Objectives
This randomized, double-blinded, crossover study measured the acute effect of ingesting a mixed flavonoid-caffeine (MFC) supplement compared to placebo (PL) on energy expenditure (EE) and fat oxidation (FATox) in a metabolic chamber with pre-menopausal women (N = 19, mean ± SD, age 30.7 ± 8.0 y, BMI 25.7 ± 3.4 kg/m2).

Methods
The MFC supplement (678 mg flavonoids, split dose 8:30 am, 1:00 pm) contained quercetin (200 mg), green tea catechins (368 mg, 180 mg EGCG), and anthocyanins (128 mg) from bilberry extract, and 214 mg caffeine. Participants were measured twice in a metabolic chamber for a day, 4 weeks apart, with primary outcomes including EE for 5 defined time segments and 22 h (22hEE, 8:30-6:30 am), substrate utilization from the respiratory quotient (RQ), physical activity counts, and plasma caffeine levels (4:00 pm). Areas under the curve (AUC) for metabolic data from the MFC and PL trials were calculated for 5 time segments using the trapezoid rule, with a mixed linear model (GLM) used to evaluate the overall treatment effect, and paired t-tests used to compare data for each time segment.

Results
EE and oxygen consumption for the MFC trial were significantly higher than PL (p < 0.001) when AUCs were compared as a whole and for each defined segment except during sleep. 22hEE with MFC was significantly higher than PL (1582 ± 143, 1535 ± 154 kcal/d, respectively, P = 0.003), with an average trial difference of 46.4 ± 57.8 kcal/d. Activity counts were not significantly different between trials (P = 0.671). RQ values were similar between the MFC and PL trials (0.819 ± 0.021, 0.826 ± 0.022, respectively, P = 0.281). FATox trended higher for MFC when evaluated using GLM (99.2 ± 14.0, 92.4 ± 14.4 grams/22 h, P = 0.054). Plasma caffeine levels were significantly higher in the MFC versus PL trial (5031 ± 289, 276 ± 323 ng/ml, respectively, P < 0.001). The trial differences for 22hEE and plasma caffeine were unrelated after controlling for age and body mass (r = -0.249, P = 0.139).

Conclusions
EE was higher for MFC compared to PL, and similar to effects estimated from previous trials using caffeine alone. A small effect of the MFC on FATox was measured, in contrast to inconsistent findings previously reported for this caffeine dose. The trial variance for 22hEE was not related to the large variance in plasma caffeine levels.

Funding Sources
Reoxcyn LLC.


Through the Association of African Central Bank Governors, in 2003, Africa committed itself to work for a single currency and common central bank by 2021. In pursuit of this grand objective, many regional trading blocs including the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC) are involved in various economic integration activities. Forming a monetary union is a serious endeavour that needs serious and deliberate consideration. Sufficient and sound economic basis, such as similar economic structures, should be in place. The purpose of this paper was to assess the feasibility of monetary union in the SADC and EAC by determining the similarities of the economic structures in the regions through business cycle synchronisation. This study uses annual real GDP of each country in the two regions for a period of 30 years. The results of correlation analysis and T-Y Granger causality test suggest that there is overwhelming lack of business cycle synchronisation in the two economic regions, suggesting that it is not feasible to form a monetary union in these two economic regions as envisaged in the timeframe. The two economic regions, therefore, need to set and coordinate major macroeconomic policies to harmonise and achieve sustainable economic development goals in their respective regions.


This article explores the devolution of HRM in a hospital context. Based on secondary data and 128 interviews conducted in nine hospitals across three European countries (Ireland, the Netherlands and UK), we examine roles and responsibility for HRM under devolution and coordination between those delivering it. Findings challenge bi-partite conceptions of devolution, identifying a tripartite model with: (1) HR practitioners, (2) line managers and, (3) senior professionals (managers and specialists) implementing HRM. Involving senior professionals in HRM reflects longstanding concern regarding managerial legitimacy in overseeing professional work. In the tripartite relationship each party has scope to contribute to people-management: HR practitioners to formulate a strategic framework, HR practices, and provide advisory services; line managers to implement HR practices and interface between HR and front-line professionals and; senior professionals to act as line managers' advocates and provide expert knowledge and credibility to inform people-related decision-making. However, lack of role clarity and tensions in coordination relate to the differing goals of, and distance between, the HR function, line managers and senior professionals. Our theoretical reframing of devolution notes potential for tripartite relational involvement to enhance HR performance in professional service contexts, the contingencies affecting this and potential implications for the HR architecture.


Crime and the fear of being hit by crime and small-scale violence are key economic and social problems in most developing countries, not least felt strongly by the poor. Extensive corruption in the police, experienced or perceived, contributes seriously to the problem. A key question raised in the paper is: How is police corruption linked to the wider processes of development - including crime, violence and poverty? The paper examines (i) how and why corruption may arise in the daily routines of the police and whether it may have impacts on crime rates; (ii) empirical indications of whether the police may be more corrupt than other groups of public officials; (iii) how and why police corruption may vary across countries; and (iv) the wider impacts of police corruption on development


Eradication of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) is performed by conducting cooperation between cross-program and cross-sector coordinated by Head of local government and supported by community participation. In Semarang City, the program has not achieved a satisfied result even though the government has continually eradicated the disease. In fact, it is difficult to eradicate DHF due to some inhibitor factors. Aim of this research was to analyze the supporter and inhibitor factors as the basic for developing community participation model in form of social system structural model supported by an implementer organization of DHF eradication program in Semarang City.
This research was qualitative study using the method of documentation process. Subject was divided into three groups namely the policy maker (Semarang City Health Office) represented by 2 persons, the implementer program (Health Center) represented by 2 persons, and the receptor of the program (community) represented by 6 persons that consisted of 4 persons who were the management of organization for educating women on various aspects of family welfare and 2 persons who were the management of the neighborhood association. Data were analyzed using classification analysis, content analysis, and substantial analysis of documentation process.
Eradication of breeding place and monitoring of mosquito larva are mostly being used because of cheaper, easy to perform, and any support from community. Mother's knowledge is better than father's knowledge due to lack of socialization about DHF eradication program on fathers' group. There is still any rejection from community to raise fishes as an eater of mosquito larva. Community needs reward to perform DHF eradication in form of material and non material. Components of identified social system are mothers, group of ten houses, organization to educatewomen on various aspects of family welfare, and community at the lowest and medium level. Activities of community self-help are the cleaning of environment, draining, closing, burying, monitoring of mosquito larva, and elucidating.

Sumber Utama : www.mikm.undip.ac.id


Purpose â€" The purpose of this article is to test whether healthcare accreditation survey processes are reliable. Design/methodology/approach â€" The study uses multiple methods to document stakeholder experiences and views on accreditation survey reliability. There were 29 research activities, comprising 25 focus groups, three interviews and a survey questionnaire. In total, 193 stakeholders participated; 134 in face-to-face activities and 56 via questionnaire. All were voluntary participants. Using open-ended questioning, stakeholders were asked to reflect upon accreditation survey reliability. Findings â€" Stakeholders perceived healthcare accreditation surveys to be a reliable activity. They identified six interrelated factors that simultaneously promoted and challenged reliability: the accreditation program, including organisational documentation and surveyor accreditation reports; members' relationship to the accrediting agency and survey team; accreditation agency personnel; surveyor workforce renewal; surveyor workforce management; and survey team conduct including coordinator role. The six factors realised shared expectations and conduct by accreditation stakeholders; that is, they enabled accreditation stakeholder self-governance. Practical implications â€" Knowledge gained can be used to improve accreditation program reliability, credibility and ongoing self-governance. Originality/value â€" The paper is a unique examination of healthcare accreditation surveys the reliability. The findings have potential application to reliability in other healthcare areas. © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited


The highly dynamic processes within a hillslope‐riparian‐stream (HRS) continuum are known to affect streamflow generation, but are yet not fully understood. Within this study, we simulated a headwater HRS continuum in western Luxembourg with an integrated hydrologic surface subsurface model (HydroGeoSphere). The model was setup with thorough consideration of catchment‐specific attributes and we performed a multicriteria model evaluation (4 years) with special focus on the temporally varying spatial patterns of surface saturation. We used a portable thermal infrared (TIR) camera to map surface saturation with a high spatial resolution and collected 20 panoramic snapshots of the riparian zone (approx. 10 m × 20 m) under different hydrologic conditions. Qualitative and quantitative comparison of the processed TIR panoramas and the corresponding model output panoramas revealed a good agreement between spatiotemporal dynamic model and field surface saturation patterns. A double logarithmic linear relationship between surface saturation extent and discharge was similar for modeled and observed data. This provided confidence in the capability of an integrated hydrologic surface subsurface model to represent temporal and spatial water flux dynamics at small (HRS continuum) scales. However, model scenarios with different parameterizations of the riparian zone showed that discharge and surface saturation were controlled by different parameters and hardly influenced each other. Surface saturation only affected very fast runoff responses with a small volumetric contribution to stream discharge, indicating that the dynamic surface saturation in the riparian zone does not necessarily imply a major control on runoff generation.


My thesis work revolves around the ability
to modify the 1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane (cyclam) framework in order
tune the electronic properties of resulting metal complexes towards real life
applications. A huge direction for science and engineering is the pursuit of
Moore's Law, to constantly miniaturize electronic processes while improving
their performance. With the physical limits of copper wiring being reached on
nanoscale levels, alternative resources must be utilized. Naturally, the
absolute limit of wiring would be on the single molecular scale. It is this
idea that Chapters 1-3 are founded upon. Moving forward, I deemed three key
concepts are important for success of this project: (1) the ability for
modification of the molecule to be incorporated into existing technologies, (2)
redox stability of the molecular complexes to allow multiple charges to pass
through without losing integrity, and (3) the ability to function as a wire and
allow current to pass through. Requirement (1) has been proven possible in
previous work on cyclam, however (2) and (3) were yet to be shown for any
cobalt tetraazamacrocyclic complex until this work. Chapter
1 covers my first successful exploration into modification of the cylcam ligand
in order to obtain favorable electronic properties. Cobalt complexes utilizing
the MPC ligand (5,12-dimethyl-7,14-diphenyl-1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane)
show stability upon reduction, whereas the cyclam analogues did not. In fact,
[Co(MPC)(C2Ph)2]+ was the first cobalt based
tetraazamacrocyclic alkynyl complex to show such redox stability without the
use of heavily electron withdrawing axial ligands. It was found that this
improvement of redox stability is a result of the weakened equatorial ligand
field caused by the steric bulk of the phenyl substituents of the cyclam
framework. This in turn led to improved axial ligand bonding and hence greater
stability. This work shows the CoIII(MPC) framework can satisfy
requirement (2). Based
on the results of Chapter 1, Chapter 2 realizes the idea that with improved
axial ligand bond strengths in CoIII(MPC) complexes, the possibility
for electronic delocalization between cobalt and the axial ligand performing as
the wire is opened. A series of dinuclear CoIII(MPC) complexes, with
cobalt centers linked through a butadiyndiyl bridge, were prepared. With each
cobalt being identical, theoretically each should behave electrochemically similar
and reduction of the complex should be a single two electron event. It is
however shown that this two electron event was, in fact, split into two single
electron events. The source of this result is the delocalization of the first
added electron between both cobalt centers, effectively making two half-reduced
metals. Therefore, the ability for CoIII(MPC) complexes to satisfy
requirement (3) has been proven. Chapter
3 expands on the results shown in Chapters 1 and 2. Where Chapter 2 showed delocalization
of an electron between cobalt centers, Chapter 3 shows delocalization of a hole
through cobalt between ethynylferrocene ligands. With this, all three
requirements are met and the ability as Co(MPC) to function as a wire has been
proven for both oxidation and reduction, both between cobalt and through
cobalt.

 Chapter
4 takes a new direction, however applies the same basic principle as the
previous three in modifying the cyclam ligand to achieve desired properties.
Where application in electronic devices are made stable by use of the bulky MPC
ligand, application towards catalysis requires an open catalytic site and weak
enough axial coordination to allow the substrate to leave once reduced. Through
the alkyl substitution of the cyclam ligand in NiII(CTMC) (5,7,12,14-tetramethyl-1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane)
in place of the MPC ligand, electronically donating properties of the
macrocycle were maintained while opening the axial catalytic site. In this
work, it was shown that reduction in steric bulk of the ligand from phenyl to
ethyl to methyl, while maintaining electron donating properties, improved
catalytic efficiency and all complexes were superior to NiII(cyclam).


Jet bubble colum n is one of the methods that can be applied to reduce levels of ammonia solutions from a fertilizer industry wastewater. This study intends to evaluate the entrainment of gas volumetric flow rate , mass transfer , and ammonia removal efficiency . Process variables studied include effluent concentration ( 90-300 mg/L ), the liquid volumetric flow rate ( 10-50 L/min ), and nozzle diameter ( 8 - 12.7 mm ). It was found that t he liquid volumetric flow rate and nozzle diameter affects the volumetric rate of gas entrainment . The volumetric flow rate of gas entrainment can result in a significant effect on ammonia removal , while the ammonia concentration and volumetric flow rate of the liquid did not produce significant effects on ammonia removal . The overall volumetric mass transfer coefficients (K L a) have been calculated from obtained model and it was determined that increasing volumetric flow rate of gas entrainment have a very significant effect on K L a .


From Sacred Text to Internet addresses two key issues affecting the global spread of religion: first, the impact of new media on the ways in which religious traditions present their messages, and second, the global relocation of religions in novel geographical and social settings. The book offers extended studies of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and a wide-ranging survey chapter that refers to the presence on the Internet of many of the world's most influential religions. The chapters explore the relationship between scholarly reconstructions of the life of Jesus and representations of Jesus in contemporary popular cultures; the production and use of sacred images for the Hindu mass market; how Buddhism is represented and spread in the West; the Islamization of Egypt, its causes and influences; and the uses to which the Internet is put by religions as well as how information technology has influenced the future shape of religion.


The adsorption of pentacene, perfluoropentacene, other acenes, and biphenyl on a Cu(111) single-crystal surface was studied by a modified version of a van der Waals density functional. Accurate and consistent interface geometries and adsorption energies were obtained for the first time. All studied interactions between the organics and the metal are in the sensitive intermediate regime between chemisorption and physisorption, in which regime both geometric and electronic structures of the adsorbates are strongly modified by the metal surface. Adsorption induced gentle curving of flat acenes is demonstrated and explained (the ends of the acenes curving away from the metal relative to their center); in contrast, biphenyl, which is twisted when free, becomes coplanar after adsorption. More importantly, perfluoropentacene is "pinned" to Cu(111) by a sharp bend that creates a localized strong bond, which explains earlier puzzling experimental observations reported for perfluoropentacene relative to pentacene. ...


A multi-stage sampling design was used between January and May 2004 to explore the association between sociodemographic factors and consanguineous marriages in the Qatari population using a sample of 1800 Qatari females aged 15 years and above. Data on 1515 (85.8%) Qatari national families who gave their consent for the study were obtained. The socio-demographic factors considered were: husband's age, her own age, husband's and own educational levels, husband's occupationher own occupation, housing conditions, husband's parental kinship, her own parental kinship and kinship between the spouses. The rate of consanguineous marriages in the sample was found to be 54% with 95% estimated population confidence limits 52.4% to 55.6%. Consanguinity was more common for women with educated husbands (secondary or university / high) and the frequency of consanguineous marriage significantly increased when the husband's educational level was higher (p = 0.003). The results of stepwise multiple logistic regression analysis for the occurrence of consanguineous marriages showed that the wife's education, the husband's education and parents' consanguinity status were the only significant associated variables.


What I want to present here is, if not an alternative to Justice Robert Jackson's famous Youngstown framework, (1) at least a complement to that framework for approaching the President's foreign affairs power. My central proposition is that the eighteenth-century meaning of "executive" power included foreign affairs powers as well as the more familiar power to execute the law. Thus, Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution--which states that "the executive Power shall be vested in a President"--grants, in eighteenth-century terms, the power to execute the law plus foreign affairs powers. This is sometimes called Hamilton's vision of executive power, but its first reasoned exposition after the Constitution's ratification was actually made by Thomas Jefferson, and that is why I have called it the "Jeffersonian" executive power in prior articles. (2) Jefferson wrote: "The Constitution ... has declared that 'the Executive powers shall be vested in the President.' ... The transaction of business with foreign nations is Executive altogether. It belongs then to the head of that department, except as to such portions of it as are specially submitted to the Senate." (3) Of course, Jefferson was not a Framer and he had at times some unusual constitutional ideas. So, why should we rely on him? I do not rely on him exclusively. I only say that if we are interested in what the Constitution meant to reasonable people at the time it was written, it is useful to explore what Jefferson suggested. Therefore, I will explain where I think Jefferson got his idea of executive power and then show why one can think the idea represents the Constitution's original meaning. There are four basic steps in this argument. First, the key writers of the eighteenth century on whom the Framers relied, particularly Montesquieu and Blackstone, defined "executive" power to include foreign affairs powers. For example, Montesquieu wrote: "In every government, there are three sorts of power: the legislative; the executive in respect to things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive in regard to matters that depend on the civil law." (4) In listing the "executive" powers "dependent on the law of nations," he included things like war and peace, ambassadors, defense, and national security. (5) Modern experts on Montesquieu's philosophy conclude that Montesquieu "use[s] the term 'executive power' ... to cover the function of the magistrates to make peace or war, send or receive embassies, establish the public security, and provide against invasions," and that "Montesquieu, like most writers of his time, was inclined to think of the executive branch of government as being concerned nearly entirely with foreign affairs." (6) According to constitutional historian Francis Wormuth, "[t]he famous sixth chapter of Book XI of [Montesquieu's] Spirit of the Laws ... recognizes ... the executive power in foreign relations...." (7) Similarly, Blackstone described the "executive" powers of the English monarch as encompassing the principal foreign affairs authorities, including ambassadors, treaties, war, and letters of marque and reprisal. These "foreign concerns," Blackstone explained, are included within the powers "the exertion whereof consists the executive part of government." (8) This in itself does not prove how the Framers chose to organize their new government. It does suggest, though, that the vocabulary that they started with defined "executive" power to include foreign affairs powers. Montesquieu and Blackstone were by far the most widely read and influential political writers in America during the founding era, enjoying wide circulation and citation. (9) Madison described Blackstone's Commentaries as "a book which is in every man's hand" and Montesquieu as "the oracle who is always consulted and cited" on separation of powers. (10) Their use of words, especially words as central to the idea of separation of powers as "executive power," was surely well-known to educated Americans. …


A brutally honest expose, After Mandela provides a sobering portrait of a country caught between a democratic future and a political meltdown. Recent works have focused primarily on Nelson Mandela's transcendent story. But Douglas Foster, a leading South Africa authority with early, unprecedented access to President Zuma and to the next generation in the Mandela family, traces the nation's entire post-apartheid arc, from its celebrated beginnings under "Madiba" to Thabo Mbeki's tumultuous rule to the ferocious battle between Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. Foster tells this story not only from the point of view of the emerging black elite but also, drawing on hundreds of rare interviews over a six-year period, from the perspectives of ordinary citizens, including an HIV-infected teenager living outside Johannesburg and a homeless orphan in Cape Town. This is the long-awaited, revisionist account of a country whose recent history has been not just neglected but largely ignored by the West.


Abstract. The STRatospheric Estimation Algorithm from Mainz (STREAM) determines stratospheric columns of NO2 which are needed for the retrieval of tropospheric columns from satellite observations. It is based on the total column measurements over clean, remote regions as well as over clouded scenes where the tropospheric column is effectively shielded. The contribution of individual satellite measurements to the stratospheric estimate is controlled by various weighting factors. STREAM is a flexible and robust algorithm and does not require input from chemical transport models. It was developed as a verification algorithm for the upcoming satellite instrument TROPOMI, as a complement to the operational stratospheric correction based on data assimilation. STREAM was successfully applied to the UV/vis satellite instruments GOME 1/2, SCIAMACHY, and OMI. It overcomes some of the artifacts of previous algorithms, as it is capable of reproducing gradients of stratospheric NO2, e.g., related to the polar vortex, and reduces interpolation errors over continents. Based on synthetic input data, the uncertainty of STREAM was quantified as about 0.1–0.2 × 1015 molecules cm−2, in accordance with the typical deviations between stratospheric estimates from different algorithms compared in this study.


Inspired by President Kennedy's call "to provide decent housing for all of our people,"' Congress amended the National Housing Act in 1961 to allow for guaranteed mortgage insurance for the relatively untested condominium form of ownership in real property. 2 It did so with the express purpose of "provid[ing] an additional means of increasing the supply of privately owned dwelling units,"' 3 thus responding to the increasingly serious housing problems of the nation's middleand lower-income citizens. 4 In response to this federal imprimatur, most of the states subsequently approved enabling legislation providing the legal framework necessary to the development of these new and presumably low-cost projects.5 Unfortunately, many of the state statutes were patterned on the FHA model established on the federal level 6 and were pushed through to legislative enactment with little reflection or independent analysis of the problems that were likely to occur. As a result, the enabling acts are often unclear in many important areas.7 Since condominiums were virtually unknown to the American legal community before the 1960's, many of the problems inherent in this new interest in real property were not even addressed by these statutes. Consequently, many developers have succeeded in manipulating and abusing the spirit, if not the letter, of the laws to the detriment of individual purchasers.8


Adaptation is a policy instrument for facing the challenges posed by climate change.
Government pursues adaptation in different ways aside from simply creating awareness about
climate change and its effects. It makes rules for changing behaviour and practices which
include National Action Plans, building codes, standardisations and so forth; provides loans to
the affected communities, facilitates insurances, takes measures to correct market imperfections
and grants financial incentives or discourages a specific behaviour through taxation; and
strengthens institutional capacity, develops skills, supplies emergency relief and arranges
rehabilitation, as well as constructing physical infrastructures, and repairing and maintaining the
existing ones.
These initiatives require additional resources and efforts which the developing countries, the
most vulnerable to climate change, are unable to afford. For this reason, government needs to
mainstream adaptation into their development planning and programs including the Poverty
Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Mainstreaming involves a number of challenges, most of which are related to policy instruments,
such as lack of awareness and knowledge sharing, resource shortages, organisational
inefficiencies, and ineffective regulations. Bangladesh being a developing country and
climatically the most vulnerable, has undertaken various policy measures for adaptation and its
mainstreaming. This study has made an effort to identify the challenges associated with the
adaptation mainstreaming endeavours in Bangladesh. Also, it ultimately offers a number of
suggestions for overcoming these obstacles.


[1] Ground-based in situ measurements of 1,1-difluoroethane (HFC-152a, CH3CHF2) which is regulated under the Kyoto Protocol are reported under the auspices of the AGAGE (Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment) and SOGE (System of Observation of halogenated Greenhouse gases in Europe) programs. Observations of HFC-152a at five locations (four European and one Australian) over a 10 year period were recorded. The annual average growth rate of HFC-152a in the midlatitude Northern Hemisphere has risen from 0.11 ppt/yr to 0.6 ppt/yr from 1994 to 2004. The Southern Hemisphere annual average growth rate has risen from 0.09 ppt/yr to 0.4 ppt/yr from 1998 to 2004. The 2004 average mixing ratio for HFC-152a was 5.0 ppt and 1.8 ppt in the Northern and Southern hemispheres, respectively. The annual cycle observed for this species in both hemispheres is approximately consistent with measured annual cycles at the same locations in other gases which are destroyed by OH. Yearly global emissions of HFC-152a from 1994 to 2004 are derived using the global mean HFC-152a observations and a 12-box 2-D model. The global emission of HFC-152a has risen from 7 Kt/yr to 28 Kt/yr from 1995 to 2004. On the basis of observations of above-baseline elevations in the HFC-152a record and a consumption model, regional emission estimates for Europe and Australia are calculated, indicating accelerating emissions from Europe since 2000. The overall European emission in 2004 ranges from 1.5 to 4.0 Kt/year, 5–15% of global emissions for 1,1-difluoroethane, while the Australian contribution is negligible at 5–10 tonnes/year, <0.05% of global emissions.


The research of Exfoliated Graphite Nanoplatelets (xGnP™) originally started back in 1998 in Drzal group at Michigan State University. The original idea was to mimic the reaction of clay nanocomposite, which had been developed from late 80s to early 90s. However, the difference in chemistry soon made it clear that totally different strategy was necessary to exfoliate graphite to make very thin nanomaterials. Later this research was expanded to investigate the properties and fabrication processes of graphene and graphene family nanomaterials (GFN). Since then, a variety of xGnP with different characteristics have been developed and the detailed characteristics and properties of these materials have been analyzed and investigated. The size of these xGnP varies from sub-micron to 100um, the thickness from a few nm to 20nm, and the surface area from 50 m2/g to over 700 m2/g. Following the development of these nanomaterials, many xGnP/polymer nanocomposites have been fabricated and investigated. These nanocomposites include thermoplastics, thermosets, multi-phase hybrid systems, SMC, papers, inks, coatings, and thermal interface materials. These composites often exhibited multi-functionality, which include mechanical, electrical, thermal, barrier, abrasion resistance, and lubricity. These materials have been expected to be used in many applications such as electronics, automotive, biosensors, and batteries. Depending on the requirements of each application, the properties of the xGnP based nanocomposites can be tailored. Based on these research and development efforts, some of the composite materials have already been used in commercial applications. This paper will look back the history of xGnP and xGnP based composite related research from the beginning and summarizes the results. Then, the current development works and future possibilities will be examined.


This study examined the perception of technology from the frame of aspiration in rural India. We argue here that the idea of technology as a critical part of modernity has been deeply tied to India's discourse of development, and that this was in turn a portrayal of technology in a range of outlets in the public sphere. In villages of rural south India, we found an environment of great expectations from technology to reduce poverty and open urban opportunities, including from those who had never used a computer before. Specifically in schools, where this research was conducted, we found that computers played a much larger role than just as a delivery mechanism for digital educational material since they represented an aspirational artifact to children and parents alike. With historically low performance records at public schools, the computer frequently has been seen as a device offering a cure to systemic educational problems. Children, in part imbibing a discourse of technology from their own parents and media, have seen the computer as a critical part of their schooling experience. The device, and its mastery, then became an affirmation of pecking order among children themselves, and influenced the way that they interacted with fellow students.


Proportionally more accidents are occurring in complex situations, such as intersections. Presumably, this higher rate of accidents is associated with a higher momentary mental workload created by the intersection. Two experiments are presented to examine if this mental workload can be manipulated while driving in a simulator. We adopted the probe reaction time technique to measure the attentional demands while driving. For each experiment, ten active drivers drove through a continuous 10-km scenario including rural and urban sections. They were asked to follow speed limits and to comply with local traffic laws throughout the course of the experiment. They were also told to consider driving as the primary task. For the first experiment, auditory stimuli were given while driving on open roads and when approaching intersections. The stimuli could be presented when the car was 100 m or 60 m from the intersection. For the second experiment, the stimuli were given while driving on open roads, when approaching intersections (75 m), and when performing lane change and doubling maneuvers. RT (ms accuracy) was defined as the temporal interval between the auditory stimulus and the onset of a verbal response (a loud top, detected from the analog signal of a piezo-electric microphone fixed on a headset). RT was also measured for a baseline control condition without driving (10 stimuli). Several variables characterizing the driving performance were collected. For both experiments. driving yielded RTs that were slower than for the baseline condition. More important, experiment 1 showed that stopping at an intersection required more cognitive demands than driving on open roads (on average, 519 ms for the open road conditions vs 727 ms for both intersection conditions); experiment 2 yielded similar results and the lane change and doubling maneuvers was the driving context that required the most important cognitive demands (on average, 612 ms for the open road conditions, 675 ms for the intersection conditions, and 816 ms for the lane change and doubling maneuvers). Results clearly show that driving, even for ideal conditions, is not an automatic task. Future experiments should attempt to examine whether various categories of drivers (eg novice, elderly) are affected differentially by various contexts and whether the increased mental workload has an effect on the driving performance. The technical approach developed could allow to develop more challenging scenarios and to validate workload observed for real driving contexts.


The Supreme Court has never articulated a coherent theoretical justification for the law of personal jurisdiction. While some opinions state that the law is based on state sovereignty, others hold that it is instead derived exclusively from the Due Process Clause's concern for fairness. None of the opinions, however, clearly ties either of these theories to the blackletter law of personal jurisdiction. This confusion over the purpose of the doctrine has helped to create divisions both within the Court and among the Circuits on a number of important jurisdictional issues.This Article argues that the law of personal jurisdiction must seriously take sovereignty into account and provides a new interpretation of how sovereignty should inform the doctrine. Sovereignty must be considered because, when a court exercises jurisdiction over an out-of-state defendant, it projects its sovereign power outside of its borders. The Court has imposed significant constitutional limitations on a state that projects its regulatory power beyond its borders, and analogous constitutional limitations should apply to a state court's assertion of adjudicatory power over an out-of-state defendant. Using the scope of a state's regulatory power as a guide, this Article contends that the inherent limits of state sovereignty can explain much of the Court's modern personal jurisdiction doctrine. Most significantly, a regulatory model supports the requirement that the defendant — rather than merely the case — have minimum contacts with the forum state. Sovereignty, however, cannot explain all aspects of the doctrine. The purposeful availment requirement, for example, is tied to the subjective intentions of the defendant rather than the sovereign power of the states. Understanding how sovereignty influences the doctrine highlights the fact that some other constitutional value, such as fairness or liberty, must be at play.


This article is the second phase of a two-part endeavor to assess the use of foreseeability in negligence law and to argue against its ever-expanding role in the element of duty. The first article (Purging Foreseeability, 58 VAND. L. REV. (forthcoming April 2005)) urged courts to adopt the general duty provisions of the proposed Restatement (Third) of Torts - provisions that implicitly would purge duty of foreseeability-based considerations. As I explained in that article, ridding duty of foreseeability would result in a number of benefits, the most significant of which is that the necessarily fact-dependant issue of foreseeability would rest, in the first instance, with the jury rather than the judge. There has been resistance on a number of fronts to the Restatement's attempts to rid duty of foreseeability. The most serious opposition seems to arise from a jurisprudential view that foreseeability simply belongs there. Courts and scholars often theorize duty such that foreseeability is a natural conceptual fit, and they explain foreseeability in ways that tie it necessarily to duty. This article refutes these conceptualizations of duty and foreseeability. It urges that the conceptual work done by foreseeability also might fit wholly and seamlessly within the elements of breach and proximate cause. In proving that foreseeability's conceptual fit is thus indeterminate, the article aims to refocus the debate on the only determinative factor - whether court or jury is the better arbiter of foreseeability, a matter that courts are reluctant to discuss and scholars have largely ignored.


Advancements in both application hardware (e.g., nozzles and spray assist devices) and spray property modification products have led to a number of products that are specifically designed to maximize the on-target deposition and minimize off-target movement of spray droplets. Testing protocols are being developed to objectively measure spray drift reduction from a wide range of drift reduction technologies (DRTs) including spray nozzles, sprayer modifications, spray delivery assistance, spray property modifiers (adjuvants), and/or landscape modifications. Using a DRT evaluation protocol, the objectives of this work were to study the effects of different air speeds on droplet size from different spray nozzles and spray solutions and to further evaluate the effects of differences in liquid and air temperature on droplet size at the different air speeds tested. Measured spray droplet size was significantly affected by changes in airspeed with the DV0.5 increasing by ∼30–100 μm and the percent of spray volume less than 200 μm decreasing by 50 % or more as the tunnel airspeed was increased from 0.5 to 6.7 m/s (1 to 15 miles per hour), depending on the spray solution, spray nozzle, and air speed. The data also showed a lesser influence of temperature differential between the spray solution and ambient air, with the differences seen most likely resulting from changes in spray solution physical properties with the changes in liquid temperature. Most importantly, this study demonstrated that a reference nozzle evaluated under the same conditions resulted in the reduction in driftable fines while the DRT remained constant across all conditions tested.


The FcϵRI complex exists in two forms composed of α and γ subunits in the presence or absence of β subunits: αγ2, and αβγ 2. The presence of the β subunit in FcϵRI increases the transduced signal to approximately 5 times that of β-deficient FcϵRIs. Donnadieu et al. uncover another method by which β subunits increase FcϵRI signal amplification: increasing the amounts of α subunit found at the plasma membrane. Cells stably expressing the αγ 2 receptor express higher levels of functional FcϵRI when also transfected with the β chain. Expression of the β chain in αγ 2 cells led to increased maturation of α, and the authors also demonstrated that α and β associate early in the ER compartment. Additionally, the stability of the functional FcϵRI complex, as measured by protein-protein associations within immune complexes, is increased in the presence of the β chain. Thus, the presence of the β chain in FcϵRI appears to increase receptor density and receptor stability and suggests that the different FcϵRI isoforms may have specific roles in differing cell types. Donnadieu, E., Jouvin, M.-H., and Kinet, J.-P. (2000) A second amplifier function for the allergy-associated FcϵRI-β subunit. Immunity 12: 515-523. [Online Journal]


Background: Possession of one or more apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 alleles may influence the distribution of atrophy and clinical phenotype. We aimed to assess the influence of APOE genotype on cortical thickness and regional brain volumes in AD (Alzheimer's disease). Methods: We included 38 patients (9 ε4 non-carriers, 23 ε4 heterozygotes, 6 ε4 homozygotes) and 23 controls. Each subject had 2 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and a neuropsychological battery. Cortical thickness and isthmus cingulate volume were measured using FreeSurfer; the volumes of the hippocampus, whole brain, and lateral ventricles were calculated using manual and semi-automated volumetry. Results: Compared with controls, cortical thickness was significantly lower: in the bilateral temporal, posterior parietal and occipital regions in non-carriers, in the medial temporal and left parietal regions in heterozygotes, and in the medial temporal lobe in homozygotes. Comparisons between AD subgroups did not show significant differences. A trend for larger brain and isthmus cingulate volumes and smaller hippocampal and ventricular volumes with increasing ε4 dose were seen. These differences were supported by neuropsychological profiles. Conclusion: These results suggest that APOE genotype may influence the topography of regional atrophy and cortical thinning in AD.


Showcasing over sixty short stories, poems, speeches, and articles, "Aztlan and Viet Nam" is the first anthology of Mexican American writings about the U.S. war in Southeast Asia. The words are startlingly frank, moving, and immensely powerful, as they call to our attention an important and neglected part of U.S. history. Gathered from many little-known sources, the works reflect both the soldiers' experience and the antiwar movement at home. Taken together, they illustrate the contradictions faced by the traditionally patriotic Mexican American community, and show us the war and the grassroots opposition to it from a new perspective - one that goes beyond the familiar dichotomy of black and white America. George Mariscal offers critical introductions and provides historical background by identifying specific issues which have not been widely discussed in relation to the war, noting, for example, the potential for Chicano soldiers to recognize their own ethnic and class identities in those of the Vietnamese people. Drawing upon interviews with key participants in the National Chicano Moratorium Committee, Mariscal analyzes the antiwar movement, the Catholic Church, traditional Mexican American groups, and an emerging feminist consciousness among Chicanas. Also included are personal accounts: Norma Elia Cantu's remembrance of her brother who died in combat, Barbara Renaud Gonzalez's evocative poem about Chicanas on the homefront, Alberto Rios' and Naomi Helena Quinonez's moving poetry about the Wall, and the recollections of Abelardo Delgado and others on the August 29, 1970 Moratorium.


When a software design decision has a negative impact on one or more quality attributes, we call it a design problem. For example, the Fat Interface problem indicates that an interface exposes non-cohesive services Thus, clients and implementations of this interface may have to handle with services that they are not interested. A design problem such as this hampers the extensibility and maintainability of a software system. As illustrated by the example, a single design problem often affects several elements in the program. Despite its harmfulness, it is difficult to identify a design problem in a system. It is even more challenging to identify design problems when the source code is the only available artifact. In particular, no study has observed what strategy(ies) developers use in practice to identify design problems when the design documentation is unavailable. In order to address this gap, we conducted a qualitative analysis on how developers identify design problems in two different scenarios: when they are either familiar (Scenario 1) or unfamiliar (Scenario 2) with the analyzed systems. Developers familiar with the systems applied a diverse set of strategies during the identification of each design problem. Some strategies were frequently used to locate code elements for analysis, and other strategies were frequently used to confirm design problems in these elements. Developers unfamiliar with the systems relied only on the use of code smells along the task. Despite some differences among the subjects from both scenarios, we noticed that developers often search for multiple indicators during the identification of each design problem.


Antibiotics-induced release of the pore-forming virulence factor pneumolysin (PLY) in patients with pneumococcal pneumonia results in its presence days after lungs are sterile and is a major factor responsible for the induction of permeability edema. Here we sought to identify major mechanisms mediating PLY-induced endothelial dysfunction. We evaluated PLY-induced endothelial hyperpermeability in human lung microvascular endothelial cells (HL-MVECs) and human lung pulmonary artery endothelial cells in vitro and in mice instilled intratracheally with PLY. PLY increases permeability in endothelial monolayers by reducing stable and dynamic microtubule content and modulating VE-cadherin expression. These events, dependent upon an increased calcium influx, are preceded by protein kinase C (PKC)-α activation, perturbation of the RhoA/Rac1 balance, and an increase in myosin light chain phosphorylation. At later time points, PLY treatment increases the expression and activity of arginase in HL-MVECs. Arginase inhibition abrogates and suppresses PLY-induced endothelial barrier dysfunction by restoring NO generation. Consequently, a specific PKC-α inhibitor and the TNF-derived tonoplast intrinsic protein peptide, which blunts PLY-induced PKC-α activation, are able to prevent activation of arginase in HL-MVECs and to reduce PLY-induced endothelial hyperpermeability in mice. Arginase I (AI)(+/-)/arginase II (AII)(-/-) C57BL/6 mice, displaying a significantly reduced arginase I expression in the lungs, are significantly less sensitive to PLY-induced capillary leak than their wild-type or AI(+/+)/AII(-/-) counterparts, indicating an important role for arginase I in PLY-induced endothelial hyperpermeability. These results identify PKC-α and arginase I as potential upstream and downstream therapeutic targets in PLY-induced pulmonary endothelial dysfunction.


This study attempts to evaluate the existing industrial toxic and hazardous wastes
management systems in Malaysia and subsequently proposed a new model for enhancing
the efficiency and sustainability of the system. This includes analyzing the trends in
waste generation, industrial development, industrial production and waste recovery.
Evaluation and analysis of policy and management were focused on four main sectors,
namely, legislation, institutional, financial and technology (LIFT). Findings of evaluation
and analysis as well as other information gathered were used to determine issues and
gaps in managing wastes. Subsequently the study developed a model for a better
management system based on ex-ante Industrial Ecology model for industrial toxic and
hazardous waste management in Malaysia using ecosystem concept and approach within
the sustainable industrial development perspective.
Trend analysis has been conducted which includes the analysis of waste generation,
waste recovery, industrial development and industrial output. Malaysian industry generated 4.1 million metric tons of toxic and hazardous wastes from 1994 to 2003, with
an average of 418,230 metric tons per year. It appeared that the growth trend of
manufacturing in terms of production index and GDP contribution had a positive
correlation with waste generation prior to 1996 and after 1997. The management of
wastes in Malaysia could be categorized into three activities namely, treatment and
disposal, export to foreign countries, and waste recovery. The analysis of waste
distribution supported the suggestion for the ecosystem approach management. This is
due to the fact that increasing amounts of toxic and hazardous waste has been recovered
following the adoption of waste recycling and resource efficiency initiatives. The amount
of waste being recovered has doubled from 120,570 metric tons in 2000 to 250,260
metric tons in year 2003. In terms of percentage of waste recovery represented 34.99%
for 2000 and 54.30% for 2003, respectively of total wastes generated with estimated
value of RM 2.83 billion.
Further investigation and analysis has been performed to determine the applicability of
ecosystem approach for toxic and hazardous management in Malaysia. Policy and
management analyses were conducted to examine the importance of the factors based on
LIFT sectors. These identified factors were adopted as the main components towards the
development of an ex-ante Industrial Ecology model for a better toxic and hazardous
waste management in Malaysia. The model was created as an ecosystem encompassing
four habitats. Each of these habitats has its own role, function and service as well as the
networks between the habitats improves the ecosystem efficiency. Essentially the ex-ante
model ecosystem focused on managing the flow of waste as a resource with the main
target being to increase the cycle of waste to resources and to reduce the flow of
resources to waste. In essence it promotes more pro-active roles by industry and business and helps to enhance their environmental image thus increasing consumer confidence in
their products and therefore sales. The overall finding of the present study clearly
indicates that ecosystem approach proved to be useful. The benefits include
minimization of waste disposals to the environment, reduction of dependency on natural
resources such as land use for disposal sites and enhancement of efficient monitoring and
enforcement activity. Finally all these benefits would lead to increased benefits to
government and the society in terms of achieving sustainable industrial development in
Malaysia.


This article presents two arguments - one deontological and the other consequential - which, jointly and separately, aim to justify redistributive taxation and the resulting imposition of a greater tax burden on the wealthy. Both arguments are based on a community-oriented rather than an individual-centered view of society and are drawn from an analysis of the role that individual and collective rights and responsibilities ought to play in contemporary tax policy-making.According to the deontological approach, the wealth belonging to the affluent is not merely the product of their efforts but also results from benefits conferred by social cooperation and good fortune. The article expands on this line of thinking by suggesting that the tax burden allocation is just if all members of society are guaranteed certain basics that ensure adequate living conditions and represent their fair share of the fruits of social cooperation. Since the pre-tax distribution of resources is so unequal, this approach to taxation is expected to result in some form of redistribution. The second argument, based on consequential considerations, emphasizes the harmful economic, political, and social effects of concentrated wealth and income for modern democracy and promotes the use of the tax system to avoid these effects. This argument suggests that the wealthy, who hold the bulk of concentrated resources and, consequently, the actual means to contribute to redistribution, have a civic obligation to participate in the safeguard of society and fellow citizens by bearing a heavier tax burden than less affluent citizens. Additionally, the collective as a whole holds the right and bears the responsibility to require the implementation of redistributive measures in order to protect the workings and prosperity of the democratic society. The taxation of inter-generationally transmitted wealth is proposed as the proper target for redistribution.


This chapter summarizes the currently available knowledge on sources of oxidative and nitrosative stress in malarial parasites, the different available detoxification pathways, and the impact on mechanisms of drug action. Plasmodium-infected red blood cells (Plasmodium IRBCs) appear to be under exogenous and endogenous oxidative stress. Malaria parasites induce oxidative stress in their host red blood cell. In the membrane of P. falciparum-parasitized cells, increasing amounts of hemichromes and band 3 aggregates have been demonstrated. Peroxidized IRBCs generate 4-hydroxyalk- 2-enals and alka-2,4-dienals, and these aldehydes are toxic to P. falciparum in vitro. Thus, the antioxidant capabilities of the parasite and RBC are of considerable significance. The majority of the peroxide-detoxifying capacity, however, seems to be provided by peroxiredoxins. Glutathione S-transferase exhibits glutathione peroxidase activity, which might contribute to the total peroxide-reducing capacity of the parasite, since the enzyme is present at very high concentrations. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is the major enzyme involved in catabolizing the superoxide anion, resulting in production of molecular oxygen and hydrogen peroxide. P. falciparum possesses a classical 2-Cys glutaredoxin (PfGrx1) and a redox-active 1-Cys glutaredoxin-like protein (PfGLP-1). The glyoxalase system consists of glyoxalase I (GloI), glyoxalase II (GloII), and the coenzyme glutathione. It is a cyclic metabolic pathway removing toxic 2-oxoaldehydes like methylglyoxal by converting them to the corresponding nontoxic 2-hydroxycarboxylic acids like D-lactate. Artemisinin has been shown to react with glutathione (GSH) and to increase levels of lipid peroxidation.


Osteoclasts are bone-resorbing cells that are derived from haemopoietic precursors, including cells present in peripheral blood. The recent identification of RANKL [receptor activator of nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB ligand], a new member of the tumour necrosis factor ligand superfamily that has a key role in osteoclastogenesis, has allowed the in vitro generation of osteoclasts in the absence of cells of the stromal/osteoblast lineage. Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) cultured in vitro with soluble RANKL and human macrophage colony-stimulating factor form osteoclasts. However, PBMC are heterogeneous, consisting of subsets of monocytes and lymphocytes as well as other blood cells. As the CD14 marker is strongly expressed on monocytes, the putative osteoclast precursor in peripheral blood, we have selected CD14(+) cells from PBMC to examine their osteoclastogenic potential and their expression of novel members of the tumour necrosis factor superfamily involved in osteoclastogenesis. Highly purified CD14(+) cells demonstrated mRNA expression of receptor activator of NF-kappaB, but no expression of RANKL or osteoprotegerin, whereas PBMC expressed mRNAs for all three factors. CD14(+) (but not CD14(-)) cells cultured on bone slices for 21 days with human macrophage colony-stimulating factor and soluble RANKL generated osteoclasts and showed extensive bone resorption. Similar numbers of osteoclasts were generated by 10(5) CD14(+) cells and 10(6) PBMC, but there was significantly less intra-assay variability with CD14(+) cells, suggesting the absence of stimulatory/inhibitory factors from these cultures. The ability of highly purified CD14(+) cells to generate osteoclasts will facilitate further characterization of the phenotype of circulating osteoclast precursors and cell interactions in osteoclastogenesis.


BACKGROUND
sarcopenia contributes to the development of frailty syndrome. Frailty syndrome is potentially improved by modifying insulin resistance, inflammation, and myostatin level. This study is aimed to investigate the effect of metformin on handgrip strength, gait speed, myostatin serum level, and health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) among non-diabetic pre-frail elderly patients.

METHODS
a double blind randomized controlled trial study was conducted on non-diabetic elderly outpatients aged ≥ 60 years with pre-frail status based on phenotype and/ or index criteria (Cardiovascular Health Study and/ or Frailty Index 40 items) consecutively recruited from March 2015 to June 2016 at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital. One-hundred-twenty subjects who met the research criteria were randomized and equally assigned into 3 x 500 mg metformin or placebo group. The study outcomes were measured at baseline and after 16 weeks of intervention.

RESULTS
out of 120 subjects, 43 subjects in metformin group and 48 subjects in placebo group who completed the intervention. There was a significant improvement on the mean gait speed of metformin group by 0.39 (0.77) second or 0.13 (0.24) meter/second that remained significant after adjusting for important prognostic factors (p = 0.024). There was no significant difference on handgrip strength, myostatin serum level, and HR-QoL between both groups.

CONCLUSION
3 x 500 mg metformin for 16 weeks was statistically significant and clinically important in improving usual gait speed as one of the HR-QoL dimensions, but did not significantly improve the EQ-5D index score, handgrip strength, nor myostatin serum level.


ABSTRACT Objective: Work and family stressors may be associated with elevated cardiovascular risk factors. Methods: To assess the effects of work-to-family conflict (WTFC) on biomarkers of cardiometabolic risk, we examined 1524 extended care employees over 18 months and estimated multilevel linear models that accounted for the nested nature of the data. Results: WTFC was positively associated with BMI [β = 0.53, CI = (0.08, 0.98), p = .02 at baseline and β = 0.59, CI = (0.12, 1.04), p = .01 across the 18-month study period] and negatively with HDL cholesterol [β = −0.32, CI = (−0.57, −0.08), p = .01 across the 18-month study period]. The rate of change in BMI from baseline to 18 months increased with higher levels of WTFC as well (β = 0.08, CI = (0.03, 0.15), p = .0007). However, WTFC was not associated with other variables reflecting cardiometabolic risk, such as including blood pressure, cholesterol, glycosylated hemoglobin and cigarette smoking status. Conclusion: Findings suggest that BMI, which is linked to potentially malleable health behaviors, is more closely related to inter-role conflict than biological markers reflecting longer-term physiologic processes. These effects are exacerbated over time and may be particularly detrimental to already overweight and obese individuals.


Abstract. Aerosols containing biological components can have a significant effect on human health by causing primarily irritation, infection and allergies. Specifically, airborne fungi can cause a wide array of adverse responses in humans depending on the type and quantity present. In this study we used chemical biomarkers for analyzing fungi-containing aerosols in the eastern Mediterranean region during the year 2009 in order to quantify annual fungal abundances. The prime marker for fungi used in this study was ergosterol, and its concentrations were compared with those of mannitol and arabitol which were recently suggested to also correlate with fungal spores concentrations (Bauer et al., 2008a). Back trajectory analysis, inorganic ions, humidity and temperature were used in an attempt to identify sources as well as the dependence on seasonal and environmental conditions. We found that the ambient concentrations of ergosterol, arabitol and mannitol range between 0 and 2.73 ng m −3 , 1.85 and 58.27 ng m −3 , 5.57 and 138.03 ng m −3 , respectively. The highest levels for all biomarkers were during the autumn, probably from local terrestrial sources, as deduced from the inorganic ions and back trajectory analysis. Significant correlations were observed between arabitol and mannitol during the entire year except for the winter months. Both sugars correlated with ergosterol only during the spring and autumn. We conclude that mannitol and arabitol might not be specific biomarkers for fungi and that the observed correlations during spring and autumn may be attributed to high levels of vegetation during spring blossoms and autumn decomposing.


With the consistent development of information era, the modern information technology has become a necessary part of people's life, learning and work, replacing the traditional mode consistently. Data Base Management System is an important software supporting data statistics in current field of information which features in structural data, independent data and easy expansion. Database management system is not only suitable for large computer, but can also be used in medium or small computer's system. Attendance management system based on database can enable managers to fully understand and grasp the staff attendance status, on the basis of which managers can set out a reasonable and effective staff attendance management system program. Staff attendance management system based on database is a tedious process including design, development and implementation, during which the administrator need to provide relevant date updating and code setting for every details. The language commonly used in the database management system is Structured Query Language. SQL can manage the data and information in database. Attendance system for employees of enterprises is the basis on which the leadership of the company can deeply understand the attendance status of employees to formulate a effective program on staff attendance system management, and is the key to manage the staffs of all departments. During checking on employee attendance, the priority is the supervision on attendance status, such as the comprehensive management and statistics on status including arriving late or leaving early, working on time, business travel, asking for leave, absenteeism and other aspects.


Entrepreneurs may be legally bound to bequeath a minimal stake to non-controlling heirs. The size of this stake can reduce investment in family firms, by reducing the future income they can pledge to external financiers. Using a purpose-built indicator of the permissiveness of inheritance law and data for 10,004 firms from 38 countries in 1990-2006, we find that stricter inheritance law is associated with lower investment in family firms, but does not affect investment in non-family firms. Moreover, as the model predicts, inheritance law affects investment only in family firms that experience a succession. (JEL G31, G32, G38).


According to the literature, in the 1980s the intended science curriculum exhibited a worldwide movement toward a curriculum for all, with a more contextually embedded approach. In writings about science teaching pedagogy, a trend can be observed to consider seriously students' conceptions, based on the premises of constructivism. This article examines consequences of these trends for teacher behavior and concludes that classes should become more student centered. In terms of the model for interpersonal teacher behavior (Wubbels & Levy, 1993), teachers must give their students more responsibility and act in a more understanding way. It is to be expected that teachers' beliefs and opinions have to change before this trend can be implemented in the classroom. We have therefore tested whether teachers' opinions about objectives and content of physics education, on the one hand, and the implemented curriculum, particularly teachers' interpersonal behavior, on the other, display the same trend observed in the intended curriculum. In 1984 and 1993, data on students' perceptions of their teachers' behavior were gathered from ninth-grade students of a random sample of Dutch physics teachers. Data on the teachers' self-perceptions of their behavior and their opinions about physics education also were included. The results show that teachers were more in favor of realistic teaching content in 1993 than in 1984, a shift that is in line with the trend in the intended curriculum. Students' perceptions indicated clearly that Dutch teachers behaved less dominantly and more cooperatively in 1993 than in 1984. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 34: 447–466, 1997.


The briefs in this section are summaries of recent Bell Labs discoveries and developments. Readers who wish to obtain further information or to contribute future items are encouraged to contact the Bell Labs Technical Journal editor.


Counterfeit and sub-standard antimalarial drugs present a growing threat to public health. This paper investigates the mechanisms that determine the prevalence of fake antimalarial drugs in local markets, their effects, and potential interventions to combat the problem. We collect drug samples from a large set of local markets in Uganda using covert shoppers and employ Raman spectroscopy to test for drug quality. We find that 37 percent of the local outlets sell fake antimalarial drugs. Motivated by a simple model, we conduct a market-level experiment to test whether authentic drugs can drive out fake drugs from the local market. We find evidence of such externalities: the intervention reduced prevalence of substandard and counterfeit drugs in incumbent outlets by half. We also provide suggestive evidence that misconceptions about malaria lead consumers to overestimate antimalarial drug quality, and that opportunistic drug shops exploit these misconceptions by selling substandard and counterfeit drugs. Together, our results indicate that high quality products can drive out low quality ones, but the opposite is true when consumers are less able to infer product quality.


The Man of War Gneiss is a variably deformed meta-igneous body that ranges in composition from gabbro to tonalite and comprises part of the basal structural slice of the Lizard ophiolite complex, SW England. U-Pb dating of zircon demonstrates that the parental magmas crystallized in the earliest Ordovician (499t.+s3 Ma), but 40Ar-39Ar step-heating analysis of amphiboles suggests that at least the northernmost zone of the gneiss was subjected to an amphibolite-grade metamorphic event at c. 374 Ma, probably associated with thrust emplacement of the ophiolite. The gneiss exhibits major, trace and rare earth element variations in conformity with an origin through partial melting of an amphibolitic source containing hornblende and plagioclase, probably with minor garnet and zircon. The elemental abundances and variations are characteristic of granitoids formed in supra-subduction zone environments. A granitoid sill within the adjacent Old Lizard Head Series schists, previously inferred to be related to the Man of War Gneiss, is trondhjemitic and exhibits higher SiO2, TiO2 and MgO, but lower Zr, V, Ba, and Sr contents, and therefore is probably not genetically related to the latter. The sill may record local melting during ophiolite emplacement. The Man of War Gneiss probably represents a structural inlier of pre-Hercynian basement incorporated in the Hercynian nappes of SW England during NNW-directed thrusting. We emphasize the geological and geochronological similarities between variably deformed granitoid units of the Lizard complex, the Sudeten Massif of southern Poland, and the allochthonous complexes of northern Portugal and NW Spain. These granitoid rocks may represent dispersed remnants of Tremadoc arcs that formed oceanward from the northern margin of Gondwana. This is further convincing evidence that at this time Eastern Avalonia was separated from northern Gondwana by an ocean basin that may have been connected with the Tornquist Sea.


Little is known about nightly activity patterns of
nocturnal small mammals under natural conditions, and how these
activity patterns might be affected by photoperiod, season, and
sex, age, and reproductive status of individuals. The main
objectives of this research were: 1) to find an appropriate method
for marking individual deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) so that
their activity could be monitored remotely; 2) to design a portable
activity-monitoring system to investigate temporal patterns of
shelter use by deer mice under natural conditions; 3) to determine
the influence of environmental conditions such as photoperiod and
season on nightly activity of deer mice; and 4) to compare effects
of demographic or physiological factors such as sex, age, and
reproductive status on nightly activity of deer mice at artificial
burrows in tallgrass prairie. In general, commencement of activity
was correlated positively with timing of sunset, and time of
retirement to the burrow was correlated positively with sunrise.
Among adults, males first emerged from the burrow earlier and made
more trips of shorter duration in a night than did females,
although total duration of trips was similar. Return visits and
subsequent stays typically were shorter for males than females, but
total time spent in the burrow and retirement time relative to
sunrise were similar for both sexes. Young deer mice emerged
significantly later, made more trips of shorter duration, spent
less total time outside, and retired to their burrow earlier than
adults. Reproductive females emerged later, made fewer trips of
generally longer duration, and spent shorter total amounts of time
away from the burrow each night than non-reproductive females.
Return visits of reproductive females were of longer duration than
non-reproductives, but total time spent inside and time of
retirement for the night did not differ relative to reproductive
status. From parturition through lactation, activity of females
showed a number of directional trends. Results suggest that under
natural conditions, activity patterns of deer mice are highly
variable but responsive to both the changing physical environment
and internal conditions related to sex-specific maximization of
fitness.


Over the last twenty years, as biological, technological, and social networks have risen in prominence and importance, the study of complex networks has attracted researchers from a wide range of fields. As a result, there is a large and diverse body of literature concerning the properties and development of models for complex networks. However, many of the models that have been previously developed, although quite successful at capturing many observed properties of complex networks, have failed to capture the fundamental semantics of the networks. In this thesis, we propose a robust and general model for complex networks that incorporates at a fundamental level semantic information. We show that for a large range of average degrees and with a suitable choice of parameters, this model exhibits the three hallmark properties of complex networks: small diameter, clustering, and skewed degree distribution. Additionally, we provide a structural interpretation of assortativity and apply this structural assortativity to the random dot product graph model. We also extend the results of Chung, Lu, and Vu on the spectral gap of the expected degree sequence model to a general class of random graph models with independent edges. We apply this result to the recently developed Stochastic Kronecker graph model of Leskovec, Chakrabarti, Kleinberg, and Faloutsos.


Despite their different experiences during the Second World War Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden are often looked upon as similar Scandinavian welfare states in many ways. However, their approach to the European Union and Nato in matters of security and defence politics, differs and this indicates that they might not be that similar after all. On the other hand they have all been active contributors to the efforts of conflict management by the international community. Providing military units to peace support operations all over the globe is consequently yet another similarity. In this book the strategic decision making procedures of the four states are explored and compared. The question whether the states are alike or different regarding the use of military force is hence in focus.


We read with interest the work by Yan et al published in Gut .1 The serrated (hyperplastic) polyposis syndrome (SPS) is a heterogeneous disease defined by the presence of multiple serrated polyps throughout the colon,2 causing an increased risk (16%) of colorectal cancer (CRC).3 By performing whole-exome sequencing in 20 SPS families, Gala et al identified a germline mutation, c.338C>A (p.R113*), in the RING-type E3 ubiquitin ligase RNF43, an inhibitor of the Wnt pathway, in two independent families.4 The c.394C>T (p.R132*) mutation was subsequently identified in two SPS-affected members of one family, supporting a causal role in SPS.5 In the study by Yan et al whole-exome sequence analysis of four SPS families identified a deleterious germline mutation, c.953–1G>A (p.E318fs), in six members of one family, five fulfilling the WHO criteria for SPS.1 Buchanan et al assessed the mutation status of RNF43 in 74 selected SPS families, identifying two rare missense variants, c.443C>G (p.A148G) and c.640C>G (p.L214V), predicted deleterious by in silico algorithms, in two families. No carriers of p.R113* or p.R132* were detected in 221 additional patients with SPS.6

Mutation screening of RNF43 was carried out by Sanger sequencing in …


Electronic components are soldered on to a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) to form an electronic assembly. Earlier all solders contained Lead (Pb), but environmental concerns with Pb have paved the way for development of lead-free solders to replace the commercial Tin-Lead (Sn-Pb) solders in electronic packaging systems. Majority of lead-free solders available exhibit poorer properties and higher surface tension than traditional Sn-Pb alloys. Therefore lead-free solders require processing at higher temperatures. In mixed assembly technology, both Surface Mount Technology (SMT) and Through Hole Technology (THT) components are placed on the PCB. During production, SMT components are soldered initially followed by Selective Soldering process to solder the THT components. The need for higher processing temperatures result in higher thermal load on the board, resulting in complications of unwarranted warpage of PCB during soldering. The alarming levels of deflection and bending in PCB in turn endanger the already mounted temperature sensitive SMT components. This bending also results in formation of defective solder joints. Consequently this process requires perfect precision. This paper presents, a Thermo-Mechanical FE analysis results to elaborate the effects of various parameters on the PCB strains during the process. Also discussions on fixture strategy to minimize PCB strain are explained. The fixture suggested based on the FE analysis can be implemented during production, resulting in a foolproof process. To ensure reliable solder joints and safety of the electronic components, PCB strains are restricted within certain limits considering safety criteria of critical electronic components. The FE package ANSYS 15.0 has been used for numerical simulations. Preliminary results from the FE model suggest that it is matching with the observations of warpage in the production samples. Detailed experimental validation has been planned in the near future.


We test for the existence of housing bubbles associated with a failure of the transversality condition that requires the present value of payments occurring infinitely far in the future to be zero. The most prominent such bubble is the classic rational bubble. We study housing markets in the United Kingdom and Singapore, where residential property ownership takes the form of either leaseholds or freeholds. Leaseholds are finite‐maturity, pre‐paid, and tradeable ownership contracts with maturities often exceeding 700 years. Freeholds are infinite‐maturity ownership contracts. The price difference between leaseholds with extremely‐long maturities and freeholds reflects the present value of a claim to the freehold after leasehold expiry, and is thus a direct empirical measure of the transversality condition. We estimate this price difference, and find no evidence of failures of the transversality condition in housing markets in the U.K. and Singapore, even during periods when a sizable bubble was regularly thought to be present.


Building Service-oriented Applications implies the selection of adequate services to fulfill required functionality. Even a reduced set of candidate services involves an overwhelming assessment effort. In a previous work we have presented an approach to assist developers in the selection of Web Services. In this paper we detail its behavioral assessment procedure, which is based on testing and adaptation. This is done by using black-box testing criteria to explore services behavior. In addition, helpful information takes shape to build the needed adaptation logic to safely integrate the selected candidate into a Service-oriented Application. A concise case study shows the potential of this approach for both selection and integration of a candidate Web Service.


East Asia is witnessing the emergence of an informal monetary system which focuses on self-insurance through own reserve accumulation and co-insurance through swaps. The former is concentrated in a small number of large countries (China, Japan, and Korea), while the latter involves informal monetary cooperation among monetary authorities in a large number of countries. The origins of this system lie in the Asian financial crises, and reflect concerns both to avoid repetition of similar events and any spread of further crises through contagion effects. This paper first characterizes and documents this emerging system describing how it works and what its objectives are, and then discusses its performance, its incompleteness, and assesses the system's ability to move towards deeper integration without adopting a single monetary authority as well as the impediments it faces. What is clear is that this type of system among individual countries is incomplete and falls well short of complete monetary integration, but at present it performs well even if it experiences a number of deficiencies. Most countries seem better off with partial reserve pooling, while incremental gains from higher degrees of pooling in the region tend to be small.


: The aim of the paper was to test of the concept of the navigation system for the autonomous robot for sowing and wide row planting. Autonomous work of the robot in the field of traction and agronomic processes is implemented based on data from many sensors (cameras, position sensors, distance sensors, and others). The robot is intended for ecologic cultivation requiring mechanical removal of weeds or in crops with application of selective liquid agrochemicals limited to the minimum. The use of a vision system, based on the map coordinates of the position of the sown seeds, allows for their care on an early stage of plant development. Main sensor system is based on a specialized GPS receiver and inertial navigation providing position information with an accuracy of around 10 mm. To determine the angular acceleration the IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) is used. Additionally, information from the acceleration sensors and wheel encoders is used for navigation purposes. This system is used to: control the speed of the robot, keep the robot on the designated path, and detect the precise position of the seeds. The exact information of the seeds position is used to build maps of seeds, which will be used as supporting information for precision weeding, and to control the position of and operation of key components. The front camera view is used to increase positioning accuracy of the robot. It will allow corrections of the robot path regarding the rows of plants. The vision system is also used for detection of non-moving objects. A structure of requirements for the SQL database has been developed, which is used to store plant and weed geo-data, as well as store data about plants and weeds, based on images recorded by the vision system.


Distributed key-value storage systems are widely used in corporations and across the Internet. Our research seeks to greatly expand the application space for key-value storage systems through application-specific customization. We designed and implemented Comet, an extensible, distributed key-value store. Each Comet node stores a collection of active storage objects (ASOs) that consist of a key, a value, and a set of handlers. Comet handlers run as a result of timers or storage operations, such as get or put, allowing an ASO to take dynamic, application-specific actions to customize its behavior. Handlers are written in a simple sandboxed extension language, providing properties of safety and isolation.

We implemented a Comet prototype for the Vuze DHT, deployed Comet nodes on Vuze from PlanetLab, and built and evaluated over a dozen Comet applications. Our experience demonstrates that simple, safe, and restricted extensibility can significantly increase the power and range of applications that can run on distributed active storage systems. This approach facilitates the sharing of a single storage system by applications with diverse needs, allowing them to reap the consolidation benefits inherent in today's massive clouds.


Uremic cardiomyopathy is the leading cause of death in patients with chronic kidney disease. Fluid overload and oxidative stress play important roles in its pathogenesis. This study aims to determine the effect of quercetin on uremic cardiomyopathy in 5/6-nephrectomized rats. To our knowledge, its cardioprotective effect on uremic cardiomyopathy induced in rats by 5/6 nephrectomy has not been investigated yet. Uremia was induced surgically in male Sprague-Dawley rats via 5/6 nephrectomy. Quercetin was administered per orally at a dose of 100 mg/kg/day for 8 weeks prior to sacrifice. Meanwhile, captopril was administered at a dose of 10 mg/kg/day. Lipid peroxidation was assessed using TBARS reaction, while GPX activity was determined to explore the endogen antioxidant mechanism. Myocardial fibrosis was analyzed using Massons' Trichrome staining and the level of NT-proBNP in plasma was measured as a marker of cardiac dysfunction. Nephrectomy 5/6 had no effects on plasma NT– proBNP levels, cardiac and plasma MDA levels, but induced mild myocardial fibrosis and significant increase in cardiac GPX activity in comparison with normal rat (p<0.05). However, administration of quercetin or captopril did not ameleriote those mild myocardial fibrosis and increased GPX activity. Uremic cardiomyopathy induced by 5/6 nephrectomy demonstrated mild myocardial fibrosis but preservation of cardiac function demonstrated by NT-proBNP levels. Increased of GPX activity in the nephrectomized-rats compared to the control rats (p<0.05) suggests induction of antioxidant defense mechanisms that might not be exhausted yet. This condition highlighted a compensatory phase which was unchanged following chronic administration of either quercetin or captopril.


The CHAIN self-timed network-on-chip (NoC) architecture provides a flexible, clock-independent solution to the problems of system-on-chip (SoC) interconnect. In this paper we look at the use of CHAIN in a low-performance, smartcard chip to connect two self-timed processors and a range of memories and peripherals. Key design-time advantages provided by the use of CHAIN in this design included the ability to operate a very-narrow, high-frequency network fabric using serial communication without the need for high frequency clocking, rapid assembly in the final stages of the design and the avoidance of the need to perform timing analysis or validation on the SoC interconnect. Additionally we describe a bare port that provided direct access to the CHAIN fabric which was instrumental in testing and debugging the smartcard chip.


Chile pepper is used today as a flavoring, but Aztecs also applied it for toothache, sore throat, and asthma. The tonic properties of coffee have been recorded in Islamic pharmacopoeia since the eleventh century, and many peoples have used it to protect against Parkinson's disease. Although much has been documented regarding the nutritional values of foods, until recently little attention has been paid to the pharmacologic potential of diet. This book investigates the health implications of foods from the cuisines of peoples around the world to describe the place of food in health maintenance. In this wide-ranging book, Nina Etkin reveals the pharmacologic potential of foods in the specific cultural contexts in which they are used. Incorporating co-evolution with a biocultural perspective, she addresses some of the physiological effects of foods across cultures and through history while taking into account both the complex dynamics of food choice and the blurred distinctions between food and medicine. Showing that food choice is more closely linked to health than is commonly thought, she helps us to understand the health implications of people's food-centered actions in the context of real-life circumstances. Drawing on an extensive literature that transects food and culture, the history of medicine, ethnopharmacology, food history, nutrition, and human evolution, Edible Medicines demonstrates the intricate relationship between culture and nature. It will appeal to a wide range of scholars and professionals, from anthropologists to nutritionists, as well as general readers seeking a greater understanding of the medicinal aspects of food.


Laws that decriminalize public drunkenness continue to use the police as the major intake agent for public inebriates under the "new" public health model of detoxification and treatment. Assuming that decriminalization introduces many disincentives to police intervention using legally sanctioned procedures, we hypothesize that it will be followed by a statistically significant decline in the number of public inebriates formally handled by the police in the manner designated by the "law in the books." Using an "interrupted time-series quasiexperiment" based on a "stratified multiple-group single-I design," we confirm this hypothesis for Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis, Minnesota. However, through intensive "microanalysis" of these two jurisdictions, we show that Minneapolis, in responding to strong business pressure, developed several alternative means of keeping the streets clear of transient public inebriates while Washington, D.C., treated decriminalization as an opportunity to shift police priorities and relied on informal "safe zones" to handle the inebriate population.


Objective: The mental health of children living in low-income countries remains a neglected research area despite the high burden of disease. This study is one of the first that examines the effects of long-term physical health problems on child mental health disorders in a low-income country and investigates whether this association is modified by the socio-economic status of the child's family. Methods: Community-based cross-sectional survey of 975 eight-year-old children from 20 sites in Vietnam. Long-term physical health problems were measured by a caregiver report and included conditions such as anaemia, congenital malformation, physical disability and skin problems. Child mental disorders were assessed using the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ). Generalised estimating equations models were fitted to explore the association between long-term physical health problems and child mental disorders. Results: Vietnamese children who suffer from long-term physical health problems have odds 2:1 times greater than children without long-term physical health problems of having a mental disorder (95% CI 1.2 to 3.6, p = 0.006). No significant interaction with socio-economic status was found. Conclusions: This study showed a high burden of mental disorders among physically ill children, re-enforcing the idea that there is "no health without mental health". While this association needs to be explored longitudinally, children with long-term health problems may be a visible group for targeted mental-health interventions.


Chromosome alignment and orientation within the spindle in mitosis and meiosis are determined by chromosome-microtubule interaction. Evidence suggests that within the acentrosomal spindle the mechanism of chromosome positioning is different from in mitotic spindle but its molecular bases are not well understood. I investigated how chromosome-microtubule interactions position the chromosomes within the spindle using Drosophila oocytes. I addressed the role and molecular mechanisms of kinetochore and chromosome interaction with microtubules in this process. I developed new live imaging reagents to observe dynamic chromosomemicrotubule interaction. Live imaging combined with inactivation of kinetochores in oocytes revealed that kinetochore-microtubule attachment is required for three-step chromosome positioning in Drosophila oocytes: de-congression, change of orientation and re-congression. Augmin, a γ-tubulin recruiting complex, has been previously shown to be important for chromosome congression specifically in oocytes. Live imaging further showed that Augmin facilitates chromosome congression particularly in early stages of spindle assembly. Study of Augmin dynamics revealed that Augmin stably associates with spindle polar regions, specifically in oocytes. This meiotic regulation of Augmin function may contribute to generation of force pushing chromosomes toward spindle equator. Sentin protein has been shown to be important for microtubule plus end dynamics in mitosis. In meiosis, sentin mutant results in reduced distance between centromeres of homologous chromosomes. However, its meiotic role is unknown. Live imaging of the sentin mutant showed that in oocytes Sentin is required for preventing premature stabilization of kinetochore-microtubule attachments. As conclusion, I have used live imaging to reveal molecular basis of the interaction between chromosomes and microtubules particularly important for oocytes.


While the neural circuitry and physiology of the auditory system is well studied among vertebrates, far less is known about how the auditory system interacts with other neural substrates to mediate behavioral responses to social acoustic signals. One species that has been the subject of intensive neuroethological investigation with regard to the production and perception of social acoustic signals is the plainfin midshipman fish, Porichthys notatus, in part because acoustic communication is essential to their reproductive behavior. Nesting male midshipman vocally court females by producing a long duration advertisement call. Females localize males by their advertisement call, spawn and deposit all their eggs in their mate's nest. As multiple courting males establish nests in close proximity to one another, the perception of another male's call may modulate individual calling behavior in competition for females. We tested the hypothesis that nesting males exposed to advertisement calls of other males would show elevated neural activity in auditory and vocal-acoustic brain centers as well as differential activation of catecholaminergic neurons compared to males exposed only to ambient noise. Experimental brains were then double labeled by immunofluorescence (-ir) for tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), an enzyme necessary for catecholamine synthesis, and cFos, an immediate-early gene product used as a marker for neural activation. Males exposed to other advertisement calls showed a significantly greater percentage of TH-ir cells colocalized with cFos-ir in the noradrenergic locus coeruleus and the dopaminergic periventricular posterior tuberculum, as well as increased numbers of cFos-ir neurons in several levels of the auditory and vocal-acoustic pathway. Increased activation of catecholaminergic neurons may serve to coordinate appropriate behavioral responses to male competitors. Additionally, these results implicate a role for specific catecholaminergic neuronal groups in auditory-driven social behavior in fishes, consistent with a conserved function in social acoustic behavior across vertebrates.


During the past few years, the Pittsburgh Research Laboratory of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has been evaluating developments in sealant support systems from a ground control perspective. The proper selection and use of a sealant material can significantly enhance ground control which may result in a decrease in worker related injuries due to ground falls. The purpose of this paper is threefold: to briefly review the current stateof-the-art technology in shotcrete and membrane developments, to evaluate the preliminary findings of a long-term underground study of various types of sealant materials, and to examine installation practices that are critical for an effective sealant material. The underground study utilizes NIOSH's Lake Lynn Laboratory Experimental Mine to evaluate the long-term performance of several types of shotcrete and membrane materials. Sealant performance to date have been evaluated on a regular basis over a two year period. Although the study is still ongoing, critical mining practices were identified that may seriously effect the bond of the sealant materials to the mine roof and rib; most notably, the importance of scaling and thorough cleaning of the rib prior to application. Also, results from an extensive series of Schmidt Hammer tests found that the shotcrete increased in strength by 70% during the humid summer months.


The article responds to an influential critique of the view that there is a conceptual distinction between kinds of liberty. The critique in question began with Gerald MacCallum Jr's famous argument that liberty is a single concept that has a triadic structure between agent, constraint, and end. Against this view, the article argues that the triadic structure offered by MacCallum is unable to conceptualize a particular distinct understanding of liberty. Following Charles Taylor, the article defends the view that there is a distinct 'exercise-concept' of liberty that the triadic structure cannot account for. In support of this claim, the article contests a recent argument that an exercise-concept of liberty can be conceptualized in terms of the triadic structure. The article argues that the triadic framework can only conceptualize an exercise-concept of liberty at the cost of abandoning the substance of that framework. To defend this, the article explains that the triadic structure and an exercise-concept are basically conceptually distinct in virtue of the fact that the former embodies a 'static' concept, whereas the latter embodies a 'dynamic' one. To complete the argument that an exercise-concept is a distinct concept of liberty, the article articulates a common theme that unifies both the triadic structure and an exercise-concept as concepts of liberty.