On March 6, 1957 Ghana became the first sub-Saharan country to achieve independence from European colonial rule. Over the next 23 years, most of the other sub-Saharan colonies followed suit. Expectations on the continent and around the world were high, as leaders hoped that sub-Saharan African states would "take off" both politically and economically to become viable, independent actors in the world community. However, most independent African states struggled almost immediately under the weight of protracted political and economic crises. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Africa's "first wave" of democratization quickly morphed into a wave of autocracy as African militaries seized power in the mid-1960s, and multiparty systems gave way to authoritarian, one-party regimes. Economic stagnation had set in by the early 1980s, and African states became increasingly dependent on international development assistance, thereby incurring enormous debts. Then, after the end of the Cold War, Western powers began to make their aid to Africa conditional on the pursuit of good governance and democratization. In the early 1990s, Africa entered a "second wave" of democratization as autocratic regimes gave way to new, more democratic constitutions and multiparty systems. Given Africa's crisis-prone transition from colonialism to independence and the many challenges its states have faced, it seems reasonable to ask what Africa has achieved in the 50 years since the start of the independence movement. Have African states moved from the margins of the international community to the center? Do they now have a stronger voice in the discourse on democracy and globalization, or are they as marginal as they were at the time of independence? Africa undoubtedly faces many challenges today, and it must continue to struggle not to lose ground in this age of globalization. Certainly Africa is not yet in a position to completely overcome these challenges--at least in the short run. However, if Africa's leaders want to move the continent forward and create a new position within the global community, they must make a concerted effort to begin addressing these challenges now. The Legacy of Colonialism Even though the period of colonial rule was a relatively brief one in Africa, the European powers profoundly reordered African political space, modes of economic production, and social hierarchies and cleavages. The modality of colonial rule varied from one colonial power to the next, but the end result was always domination, exploitation, and organized repression. Despite this, World War II coincided with the emergence of African demands for political independence. With the onset of the independence era, colonial regimes in Africa were replaced by independent, African-led regimes that were more or less carbon copies of their colonizers' political systems. At a fundamental level, the post-colonial African state looked like a top-heavy administrative state. African leaders hoped that this model would lead to self-sustained economic development--a hope that unfortunately was never realized. European powers relinquished political control on their former African possessions, but not their economic interests and influence. The formal trappings of colonialism were replaced by a situation of neo-colonialism, in which Africa remained heavily dependent on foreign private investment and bilateral and multilateral development assistance. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund set the development agenda for Africa starting in the 1960s, rather than allowing African countries to decide individually or collectively how to develop their own economies and societies. Bilateral donors such as Britain and France benefited from their relationships with former colonies and Africa's continued dependence on European monetary assistance and capital investment. For example, the former colonial powers, as well as the rest of the Western world, encouraged the export of primary products from Africa so they could be processed in European factories. …


Substantive equality is a very important phenomenon in the promotion of the reproductive health rights of citizens in the developing world in general and Cameroon in particular. The multiplicity of ethnic groups coupled with diverse cultural beliefs and practices impact negatively on the promotion of the notion of substantive equality in Cameroon. Although the preamble to the Cameroonian Constitution recognizes the idea of equal rights for all, the country's record on promotion of rights associated with reproductive health is below expectations. Hence, it is worth reviewing Cameroon's achievements, gaps and prospects in regard to the promotion of the doctrine of substantive equality in relation to the reproductive health of women in the country. In this paper, the aspects of domestic violence, abortion, and HIV and AIDS are used as examples in an attempt to analyse the extent to which the notion of substantive equality as provided for under the Cameroonian Constitution, has been implemented, particularly in regard to the reproductive health rights of women. KEYWORDS: Reproductive health, HIV and AIDS, Cameroon, domestic violence, equality, women


Hypertension is thought to exist in up to five percent of children. A select number of studies have investigated the role elevated blood pressure plays in pediatric atherosclerotic progression. However these studies contain significant methodological flaws and fail to recognize important confounding factors. Therefore, the influence of elevated blood pressure on arterial health in children remains to be clearly understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between blood pressure (BP) and arterial thickness and stiffuess in children. Common carotid artery (CCA) intima-media thickness (IMT) and distensibility (Dist), as well as systemic pulse wave velocity (PWV) were measured in 21 elevated blood pressure (EBP; BP ~ 95th percentile) and 83 normal blood pressure (NBP; BP < 90th percentile) children 11-14 years of age. Both EBP and NBP groups demonstrated BP within the normal clinical range, but EBP showed significantly elevated BP as compared to the NBP group. Independent t-tests failed to show significant differences between the EBP and NBP groups for CCA IMT (0.43 ± 0.05 mm and 0.42 ± 0.06 mm, respectively) and Dist (0.0058 ± 0.0024 mmHg-1 and 0.0064 ± 0.0019 mmHil respectively). In contrast, a significantly elevated PWV (p<O.OOl) was found in the EBP group (423 ± 35 cmls) compared to the NBP group (389 ± 24 cmls). This finding remained constant following an analysis of covariance controlling for the effects of maturation, age, sex and obesity. This study shows for the first time that children with elevated BP do not have significantly altered central arterial structure and function as measured through CCA Dist and IMT, but do possess significantly altered systemic arterial stiffuess as measured through PWV. This may be the result of sympathetic predominance and its significant influence on the peripheral vasculature. More studies are needed to clearly illustrate the temporal sequence of pediatric atherosclerotic progression in response to elevated BP.


Grapevine leafroll disease (LR) is a serious disease of grapevine worldwide. Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 3 (GLRaV-3) is the most prevalent virus associated with this disease in South Africa and, despite a successful virus-elimination strategy within a certification scheme, spreads rapidly in local commercial vineyards. Since 2002 an integrated control strategy was used at a commercial wine estate to control LR and serve as a case study for the local and international wine industries to show that control in a commercial setting is possible. The strategy included planting of certified material tested free of detectable viruses, use of herbicide and subsequent removal of infected vine material, fallow periods during which time volunteer hosts were removed, and use of systemic and contact insecticides, sanitation, and horticultural practices to minimize spread of viruliferous mealybugs. Leafroll was reduced from a 100% infection in 2002 on 41.26 ha (111,431 vines) planted mainly from 1989 to 1992, to only 58 LR infected vines detected in 2012 on 77.84 ha (209,626 vines), an incidence of 0.027%. This reduction was achieved by replacing the fully infected vineyards and roguing 3105 infected vines within young and replaced new vineyards. The control strategies were successful in curtailing the spread of LR disease and have resulted in the removal of the disease from the majority of individual vineyards. Leafroll currently occurs at sufficiently low levels in the remaining vineyards that local eradication may be possible in these, in contrast to the general situation in the South African industry where the majority of producers do not apply LR control strategies and leafroll is widespread.


While lots of attention gets paid to avoiding the loser's game of high-turnover stock-picking and market timing, all too many investors—and all too many investment professionals—spend all too little time on the winner's game of developing and adhering to the long-term investment policies most likely to achieve the real and specific needs of each investor. Sound investment counseling, made widely available, could save most investors from unnecessary disappointment and could provide professional success and personal satisfaction to investment managers.


This elegantly written book introduces a new perspective on Indic religious history by rethinking the role of mantra in Vedic ritual. In Bringing the Gods to Mind, Laurie Patton takes a new look at mantra as "performed poetry" and in five case studies draws a portrait of early Indian sacrifice that moves beyond the well-worn categories of "magic" and "magico-religious" thought in Vedic sacrifice. Treating Vedic mantra as a sophisticated form of artistic composition, she develops the idea of metonymy, or associational thought, as a major motivator for the use of mantra in sacrificial performance. Filling a long-standing gap in our understanding, her book provides a history of the Indian interpretive imagination and a study of the mental creativity and hermeneutic sophistication of Vedic religion.


A fundamental paradox of the health care delivery systems in many industrialized nations is that desired population health metrics are often not achieved despite large expenditures in the health care delivery system. For example, the United States commits nearly 18% of its GDP to the health care delivery system, the largest amount of any nation, yet is 37th in achieving health or health care delivery metrics. This article addresses how general practice can be an important driver of population health in the Chinese health care delivery system through the application of quality improvement methods. The article shows examples of how the cause-and-effect diagram, the process map, and the plan, do, study, act (PDSA) cycle are important techniques to assist primary care practitioners for improving population health.


Indoor air pollution is a major issue affecting public health. Due to hot climate, humidity and lack of natural green spaces, life is mostly confined indoors in many countries of the MENA region. Vulnerable population, including young children and senior citizens who spend most of their time indoors, are at risk because of the effects of indoor air quality (IAQ) on their health. An indoor air quality monitoring system is a need of the hour to detect and improve Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). The monitoring systems presently available are bulky, expensive and need periodic calibration to maintain high degree of accuracy. Frequent recalibration of a number of densely deployed individual sensors in the network is a time-consuming and laborious task therefore self-calibration is indispensable. Gas sensors, even if factory-calibrated, tend to drift with time/usage. Therefore these should be regularly calibrated under controlled environments. Calibration may be carried out using test gas mixtures with known composition. Pre-mixed gas cylinders with known composition may be used for the purpose; however this solution is not flexible as the number of calibration points and testing conditions (e.g. effect of temperature and humidity on CO2 sensor) are limited. In the current project, a computer-controlled test and calibration test bed system is being designed and assembled along with temperature controller. Calibration set-up would help in self calibration of the air quality sensors. Calibration curves obtained from proposed calibration test bed are updated automatically and fed into the sensor node through wireless communication without going in the field or replacing the sensor. A computer-controlled test and calibration test bed system is designed and assembled containing the sensor(s) under test and in which gas composition; temperature can be precisely and dynamically controlled. ATMEGA328 micro controller is used to receive the temperature set point from the computer running the test rig. Gas composition, temperature and humidity can be precisely and dynamically controlled in our designed test chamber containing the sensor(s) under test. Given the number of air pollutants that may be present in the atmosphere, up to 6 different gases can be mixed to calibrate the sensor nodes and investigate the issue of cross-sensitivity. Array of 6 gas cylinders, and a gas blending system that has been designed provides continuous variation of mixture composition and temperature. Gas blending is performed using mass-flow controllers, which control a number of different gas streams, including that of an inert gas or pure air. The composition of the test gas mixture resulting from blending is controlled by varying the flow of individual gas components through the mass-flow controllers. The test chamber is fitted with heating elements and temperature sensors to control the gas mixture temperature. The gas composition is controlled by adjusting the flow of gases in each mass flow meter; the set points for these are controlled by a computer running under MATLAB/LABVIEW environment. Each gas line is equipped with the necessary safety valves (shut down valve and one way valve). Additionally, each line has a pressure gauge to monitor the inlet gas pressure. The temperature controller was based on an Arduino Uno microcontroller, tow (2) driver modules that incorporate a H bridge (mosfet), four (4) heaters (each 100 W/24 V), an LM35 temperature sensor, and two (2) fans to ensure uniform temperature inside the test chamber. The micro controller (ATMEGA328) receives the temperature set point from the computer running the test rig; then on/off control with hysteresis is used to control temperature from room temperature to 65 °C with a precision better than 1 °C; Hence temperature is precisely and dynamically controlled so that the sensors be tested under different temperatures. Stainless steel tubes have been used for connecting the various parts. The sealed sensor test chamber included a door that incorporated a rubber seal; all connections to the chamber included rubber seal to ensure that the inner gas composition is controlled only by the mass flow controllers. The inner walls of the chamber are covered with heat insulation material to minimize heat transfer from the chamber and thus minimize heating power requirements. The size of the chamber was selected to allow testing of a complete wireless sensor node that includes all air quality sensors. Sensor measurement readings are compared with a professional air quality measurement analyser named "Gray wolf IAQ Monitor" (Acquired from USA) to verify the effectiveness of the proposed system. In future, humidification of the gas mixture will be considered using different methods, including the saturation method based on water bubble technique. The system will have a fume hood (available in our labs) for safe extraction of gases out of the calibration lab. The test bed will allow: Calibration of procured sensors and sensor nodes. Checking sensors cross-sensitivity and effects of environmental conditions. Training of ANN used with the array of sensors in each node to minimize cross-sensitivity.


In addition to an antiseptic function, phenazines—pigmented antibiotics made by bacteria—organize colony structure by activating a superoxidative stress regulator. Many microorganisms produce antibiotics that kill other microbes. Indeed, human beings and other organisms have become adept at exploiting these natural products to guard themselves from infection. But it seems these substances are not just disinfectant waste products; there are hints that some have quite specific functions, for example, in facilitating the uptake of metals. Dietrich et al. analyzed the production of antibiotic pigments called phenazines from two classes of bacteria, pseudomonads and actinomycetes, and found that the pigments play important roles as signaling molecules in regulating the structure of the microbial community. This activity seems to be mediated via the SoxR regulon, classically thought to be a mediator of oxidative stress responses. L. E. P. Dietrich, T. K. Teal, A. Price-Whelan, D. K. Newman, Redox-active antibiotics control gene expression and community behavior in divergent bacteria. Science 321, 1203-1206 (2008). [Abstract] [Full Text]


A rigorous analysis of ultrashort pulse shaping by the spectral filtering of dispersed frequency components is presented. Particular attention is directed toward the case of two liquid-crystal spatial light modulators used to provide programmable manipulation of both the phase and the amplitude profiles of the shaped waveform in the time domain. Different optical configurations are evaluated and their theoretical and practical effects determined. An important result is that, even with optimal alignment and components, the diffraction arising from spectral filtering necessarily produces a transverse spatial shift that varies linearly along the temporal profile of the shaped waveform. Despite this effect it is shown that the technique can generate arbitrary phase and amplitude temporal profiles (subject to limitations in temporal extent and temporal resolution) for the Gaussian spatial component of the shaped output waveform.


As the technology advances, millions of transistors can be integrated on a small chip area. The processing power of many application-specific circuits primarily comes from the use of dedicated datapaths with architecture tailored to suit the design. The ever-growing complexity of datapath circuits dictates the need for synthesis tools that can improve the productivity of the design process and generate high-performance, area-optimal layouts. The existing techniques for random logic synthesis cannot exploit the characteristics of the datapath circuits to efficiently generate layouts that meet stringent density, timing and power requirements. The motivation for a new layout design methodology that can exploit the structural properties inherent in the description of the datapath blocks to plan the layout generation phase is presented. This thesis addresses the methodology and algorithms for the layout generation framework that facilitates such an integrated approach to datapath synthesis.
To effectively exploit the structural information during layout synthesis, new techniques for datapath-oriented cell generation, structure-driven hierarchical placement, and global connectivity-aware detailed routing are presented. Unlike the conventional systems that divide layout generation phase into discrete steps that are locally optimized, with an integrated top-down design flow, we explore the potential to optimize the global layout area and hence the performance of the circuit, at every stage. The adopted layout style and architecture for custom design are open to placement and routing , facilitating the detailed layout generator to explore routing driven pin placement. Routing congestion based global signal planning and detailed routing techniques are also developed as generic approaches but with pertinence to datapath layout synthesis. The developed algorithms have been applied to industry standard datapath blocks to generate dense layouts in reasonable execution time.


The aim of investigative interviews is to gather comprehensive and reliable information from suspects, offenders,
 victims and witnesses through questioning. Research on questioning during police interviews has mainly explored question types and
 question approaches when interviewing adults and children. This paper is concerned with so far unexplored aspects of police
 interviewing, that is the employment of mitigating and aggravating linguistic devices in questions and statements and their
 pragmatic effects. The corpus consists of six police interviews with suspects of crime. Mitigation and aggravation strategies were
 extracted and a total of eighty-two instances were found, analysed and classified into a categorisation taxonomy which was
 designed to ascertain the types and functions of mitigation and aggravation devices. The findings reveal that more mitigation than
 aggravation strategies were used in police questioning and statements during the interviews. Mitigation was found to be used not
 only as a device for alleviating or attenuating, but also as a strategy to build rapport between suspects and police officers.


The American Cotton Bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera Hubner)(ABW) is one of the most serious pests of cultivated crops, especially in cotton in Myanmar. Insecticide applications to control this insect pest are too expensive for smallholder farmers; moreover residues are frequently washed from the plants by continuously light rainfalls in Myanmar. An alternative approach for controlling the herbivorous pests aims at enhancing the abundance of predators, naturally occurring in this crop. A number of promising natural enemies were identified in the cotton agro-ecosystems, and among them the predatory bug Eocanthecona furcellata (Wolff)(EO) holds potential for controlling the American Cotton Bollworm. Diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella L.)(DBM) is most damaging vegetable pest not only in Myanmar than also in most tropical countries, where cabbage plants and ideal temperatures for high DBM populations prevail throughout the year. Due to frequent insecticide applications development of resistance towards specific compounds, including Bacillus thuringiensis, has been reported in several regions. We wanted to experienced a predatory bug (Eocanthecona furcellata Wolff), native to Myanmar and commonly found in the field, for its effectiveness to prey on DBM. Therefore, this study aimed at testing the effectiveness of biological control measures by: 1. Testing the effect of host plants on the oviposition preference and larvae performance of American Bollworm Helicoverpa armigera Chickpea, cotton and tomato, and wild cabbage plants were used for ovipositing preference and larvae performance of American Bollworm Helicoverpa armigera. The highest numbers of H. armigera eggs was recorded on chickpea plants followed by tomato, cotton and cabbage plants. The best performance of H. armigera larvae was recorded on artificial diet followed by wild cabbage, cotton, chickpea and tomato plants. 2. Testing the predation efficacy of E. furcellata on American Bollworm Helicoverpa armigera Predation efficacy of EO was tested with American Bollworm from four different host plants (Cabbage, Cotton, Chickpea and Tomato) and larvae reared on artificial diet. Majority of EO (30-60 %) directly approached towards cotton plants eating ABW larvae. When ABW larvae and their faeces were wrapped with Para film "M", the prey selecting efficacy was reduced up to 20-40 %. 3. Evaluating the effect of temperature and prey density on the predation efficacy of E. furcellata Developmental time and predation efficacy were tested with three different temperatures and eight prey densities; and four extreme temperatures. Developmental time was significantly shorter in high temperature (35°C) but the highest predation rate of EO was found at 30°C. Developmental time increased with increasing prey density but prey consumption percent reduced with increasing prey density. Predation rate increased with nymph instars of EO and the highest predation efficacy was found on 5th instar EO nymph at 30°C. EO could not survive at two extreme temperatures (15°C and 40°C) and EO was able to survive at these two constant temperatures; however EO was unable to lay the eggs at 20°C and even though they could lay the eggs at 37°C, no eggs was able to hatch to nymphs. Therefore no viable offspring were recorded in four tested extreme temperatures. 4. Testing the prey searching and feeding behavior of Eocanthecona furcellata under laboratory and greenhouse conditions Prey searching and feeding behavior of EO was tested with two different preys (American bollworm ABW and Diamondback moth (DBM), two different host plants (cotton plant and wild cabbage plant) and three different conditions (normal plant, wounded plant, and insect infected plant) under laboratory condition and green house conditions. Searching time and prey consumption time of EO was significantly lower on ABW larvae than on DBM larvae. Searching time of EO on ABW larvae on the wild cabbage plant was significantly longer than on cotton plant but prey consumption of EO on ABW larvae was not significant on both host plants. Visiting time of predatory bug on the insect infested plant was significantly longer than on narmal plant and mechanical wounded plant. 5. Observing of host choice behavior of E. furcellata towards ABW and DBM larvae in Olfactometer Host choice behavior of EO was studied in Olfactometer and the attractiveness % of ABW and DBM were 43% and 30%. The searching time of EO was not significantly different in both larvae.


An important part of strategic planning's purpose should be to attempt to forecast the future, not simply to belatedly respond to events, or accept the future as inevitable. This paper puts forward a conceptual approach for seeking to achieve these aims and uses the Bournemouth and Poole area in Dorset as a vehicle for applying the basic methodology. The area has been chosen because of the significant issues that it currently faces in planning terms; and its future development possibilities. In order that alternative future choices for the area – different 'developmental trajectories' – can be evaluated, they must be carefully and logically constructed. Four Futures for Bournemouth/Poole have been put forward; they are titled and colour-coded: Future One is Maximising Growth – Golden Prospect which seeks to achieve the highest level of economic prosperity of the area; Future Two is Incremental Growth – Solid Silver which attempts to facilitate a steady, continuing, controlled pattern of the development for the area; Future Three is Steady State – Cobalt Blue which suggests that people in the area could be more concerned with preserving their quality of life in terms of their leisure and recreation rather than increasing wealth; Future Four is Environment First – Jade Green which makes the area's environmental protection its top priority even at the possible expense of economic prosperity. The scenarios proposed here are not sacrosanct. Nor are they simply confined to the Bournemouth and Poole area. In theory, suitably modified, they could use in a variety of different contexts. Consideration of the scenarios – wherever located - might then generate other, additional scenarios. These are called hybrids, alloys and amalgams. Likewise it might identify some of them as inappropriate or impossible. Most likely, careful consideration of the scenarios will suggest hybrid scenarios, in which features from different scenarios are combined to produce alternative or additional futures for consideration. The real issue then becomes how best to fashion such a future for the particular area under consideration.


In this study a multiproxy approach (including sedimentary techniques, diatoms, molluscs,
foraminifera, sedimentary pigments, isotopes, pollen and plant macrofossils) has been adopted
to assess environmental change over the last ~9,000 years at three Danish coastal sites (Kilen,
Norsminde Fjord and Korup So). Particular focus has been placed on periods of intense human
coastal occupation, identifiable in Denmark's rich coastal archaeological record (i.e. shell
midden accumulation periods), to test critically, hypotheses that changes in the marine
environment were contemporary with major cultural and societal changes over the last ~9,000
years. For example, it has been proposed that a decrease in salinity was responsible for the
widespread oyster decline, apparent in the Neolithic layers of a number of Danish shell
middens. This hypothesis, however, remains speculative to date, lacking any high-resolution
and quantitative salinity data covering the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition. Inside the
agricultural era, two more phases of shell midden accumulation occur (i.e. during the Pitted
Ware/Single Grave cultural period and the Iron Age), suggesting that people must have
returned to the sea at these times for increased exploitation of its resources. A diatom-based
salinity transfer function (WAPLS-C3 model, r2
boot = 0.923, RMSEP= 0.36 square root salinity
units) based on a trans-Baltic training set has been applied to fossil diatom datasets from each
site for quantitative assessment of salinity change over the study period. The multiproxy results
presented in this study demonstrate a close connection between environmental change and
human exploitation of marine resources over the Holocene. This relationship, however, is
complex, with the individual fjord systems often exhibiting spatially different responses (i.e.
variations in the sedimentary regime, salinity, productivity and nutrient status) to changes in
key forcing mechanisms such as sea level change, climate change and human impact upon the
catchment (following the introduction of agriculture). Environmental hypotheses for cultural
change are reviewed on the basis of the evidence presented in this study. Diatomenvironmental
relationships have also been modelled (using multivariate techniques) at Korup
So and Norsminde Fjord using proxy data as 'predictor' variables for changes in the terrestrial
and marine environment. These results suggest that a variety of marine, climatic, human and
catchment related processes are important in explaining a proportion of the variation in the
fossil diatom datasets, but these influences tend to vary temporally throughout the profile (e.g.
human impact becomes important after ~3,900 BC).


This paper investigates the relative importance of living arrangement and social participation for the elderly's subjective well-being (happiness) in three Chinese societies (Hong Kong, urban China and Taiwan) with different levels of development. Based on comparable survey data, we find that co-residence with children is less closely associated with the elderly's psychological well-being in the more developed society. The elderly in Hong Kong who live independently with a spouse are in a significantly better emotional state than those living with adult children and grandchildren. Social participation has a greater positive effect on subjective well-being among the aged in Hong Kong than among those in urban China and Taiwan. Furthermore, elderly women may benefit more from independent living and social engagement than their male counterparts. These findings suggest that encouraging social participation among the elderly may be an effective way to enhance their well-being and achieve active aging. Subjective Well-being of Chinese Elderly: A Comparative Analysis among Urban China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan 3


The idea of the Modernisation of European Competition Law had been launched by the Commission in late 2000 in a White Paper. The Commission proposed to decentralise the application of the EC competition rules: national authorities and judges would receive new competencies in this area. The modernisation process should dramatically change the scene. Current expectations are that there is a fair chance that the Commission's proposal will be adopted, with some amendments, by the Council before the end of 2002. Following the publication of the White Paper, the Leuven Centre for a Common Law of Europe decided to devote a conference to the subject of Modernisation of EC Competition Law in June 2001. At the time of the Conference, the modernisation idea had been followed by a draft Regulation implementing Articles 81 and 82 EC. This book contains the papers that were delivered at the conference. These papers examine the salient features of the proposed reform and discuss its consequences for European and national competition law and practice. Special emphasis is placed on private enforcement of EC antitrust rules. The editors added a general introduction, setting out the highlights of the modernisation debate, as it was conducted in Leuven. Therefore this book will help to understand this single most important reform of EC competition law since its conception. Contributions to this book are made by Thomas C. Arthur, Sir Christopher Bellamy, Ludo Cornelis, Wouter Devroe, Hans Gilliams, Luc Gyselen, Koen Lenaerts, Jules Stuyck, John Temple Lang, Marc van der Woude and Walter van Gerven.


Nuclear energy has the potential to provide large amounts of electricity reliably, with limited greenhouse gas emissions and without dependency on fossil fuels. However the sustainability of the nuclear reactors today is not optimal and can be further improved. This improvement is foreseen in the new generation of nuclear reactors, called Generation-IV reactors. Additionally these reactors are designed to be safer than currently existing reactors, by using innovative technologies. One important safety aspect is the ability to shut down the nuclear chain reaction. At least two completely independent systems have to provide a shutdown method for the reactor. These systems cannot have any common parts, and preferably should also operate using a different principle. One common way of shutting down the reactor is by inserting a neutron absorbing rod into the reactor core. This rod will then absorb a part of the neutrons in the reactor and stop the chain reaction. However in some, very unlikely, accidents it is possible that these rods cannot be inserted into the reactor, for instance due to deformation of the core. The purpose of this PhD was presenting an additional safety system, complementing the system based on the control rods. This system has to work in Generation-IV reactors, cooled with liquid metal.


[1] We report the first Jicamarca Radio Observatory (JRO) observations of two-stream irregularities under daytime counter equatorial electrojet (CEEJ) conditions, made with a VHF radar. This type of irregularity, although predicted by linear theory, has been observed only very few times at other sites (once in Africa and once in India). In the first 40 years of the existence of JRO, these irregularities were not observed. Since June 2000 and November 2001, we have observed them, surprisingly on seven different days. Our observations reveal that CEEJ irregularities appear only when large reversed zonal electric fields exist. We have used the horizontal component of the magnetic field due to the equatorial electrojet (ΔH) as a proxy of the zonal electric fields. Initially, the CEEJ echoes are weak, with a Doppler velocity comparable to the ion-acoustic speed, and a relatively narrow spectral width and coming only from small elevation angles. As the ΔH value gets more negative (∼−200 nT around noon), very strong CEEJ echoes appear, still with ion-acoustic velocities at low elevation angles but with large spectral widths. The Doppler shifts of the spectra follow a dependence on the cosine of elevation angle. Weak CEEJ echoes are again observed when the irregularities are about to disappear (i.e., when ΔH is just slightly negative of the threshold value). In order to get a better understanding of the scattering mechanism responsible for these echoes, we have devised a simple statistical model and compared its spectra to the spectral radar data. The CEEJ spectral characteristics can be explained on the basis of turbulent plasma breakdown of pure two-stream instabilities. These echoes are thought to be generated by nonlinear mode coupling and, when sufficiently strong, by secondary wave instabilities driven by pure two-stream waves at the density maximum and the topside of the E region.


This study is about a sociolinguistic study of the speech styles used by the GKI?s and the Bethany?s ministers in their sermons. The writer wants to find the types of speech styles, which are mostly used by the ministers in their sermons. The subjects of this research are 32 ministers? speeches from the GKI and Bethany church. There are 16 speeches of the GKI?s and 16 speeches of the Bethany?s ministers. I took 8 speeches of the male and 8 speeches of the female ministers from both churches. I also took 8 speeches of the old and 8 speeches of the young ministers from both churches. This research is based on Gleason?s theory about speech styles. There are three types of speech style, deliberative, consultative, and casual style. Those types of speech style are mostly used in the oral speech. Then, the writer also used Martin Joos?s theory about speech style as the supporting theory since it has the similarity with Gleason theory. Concerning to the analysis, the writer analyzes the data, and put them into categories according to the theory above. At the end of the analysis, the writer finds out that deliberative style is mostly used by the female ministers in their sermons. In contrast, the male ministers are mostly used consultative style in their sermons. The writer also finds out that the old ministers are mostly used deliberative style and the young ministers are mostly used consultative style in their sermons. Finally, the writer gives some interpretation on the findings. The female ministers maybe used deliberative style more frequently than the male ministers because they are more aware with the setting of the speech. Moreover, the male ministers maybe used consultative style because they do not used standard language to get higher social status in the society. The old ministers maybe want to show their social status in the society with used deliberative style. In other hand, the young ministers used consultative style maybe they have lower social status in the society and want to be more intimate with the congregations.


A wealth of geochemical and petrological data provide evidence that the processes of fractional crystallization, assimilation, and magma recharge (replenishment) dominate the chemical signatures of many terrestrial igneous rocks. Previous work [Spera and Bohrson, 2001; Bohrson and Spera, 2001] has established the importance of integrating energy, species and mass conservation into simulations of complex magma chamber processes. An extended version of the energy‐constrained formulation, Energy‐Constrained Recharge, Assimilation, Fractional Crystallization (EC‐RAFC), tracks mass and compositional variations of melt, cumulates, and enclaves in a magma body undergoing simultaneous recharge, assimilation, and fractional crystallization [Spera and Bohrson, 2002]. Because many EC‐RAFC results are distinct from those predicted by extant RAFC formulations, the primary goal of this paper is to present a range of geochemical and mass relationships for selected cases that highlight issues relevant to modern petrology. Among the plethora of petrologic problems that have important, well‐documented analogues in nature are the geochemical distinctions that arise when a magma body undergoes continuous versus episodic recharge, the connection between erupted magmas and associated cumulate bodies, the behavior of recharge‐fractionation dominated systems (RFC), thermodynamic conditions that promote the formation of enclaves versus cumulates, and the conditions under which magma bodies may be described as chemically homogeneous. Investigation of the effects of continuous versus episodic recharge for mafic magma undergoing RAFC in the lower crust indicates that the resulting geochemical trends for melt and solids are sensitive to the intensity and composition of recharge, suggesting that EC‐RAFC may be used as a tool to distinguish the nature of the recharge events. Compared to the record preserved in melts, the geochemical and mass characteristics of solids associated with particular RAFC events may record a more complete view of the physiochemical history of an open‐system magma body. The capability of EC‐RAFC to track melts and solids creates a genetic link that can be compared to natural analogues such as layered mafic intrusions and flood basalts, or mafic enclaves and their intermediate‐composition volcanic or plutonic hosts. The ability to quantify chemical and volume characteristics of solids and melts also underscores the need for integrated field, petrologic and geochemical studies of igneous systems. While it appears that a number of volcanic events or systems may be characterized by continuous influx or eruption of magma ("steady state systems"), reports describing compositional homogeneity for products that represent eruptions of more than one event are relatively rare. In support of this, EC‐RAFC results indicate that very specific combinations of recharge conditions, bulk distribution coefficients, and element concentrations are required to achieve geochemical homogeneity during cooling of a magma body undergoing RAFC. In summary, critical points are that EC‐RAFC provides a method to quantitatively investigate complex magmatic systems in a thermodynamic context; it predicts complex, nonmonotonic geochemical trends for which there are natural analogues that have been difficult to model; and finally, EC‐RAFC establishes the link between the chemical and physical attributes of a magmatic system. Application of EC‐RAFC promises to improve our understanding of specific tectonomagmatic systems as well as enhance our grasp of the essential physiochemical principles that govern magma body evolution.


This article describes the process of professionalisation in the field of social control in Sweden. The aim is to analyse how the state by legislation created the profession of social workers for local social services and thus for social control by public administration. We show how organisations for social work have developed and played an important role since the 19th century and that social investigation should be seen as a hub for the practice. The work now mediated though professional organisations was initially performed by volunteers. In the early 20th century, volunteers and employed social workers cooperated, where social investigation was a central task for social workers. In the 1960s and '70s, more social workers were educated, the importance of social investigation was highlighted, and volunteers became subordinated to paid social workers. The legal professions have throughout the process had a role in making decisions, but not in the performance of investigating or executing procedures.


Governments, non-government organizations, and other stakeholders are striving to develop practices, policies, and vehicles to make the tropical marine ornamental trade sustainable. Small-scale fisheries based on post-larval capture and culture (PCC) promise to contribute to this goal by (1) removing the risk of damaging corals (inherent in harvesting adults of target species established on reefs) by collecting post-larvae with light traps, nets, and purpose-built temporary shelters as they settle from the plankton to the substrate; and (2) translating the high mortality of post-larvae at settlement into high rates of survival in culture. Possible concerns about overfishing of post-larvae, harvesting the juveniles after they have run the gauntlet of predation at settlement, and the large proportion of bycatch can be eliminated or greatly alleviated by restricting the size and quantity of fishing gear, designing it to retain bycatch alive, and releasing bycatch at times and places that minimize predation. However, special caution is needed when PCC is used at small, isolated islands with self-replenishing populations. Although PCC is environmentally friendly, its contribution to the ornamental trade is expected to be limited. Large variation in the abundance and species composition of settling post-larvae among years, the logistics and costs of operating labor-intensive operations in remote locations, and competition with responsible enterprises harvesting wild adults or producing ornamentals in hatcheries are expected to constrain the viability and market share of dedicated PCC enterprises. PCC is expected to have the greatest uptake by part-time artisanal fishers in developing countries with infrastructure for exporting marine ornamentals. Such fishers are more immune to temporal variation in the supply of post-larvae—they can engage in PCC when valuable post-larvae are abundant and switch to other sources of income when they are scarce. Livelihood opportunities for smallholders could be enhanced through promotion of the environmental benefits of PCC among hobbyists maintaining marine ornamentals.


GLAM edit-a-thons can enhance the presence of underrepresented groups and topics on Wikipedia, and by sharing valuable cultural holdings these events can also foster the public's cultural awareness. And when university students and faculty are invited to these events, the impact can be even greater. Scholars in the fields of library science and writing studies have shown that Wikipedia's collaborative composition model supports key learning goals for students, including collaboration, information literacy, and critical thinking about knowledge creation. At MIT, librarians, archivists, writing instructors, and local Wikipedians have collaborated to host several edit-a-thons with the common goals of addressing content gaps on Wikipedia and offering the public and the MIT community (including students, staff, alumni and faculty) new ways to engage with the institute's archives and special collections. As we organized these events, we observed other opportunities for librarians, archivists, and instructors to collaborate on classroom instruction and their own research projects. This article shares results from MIT's GLAM edit-a-thons, and argues that approaching projects from the perspective of Wikipedia's collaborative culture can enhance other kinds of academic collaboration.


This review compared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) laboratory findings, comorbidities, and clinical outcomes in patients from the general population versus medical staff to aid diagnosis of COVID-19 in a more timely, efficient, and accurate way. Electronic databases were searched up to 23rd March, 2020. The initial search yielded 6,527 studies. Following screening, 24 studies were included [18 studies (11,564 cases) of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the general public, and 6 studies (394 cases) in medical staff] in this review. Significant differences were observed in white blood cell counts (p < 0.001), lymphocyte counts (p < 0.001), platelet counts (p = 0.04), procalcitonin levels (p < 0.001), lactate dehydrogenase levels (p < 0.001), and creatinine levels (p = 0.03) when comparing infected medical staff with the general public. The mortality rate was higher in the general population than in medical staff (8% versus 2%). This review showed that during the early stages of COVID-19, laboratory findings alone may not be significant predictors of infection and may just accompany increasing C-reactive protein levels, erythrocyte sedimentation rates, and lactate dehydrogenase levels. In the symptomatic stage, the lymphocyte and platelet counts tended to decrease. Elevated D-dimer fibrin degradation product was associated with poor prognosis.


This paper is concerned with the existence and stability of travelling front solutions for more general autocatalytic chemical reaction systems ut = duxx − uf(v), vt = vxx + uf(v) with d > 0 and d 6= 1, where f(v) has super-linear or linear degeneracy at v = 0. By applying Lyapunov-Schmidt decomposition method in some appropriate exponentially weighted spaces, we obtain the existence and continuous dependence of wave fronts with some critical speeds and with exponential spatial decay for d near 1. By applying special phase plane analysis and approximate center manifold theorem, the existence of traveling waves with algebraic spatial decay or with some lower exponential decay is also obtained for d > 0. Further, by spectral estimates and Evans function method, the wave fronts with exponential spatial decay are proved to be spectrally or linearly stable in some suitable exponentially weighted spaces. Finally, by adopting the main idea of proof in [12] and some similar arguments as in [21], the waves with critical speeds or with non-critical speeds are proved to be locally exponentially stable in some exponentially weighted spaces and Lyapunov stable in Cunif(R) space, if the initial perturbation of the waves is small in both the weighted and unweighted norms; the perturbation of the waves also stays small in L1(R) norm and decays algebraically in Cunif(R) norm, if the initial perturbation is in addition small in L1 norm.


Although Americas universities have become the envy of the world for their creative energy and their production of transformative knowledge, few understand how and why they have become preeminent. This groundbreaking book traces the origins and the evolution of our great universities. It shows how they grew out of sleepy colleges at the turn of the twentieth century into powerful institutions that continue to generate new industries and advance our standard of living. Far from inevitable, this transformation was enabled by a highly competitive system that invested public tax dollars in university research and students while granting universities substantial autonomy. Today, Americas universities face considerable threats. Even greater than foreign competition are the threats from within the United States. Under the Bush administration, government increasingly imposed ideological constraints on the freedom of academic inquiry. Restrictive visa policies instituted after 9/11 continue to discourage talented foreign graduate students from training in the United States. The international financial crisis, which has depleted university endowments and state investments in higher education, threatens the vitality of some of our greatest institutions of higher learning. In order to sustain and enhance the American tradition of excellence, we must nurture this powerfulyet underappreciatednational resource.


The rapid growth of urban areas has led to the unsustainable use of resources (Langeweg et al. 2000; Bhatta 2010; UN 2014). The impacts of urban areas are evident in regions which supply cities with food, water, energy and absorb pollution and waste (UN 2014). At the same time, the current world population, of 7.6 billion, is predicted to reach 8.6 billion in 2030 and 9.8 billion in 2050 (UN 2017). Moreover, the urban population, in 2014, accounted for 54% of the total global population. This signifies a 20% increase since 1960. In 2014, the majority of people - 54% - were living in urban areas and this percentage is estimated to rise in the future (WHO 2017). In Europe, 72.5 % of European Union (EU)-28 countries inhabitants lived in cities, towns and suburbs in 2014 (Eurostat 2016b). Nevertheless, differences between countries exist. Figure 1.1 shows the urban population growth of the Netherlands in comparison to the EU, Germany, Spain, France, Slovenia and Sweden. The Netherlands is characterised by a high level of population density and a high share of urban land use, whereas in most of the Scandinavian countries and Spain much lower levels of urban land use are present (Eurostat 2016b).

In this context, the main challenge is to accommodate a greater number of people while reducing the impacts on the environment, which are the main cause for climate change (IPCC 2014). Relatedly, the improvement of the quality of life of city residents is a priority (EEA 2015). Households have a large impact on energy intensity and final energy consumption, as Figure 1.2 shows. The energy intensity3 of households, depicted on the left hand side of Figure 1.2, is increasing and at the same time 25.4% of the final energy consumption in the EU 28 was attributed to the sector in 2015 (24.8% in 2016), shown on the right hand side of Figure 1.2 (EEA 2013; Eurostat 2016a). The potential for energy consumption reduction of households is large and is set as a key priority in the policy goals and directives by the European Commission (Paulou et al. 2014; Saheb et al. 2015). One of the most prominent ways to reduce the energy consumption of residential dwellings is through energy renovations.


Glutamine synthetase (GS), the enzyme responsible for the first step in the assimilation of ammonium in higher plants, generally exists in a number of isoforms associated with different tissues or cellular compartments within the plant. This study has investigated the GS isoenzyme composition of roots and N-fixing root nodules of the temperate legume, Lotus comiculatus, and has used a novel transgenic approach to manipulate the spatial distribution of the enzyme within these tissues.

The isoforms of GS were studied using ion-exchange chromatography and western blotting, and a nodule-specific isoform was identified. Nitrate treatment of the N2-fixing plants had a marked effect on the nodule isoform, converting it to a form that was indistinguishable by ion-exchange chromatography from the root isoenzyme.

To allow tissue-specific manipulation of GS activity, a chimaeric gene was constructed consisting of a translational fusion between the pat and uidA genes coding for phosphinothricin acetyl transferase (PAT) and P-glucuronidase (GUS), respectively. The PAT enzyme detoxifies the GS inhibitor, phosphinothricin, while GUS is a readily assayable marker enzyme that allowed the localisation of PAT activity within the plant tissues to be inferred. The pat::uidA gene was shown to encode a bifunctional enzyme when expressed in E. coli and in transgenic L. comiculatus plants.

Transgenic lines carrying a nodule-specific promoter fused to pat::uidA were resistant to PPT only when nodulated. In some of these lines, nodule GS activity was completely resistant to soil applications of PPT under conditions where root GS was 100% inhibited. After long-term PPT treatment, one line (12E) showed a two-fold increase in nitrogenase activity, a four-fold increase in GS activity, and a 50% increase in dry matter production. Possible explanations for how specific inhibition of root GS led to these effects are discussed.


Abstract In situ synchrotron radiography has been used to observe the evolution of two-dimensional pits growing in stainless steel foils under electrochemical control in chloride solutions. A method for extracting the key kinetic parameters from radiographs is under development to provide data for validating and calibrating a two-dimensional finite element model previously developed by Laycock and White. The local current density along the boundary of a pit is directly measured from the radiographs. Then, the local metal ion concentration and potential drop inside the pit cavity are backcalculated using transport equations and the requirement to maintain charge neutrality, giving the relationship between current density, solution composition and interfacial potential. Preliminary comparisons show qualitative correlation between the model and extracted data; quantitative comparison is under way.


A wide range of braking forces, from near zero to high values, is required in specific applications such as forces in haptic devices or steering stability in motorcycles. Classical piston cylinder type magnetorheological (MR) brakes are not suitable for these applications due to their high off-state forces. In this paper, a new linear type MR brake employing shear mode braking principle with a multipole outer coil structure is presented for high on-state and low off-state force outputs. To implement this device, an analytical model of the brake is derived by using magnetic circuit analysis to determine braking force. Magnetic finite element models are developed and coupled with an optimization algorithm to determine the optimal set of parameters of the brake design. A prototype is manufactured and tested experimentally to characterize the device's force response, transient response, hysteresis, force tracking, and damping performance. The proposed brake achieved a maximum braking force of 480 N and a low off-state force of 6 N with infinite stroke. The results show that the ratio of maximum force to off-state force for our device is about 80, even though it is a maximum of 32 for the best linear brakes in the literature.


The depleted nitrogen isotope values observed in Devonian black shales have been ascribed to the dominant role of marine diazotrophic N fixation in providing new reactive N for the productivity that generated the organic matter preserved in these organic-rich facies. However, the emergence of substantial terrestrial ecosystems in the Middle to Late Devonian introduced an additional source of reactive N to shallow epicontinental seas. We examined three sites along a deepening transect of the Late Devonian Appalachian Basin (eastern United States) employing element ratios of C, N, and P, degree of pyritization, and stable isotope analyses of C, N, and S, in order to determine whether basinward changes in N biogeochemistry and δ 15 N reflect the dominant source of new reactive N. High degrees of pyritization and depleted δ 34 S indicate a persistently dysoxic to euxinic water column. Sediment N/P rises basinward, indicating that P was relatively more abundant than N in the water column with increasing distance from the shore. Nitrogen isotope values, however, are very consistently ∼0‰ at all three sites despite the evidence of distally increasing N limitation, suggesting that terrestrially derived reactive N was an important source of reactive N and that marine N fixation was not sufficient to address the stoichiometric deficit. Depleted δ 15 N values in these black shales do not provide a reliable record of diazotrophy; rather, they are a product of the reducing state of the water column and underlying sediments.


D D Palmer, the founding father of chiropractic, once stated that "95% of all diseases are caused by displaced vertebrae, the remainder by luxation of other joints".1 This conviction is still shared, at least to some degree, by chiropractors today. It is thus understandable that chiropractors would treat children and adolescents for a range of conditions. A recent survey of UK chiropractors, for instance, suggested that 10–58% of the respondents considered conditions like infantile colic, childhood asthma, enuresis, otitis, epilepsy, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or cerebral palsy to be "effectively treatable by chiropractic methods".2 Similarly, a survey conducted in 2004 by the General Chiropractic Council showed that a sizable proportion of UK chiropractors' …


A national sample of U.S. college graduates is examined in order to gain a deeper understanding of gender-based differences in the pursuit of a STEM graduate degree. The findings revealed that a significantly higher percentage of women in STEM reported an aspiration for a doctoral degree, and their graduate enrollment rate was significantly higher than that of their male counterparts one year after college graduation. The results suggest that availability of financial aid contributes positively to STEM women's graduate enrollment, but women's likelihood of obtaining graduate assistantships, fellowships, and employer tuition assistance is substantially lower than for males. In the meantime, women in STEM are sensitive to cost-benefit calculation in their decision-making about graduate education. They are significantly less likely to pursue doctoral education if their earning at the labor market entry is in the bottom quartile. Marital status, academic performance, and other social and structural factors also influenced women's decisions about graduate education in STEM. The findings support that individuals' decision-making is conscious choice behavior based on their internalized social values and personal beliefs that go beyond the cost and benefit calculation.


IMPORTANCE
New data and therapeutic options warrant updated recommendations for the use of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to treat or to prevent HIV infection in adults.

OBJECTIVE
To provide updated recommendations for the use of antiretroviral therapy in adults (aged ≥18 years) with established HIV infection, including when to start treatment, initial regimens, and changing regimens, along with recommendations for using ARVs for preventing HIV among those at risk, including preexposure and postexposure prophylaxis.

EVIDENCE REVIEW
A panel of experts in HIV research and patient care convened by the International Antiviral Society-USA reviewed data published in peer-reviewed journals, presented by regulatory agencies, or presented as conference abstracts at peer-reviewed scientific conferences since the 2014 report, for new data or evidence that would change previous recommendations or their ratings. Comprehensive literature searches were conducted in the PubMed and EMBASE databases through April 2016. Recommendations were by consensus, and each recommendation was rated by strength and quality of the evidence.

FINDINGS
Newer data support the widely accepted recommendation that antiretroviral therapy should be started in all individuals with HIV infection with detectable viremia regardless of CD4 cell count. Recommended optimal initial regimens for most patients are 2 nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) plus an integrase strand transfer inhibitor (InSTI). Other effective regimens include nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors or boosted protease inhibitors with 2 NRTIs. Recommendations for special populations and in the settings of opportunistic infections and concomitant conditions are provided. Reasons for switching therapy include convenience, tolerability, simplification, anticipation of potential new drug interactions, pregnancy or plans for pregnancy, elimination of food restrictions, virologic failure, or drug toxicities. Laboratory assessments are recommended before treatment, and monitoring during treatment is recommended to assess response, adverse effects, and adherence. Approaches are recommended to improve linkage to and retention in care are provided. Daily tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine is recommended for use as preexposure prophylaxis to prevent HIV infection in persons at high risk. When indicated, postexposure prophylaxis should be started as soon as possible after exposure.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Antiretroviral agents remain the cornerstone of HIV treatment and prevention. All HIV-infected individuals with detectable plasma virus should receive treatment with recommended initial regimens consisting of an InSTI plus 2 NRTIs. Preexposure prophylaxis should be considered as part of an HIV prevention strategy for at-risk individuals. When used effectively, currently available ARVs can sustain HIV suppression and can prevent new HIV infection. With these treatment regimens, survival rates among HIV-infected adults who are retained in care can approach those of uninfected adults.


International development has its origins in the histories of nineteenth and early twentieth century European colonisation. What happens when a leading colonial power decides to transform a model tropical colony, relying on head-loading of goods as the predominant form of transport, into a modern market economy on the back of the greatest British industrial ingenuity of the time - railways? In this meticulously researched book, Komla Tsey brings to light the historical origins of a wide range of issues confronting present-day international development researchers and policy-makers, such as technology transfer, wealth creation versus equity of access, and ways to evaluate the benefits of development work, especially across cultures. In the context of the early twenty-first century international investment interests in resource-rich Africa, Tsey argues, forensic historical research is required to determine the precise nature and scale of the financial and humanitarian injustices committed by British colonialists during the construction of major public works projects. More than providing opportunities to take possible legal actions for reparations, this research should also serve as a reminder to present-day African policy-makers and their international and local business partners that the injustices and blatant abuses of power of the past should never be repeated.


Inhibition of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling is a promising target for anticancer therapies because the growth factor helps cancer cells experiencing hypoxia to promote angiogenesis. Cells respond to hypoxia by activating the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), a transcription factor that increases expression of genes (like that for VEGF) that contain hypoxia response elements (HREs). Olenyuk et al. therefore set out to create a small molecule that would inhibit sequence-specific binding of HIF-1 to target genes. They designed a synthetic pyrrole-imidazole polyamide to interact with the HRE in the VEGF promotor. Exposure of cells to the inhibitor at concentrations of 0.2 to 1 micromolar inhibited expression of VEGF mRNA and protein. Microarray analysis of gene expression showed that expression of other HIF-regulated genes was also reduced. With the use of a threshold of a twofold change in expression, the inhibitor altered expression of about 1.5% of the genes monitored. Some genes were commonly affected by the targeted polyamide and a mismatched polyamide control, however. The authors propose that such targeting of hypoxia-induced gene expression might provide a way to inhibit angiogenesis and consequent tumor growth. B. Z. Olenyuk, G.-J. Zhang, J. M. Klco, N. G. Nickols, W. G. Kaelin Jr., P. B. Dervan, Inhibition of vascular endothelial growth factor with a sequence-specific hypoxia response element antagonist. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 101, 16768-16773 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text]


In a feature positive conditional discrimination procedure, a stimulus A is not followed by reinforcement when presented alone, but it is always followed by reinforcement when it is preceded by stimulus X. In the negative conditional discrimination procedure, a stimulus B is always followed by reinforcement when presented alone, but it is not followed by reinforcement when preceded by stimulus Y. This research examined if amodal information dealing with basic attributes, as duration, has the capability to acquire conditional properties in animals. Rats were submitted to positive or negative conditional discrimination procedures with stimulus X and Y, which were of the same physical modality, a light, but with different durations: X= 15 seg e Y= 5 seg (and A=5 seg, B=15 seg). The results showed that the animals discriminated excitatory and inhibitory properties related, respectively, to two different durations of the same stimulus, supporting the hypothesis that the duration, as an amodal stimulus component, can be associated to conditional properties, in rats.


This Essay deveopes an ideal of public legal reason - a normative theory of legal reasons that is appropriate for a society characterized by religious and moral pluralism. One of the implications of this theory is that normative theorizing about public and private law should eschew reliance on the deep premises of deontology or consequentialism and should instead rely on what I shall call public values - values that can be affirmed without relying on the deep and controversial premises of particular comprehensive moral doctrines. The ideal of public legal reason is then applied to a particular question - whether welfarism (a particular form of normative law and economics) provides the sort of reasons that appropriate for legal practice. The answer to that question is no - to the extent that welfarism contends that the normative assessment of legal policies should rely exclusively on information about individual preferences, welfarism relies on deep and controversial premises of consequentialist moral theory that are fail the test of public reason. The Essay also investigates the thesis - advanced by Louis Kaplow and Steven Shavell - that any fairness principle (a nonwelfarist method of policy assessment) can violate weak Pareto (making everyone worse off). Whatever the implications of Kaplow and Shavell's argument, it does not show that welfarism can provide public legal reasons. The essay concludes that law's justifications should rely on normative principles that are accessible to reasonable citizens, whether they are theists or atheists, deontologists or consequentialists, moral philosophers or economists. Law's deliberations should be shallow and not deep. Law's reason should be public.


International expositions, with their massive assembling of exhibits and audiences, were the media events of their time. In transmitting a new culture of visibility that merged information, entertainment, and commerce, they provided a unique opportunity for the public to become aware of various social and technological advances. With Health and Medicine on Display, Julie Brown offers the first book-length examination of how international expositions, through their exhibits and infrastructures, sought to demonstrate innovations in applied health and medical practice. Brown investigates not only how exhibits translated health and medical information into visual form but also how exposition sites in urban settings (an exposition was "a city within a city" sometimes in conflict with municipal authorities) provided emergency medical treatment, access to safe water, and protection against infectious diseases. Brown looks at four expositions held in Philadelphia, Chicago, Buffalo, and St. Louis between 1876 and 1904, spanning the Gilded Age and the early reform years of the Progressive Era. She describes the 1904 St. Louis exposition in particular detail, looking closely at the sites and services as well as selected exhibits (including working model playground, live X-ray demonstrations, and a rescue film by the U.S. Navy). Many carefully researched illustrations, most never before published (with supplementary images available on the MIT Press website), vividly demonstrate the role that these exhibitions played in framing and shaping health issues for their audiences.


Objectives: To determine whether the Safer Dx Instrument, a structured tool for finding diagnostic errors in primary care, can be used to reliably detect diagnostic errors in patients admitted to a PICU. Design and Setting: The Safer Dx Instrument consists of 11 questions to evaluate the diagnostic process and a final question to determine if diagnostic error occurred. We used the instrument to analyze four "high-risk" patient cohorts admitted to the PICU between June 2013 and December 2013. Patients: High-risk cohorts were defined as cohort 1: patients who were autopsied; cohort 2: patients seen as outpatients within 2 weeks prior to PICU admission; cohort 3: patients transferred to PICU unexpectedly from an acute care floor after a rapid response and requiring vasoactive medications and/or endotracheal intubation due to decompensation within 24 hours; and cohort 4: patients transferred to PICU unexpectedly from an acute care floor after a rapid response without subsequent decompensation in 24 hours. Interventions: Two clinicians used the instrument to independently review records in each cohort for diagnostic errors, defined as missed opportunities to make a correct or timely diagnosis. Errors were confirmed by senior expert clinicians. Measurements and Main Results: Diagnostic errors were present in 26 of 214 high-risk patient records (12.1%; 95% CI, 8.2–17.5%) with the following frequency distribution: cohort 1: two of 16 (12.5%); cohort 2: one of 41 (2.4%); cohort 3: 13 of 44 (29.5%); and cohort 4: 10 of 113 (8.8%). Overall initial reviewer agreement was 93.6% (&kgr;, 0.72). Infections and neurologic conditions were the most commonly missed diagnoses across all high-risk cohorts (16/26). Conclusions: The Safer Dx Instrument has high reliability and validity for diagnostic error detection when used in high-risk pediatric care settings. With further validation in additional clinical settings, it could be useful to enhance learning and feedback about diagnostic safety in children.


The International Court of Justice (ICJ) can decide cases either according to the sources of international law (the law route) or—if the parties so choose—according to justice, "ex aequo et bono" (the justice route). The ICJ has never issued a judgment in the justice route, which indicates that no pair of parties simultaneously agreed to choose that option. This raises two questions: (1) Why do parties never choose the justice route? (2) Does the justice route serve any purpose despite its disuse? The paper suggests that the existence of the justice route does help the ICJ to promote the peaceful settlement of disputes. The justice route can serve a screening function: a party that chooses the justice route signals to the other party the weakness of its case and thus indicates that it is likely to accept a low settlement offer. These parties will settle out of court, which explains the lack of judgments in the justice route. When parties decide to choose the law route, they also signal their loyalty to international law and thus improve their international reputation. Finally, the presence of the justice route helps frame the law route as more legally constrained. It thus helps the ICJ to project that it applies the law instead of making policy.


Background: Heart failure patients who are candidates for CRT frequently display longitudinal rotation (LR) – a swinging motion of the heart when imaged in a horizontal long-axis plane. Objectives: To identify the magnitude and predictors of LR in patients with ischaemic (ICM) and idiopathic dilated (DCM) cardiomyopathy, and to assess predictive value of LR in patients undergoing cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT). Design and setting: A retrospective study in a tertiary heart care setting. Methods: Echocardiography was performed in 45 ICM and 41 DCM patients who were CRT candidates and 16 control subjects. Global LR, segmental strains and segmental LR were assessed from echocardiograms using speckle tracking. Repeat echocardiography >40 days after the beginning of CRT was performed in 64 patients. Results: While DCM patients with QRS duration of both <130 ms and ⩾130 ms displayed significant clockwise LR (p<0.001 for both vs 0), ICM patients and control subjects had LR that did not differ from 0. The most significant LR predictor was end-diastolic volume (p<0.001) followed by the absence of ischaemia (p<0.001) and QRS duration (p = 0.05). DCM patients with prominent clockwise LR had lower septal but higher lateral strains than DCM patients with minimal LR, or ICM patients with counterclockwise LR. LR correlated with decrease of end-systolic volume in DCM (r = 0.49, p = 0.004), while no relationship was observed in ICM. Conclusion: Clockwise LR is linked to presence of DCM, with the small impact of QRS duration. LR is a moderately strong predictor of end-systolic volume decrease during CRT in DCM.


The emergence of novel wireless networking paradigms such as small cell and cognitive radio networks has forever transformed the way in which wireless systems are operated. In particular, the need for self-organizing solutions to manage the scarce spectral resources has become a prevalent theme in many emerging wireless systems. In this article, the first comprehensive tutorial on the use of matching theory, a Nobel Prize winning framework, for resource management in wireless networks is developed. To cater for the unique features of emerging wireless networks, a novel, wireless-oriented classification of matching theory is proposed. Then the key solution concepts and algorithmic implementations of this framework are exposed. The developed concepts are applied in three important wireless networking areas in order to demonstrate the usefulness of this analytical tool. Results show how matching theory can effectively improve the performance of resource allocation in all three applications discussed.


It is easy to assume that the author of a book called Election Meltdown thinks we are in a Dickensian "worst of times." Adding to the feelings of despair is the condition of the United States since the book appeared in February 2020, with 200,000 American dead from coronavirus and millions more affected; systemic racism brought to the forefront of the national consciousness by the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests; President Trump's decision to use force against protestors in Washington D.C. and beyond; and the President's continued insistence without evidence that extended mail-in voting necessitate by the pandemic will lead to a stolen or rigged election.

Four of the contributors to this fine and generous set of Boston University Law Review symposium essays on Election Meltdown—Atiba Ellis, Ellen Katz, Lisa Marshall Manheim, and Lorraine Minnite—believe things are even worse than I described when my book first appeared in February, and particularly that systemic racism and voter suppression have contributed to a crisis not just of election administration but of American democratic legitimacy. Two symposium contributors, Anthony Gaughan and Derek Muller, believe that while we are not necessarily in the "best of times," we can hope that forces such as free speech and a modern history of honest elections in the United States can save us from a November election meltdown.

My position falls somewhat between these two poles. A debacle is unlikely to happen in November, but thanks mostly to luck, not work. What is most likely to save us from a Twitterized Bush v. Gore 2.0 and possible post-election violence in November in neither an honest election system nor counter speech to combat election misinformation. Instead, simply speaking numerically about the margin of litigation, the odds are against an election close enough to go into overtime in a state crucial for the electoral college outcome.

But just as someone who runs a nuclear power plant would not ignore a small risk of a catastrophic meltdown of the reactor core, we cannot ignore that the four forces I described in my book—voter suppression, pockets of election administrator incompetence, dirty tricks such as Russian disinformation campaigns, and an increasingly incendiary rhetoric about stolen or rigged elections—could lead to a catastrophic breakdown of the American electoral process in a close enough election, especially given the social stresses exacerbated by the pandemic, injustice, and social unrest. If we dodge a bullet now, it is only because election administrators' prayers are answered.

In this very short essay I first explain why the optimism of Gaughan and Muller is unwarranted, and that the American election system requires fundamental repair. I then explain that although the deeper pathologies in American democracy diagnosed by Ellis, Katz, Manheim, and Minnite (and some contributors to an earlier Balkinization symposium on Election Meltdown) are correct, that does not mean we will fail to have a decisive presidential outcome in November. Instead, their critiques point to the need for broader, more systemic change not just in American elections but American democracy. We should channel our despair into resolution to begin urgent work after we make it through this tumultuous election period.


From minding your Ps and Qs to wondering why X should mark the spot, Alphabetical is a book for everyone who loves words and language. Whether it's how letters are arranged on keyboards or Viking runes, textspeak or zip codes, this book will change the way you think about letters for ever. How on Earth did we fix upon our twenty-six letters, what do they really mean, and how did we come to write them down in the first place? Michael Rosen takes you on an unforgettable adventure through the history of the alphabet in twenty-six vivid chapters, fizzing with personal anecdotes and fascinating facts. Starting with the mysterious Phoenicians and how sounds first came to be written down, he races on to show how nonsense poems work, pins down the strange story of OK, traces our five lost letters and tackles the tyranny of spelling, among many many other things. His heroes of the alphabet range from Edward Lear to Phyllis Pearsall (the inventor of the A-Z), and from the two scribes of Beowulf to rappers. Each chapter takes on a different subject - whether it's codes, umlauts or the writing of dictionaries. Rosen's enthusiasm for letters positively leaps off the page, whether it's the story of his life told through the typewriters he's owned or a chapter on jokes written in a string of gags and word games. So if you ever wondered why Hawaiian only has a thirteen-letter alphabet, why X should mark the spot or became shorthand for Christmas or how exactly to write down the sound of a wild raspberry, read on ...


"Egyptian Ratscrew"(ERS) is a modern American card game enjoyed by millions of players worldwide. A game of ERS is won by collecting all of the cards in the deck. Typically this game is won by the player with the fastest reflexes, since the most common strategy for collecting cards is being the first to slap the pile in the center whenever legal combinations of cards are placed down. Most players assume that the dominant strategy is to develop a faster reaction time than your opponents, and no academic inquiry has been levied against this assumption. This thesis investigates the hypothesis that a"risk slapping"strategist who relies on practical economic decision making will win an overwhelming majority of games against players who rely on quick reflexes alone. It is theorized that this can be done by exploiting the"burn rule,"a penalty that is too low-cost to effectively dissuade players from slapping illegally when it benefits them. Using the Ruby programming language, we construct an Egyptian Ratscrew simulator from scratch. Our model allows us to simulate the behavior of 8 strategically unique players within easily adjustable parameters including simulation type, player count, and burn amount. We simulate 100k iterations of 67 different ERS games, totaling 6.7 million games of ERS, and use win percentage data in order to determine which strategies are dominant under each set of parameters. We then confirm our hypothesis that risk slapping is a dominant strategy, discover that there is no strictly dominant approach to risk slapping, and elucidate a deeper understanding of different ERS mechanics such as the burn rule. Finally, we assess the implications of our findings and suggest potential improvements to the rules of the game. We also touch on the real-world applications of our research and make recommendations for the future of Egyptian Ratscrew modeling.


Considered as one of the worldwide hotspots for biodiversity conservation (Myers et al., 2001), Vietnam has been the aim of recent expeditions of several major European research institutes, such as the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris (Ohler et al., 2000), the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg (e.g., Orlov et al., 2000), or the National Museum Leiden (Anonymous, 2002). The high zoological interest of Vietnam is exemplified by the recent discoveries of several new large mammal species. Although one of these, the bovid Pseudonovibos spiralis, is most probably non-existing but based on fake horns (Feiler et al., 2002; Olson and Hassanin, 2003), the fact that three new ungulate species could be added to Vietnam's megafauna in less than 10 years loses little of its impact (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis, Megamuntiacus vuquangensis, Muntiacus truongsonensis; Vu Van Dung et al., 1993; Pham Mong Giao et al., 1998; Do Tuoc et al., 1994). Thomas Ziegler visited Vietnam during several months in 1997 and 1998. He carried out fieldwork in the lowland rainforests of the Ky Anh – Ke Go nature reserve in southern North-Vietnam, with the aim of gathering data for his PhD thesis on the amphibians and reptiles of this region. The book reviewed here is an expanded version of his PhD thesis. On 342 pages, printed in small fonts, and aided by 50 graphs and maps, 70 tables and 382 impressive and excellently reproduced colour photos, the author provides a detailed and comprehensive regional herpetofauna. Knowing Ziegler's extreme accurateness in investigating and writing, I did not try to find typing errors or similar minor mistakes (I once proofread carefully the complete 210 pages [!] of his Diplom thesis, only to find two [!!] typos). There is little doubt that the data in this book are very reliable and that the bibliography is exhaustive and correctly cited.


Soil Mechanics: Calculations, Principles, and Methods provides expert insights into the nature of soil mechanics through the use of calculation and problem-solving techniques. This informed reference begins with basic principles and calculations, illustrating physical meanings of the unit weight of soil, specific gravity, water content, void ratio, porosity, saturation, and their typical values.

 This is followed by calculations that illustrate the need for soil identification, classification, and ways to obtain soil particle size distribution, including sizes smaller than 0.075mm, performance, and the use of liquid and plastic limit tests. The book goes on to provide expert coverage regarding the use of soil identification and classification systems (both Unified Soil Classification System and AASHTO), and also includes applications concerning soil compaction and field applications, hydraulic conductivity and seepage, soil compressibility and field application, and shear strength and field application.

 Presents common methods used for calculating soil relationships

 Covers soil compressibility and field application and calculations

 Includes soil compaction and field application calculations

 Provides shear strength and field application calculations

 Includes hydraulic conductivity and seepage calculations


This thesis analyses the significance of oil to British strategy during 1914-1923. It shows that by 1923 Britain had a coherent oil policy, which affected naval strategy, diplomatic relations, policy towards the oil industry and post-war aims in the Middle East. Previous works have looked at only part of the picture and have not appreciated the extent to which oil affected all these areas. This work brings all these different facets together into a single study. The most important British user of oil was the Royal Navy, which was replacing coal with oil as its principal fuel even before the First World War, which saw great growth in the use of oil. Aircraft and land vehicles powered by oil fuelled internal combustion engines transformed both warfare and civilian life, but their overall usage of oil was much less than that of the RN. British industry was slower than the RN to adopt oil because coal was cheaper; the RN put the technical advantages of oil ahead of cost.
Britain's power and prestige was based on its naval supremacy; British dominance of naval fuel bunkering was a key factor in this. Britain had substantial reserves of coal, including Welsh steam coal, the best in the world for naval use, but little oil. Britain's oil strategy in 1914 was to build up reserves cheaply in peacetime and to buy on the market in wartime. An oil crisis in 1917 showed that this was flawed and that secure, British controlled supplies were needed. The war created an opportunity for Britain to secure substantial oil reserves in the Middle East. Attempts to obtain control of these affected the peace treaties and Britain's post-war relations with its Allies. The USA was then the world's largest producer and was the main supplier to the Allies during the war. It believed, wrongly, that its output would decline in the 1920s and feared that Britain was trying to exclude it from the rest of the world. France also realised that it needed access to safe and reliable supplies of oil.
The largest available potential oilfield was in the Mosul vilayet, part of the Ottoman Empire in 1914, and now part of Iraq. The 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement allocated about half of Mosul to France, which in 1918 agreed to include all of it in the British mandate territory of Iraq in return for a share of the oil and British support elsewhere. Other disagreements delayed an Anglo-French oil agreement, but one was finally signed at San Remo in 1920. It was followed by the Treaty of Sevres with the Ottoman Empire, which appeared to give Britain all that it wanted in the Middle East. The resurgence of Turkey under Mustafa Kemal meant that it had to be re-negotiated at Lausanne in 1923. Sevres angered the USA, since it appeared to exclude US oil companies from Iraq. For a period Britain focused on the need to have a large, British controlled oil company, but it was eventually realised that control of oil bearing territory was more important than the nationality of companies. This allowed US oil companies to be given a stake in Iraqi oil, improving Anglo-American relations. Britain's need for oil meant that it had to ensure that the Treaty of Lausanne left Mosul as part of the British mandate territory of Iraq. Turkey objected, but the League of Nations ruled in Britain's favour. Britain had other interests in the region, but most of them did not require control over Mosul. Mosul's oil gave Britain secure supplies and revenue that made Iraq viable without British subsidies. By 1923 Britain had devised a coherent strategy of ensuring secure supplies of oil by controlling oil bearing territory.


Humor, wit, and laughter surround each person. From everyday quips to the carefully contrived comedy of literature, newspapers, and television we experience humor in many forms, yet the impetus for our laughter is far from innocuous. Misfortune, stupidity, and moral or cultural defects, however faintly revealed in others and ourselves, seem to make us laugh. Although discomforting, such negative terms as superiority, aggression, hostility, ridicule, or degradation can be applied to instances of humor. According to scholars, Thomas Hobbes's "superiority theory"--that humor arises from mischances, infirmities, and indecencies, where there is no wit at all--applies to most humor. With the exception of good-natured play, Charles R. Gruner claims that humor is rarely as innocent as it first appears. Gruner's proposed superiority theory of humor is all-encompassing. In The Game of Humor, he expands the scope of Hobbes's theory to include and explore the contest aspect of "good-natured" play. As such, the author believes all instances of humor can be examined as games, in terms of competition and keeping score--winners and losers. Gruner draws on a broad spectrum of thought-provoking examples. Holocaust jokes, sexual humor, the racialist dialogue of such comic characters as Stepin Fetchit and Archie Bunker, simple puns, and many of the author's own encounters with everyday humor. Gruner challenges the reader to offer a single example of humor that cannot be "de-humorized" by its agonistic nature. The Game of Humor makes intriguing and enjoyable reading for people interested in humor and the aspects of human motivation. This book will also be valuable to professionals in communication and information studies, sociologists, literary critics and linguists, and psychologists concerned with the conflicts and tensions of everyday life.


RIA HAMIDA AGUSTINA. The Estimation of Water Loss through the Water Balance and the Potato Growth Analysis (Solanum tuberosum L.). Under direction of HANDOKO. The growth and the production of a plant are determined by favourable environment. Soil is water reservoir and planting area for which the capability to keep the water in the soil will determine the total water that can be used for the plant. Water availability in the soil is used by the plant to fullfil plant's water requirement such actual evapotranspiration and runoff which can be calculated by using the water balance. The objective of this research is to calculate the potato water loss during the measurement through the water balance and to analyse the effect on potato growth. The result of this research shows that the potato water loss (actual evapotranspiration and runoff) during measurement on 37 days until 73 days after planting is 148-191 mm or 4.6 mm/days, whereas the run off is 28-59 mm or 19-30 % from total water loss potato. The relations between soil water content and the growth rate in each treatment has a different disposed. When the storage of soil water content is high, the growth rate is uncertainly high, and vice versa. The growth rate is of the potato in this research not only influenced by soil water content, but also influenced by other factors that are not observed in this research.


Homo economicus rests on the silent premises that human communication today is no different than it was in Adam Smith's day, and therefore human beings relate to each other and to themselves no differently than 225 years ago. In essence, the development of the telegraph followed by the telephone, radio, television, fax, email, and Internet have had no bearing on the way we think about economic agency. Homo economicus never changes. Proclaiming a requiem for homo economicus is more than just clever rhetoric. The call is grounded in an understanding of human nature that surfaced with the development of electronic communication that altered our awareness of others and of ourselves and gave birth to the philosophy of personalism. Burying homo economicus and substituting homo socioeconomicus brings the basic unit of economic analysis out of the individualism of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries into the personalism of the twentieth century. Edward J. O'Boyle, "Requiem for Homo Economicus," Journal of Markets & Morality 10, no. 2 (Fall 2007): 321-337


A series of negative-type photosensitive polyamic acids (PAAs) with various molecular weights was synthesized from cyclobutane-1,2,3,4-tetracarboxylic dianhydride, 2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl-3,5-diaminobenzoate, and 2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl-4-aminobenzoate in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone. We investigated the degree of planarity, transmittance, and thermal stability for the PAAs after the photoirradiation reaction at an exposure dose of 200 mJ/cm2. The films prepared from the PAA with the lowest molecular weight (PAA-1) exhibited a higher degree of planarity and transmittance compared with those of the film prepared from the PAA with the highest molecular weight (PAA-4). The initial decomposition temperatures of the cured PAAs with different molecular weights were similar and were stable up to around 300°C. Further, the photosensitivity and transmittance of PAA-1 were investigated in the presence of photoinitiators at 365–400 nm with a high-pressure mercury lamp. The resolution of the photocured film was about 50 μm. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 96: 2300–2308, 2005


In many real-world applications of the time series classification problem, not only could the negative training instances be missing, the number of positive instances available for learning may also be rather limited. This has motivated the development of new classification algorithms that can learn from a small set P of labeled seed positive instances augmented with a set U of unlabeled instances (i.e. PU learning algorithms). However, existing PU learning algorithms for time series classification have less than satisfactory performance as they are unable to identify the class boundary between positive and negative instances accurately. In this paper, we propose a novel PU learning algorithm LCLC (Learning from Common Local Clusters) for time series classification. LCLC is designed to effectively identify the ground truths' positive and negative boundaries, resulting in more accurate classifiers than those constructed using existing methods. We have applied LCLC to classify time series data from different application domains; the experimental results demonstrate that LCLC out-performs existing methods significantly.


Return to sport (RTS) outcomes after severe injury are consistently poor.1 ,2 Psychological factors are important influences on returning to sport3 yet what it means to be psychologically ready to RTS is unclear.4 Rarely will an athlete be held back from RTS because he/she is not psychologically ready to return. Psychological factors correlate with injury occurrence,5 therefore these factors should be offered greater weighting in RTS decision-making.

Characteristics of an athlete who is psychologically ready to RTS are multifaceted and include, among others: realistic expectations, high levels of self-efficacy and low levels of anxiety.1 ,4 ,6 Psychological readiness to RTS is likely influenced by multiple social agents, personal and contextual factors (eg, coaches, sports medicine practitioners, personality traits, performance level).4 Consequently, RTS decisions should be made from an interdisciplinary perspective, with multidimensional monitoring of psychological factors (eg, concurrently monitoring self-efficacy and re-injury anxiety levels).6

Psychological readiness to RTS is not commonly monitored in practice, despite specific instruments being available.7 Many practitioners feel underprepared to work within this area8 or might view evaluating psychological readiness to RTS as being outside their scope of their practice. On the …


This paper suggests a framework for helping companies integrate Human Factors (HF) considerations proactively into their development process. The interactive approach draws on activities aimed at successive stages in the development process: cognitive mapping of the strategic environment, process mapping of the design process, simulation of design alternatives, and development of metrics to support ongoing evaluation. Each initiative establishes a new dialogue in the company around how HF can be usefully integrated into design routines allowing stakeholders to adopt or adapt routines that include HF aspects as a regular part of the process of creating new work-systems.