C# has quickly established itself as one of the world's most widely used programming languages. The newest version, Visual C# 2010, includes several important new features, including Silverlight, the Entity Framework, tighter integration with version 4.0 of the .NET Framework, and full support for programming Windows 7 and Office. The proven Sams Teach Yourself method will help all newcomers to C# 2010 get up to speed quickly, no matter whether you've had experience with previous versions of Visual C# or not. You are taken step by step through the process of software development, learning elements as you build a sample application so that the material is framed in a real world approach. The accompanying DVD contains Visual C# 2010 Express Edition, and the companion Web site contains all the code and exercises from the book. Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common tasks Q & As, quizzes, and exercises at the end of each chapter help you test your knowledge Notes and tips point out shortcuts and solutions The companion DVD contains Visual C# 2010 Express Edition - everything you need to get started programming in C#


This paper provided a review of leaf-nosed bats (Hipposideridae) from Vietnam and important characteristics of a Vietnamese endemic bat species. In previous publications including bats of Vietnam, records of four species ( Hipposideros bicolor , H. fulvus , H. turpis , Paracoelops megalotis ) resulted from improper identification. Without doubt, records of Hipposideros turpis from Vietnam resulted from misidentification of materials of Ha Long Leaf-nosed Bat ( Hipposideros alongensis ), an endemic bat species to Vietnam. Its external features are similar to those of Horsfield's Leaf-nosed Bat ( Hipposideros larvatus ). However, Ha Long Leaf-nosed Bat and Horsfield's Leaf-nosed Bat are distinguished by body size, molecular data, and echolocation frequency. On the other hand, H. alongensis comprises two distinct subspecies: Bourret's Leaf-nosed Bat ( H. a. alongensis ) and Sung's Leaf-nosed Bat ( H. a. sungi ). Of which, H. a. sungi distributes in two national parks (Cuc Phuong and Ba Be) and two nature reserves (Huu Lien and Na Hang) whereas H. a. alongensis distributes in two national parks (Cat Ba and Bai Tu Long) and other islands within Ha Long Bay.


ABSTRACT Between December 1880 and June 1881, Marx's research interests focused on a new discipline: anthropology. He began with the study of Ancient Society (1877), a work by the U.S. anthropologist Lewis Morgan. What struck Marx most was the way in which Morgan treated production and technological factors as preconditions of social progress, and he felt moved to assemble a compilation of a hundred densely packed pages of excerpts from this book. These make up the bulk of what are known as The Ethnological Notebooks. They also contain excerpts from other works: Java, or How to Manage a Colony (1861) by James Money (1818–1890), a lawyer and Indonesia expert; The Aryan Village in India and Ceylon (1880) by John Phear (1825–1905), president of the supreme court of Ceylon; and Lectures on the Early History of Institutions (1875) by the historian Henry Maine (1822–1888), amounting to a total of another hundred sheets. Marx's comparative assessments of these authors are fundamental to have a clear idea of the main theoretical preoccupations of the "late Marx" and suggest an innovative reassessment of some of his key concepts.


The relationships between arterial pressure (BP) and plasma vasopressin levels, plasma renin activity, and other variables were determined in 96 untreated essential hypertensive men (146/100 mm Hg) and women (153/102 mm Hg) whose average age was 44 years, 80 normal men and women (121/79 mm Hg; mean age, 47 ± 2 years), and 40 subjects defined as borderline hypertensive. An analysis of variance indicated significant sex differences in the population. Levels of plasma vasopressin were significantly elevated in hypertensive men, with 26% (high plasma vasopressin hypertensive) exhibiting levels greater than 2 M > of the normal mean, and multivariate regression analysis indicated a significant positive correlation between plasma vasopressin levels and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Hypertensive men had a larger daily urine volume than normal men. Diastolic pressure and heart rate were significantly elevated in a subgroup of 12 weight-matched and age-matched hypertensive men in the high plasma vasopressin group compared with levels in normal plasma vasopressin hypertensive men. Hypertensive women had lower plasma renin activity than normal women, and multivariate analysis indicated a significant negative correlation between plasma renin activity and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Other significant abnormalities in both sexes were noted: hypertensive men and women weighed more and excreted more sodium per day, and both had higher heart rates. With a discriminant analysis of 18 variables in male subjects, plasma vasopressin levels, urinary sodium excretion, and heart rate correctly classified 71% of normal and hypertensive subjects. In women, plasma renin activity, urinary sodium excretion, and heart rate correctly classified 77% of normal and hypertensive subjects. Despite the inability to ascertain causal relationships, the ability of the three variables in combination to correctly classify normal and hypertensive subjects indicates that these combined variables are reproducibly altered in persons with essential hypertension.


Aggressive fibromatosis is a rare benign soft tissue tumor that is difficult to cure because of its infiltrative nature and high tendency to recur locally. The authors retrospectively analyzed 20 patients with histologically-confirmed fibromatosis. All patients underwent surgery with a wide or marginal margin. Five (25%) cases with histologically-negative margins had recurred. External beam radiotherapy was administered to patients whose margins were positive or who had local recurrence. However, out of concern for safety, radiotherapy was not given to two babies and a reproductive-aged woman. The average dose was 5,020 cGy. During the follow-up (mean 32.6 months), all the patients undergoing radiotherapy showed no evidence of local recurrence. A wide local excision has traditionally been the treatment of choice. However, postoperative radiotherapy could be an effective measure for preventing local recurrence in patients with a histologically-positive surgical margin and recurrence independent of any signs of relapse.


ABSTRACT Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a component of the cell wall of Gram-negative bacteria that produces endotoxemia, which may cause septic shock. Metformin (MET) is a widely used hypoglycemic drug that exhibits anti-inflammatory properties. Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is an endocrine polypeptide that affects glucose and lipid metabolism, and also possesses anti-inflammatory properties. We investigated the effects of MET and FGF21 on inflammation due to LPS induced endotoxemia in male rats. Animals were divided into five groups: control, LPS, pre-MET LPS, LPS + 1 h MET and LPS + 3 h MET. Serum levels of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, FGF2, interleukin-10 and tumor necrosis factor alpha were measured. Malondialdehyde, myeloperoxidase and FGF21 levels were measured in liver tissue samples. Histopathology of all groups was assessed using hematoxylin and eosin stained sections. LPS caused severe inflammatory liver damage. MET exhibited a partially protective effect and reduced inflammation significantly. FGF21 is produced in the liver following inflammation and MET may increase its production.


Thermal gravimetric and differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA) coupled with quadrupole mass spectrometry (MS) and first principles calculations were employed to elucidate the chemical nature of released gases during the thermal decomposition of CH3NH3PbI3. In contrast to the common wisdom that CH3NH3PbI3 is decomposed into CH3NH2 and HI, the major gases were methyliodide (CH3I) and ammonia (NH3). We anticipate that our findings will provide new insights into further formulations of the perovskite active material and device design that can prevent methylammonium decomposition and thus increase the long-term stability of perovskite-based optoelectronic devices.


OBJECTIVES
Cell phones and online media are used frequently but we know little about their use among African American adolescents. This study examines the frequency of such use and its relationship to psychosocial variables and STI/HIV risk behavior.

SETTING/PARTICIPANTS
1,518 African American, aged 13-18 years, from 2 Northeast US cities (Providence, RI; Syracuse, NY) and 2 Southeast US cities (Columbia, SC; Macon, GA), were assessed from 2008-2009.

DESIGN
Participants were assessed on frequency of cell phone and Internet use, psychological constructs (ie, depression, life satisfaction, impulsivity) and HIV/STI risk behaviors (ie, history of intercourse, sexual sensation seeking attitudes, peer sexual risks norms) with reliable scales and measures using an audio computer-assisted self-interview.

RESULTS
Over 90% of African American adolescents used cell phones every day or most days and 60% used social networking sites every day or most days (96% used Myspace). Greater frequency of cell phone use was associated with sexual sensation seeking (P = .000), riskier peer sexual norms (P = .000), and impulsivity (P = .016). Greater frequency of Internet use was associated with a history of oral/vaginal/anal sex (OR = 1.03, CI = 1.0-1.05) and sexual sensation seeking (P = .000).

CONCLUSION
These findings suggest that riskier youth are online and using cell phones frequently. The Internet and cell phones may be useful platforms for targeted health promotion and prevention efforts with AA adolescents.


The modern emergence of automation in many industries has given impetus to extensive research into mobile robotics. Novel perception technologies now enable cars to drive autonomously, tractors to till a field automatically and underwater robots to construct pipelines. An essential requirement to facilitate both perception and autonomous navigation is the analysis of the 3D environment using sensors like laser scanners or stereo cameras. 3D sensors generate a very large number of 3D data points in sampling object shapes within an environment, but crucially do not provide any intrinsic information about the environment in which the robots operate with. This means unstructured 3D samples must be processed by application-specific models to enable a robot, for instance, to detect and identify objects and infer the scene geometry for path-planning more efficiently than by using raw 3D data. This thesis specifically focuses on the fundamental task of 3D shape reconstruction and modelling by presenting a new knowledge integration framework for unstructured 3D samples. The novelty lies in the representation of surfaces by algebraic functions with limited support, which enables the extraction of smooth consistent shapes from noisy samples with a heterogeneous density. Moreover, many surfaces in urban environments can reasonably be assumed to be planar, and the framework exploits this knowledge to enable effective noise suppression without loss of detail. This is achieved by using a convex optimization technique which has linear computational complexity. Thus is much more efficient than existing solutions. The new framework has been validated by critical experimental analysis and evaluation and has been shown to increase the accuracy of the reconstructed shape significantly compared to state-of-the-art methods. Applying this new knowledge integration framework means that less accurate, low-cost 3D sensors can be employed without sacrificing the high demands that 3D perception must achieve. This links well into the area of robotic inspection, as for example regarding small drones that use inaccurate and lightweight image sensors.


This paper aims to demonstrate how assessment tasks can function within an outcomes-based learning framework to evaluate student attainment of learning outcomes. An outcomes-based learning framework designed to integrate teaching, learning, and assessment activities was developed and implemented in a civil engineering master-level course. The assessment instruments for this course were designed together to form a deliberate, balanced, and practical approach to evaluating student attainment of learning outcomes within the outcomes-based learning initiative. Direct evidence of student learning was derived through analysis of student results in assessment tasks constructively aligned with intended outcomes of learning. Student feedback provided indirect evidence of student attainment of learning outcomes and confirmed the effectiveness of the learning approach implemented in the course under investigation. Results of the direct assessment instruments were, generally, consistent with the student self-perception confirming achievement of learning outcomes. Students tended, however, to overestimate the level of attainment of learning outcomes. Results of the present study are anticipated to assist educators and researchers to efficiently and effectively implement and evaluate outcomes-based learning in higher education thus improving educational quality and student learning


The Parliament of Great Britain approved three-parent IVF project with 382 votes for and 128 votes against it on 3rd February, 2015. In case of the project approval in House of Lords, Great Britain would be the first country which legalizes the action. The purpose of this procedure is prevention of genetic diseases with mitochondrial defects in which the defective mitochondria in the cytoplasm of the mother's egg is transferred to the embryo. The consequence is the death of the child, muscle weakness, blindness and heart diseases. If the healthy mitochondria of another person are used in this procedure, the defects would disappear. This is done in two ways: 1. Nucleus transfer from the mother's egg with mitochondrial defects or egg cytoplasm to the donated egg in which the nucleus has been removed, 2. Transfer of parents' nuclei from the early embryo (zygote) containing the cytoplasm to a donated early embryo (zygote) in which the parents' nuclei have been removed. In each of these cases, the mitochondria in the egg or the donated zygote replace defective mitochondria and protect the child from related diseases. The advancement of IVF technology brought up the possibility in replacing the egg of patients with mitochondrial diseases with healthy donated eggs. In this case, the child produced has no genetic relationship with the patient, while in the current practice, 23 pairs of parental chromosomes construct the genetic essence of the child. In this practice, 37 mitochondrial genes, which comprise 1.10% of the total genetic essence of the child and play key roles in production of energy in cytoplasm of the egg, can be replaced with donated mitochondria in case of any defects, and thereby culminate in preventing mitochondrial defects in 1200 cases of children in Great Britain. The support of majority of reproduction scientists from the action and the concern and opposition of the Catholic Church together with some law and ethics specialists for authorizing the birth of engineered children denote the contrary position of the parties in applying this preventive and therapeutic action. The advent and development of reproductive technologies have always been intermingled with theological, ethical, legal and social issues and consequences. While great emphasis has been placed on ethical, legal and social dimensions and implications of cutting edge advances in reproduction, it seems that under supervision and surveillance of law makers and regulations, the possibility for amending inappropriate decisions is always provided. This is the focal point that the Parliament of Great Britain adhered to. However, there is no doubt that if necessary practical measures are not taken for discussing problems and compiling rules and regulations in treatment of reproductive diseases with higher incidence (such as application of IVF in indications for surrogacy in Iran), more theoretical and practical vexing issues will emerge which are complicated enough to be handled optimally. Although further studies are required to evaluate the action approved by the Parliament of Great Britain, the legal aspect of the action is worthy of attention since timely evaluation of it has been done. Also, as a prominent advancement in the field of biotechnology, the potential for its modification and amendment is permitted by the law.


Forest canopy structure can be described by a variety of biophysical parameters, for example leaf area index (LAI) and fractional cover (fcover). These parameters are derived currently from remotely sensed data only with limited accuracy. The retrieval of biophysical parameters is often conducted by empirical models based on vegetation indices (VI) exploiting the spectral information but ignoring the spatial dimension contained in remote sensing data. However, texture information provided by high spatial resolution data can be potentially used as additional information related to the forest structure and might improve the models for the retrieval of biophysical parameters. The aim of this research is to evaluate several methods to combine spectral and textural information to derive the best retrieval method of LAI and fcover from spectral and high spatial resolution remote sensing data in a coniferous forest in the Swiss National Park.
Spectral data as well as spatial data contain information, which can be correlated with the field measurements of biophysical forest parameters. The relationship between spectral data and the field measurements proved to be slightly better than between spatial data and field parameter.


A double fluorescence μ-well assay that exploits a novel conjugated polymer containing cyclodextrin (CD) as the key component is reported. For the construction of the cocaine bioassay, poly(p-phenylene) with CD units in the main-chain and poly(ethylene glycol) side chains (PPP-CD-g-PEG) was first prepared by Suzuki coupling polymerization and coated on each well as a biomimetic material. Although the polyphenylene backbone is responsible for the fluorescence properties without an additional fluorophore, PEG and CD provide water solubility and selective complexation with cocaine, respectively. A cocaine antibody was used as a secondary recognition compound after labelling with quantum dots (QDs). Most notably, we show that the two-color fluorescence nature of the assay facilitates double measurement from the same sample and the described strategy can be adapted to various sensing systems.


industry receives large and unwarranted government subsidies and that rival technologies, such as those for ethanol, renewable energy, and energy efficiency, deserve compensating government preferences. The evidence indicates that, on balance, the oil industry is not a net beneficiary of government subsidies. The facts point in the opposite direction. The oil industry is more harmed than helped by government intervention in energy markets. Special tax deductions, direct expenditures, net excise taxes, and research and development expenditures are constantly targeted by oil critics. However, those subsidies are a small share of oil revenues and far less generous than the preferences and subsidies provided for rival businesses and technologies such as mass transit and alternative fuels. Moreover, most energy subsidies are wealth transfers that do not significantly distort energy prices or affect energy markets. The contention that oil consumers do not pay their fair share of the environmental and national defense costs they impose on society is dubious. There is little evidence to suggest that the environmental externalities imposed by oil consumption exceed the taxes and regulatory costs paid by consumers. The contention that national defense costs would be lower if domestic oil consumption were taxed is also not supported by the evidence. "Big Oil" at the Public Trough? An Examination of Petroleum Subsidies


Knowledge Management of higher education is correlated to self-assessment process .This can act as a well-thought-out groundwork for effective decisions and work plan relating to quality assurance at Bangladesh. The research was created on secondary sources and presents qualitative research . Department of Accounting and Information System of Jagannath University (JU), Bangladesh and Department of Pharmacy, Dhaka International University (DIU). In command of progress and ensure excellence in Advancement of Educational Institutions are obligatory to be more receptive to the global varying requirements of both types of internal and external stakeholders as observed by the authors. University Grants Commission (UGC), Bangladesh should come forward with ranking system of journal rankings   to improve quality of research as observed by the authors. Employability skill among the students with originality and inventive nature is being required. For selecting teachers, in the circular of public universities they should refrain from advertising that private university passed students cannot apply as suggested by the authors. Authors'   recommended that  the country need to shape own branding through formulating National educational qualification framework from preprimary to Tertiary level of education with an appropriate connection and evaluation     not following mainly Malaysia but also developed nations need to be prepared.


Abstract This study investigates the means by which hospitals can improve the reliability of their medical supply value streams. Field research involving pharmacy supplies in eight Australasian public sector hospitals utilised a rigorous, multi-method data collection procedure based around the uncertainty circle model. Value stream maturity, performance inhibitors and pathways to effective improvement are explored. The high levels of value stream uncertainty detected are commonly the result of process immaturity and poor inter-functional integration. Chief among the common root causes is failure by the executive to acknowledge the strategic value of medical supplies management, which ultimately leads to higher materials cost and increased risk of a medical mishap. The study demonstrates how managers can use systems thinking and a context-free performance benchmark to identify effective interventions and potentially transferable best practices.


The aim of this paper is to review the literature associated with adaptive intelligent traffic control systems. Internet search engines and databases like Google Scholar were used for identifying literature related to the topic. Different periods of time were also considered so that sufficient representation is given to early seminal research as well as very recent works. However, it is not claimed that this review is exhaustive. It only highlights the important issues related to traffic congestion management using adaptive intelligent systems and their effectiveness. The search yielded 30 usable research reports. The research works reviewed adequately demonstrate the multiplicity of approaches possible to tackle traffic management problems in specified contexts. Clearly dynamic systems using real time data and predictive models are better than the commonly used static systems which are insensitive to changing traffic conditions. New methods definitely have significant edge over the current ones in reducing wait times and fuel consumption and thus pollution, giving way to emergency vehicles, reducing accidents and ensuring orderly and smooth traffic flow even during peak hours.


Business strategy is very important to small and medium family businesses as many are both fragile and vulnerable; strategy provides a solid foundation for survival. Various studies have identified that businesses that engage in strategic management outperform those that do not. Despite this knowledge the uptake of many aspects of strategic management by farm businesses has been slow. Although the development of business plans is now common there is often a disconnect between monitoring and strategy. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) was applied to case study farms during both the planning process and as they implemented and controlled their strategic choices to determine areas of difference that restrict or enhance it as a management tool for both family and farming businesses. The BSC was immediately applicable in the strategic management process for those businesses with current business plans. It could be used to test the degree of balance between the goals already identified in their plans. It was able to be used to critique the control measures they had in place and to determine how well they could be used to derive the causal chain from the operational level to family goals. In some instances either outcome or driver measures were recognized as being missing, in others the wiring within the balanced scorecard revealed some strategic measures without linkages.


The hydraulic behavior of soil is determined by its hydraulic properties and their variability in space. In agricultural soils, this heterogeneity may stem from tillage or may have natural origin. The root distribution of plants will adapt to some extent to this soil heterogeneity. However, the combined impact of soil heterogeneity and root water uptake (RWU) on long‐term soil water budgets has not received much attention. Numerical experiments helped identify how soil heterogeneity affects plant transpiration, soil evaporation, and groundwater recharge. Two‐dimensional virtual soils with hierarchical heterogeneity, both natural and tillage induced, served as a basis for modeling soil water dynamics for a 10‐yr climate record from two weather stations in Germany that vastly differ in annual precipitation. The complex interactions between soil and vegetation were explored by (i) comparing different RWU strategies (depth‐, structure‐, and time‐dependent root profiles), (ii) land use types (perennial grass and annual winter crops), (iii) a combination of textures (silt above sand and sand above loam), and (iv) RWU with or without a compensation mechanism. The simulations were repeated with one‐dimensional, effective representations of these virtual soils. In the framework of hydropedology, this study shed some light on the interaction between plants and pedological features and its impact on the macroscopic soil water budget. We demonstrated that land use has a major impact on the annual water balance through the partitioning of evapotranspiration into bare soil evaporation and plant transpiration. Compensational RWU becomes important for the annual water balance when the root zone comprises contrasting materials with respect to water holding capacity. Soil heterogeneity has in fact a minor impact on long‐term soil water budgets. As a consequence, the relative contribution of plant transpiration, soil evaporation, and groundwater recharge to the total soil water loss was well reproduced by simulations in one‐dimensional effective soil profiles. This advocates the application of one‐dimensional soil–atmosphere–vegetation transfer (SVAT) models at larger scales. These findings only hold for assumptions made in our numerical simulations including flat area without lateral flow and no macropore flow.


Ethan Kleinberg is Professor of History and Letters of Wesleyan University. He is the Director of the Center for Humanities and the Editor-in-Chief of  History and Theory . His first book,  Generation Existential: Heidegger's Philosophy in France, 1927-1961,  published by Cornell University Press, was awarded the 2006 Morris D. Forkosch prize for the best book in intellectual history, by the  Journal of the History of Ideas . Recently, Professor Kleinberg co-edited with Ranjan Ghosh the volume  Presence: Philosophy, History and Cultural Theory for the 21st Century , published by Cornell University Press as well. His book,  Haunting History: For a Deconstructive Approach to the Past , will appear in the Meridian Series from Stanford University Press in Fall 2017. He is also finishing the book  The Myth of Emmanuel Levinas , centered on the Talmudic Lectures that the French-Jewish philosopher presented in Paris between 1960 and 1990. I had the opportunity to conduct an interview with Professor Kleinberg in June 2016, when I was a Visiting Student Researcher in the Center for Humanities at Wesleyan University. We also took the advantage of the Second International Network for Theory of History conference (2nd INTH), that happened in Brazil at Ouro Preto from August 23 to August 26, to expand the interview.


Wellbore pressure gradient in gas wells is significant in designing deliquification technologies and optimizing production. At present, no model has yet to be established specifically for gas wells at a wide gas flow rate range. When calculating pressure gradient in a specific gas field, engineers must evaluate these widely used models and get the best-performance model at a certain range. To establish a more comprehensive model in horizontal gas wells, an experimental study was conducted to investigate the flow behavior of liquid-gas two-phase flow at different gas and liquid velocities and inclined angles in a 50-mm visual pipe. The evaluation of these widely used models against the experimental data shows that no model can predict liquid holdup at different gas velocity ranges, and huge deviations due to several reasons can be observed. After conducting a comprehensive analysis, a new liquid-holdup correlation was proposed based on the Mukherjee-Brill model by correlating from the experimental results, which have parametric ranges closer to the production of gas wells. This new model adopts a new dimensionless gas velocity number to characterize flow similarities and better scale up pressure from the experiment to the gas wells. By validating against experimental data and field data, the results indicate that the new two-phase flow model has stable performance and can accurately predict pressure gradient at different ranges of pressure and gas/liquid velocities.


Abstract Inside-out dolomite crystals are unusual because their cores are younger than their encasing cortices. In the Cayman Formation (middle Miocene) of Grand Cayman they developed diagenetically from zoned dolomite crystals that have cores formed of high-Ca calcian dolomite (HCD; > 55 mol % CaCO3) and outer cortical zones formed of low-Ca calcian dolomite (LCD; 3) or oscillatory-zoned LCD–HCD. The cores of these crystals, labeled as Type I, have a euhedral, rhombic outline with no embayments or angular reentrants and commonly contain calcite inclusions and/or micropores. Hollow dolomite crystals evolved from these crystals as preferential dissolution removed all or part of the HCD core. Later, calcite or dolomite cement was precipitated inside the hollow crystals. The former produced dolomite crystals with a calcitic core (i.e. dedolomite) whereas the latter produced inside-out dolomite crystals that have a dolomite core (LCD or HCD) encased by a dolomite cortex. The cores of the inside-out dolomite crystals, labeled as Type II, have an irregular outline characterized by angular reentrants and/or embayments, micropores that are usually larger than those in the Type I cores, but few calcite inclusions. The cortical zones have a euhedral rhombic motif irrespective of the type of core. Development of insideout dolomite crystals may significantly alter the average %Ca of the dolostones as HCD is lost to dissolution and LCD or HCD cement is precipitated in its place. The δ18O may also change, inasmuch as it is thought to covary with % Ca in some Tertiary dolostones. The genesis of inside-out dolomite crystal may offer an alternative explanation for the textures (e.g., clotted cathodoluminescence patterns) in some ancient dolomite crystals that have been attributed to replacement and/or recrystallization.


Weighing the potential benefits of building a social media presence against the potential dangers inherent in such engagements, this project makes the case that military leaders and public affairs officers need to integrate social media into daily operations. This project focuses specifically on emergency operations, and the importance of building and audience and establishing trust before an event occurs. This project serves to demonstrate how social media has been used effectively by organizations during crises, and underlies both the important role social media have begun to play in emergency operations and the dangers inherent in not engaging in social media during such operations. Military public affairs officers must grow beyond their traditional roles as organizational gatekeepers participating in a monologue with the public, and embrace their roles as representatives of their commands in an ongoing dialogue with both internal and external audiences.


The phase out of methyl bromide (MB) requires effective alternatives for soil disinfestation, particularly in high-elevation strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) nurseries. Methyl bromide alternative fumigants were evaluated over a 3-year period for weed control and runner plant yields at strawberry nurseries in Spain. Two types of field trials were carried out: replicated experiments and commercial-scale field demonstrations. In the replicated experiments, eight fumigant treatments were evaluated each year, including the nonfumigated control and commercial standard methyl bromide plus chloropicrin mixture (MB : Pic) (50 : 50 w/w). Among the treatments evaluated were dazomet, chloropicrin (Pic) alone, metam sodium plus chloropicrin (MS + Pic), 1,3-dichloropropene:chloropicrin (1,3-D : Pic) (61 : 35 w/w), DMDS plus chloropicrin (DMDS + Pic), and propylene oxide. The best alternative fumigant treatments from the replicated experiments were carried forward to the demonstration phase of the project. Treatments such as 1,3-D : Pic (300 kg·ha -1 ), the combination of metam sodium plus chloropicrin (Pic) (400 to 500 + 150 to 250 kg·ha -1 ), Pic alone (300 kg·ha -1 ) as well as dazomet (400 kg·ha -1 ) controlled weeds at the level of MB: Pic (400 kg·ha -1 ). Runner plant yields, in soils previously fumigated with alternative fumigants varied, among years, locations, and trial scale, i.e., commercial scale, or small plot. By comparison, runner plant yields in MB: Pic-fumigated soils were consistently high among years, location, and trial scale. Chemical names used are: 1,3-D, 1,3-dichloropropene; MB, methyl bromide; Pic, trichloronitromethane; MS, sodium N-methyldithiocarbamate; DMDS, dimethyl disulphide; dazomet, tetrahydro-3,5-dimethyl-2H-1,3,5-thiadiazine-2-thione; PO, propylene oxide.


The activation energies for the methyl radical addition to CH2O, CH3CHO, and (CH3)2CO, are small and around 28, 29, and 40 kJ mol−1, respectively. For the addition of primary alkyl radicals to formaldehyde and higher aldehyde homologues, we find significantly lower activation barriers of (20 ± 4) kJ mol−1 and (27 ± 2) kJ mol−1, respectively. An almost negligible activation barrier of about 5 kJ mol−1 was found for the secondary radical addition to formaldehyde. In the case of addition of a tertiary radical to formaldehyde no activation barrier could be identified. Generally, methyl addition reactions to carbonyls will compete with hydrogen abstraction reactions. For larger alkyl radicals addition to carbonyls dominates over the direct H-atom abstraction. A self-consistent set of standard enthalpies of formation ΔfH° for saturated alkoxy (CnH2n+1O˙, where n ⩽ 5) radicals was obtained by the modified Gaussian-3 (G3(MP2)//B3LYP)
ab initio molecular orbital theory. The calculated heats of formations are in good agreement with literature values estimated from O–H bond dissociation energies. The expected maximum error of the calculated ΔfH° is less than 4 kJ mol−1. The primary, secondary, and tertiary alkoxy group values (GV) were evaluated from the ab initio
ΔfH°-s with a standard deviation of 1.2 kJ mol−1.


This paper examines children's literature as discourse and argues that attention to the textuality of children's literature discloses a network of signifying strategies which serve to confine texts within a narrow band of socio-cultural values. The language of fiction written for children offers conventionalised discourses by means of which content is encoded. While there are many other books can be and are titled, these are culturally representative. They are symptomatic of the frames used in Australian children's literature, and in effect disclose how that literature is complicit in the ideological construction of Australian childhood (or, in this case, adolescence). This is part of how children are socialized. Hence the mediators of children's books focus attention on the 'truth'-value of theme and content and perpetuate the illusion that discourse is merely transparent.


Many farmers are currently facing severe financial stress resulting in asset liquidations, problems in obtaining credit, and even bankruptcy. An important question in policy analysis is the applicability of traditional farm policy approaches to the problem of financial stress in agriculture. This is a particularly relevant question given that the 1983 PIK program was one of the most expensive and largest government transfer programs for agriculture in recent history, and yet many farms are still facing severe financial problems. In this discussion the causes of current financial stress in agriculture and the role of past price and income support, credit and tax policies in mitigating or contributing to this stress will be assessed. Then alternative policy options to relieve the stress will be identified and evaluated. Selected options will be quantitatively analyzed using micro and macro econometric simulation models. Finally, conclusions will be drawn.


BACKGROUND: The interaction among various health disciplines in a health care team using the IPE approach has received recognition as one of the most effective methods of improving the delivery of healthcare services. The perception and attitude of students toward IPE is considered one of the barriers and challenges to implement interprofessional education. PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to evaluate students' perceptions toward interprofessional education. METHOD: Data were collected through a descriptive survey using the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS). The survey consisted of 19 items, 5-point Likert scale and grouped into four sub-scales; teamwork and collaboration, negative professional identity, positive professional identity, and roles and responsibilities. The survey was administered to a convenience sample of undergraduate and graduate students who are enrolled in nursing, respiratory therapy, nutrition, physical therapy, and occupational therapy programs at an urban university. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: The number of participants was two hundred and fifty (n= 250) students from five programs. Physical therapy students accounted for 29.2%; followed by nursing students 28.8%; respiratory therapy students 26.4%; nutrition students 8.4%; and occupational therapy students 7.2%. Female participants accounted for 71.6% of all participants while male participants accounted for 28.4%. Over half of the participants are graduate degree students while 44.4% are undergraduate degree students. Almost one third of participants reported previous IPE experience and two third of participants reported no previous IPE experience. The study findings revealed that participants have positive perception and more agreement toward IPE (M = 81.10, ± 8.16 out of 95 points). The study showed that there is insignificant correlation between age and RIPLS total scores, negative professional identity, positive professional identity, and roles & responsibilities. There is only a significant negative correlation (rs = -0.176; P = 0.008) between students' age and teamwork & collaboration subscale. Moreover, the study findings revealed that gender and previous IPE experience have no significant effect on students' perception toward IPE. CONCLUSION: Results indicate that healthcare professional students value interprofessional education and have good perception toward it. Further studies with higher number of participants from various disciplines and level of education are recommended.


Sexual dimorphism in the primate face has been studied intensively lately, but a number of issues remain controversial. For example, some studies have indicated that facial sexual dimorphism arises through ontogenetic scaling, whereas others have found it to be a consequence of both ontogenetic scaling and divergence in male and female growth trajectories. To shed further light on primate facial sexual dimorphism, geometric morphometric methods were applied to crania representing five papionin genera: Cercocebus, Lophocebus, Macaca, Mandrillus and Papio. A first set of analyses focused on the pattern and degree of facial sexual dimorphism exhibited by adult specimens. A second set of analyses concentrated on the ontogeny of facial sexual dimorphism in infant-to-adult age series. The first set indicated that the five genera exhibit significant facial sexual dimorphism. These analyses also revealed that the genera share several features of sexual dimorphism. Males are distinguished from females in having a more prognathic mid-face, a relatively more inferiorly and anteriorly positioned prosthion, relatively increased subnasal height and relatively broader zygomatic roots. They are also differentiated from females in their maxillae, which relative to the zygomatics are narrow but vertically deep, especially in the posterior aspect. Also, the first set of analyses indicated that Macaca is the most distinctive of the genera in terms of sexual dimorphism. The distinctive features of the Macaca sexual dimorphism are that males exhibit relatively wider nasal apertures and premaxillae than females, together with a relative increase in breadth across the inferior zygomatic roots. The second set of analyses demonstrated that in all the genera, sexual dimorphism arises partly through ontogenetic scaling and partly through a late divergence in male and female growth trajectories. The analyses also indicated that the relative contribution of these processes to sexual dimorphism varies among the genera. Ontogenetic scaling is by far the most important process in Lophocebus and Papio. Late divergence between male and female growth trajectories contributes proportionately more in Cercocebus and Mandrillus, although ontogenetic scaling still plays the major role. The relative contribution of late divergence between male and female growth trajectories is greatest in Macaca, in which it accounts for about half of the facial differences between adult males and females. In all five genera, ontogenetic scaling results in increased prognathism and greater relative maxillary size in males compared to females, whilst the late divergence involves the male mid-face becoming proportionately larger and deeper than the female mid-face, and the male posterior maxilla coming to lie more inferiorly with respect to the zygomatic root than its female counterpart.


Abstract Steady state fluorescence and BioUV-Visible techniques were used to study film formation of polystyrene (PS) latex and Al2O3 composites depending on PS particles size and Al2O3 content. Two film series (SmPS/Al2O3 and LgPS/Al2O3) were prepared covering PS sphere (SmPS: 203 nm; LgPS: 382 nm) templates with various layers of Al2O3 by dip coating method. The film formation behaviours of composites were studied by annealing them at a temperature range of 100–250°C and monitoring the scattered (Isc), fluorescence (IP) and transmitted (Itr) light intensities after each annealing step. The results indicate that LgPS/Al2O3 films underwent complete film formation independent of Al2O3 content while no film formation occurred above a certain Al2O3 content for SmPS/Al2O3. Extraction of PS produced ordered porous structures for high Al2O3 content in both series. Scanning electron microscopy images showed that the pore size and porosity could be easily tailored by varying PS particle size and Al2O3 content.


Most data stream management systems are based on extensions of the relational data model and query languages, but rigorous analyses of the problems and limitations of this approach, and how to overcome them, are still wanting. In this article, we elucidate the interaction between stream-oriented extensions of the relational model and continuous query language constructs, and show that the resulting expressive power problems are even more serious for data streams than for databases. In particular, we study the loss of expressive power caused by the loss of blocking query operators, and characterize nonblocking queries as monotonic functions on the database. Thus we introduce the notion of NB-completeness to assure that a query language is as suitable for continuous queries as it is for traditional database queries. We show that neither RA nor SQL are NB-complete on unordered sets of tuples, and the problem is even more serious when the data model is extended to support order—a sine-qua-non in data stream applications. The new limitations of SQL, compounded with well-known problems in applications such as sequence queries and data mining, motivate our proposal of extending the language with user-defined aggregates (UDAs). These can be natively coded in SQL, according to simple syntactic rules that set nonblocking aggregates apart from blocking ones. We first prove that SQL with UDAs is Turing complete. We then prove that SQL with monotonic UDAs and union operators can express all monotonic set functions computable by a Turing machine (NB-completeness) and finally extend this result to queries on sequences ordered by their timestamps. The proposed approach supports data stream models that are more sophisticated than append-only relations, along with data mining queries, and other complex applications.


We examine the international equity allocations of over 3 million individuals in 296 401(k) plans over the 2006-2011 period. These allocations show enormous cross-individual variation, ranging between zero and over 75%, as well as an upward trend that is only partially accounted for by the slight decrease in importance of the US market relative to the world market. International equity allocations also display strong cohort effects, with younger cohorts investing more internationally than older ones, but also each cohort investing more internationally over time. This finding suggests that the home bias phenomenon may slowly disappear over time. Worker's salary has a positive effect on international allocations, while account balance has a negative one, but these effects are not economically large. Education, financial literacy and the fraction of foreign-born population measured at the zip code level have strong positive effects on international diversification, consistent with familiarity and information stories. In addition, states with more exports have higher international allocations.


Brno, Czech Republic is amongst the most liberal of cities and yet, but few know that in Brno as early as during the interwar period there were unique spaces dedicated to sexual diversity, various gay and lesbian initiatives came into existence, and that the first post-war semi-official / semilegal Czech gay business was opened here. Also, Brno hosted the first big Czech "queer march", and the most significant Czech queer film festival was born there. This article aims to examine whether and, if so how, this diversity is mirrored in Brno's "queer venues", which we have contextualized within the broader perspective of geographies of sexualities, using semi-structured interviews. Our goal was to understand the locally-specific forms of socio-spatial organization and how they influence local non-heterosexual people, including their effects on sexual orientation and/or sexual identities in everyday negotiations. Our main findings include the identification of the characteristic features of Brno "queer enterprises", the elucidation of their relative spatial concentration, and the physical and visual unobtrusiveness associated with the degree of use of "queer symbolism". Our findings clarify the specific homonormative, and to a certain extent heteronormative, settings of local queer venues, which in the context of gay commodification significantly influence not only the form and degree of acceptance of non-heterosexual people in Brno, but also their mutual relationships, the possibilities of self-realization and new forms of exclusion. Even though we cannot find a "gay neighbourhood" in Brno, we can speak of a "queer-friendly city".


In this paper, we describe and discuss a semi-automatic approach for the integration of structural Karlstad Enterprise Modeling (EM) Schemata. The focus is on the implementation-independent level and therefore we treat an EM schema as a high-level description of data for some part of the future information system. Our point of departure is the classic four-phase integration process comprised of pre-integration, comparison of the schemata, conforming the schemata and, merging and restructuring. In relation to the semi-automatic approach described and discussed, we argue that several rules and knowledge repositories should be used to facilitate the whole integration process. However, it is also argued that the domain experts are still a very important source of knowledge and should therefore also be involved during the whole integration process. The research approach is inspired by design science in which the end product should be a useful artifact. In this paper, the artifact is provided in the described semi-automatic approach for the integration of Structural Karlstad EM schemata. As its main contribution, the paper offers a holistic view of the described and discussed semi-automatic approach for the integration of structural Karlstad EM schemata.


The prospect of controlling devices merely by the power of one's thoughts is compelling, especially for assistive technology applications. In the accompanying video, we show how we have strived to push brain-computer interface (BCI) technology out of the lab and into the real world, while simultaneously moving away from testing solely with healthy subjects to undertaking trials with patients and potential end-users. We describe the evolution of the motor imagery based BCI, which has resulted in a major milestone: the first patient trial of a motor imagery based BCI controlled wheelchair.


Concerns about the future of the natural environment, prevailing social conditions, and governance of private and public institutions inspire today's ESG movement. This paper proposes a heuristic that can be useful in examining the ESG-scoring issue. We begin with a social control diagnostic covering business activities – one that addresses the interests and actions of various stakeholders in the system. We examine its dynamics in the context of economic, social, and political pressures, including various initiatives to set standards against which business conduct may be calibrated. We evaluate efforts to create metrics that reflect normative improvements in ESG outcomes and performance scoring against them. We assess the industrial organization of the ESG ratings industry and review key empirical studies of ESG-driven investing. We conclude with policy recommendations intended to alleviate existing shortcomings in ESG ratings and improve their role in capital allocation and corporate governance.


Stochastic Gradient Markov Chain Monte Carlo (SG-MCMC) algorithms have become increasingly popular for Bayesian inference in large-scale applications. Even though these methods have proved useful in several scenarios, their performance is often limited by their bias. In this study, we propose a novel sampling algorithm that aims to reduce the bias of SG-MCMC while keeping the variance at a reasonable level. Our approach is based on a numerical sequence acceleration method, namely the Richardson-Romberg extrapolation, which simply boils down to running almost the same SG-MCMC algorithm twice in parallel with different step sizes. We illustrate our framework on the popular Stochastic Gradient Langevin Dynamics (SGLD) algorithm and propose a novel SG-MCMC algorithm referred to as Stochastic Gradient Richardson-Romberg Langevin Dynamics (SGRRLD). We provide formal theoretical analysis and show that SGRRLD is asymptotically consistent, satisfies a central limit theorem, and its non-asymptotic bias and the mean squared-error can be bounded. Our results show that SGRRLD attains higher rates of convergence than SGLD in both finite-time and asymptotically, and it achieves the theoretical accuracy of the methods that are based on higher-order integrators. We support our findings using both synthetic and real data experiments.


The present investigation deals with the method of calculation and prediction of the sound velocity in liquid normal alkanes. It is based on the correlation for the classes of substances forming homologous series in which the physicochemical properties change monotonically. The coefficients of the generalising function are calculated in relation to the temperature, pressure, and the number of carbon atoms in the alkane molecule. It follows from sample calculations, which are performed, that the recommended method gives experimental data on the sound velocity with an error no greater than the experimental one. It is shown that the method can be used to predict the given properties in the series of n-alkanes from pentane to higher homologues in a region of liquid state within the investigated range of state parameters (T = 233 - 473 K and p = 0.1 - 300 MPa).


Summary  The involvement of Indigenous people in the national conservation effort is increasingly being acknowledged and valued in Australia. Ecological research can play an important role in reinforcing the efforts of Indigenous land managers; and interest from Indigenous and non-Indigenous ecologists and land managers to work together on ecological issues of common concern is increasing. Although there are many examples of successful collaborations there are also many instances where expectations, particularly of the Indigenous partners, are not met, and this is less frequently communicated. This paper, written from the perspective of an Arrernte researcher in partnership with his non-Indigenous colleague, outlines a range of challenges including the need for Indigenous people to have more control of what is done and why it is done on their country and to define and prioritise their own objectives for land management, which may or may not align with mainstream conservation agendas. Currently, Western conservation paradigms play the dominant role in how Natural Resource Management is practiced and how broader policy is set, and ecological research on Indigenous land is still most often led by the Western ecologists. This can leave out the ideas of Indigenous people and does little to address underlying inequitable power relationships. Indigenous Australians do not want to become spectators in the research process, giving away knowledge, or labourers to Western conservation agendas. They want to be active partners in developing better understandings of the environment and implementers of management that reflects shared agendas. Open discussion of these issues within the mainstream ecological literature is an important step towards change and will create better opportunities for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous ecological practitioners and Indigenous people dealing with land management policy.


One seldom-discussed issue is the factors that influence nurses' decisions about the time they spend with residents in psychiatric care. This study uses a qualitative naturalistic approach and consists of an analysis of focus-group interviews with nurses, which aimed to identify factors affecting nurses' decisions about being with or being nonattendant in their relationship with their residents. Two series of focus-group interviews were conducted, interpreted and analysed through content analysis. The study included all the staff (n=32) at two municipal psychiatric group dwellings housing residents mainly with a diagnosis of long-term schizophrenia. This study revealed that the main factor that determined nurses' nurse/resident time together or nonattendance time was whether they liked or disliked the individual resident. One possible explanation is the carers' change from a perspective in which the nursing care was given on the basis of each resident's needs and rights, based on the individual nurse's professional judgement, to a consumer perspective, which leads to a change in responsibility from themselves to the individual residents.


Probiotic use as capable preventive and therapeutic strategy in different diseases varying from allergic to autoimmune disease has recently been reported. Three interacting factors including an aberrant intestinal microbiota, a 'leaky' intestinal mucosal barrier, and altered intestinal immune responsiveness have been suggested to be able to create a ''perfect environment'' for autoimmune disease development. Regulation of intestinal microflora composition by probiotics offers the possibility to influence the development of mucosal/systemic immunity besides autoimmune diseases. Although there is a large amount of conflicting data on the preventive/therapeutic effects of probiotics in ADs; there is fairly promising evidence to recommend as well. Thus, probiotic use cannot be generally recommended for primary prevention and therapy of ADs for now.


Coordinates, Graphs, Lines Functions and Limits Differentiation Applications of Differentiation Integration Applications of the Definite Integral Logarithm and Exponential Functions Inverse Trigonometric and Hyberbolic Functions Techniques of Integration Improper Integrals L'Htpital's Rule Infinite Series Topics in Analytic Geometry Polar Coordinates and Parametric Equations Three-Dimensional Space Vectors Vector-Valued Functions Partial Derivatives Multiple Integrals Topics in Vector Calculus Second-Order Differential Equations Appendices Answers Index.


Wallace, Aurora. Newspapers and the Making of Modern America: A History. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2005. 214 pp. $49.95. In Newspapers and the Making of Modern America, Aurora Wallace narrowly focuses on the role that a variety of archetypal newspapers play in creating, building, developing, improving, and reinforcing communities and their distinct spaces, infrastructures, values, and lifestyles, which is a symbiotic relationship basic to the growth of the American newspapers in the twentieth century. This thematic history views newspapers as instruments of social change rather than tools of social control and the status quo. This is a history of the modern newspaper as the underlying, often subtle, force promoting schools, public spaces, healthcare facilities, transportation systems, arenas, urban renewal projects, and economic development. Wallace, who teaches in the Department of Culture and Communication at New York University, arranges this themed history by newspaper types beginning with the emergence of tabloid newspapers in urban America and their development of celebrity news, crime coverage, and sports reporting that created a new urban lifestyle and culture, particularly in New York. She then turns to the reaction of small-town, rural American newspapers to the new urbanism from such heartland locations as Emporia, Kansas, and Des Moines, Iowa, where publishers championed civic virtue, family values, political reform, protection of small farms, and expansion of passable roads. In presenting a short history of the black press, Wallace emphasizes the role of the Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Courier, and Baltimore Afro-American in building black communities in northern cities through campaigns fighting for civil, economic, and political rights. Newspapers and the Making of Modern America is loosely chronological in structure as Wallace moves from the 1920s through the arrival of new media technologies of the twenty-first century. Following her description of the growth of the black press and their respective communities through World War II, Wallace focuses on the growth of the Los Angeles Times and Newsday and the bicoastal suburban communities and lifestyles these newspapers unabashedly created and promoted following the war. Similarly, she reviews the growth and promotional role newspapers in Miami and Tampa played in creating Florida's land rush and tourism economies while downplaying the inconveniently frequent destruction wrought by hurricanes. …


Key changes are common in Western classical music. The precise segmentation of a music piece at instances where key changes occur allows for further analysis, like self-similarity analysis, chord recognition, and several other techniques that mainly pertain to the characterization of music content. This article examines the automatic segmentation of audio data into parts composed in different keys, using clustering on chroma-related spaces. To this end, the k-means algorithm is used and a methodology is proposed so that useful information about key changes can be derived, regardless of the number of clusters or key changes. The proposed methodology is evaluated by experimenting on the segmentation of recordings of existing compositions from the Classic-Romantic repertoire. Additional analysis is performed using artificial data sets. Specifically, the construction of artificial pieces is proposed as a means to investigate the potential of the strategy under discussion in predefined key-change scenarios that encompass different musical characteristics. For the existing compositions, we compare the results of our proposed methodology with others from the music information retrieval literature. Finally, although the proposed methodology is only capable of locating key changes and not the key identities themselves, we discuss results regarding the labeling of a composition's key in the located segments.


Why are most capitalist enterprises of any size organized as authoritarian bureaucracies rather than incorporating genuine employee participation that would give the workers real authority? Even firms with employee participation programs leave virtually all decision-making power in the hands of management. The standard answer is that hierarchy is more economically efficient than any sort of genuine participation, so that participatory firms would be less productive and lose out to more traditional competitors. This answer is indefensible. After surveying the history, legal status, and varieties of employee participation, I examine and reject as question-begging the argument that the rarity of genuine participatory management itself shows that it is inefficient. I then refute two transaction cost theories presented by Stephen Bainbridge, first that hierarchy is a superior way to get information to decision-makers, and second that it is necessary to reduce shirking. In fact the empirical evidence shows that employee participation even as it exists in its current, limited form, is associated with enhanced productivity. This, however, leaves us with the puzzle about why every firm is not genuinely participatory. I offer an explanation, derived in part from public choice theory, based on the fact that the costs and benefits of participation affect the firm's owners and employees differently. The owners of the enterprise are unlikely to profit from the sort of decisions that employees would likely make if they had the power to do so, even if these decisions enhanced productivity, and by implication, profitability. Greater profits for the firm would often mean fewer profits for the owners and managers, who accordingly have a strong incentive to resist genuine employee participation.


The lasting effects of neuronal activity on brain development involve calcium-dependent gene expression. Using a strategy called transactivator trap, we cloned a calcium-responsive transactivator called CREST (for calcium-responsive transactivator). CREST is a SYT-related nuclear protein that interacts with adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (cAMP) response element–binding protein (CREB)–binding protein (CBP) and is expressed in the developing brain. Mice that have a targeted disruption of the crest gene are viable but display defects in cortical and hippocampal dendrite development. Cortical neurons from crest mutant mice are compromised in calcium-dependent dendritic growth. Thus, calcium activation of CREST-mediated transcription helps regulate neuronal morphogenesis.


Traditional algorithms for stochastic optimization require projecting the solution at each iteration into a given domain to ensure its feasibility. When facing complex domains, such as the positive semidefinite cone, the projection operation can be expensive, leading to a high computational cost per iteration. In this paper, we present a novel algorithm that aims to reduce the number of projections for stochastic optimization. The proposed algorithm combines the strength of several recent developments in stochastic optimization, including mini-batches, extra-gradient, and epoch gradient descent, in order to effectively explore the smoothness and strong convexity. We show, both in expectation and with a high probability, that when the objective function is both smooth and strongly convex, the proposed algorithm achieves the optimal O(1/T) rate of convergence with only O(log T) projections. Our empirical study verifies the theoretical result.


Monitoring groundwater quality near sources of pollution in the southwest commonly involves highly productive alluvial aquifers. Experience in monitoring in such a setting indicates that different techniques are applicable than are commonly used in humid areas, where less productive formations are present and water levels are shallower. The use of monitor wells of adequate diameter, drilled by water well drilling contractors, is highly preferred. In addition, it is preferable to collect water samples by pumping after a minimum amount of time, normally one or two hours.


Many commentators on neuropsychological assessment stress the disadvantages of expressing tests scores in the form of percentile ranks. As a result, there is a danger of losing sight of the fundamentals: percentile ranks express scores in a form that is of greater relevance to the neuropsychologist than any alternative metric because they tell us directly how common or uncommon such scores are in the normative population. We advocate that, in addition to expressing scores on a standard metric, neuropsychologists should also routinely record the percentile rank of all test scores so that the latter are available when attempting to reach a formulation. In addition, it is argued that the current practice of expressing confidence limits on test scores on a standard score metric should be supplemented with confidence limits expressed as percentile ranks because the latter provide a more direct and tangible indication of the uncertainty surrounding an observed score. Computer programs accompany this paper and can be used to obtain percentile rank confidence limits for Index scores (and FSIQs) on the WAIS-III or WISC-IV (these can be downloaded from the following web page: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~psy086/dept/PRCLME.htm).


A volume in Research on Sociocultural Influences on Motivation and Learning Series Editor: Dennis M. McInerney, The Hong Kong Institute of Education It is now nearly thirty years since sociocultural theories of learning created great excitement and debate amongst those concerned with learning in diverse contexts. Since that time significant advances have been made in sociocultural theory and research. Various sociocultural approaches to the understanding of learning (for example, sociocultural psychology, sociocultural discourse, cultural historical activity theory) have been developed and consolidated and new challenges are currently being addressed. In the motivational arena sociocultural approaches deriving from Vygotsky have only begun to emerge relatively recently. In this Volume we examine and evaluate the achievements of past sociocultural theory and research, and consider the future directions of sociocultural theory and research in the domains of learning and motivation.


Dr. Douglas Schocken from the Duke Heart Center moderated the topic "What Do the Newer Trials Tell Us About the Management of Heart Failure? A Discussion of Three Thought-Provoking Papers" with Drs. Stephen S. Gottlieb from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Lynne Warner Stevenson from the Brigham and Women's Hospital and James Young from the Cleveland Clinic participating. The discussion focused primarily on: Management of chronic heart failure by reviewing the findings of three papers published in 2009 on the use of intravenous iron, BNP biomarkers and ventricular assist devices: (1) Dr. Anker et al. addressed a novel medical approach to the problem by using intravenous ferric carboxymaltose, (2) Dr. Pfisterer et al. examined the way in which physicians assess medical management and thereby modify therapies , and (3) Dr. Slaughter et al. considered a fresh look at a newer type of mechanical ventricular assist device for failing hearts. (Med Roundtable Cardiovasc Ed. 2010;1(1):111-119) ©2010 FoxP2 Media, LLC


OF DISSERTATION IMPROVED UNDERSTANDING OF COAL PILLAR BEHAVIOR AND BUMP POTENTIAL THROUGH THE GROUND RESPONSE CURVE Continued depletion of easier coal reserves has necessitated development at deeper overburdens. At greater depth, operations often encounter more difficult ground conditions due to higher stresses and potential multiple seam interactions. Pillars which are left intact as the primary support mechanism experience an increase in loading. Mine design improvements are often incorporated to combat increased loads, principally by increasing pillar size. However, the potential for coal bumps, which are a rapid and violent failure of coal pillars, has increased due to these higher stresses and the use of larger width-to-height (W/H) ratio pillars. Many efforts have been made to predict coal bumps; however, coal is a naturally occurring, inhomogeneous, and discontinuous geologic material. As a result, the best means for understanding coal pillar bursts are not efforts to predict the events themselves, but to advance knowledge of the associated environmental factors including geologic influences, stresses, and mining method. These factors have a tremendous impact on the loading distribution and resulting behavior of coal pillars. Of particular importance is the post-failure behavior of coal pillars which influences the mechanisms and functionality of pillar failure. Unfortunately, understanding of the post-failure behavior of squat coal pillars and the recognition of functional pillar strain has been limited. The Ground Response Curve (GRC) has traditionally been used to evaluate the behavior of rock mass to the mining process by comparing the ground response/convergence curve to the support (e.g. pillars) response curve. The GRC has been employed in an effort to improve understanding of squat coal pillar behavior for numerous case studies with varying geologic and geometric conditions. The relationship between the GRC and individual pillar deformation has been examined using numerical modeling techniques. Using these widely accepted methods, a range of typical coal geologies and mining geometries was investigated, seeking to establish relationships between pillar performance, energy release, and the resulting mode of failure. The physical and dynamic properties of the rock and rock mass for coal and surrounding strata, geometric considerations, and pillar interface properties have been determined to be important indicators of squat coal pillar behavior and ultimately bump potential. As a result, new understanding of post-failure ground response has been developed and improvements have been made towards enhanced classification of mine-specific bump criteria, or bump "red zones".


The New Zealand scallop Pecten novaezelandiae is an important fishery. Wild scallop spat are used extensively to enhance and maintain scallop beds. The current yields of scallops have decreased by over a third in the last decade. A potential solution to increasing the scallop yield and conserving stocks are hatchery grown spat. Most studies related to P. novaezelandiae have concentrated on their ecology and the process and effects of scallop enhancement. This study aimed to fill two gaps in our knowledge of P. novaezelandiae biology by exploring the effects of diet ration on the animal's gonad maturation and to characterise the larval development from zygote to pedivileger.

Wild scallops were collected and maintained in the laboratory for seven days and fed ad libitum. An initial sample of scallops was taken and reproductive condition was compared to that of scallops fed one of three algal diets for thirty days: The diet rations were 0.5g (low), 0.92g (medium) and 1.9g (high) of microalgae per day.

The results of the study showed there was a significant increase in the gonadalsomatic index (ANOVA; F3=49.3; p<0.05; n=91), wet gonad weight (Steel, p<0.05), egg size (ANOVA, F3=2.8; p<0.05; n=3773) and colour between the male and female portions of the gonad (p<0.05; n=117). However, colour, wet gonad weight and acini area were not significantly different after 30 days of conditioning.

Three lots of scallops were spawned to characterise the key phases of P. novaezelandiae from zygote to pedivileger. Two spawnings characterised P. novaezelandiae from gamete to D-larvae. The embryos were cultured in 900ml of fresh sea water, filtered to one micron for 3 days and sampled randomly. There was 100% mortality by day four. The third spawning saw fertilised eggs placed in a 170L conical tank for three days. The D-larvae were then transferred to six Cawthron Ultra Dense Larval rearing systems (CUDLs), from which larvae were selected every two days for imaging with Light Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy.

A strong linear growth for P. novaezelandiae larvae diameter corresponded to 6.5895 × age in days + 74.337. A mean growth of 5.92 µm a day was experienced over 30 days for P. novaezelandiae larvae. A mean (±SE) clearance 65.4±2.59% of the Chlorophyll A was cleared per day over 30 days of feeding. P. novaezelandiae sperm morphology, 2.14 ±0.05 length and 61 ±0.07µm breadth, is similar to the Pecten maximus. Unknown micropores are visible on the nucleus of the sperm. P. novaezelandiae eggs are spawned with irregular shapes and experience meiosis in the first hour. A polar body emerges 15min after fertilisation. The embryogenesis of P. novaezelandiae is similar to other scallop bivalves comprising of a polar lobed, cleavage, cell division, blastula, gastrula and trochophore phases. D-larvae emerge after three days. However, an umbo veliger phase is not obvious and only emerges before around when an eyespot is visible around 23 days post fertilisation [PF]. Approximately 30 days PF a pedivileger emerges.

This is the first study in broodstock P. novaezelandiae, and which characterises key growth phases. It is also the first time semi quantitative colour measures have been conducted on the diet concentration of the gonad. Spawning was found to be a barrier to successfully spawning large quantities of scallops.


SUMMARY Modern broilers grow much faster and more efficiently than their predecessors. Because of the rapid growth rates of broilers, particular attention must be given to the skeletal development of the bird. Calcium formate (CaFo) has been used as a calcium source in animal diets in the European Union for many years. The objective of this study was to evaluate CaFo in broiler diets as an alternative source of calcium. Four experimental groups (0.0, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5% CaFo) were evaluated, with 10 replicate pens per treatment. Variables measured included BW, FCR, tibia weight, bone ash percentage, tibia breaking strength, and gut morphology. Many of the parameters measured were statistically similar to the calcium carbonate control treatment. However, the 1.0% CaFo treatment significantly increased tibia breaking strength and duodenal villus height when compared with the other treatments at the completion of grow out. Therefore, CaFo can serve as an alternative calcium source in broiler diets and may significantly improve skeletal development.


PURPOSE OF REVIEW
Here we discuss recently developed HIV-1 entry inhibitors that can target multiple epitopes on the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein (Env), with an emphasis on eCD4-Ig. Some of these inhibitors are more potent and broader than any single antibody characterized to date. We also discuss the use of recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vectors as a platform for long-term expression of these inhibitors.

RECENT FINDINGS
Much of the exterior of HIV-1 Env can be targeted by broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs). Recent studies combine the variable regions or Fabs from different bNAbs, often with the receptor-mimetic components, to create broad, potent, and hard-to-escape inhibitors. rAAV vectors can express these inhibitors for years in vivo, highlighting their ability to prevent or treat HIV-1 infection.

SUMMARY
By targeting multiple epitopes on Env, bispecific and antibody-like inhibitors can be broader and more potent than bNAbs. These inhibitors can provide long-term protection from, and perhaps suppression of, HIV-1 if they are administered by a delivery platform, like rAAV vectors, but only after rAAV limitations are addressed.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CCBY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0.


The election of President Obama presents an opportunity to assess, and, if necessary, adjust U.S. military policies on when war may be waged. President Bush asserted the Bush Doctrine of using preemptive force against putative enemies before they have the capability to attack the United States. After the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the time is ripe to evaluate whether the United States should continue the Bush Doctrine. Through statistical regressions of all attacks by or on the United States over sixty years, as well as field interviews of the Taliban, Islamic leaders, and foreign officials in Pakistan and Iran, this article demonstrates that U.S. military action does not observably reduce aggregate attacks against the United States, and is likely to increase hostility against it. When the U.S. military responds to an actual attack, these considerations are secondary to preventing certain and immediate death and destruction that would occur if the United States did not act. Where there is clear evidence that a putative enemy will launch a devastating attack against the United States should the United States fail to preempt the attack with force, these considerations are also secondary. However, absent such clear and convincing evidence, the indeterminate effects of U.S. military action on aggregate national security and the risk of stoking global animus should tilt the balance against military preemption. The article recommends that before President Obama - or any future U.S. President - authorizes preemptive military force, he or she should require U.S. policy makers to meet a high burden of proof that a putative enemy will with attack and injury the United States if the United States does not strike first. As an alternative to preemptive attacks, this Article recommends five strategies that might better promote U.S. security.


The purpose of my PhD is to examine one mechanism by which attachment security may lead to decreased prejudice, thus examining novel research hypotheses. Research supports the prediction that high attachment avoidance and high attachment anxiety are associated with high negativity toward outgroups (Hofstra, van Oudenhoven, & Buunk, 2005) and decreased empathy compared to individuals low in attachment avoidance or anxiety (e.g., Batson, Eklund, Chermok, Hoyt, & Ortiz, 2007). However, whereas fearful individuals characteristically use hyperactivating strategies to avoid rejection from others, dismissing individuals use deactivating strategies to avoid contact with others. Thus, it is important to assess how empathy influences the relation between attachment avoidance and prejudice, and between attachment anxiety and prejudice. I hypothesized that empathy would mediate the relation between attachment dimensions and prejudice. Specifically, I predicted that the relation between attachment avoidance and prejudice, and between attachment anxiety and prejudice, would be mediated by low empathy. Dispositional attachment security and primed attachment security were examined separately in three studies. In the Study 1 the mediating role of empathy in the relationship between dispositional attachment security and prejudice was identified. In Study 2 the mediating role of empathy on the relationship between primed attachment pattern and prejudice was confirmed, providing specificity as to which aspect of empathy is the key component through which prejudice can be reduced in attachment-avoidant individuals. Study 3 extends the findings to demonstrate that primed attachment security influences self-reported intention to discriminate and subsequent discriminatory behaviour. Combined, the findings within this thesis make valuable contributions to social psychological understanding of why variations in prejudice toward Muslims exist, and provide evidence that have important implications in future interventions aimed to reduce prejudice


The focus of this thesis is the negotiation of identities by elite-level female athletes involved in disability sport. Recently, the London 2012 and Sochi 2014 Paralympic games have showcased the contemporary nature of disability sport and ostensibly suggest a growth in public interest within this field. However, there has been limited research to date conducted into the experiences of physically impaired, female athletes at the elite level of disability sport. Moreover, the existing literature fails to address the negotiation of identities within the interplay of gender, 'disability', body and wider socio-cultural influences. Inspired by this dearth of literature and the desire to contribute to disability sport theorisation, my research questions how elite female athletes negotiate their identities across contexts and the wider social, cultural and political values that influence this process. I address their experiences in relation to these factors alongside the intersection of gender and disability. I have explored the women's experiences by utilising symbolic interactionism in combination with a social-relational conceptualisation of disability. This theoretical approach recognises the women's bodies as a 'fleshy presence' in their interactional encounters and brings 'impairment' back into the theorisation of disability (Waskul and Vannini 2006). This approach allows me to interrogate the women's unique realities in relation to wider socio-cultural values, and the 'micro relations' of their day-to-day lives. A life history perspective guides the methodological framework, which foregrounds and prioritises the seven elite female athletes' subjective experiences in relation to the socio-historical context. The narratives offer a powerful and original insight into the complexity of disability, whilst addressing the multiple and fluid nature of the participants' identities. This advances the use of the social-relational model and fosters new understandings of the social relations underpinning the effects of impairment. I have developed the concept of 'reverse stigma' and have highlighted the need to disrupt the social processes that create stigmatic physicality, whilst demonstrating how impairment is perceived in different social contexts. My research has provided an original contribution by generating an in-depth picture of how the women experience their lives, how they see themselves as disabled (or not) and the wider intersecting forces that shape and influence their realities. This is significant for highlighting the way disability and disabled female athletes are perceived in Western society.


Secondary geoscience education has its roots in geography and physiographic education from the turn of the 20th century. High school Earth science reached a peak during the late 1960s and 1970s, after plate tectonic theory revolutionized geology. The production of Earth science teachers, unlike biology teachers, has never reached full capacity, which has likely contributed to the lesser presence and status of Earth and space science in U.S. high schools today. Historically, the geoscience community has focused on enriching teachers' geoscience content knowledge, but modern Earth and space science teachers need more than just content knowledge. Based on current science education research, today's Earth and space science teacher education programs should also include: a) science methods that embrace authentic inquiry and state-of-the-art technology and visualization resources, b) an exploration of formative assessment and how to modify instruction to meet students' learning needs, c) awareness of common misconceptions and strategies to affect conceptual change, and d) how to establish scientific classroom discourse communities to promote scientific literacy. However, geoscience education researchers should prioritize investigations of Earth and space science teacher preparation programs as very little is known about the relationship between such programs, teacher implementation, and student learning.


This Article argues that a well-conceived policy approach to building-related renewable energy ("BRRE") — that is, renewable energy incorporated into inhabited structures and used by those structures' occupants — could transform the way we produce and consume energy by maximizing efficiency while simultaneously minimizing energy sprawl. The vast majority of Americans favor renewable energy, at least in concept. Yet private property owners still face significant obstacles in trying to incorporate renewable energy into their projects. This Article analyzes barriers faced by the project team for 360 State Street, an award-winning, mixed-use LEED® Platinum building in downtown New Haven, Connecticut. Among other features, the project incorporates one of the first fuel cells in a multifamily residential building in the world, uses 55 percent less electricity than a standard code-compliant building, must abide by a development agreement with the municipality requiring certain commitments to sustainability, and has become a poster child for the LEED® for Neighborhood Development program. It is an ideal case study because information about it is readily available; the project team considered multiple types of BRRE and coupled one type of BRRE with significant energy efficiency measures; and its primary funding comes from a single private source, meaning that the impact of renewable energy financing rules on decision-making can be more easily discerned than it might be in other projects that involve primarily public, or multiple private, sources. A case study can help confirm or rebut assumptions in the legal literature about the impact of BRRE-related law and policy on private decision-making. As this Article shows, the case study suggests that while legal scholars have focused primarily on issues related to the installation of BRRE, issues related to the operation of BRRE may be just as, if not more, significant to prospective BRRE developers. BRRE can be expanded if scholars and policymakers address barriers, particularly at the state level, to fully utilizing BRRE capacity once it is installed.


We identify and investigate the basic ?hold-up? problem which arises whenever each party to a contingent contract has to pay some ex-ante cost for the contract to become feasible. We then proceed to show that, under plausible circumstances, a ?contractual solution? to this hold-up problem is not available. This is because a contractual solution to the hold-up problem typically entails writing a ?contract over a contract? which generates a fresh set of ex-ante costs, and hence is associated with a new hold-up problem. We conclude the paper investigating two applications of our results to a static and to a dynamic principal-agent model.


Directors' duties are a core element of corporate governance, yet a range of legal safe harbours ultimately shape the contours and stringency of these duties in practice. Although the standards of conduct that constitute directors' duties (so-called 'conduct rules') are often relatively strict, legal safe harbours can dilute those rules, resulting in the application of more lenient standards of judicial review ('decision rules'). The potential gap between conduct rules and decision rules, which has been labelled 'acoustic separation', is particularly striking in the context of the duty of care and diligence ('duty of care').

Directors' duties and legal safe harbours can also involve complex interaction between equitable and common law ('general law') principles on the one hand, and statutory regimes on the other.

This paper explores, from a comparative law perspective, differences in the shape of directors' duties and the legal safe harbours that accompany those duties. The paper examines directors' duties in the United States (focusing on Delaware law), the United Kingdom and Australia. It considers the nature, operation and enforcement of directors' duties in these three jurisdictions, with particular attention to the duty of care and two related legal safe harbours - the business judgment rule and exculpatory clauses.

The chapter explores how differences in relation to these various aspects of directors' duties can alter 'acoustic separation', by expanding or reducing the gap between conduct rules and decision rules concerning directors' duties. This issue has a direct bearing on the effectiveness of directors' duties as a regulatory technique in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.


According to Dent (1988), Rousseaui?½s political philosophy is based on a conception of the ideal society as comprising two mutually reciprocal dimensions, namely the political and the pre-political, or personal dimension. Rousseau believed that, although these two dimensions are interrelated, the personal level is more fundamental than the political level. In order for the superstructural dimension to be stable and legitimate, it has to rely on the personal, infrastructural dimension. Regarding social transformation, this means that, unless South African citizens have transformed at the inner, personal level, the new, transformed society will lack stability and legitimacy. In essence, this means that South Africans need to make certain crucial i?½mind-shiftsi?½. In this article I intend to examine the process of transformation of the inner, personal self within the context of the changing South African political landscape. As a female white Afrikaner, who grew up in the heyday of Apartheid, I will also try to illuminate the complexity of such inner, personal developments and conversions by reflecting on some personal i?½emotionali?½ migrations. I will discuss this with reference to the three distinct cognitive elements of emotions as asserted by Martha Nussbaum (2001), namely its object-intentionality, evaluative belief component, and its reference to the perception of personal well-being.


Genetically modified crops appear to provide a promising option in finding sustainable solutions to end global hunger and poverty, but strategic decisions need to be made on how to spend limited agricultural research funds. Potentially, strategic environmental assessment (SEA) may be used as part of an environmental management system to introduce mainstreaming of environmental considerations in the policy research and priority-setting process of development organizations to help achieve international development goals. This paper sets out a possible biotechnology SEA process that integrates qualitative and quantitative assessments with a focus on risk assessment and management within the SEA and policy environmental assessment frameworks. It uses the International Association for Impact Assessment six performance criteria for SEAs: integration; sustainability; focus; accountability; participation; and iteration.


Exercise is low-cost, low-side effect treatment and prevention strategy for multiple health conditions, including diabetes and many muscle-wasting diseases. Specifically, endurance exercise training (EET) improves aerobic function (AT), whereas resistance exercise training (RET) improves muscle strength and lean mass (hypertrophy). However, heterogeneity has been shown to exist despite mean improvements, thus "high" and "low" responders are identified from both EET and RET. Furthermore, the differential effect of these training modes on health is less well understood. In this thesis, 4 weeks of each EET and RET were undertaken in a group of young healthy males (18–32 years), with a 6-week "wash-out" period in between modes. Thus, the training modes were independently assessed for the same individuals. EET (AT: +4.41 ± 0.86 ml·kg-1min-1; P<0.001) and RET (lean mass: +0.75 ± 0.49 kg, P=0.081) showed improvements in their primary outcomes, and heterogeneity was identified. Health was differentially affected between training modes in certain parameters of metabolic health (insulin AUC), vascular health (blood pressure and HR), and body composition (%fat and A/G ratio). Mode-specificity of fitness and health responses was assessed, showing no clear linear relationships between EET and RET responses for a single parameter. Finally, primary endpoints for fitness (EET: AT; RET: hypertrophy) were correlated with health responses, showing relationships between AT and blood pressure and resting HR (P<0.05), and abdominal adiposity (P<0.05), and between lean mass and diastolic blood pressure (P<0.05), and total adiposity (P<0.05). Different responses in health with EET and RET likely underlie training-mode specific mechanisms of metabolism, haemodynamics, and fuel utilisation. Improvements in health with AT or hypertrophy are likely to be due to specific mechanisms of tissue adaptation. Training mode-specificity (or absence) has implications in exercise prescription for the developments of using exercise to treat health.


During the latter half of the 1980 the Chesapeake Bay Program developed a three dimensional water quality model of Chesapeake Bay for use in assessing management strategies. Because sediments are known to be a large sink of nutrient materials and they are trapped in estuaries due to the circulation patterns, it was important that the model incorporate sediment-water column interactions. The work detailed in this report was designed to measure the flux of particulates and associated materials from the water column to the bottom sediments. During 1988, measurements were made only at the lower Bay station. The data for 1988 have been reported previously (Wetzel & Neilson, 1989).


Sustainable innovation and eco-innovation have become priorities within the area of sustainable design. Focusing not only on production, also consumption and systemic changes have been addressed in order to handle increasingly substantial issues. Consequently, the focus of sustainable innovation has shifted from products to solutions and systems. However, as design has traditionally been a product-oriented profession, adopting operational models that require greater influence throughout the value chain is not necessarily easy. This article explores the issues that the scale of sustainable innovation poses on design and suggests that the concept of environmentally sustainable innovation should be approached more deeply also at the product level.


The 2012 American
Presidential Election was preceded by widespread efforts to promote stronger
voting requirements in states across the nation. In one case, a private,
anonymous foundation purchased advertising spots on billboards in urban Ohio to
communicate that voter fraud is a felony punishable by fines and imprisonment.
This action drew criticism from civil rights groups, who argued that a majority
of the billboards were located in minority census tracts, and that the
advertisements utilized intimidating language and imagery. This article applies
probability theory to the debate in order to determine the likelihood that the
observed patterns of billboards in two cities—Cleveland and Columbus—could have
occurred by chance. First, simulation is employed to compare the observed
allocations of billboards to white and non-white census tracts to patterns
generated under Complete Spatial Randomness (CSR). Second, simulation draws
from probit regression models, in which the dependent variable is the presence
of a billboard within a census tract, are used to generate distributions of
first differences between1) the
expected value of the dependent variable given that the census tract is
majority white and2) the expected
value of the dependent variable given that the census tract is majority
non-white. The results suggest that the billboard locations in Cleveland were
not significantly different from patterns produced under CSR, and that the
probability of a given census tract containing a billboard is not significantly
different for white and non-white majority tracts. The opposite inferences are
made for Columbus.


The relative level of excitation and inhibition controls activity of a brain region that is linked to depression. A brain area called the lateral habenula is involved in negative motivation and may thus play a role in depression. Shabel et al. investigated synaptic transmission in a brain pathway to the lateral habenula that transmits disappointment signals. Surprisingly, they found the simultaneous release of two antagonistic substances, glutamate and GABA, from individual nerve cells. In an animal model of depression, GABA release was reduced in this pathway. A widely used antidepressant drug, however, increased GABA co-release. These results reveal an unusual synaptic mechanism that affects lateral habenula activity. This mechanism may be instrumental in regulating the emotional impact of disappointment. S. J. Shabel, C. D. Proulx, J. Piriz, R. Malinow, GABA/glutamate co-release controls habenula output and is modified by antidepressant treatment. Science 345, 1494–1498 (2014). [Abstract] [Full Text]