.


Bone metabolism is regulated by a balance between bone resorption caused by osteoclasts and bone formation caused by osteoblasts. This balance is disturbed in postmenopausal women as a result of lower serum estrogen levels. Estrogen, which is used in hormone replacement therapy to prevent postmenopausal osteoporosis, downregulates expression of the interleukin 6 (IL-6) gene in osteoblasts and bone marrow stromal cells. IL-6 is directly involved in bone resorption by activating immature osteoclasts. We show here that NF-kappa B and C/EBP beta are important regulators of IL-6 gene expression in human osteoblasts. Importantly, the IL-6 promoter is inhibited by estrogen in the absence of a functional estrogen receptor (ER) binding site. This inhibition is mediated by the transcription factors NF-kappa B and C/EBP beta. Evidence is presented for a direct interaction between these two factors and ER. We characterized the protein sequence requirements for this association in vitro and in vivo. The physical and functional interaction depends in part on the DNA binding domain and region D of ER and on the Rel homology domain of NF-kappa B and the bZIP region of C/EBP beta. The cross-coupling between ER, NF-kappa B, and C/EBP beta also results in reduced activity of promoters with ER binding sites. We further show that the mechanism of IL-6 gene repression by estrogen is clearly different from that of activation of promoters with ER binding sites. Therefore, drugs that separate the transactivation and transrepression functions of ER will be very helpful for treatment of osteoporosis without causing undesirable side effects.


This thesis explores the relationship between the representation of contagion and those it affects offered by contemporary American speculative fiction and the ways in which this representative model has and continues to inform our understanding of real and actual pandemics. Over the past decade, the success of texts centred on such figures as the vampire, the werewolf and the zombie has triggered a return of contagion to the forefront of the American popular fictional imagination. Though this renewed fascination coincides with the emergence of new global biological threats, it also draws part of its power from a broader cultural anxiety regarding the structures of subjectivity, the relation between subject and State as well as the subject's role within the collective deployed by our contemporary discourse of health. While critical studies on contagion have been predominantly concerned with real diseases and their narrativisation, this thesis focuses on five fictional representations—Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead, Richard Matheson's I Am Legend and its adaptations, the American series Being Human, Octavia E. Butler's Clay's Ark and Charles Burns's Black Hole—in order to explore the ways in which these texts engage with the modern medical discourse and the wider conceptualisation of subjectivity promoted by Western philosophy. By emptying the referential dimension of the diseases they mobilise, these texts provide a unique opportunity to analyse the underlying mechanisms of contagion as a cultural construction and to expose the set of assumptions (moral, political, social, etc.) upon which its production itself relies. Exposing the ways in which our cultural perception of contagion has been shaped by the limitations inherent to the traditional epistemic model dominating Western society, this thesis not only reveal the violence inherent in the structures of subjectivity surrounding the individual, it also highlights, by deconstructing the dominant model, new possible lines of flight for the contagious subject outside the normative structures of our current public health, medical, social and political discourses.


The International Energy Agency (IEA) Task 41 is conducting an international survey concerning the integration of solar energy systems and architecture in order to identify barriers that architects are facing in incorporating active solar technologies in their design. The survey investigates the possible barriers of solar thermal and photovoltaics, to understand why there is still a resistance among architects for using these elements in their architectural design. Moreover, it asks about the needs of architects, on what should be developed for a wider use of solar active systems in the building skin. The survey also provides valuable information towards a comparative study of the two solar technologies from the perspective of architectural integration potentials. As the survey is conducted in 13 countries around the world (EU, Canada, South Korea), it gives a possibility to identify possible regional differences in understanding and acceptance of active solar technologies.


Nearly 60 percent of college students today are women. Using longitudinal data on a nationally representative cohort of eighth grade students in 1988, I examine two potential explanations for the differential attendance rates of men and women -- returns to schooling and non-cognitive skills. The attendance gap is roughly five percentage points for all high school graduates. Conditional on attendance, however, there are few differences in type of college, enrollment status or selectivity of institution. The majority of the attendance gap can be explained by differences in the characteristics of men and women, despite some gender differences in the determinants of college attendance. I find that higher non-cognitive skills and college premiums among women account for nearly 90 percent of the gender gap in higher education. Interestingly, non-cognitive factors continue to influence college enrollment after controlling for high school achievement.


Categorical perception (CP) of colour is demonstrated by faster or more accurate discrimination of colours that cross a category boundary, compared to equivalently spaced colours from the same colour category. Despite a plethora of behavioural research exploring the origin and nature of colour CP, the processes involved in the effect are still unresolved. This thesis investigates the time course and underlying mechanisms of colour CP by using the Event-Related Potential (ERP) technique. This is a relatively novel approach that involves the measurement of stimulus evoked brain potentials at the scalp. ERPs were recorded during four studies that used variations of a visual oddball task, where a standard colour stimulus was shown frequently, interspersed by less frequent presentations of 'deviant' colours from the same or different category to the standard. Analysis of adult ERP waveforms in Study 1 established that category effects occur-from as early as 90 ms post-stimulus onset. This finding provides the first clear evidence of an early perceptual basis for colour CP. Additionally, differences in later ERP components also implicate post- perceptual, cognitive mechanisms such as memory and language. Study 2 explored early perceptual stages of processing in more detail, revealing that early category effects are rapid, automatic and pre-attentive. The time course and neural markers of infant colour CP were investigated in Study 3. This study provides the first electrophysiological evidence of pre-linguistic color category effects, demonstrating that processes of attention, recognition memory and novelty detection are involved in infant colour CP. Finally, Study 4 explored the relative contributions of perceptual and post-perceptual processes to acquired adult colour CP following category training. Learning of two new categories led to enhanced discrimination of colour's around the learned category boundary, with this effect only revealing itself in later, cognitive ERP components. This suggests that category training does not affect early perceptual responses, but rather that mechanisms such as memory and language govern acquired colour CP. This thesis demonstrates that categorical information is detected rapidly by the human brain. Additionally, the finding of category effects in infant ERP components offers new evidence of how the infant brain categorises in the absence of language. Finally, the novel finding that learnt category effects reveal themselves in later ERP components emphasises the importance of cognitive strategies in forming categories.


Rural communities require means for obtaining access to affordable broadband infrastructure and services to meet their economic development, education, and quality of life objectives. Due to the comparatively low potential for return on investment in serving isolated rural communities, the private sector telecommunications providers have proved unwilling or unable to provide beyond the very basic services for rural communities. Private sector providers must maximize their return on investment as it is their responsibility to shareholders. Return on investment is maximized in urban areas as opposed to rural areas because the high capital cost per connection is higher in rural areas; the operating cost per connection is higher; and the revenues per connection tend to be lower. This thesis explores the feasibility of municipal and private sector provider strategic alliances as an approach to provisioning rural areas with improved telecommunications infrastructure and services. As a means of determining whether the possibility exists of a 'meeting of the minds' between municipalities and private sector telecommunications providers, a series of interviews was conducted. Common themes from the interviews were analyzed for areas of mutual interest and of polarized perspectives. In pursuing an alliance model, communities may need to consider less than the optimal technological solution in exchange for the opportunity to exemplify the ability to collaborate with a willing private sector partner. The results suggest that, while the prospects for strategic alliances as an emerging business model appear dim, opportunities do exist for rural communities and small private sector companies to find mutual interest on an exceptional basis in developing strategies for access to telecommunications infrastructure and services.


For the most part, democracy is simply presumed to exist in the United States. It is viewed as a completed project rather than as a goal to be achieved. Fifteen leading scholars challenge that stasis in Materializing Democracy . They aim to reinvigorate the idea of democracy by placing it in the midst of a contentious political and cultural fray, which, the volume's editors argue, is exactly where it belongs. Drawing on literary criticism, cultural studies, history, legal studies, and political theory, the essays collected here highlight competing definitions and practices of democracy—in politics, society, and, indeed, academia.

Covering topics ranging from rights discourse to Native American performance, from identity politics to gay marriage, and from rituals of public mourning to the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, the contributors seek to understand the practices, ideas, and material conditions that enable or foreclose democracy's possibilities. Through readings of subjects as diverse as Will Rogers, Alexis de Tocqueville, slave narratives, interactions along the Texas-Mexico border, and liberal arts education, the contributors also explore ways of making democracy available for analysis. Materializing Democracy suggests that attention to disparate narratives is integral to the development of more complex, vibrant versions of democracy.

Contributors . Lauren Berlant, Wendy Brown, Chris Castiglia, Russ Castronovo, Joan Dayan, Wai Chee Dimock, Lisa Duggan, Richard R. Flores, Kevin Gaines, Jeffrey C. Goldfarb, Michael Moon, Dana D. Nelson, Christopher Newfield, Donald E. Pease


Mice of three kinds have been bred continuously for a number of generations in a cold environment. The mice were (a) of two inbred strains (A2G and C57BL) and (b) of a hybrid strain derived from four inbred sources. Parallel lines of each strain were bred in two rooms kept respectively at -3 (experimental) and 21 °C (controls). At -3 °C the hybrid mice were systematically selected for fertility. No other deliberate selection was practised. The hybrid mice were at all times more fertile than the inbred mice. Mice of any given kind were less fertile in the cold environment than those of the same kind in the warm. The number of young born per pair to the hybrid mice increased over twelve generations in both temperatures; there was no such change in the inbred strains. At the twelfth generation the hybrid mice in the cold were heavier at 3 weeks and at 16 weeks of age than they had been at the sixth; at 16 weeks they were heavier than the controls. Some twelfth-generation hybrid mice were transferred to the warm environment, and their offspring were heavier still. 'The weight of the hybrids' hair coat was higher in the cold than in the warm, but transfer of mice from cold to warm showed that this was a direct effect of the cold and not due to genetical change. A2G and hybrid mice, reared to the age of 5 weeks in the warm and then transferred to the cold, were more fertile and provided a better nest environment (that is, probably milk supply) than those of the same strains reared in the cold. This probably held also for C57BL mice, but many of these were barren after transfer to the cold. At first, mortality before weaning at 3 weeks was higher in the cold than in the warm, but in all three kinds of mice there was a progressive reduction in nestling mortality in the cold. This decline was spread over nine generations in the A2G mice, eight generations in C57BL and twelve generations in the hybrids. No such improvement was shown by the control A2G or hybrid mice; but the C57BL controls showed some decline in nestling mortality over sixteen generations. This cannot be attributed to a genetical change in the inbred mice, and was probably not a genetical effect in the hybrids. It is suggested that it could be due to either (i) a cumulative maternal effect operating on a previously unsuspected scale; or (ii) to a progressive decline in the action of a pathogenic organism.


This paper presents a novel scheme for nonlinear acoustic echo cancellation based on adaptive Volterra Filters with linear and quadratic kernels, which automatically prefers those diagonals contributing most to the output of the quadratic kernel with the goal of minimizing the overall mean-square error. In typical echo cancellation scenarios, not all coefficients will be equally relevant for the modeling of the nonlinear echo, but coefficients close to the main diagonal of the second-order kernel will describe most of the nonlinear echo distortions, such that not all diagonals need to be implemented. However, it is difficult to decide the most appropriate number of diagonals a priori, since there are many factors that influence this decision, such as the energy of the nonlinear echo, the shape of the room impulse response, or the step size used for the adaptation of kernel coefficients. Our proposed scheme incorporates adaptive scaling factors that control the influence of each group of adjacent diagonals contributing to the quadratic kernel output. An appropriate selection of these factors serves to emphasize or neglect diagonals of the model as required by the present situation. We provide adaptation rules for these factors based on previous works on combination of adaptive filters, and comprehensive simulations showing the reduced gradient noise reached by the new echo canceller.


Relazioni tra generazioni: "Padri e figli" in impresa - Intergenerational cohabitation is an organizational and relational phenomenon that many Italian enterprises have experienced in the last years. Our research investigates the dynamics of the relationships between Senior and Junior. For instance, we have found that there appears to be a lack of balance in mutual perceptions (Seniors give themselves more competencies than Juniors attribute to them), in cohabitation satisfaction (the first generation thinks the relationships are more positive than the second generation), and in values (Juniors appears more characterized by self orientation than Seniors).


The HIGH MOBILITY GROUP AT-HOOK 1 (HMGA1) family of chromatin-binding proteins plays important roles in cellular responses to low oxygen. HMGA1 proteins regulate gene activity both in the nucleus and within mitochondria. They are expressed mainly during embryogenesis and their upregulation in cancerous cells indicates poor prognosis. The human HMGA1a isoform is upregulated under hypoxia via oxidative stress-dependent signalling and can then bind nascent transcripts of the familial Alzheimer's disease gene PSEN2 to regulate alternative splicing to produce the truncated PSEN2 protein isoform PS2V. Zebrafish where hmga1a expression is induced by hypoxia to control splicing of the psen1 gene to produce the PS2V-equivalent isoform PS1IV. Zebrafish possess a second gene with apparent HMGA1 orthology, hmga1b. Here we investigate the predicted structure of Hmga1b protein and demonstrate it to be co-orthologous to human HMGA1 and most similar in structure to human isoform HMGA1c. We show that forced over-expression of either hmga1a or hmga1b mRNA can suppress the action of the cytotoxin hydroxyurea in stimulating cell death and transcription of the genes mdm2 and cdkn1a that, in humans, are controlled by p53. Our experimental data support an important role for HMGA1 proteins in modulation of p53-dependent responses and illuminate the evolutionary subfunctionalisation.


This study takes place within the framework of the Optipris project whose goal is to develop high-performance air intakes. Most of the time, air intakes are located in regions of negative pressure coefficients. In these cases, a flow regulation is necessary for any application for which the mass flow is prevalent. For example in the case of air conditioning systems. An intake offering a constant pressure at the inlet offers a great advantage: the fresh air mass flow is not influenced by the vehicule speed. In this project, a fully immerged intake yielding a constant mass flow is developed and validated for the incompressible domain. The development process is based on CFD simulations. Physical models are also built and tested in a subsonic wind tunnel to validate the simulation models. The intake design parameters are evaluated for several applications and pressure coefficients. Similarity criteria are developed. Then, the sensitive design parameters are determined. A design law is obtained from which it is possible to define a constant pressure air intake for given flow rates and pressure coefficients. These data are validated for a range of pressure coefficients from 0 to -0.3 and for the incompressible flow regime.


Dental implant has proven to be a reliable long-term rehabilitation treatment showing considerable success rate and it is known that its stability depends on the bone quantity and quality present at the treated site. Different biomaterials, classified according to their origin, are used to obtain these bone features. The aim of this study was described the histological characteristics of alveolar bone that received demineralized bone matrix (DBM) in patients with atrophic mandibular ridge and adequate alveolar height; and briefly report the clinical features of the dental implants placement in these treated sites. Five mandibular sites were evaluated by clinical and histological analysis in two adult patients without systemic pathologies. Both patients received DBM 6 months before the placement of dental implants. The bone samples analyzed were obtained in the preparation phase for implant placement. A quantitative analysis of collagen type I and III density was also performed. The patients agreed to receive the proposed treatment, participate of this study and signed an informed consent. The dental implants showed no complications, no symptoms of pain or infection in clinical evaluations in the following weeks. Adequate bone height, none evidence of pathologies was observed radiographically. In the histological analysis were noted boundary lines suggesting binding of mature and newly formed bone tissue; the presence of mineralized tissue and increased osseous cell activity near DBM particles. The type I collagen fibers area was larger compared to the type III, it was noted tendencies of increase of type I and decrease of type III collagen near the DBM particles. The results suggest the DBM is a potential biomaterial when associated with dental implants in cases of atrophic mandible ridge.


We investigated the effects of pertussis toxin treatment on acetylcholine-induced desensitization of the muscarinic contractile response in guinea pig ileum. Incubation of the isolated ileum with acetylcholine (30 microM) for 20 min caused a decrease in the sensitivity of the ileum to the contractile action of the muscarinic agonist oxotremorine-M. This desensitization was characterized by an increase in the EC(50) value of oxotremorine-M without a change in its maximal effect. A maximal 4- to 5-fold increase in the EC(50) value of oxotremorine-M was measured at the earliest time investigated after acetylcholine treatment (5 min), and normal sensitivity recovered within approximately 20 min after washout of acetylcholine. Treatment of the ileum with pertussis toxin caused a small increase in the contractile response to oxotremorine-M when measured without prior exposure to acetylcholine. After exposure to acetylcholine, little desensitization was observed in ilea that had been treated with pertussis toxin. Pertussis toxin-treatment caused a small increase in oxotremorine-M-mediated phosphoinositide hydrolysis and a large decrease in oxotremorine-M-mediated inhibition of forskolin-stimulated cAMP accumulation in slices of the longitudinal muscle of the ileum. Exposure of the ileum to acetylcholine had no desensitizing effect on the ability of oxotremorine-M to elicit phosphoinositide hydrolysis, indicating that the mechanism for desensitization of the contractile response occurs at a level downstream from the receptor and phosphoinositide hydrolysis. Our results suggest that activation of muscarinic receptors coupled to pertussis toxin-sensitive G(i) and G(o) is required for most of the desensitization observed in this study.


The angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE)-related carboxypeptidase, ACE2, is a type I integral membrane protein of 805 amino acids that contains one HEXXH + E zinc-binding consensus sequence. ACE2 has been implicated in the regulation of heart function and also as a functional receptor for the coronavirus that causes the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). To gain further insights into this enzyme, the first crystal structures of the native and inhibitor-bound forms of the ACE2 extracellular domains were solved to 2.2- and 3.0-Å resolution, respectively. Comparison of these structures revealed a large inhibitor-dependent hinge-bending movement of one catalytic subdomain relative to the other (∼16°) that brings important residues into position for catalysis. The potent inhibitor MLN-4760 ((S,S)-2-{1-carboxy-2-[3-(3,5-dichlorobenzyl)-3H-imidazol4-yl]-ethylamino}-4-methylpentanoic acid) makes key binding interactions within the active site and offers insights regarding the action of residues involved in catalysis and substrate specificity. A few active site residue substitutions in ACE2 relative to ACE appear to eliminate the S2′ substrate-binding subsite and account for the observed reactivity change from the peptidyl dipeptidase activity of ACE to the carboxypeptidase activity of ACE2.


An annuity is an insurance contract where a person (the annuitant) pays a premium upfront to obtain a stream of future payments until his or her death. To assess the value of an annuity, we calculate the ratio of the expected present value of annuity income to the annuity premium − this is known as the Money's Worth (MW). The MW takes into account the expected average longevity of annuitants and the interest they forego on their pension pot by buying an annuity. Using this approach, our findings are that i) on average between January 2006 and June 2014, an annuitant with a £50,000 pension pot can expect to receive back 94% of the premium paid when purchasing an annuity in the open market. MW is reasonably stable over this period, ii) annuities bought with smaller pension pots give proportionally worse value, iii) annuities bought on the open market give better value than annuities bought from the pension accumulation provider and iv) the fall in interest rates and increase in life expectancy has had a significant impact on annuity rates. We also compare the income generated by an annuity to selected alternative ways in which the pension pot can provide a retirement income, whereby a retiree has flexibility in how much income he or she can draw at any point of time during retirement. Such strategies may be available in the future, given the greater flexibility allowed by the 2014 Budget announcement. Our results suggest that an annuity gives good value for money when purchased using the Open Market Option compared to other strategies, because annuities allow a relatively high level of consumption while protecting the retiree from exhausting the pension pot. We find that where retirees do not accept investment risk, the income available to consumers is greater from an annuity rather than from the alternative strategies, apart from one strategy that comes with a significant risk that the retiree exhausts their pension pot. If retirees are willing to invest in risky assets, they may achieve higher levels of consumption than under an annuity; however, they also have to bear additional risk of exhausting the pension pot.


In many problems involving multiple image analysis, an image registration step is required. One such problem appears in brain tumor imaging, where baseline and follow-up image volumes from a tumor patient are often to-be compared. Nature of the registration for a change detection problem in brain tumor growth analysis is mainly rigid. Contrast enhanced T1-weighted MR images (CE-T1 MRI) are widely used in clinical practice for monitoring brain tumors. Over this modality, contours of the active tumor cells and whole tumor borders and margins are visually enhanced. In this thesis, a new technique to register serial CE-T1 MRI is presented. The proposed fully-automated method is based on five anatomical landmarks: eye balls, nose, confluence of sagittal sinus, and apex of superior sagittal sinus. After extraction of anatomical landmarks from fixed and moving volumes, a rigid transformation is estimated by minimizing the sum of squared distances between the landmark coordinates. Final result is refined with a surface registration, which is based on head masks confined to the surface of the scalp, as well as to a plane constructed from three of the extracted features. The overall registration is not intensity based, and it depends only on the inherent anatomical structures. Validation studies using both synthetically transformed MRI data, and real MRI scans, which included several markers over the head of the patient were performed. In addition, comparison studies against manual landmarks marked by a radiologist, as well as against the results obtained from ITK mean squares and cross correlation based methods were carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.


The significance and importance of global education and a culturally relevant curriculum have been thrown into relief by the events of Sept. 11, 2001, emphasizing the urgency to understand and be accepting of diverse cultures. This has a strong bearing on the "enculturation" role of schools, as agents of cultural reproduction. The traditional curriculum transmits Euro-American norms that are seen as the primary American culture. The possible positive effects of a culturally responsive and diverse curriculum (CDC) have been detailed, including affi rming the value of cooperation, helping students and teachers build an identity by comparing what they have learned in the classroom with their own experiences, and the importance of a caring community (Gay, 2000; LadsonBillings, 1992b; Sleeter & Grant, 1991; Zimpher & Ashburn, 1984). There is little doubt that schools should be more inclusive and that schoolbased personnel should appreciate and affi rm what minority teachers bring to facilitate the development of a culturally relevant curriculum that is academically rigorous (Quiocho & Rios, 2000) but there is no systemic effort to genuinely shift from a Western perspective to include other perspectives and materials (Foster, 1994, cited in Quiocho & Rios, 2000; Gay, 2000). However, adopting CDC or culturally congruent approaches to teaching has its own pitfalls. They can render teachers suspect by the broader school community since such approaches do not conform to the mainstream (Conner, 2002; Foster, 1994; Lipka, 1994, cited in Quiocho & Rios, 2000). Further, race and race-related pedagogy are not considered appropriate topics for discussion among faculty members, and issues regarding them are not raised in faculty forums (Foster, 1994, cited in Quiocho & Rios, 2000). Where there is no self-examination, there is unlikely to be an expectation of overt support. The result is that the voices of minority teachers have been silenced and many of them do not have a role as decision-makers beyond the everyday decisions that teachers make in the classroom (Goodwin, Genishi, Asher, & Woo, 1997; Irvine, 2002; Quiocho & Rios, 2000). These issues as they relate to Asian Americans have other features that complicate the matter. The term "Asian American," classed as one group for purposes of census and political policy, embraces sub-groups that differ widely in matters of language, religion, and cultural practices and beliefs. This multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-literate profi le engenders a lack of coherent cultural identity so that only a narrow slice is represented in the broad spectrum of the curriculum (Gay, 2000). In the past three decades, the AsianAmerican population has been overlooked in terms of the demographic profile in spite of a dramatic increase of about 63%. Of Asian Americans, nearly a fourth is under 17 and of school-going age, accounting for about 3% of the total K-12 student population (Smith, Rogers, Alsalam, Perie, Mahoney, & Martin, 1994) while accounting for only 1.2% of the nation's teaching force (Snyder & Hoffman, 1994). Their low visibility is compounded by the fact that they are not evenly represented across the country in all regions; clustered along the East and West coasts, they are largely "missing in action" in the Midwest and South (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). Unlike other minority communities, there is no scarcity of qualifi ed persons in this community in which 37% aged 25 or older is college educated. Yet, specifi cally among Asian-American women who hold degrees, only 1% goes into teaching, a profession still dominated by women. Many of the rest opt for jobs in technical and scientifi c fi elds which are higher-paying and where discrimination is perceived to be less of a barrier to advancement (Rong & Preissle, 1997; Su, Goldstein, Suzuki & Kim, 1997). Emerging literature on Asian Americans shows that perceptions about the community are often at odds with reality. Asian Americans desire to be 'normal,' to fi t in (Gordon, 2000). Whether it is to be accepted as "honorary Whites" so as not to remain "forever foreigners," or to get by in a racist society by staying quiet and behaving so that nobody would bother them (Tuan, 1998), Asian Americans indicate a desire to assimilate and to nullify their Asian roots. Their integration seems to depend on how mainstream they are, which argues for assimilation not accommodation. Viewed as a "model minority," selfesteem issues that are cited in support of African-American and Hispanic profi les in the curriculum may not appear to be applicable to Asian-American students. While Research


Sometimes restoring a building is more complicated than constructing a new one, not simply because of the historical value of the part which is to be preserved, but also bearing in mind the state of the structure is often not known before the project gets underway. This makes these commissions a real challenge as the architect must put into practice very different strategies to those deployed on a new-build, often resulting in a very satisfying experience.This book presents 28 case studies of sensitive conversions, including work from Enric Miralles, Jo Crepain and Greg Gong. The projects include residential conversions of historic buildings such as the Hamburg Soup Kitchen, farmhouses and warehouses. The highlights include the House with A Porch in Asti, the exterior changed not a jot, and the Temple of Love, a pagan study in glass and stone that rose from the ruins of a Burgundy railway station. The descriptive text focuses on the specific problems to be overcome and the often creative strategies deployed to this end. The studies are clear and uncluttered with plenty of plans and photographs.


The relationship between past and present lifestyle and urinary excretion of type I collagen cross-linked N-telopeptides (NTx) was studied in 61 Japanese females aged 34-59, with a view toward using NTx excretion rates as a predictor of future osteoporosis. Bone mineral density (BMD) of the lumbar spine, the speed of sound (SOS) and broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA) of the os calcis, urinary NTx, serum osteocalcin (BGP) and bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BAP) were measured. Stiffness index (stiffness) was calculated from SOS and BUA. The subjects were asked whether they took regular exercise in their childhood and teen years (in elementary, junior-high, senior-high school and college), the past (20-40 years of age) and present adulthood. Regular calcium intake, smoking habits, alcohol and other beverage consumption and milk consumption were also covered in the questionnaire. The mean NTx values of premenopausal and postmenopausal group were 22.2 and 56.0 nM bone collagen equivalents (BCE)/mM urinary creatinine (Cr), respectively. The group which did not exercise regularly between the ages of 20 and 40 had a higher mean NTx value (40.9 nMBCE/mMCr) than the group which did exercise regularly (22.7 nMBCE/mMCr). In multiple regression analyses, age, stiffness and exercise in past adulthood could explain 43.5% of the NTx variance. For prevention of bone metabolic increases around menopause, habitual exercise in early adulthood seems to be effective.


The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Check-in/Check-out intervention (CICO; Crone, Hawken, & Horner, 2010) when it is applied to children who display relationally aggressive behaviors. Previous research indicates that universal, school-wide, interventions are generally ineffective in decreasing behaviors associated with relational aggression. It may be that a targeted intervention, such as CICO, could be more effective. Three schools were selected for participation in the current project, and the fifth grade of each of these schools was targeted. One school served as the treatment school, while the other schools served as the delayed-treatment control school. Students in each participating classroom who exhibited relationally aggressive behaviors above their class mean as reported by teachers participated in the CICO intervention for four weeks. During intervention, targeted students were assigned an adult mentor to check-in and check-out with each day, and teachers gave students feedback on their behavior throughout the school day. Effects on targeted students and other students in the grade were evaluated through repeated measures analyses of variance. It was hypothesized that reductions in both relationally aggressive behavior and self-reported rates of victimization by relationally aggressive behavior would result. The data did not support these hypotheses. Generally, students in the treatment group reported increased levels of relational aggression following treatment, while students in the delayed-treatment group reported decreasing levels. Teachers reported decreasing levels of relationally aggressive behaviors in their students over time, though these results were not significant. Victimization by relational aggression decreased following intervention, though this result was also not significant. Results, implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.


Tap into the power of social media and increase course effectiveness! Faculty will learn to choose the appropriate social media tool for the intended learning outcome, design engaging and innovative activities, and better meet pedagogical needs. In addition, the author offers strategies for assessing and documenting the effectiveness of using these tools in your course. Administrators and student affairs professionals will also find a wealth of information useful for planning faculty development programs and communicating with students.Although the book focuses on higher education, tools and techniques presented here can be easily generalized for K12 classrooms or organizational learning. The best practices and faculty development tips can be informative for individuals involved in any kind of professional development or network-building.


Objective: The present study sought to identify the structure of South Korean student bully and victim groups based upon longitudinal data and the association of groups with social–ecological based factors at the individual (age, sex, father and mothers' educational status, household income, aggression, depression, smoking, drinking, type of family structure), family (neglect, abuse), friend–peer (peer relationships, number of delinquent friends), and school (school activity, school rules, teacher relationship) levels. Method: Participants were 2,284 2nd-year middle school students (50.5% male; Mage = 14.0 years) who completed the Korea Children and Youth Panel Survey annually for 3 years. Results: Latent class analysis identified victims (4.5%), bullies (2.8%), bully victims (1%), and uninvolved students (91.8%) across time. At the individual level, compared to uninvolved group, bully victims and bullies were more likely to smoke and drink alcohol; all subgroups had higher levels of aggression; and bullies and victims were more likely to have depression. At the friend–peer level, victims reported poorer quality peer relationships, and both bully victims and bullies reported having more delinquent friends. At the school level, victims and bullies reported being less likely to engage in school activities, and bullies and bully victims reported being less likely to follow school rules. Conclusion: Certain social–ecological variables are relevant risk factors associated with each group of adolescents in South Korea. Our findings call for a holistic intervention strategy that addresses not only bullying but also problems such as smoking and drinking and depressive symptomatology.


Political settlements analysis has highlighted the role of powerful political and economic actors in shaping institutional outcomes across countries. Its focus on national elites, however, risks biasing this type of theorising towards local factors, when in fact many policy domains in developing countries have become transnationalised: much like private finance or transnational activism, foreign aid can play a significant role in shaping political settlements, for instance those underlying public finance management or basic service delivery. This paper has four aims. First, it revises the basic concept of political settlement with a combination of field theory and contentious politics that emphasises contestation between incumbents and challengers and the mechanisms through which they are affected by transnational forces. Second, based on this conceptual framework, it outlines six ideal types of aid influence over a developing-country political settlement, illustrating donor tendencies to support continuity or change. Third, it investigates the ethical implications of donor influence over political settlements, identifying the types of intervention favoured by consequentialist and non-consequentialist calculations. Finally, the paper presents the kernel for a practical ethic of assistance, which asks whether current debates in the aid community have fully come to terms with the responsibility that derives from agency in the contentious politics of inclusive development.


Why do some middle-income countries diversify their economies but fail to upgrade – to produce world-class products based on local inputs and technological capacities? Why have the 'little tigers' of Southeast Asia, such as Thailand, continued to lag behind the Newly Industrializing Countries of East Asia? Richard Doner goes beyond 'political will' by emphasizing institutional capacities and political pressures: development challenges vary; upgrading poses tough challenges that require robust institutional capacities. Such strengths are political in origin. They reflect pressures, such as security threats and resource constraints, which motivate political leaders to focus on efficiency more than clientelist payoffs. Such pressures help to explain the political institutions – 'veto players' – through which leaders operate. Doner assesses this argument by analyzing Thai development historically, in three sectors (sugar, textiles, and autos) and in comparison with both weaker and stronger competitors (Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, Brazil, and South Korea).


Creative innovation is achieved by observing the features of objects. This paper terms such a skill as ``the discovering viewpoints'' and proposes a framework for developing them. Our proposal implements the cognitive models of analogical reasoning that have been developed in the field of cognitive science. In the framework of this paper, learners are presented with an example of graphic composition, and they carry out the task by modifying the example. The cognitive models of analogical reasoning compute the similarities between the presented example and the learners' work. The computed similarities are assumed to be the estimations of the learners' viewpoints in the task. The learners receive the outputs of computations and reflect on their viewpoints. During the reflection, they look for hidden features in the graphics by manipulating three parameters of the similarity computations (the feature space, the abstractness, and the consistency). We developed a prototype system that implements the above framework, and conducted an experiment in which the developed system was used by the learners. As a result, we confirmed the workability of the system by analyzing the log files obtained in the experiment. Furthermore, we confirmed the effects of learning support on the development of discovering viewpoints by analyzing the subjective evaluations on the learners'.


Ecosystems changed dramatically during the Mesozoic marine revolution, including the rise of decapod crustaceans such as lobsters, shrimp, true crabs, and squat lobsters. However, quantitative patterns of decapod biodiversity through geological time are virtually unknown. This hampers our understanding of their importance in past ecosystems and timing and causes of their radiations and extinctions. Based on our compilation of ~1300 Mesozoic decapod species, we document a long-term shift in diversity of dominant groups, marked by the fi rst appearance and increasing presence of true crabs and, to a lesser extent, squat lobsters. By the end of the Mesozoic, true crabs became the primary contributor to decapod diversity, a pattern that has persisted until the present time. This "Mesozoic decapod revolution" was advanced by a major radiation of reef-dwelling crabs, which coincided with a dramatic expansion of reefs in the Late Jurassic. The subsequent collapse of reefs near the end of the Jurassic was mirrored by a sharp (albeit temporary) drop in decapod diversity driven primarily by extinctions of numerous species of crabs. This concurrent decline also suggests that decapods inhabiting reefs, especially obligatory reef dwellers, may face elevated extinction risks today as reef ecosystems continue to deteriorate. The reef-related diversifi cation of Late Jurassic decapods and the signifi cant correlation between decapod diversity and reef abundance throughout the Mesozoic underscore the macroevolutionary importance of biotic interactions and ecosystem engineering.


Background Although illegal drug use has largely been declining in the UK over the past decade, this period has witnessed the emergence of a range of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) ('legal highs'). These are new, mostly synthetic, substances that mimic the effects of existing drugs). Despite there being many causes for concern in relation to NPS, there has been little prior study of the burden associated with their use in public health terms. Clarity is lacking on research priorities in this rapidly developing literature. Objectives To inform the development of public health intervention research on NPS by reviewing existing data on their use, associated problems and potential responses to such problems. Design A scoping review and narrative synthesis of selected bodies of evidence was undertaken to summarise and evaluate what is known about NPS use and the related harms of, and responses to, such use. Relevant literature was identified from electronic databases (covering January 2006 to June 2016 inclusive), Google (Google Inc., Mountain View, CA, USA), relevant websites and online drug forums and by contacting experts. Articles were included if they were primary studies, secondary studies involving the analysis and interpretation of primary research or discussion papers. A conceptual framework postulating an evidence-informed public health approach to NPS use in the UK was developed through a pragmatic literature review, the iterative development of concepts and finalisation in light of the results from the empirical review work. The process also involved feedback from various stakeholders. Research recommendations were developed from both strands of work. Results A total of 995 articles were included in the scoping review, the majority of which related to individual-level health-related adverse effects attributable to NPS use. The prevalence of lifetime NPS use varied widely between (e.g. with higher prevalence in young males) and within population subgroups. The most commonly reported adverse effects were psychiatric/other neurological, cardiovascular, renal and gastrointestinal manifestations, and there is limited evidence available on responses. In these and other respects, available evidence is at an early stage of development. Initial evidence challenges the view that NPS should be treated differently from other illicit drugs. The conceptual framework indicated that much of the evidence that would be useful to inform public health responses does not yet exist. We propose a systems-based prevention approach that develops existing responses, is multilevel and life course informed in character, and emphasises commonalities between NPS and other legal and illegal drug use. We make 20 recommendations for research, including nine key recommendations. Limitations Scoping reviews do not interrogate evidence in depth, and the disjunction between the scoping review and the conceptual framework findings is worthy of careful attention. Conclusions Key research recommendations build on those that have previously been made and offer more evidence-based justification and detail, as previous recommendations have not yet been acted on. The case for decision-making on commissioning new research based on these recommendations is both strong and urgent. Future work The validity of recommendations generated through this project could be enhanced via further work with research commissioners, policy-makers, researchers and the public. Study registration The systematic review element of this study is registered as PROSPERO CRD42016026415. Funding The National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research programme.


This article explores whether transnational corporations or their executives can be held criminally or civilly liable for aiding and abetting human rights violations committed by governments, militaries or other actors in foreign countries where they do business. The article particularly examines the mens rea element under international law: whether the aider or abettor must knowingly - or instead purposefully - assist the principal to commit a crime. At present, the principal concern of major corporations about liability for aiding and abetting is the risk of being held liable in U.S. courts under the Alien Tort Statute. But whatever happens with ongoing ATS litigation, the issue of aiding and abetting may become more important in the future in other contexts - including the International Criminal Court, national courts in the home countries of major corporations, and national courts in developing countries where large companies do business. If the standards were clarified for aiding and abetting, and especially for the mens rea element, the resulting legal certainty would be fairer for both corporate managers and victims of human rights violations, while avoiding needless sources of friction among states. As aiding and abetting liability evolves for corporate actors, several principles of international law should be borne in mind. First, even if corporations per se cannot be prosecuted before international criminal tribunals, corporate executives have long been subject to international criminal jurisdiction. Second, international criminal law has long recognized criminal responsibility for aiding and abetting. Third, international law recognizes that civil liability of corporations is widely accepted by national justice systems. Fourth, international law increasingly encourages states to hold corporations criminally responsible for aiding and abetting violations of international law. Combining these principles, whatever may have been the status of corporate aiding and abetting liability in the apartheid era, international norms against corporate aiding and abetting of violations of international criminal law are now widely accepted internationally.


A rationally designed polymer (RDP) capable of recognizing α-tocopherol and other minor components in sunflower oil has been produced. It is known that sunflower oil is a source of various physiologically active compounds. Unfortunately, they are present in very minor quantities which make their purification from the complex oil matrix problematic. An extraction method presented here was developed with particular attention to the selectivity, efficiency and precision of the extraction process. The methacrylic acid-based RDP in combination with the optimised purification method allowed the extraction of α-tocopherol with 94% recovery. The synthesised polymer was used successfully to extract α-tocopherol together with other essential minor components of sunflower oil without any pre-treatment step. According to GC/MS, the compounds 'harvested' from sunflower oil using the developed polymer included palmitic, oleic and linoleic acids, α-tocopherol, campesterol, stigmasterol, and β-sitosterol.


Cross-modal hashing is designed to facilitate fast search across domains. In this work, we present a cross-modal hashing approach, called quantized correlation hashing (QCH), which takes into consideration the quantization loss over domains and the relation between domains. Unlike previous approaches that separate the optimization of the quantizer independent of maximization of domain correlation, our approach simultaneously optimizes both processes. The underlying relation between the domains that describes the same objects is established via maximizing the correlation between the hash codes across the domains. The resulting multi-modal objective function is transformed to a unimodal formalization, which is optimized through an alternative procedure. Experimental results on three real world datasets demonstrate that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art multi-modal hashing methods.


Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 is an autosomal dominant cancer predisposition syndrome caused by mutations in the tumor‐suppressor gene MEN1. The gene encodes a nuclear protein, menin, with no recognized functional motifs. Menin has been shown negatively to regulate transcriptional activation mediated by JunD, although the significance of this interaction in normal cell physiology and how the absence of menin leads to tumorigenesis are unknown. Menin is highly expressed in testes. We used immunocytochemistry to explore its role in meiosis and found that it localizes exclusively at telomeres. JunD was not found at telomeres in meiotic cells. In view of elevated telomerase activity or abnormal telomere structure in virtually all malignancies, regulation of telomere function would be an appealing role for a tumor suppressor. However, menin does not specifically associate with telomeres in somatic cells, as indicated by lack of co‐localization with the known telomeric protein TRF2. Cells overexpressing menin had normal telomerase activity, and tumors with homozygous MEN1 mutations showed no aberrations in telomere length, indicating that menin does not directly regulate telomerase activity. The role of menin at meiotic telomeres appears to be independent of JunD and may not have a counterpart in somatic cells. These results suggest that menin may play different roles in different tissues through interactions with different proteins. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Is today's changing media landscape in the Middle East empowering women? This is the first book to address the dynamics of media ecology and women's advancement in the contemporary Middle East. The book spans both the region and media forms, from Iran's women's press, via Maghrebi women filmmakers and Egyptian political films, Palestinian TV and Hezbollah's TV station, Al-Manar. It takes as its starting point the diverse experiencees and multi-layered identities of women and treats media institutions and practices as part of wider power relations in society. By analysing media production, consumption and texts, it reveals where and how gender boundaries have been erected or crossed.


The present paper deals with a model developed and used at the Danish Ministry of Agriculture, Bureau of Land Data, for calculation of the amount of water needed for irrigation. The model incorporates information on soil types and their geographical distribution, soil water retention and root development in relation to soil types, and climatic conditions such as water deficits.


ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to elucidate and discuss the results of the 2016 Diversity Barometer (Mångfaldsbarometern) and compare these results with those obtained from ten years of the longitudinal Diversity Barometers for 2005–2014. An additional aim is to demonstrate whether and how Swedish people's experiences of and attitudes toward people with a foreign background and ethnic diversity have changed. A random sample of the Swedish population took part in the annual study, which was carried out in the form of a nationwide postal survey. The results show that negative attitudes toward ethnic and cultural diversity in general, and migrant population in particular, have increased to some extent and with respect to certain issues. Views on diversity in relation to culture and religion – especially Islam – were more negative than views on diversity in relation to work. Those who have larger experience of contact with foreigners show a more positive attitude toward diversity compared with those with limited experience and contact. Individuals who have higher education, those who identify themselves as female, younger persons and those living in large cities are more positive than other groups. In our analysis of the empirical data, we proceeded from a social work perspective and applied contact theory and group conflict theories relating attitudes to group position.


It is October 2009 and Gary Fry, chief executive officer of Global Graphics, is faced with a tough decision. Global Graphics — a technology expert with 20 years experience in developing and selling printing equipment and software exclusively to original equipment manufacturers — is about to release a revolutionary desktop PDF application targeted directly at office workers. With less than two months before the official launch, however, there is still considerable debate on what the actual price of the product should be. Fry is adamant that the "right" price will help Global Graphics achievethe ambitious sales and customer acquisition objectives set by the management team. In addition, he understands the importance of establishing Global Graphics as a viable alternative to Adobe, the undisputed leader in the end user market for business software. What is the price point that best serves these seemingly conflicting goals?


The commercial mobile phone industry is a relatively new one. Starting out in the 1980s, it has proliferated in both numbers and in terms of technology. The last decade saw a sharp increase in both the number of subscribers and the amount of services which was offered by mobile devices. In order to keep up with this fast evolution of the industry, phones have started to get much more complicated and 'smarter' due to the software which is used to run these phones. Multi touch screen menus, High Definition video playback, multi megapixel cameras and a plethora of connectivity options are just some of the features a consumer takes for granted in his/her new mobile device. In order to provide these services to the user the software inside the phone has gotten complex to the scale of becoming its own Operating System much akin to the Operating Systems used on personal computers. These mobile operating systems contain millions of lines of software code and cost a lot of money to maintain and develop. Moreover having a popular operating system benefits the organization as it draws in many developers who can write applications which run on this operating system and also develop services which are specific to the operating systems. Having these services generate revenue for the network operators who get to bill the consumers for using the services or for the data which has been transferred to and from these mobile phones via the operator's network. Nokia's dominant market share in the smartphone market entails that it holds a near 40% share with its smartphone operating systems. Gradually the company has been moving towards opening up its previously proprietary operating systems to the public in the form of Open Source Software, where everyone is able to view, share, distribute and contribute to the software code. This strategy change has been taking place over the last couple of years and continues under an overall change of direction and focus which is taking place in the company. This thesis work relates as to what exactly is the current placement of Nokia in the economic and mobile devices market and how the company has been adapting to the challenges it has been facing at the hands of both old and new rivals who have been coming with innovative ideas in order to topple over Nokia from its throne of being the biggest mobile phone maker in the world. The thesis first looks at exactly what is Open Source Software. From there it gradually moves to do comparisons between closed and Open Source Software in order to give the reader an idea as to what are the pros and cons of each. In the second half of the thesis a snapshot of the current market situation and competitors is given in order to understand the environment in which Nokia has been working and developing its strategy in. Later on the thesis goes in depth about the decisions, their triggers and their implications with regards to Nokia and the use of Open Source Software as a strategy in this changing environment.


Processes of increasing integration and globalization and their influence on nation-state sovereignty, political subjectivity and citizenship are analyzed in the article. The formation of common European identity is discussed. It emphasizes the loosing role of national factor and its transformation into multiculturalism. The concept of allegiance is particularly useful for understanding the complex and problematic relation between a national citizenship, a nation state, and a transnational or supranational policy. The general hypothesis is that European allegiance does not depend on how people look at European integration. How a public understands the European Community or Union (EC, EU) in a general way is most likely largely inconsequential. The extend to which people are attached to locality, region or country is arguably not directly related to their "European" attachment. Instead, European allegiance must be viewed as originating in national allegiance. National allegiance, in turn, is contingent on national social and economic performance. European integration, therefore, depends on a double allegiance, consisting of a primary allegiance to the nation-state and its political elite and secondary allegiance to the EC or EU.


An indolinooxazolidine tagged N-heterocyclic carbene Ru olefin metathesis catalyst was synthesized and the molecular structure of this new Ru complex was determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. This complex is a homogeneous catalyst and can be recovered by controlling the polarity of the indolinooxazolidine tag. Under acidic conditions the indolinooxazolidine tag exists as an open protonated form and under basic conditions the tag is in a closed form. The distribution of this catalyst in a two-phase system can be controlled by simply changing the pH, making the recovery of this catalyst easily obtainable.


The Habad school of Hasidism is distinguished today from other hasidic groups by its famous emphasis on outreach, on messianism, and on empowering women. This book provides a critical, thematic study of the movement from its beginnings, showing how its unusual qualities evolved. Topics investigated include the theoretical underpinning of the outreach ethos; the turn towards women in the twentieth century; new attitudes to non-Jews; the role of the individual in the hasidic collective; spiritual contemplation in the context of modernity; the quest for inclusivism in the face of prevailing schismatic processes; messianism in both spiritual and political forms; and the direction of the movement after the passing of its seventh rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, in 1994. Attention is given to many contrasts: pre-modern, modern, and postmodern conceptions of Judaism; the clash between maintaining an enclave and outreach models of Jewish society; particularist and universalist trends; and the subtle interplay of mystical faith and rationality. Some of the chapters are new; others, published in an earlier form, have been updated to take account of recent scholarship. This book presents an in-depth study of an intriguing movement which takes traditional Hasidism beyond modernity.


The focus of this article will not be on either the historical or political debate surrounding the concept of subsidiarity, which are important topics in themselves. Instead I will discuss the semantics of the concept of subsidiarity from the viewpoint of its socio-anthropological implications. The rationale for this purpose is the following. The evidences of contrasting—and even contradictory—meanings of the word subsidiarity remind us that, in order to understand this principle, we must, first of all, clarify the socio-anthropological foundations that support the different semantics of the term. This is a task to be accomplished as a premise for the justification of the way we use this principle in our theory and practice and why we resort to one semantic instead of another. Peirpaolo Donati, "What Does 'Subsidiarity' Mean? The Relational Perspective," Journal of Markets & Morality 12, no. 2 (Fall 2009): 211-243


Knee injury rehabilitation often includes the step-up exercise. However, the authors have been unable to locate documentation of the effect of the step-up exercise on lower extremity strength indices. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a six-week lateral step-up exercise protocol on quadriceps muscle group strength. Twenty female nonetheless (age 20 ± 1.5 yrs, ht 162.6 ± 4.9 cm, wt = 64.1 ± 0.5 kg) were randomly assigned to a control or experimental group. Pretest concentric and eccentric strength measures were obtained at 60°/sec on a Kin- Corn isokinetic dynamometer. Thigh girth measurements were obtained 10 and 20 cm superior to the knee joint line. An independent t-test of the difference between pre and post isokinetic strength and girth measurements between the control and experimental groups revealed no significant difference (p> .05). In addition, no significant difference was found for the exercised and nonexercised extremity for the experimental group (p > .05). These findings suggest that this lateral step-up protocol did not provide sufficient overload to increase isokinetic strength of the quadriceps muscle group or increase thigh girth in healthy subjects, In addition, open chain assessment of muscle strength may not adequately assess strength changes incurred via closed chain exercise. Clinicians should use caution in assuming that step-up exercises provide sufficient overload to increase thigh girth or isokinetic quadriceps peak torque values.


The polar electric potential imposed on the ionosphere by coupling between the earth's magnetosphere and the solar wind has been shown to have a non-linear response to the interplanetary electric field (IEF). This dissertation presents an empirical study of this polar cap potential saturation phenomenon. First, the saturation of the reverse convection potential under northward is demonstrated using bin-averaged SuperDARN data. Then, the saturation reverse convection potential is shown to saturate at a higher value at higher solar wind plasma beta. The reverse convection flow velocity is then compared with cross-polar cap flows under southward IMF under summer, winter and equinox conditions. It is demonstrated that the reverse convection flow exhibits the opposite seasonal behavior to cross polar cap flow under southward IMF. Then, an interhemispheric case study is performed to provide an explanation for the seasonal behavior of the reverse convection potential. It is found using DMSP particle precipitation data that the reverse convection cells in the winter circulate at least partially on closed field lines. Finally, SuperDARN and DMSP data are merged to provide polar cap potential measurements for a statistical study of polar cap potential saturation under southward IMF. It is found that the extent of polar cap potential saturation increases with increasing Alfvènic Mach number, and has no significant relation to Alfvèn wing transmission coefficient or solar wind dynamic pressure.


It is the first time in history that more people are living in cities than in rural areas. As urban space has become the central aspect of modern societies creating new types of vulnerabilities, resilience has emerged as a key priority for urban planners as well as civil protection officers aiming to build smart and more disaster resilient cities. There is a large set of urban planning practices, such as hazard mapping and building permits, aiming at increasing urban disaster resilience. However, there is still a lack of endeavour to research how these urban planning processes are being incorporated into national civil protection systems. Therefore, this paper aims to bridge the gap and analyses the relationship between urban planning and civil protection in conceptualizing resilient space planning processes. In this paper, using a case study approach, we examine if and how, the Danish Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) integrates urban planning and civil protection in Denmark in order to build more resilient cities. To do this, we draw upon the knowledge of those working within the urban planning and civil protection systems to identify the opportunities and obstacles for the existence of their cooperation. Copenhagen, ranked the world's most climate resilient city, was selected for the urban planning case analysis, as well as Vejle, being part of the "100 Resilient Cities" network. The results indicate that although both DEMA and urban planners aim to build disaster resilient cities and wish to contribute to creating a more resilient society, the dialogue between the two bodies is almost non-existent with regards to resilient urban space planning processes.


The paper examines recent developments in the international higher education sector in Kyrgyzstan. It attempts to:
(i) provide an explanation for why the country has outperformed its Central Asian (CA) neighbours and become a regional leader in recruiting international students, and
(ii) assess the impact of international students on the Kyrgyz economy.
Surveys, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with 100 international students from 10 different countries, including Afghanistan, were conducted. Findings suggest that the main factors that led to the increasing number of foreign students in Kyrgyzstan are: the relatively low cost of education and living; the perceived good quality of education; soft university entry requirements; proximity to home countries; the opportunity to study in different languages; and the availability of donor funded scholarships. There is room for further expansion of cooperation between Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan in the area of higher education by attracting more Afghan students to the country. Based on survey data on foreign student expenditures, international students contributed 0.25% of gross domestic product in 2011.


Theranostic nanoplatforms represent an important tool in the diagnosis and therapy of many major diseases, especially in the field of cancer theranostics, for which a myriad of nanoplatforms, such as polymeric micelles, liposomes and inorganic nanoparticles (NPs), have been designed and developed in recent decades. Among these nanoplatforms, silica NPs provide many advantages over other similar systems for therapeutics, bioimaging, bio-adhesives and many other biomedical applications. Therapeutic nanoplatforms based on mesoporous silica NPs (typically of pore size 2–50 nm) have been reviewed extensively. Herein, we provide an overview of recent advances in the development of theranostic nanoplatforms based on nonporous silica NPs within a size range of 1–200 nm for many critical biomedical applications, particularly stimuli-triggered drug delivery, precise cancer diagnosis as well as tissue bio-adhesive materials.


This commentary examines how Mali entered its current crisis, tracing the fall of the regime of President Amadou Toumani Toure and the rise of armed Islamist groups in northern Mali, as well as the events that led to an armed intervention by France. The piece then discusses some of the conceptual frameworks that could impede effective policy formation in post-conflict Mali. The piece argues that Somalia does not offer a compelling model for Mali. The commentary closes by recommending that the Malian government and its partners should prioritize addressing humanitarian and security concerns in northern Mali over staging elections.


INTRODUCTION The species of the genus Priapulus occur in rather cold water. Hence, their shallow-water distribution is restricted to northern and southern waters (fig. 1); there are only a few isolated records from sub-tropical localities. However, in deep water the genus apparently has a world-wide distribution (fig. 2). The northern species (P. caudatus De Lamarck) and the southern species (P. tuberculatospinosus Baird) from shallow water are well defined but the specimens from the deep sea present systematical problems. In my survey of the Priapulida (Van der Land, 1970) I could not answer the question of their identity, because I had seen only very few specimens from deep water and not a single one from the tropical deep sea. Meanwhile I could study the material collected during cruises of the Russian R.V. "Vitjaz" (10 specimens), the Danish R.V. "Galathea" (2 specimens), and the American R.V. "Vema" (1 specimen) and R.V. "Eltanin" (2 specimens), i.e., 15 of the 20 specimens known from abyssal and hadal depths. The results are given in the present paper, which should be considered an addendum to my earlier paper. MATERIAL Priapulids have not been obtained from the deep sea very often. Probably this is not due to their rarity but to their digging habits and their usually low population densities (they are predacious animals). Below are listed all specimens, to my knowledge, that have been taken from depths greater than 2000 m. Each specimen is given a number for easy reference. The specimens not seen by the author are indicated with an asterisk. The three type specimens of Priapulus profundus (no. 1-3) could not be


Nanoemulsions, kinetically stable and thermodynamically unstable colloidal liquid-in-liquid dispersions with droplet sizes in the order of 20–500 nm mainly con-sist of oil, surfactants, co surfactants and an aqueous phase. There are various methods for the fabrication of Nano-emulsions which can be divided based on the energy required—High energy emulsification methods and Low energy emulsification methods. High energy emulsification includes methods like Ultra sonication, high pressure homogenization using either microfluidizers or high-pressure homogenizers. Low energy emulsification has drawn attention since they are soft, nondestruc-tive and cause no damage to encapsulated molecules and includes methods like phase inversion temperature, solvent displacement, phase inversion composition method. Nanoemulsions are best suited for drug delivery systems because of their lipophilic nature, optical clarity and surface area. Owing to their nature to prevent flocculation and inherent creaming, nanoemulsions find an important place in the cosmetic industry also. This chapter provides an insight into the use of nanogels, emulsion based wet wipes and PEG free nanoemulsions in cosmetics. In the food industry, nanoemulsions are utilized for the production of functional foods. Some of the patented nanoemulsions and their commercial applications have also been mentioned.