Since the 2008 financial crisis, attention to supply chain finance has increased, as companies seek alternative funding sources. In this context, one scheme for accessing short-term credit has emerged as a promising option for suppliers, especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs): reverse factoring (RF). Under RF, suppliers sell their accounts receivable to financial intermediaries to get access to instant cash, while buyers (anchor companies) make an irrevocable payment guarantee (confirmation) to those financial intermediaries, with the objective of increasing the credibility of the payment obligation and reducing risks. This paper discusses relevant concepts and reviews theoretical and empirical evidence related to RF. RF may be a beneficial financing tool for both suppliers and buyers, contributing to supply chain development. However, there are potential trade-offs to this approach which need to be carefully assessed. Overall, more specific data on the use of RF and quantitative research on its impacts is needed both for advancing the academic and managerial literature on this topic and for designing better-targeted public and private interventions in this area.


Logit and discriminant analyses have been used for corporate bankruptcy prediction in several studies since the last century. In recent years there have been dozens of studies comparing the several models available, including the ones mentioned above and also probit, artificial neural networks, support vector machines, among others. For the first time for Colombia, this paper presents a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of several models predicting corporate bankruptcy. Such models have previously been mostly used in relation to European and North American markets, whereas here they are applied to the financial ratios of three firms located in Colombia. The main objective is to corroborate the validity of these models in terms of their ability to predict firm failure in the Latin American context, specifically for two bankrupt Colombian firms and one healthy one. The analysis is conducted using bankruptcy forecasting models widely proposed in the literature and used systematically in developed countries: the multiple discriminant analysis Z-Altman model, Korol's two-function model and Prusak's P2 model. In addition, the logit and decision tree models developed by T. Korol are tested.


The effect of liming on the flow of recently photosynthesized carbon to rhizosphere soil was studied using 13CO2 pulse labelling, in an upland grassland ecosystem in Scotland. The use of 13C enabled detection, in the field, of the effect of a 4‐year liming period of selected soil plots on C allocation from plant biomass to soil, in comparison with unlimed plots. Photosynthetic rates and carbon turnover were higher in plants grown in limed soils than in those from unlimed plots. Higher δ13C‰ values were detected in shoots from limed plants than in those from unlimed plants in samples clipped within 15 days of the end of pulse labelling. Analysis of the aboveground plant production corresponding to the 4‐year period of liming indicated that the standing biomass was higher in plots that received lime. Lower δ13C‰ values in limed roots compared with unlimed roots were found, whereas no significant difference was detected between soil samples. Extrapolation of our results indicated that more C has been lost through the soil than has been gained via photosynthetic assimilation because of pasture liming in Scotland during the period 1990–1998. However, the uncertainty associated with such extrapolation based on this single study is high and these estimates are provided only to set our findings in the broader context of national soil carbon emissions.


PURPOSE
Homozygous deletions at chromosome region 9p21 targeting the CDKN2A gene have been reported as a common cytogenetic abnormality in mesothelioma. MTAP, a gene approximately 100-kb telomeric to CDKN2A, encodes methylthioadenosine phosphorylase, an enzyme essential in the salvage of cellular adenine and methionine, and its codeletion with CDKN2A has been reported in other tumors. The aim of this study was to define the prevalence of homozygous deletion of CDKN2A alone or in combination with MTAP in a large series of pleural mesothelioma.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
We used a fluorescent in situ hybridization assay for CDKN2A and MTAP on interphase nuclei in imprints of frozen tissue from 95 cases of pleural mesothelioma. Histologically, the cases were classified as epithelial (71), biphasic (19) and sarcomatous (5). In each experiment, a 9p21 locus specific probe and a chromosome 9 centromeric probe were used and fluorescent in situ hybridization signals for both probes were simultaneously recorded in at least 100 nuclei. Cases were considered homozygously deleted if both 9p21 signals were lost in at least 20% of nuclei.

RESULTS
Overall, 70 cases (74%) had homozygous deletion of CDKN2A. MTAP was codeleted in 64 of these cases (91%). No case with MTAP deletion without CDKN2A deletion was identified. Homozygous loss of CDKN2A was seen in 49 of 71 epithelial (70%), 16 of 19 biphasic (89%), and 5 of 5 sarcomatous (100%) mesotheliomas.

CONCLUSIONS
Homozygous deletion of CDKN2A is seen in the majority of pleural mesotheliomas, and MTAP is codeleted in most of these cases. Previous cell line studies have shown that loss of MTAP renders cells dependent on de novo synthesis of purine derivatives. Thus, the particularly high prevalence of MTAP codeletion in mesothelioma makes it an ideal candidate for trials of targeted therapy using inhibitors of de novo AMP synthesis (e.g., L-alanosine).


Aim: To know the effect of the addition of a commercial glutathione-enriched Inactive Dry Yeast (G-IDY) oenological preparation on the phenolic profile and colour parameters of rose Grenache wines.Methods and results: A Control wine (Cont-W) and a wine with the G-IDY preparation (G-IDY-W) were industrially manufactured. The evolution of the phenolic composition (anthocyanins and non-anthocyanins) and colour of both types of wines was evaluated during winemaking and their shelf-life (after 1, 2, 3 and 9 months of bottle aging). Results revealed that wines manufactured with the G-IDY preparation showed differences in both their phenolic composition and colour characteristics with respect to the control wines, particularly after 9 months of aging. These differences were more evident in the anthocyanin than in the non-anthocyanin compounds.Conclusions: The G-IDY wines showed a greater decrease of the anthocyanins from grape origin, probably due to the formation of anthocyanin-polysaccharide complexes, and a higher concentration of some anthocyanin-derived pigments. These changes can be related to the slower colour evolution determined in wines produced using G-IDY preparations.Significance and impact of the study: The addition of the G-IDY preparation during winemaking modifies the anthocyanin composition of the resulting wines, which seems to provoke a slower colour evolution during their shelf-life.


This article begins from an intuition that aspirations for governance on a global scale have been seeded among the historical habits of humanism, as well as among those economic and technological phenomena on which other scholars of globalization most frequently focus. It argues that Modern predilections for constitutionalizing, distinguishing, ranking, tempering and charting, and fearing that which resists such handling, are as significant to contemporary perceptions of globalization and its governance as any of the technological and economic developments said to underpin it. This argument is elaborated by interpolating some contemporary accounts of global governance with unlikely historical counterpoints drawn from the sixteenth century city-state of Venice: historical counterpoints that draw attention to the vital role of the foreign, the popular and the vulgar in building and defending centres of global governance. In so doing, this article aims to probe the ambiguous role that Modern political legacies play in contemporary scholarship. Transgressive potential is not, this article argues, exterior or opposed to monolithic accounts of global governance: it is there at their every inception.


After the previous chapter has introduced some basic elements of regression analysis, this chapter will provide a more thorough discussion of linear regression. This method enables one to model and explain the relationships between one or more explanatory variables at any level of measurement, on the one hand, and one ratio- or interval-scaled response variable, on the other hand. In addition, one can investigate interactions between explanatory variables. You will learn how to fit a multiple linear regression model, to perform its diagnostics and to interpret the results. You will also learn how to carry out non-parametric linear regression with the help of bootstrap. The case study investigates the relationship between reaction times in a lexical decision task, and such factors as word length, corpus frequency and part of speech of lexical stimuli. In contrast with the previous case studies, all these factors are tested here simultaneously in a multiple linear regression model.


Summary This article began with an observation made during re-analysis of the dataset from a study of Scottish adult support and protection practice. Namely, different practitioners could mean different things when they said they had been doing 'adult protection' work. For this article, therefore, practitioners' conceptualisations of adult protection work were hypothesised inductively from the dataset, and refined into categories through a process of constant comparison, open and axial coding. The dataset comprised material from case files and practitioner interviews relating to 23 'adults at risk'. Findings When practitioners said they had been doing 'adult protection' work, they could mean that: (a) they perceived themselves to have been responding to abuse, harm or high risk; and/or (b) they were adopting a certain formal, even coercive tone of work; and/or (c) they had formally flagged the work as adult protection, including through the use of procedures. Practitioners drew on and combined these meanings in different ways. They also varied in the extent to which they saw adult protection as a distinctive type of practice and/or as different from what had gone before. Applications Support and protection work involves nuanced judgements about the nature and intentions of policy, about how these relate to particular situations and about how best to translate them into practice. Time and support is required for this complex work. Further research is needed to deepen understandings of the practice context, particularly with respect to risk. Policy-makers should engage with such research as they continue to develop adult protection/safeguarding policies.


Pimelea poisoning in grazing cattle, also known as St George or Marree Disease, has been a long-time pestilence for the pastoral industry throughout arid regions of inland Australia. The causative species Pimelea (Thymelaeaceae), native to Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia, have been confirmed, with the secondary metabolite simplexin, a daphnane orthoester, being extracted and identified as the principal toxin. Despite the lack of effective prevention or treatment for Pimelea poisoning, naïve calves have previously been demonstrated to develop detoxification capability following prolonged low-dose simplexin intake. A variety of composites are being fabricated by encapsulating Pimelea plant material or a crude extract in biodegradable and biocompatible polyesters, aiming to develop a sustained toxin release mechanism. Studies on screening potential rumen microflora able to decompose simplexin during rumen-fluid fermentation are being conducted simultaneously. In this project, a quantification method for simplexin within these biocomposites was developed and validated utilising solid-phase extraction combined with UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap MS/MS. Reliable simplexin measurement in matrices will allow investigations into the material composition, geometry and rumen microorganism's effects on the controlled release kinetics of simplexin in vitro. The degradation patterns of toxin delivery systems when exposed to simulated rumen environments will also be thoroughly assessed on both microscopic and chemical scales. Mathematical models of the underlying mass transport mechanisms will ultimately be established through approaches ranging from simple empirical correlations to stochastic simulations, which hold the potential to facilitate future design, optimisation, and prediction of other intra-ruminal devices based on biodegradable polymers.


In machine learning, the nature of the dataset itself such as convexity of the data point sets affects the right choice of clustering algorithm to give good performance. This brief paper first focuses on how data convexity influences the clustering performance on biomedical datasets. Then it addresses the main challenges of two well-known clustering groups which are centroid-based and density-based clustering. These techniques typically require a set of parameters to be provided by the user before the algorithms can perform well in terms of good clustering and give the optimal number of clusters. Two parameter independent clustering techniques utilizing unique neighborhood sets (UNSs) called Parameter Independent Convex Centroid-based Clustering (ConvexClust) for convex-dominated datasets and Parameter Independent Non-Convex Density-based Clustering (NonConvexClust) for nonconvex-dominated datasets are introduced. The ConvexClust and NonConvex Clust algorithms are extensively evaluated on real-world biomedical datasets. Their performances are also compared with other clustering algorithms using evaluation criteria such as SSE, entropy and purity. The results have revealed the good performance of the proposed parameter-independent clustering techniques and also shown that most of the biomedical datasets in the experiments demonstrated their tendency towards convex-dominated data point sets.


Project: Convective and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study
Weather forecast models have not been successful in improving the Quantitative Precipitation Forecast during the last 16 years. One reason for this stagnation is the lack of comprehensive, high-quality data sets usable for model validation as well as for data assimilation, thus leading to improved initial fields in numerical models. Theoretical analyses have identified the requirements measured data have to meet in order to close the gaps in process understanding. In field campaigns, it has been shown that the newest generation of remote sensing systems has the potential to yield data sets of the required quality. It is therefore time to combine the most powerful remote sensing instruments with proven ground-based and airborne measurement techniques in an Intensive Observations Period (IOP). Its goal is to serve as a backbone for the Priority Program SPP 1167 by producing the demanded data sets of unachieved accuracy and resolution. This requires a sophisticated scientific preparation and a careful coordination between the efforts of the institutions involved. For the first time, the pre-convective environment, the formation of clouds and the onset and development of precipitation as well as its intensity will be observed in four dimensions simultaneously in a region of sufficient size. This shall be achieved by combining the IOP with international programs and by collaboration between leading scientists in Europe, US, and other countries. Thus, the IOP, which we call Convective and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study (COPS), is a unique opportunity for an international field campaign featuring the newest generation of measurement systems such as scanning radar and lidar and leading to outstanding advances in atmospheric sciences.

Please be aware of the common COPS/GOP/D-PHASE data policy, which you please find at
http://cops.wdc-climate.de/
Summary: Several meteorological parameteres were measured at different stations run by FZK/IMK-TRO. Depending on the individual site i.e. wind direction, wind speed, global radiation, reflected irradiance, atmospheric longwave radiation, terrestric longwave radiation, surface temperature, precipitation, air pressure, soil heat flux, relative humidity. The respective set of parameters is described in the meta data of each station.


The focus of a physically active lifestyle for older adults is to preserve functional mobility and delay losses associated with decrepitude in later years. Since ambulation is of utmost importance to older adults' mobility, the purpose of this nonexhaustive review is to consider older adults' walking behaviors objectively captured as steps/day and the factors that shape them. Summarized evidence currently indicates that apparently healthy older adults accumulate between 2,000–9,000 steps/day and that older adults living with disabilities and/or chronic conditions average approximately 1,200–8,800 steps/day. The scientific body of objectively monitored knowledge focused on potential individual, program, and contextual factors that shape older adults' walking behaviors expressed as steps/day (i.e., their ability to and practice of getting "out and about") is infantile at this time. We provide a simple research agenda to spark scholarly efforts to address research gaps and opportunities in the collective kno...


Abstract Assistive technologies (ATs) are being 'mainstreamed' within dementia care, where they are promoted as enabling people with dementia to age in place alongside delivering greater efficiencies in care. AT provision focuses upon standardised solutions, with little known about how ATs are used by people with dementia and their carers within everyday practice. This paper explores how people with dementia and carers use technologies in order to manage care. Findings are reported from qualitative semi-structured interviews with 13 people with dementia and 26 family carers. Readily available household technologies were used in conjunction with and instead of AT to address diverse needs, replicating AT functions when doing so. Successful technology use was characterised by 'bricolage' or the non-conventional use of tools or methods to address local needs. Carers drove AT use by engaging creatively with both assistive and everyday technologies, however, carers were not routinely supported in their creative engagements with technology by statutory health or social care services, making bricolage a potentially frustrating and wasteful process. Bricolage provides a useful framework to understand how technologies are used in the everyday practice of dementia care, and how technology use can be supported within care. Rather than implementing standardised AT solutions, AT services and AT design in future should focus on how technologies can support more personalised, adaptive forms of care.


LabVIEW is a graphical programming environment used by millions of engineers and scientists to develop sophisticated measurement, test, and control systems using intuitive graphical icons and wires that resemble a flowchart. It offers unrivaled integration with thousands of hardware devices and provides hundreds of built-in libraries for advanced analysis and data visualization – all for creating virtual instrumentation. The LabVIEW platform is scalable across multiple targets and OSs, and, since its introduction in 1986, it has become an industry leader.


The MapReduce framework has proved to be very efficient for data-intensive tasks. Earlier work has successfully applied MapReduce for large scale RDFS/OWL reasoning. In this paper, we move a step forward by considering scalable reasoning on semantic data under fuzzy pD* semantics (i.e., an extension of OWL pD* semantics with fuzzy vagueness). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to investigate how MapReduce can be applied to solve the scalability issue of fuzzy reasoning in OWL. While most of the optimizations considered by the existing MapReduce framework for pD* semantics are also applicable for fuzzy pD* semantics, unique challenges arise when we handle the fuzzy information. Key challenges are identified with solution proposed for each of these challenges. Furthermore, a prototype system is implemented for the evaluation purpose. The experimental results show that the running time of our system is comparable with that of WebPIE, the state-of-the-art inference engine for scalable reasoning in pD* semantics.


Given recent emphasis on externality to education, macroeconomic studies have a role to play in the analysis of return to schooling. In this paper we study the connection between growth and human capital for the Italian regions in a convergence regression framework. We confirm the usual result on Italian regional convergence that this process began to diminish or fail after about 1975. We include a measure of human capital in the convergence regression as a stock rather than a flows. We find this variable is significant if and only if we control for the size of the public sector. The public sector is itself strongly negative. Decomposing the human capital measure into its constituents, we find that average years of primary and secondary education act positively on growth, but that tertiary education acts negatively. When we estimate the convergence regression for the South and the North-Centre separately, we find no break in the pattern of convergence around 1975. Thus both areas seem to be converging according to a similar process, albeit to different levels of GDP per capita. The role of the human capital is strikingly similar in the two clubs. Finally, we find educating women leads to faster growth.


Clinical characteristics of fibromyalgia have so far been based mainly on patients identified in rheumatologic settings. This paper offers the clinical findings in fibromyalgia based on a national health interview survey, in which 123 persons fulfilled preset criteria for widespread pain. Clinical examination could be performed on 65 subjects (53%) and included physical examination, tender point palpation by two blinded trained physicians, blood sample analysis, measurement of dynamic muscular strength and a detailed self-administered questionnaire. Significantly more subjective swelling, fatigue, headache, difficulty in stair-climbing, and poorer self-evaluated health with more tender points was found. Contrary to that which was expected, fibromyalgia subjects did not suffer from sleep disturbances, irritable bowels or morning stiffness. Our findings indicate that clinical characteristics of fibromyalgia in the general population may differ from those found in rheumatological settings.


Boronic acids (BAs) are well-known for their interactions with diol-containing compounds like glucose. Fluorescent moieties are commonly incorporated into a BA derivative's framework to monitor the effect of varying glucose concentrations in a given environment. Hence, a novel carboxylic acid fluorescent BA derivative, o-COOHBA, has been investigated for glucose sensing, in solution and when immobilised onto a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) "lens"-like surface. This approach aims to develop smart-contact lenses that will allow people suffering from diabetes to track their condition continuously and non-invasively in real-time.

1. Introduction
Diabetes is a worldwide incurable disease known to have acute and chronic health effects1-2. This disease affects the cardiovascular and peripheral nervous systems, kidneys, and can also be fatal in some cases1-2. Blindness, heart or kidney failures are among the most common life-threatening effects of diabetes2. Monitoring physiological blood-glucose concentrations is a means of managing the disease, however few non-invasive continuous monitoring methods currently exist1-2. Consequently, there is considerable interested in using aqueous ocular fluid as a sample medium for tracking the disease marker glucose.

2. Sensing Mechanism
The Lewis acidic BA moiety of the sensor is known for its strong interaction with electron-rich diols, like sugars1-2. On interaction with sugars, e.g. glucose, the fluorescent BA form is transformed into the anionic boronate form, which is non-fluorescent, leading to a decrease in the fluorescence intensity with increasing sugar concentrations1-2.

Scheme 1: Sensing mechanism for BA derivatives.

3. Synthesis of o-COOHBA Sensor
A novel BA sensor, o-COOHBA, was synthesized via a one-step nucleophilic substitution reaction that required equimolar quantities of BA and quinoline derivatives, as seen in Scheme 2. The successful formation of o-COOHBA was confirmed by 1H NMR.

Scheme 2: Synthesis of o-COOHBA; (i) anhydrous dimethylsulfoxide, N2, 70 0C for 48h.

4. Fluorescence of o-COOHBA
Fluorescence measurements were performed on a Jasco FP-8300 Spectrophotometer using a precision cell made from quartz with 10 mm path length. The excitation wavelength required was 380 nm with a corresponding emission wavelength of 485 nm.
On increased glucose concentrations, a decrease in fluorescence intensity was observed in the range of 0-10 mM in solution and similarly, in the range of 0-5 mM when anchored to a PDMS surface, corresponding to the ocular-glucose concentrations for diabetics, ~50 μM – 5 mM2. All tests were carried out at an ambient temperature using a pH 7.4 phosphate buffer.

5. Conclusion
In both solution studies and when anchored on to the PDMS surface, a decrease in fluorescence intensity was observed on increased glucose concentrations. The excitation wavelength of 380 nm is also advantageous, as it lies close to the visible-region of the electromagnetic spectrum, which allows for the use of cheap, readily available LEDs as excitation sources. The carboxylic acid substituent was desirable for immobilizing the BA sensor onto a wide variety of polymeric substrates.


The dynamics of a plasmoid chain is studied with three dimensional Particle-in-Cell simulations. The evolution of the system with and without a uniform guide field, whose strength is 1/3 the asymptotic magnetic field, is investigated. The plasmoid chain forms by spontaneous magnetic reconnection: the tearing instability rapidly disrupts the initial current sheet generating several small-scale plasmoids that rapidly grow in size coalescing and kinking. The plasmoid kink is mainly driven by the coalescence process. It is found that the presence of guide field strongly influences the evolution of the plasmoid chain. Without a guide field, a main reconnection site dominates and smaller reconnection regions are included in larger ones, leading to an hierarchical structure of the plasmoid-dominated current sheet. On the contrary in presence of a guide field, plasmoids have approximately the same size and the hierarchical structure does not emerge, a strong core magnetic field develops in the center of the plasmoid in the direction of the existing guide field, and bump-on-tail instability, leading to the formation of electron holes, is detected in proximity of the plasmoids.


What does the collapse of sub-prime lending have in common with a broken jackscrew in an airliner's tailplane? Or the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico with the burn-up of Space Shuttle Columbia? These were systems that drifted into failure. While pursuing success in a dynamic, complex environment with limited resources and multiple goal conflicts, a succession of small, everyday decisions eventually produced breakdowns on a massive scale. We have trouble grasping the complexity and normality that gives rise to such large events. We hunt for broken parts, fixable properties, people we can hold accountable. Our analyses of complex system breakdowns remain depressingly linear, depressingly componential - imprisoned in the space of ideas once defined by Newton and Descartes. The growth of complexity in society has outpaced our understanding of how complex systems work and fail. Our technologies have gotten ahead of our theories. We are able to build things - deep-sea oil rigs, jackscrews, collateralized debt obligations - whose properties we understand in isolation. But in competitive, regulated societies, their connections proliferate, their interactions and interdependencies multiply, their complexities mushroom. This book explores complexity theory and systems thinking to better understand how complex systems drift into failure. It studies sensitive dependence on initial conditions, unruly technology, tipping points, diversity - and finds that failure emerges opportunistically, non-randomly, from the very webs of relationships that breed success and that are supposed to protect organizations from disaster. It develops a vocabulary that allows us to harness complexity and find new ways of managing drift.


Contents: Volume I: Foundations, Initial Development, Statistical Approaches: Introduction Part I Conceptual and Theoretical Foundations: The four consumer surpluses, J.R. Hicks The interpretation of voting in the allocation of economic resources, Howard R. Bowen Capital returns from soil conservation practices, S.V. Ciriacy-Wantrup The life you save may be your own, T.C. Schelling The pure theory of public expenditure, Paul A. Samuelson Wilderness areas: an extra-market problem in resource allocation, L. Gregory Hines Conservation reconsidered, John V. Krutilla Collective-consumption services of individual-consumption goods, Burt A. Weisbrod Environmental preservation, uncertainty, and irreversibility, Kenneth J. Arrow and Anthony C. Fisher. Part II Early Applications: The value of big game hunting in a private forest, Robert K. Davis Congestion, quality deterioration, and optimal use: wilderness recreation in the Spanish Peaks primitive area, Charles J. Cicchetti and V. Kerry Smith Measuring benefits generated by urban water parks, Arthur H. Darling Congestion and willingness to pay: a study of beach use, Kenneth E. McConnell Bidding games for the valuation of aesthetic environmental improvements, Alan Randall, Berry Ives and Clyde Eastman The valuation of aesthetic preferences, David S. Brookshire, Berry C. Ives and William D. Schulze The demand for clean water: the case of the Charles River, Frederick W. Gramlich Option value: empirical evidence from a case study of recreation and water quality, Douglas A. Greenley, Richard G. Walsh and Robert A. Young Measuring values of extra-market goods: are indirect measures biased? Richard C. Bishop and Thomas A. Heberlein Application of stochastic choice modelling to policy analysis of public goods: a case study of air quality improvements, Edna Loehman and Vo Hu De. Part III Early Tests of Validity: Comparisons of methods for resource evaluation, Jack L. Knetsch and Robert K. Davis Estimating demand for public goods: an experiment, Peter Bohm Valuing public goods: a comparison of survey and hedonic approaches, David S. Brookshire, Mark A. Thayer, William D. Schulze, Ralph C. d'Arge Contingent valuation techniques for assessing environmental impacts: further evidence, Mark A. Thayer Valuing environmental commodities: some recent experiments, William D. Schulz, Ralph C. d'Arge and David S. Brookshire Effect of distance on the preservation value of water quality, Ronald J. Sutherland and Richard G. Walsh Option price estimates for water quality improvements: a contingent evaluation study for the Monongahela River, William H. Desvousges, V. Kerry Smith and Ann Fisher Pricing environmental health risks: survey assessments of risk-risk and risk-dollar trade-offs for chronic bronchitis, W. Kip Viscusi, Wesley A. Magat and Joel Huber. Part IV Statistical Approaches: Welfare evaluations in contingent valuation experiments with discrete responses, Michael W. Hanemann Efficient estimation methods for 'closed-ended' contingent valuation surveys, Trudy Ann Cameron and Michelle D. James A new paradigm for valuing non-market goods using referendum data: maximum likelihood estimation by censored logistic regression, Trudy Ann Cameron Models for referendum data: the structure of discrete choice models for contingent valuation, K.E. McConnell Contingent valuation and social choice, Daniel McFadden Confidence intervals for evaluating benefits estimates from dichotomous choice contingent valuation studies, Timothy Park, John B. Loomis and Michael Creel A non-parametric approach to the estimation of welfare measures in discrete response valuation studies, Bengt KristrA m Experimental design for discrete choice voter preference surveys, Richard T. Carson and Dan Steinberg Referendum models and negative willingness to pay: alternative solutions, Timothy C. Haab and Kenneth E. McConnell Spike models in contingent valuation, Bengt KristrA m Allowing for zeros in dichotomous-choice contingent-valuation models, Megan Werner Bias in discrete response contingent valuation, Barbara J. Kanninen Statistical efficiency of double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation, Michael Hanemann, John Loomis and Barbara Kanninen Modeling response incentive effects in dichotomous choice contingent valuation data, Anna Alberini, Barbara Kanninen and Richard T. Carson Referendum contingent valuation estimates: sensitivity to assignment of offered values, Trudy Ann Cameron and Daniel D. Huppert Optimal designs for discrete-choice contingent valuation surveys: single-bound, double-bound and bivariate models, Anna Alberini Name index. Volume II: Conceptual and Empirical Issues: Introduction Part I Conceptual Issues: Overviews of the Debate: Contingent valuation a user's guide, Richard T. Carson Beyond the crucial experiment: mapping the performance characteristics of contingent valuation, Alan Randall Administering contingent valuation surveys in developi


Three person exhibition. 34 Toynebee Street, London.

'White Pratt From Luton' landed on No.34 Toynebee Street on Friday 24th June, the moment Dominic Allan took receipt of keys from East End Homes.

A four-week contract, four walls and a sink. Half decent lighting, peeling paint and raw plugs showing their arses. A space that's given everything of itself to artists Laura White, Robert Pratt and Dominic Allan. A bespoke A3 lightbox sits in the window. 'White Pratt From Luton' is coming. Turned on. 24/7. There really is a light that never goes out.
Dominic Allan sits in the back room in his Father's burnt out wheelchair as Margaret 'Milk Snatcher' Thatcher, praying in a public toilet somewhere in Hackney. Very firmly glazed and framed. Laura White's unwearable yet unbearably beautiful Halo floats, looking at Thatcher, Thatcher looking at Halo. The space is sliced (enter) back room. Robert Pratt's empty freestanding triptych. A son of Toynebee. You wouldn't want to stand here. No high-viz in sight. Pack it up and return it to the outside. Take your rubber sole with you. More reclamation, more art mirroring life. Again Pratt prowls. Sunblest white bread baskets sit next to cast screwed up paper. With or Without You. In Pratt's case, With. And then 'Anxious Glory'. Like James Cameron's Titantic on a poundland budget, Laura White wraps all the objects she'd die for then crucifies them over a shower tray. Floor to ceiling. As you enter and as you leave. Bigger than me. An unknown soldier looks down from his Mum's bedroom. A rat and a statement about our postal service.


This article introduces and evaluates several different word-level confidence measures for machine translation. These measures provide a method for labeling each word in an automatically generated translation as correct or incorrect. All approaches to confidence estimation presented here are based on word posterior probabilities. Different concepts of word posterior probabilities as well as different ways of calculating them will be introduced and compared. They can be divided into two categories: System-based methods that explore knowledge provided by the translation system that generated the translations, and direct methods that are independent of the translation system. The system-based techniques make use of system output, such as word graphs or N-best lists. The word posterior probability is determined by summing the probabilities of the sentences in the translation hypothesis space that contains the target word. The direct confidence measures take other knowledge sources, such as word or phrase lexica, into account. They can be applied to output from nonstatistical machine translation systems as well. Experimental assessment of the different confidence measures on various translation tasks and in several language pairs will be presented. Moreover,the application of confidence measures for rescoring of translation hypotheses will be investigated.


Kelp forests are phyletically diverse, structurally complex and highly productive components of coldwater rocky marine coastlines. This paper reviews the conditions in which kelp forests develop globally and where, why and at what rate they become deforested. The ecology and long archaeological history of kelp forests are examined through case studies from southern California, the Aleutian Islands and the western North Atlantic, well-studied locations that represent the widest possible range in kelp forest biodiversity. Global distribution of kelp forests is physiologically constrained by light at high latitudes and by nutrients, warm temperatures and other macrophytes at low latitudes. Within mid-latitude belts (roughly 40–60° latitude in both hemispheres) well-developed kelp forests are most threatened by herbivory, usually from sea urchins. Overfishing and extirpation of highly valued vertebrate apex predators often triggered herbivore population increases, leading to widespread kelp deforestation. Such deforestations have the most profound and lasting impacts on species-depauperate systems, such as those in Alaska and the western North Atlantic. Globally urchin-induced deforestation has been increasing over the past 2–3 decades. Continued fishing down of coastal food webs has resulted in shifting harvesting targets from apex predators to their invertebrate prey, including kelp-grazing herbivores. The recent global expansion of sea urchin harvesting has led to the widespread extirpation of this herbivore, and kelp forests have returned in some locations but, for the first time, these forests are devoid of vertebrate apex predators. In the western North Atlantic, large predatory crabs have recently filled this void and they have become the new apex predator in this system. Similar shifts from fish- to crab-dominance may have occurred in coastal zones of the United Kingdom and Japan, where large predatory finfish were extirpated long ago. Three North American case studies of kelp forests were examined to determine their long history with humans and project the status of future kelp forests to the year 2025. Fishing impacts on kelp forest systems have been both profound and much longer in duration than previously thought. Archaeological data suggest that coastal peoples exploited kelp forest organisms for thousands of years, occasionally resulting in localized losses of apex predators, outbreaks of sea urchin populations and probably small-scale deforestation. Over the past two centuries, commercial exploitation for export led to the extirpation of sea urchin predators, such as the sea otter in the North Pacific and predatory fishes like the cod in the North Atlantic. The large-scale removal of predators for export markets increased sea urchin abundances and promoted the decline of kelp forests over vast areas. Despite southern California having one of the longest known associations with coastal kelp forests, widespread deforestation is rare. It is possible that functional redundancies among predators and herbivores make this most diverse system most stable. Such biodiverse kelp forests may also resist invasion from non-native species. In the species-depauperate western North Atlantic, introduced algal competitors carpet the benthos and threaten future kelp dominance. There, other non-native herbivores and predators have become established and dominant components of this system. Climate changes have had measurable impacts on kelp forest ecosystems and efforts to control the emission of greenhouse gasses should be a global priority. However, overfishing appears to be the greatest manageable threat to kelp forest ecosystems over the 2025 time horizon. Management should focus on minimizing fishing impacts and restoring populations of functionally important species in these systems.


Desk-based descriptions of 27 anti-corruption initiatives have been conducted. These surveys describe particular accountability mechanisms/activities that aim to combat corruption in infrastructure services and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of such services, but also encourage pro-poor service delivery.

The sustainability of the livelihoods of the poor in low- and middle-income countries is compromised by corruption in the delivery of infrastructure services. Such services include water supply, sanitation, drainage, the provision of access roads and paving, transport, solid waste management, street lighting and community buildings. For this reason, The Water, Engineering Development Centre, (WEDC) at Loughborough University in the UK is conducting research into anti-corruption initiatives in this area of infrastructure services delivery.

This series of reports has been produced as part of a project entitled Accountability Arrangements to Combat Corruption, which was initially funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) of the British Government. The purpose of the work is to improve governance through the use of accountability arrangements to combat corruption in the delivery of infrastructure services. These findings, reviews, country case studies, case surveys and practical tools provide evidence of how anti-corruption initiatives in infrastructure delivery can contribute to the improvement of the lives of the urban poor.

This compilation presents the country case surveys. The surveys have been selected as they have instituted anti-corruption reform in infrastructure service provision. The mechanism of reform has then been analysed to provide evidence of how anti-corruption initiatives in infrastructure delivery can contribute to pro-poor outcomes.

The main objective of the research is the analysis of corruption in infrastructure delivery. This includes a review of accountability initiatives in infrastructure delivery and the nature of the impact of greater accountability.


Electrodynamic Maglev systems (EDSs) and passive magnetic bearings (PMBs) generate magnetic forces by induction through the movement of permanent or superconducting magnets past conducting coils. Nearly all EDSs and PMBs use a null flux coil exposed to changing magnetic fields in the rotation or travel direction. An unusual variant eliminates discrete coils by using field structures that do not vary in the direction of rotation. We discuss the design and analysis of this homopolar variant in this paper. We believe that this is the first combined passive damper/axial support bearing, and we present here the first generalized solution of its governing equations. Actuated brushes during motoring and generating simplify energy exchange when the device is used for flywheel energy storage.


Objective: To explore behaviour change, baseline risk behaviour, perception of risk, HIV disclosure and life events in health centre-based voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) clients. Design and setting: Single-arm prospective cohort with before–after design at three (one urban and two rural) government health centres in Kenya; study duration 2 years, 1999–2001. Subjects: Consecutive eligible adult clients. Main outcome measures: Numbers of sexual partners, partner type, condom use, reported symptoms of sexually transmitted infection, HIV disclosure and life events. Results: High rates of enrolment and follow-up provided a demographically representative sample of 401 clients with mean time to follow-up of 7.5 months. Baseline indicators showed that clients were at higher risk than the general population, but reported a poor perception of risk. Clients with multiple partners showed a significant reduction of sexual partners at follow-up (16% to 6%; p<0.001), and numbers reporting symptoms of sexually transmitted infection decreased significantly also (from 40% to 15%; p<0.001). Condom use improved from a low baseline. Low rates of disclosure (55%) were reported by HIV-positive clients. Overall, no changes in rates of life events were seen. Conclusion: This study suggests that significant prevention gains can be recorded in clients receiving health centre-based VCT services in Africa. Prevention issues should be considered when refining counselling and testing policies for expanding treatment programmes.


Objectives:Violence is a widespread problem that occurs all over the word among all ages, genders, races, educational level and socio- economic groups The aim of this study was to investigate modeling of different processes that could account for the link between experiencing spouse abuse in women and psychology, psychopathology, social and demographic factors. Method:Data were gathered through a family violence survey study. 230 married women participated in this study. Participants were selected by a multi-cluster sampling method from 4 different randomized regions of Tehran. They completed 1- Conflict Tactic Scale-2, 2- Personal and Relationship Profile, 3-Symptoms Check List Inventory, 4- Marital Attitude Survey, 5-Social and Demographic Measures . Results:Based on participants' scores in Conflict Tactics Scale-2, women who were experiencing violence (victims) were recognized and in compare to non-experiencing women (non-victims) a model of family violence victimization was drawn. This model showed the paths from psychology, psychopathology, Social and Demographic factors to experiencing violence. Conclusion:Based on the model with a series of paths which may act as effective determinants for experiencing violence (family violence victimization) in women, habilitation services must consider the influence of each factor which may change or modify by some recognized mediating interventions .So, it may be concluded that based on present study, a reduction of psychopathology would have a beneficial impact over experiencing spousal violence.


This paper addresses the issue of the urgent need for the capital income tax restructuring in Greece in order the country to meet its recent exposure to the EMU tax competition (as accentuated by the economic globalization). The unsuccessful income tax harmonization in the European Union (EU) has intensified tax competition among the member countries, entailing reduction of effective tax rates. Such a tax competition is an inescapable policy for the countries adhered to the basic structure of income tax as internationally applied. However, this is quite painful for countries of high taxation and public debt, like Greece. On the other hand, the fundamental restructuring of the Greek income tax towards the Cash Flaw Income Tax, effected on the basis of equal revenue yield, seems to offer the country the necessary tax competitive advantage against the competitors in the EMU. Under such restructuring, the domestic or imported income and profits invested in Greece will be dispensed with the indigenous equity and efficiency deficiencies of the current tax system (since they will be relieved of any tax burden), thus making the economy attractive of funds on a tax induced basis (without discriminating between current and future consumption). To this end, the paper examines the relative merits of such a policy in the domestic and international setting of Greece, purporting to constitute a starting point for a thorough examination in this respect.


This paper investigates the impact of uncertainty on consumer credit outcomes. We develop a local measure of economic uncertainty capturing county-level labor market shocks. We then exploit microeconomic data on mortgages and credit-card balances together with the crosssectional variation provided by our uncertainty measure to show strong borrower-specific heterogeneity in response to changes in uncertainty. Among high risk borrowers or areas with more high risk borrowers, increased uncertainty is associated with housing market illiquidity and a reduction in leverage. For low risk borrowers, these effects are absent and the cost of mortgage credit declines, suggesting that lenders reallocate credit towards safer borrowers when uncertainty spikes. A similar pattern is observed in the unsecured credit market. Taken together, local uncertainty might independently affect aggregate economic activity through consumer credit markets and could engender greater inequality in consumption and housing wealth accumulation across households.


We examine the influence of wildfire institutions on management and forest resilience over time, drawing on research from a multiownership, frequent-fire, coupled human and natural system (CHANS) in the eastern Cascades of Oregon, USA. We constructed social-ecological histories of the study area's three main landowner groups (national forest, private corporate, and tribal) using a historical framework (1905–2010). Our findings highlight two infrequently recognized linkages of multiownership, frequentfire CHANS: (1) informal institutions (e.g., cultural norms, knowledge system and fire paradigm) and institutional history often influence wildfire management adaptation (changes in forest fuel treatment, harvest fuel treatment, and wildfire incident response) through interactions with formal institutions (e.g., policy, law) and consequent effects on managers' decision-making flexibility; (2) institutional interactions over time can influence forest resilience, thereby contributing to forest structural variation in multiownership landscapes. Consequently, the factors that contribute to maladaptive wildfire management are heterogeneously distributed across ownerships and the landscape. The timing of institutional dynamics also matters: manager flexibility to respond adaptively to wildfire hazard change seems to depend on synchronicity in evolution between informal and formal institutions, whereas asynchronous evolution (e.g., policy change, coupled with delayed shift in cultural norms or fire paradigms) may generate a time lag between unanticipated ecological feedbacks and management response. Thus, interventions that promote informal institutional evolution in tandem with developments in policy and law may shorten time lags, accelerating adaptation. A historical perspective can facilitate broad-scale, adaptive responses to wildfire-related ecological feedbacks in several ways: by providing insight into how informal institutions and institutional history interact with formal institutions to influence wildfire management behavior; by providing a historical baseline and system stages that contextualize current management behavior, ecological conditions, and policy options; and by illuminating historical sources of variation among ownerships and how they might be addressed.


A 5-year and 10-month old boy was diagnosed with classical type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) without celiac disease. He started on a gluten-free diet after 2–3 week without need of insulin treatment. At the initiation of gluten-free diet, HbA1c was 7.8% and was stabilised at 5.8%–6.0% without insulin therapy. Fasting blood glucose was maintained at 4.0–5.0 mmol/l. At 16 months after diagnosis the fasting blood glucose was 4.1 mmol/l and after 20 months he is still without daily insulin therapy. There was no alteration in glutamic acid decarboxylase positivity. The gluten-free diet was safe and without side effects. The authors propose that the gluten-free diet has prolonged remission in this patient with T1DM and that further trials are indicated.


Cement concrete is the most extensively used construction material in the world. The reason for its extensive use is that it provides good workability and can be moulded to any shape. Ordinary cement concrete possesses a very low tensile strength, limited ductility and little resistance to cracking. Internal micro cracks lead to brittle failure of concrete. In this modern age, civil engineering constructions have their own structural and durability requirements. Every structure has its own intended purpose and hence to meet this purpose, modification in traditional cement concrete has become mandatory. It has been found that different type of fibers added in specific percentage to concrete improves the mechanical properties, durability and serviceability of the structure. It is now established that one of the important properties of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete (SFRC) is its superior resistance to cracking and crack propagation. In this paper effect of fibers on the strength of concrete for M20 and M40 grade have been studied by varying the percentage of fibers in concrete. Fiber content were varied by 0.50%, 1% and 1.5% by volume of cement. Cubes of size 150mmX150mmX150mm to check the compressive strength and beams of size 500mmX100mmX100mm for checking flexural strength were casted. All the specimens were cured for the period of 7, 28 and 56 days before crushing. The results of fiber reinforced concrete for 3days, 7days and 28days curing with varied percentage of fiber were studied and it has been found that there is significant strength improvement in steel fiber reinforced concrete. The optimum fiber content while studying the compressive strength, flexural strength cube is found to be 1%. Also, it has been observed that with the increase in fiber content up to the optimum value increases the strength of concrete. Slump cone test was adopted to measure the workability of concrete. The Slump cone test results revealed that workability gets reduced with the increase in fiber content.


In integrated medical considerations of the biological human system, both intellectual and motor performances in a similar manner are considered as a result of the function of the nervous system. Consequently, universal minimal dysfunctions of the central nervous system may lead to both intellectual and physical anomalies. Therefore, this study tests the hypothesis that there is a connection between the balance ability as a motor parameter and school success as an intellectual parameter. A postural measuring system based on the force-moment sensor technique was used to record the postural balance regulation of 773 children (circle divide 11 +/- 1 years). The school achievement of each child was determined by school grades. Data analysis was performed by linear as well as by nonlinear time series analyses. There are highly significant differences in balance regulation between good and poor pupils recognized by several linear and nonlinear parameters. Good pupils could be discriminated from pupils with bad results in learning to 80 %. The results support the hypothesis mentioned above. One possible explanation for the poor regulation of balance in bad learners could be a deficit in the neural maturity. In future, further developments will be targeted on higher discrimination levels, possibly in order to predict school success. On the other hand, the effects of special movement exercises on the neural development in childhood will be the focus in our further work


This paper addresses the issue of household demand for services in Poland when informal sector is taken into consideration. The aim of the study is threefold: (i) to investigate the factors influencing households expenses for services, (ii) to find the determinants of households' tax strategy (choice between acquiring services on regular labour market or not), (iii) to investigate the differences between the factors that influence the expenses for formal versus informal services. Two-step Heckman selection model is used to account for the selection into buying household services. Lee's (1983) procedure is adopted to control for the selection into the particular choice of tax strategy when purchasing household services. The decision whether to buy household services and whether formally or informally is modelled as a sequential choice and estimated by bivariate probit with selection. An important novel feature of the model used is the inclusion of variables that capture social norms and personal attitudes toward tax evasion. The study concludes that factors influencing expenses for services are positively related to financial situation of households, education and age of household head. The probability of avoiding taxes is higher for lower income households, households with more than one member and for those where a positive attitude toward informal employment is expressed. The impact of determinants of expenses for formal and informal services separately is comparable. Only household structure has the opposite effect on expenses for formal services versus informal ones.


Overwintering Coots Fulica atra atra were observed in January 2006, in Keoladeo National Park, India. Here they fed on aquatic plants, which they exploited in strictly-maintained dense flotillas; these flocks behaved like a super-organism. This observation adds to a description of Ali & Ripley (1969), who do not explicitly discuss the cause of raft formation by Coots, but only mention the occurrence of Coot predation by Greater Spotted Eagle Aquila clanga. Having observed a Coot being drowned by a Ganges Soft-shell Turtle Aspideretus gangeticus, I suggest that predation risk by these turtles should be taken into account as a possible cause for this herding behaviour. When on the water, Coot flocks now and then suddenly scattered; this suggested disturbance by a hidden aquatic predator, all the more because no raptor attacks were witnessed on these occasions. Coots visited the water exclusively for foraging, and, in contrast to their usual behaviour, roosted on islands. This indicates that they considered the water as a dangerous environment, despite the fact that on land the risk of predation by eagles may be greater. My observations suggest that, by foraging in very dense groups, Coots and other waterbirds exploited the rich food resources in Keoladeo whilst minimising the risk of predation.


This article looks at the post‐disaster context of Lower Sindh, a region devastated by super floods in 2010 and 2011, in an attempt to understand what government policies were implemented to assist people whose lives had been washed away. Based on fieldwork conducted in three districts of Lower Sindh this study emphasises that while a general narrative seems to suggest that the Pakistani state's post‐disaster policies and interventions were insufficient, ineffective or both, there is significant evidence to demonstrate the relative success and universal outreach of government interventions. This also had a significant impact on food security in the aftermath of the disaster. The government response to the floods has in fact contributed towards a fundamental shift in state‐citizen relations. This underdeveloped and still emerging 'disaster citizenship' in Pakistan is based on entitlements and rights rather than a citizenship more commonly understood to be based on identity, kinship or patronage.


The kinetics and stoichiometry of the reaction between hypochlorous acid and chlorous acid was studied under mildly acidic conditions (pH = 2.5−4.7). The experiments were conducted in dilute solutions (10−4−10−3 M) at T = 5−25 °C. External buffer compounds were not used. Chlorous acid, chlorine dioxide, and chlorate concentrations were monitored with titrimetric methods. Rate coefficients and activation energies were determined for the five main steps of the kinetic model (others were adopted from literature). Both hypochlorous acid and chlorine were found to react at an appreciable rate with chlorous acid/chlorite. Chloride ion was found to promote both the overall reaction rate and chlorine dioxide/chlorate ratio. The results may be exploited in optimizing the red-ox efficiency of technical chlorine dioxide bleaching processes.


Past initiatives to control Aedes mosquitoes were successful, in part because they implemented draconian top-down control programs. To achieve similar results now, explicit recognition of the complexity in urban ecologies in terms of land ownership, law enforcement and accessibility for control interventions are required. By combining these attributes, four classes of spaces, along with corresponding control strategies, are suggested to better target Aedes species population control efforts. On one end of the spectrum there are accessible and accountable spaces (e.g. backyards and closely managed public facilities), where interventions can rely predominantly on bottom-up strategies with the local population playing the principle role in the implementation of actions, but with government coordination. On the other end of the spectrum are inaccessible and unaccountable spaces, which require top-down and extensive approaches. By identifying these and the intermediate classes of space, government and private resources can be allocated in a more efficient customized manner. Based on this new framework, a set of actions is proposed that might be implemented in dengue and other Aedes -borne crises. The framework considers existing limitations and opportunities associated with modern societies – which are fundamentally different from those associated with the successful control of Aedes species in the past.


Candida albicans is a dimorphic fungus that can grow in a wide range of temperature. In such case, this microorganism has the potential to produce enzymes that able to function at elevated temperature. These enzymes are also essential in the field of molecular biology and recombinant technologies. Therefore, the enzymes produced by Candida albicans could be applied in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The PCR is the most widely used in DNA amplification. In this study, Candida spp. were successfully isolated and collected from Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia. Different culture media were used to identify the morphology of colony. Based on the colonies growth on chromogenic agar, Candida sp. was identified. Microscopic examination (light and scanning microscopy) was carried out to identify the morphology of the isolate. A presumptive identification of germ tube test was performed to find out the dimorphic and pathogenicity characteristic of isolate. The formation of germ tubes from the isolate showed positive result of Candida albicans . A commercial Analytical Profile Index (API) Candida identification kit was used in this study as a phenotypic identification of Candida sp. The result of API Candida was confirmed that the isolate was the Candida albicans . Candida albicans was successfully isolated and identified phenotypically in this study for future in house helicase production.


In this manuscript, thirty yellow-pigmented Gram-positive bacteria were isolated from natural intestine microflora and from sea water around the marine cage of a rearing tank of common dentex ( Dentex dentex ), in the Aegean Sea on the Turkish coast and were characterized. Eighteen isolates were assigned to the species Micrococcus luteus , the other twelve to the species Bacillus marisflavi . Eight representative strains, six from B. marisflavi and two from M. luteus , were chosen for further 16S rDNA analyses. A pathogenicity assay for the isolated bacterial strains was carried out in rainbow trout and it evidenced absence of pathogenicity in the tested strains. The isolated strains were tested for in vitro antagonistic activity against Listonella anguillarum , a pathogen bacterium diffused in Mediterranean aquaculture and affecting various fish species. The isolated bacterial strains showed antagonistic activity against the pathogenic bacterium, suggesting a possible role of isolates as probiotics. In this study, for the first time, bacterial strains of the species B. marisflavi , known as an environmental species, were recovered in the gut microbiota of a healthy fish. The use of the isolates characterized in this study, mainly the yellow-pigmented bacterium, is suggested as possible probiotics to improve fish health, along with alternative methods of maintaining a healthy environment.


The aim of this thesis was to identify factors at the commencement of university
study that may enable prediction of both estimate of gains and experience of
stresses. This was done in order to provide information that may enable early
identification of risk factors in respect to student attrition. To this end, the thesis
examined individual differences amongst students that relate to perception of
both estimated gains and stress early in the university experience. Initially, the
individual differences studied were those relating to student demographics of
age, gender, whether the student performed additional part-time work and the
number of hours of work performed and the influence of finances. This first
round of testing was performed by distributing questionnaires examining the
aforementioned via student welcome packs at commencement of university
study. The results of this first round of testing suggested particular importance
of intrinsic values on estimated gains. In addition to some influence of finances,
gender and hours of work. From open questions present in this first round of
testing, focus group questions were formulated in order to further develop the
questionnaire. From the findings of study two, this was then expanded to
include the influence of perceived demands, control and support and locus of
control on estimated gains and subjective perceived stress. This was again
performed by distributing a questionnaire at inception, albeit personally to help
response rate and answer any queries. This third round of testing, as implied
by the focus group responses, found an additional influence of locus of control
and the perception of demands, control and support on estimated gains and
stress. Finally, the fourth round of testing included biological indicators of
stress, namely salivary cortisol levels through the use of analysis of levels of salivary cortisol, collected using a salivette. This final study suggested a
difference in the effects of perceived demands, control and support on both
perceived and biological responses to stress The study in all found that there is
a definite prediction of estimate of gains from the university environment by the
work values studied. Although it was found that gains were primarily influenced
by intrinsic values (achievement, advancement, autonomy, personal
development), an influence of extrinsic values (economics, prestige, social
interaction) was also evident. In addition to work values, demographics of
gender, age and hours of work were also found to influence differences in
estimated gains and stress. None of the values studied were found to predict
perceived stress, however the distinction between perceived and objective
biological measures of stress was highlighted. In particular, with regard to the
perception of demands, control and support from the university environment.
The results of the study also suggested that the extent to which students
perceive demands, control and support from the university environment may
also have an impact on the student experience of stress, particularly biological
stress, which can result in potential harm to physical well-being.


Experimental drug use is extremely common in young people. Paediatricians will see children in the community or acute setting who have taken illegal drugs. This article summarises what is known about the commonly used street drugs and how children and young people may present to health professionals.

There are huge challenges in terms of accurate mapping of drugs usage; given that the activity is illegal, adolescents may be reluctant to talk to researchers about their own drug use, unless they are reassured about confidentiality. On the other hand, the topic is fascinating and there is much discussion about drugs within peer group settings. Unfortunately, methodologies used in mapping drugs usage vary widely, as well as definitions of terms such as "ever used", "currently using", or "problematic drugs use". Various age categories are used, with some surveys relating to all teenagers (usually ages 11–19 years), some to younger teenagers (11–15 years), and others to "young people"—generally, but not always, 16–24 years. Household surveys are useful as they include large countrywide samples, and they can indicate regional variations. New technology, such as allowing respondents to enter data in response to questionnaires presented on laptop computers, has probably improved the accuracy of reporting.

The Department of Health1 collects data (using school-based questionnaires) about secondary school age children (aged 11–16 years) in relation to their levels of smoking, drinking alcohol and taking illegal drugs.2–7 Since 1998 each survey has asked questions about awareness of individual drugs, whether a drug has ever been tried and, if so, when it was last tried. Levels of smoking and drinking alcohol were the focus of data collection in 2000, 2002, and 2004, while in 2001 and 2003, the main focus was on drug taking. Data are published by the National Centre for Social Research and …


ABSTRACT Aim: In oncology clinical trials, Patient Reported Outcomes (PRO) and electronic PRO (ePRO) are often used to collect data with regard to patient quality-of-life, symptoms, and drug safety and efficacy. Subject compliance with completion of PRO/ePRO assessments is an important component for obtaining accurate and high-quality data when conducting clinical trials. It has been hypothesized that length of time in a trial and country of origin may affect compliance. To address this hypothesis, the compliance of multiple myeloma subjects in completing three questionnaires that were administered at clinic visits on an electronic tablet was evaluated. The goal of this research is ultimately to determine the suitability of the tablet. Methods: This review draws on the experience of over 400 subjects from 15 countries. Subjects completed the EORTC Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30, the EORTC Quality of Life Questionnaire-Multiple Myeloma 20, and the Euro Quality of Life-5 Dimensions on the tablet at clinic visits. The percent completion of the questionnaires was calculated as the number of questionnaires completed divided by the number of questionnaires expected, based on attended clinic visit. Results: Overall compliance (inclusive of all visits) for the three questionnaires was 95.9%. The overall percent completion was 96.2% (EORT QLQ-30), 97.7% (EORTC QLQ-MY20), and 93.8% (EQ-5D). Completion percentages remained stable for subsequent visits, even as the number of subjects remaining in the pool of participants decreased. The overall percent completion (inclusive of all visits) by country ranged from 88.7% to 100%. Thus, percentage completion was high and consistent in all countries. Conclusions: Percentage completion of questionnaires on the tablet by multiple myeloma subjects was very high, and there was no drop off in percent completion of questionnaires as a function of time. In addition, there was no pattern seen that would indicate that the country of the subject affected the subject's percent completion of the questionnaires. In conclusion, collection of ePRO using a clinic-based, touch-screen tabled yielded a highly complete data set in multiple myeloma subjects demonstrating that this is an effective and therefore suitable approach for recording symptom and quality of life assessments. Disclosure: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


In Europe, approximately 84% of cultivated crop species depend on insect pollinators, mainly bees. Apis mellifera (the Western honey bee) is the most important commercial pollinator worldwide. The Gram-positive bacterium Melissococcus plutonius is the causative agent of European foulbrood (EFB), a global honey bee brood disease. In order to detect putative virulence factors, we sequenced and analyzed the genomes of 14 M. plutonius strains, including two reference isolates. The isolates do not show a high diversity in genome size or number of predicted protein-encoding genes, ranging from 2.021 to 2.101 Mbp and 1589 to 1686, respectively. Comparative genomics detected genes that might play a role in EFB pathogenesis and ultimately in the death of the honey bee larvae. These include bacteriocins, bacteria cell surface- and host cell adhesion-associated proteins, an enterococcal polysaccharide antigen, an epsilon toxin, proteolytic enzymes, and capsule-associated proteins. In vivo expression of three putative virulence factors (endo-alpha-N-acetylgalactosaminidase, enhancin and epsilon toxin) was verified using naturally infected larvae. With our strain collection, we show for the first time that genomic differences exist between non-virulent and virulent typical strains, as well as a highly virulent atypical strain, that may contribute to the virulence of M. plutonius. Finally, we also detected a high number of conserved pseudogenes (75 to 156) per genome, which indicates genomic reduction during evolutionary host adaptation.


We study the configuration space of rectangulations and convex subdivisions of $n$ points in the plane. It is shown that a sequence of $O(n\log n)$ elementary flip and rotate operations can transform any rectangulation to any other rectangulation on the same set of $n$ points. This bound is the best possible for some point sets, while $\Theta(n)$ operations are sufficient and necessary for others. Some of our bounds generalize to convex subdivisions of $n$ points in the plane.


To determine if clinical concentrations of halothane have direct relaxant effects on airway smooth muscle, the authors compared dose-response curves to histamine in the control state (thiopental) and during halothane anesthesia (1.0 and 1.5 MAC), in six basenji-greyhound (BG) dogs untreated and pretreated with atropine aerosols (10 mg · ml−1). Pulmonary resistance (RL) and dynamic compliance (Cdyn) were continuously monitored. Baseline airway tone was not significantly different during thiopental, halothane (1.0 MAC and 1.5 MAC), and after atropine aerosol administration. During thiopental anesthesia, histamine produced dose-related increases in RL and decreases in Cdyn. Both halothane and atropine significantly attenuated the bronchoconstriction induced by histamine 1 mg · ml−1. There were no significant differences in the extent of antagonism of histamine-related bronchoconstriction between halothane (1.0 MAC and 1.5 MAC) and the atropine aerosol. Moreover, in four dogs halothane anesthesia in the presence of atropine offered no additional protection compared with atropine alone. Because the protection afforded by halothane was not greater than that of atropine pretreatment alone, and the addition of halothane to atropine failed to increase the protection, it is concluded that block of vagal reflexes was the major action of halothane responsible for the attenuation of histamine-induced bronchoconstriction.


Living from 1215 to 1294, Khubilai Khan is one of history's most renowned figures. Morris Rossabi draws on sources from a variety of East Asian, Middle Eastern, and European languages as he focuses on the life and times of the great Mongol monarch. This 20th anniversary edition is updated with a new preface examining how twenty years of scholarly and popular portraits of Khubilai have shaped our understanding of the man and his time.


Within Functional Grammar it has been claimed that a small set of languages, including Polish and Dutch, may have a special clause-final position reserved for certain kinds of Focus constituents. But it has also been suggested that there is insufficient evidence to establish whether this is actually a pragmatically marked position or whether elements which end up in final position simply acquire a kind of natural relief. In this paper we compare discourse data from Spanish and English, which have different basic functional patterns, within Functional Discourse Grammar and conclude that the behaviour of clause-final focal elements in specific constructions in these languages may indeed warrant the positing of special focus positions, at least from a functional point of view.


The failure of business entities across the globe has continued to draw the attention of stakeholders of those entities. Due to these problems, different countries issued corporate governance regulations to avoid the repeat of the past. Part of the aims of these CG guides is to increase firm value. In Nigeria, similar guidelines issued for firms are referred to as codes of CG. However, arguments exist between stakeholders on whether those corporate governance mechanisms increase the value of shareholders. Some investment analysts suggest the consideration of governance mechanism before investment, while some argue that CG practices are not necessary for Nigeria. To address this problem, this research empirically examines the effects of female directorship, director compensation and managerial shareholding on price-earnings multiple of Nigerian firms. The research uses data from 100 firms listed in the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). The study used the generalized method of moments (GMM) to estimate the regression due to endogeneity problem amongst the variables. The study reveals a significant positive association between female directorship, director compensation, managerial shareholding and price-earnings multiple at 10%, 1% and 10%, respectively. Therefore, it recommends additional females on board, compensation for directors and more managerial share ownership.


Background The prevalence of multiple sclerosis is associated with the major histocompatibility complex class II DR15 haplotype HLA-DRB1*15:01∼HLA-DRB5*01:01. Objective To assess whether multiple sclerosis progression is associated with the main susceptibility haplotype HLA-DRB1*15:01∼HLA-DRB5*01:01. Methods Patients (n = 1230) and healthy controls (n = 2110) were genotyped for HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DRB5. The baseline Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score was determined and patients were followed for at least 3 years. Results After follow-up of the consecutive cohort 349 patients were classified as having clinical isolated syndrome and 881 patients as having multiple sclerosis. The susceptibility allele HLA-DRB1*15:01 was more frequent in clinical isolated syndrome (odds ratio 1.56) and multiple sclerosis (odds ratio 3.17) compared to controls. HLA- DRB1*15:01 was the only enriched HLA-DRB1 allele in multiple sclerosis patients. Comparison of clinical characteristics between HLA-DRB1*15:01∼HLA-DRB5*01:01 negative and positive patients with multiple sclerosis showed that baseline EDSS score, disease duration and frequency of the category secondary progressive multiple sclerosis with relapse were increased in the HLA-DRB1*15:01∼HLA-DRB5*01:01 positive group. Conclusion The study confirmed HLA-DRB1*15:01 and HLA-DRB5*01:01 as the main susceptibility alleles and showed weak indirect evidence for a role in progression of the disease.


Teachers' questioning is an essential part of learning and teaching, while almost every teacher use questions during their teaching for students. As well as questioning is an essential part of assessment, through questions teachers can assess and evaluate their students.The aim of this study is to find out the way of putting questions for students by teachers in secondary schools grade 7, 8 and 9.The study was done in Badakhshan province. The method for this study is quantitative and the tools for data collection of this study were questionnaire and classroom observation.Questionnaires were distributed to 80 teachers in eight schools for boys and girls in urban and rural areas of Badakhshan Province. The other tools of data collection were classroom observation. In this study 24 classes were observed in eight schools of the mentioned areas.The main findings of this study relate to teachers' question type, the way of putting question, waiting time and reaction of teachers toward students when they give wrong answer to the questions.According to the findings of this study almost all teachers in the mentioned schools only use open questions during their teaching and not another kind of questions like: close question, divergent and convergent types of questions. Open questions need more responses and the answer is not limited. Moreover students talk more around the question that pose by teachers.Waiting time is another important issue during putting questions to student. The finding of this study shows all teachers wait for students' answer, but the result of questionnaire and classroom observation is different. In questionnaire teachers claimed that they wait for about one minute for students answer, while the result of classroom observation shows the average waiting time is about 5-10 seconds.In this study there were mentioned about physical punishment, that teachers were sued during their teaching time, but in this research the finding shows that teachers do not punish (physical punishment) student for giving wrong answer to the question.


Keywords: immigration, labor migration, Estonia, 1920s.

This article studies the Estonian immigration policy of the 1920s in comparison with immigration policies implemented in other European states at that time. The aim of the article is to determine the principles influencing decisions made regarding the immigration of foreigners – that is, citizens of other states as well as persons without citizenship as a result of the First World War.
In brief, the implementation of immigration controls in Europe after the end of the First World War can be explained both by economic and political factors. First, most European countries faced an economic breakdown leading to increasing unemployment rates and shortages of consumables. Thus European authorities did not welcome newcomers, who would most likely face unemployment in the receiving countries and become an additional burden to already overloaded welfare systems. However, the introduction of strict immigration restrictions for foreigners searching for jobs or residence after the end of the war has also been associated with the Great War itself, in that it inflamed nationalistic hatred among belligerents and thus had an influence on the general rise of nationalism and xenophobia in the post-war years.
As this study has shown, the Estonian immigration policy did not differ much from the practice implemented in other European nation-states at that time. Like the majority of other "new" states that were established in Europe as a result of the First World War, Estonia was heavily suffering from economic breakdown in the early 1920s. The influence of rising unemployment and food shortages can be seen in the restrictive immigration policy. The desire of the Estonian authorities to control and stop the inflow of foreign citizens seeking jobs in Estonia can be seen both in limitations set for the issuance of entry permits as well as permissions to reside within the state's territory. A direct correlation between the worsening of the economic situation and the introduction of restrictions on the immigration of foreigners can be distinguished. The most strenuous attempts to restrict the immigration of foreign citizens to Estonia were made during the years directly following the proclamation of independence, and again in 1923 when the economy was hit with a new depression.
However, the influence of ethnic relations in Estonia on the formation of the immigration policy cannot be neglected. Although Estonia is known for its liberal minority policy, the loyalty of minorities – and especially of those who had belonged to the former power elites – was doubted in Estonian administrative circles in the early 1920s. Thus, the restrictions set on the immigration of persons belonging to certain ethnic groups (i.e. Russians or Germans) could also be associated with the unwillingness of the Estonian authorities to increase their numbers in Estonia. However, the restrictive policy could also be explained by attempts to stand against "nepotism" in the industrial and banking sectors (e.g., to avoid the recruitment of German rather than Estonian citizens to businesses run by the local Baltic-Germans).
Several problems were also associated with the immigration of Russian refugees, whose number in Estonia has been estimated to exceed 20,000 in the early 1920s. Similarly to loyalty risks associated with the influx of communists, the loyalty of White Russians who had fought for the re-establishment of the Russian empire was seriously doubted in Estonian political circles, leading to strict surveillance of their activities in Estonia by the local police authorities as well as to restrictions set for their entry. Although refugees already residing in the state's territory were treated differently from other persons who were not holding Estonian citizenship (e.g., they were not expelled from Estonia and were given limited unemployment benefits), their further influx was nearly banned in 1923.
In all, it can be said that Estonia, similarly to other "new" European states, was suffering immense economic hardships after the end of the First World War, and the economic and security interests of the state were kept in mind by the Estonian political circles when forming the immigration policy in the 1920s. As a result, restrictions on the immigration of foreigners were introduced in order to favor the recruitment of Estonian citizens in the local labor market.

Helen Rohtmets (b. 1977) is a Ph.D. student at the Institute of History and Archaeology, University of Tartu.


OBJECTIVES
Prostate cancer is the leading cancer in older men. The Ministry of Health Oman Cancer Incidence Registry 2013 lists cancer of the prostate as the first most common cancer in males. Therefore, early detection is important and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is widely used as an established laboratory test. However, despite its wide use, its value in screening, particularly in asymptomatic males, is controversial when considering the risks and benefits of early detection.

METHODS
This prospective, observational study included 136 males (67.0±8.9 years; range 45-90) who were scheduled for a prostate biopsy in two different tertiary care teaching hospitals in Oman: the Royal Hospital and Sultan Qaboos University Hospital. Blood specimens from these patients were collected at the same setting before obtaining a prostatic biopsy. Three PSA markers (total PSA (tPSA), free PSA (fPSA), and [-2]proPSA (p2PSA)) were measured and the Prostate Health Index (phi) calculated. The histopathological report of the prostatic biopsy for each patient was obtained from the histopathology laboratory of the concerned hospital along with clinical and laboratory data through the hospital information system.

RESULTS
Phi has the highest validity markers compared with other prostate markers, with a sensitivity of 82.1%, specificity of 80.6%, and area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.81 at a cutoff of 41.9. The other prostatic markers showed sensitivities and specificities of 78.6% and 25.9% for tPSA; 35.7% and 92.6% for %fPSA; and 64.3% and 82.4% for %p2PSA, respectively. The AUCs at the best cutoff values were 0.67 at 10.1 µg/L for tPSA; 0.70 at 11.6% for %fPSA; and 0.55 at 1.4% for %p2PSA. An association between phi values and aggressiveness of prostate malignancy was noted. Of the 28 patients with prostate cancer, 22 patients had tPSA > 4 µg/L. However, no patient had phi in the low-risk category, and five, six, and 17 patients had phi in the moderate-, high-, and very high-risk categories, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
Phi outperforms tPSA and fPSA when used alone or in combination, and appears to be more accurate than both markers in excluding prostate cancer before biopsy. Use of this biomarker helps clinicians to avoid unnecessary biopsies, particularly in patients with gray-zone tPSA level. Phi is the strongest marker that correlates proportionally with Gleason Score; therefore, it is also useful in predicting the aggressiveness of the disease. This is the first reported experience for the use of p2PSA and phi in Oman, the Middle East, and North Africa.


THIS REPORT DESCRIBES AN EXPERIMENT CARRIED OUT DURING OCTOBER 1972 AT THE FIVE-ARM BROOK HILL ROUNDABOUT, SHEFFIELD, TO DETERMINE THE CAPACITIES OF TWO NEW ROUNDABOUT DESIGNS, AND TO COMPARE THEM WITH THE ORIGINAL CONVENTIONAL ROUNDABOUT; THE JUNCTION HAS AN INSCRIBED CIRCLE DIAMETER OF 75 M. THE NEW LAYOUTS TRIED WERE A RING JUNCTION DESIGN AND A MINI-ROUNDABOUT. THE RING JUNCTION CONSISTS OF FIVE MINI-ROUNDABOUTS AND WAS DESIGNED TO OVERCOME SOME OF THE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH RIGHT-TURNING TRAFFIC. TWO VERSIONS OF THE MINI-ROUNDABOUT WERE TRIED WITH DIFFERENT SIZES OF CENTRAL ISLAND AND CORRESPONDING ADJUSTMENTS TO THE ENTRY ARRANGEMENTS. THE CAPACITY OF THE RING JUNCTION WAS ABOUT 7 PER CENT HIGHER THAN THE ORIGINAL ROUNDABOUT, AND THE TWO MINI-ROUNDABOUTS GAVE OVERALL INCREASES OF 17 PER CENT AND 28 PER CENT RESPECTIVELY FOR THE DESIGNS WITH 20 M AND 35 M DIAMETER ISLANDS. THE OPERATION OF THESE LAYOUTS IS DISCUSSED. (A)


Higher education plays a significant role in shaping the culture of societies. As globalization becomes more prominent in all aspects of civilization, higher education must respond and lead in this endeavor. It is incumbent upon postsecondary institutions to train the leaders of tomorrow to lead in a world without boundaries, and to be able to embrace and promote the diversity of this new world stage. As such, higher education administration graduate programs must rise to the challenge of training educators in a new "global" way to prepare them for the possibilities that will emerge. Introduction Higher education in the United States is on the cusp of yet another period of transformation. How universities and colleges respond to the current and future changes that accompany the tremendous impact of globalization on the world, will determine their prosperity, viability, and success for years to come. The decisions of leaders in policy-making, curriculum design, governance, and management of more than 3,600 institutions in this country will have an immense impact on the future of American higher education. Producing leaders capable of functioning in this era of unprecedented global interaction and connection requires a new focus on multicultural competence, world-wide awareness, and an understanding of complex relationships and new ways of managing networks in a knowledge based society. The relationships between governments and higher education are changing around the world. Consequently, methods for administering and leading in higher education are being transformed as new responsibilities and expectations arise (Goedegebuure & Vught, 1994). Leaders of American colleges and universities need to be able to build new understandings of global relationships and propel their individual institutions into the mix of newly formed international organizations and partnerships in the knowledge producing community. This emerging task requires prospective leaders to garner new skills and knowledge through graduate preparatory programs for higher education administrators and policy makers. Globalization and its effects on higher education is an essential theme, which should underlie or become a core component of masters and doctoral programs for future leaders. At the present time we may not realize what changes will materialize with regard to globalization, however, we can no longer exist in the ivory tower, or in the relative isolation of traditional American higher education. In some respects, higher education has always been a part of the global information and knowledge society; yet, in ensuing years relationships among people, economies, and universities around the world will integrate in ways not yet imagined. From the graduate student perspective, in order for higher education in the United States to remain a global influence, new methods of leadership and management with an emphasis on a working understanding of the global market is essential. Defining Globalization The task of defining globalization is difficult due to the complexity of the phenomenon, hence the array of definitions offered by scholars tend to be lengthy and intricate. For the purposes of this paper, however, a more straightforward definition will be employed, "... globalization has multiple dimensions--economic, technological, and political--all of which spill into the culture and affect in all-encompassing ways the kinds of knowledge that are created, assigned merit and distributed" (Stromquist, 2002, p. 3). This compact characterization serves to open the dimensions of globalization for discussion as we attempt to examine the impact that globalization has had and will have on the world, the landscape of higher education, and graduate programs in higher education administration. Globalization and Higher Education In recent decades higher education has been at the head of many governmental agendas and has been central to the economic prosperity of numerous nations (Henry, Lingard, Rizvi, & Taylor, 2001). …


The minimum set cover problem is, without question, among the most ubiquitous and well-studied problems in computer science. Its theoretical hardness has been fully characterized—logarithmic approximability has been established, and no sublogarithmic approximation exists unless P = NP. However, the gap between real-world instances and the theoretical worst case is often immense— many covering problems of practical relevance admit much better approximations, or even solvability in polynomial time. Simple combinatorial or geometric structure can often be exploited to obtain improved algorithms on a problemby-problem basis, but there is no general method of determining the extent to which this is possible. In this thesis, we aim to shed light on the relationship between the structure and the hardness of covering problems. We discuss several measures of structural complexity of set cover instances and prove new algorithmic and hardness results linking the approximability of a set cover problem to its underlying structure. In particular, we provide: • An APX-hardness proof for a wide family of problems that encode a simple covering problem known as Special-3SC. • A class of polynomial dynamic programming algorithms for a group of weighted geometric set cover problems having simple structure. • A simplified quasi-uniform sampling algorithm that yields improved approximations for weighted covering problems having low cell complexity or geometric union complexity. • Applications of the above to various capacitated covering problems via linear programming strengthening and rounding. In total, we obtain new results for dozens of covering problems exhibiting geometric or combinatorial structure. We tabulate these problems and classify them according to their approximability.


This study aims to develop multimedia products and measure the effectiveness of multimedia in improving the problem solving skills of primary school students. The type of this research is development research that is by developing media
 product content of science matter of influence of heat 2 to change body shape and temperature. The research subjects consisted of 50 respondents in 5th grade. The development model used was Lee and Owens model which was adapted to the research with
 steps: 1) analysis, 2) multimedia design, 3) multimedia development, 4) empirical analysis, 5)implementation, 6) final product. Effectiveness test was conducted to measure problem solving skill through pre-test and post-test then processed using
 t-test. The result of t-test indicate that there is a difference of the mean value of pretest and posttest value with trust level α = 0.05, there is an increase of mean value or in other words, Ho is rejected, mean pre-test value 61.12 and average
 post-test value 75. Respondents also showed positive attitude using multimedia supported with the result of questionnaire response value 81% with criteria very good. Based on the results of effective multimedia used by learners in learning and
 improve problem solving skills.


The International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean (IBCSO) is the regional mapping project of GEBCO for the area south of 60° S, covering all Antarctic waters. The project is endorsed by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). The IBCSO steering committee is an Expert Group of the Standing Scientific Group of Geosciences (SSG-GS) of SCAR and works in collaboration with the IHO Hydrographic Commission on Antarctica (HCA). This year the compilation of IBCSO Version 1.0 was completed and the digital bathymetric model and a printable chart became available.
For the compilation of the digital bathymetric model, data were contributed by more than 30 institutions from 15 countries. The database consists of about 4200 million points including 177 multibeam cruises, numerous singlebeam cruises, digitized soundings from nautical charts and parts of regional bathymetric compilations. IBCSO was gridded at a resolution of 500 x 500 m in polar stereographic projection with true scale at 65°S. For the gridding, a combination of the IBCAO V3 multi-resolution algorithm and a newly developed bending algorithm was applied. This bending tool minimized edge effects of multi-resolution gridding and allowed a smooth integration of the sounding grids with predicted bathymetry from global bathymetric data sets in areas without data points.
On the printable chart of IBCSO, the new bathymetry is displayed together with up to date terrestrial datasets as Bedmap2 and ADD v6.0. Geographical names of undersea features were taken from the SCUFN gazetteer. The updated new bathymetry however required the relocation and adjustment of some undersea features. Additional geographical names were chosen from the SCAR composite gazetteer and the IHO S-23. The chart has a scale of 1 : 7,000,000 and is 1.0 x 1.2 meter in size.