Work has been done to measure Mental Workload based on applications mainly related to ergonomics, human factors, and Machine Learning. The influence of Machine Learning is a reflection of an increased use of new technologies applied to areas conventionally dominated by theoretical approaches. However, collaboration between MWL and Natural Language Processing techniques seems to happen rarely. In this sense, the objective of this research is to make use of Natural Languages Processing techniques to contribute to the analysis of the relationship between Mental Workload subjective measures and Relative Frequency Ratios of keywords gathered during pre-tasks and post-tasks of MWL activities in third-level sessions under different topics and instructional designs. This research employs secondary, empirical and inductive methods to investigate Cognitive Load theory, instructional designs, Mental Workload foundations and measures and Natural Language Process Techniques. Then, NASA-TLX, Workload Profile and Relative Frequency Ratios are calculated. Finally, the relationship between NASA-TLX and Workload Profile and Relative Frequency Ratios is analysed using parametric and non-parametric statistical techniques. Results show that the relationship between Mental Workload and Relative Frequency Ratios of keywords, is only medium correlated, or not correlated at all. Furthermore, it has been found out that instructional designs based on the process of hearing and seeing, and the interaction between participants, can overcome other approaches such as those that make use of videos supported with images and text, or of a lecturer's speech supported with slides.


Nowadays a progressively more dynamic and global economic environment causes a higher number of enterprises to pick an entry strategy to become international. The choice of a strategy of entry into foreign markets constitutes one of the most relevant decisions for a company, for it impacts on its performance and means it being ready to cooperate, to a greater or lesser extent, with global supply chains. The present article identifies the determining factors of the strategies of entry into international markets as implemented by Peruvian businessmen, which impact on the integration level into an international market. The companies that participated in this exploratory study have growing exportation levels within the non-traditional sector. The results allow to appreciate exporters employing entry strategies with low levels of integration, and predominantly prefer low-risk markets and high resemblance to the Peruvian market, with regards to cultural affinity and business behavior.


Naive CD4+ T cells are the precursor cells of all effector T helper cell subsets and they form the basis of the immunologic memory. These cells provide one of the earliest cellular targets to modulate T cell activation and differentiation during the development of CD4+ T cell
driven immune pathologies such as autoimmune diseases and allergies, which are an in-creasing problem for the worlds' societies. Easy accessible cell surface proteins are responsi-ble for the recognition of and response to signals of other cells or changes in the environ-ment, therefore, they can be described as interesting targets for immune modulation strate-gies such as immunotherapy and vaccination. The aim of this dissertation is to characterize the proteomic cell surface composition of human naive CD4+ T cells and their changes during T cell activation on a multi-omic level to deepen the current knowledge about these im-portant immune cells and to identify new immune targets for the development of novel im-mune modulation strategies. Human naive CD4+ T cells were isolated and activated with an-ti-CD3/anti-CD28 in a time course experiment to mimic T cell receptor engagement. The samples were analyzed via a non-targeted proteomic technique (PAL-qLC-MS/MS), a target-ed flow cytometry screen and a genome-wide microarray expression analysis coupled to bioinformatics analyses. All obtained results were combined in the surface atlas of human naive and activated CD4+ T cells. Out of the analyzed multi-omic datasets, the transmem-brane protein c16orf54 was chosen for further investigations and tools such as monoclonal antibodies, stable expression systems and murine model organisms were generated. 229 cell surface proteins were identified and quantified on human naive and activated CD4+ T cells by the proteomic techniques and 927 cell surface protein coding transcripts were detected by the transcriptomic analyses. 51 of the cell surface proteins are annotated as targets for ap-proved drugs and further interesting cell surface targets such as solute carrier transport pro-teins and proteins, which were not described in the context of T cell biology before, like the transmembrane protein c16orf54, were identified by analyses of the multi-omic datasets. Newly generated investigational tools revealed that c16orf54 is not only expressed on naive and activated CD4+ T cells within the compartment of immune cells in the blood.
The generated surface atlas of human naive and activated CD4+ T cells can be seen as multi-omic reference guide for CD4+ T cell activation, increasing the current knowledge of CD4+ T cell biology. In addition, it provides a rich source of interesting immune targets, which can be investigated in the context of novel therapeutic strategies aiming to modulate reactions of the immune system during the development of CD4+ T cell driven diseases.


Most scientific data will never be directly examined by scientists; rather it will be put into online databases where it will be analyzed and summarized by computer programs. Scientists increasingly see their instruments through online scientific archives and analysis tools, rather than examining the raw data. Today this analysis is primarily driven by scientists asking queries, but scientific archives are becoming active databases that self-organize and recognize interesting and anomalous facts as data arrives. In some fields, data from many different archives can be cross-correlated to produce new insights. Astronomy presents an excellent example of these trends; and, federating Astronomy archives presents interesting challenges for computer scientists.


The Fir, Safety Evaluation System Cost Minimizer (FSESCH) computer program integrates engineering and economic considerations with a linear programming algorithm which permits the least-cost means of upgrading health care facilities to compliance with the Life Safety Code to be identified. A mathematical discussion of the application problem is used to introduce the basic philosophy behind the computer program. Each routine is described with emphasis on such topics as: (1) purpose; (2) calling sequence; (3) common blocks used; and (4) reports produced. A series of descriptive tables and a glossary are used to define all reports and variables. A discussion of test results and provisions for updating or modifying the source code are also given. The program is written in FORTRAN and complies with the ANSI X3.9-1978 software standard.


We present a new method that provides precise detection of micro-object position with respect to a spatially periodic illumination field. Altering the mutual position of the object and the illumination field causes that a pattern of scattered light detected perpendicularly by a CCD camera changes. We present a procedure how to employ this pattern changes to track micrometer-size object in the standing wave and how to apply this method to optical tracking of Brownian particle even in periodic illumination field in motion.


This study asks how cohabiters' housework patterns vary by their marital intentions. I draw on interactionist theories that view housework as an activity that produces gender and family to hypothesize that cohabiters who are more invested in their relationships will spend more time on housework. Analyzing the 1987-1988 National Survey of Families and Households (N = 348), I find that, controlling for sociodemographic and household differences, men who are least committed to their relationships spend the least time on homework, whereas women's housework time is not affected by marital intentions. Key Words: cohabitation, division of household labor, gender inequality, housework. Cohabitation has become an increasingly common living arrangement in the United States. The 2000 Census (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2001) counted 5.5 million unmarried heterosexual couples sharing a household; in 1990, there were only 2.9 million (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2000). In addition to couples who are currently cohabiting, many have cohabited sometime in the past. In fact, the majority of marriages in the United States, both first marriages and remarriages, now begin with cohabitation (Smock, 2000). For most couples, cohabitation is a relatively short-term arrangement, with about 55% of cohabiting couples marrying and 40% dissolving within 5 years (Bumpass & Lu, 2000). These dissolution rates, however, vary by race; African Americans are more likely than Whites to cohabit as a long-term alternative to marriage (Brown, 2000). Most research on cohabitation tends to study its patterns and characteristics primarily in relationship to marriage, and much of this research fails to acknowledge differences among cohabiters. For example, Nock (1995) finds that compared to married couples, cohabiters tend to express lower levels of relationship commitment, less relationship satisfaction, and poor quality relations with kin. Brown and Booth (1996), however, find that these differences exist only among cohabiting couples who do not plan to marry their partners. Those who do plan to marry their partners have relationships that look very similar to those of married couples. Similar to the research on relationship quality, research on housework patterns in cohabitation tends to compare cohabiters with married couples without considering differences among cohabiters (Bianchi, Milkie, Sayer, & Robinson, 2000; Shelton & John, 1993; South & Spitze, 1994). In this article, I revisit the research on cohabitation and housework and ask how cohabiters' marital intentions affect the division of household labor. I find preliminary evidence that cohabiting men who are less invested in their relationships spend less time on housework than men who are more invested, while marital intentions have no effect on cohabiting women's housework time. COHABITATION AND HOUSEWORK The research on housework among cohabiters has found two consistent patterns. First, cohabiting women tend to spend less time on housework than married women, about 5 to 6 fewer hours per week (Bianchi et al., 2000; Shelton & John, 1993). This difference persists even after compositional differences, such as the presence of children and employment hours, have been controlled. The second pattern is that even though cohabiting women are spending less time on housework than married women are, they are spending more time than cohabiting men (Gupta, 1999; Shelton & John; South & Spitze, 1994). Gupta finds that in transitioning to and from coresidential unions (cohabitation or marriage), women increase their housework hours when they move in with men and decrease them when they move out, whereas the opposite pattern holds for men. Thus, although the gender gap in housework is smaller in cohabitation than in marriage, it does persist. Several explanations for these patterns have been offered, some of which may account for differences in housework patterns within cohabitation across marital intentions. …


Recent research shows that some Australian tertiary education institutions have recruited international feepaying students whose English is limited. The author examines this issue by drawing on his fieldwork among Indian students coming from areas outside the major cities in India, and the branches of the Australian education industry that service them. These students often have poor English and have been recruited by special-purpose agencies with financial links to recently-established private colleges in Melbourne.


The genus Candobrasilopsis gen. nov. is here described, with C. rochai gen. nov. sp. nov. as type species, from the alluvial valley of the Upper Parana River. The enigmatic Candonopsis brasiliensis Sars, 1901 is here redescribed and transferred to this new genus, the new combination being Candobrasilopsis brasiliensis (Sars, 1901). The new candonid genus belongs to the tribe Candonopsini, because of the absence of the proximal seta on the caudal ramus. It is closely related to Latinopsis Karanovic & Datry, 2009, because of the relatively short terminal segment of the mandibular palp (length less than 1.5 times the basal width, while this segment is longer than three times the basal width in Candonopsis ) and the large and stout b-seta on the T1. However, it differs markedly from Latinopsis in the size and shape of the calcified inner lamellae of both valves and in the type of hemipenis. We also discuss the doubtful allocation of several other genera to the Candonopsini, raise Abcandonopsis Karanovic, 2004 to generic status and reassess the uncertain position of Candonopsis anisitsi Daday, 1905 within Latinopsis .


Status of fish consumption was analyzed by completing the 295 questionnaires in all 22 metropolitan regions of Tehran from different households in 2008. After reviewing the descriptive and statistics analysis along with the non-parametric statistics, the fish consumption per capita was extracted through formulas. The average and mode of purchasing of each household occurs 11 times per year with 5.1 Kg in each time. Considering the higher fish consumption growth rate in Iran, the sequence of interest in all kinds of protein is as follows: poultry, mutton, beef, Trout, wild fishes and Chinese carps. The highest interest of households to buy fish more than other protein resources is due to the nutrient value of it. An average of 33.2% purchasing is dedicated to the farmed fish. 59% of purchasers are interested to buy packed up fish products and pay attention to the label of nutrient values on the product package. Fish consumption per capita is 13.3 Kg, which is divided to 6.4 kg for farmed fishes, 5.8 Kg for wild fishes and 1.1 Kg for canned fish. The higher consumption per capita of Tehran citizens in comparison with other people from other cities, who are living in Tehran, is because of their tendency and freshness of farmed fishes. In contrast, the consumption of canned and wild fishes among people of littoral regions who live in Tehran is higher than others.


Abstract
This paper will discuss a unified digital image distribution and processing system linking various digital image sources through a broadband local area network and a comnon image format. Ultimately, the system allows for viewing and processing of all images produced within the complex, and for viewing stations at any number of convenient locations. The physical handling of storage media at image sources, can be totally eliminated. Complete archiving, file maintenance and large scale processing capabilities are provided by a central file server. This paper presents a concrete proposal for an initial system which has a central archiving facility for permanently storing and selectively viewing computed tomography (CT), nuclear medicine (NM) and ultrasound (US) images. The system proposed can then be slowly expanded to include all the digital images produced by the radiology the department, and ultimately to include all the images by digitizing those produced in an analog fashion.


Abstract The majority of psychological treatment research is dedicated to investigating the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) across different conditions, population and contexts. We aimed to summarise the current systematic review evidence and evaluate the consistency of CBT's effect across different conditions. We included reviews of CBT randomised controlled trials in any: population, condition, format, context, with any type of comparator and published in English. We searched DARE, Cochrane, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, CDAS, and OpenGrey between 1992 and January 2019. Reviews were quality assessed, their data extracted and summarised. The effects upon health-related quality of life (HRQoL) were pooled, within-condition groups. If the across-condition heterogeneity was I2 < 75%, we pooled effects using a random-effect panoramic meta-analysis. We summarised 494 reviews (221 128 participants), representing 14/20 physical and 13/20 mental conditions (World Health Organisation's International Classification of Diseases). Most reviews were lower-quality (351/494), investigated face-to-face CBT (397/494), and in adults (378/494). Few reviews included trials conducted in Asia, South America or Africa (45/494). CBT produced a modest benefit across-conditions on HRQoL (standardised mean difference 0.23; 95% confidence intervals 0.14–0.33, I2 = 32%). The effect's associated prediction interval −0.05 to 0.50 suggested CBT will remain effective in conditions for which we do not currently have available evidence. While there remain some gaps in the completeness of the evidence base, we need to recognise the consistent evidence for the general benefit which CBT offers.


The international financial crisis that started in 2007 and the subsequent end of the long expansion in South Africa has refocused attention on the business cycle. Prior to the crisis, the economies of both developed and developing countries experienced an extended period of low and stable inflation and stable real economic growth, an episode that has been called the "great moderation". The disruption of this era by the financial crisis has highlighted the importance of understanding the nature and causes of the great moderation, to assist policy makers in facilitating its resumption. This paper considers the historical evidence for the great moderation in South Africa with the aid of a time-varuing stochastic volatility model and various break-point tests


ChIP-based genome-wide assays of transcription factor (TF) occupancy have emerged as a powerful, high-throughput method to understand transcriptional regulation, especially on a global scale. This has led to great interest in the underlying biochemical mechanisms that direct TF-DNA binding, with the ultimate goal of computationally predicting a TF's occupancy profile in any cellular condition. In this study, we examined the influence of various potential determinants of TF-DNA binding on a much larger scale than previously undertaken. We used a thermodynamics-based model of TF-DNA binding, called "STAP," to analyze 45 TF-ChIP data sets from Drosophila embryonic development. We built a cross-validation framework that compares a baseline model, based on the ChIP'ed ("primary") TF's motif, to more complex models where binding by secondary TFs is hypothesized to influence the primary TF's occupancy. Candidates interacting TFs were chosen based on RNA-SEQ expression data from the time point of the ChIP experiment. We found widespread evidence of both cooperative and antagonistic effects by secondary TFs, and explicitly quantified these effects. We were able to identify multiple classes of interactions, including (1) long-range interactions between primary and secondary motifs (separated by ≤150 bp), suggestive of indirect effects such as chromatin remodeling, (2) short-range interactions with specific inter-site spacing biases, suggestive of direct physical interactions, and (3) overlapping binding sites suggesting competitive binding. Furthermore, by factoring out the previously reported strong correlation between TF occupancy and DNA accessibility, we were able to categorize the effects into those that are likely to be mediated by the secondary TF's effect on local accessibility and those that utilize accessibility-independent mechanisms. Finally, we conducted in vitro pull-down assays to test model-based predictions of short-range cooperative interactions, and found that seven of the eight TF pairs tested physically interact and that some of these interactions mediate cooperative binding to DNA.


Protein S-palmitoylation is a widespread and dynamic posttranslational modification that regulates protein–membrane interactions, protein–protein interactions, and protein stability. A large family of palmitoyl acyl transferases, termed the DHHC family due to the presence of a common catalytic motif, catalyzes S-palmitoylation; the role of these enzymes in cancer is largely unexplored. In this study, an RNAi-based screen targeting all 23 members of the DHHC family was conducted to examine the effects on the growth in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Interestingly, siRNAs directed against DHHC5 broadly inhibited the growth of multiple NSCLC lines but not normal human bronchial epithelial cell (HBEC) lines. Silencing of DHHC5 by lentivirus-mediated expression of DHHC5 shRNAs dramatically reduced in vitro cell proliferation, colony formation, and cell invasion in a subset of cell lines that were examined in further detail. The phenotypes were restored by transfection of a wild-type DHHC5 plasmid but not by a plasmid expressing a catalytically inactive DHHC5. Tumor xenograft formation was severely inhibited by DHHC5 knockdown and rescued by DHHC5 expression, using both a conventional and tetracycline-inducible shRNA. These data indicate that DHHC5 has oncogenic capacity and contributes to tumor formation in NSCLC, thus representing a potential novel therapeutic target. Implications: Inhibitors of DHHC5 enzyme activity may inhibit non–small cell lung cancer growth. Mol Cancer Res; 13(4); 784–94. ©2015 AACR.


This study presents a scrutiny of 'liberal' discursive constructions of the 'Enlightenment' in the Greek public sphere. The study is based on the analysis of articles published in two news/lifestyle websites, 'AthensVoice' and 'Protagon', during the (ongoing), so-called, 'Greek crisis'. Discourse theory, informed by critical discourse analysis, is deployed to analyze these discursive constructions. The analysis shows that Greece's economic/social/political problems are constructed as symptoms that underline Greece's fundamental deficit, which is the country's alleged 'lack of 'Enlightenment', as perceived by 'liberal' voices in Greece and elsewhere. The article concludes that such discourses are part of a biopolitical, disciplinary framework producing the object to be reformed by austerity: an 'un-Enlightened' 'Greek character', 'guilty' for 'self-inflicting' Greece's crisis. This 'reform of character' envisioned by liberals in Greece and elsewhere, is supposed to emerge through the institutional advance of neoliberal restructuring processes that include austerity reforms, privatizations, and loss of labor and civic rights, conditions to foster the neoliberal, entrepreneurial, mobile and austere subject, to potentially meet the socio-political requirements of late capitalist growth.


Mangrove restoration projects, aimed at restoring important values of mangrove forests after degradation, often fail because hydrological conditions are disregarded. We present a simple, but robust methodology to determine hydrological suitability for mangrove species, which can guide restoration practice. In 15 natural and 8 disturbed sites (i.e. disused shrimp ponds) in three case study regions in south-east Asia, water levels were measured and vegetation species composition was determined. Using an existing hydrological classification for mangroves, sites were classified into hydrological classes, based on duration of inundation, and vegetation classes, based on occurrence of mangrove species. For the natural sites hydrological and vegetation classes were similar, showing clear distribution of mangrove species from wet to dry sites. Application of the classification to disturbed sites showed that in some locations hydrological conditions had been restored enough for mangrove vegetation to establish, in some locations hydrological conditions were suitable for various mangrove species but vegetation had not established naturally, and in some locations hydrological conditions were too wet for any mangrove species (natural or planted) to grow. We quantified the effect that removal of obstructions such as dams would have on the hydrology and found that failure of planting at one site could have been prevented. The hydrological classification needs relatively little data, i.e. water levels for a period of only one lunar tidal cycle without additional measurements, and uncertainties in the measurements and analysis are relatively small. For the study locations, the application of the hydrological classification gave important information about how to restore the hydrology to suitable conditions to improve natural regeneration or to plant mangrove species, which could not have been obtained by estimating elevation only. Based on this research a number of recommendations are given to improve the effectiveness of mangrove restoration projects.


Some germplasm collections have a high number of accessions, which makes it difficult to explore the genetic variability present in the germplasm bank due to the redundancy and the difficulty of detailed analysis of all conserved accessions. Therefore, our study aimed to analyze the genetic diversity of 153 lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus) accessions for the purpose of constructing a core collection. Eleven SSRs were used for this purpose. The 153 lima bean accessions can be represented by low redundancy using a minimum of 34 accessions, thus representing 22 % of the size of the entire germplasm bank. The core collection had a higher Shannon diversity index and expected heterozygosity (1.906 and 0.811, respectively) than those presented by the entire germplasm bank (1.605 and 0.713, respectively), indicating a higher polymorphism of the representative cultivars in relation to the entire collection. The accessions selected for the core collection may be used in future studies of genome association as well as in genetic crosses in breeding programs aimed at developing improved cultivars with high genetic diversity which can meet current and future market needs.


Foraminiferal oxygen isotope and pollen analyses from a deep-sea sequence off southwest Portugal show that the duration of temperate stages on land over the past 350,000 years varied considerably. The record shows forest contractions during intervals of low ice volume, coeval with declines in atmospheric methane, after which tree populations did not always recover. What emerges is that, although the broad timing of interglacials is consistent with orbital theory, their specific duration may be dictated by millennial variability. This complicates the prediction of the natural duration of interglacials, at least until the origin of this climate variability is understood.


While driver hypovigilance is often attributed to fatigue, it is more frequent in monotonous road environments, suggesting that monotony of task (requiring simple, under-demanding responses) and/or environment (containing highly repetitive, predictable stimuli) plays an important role. We report an experimental study designed to disentangle the characteristics and effects of monotony from those of time on task and fatigue, using a series of short vigilance tasks. Task monotony was manipulated through changes in target probability (p(monotonous) = 0.11 vs. p(non-monotonous) = 0.50), while environmental monotony was manipulated through stimulus variation. Results revealed that performance, as indexed by accuracy and response times (RTs), was significantly worse in a monotonous context versus non-monotonous context. Furthermore, performance decrements emerged early in the vigilance task (within 4.3mins) and were consistent over the course of the experiment, suggesting that monotony effects are independent of time on task and fatigue. Experimental manipulations of monotonous contexts revealed that both task demands and stimulus variability are independent moderating factors of sustained attention, with improved performance in conditions of increased task demands and stimulus variability. Implications for road safety are discussed.


The present paper is a corpus-based study which examines social roles as constructed in British nineteenth-century children's literature. Both gender roles overall as well as the more specific roles of mother and father are investigated. The main approach is to systematically study adjectival descriptions of characters both quantitatively and qualitatively in order to find recurring patterns of description that function as part of defining a social role. The method of classification is primarily through semantic domains. The study shows that the female social role is defined as involving few mental qualities, whereas a pleasant appearance is important. In contrast, social status and positive mental characteristics are important defining factors for the male social role.


Current study was conducted to know the Eco-biology of Goral species with reference to its distribution range, extending in District Buner Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The species are distributed in the whole District at various goral points, which were frequently visited, the points in are; Nanser, Kingargalay, Babosar, Mirdara, Gokand, Shangla-Buner Border, Elum Mountain, GarrooBarkalay, Mahaband and Malka. The Phyto-sociological studies on the habitat suggest the presence of at least 99 species of endospermic plants, distributed with a low constancy of appearance with three well defined vegetation layers; i.e. tree (22 species), shrubs (25 species), herbs (31 species) and grasses (21 species). Dodonea viscosa is the most prominent species among shrubs in the goral habitat in District Buner. The prominent threats leading to the extinction of Goral includes deforestation, lack of proper habitat, illegal anthropogenic over hunting, over grazing and most importantly lack of public awareness about wild life importance.


In 2001 and 2002 a survey has been carried out on several taxonomic invertebrate groups in five floodplain areas along the river Waal in the Netherlands. Studied groups are: aculeate wasps (Hymenoptera: Chrysididae, Crabronidae, Tiphiidae, Pompilidae, Sphecidae, Vespidae), Apidae s.l. (Hymenoptera), Carabidae (Coleoptera), Mollusca (only terrestrial species), Odonata, Orthoptera, Syrphidae (Diptera). The study focused on sand dunes, high river banks, grasslands and marshes. The aim of the study was to compare the investigated invertebrate groups in terms of betadiversity to determine their sensitivity for heterogeneity of floodplain ecosystems. The results have been analysed in combination with the faunistic database of EIS (European Invertebrate Survey) - the Netherlands. Based on this database, species were selected of which at least 5 % of their distribution is situated in the Dutch Rhine branches ('preferential species'). Considering their high diversity in floodplain areas, both in absolute numbers and in betadiversity, and high number of preferential species in the Dutch Rhine branches, aculeate wasps, Apidae and Carabidae seem to be the most suitable of the studied groups for assessment of the heterogeneity of floodplain ecosystems. In aculeate wasps and Apidae, the highest diversity occurs in high parts of the floodplains. In Carabidae and Syrphidae with aquatic larvae, the highest diversity occurs in low parts of the floodplains.


To comparatively study the effects of rPI-T1 with aprotinin and tranexamic acid, antifibrinolytic hemostatics currently used in clinical settings, by comparatively analyzing their inhibitory activities on plasmin, trypsin and kallikrein. Spectrophotometry was used, that was, OD405 was decreased by inhibiting protease hydrolysis of corresponding chromogenic substrates with inhibitors to measure corresponding activities and Ki values. Under the same measurement conditions, kallikrein inhibitory activity of rPI-T1 was approximately 1% of aprotinin. Tranexamic acid lysine analogues, on the other hand, had millimolar inhibitory concentrations because of different mechanism of action, i.e. noncompetitive inhibition. Due to the weak inhibitory effect of rPI-T1 on kallikrein, the potential side effects resulting from inhibiting kallikrein can be avoided. Characterized by high inhibitory concentration and poor specificity, tranexamic acid is prone to cause severe side effects.


Strong S waves produce dynamic stresses, which bring the shallow subsurface into nonlinear inelastic failure. We examine implications of nonlinear viscous flow, which may be appropriate for shallow muddy soil, and contrast them with those of Coulomb friction within a shallow reverberating uppermost layer with low‐seismic velocities. Waves refract into essentially vertical paths at the shallow layers and produce tractions on horizontal planes. The Coulomb ratio of shear traction to lithostatic stress for S waves equals the resolved horizontal acceleration normalized to the acceleration of gravity. The ratio of dynamic vertical normal traction to lithostatic stresses is the vertical normalized acceleration from P waves. The predicted viscous inelastic strain rate in muddy soil begins at low normalized accelerations and then increases mildly and nonlinearly with increasing normalized acceleration. Failure is unaffected when P waves decrease the vertical normal traction. Seismic waves recorded at KiK‐net station KMMH16 for the 2016 Kumamoto mainshock and strong foreshock show these effects. Inelastic deformation commences at a normalized horizontal acceleration of ∼0.25 and reduces S‐ and P‐wave velocities within the uppermost ∼15  m reverberating layer. Normalized horizontal accelerations and the Coulomb stress ratio reach ∼1.25. Strong S waves arrived even when strong P waves produced vertical tension on horizontal planes. In contrast, inelastic Coulomb failure commences at a normalized horizontal acceleration equal to the effective coefficient of friction; rapid inelastic strain precludes even higher accelerations. Furthermore, horizontal planes should fail from the stresses of strong S waves during the tensional cycle of strong P waves.


Starting from the idea that space is one of the factors that create differences in terms of territorial development, this paper has the aim of using factorial analysis to determine the components related to this phenomena. Local based development, at national level of Romania, is the expression of several factors which were decomposed using a multivariate methodology. Social, urban, demographic or territorial components (through accessibility) are factors taken into account in applying this method.


BACKGROUND
Acute drug-related deaths are frequent, giving rise to high Potential Years of Life Lost figures. The objectives of this research are to ascertain the trend in the acute drug-related death rate in the Autonomous Basque Community and the variance thereof in terms of different variables.

METHOD
The drug-related death rate data from the Autonomous Basque Community's Death Register for the 1986-2001 period was analyzed overall in terms of different demographic variables and by cause of death (ICD-9 and ICD-10). The analysis includes gross death rates and standardized rates by European population. The potential years of life lost are calculated.

RESULTS
Acute drug-related deaths numbering 1,207 in all were recorded during the period under study, totaling 045% of all deaths, for a gross rate of 3.58 deaths/100,000 inhabitants. The mean Potential Years of Life Lost were 2,226.33/year, for a rate of 1.12/1000. A total of 75.97% of these deaths were males, the average age at time of death having been 40.29 years (36.09 for males and 52.64 for females). The etiology most often involved was: accidental (82.19%), followed by intentional (12.43%) and undetermined (5.38%)-. Accidental poisoning by other drugs (E-850 in ICD-9, X44 in ICD-10) was the leading cause of death (42.30% and 34.75% respectively).

CONCLUSIONS
There has been an increase in the number of acute drug-related deaths throughout the period studied, the accidental prescribed drug overdose being the main cause, entailing statistically significant differences by sex and age.


Introduction: The presence of a lowlying in the second trimester of pregnancy can be converted to an upper uterine segment placenta by the end of the third trimester. This phenomenon is important when a complete or marginal placenta previa is encountered in the second trimester of gestation because of the need to predict possible antepartum complications and mode of delivery. Aim: To examine the migration of placenta and the placental marginal sinus to predict the eventual route of delivery in low-lying placenta. Methodology: Women with a low-lying placenta with 30 weeks of gestation were included for study. The distance between the internal os and leading edge of the placenta was measured fortnightly using transvaginal ultrasonography until 36 weeks gestation. The relationship between the rate of placental migration, the presence of a placental marginal sinus and the eventual mode of delivery was investigated. Results: In the present study cesarean section rate was 60 % (39/65) in the slow migration group (0 – 2.0 mm/week) group, six patients (6/35) in the fast (more than 2.0 mm/week) migration group underwent a cesarean section (p < 0.01) because of other problems. The cesarean section rate was 75.9 % (22/29) in patients with a placental marginal sinus, significantly greater than the rate of 11.3 % (8/71) in patients without a marginal sinus (p < 0.01). Conclusion: A decreased rate of placental migration until 36 weeks' gestation and the presence of a placental marginal sinus were associated with subsequent cesarean delivery because of antepartum vaginal hemorrhage. These parameters may be useful for predicting the route of delivery in women with a lowlying placenta.


Expert guidance for securing your 802.11 networks Learn best practices for securely managing, operating, and scaling WLANs Comprehend the security-related technological underpinnings of WLANs Explore new security protocols in 802.11i and WPA and learn how they prevent attacks Review centralized deployment models for wired/wireless integration Deepen your knowledge of defense by understanding the tools that attackers use to perform reconnaissance and to attack authentication and encryption mechanisms Understand how to design secure WLANs to support enterprise applications with the new standards and practices detailed in this book Reference the next generation authentication standards and protocols Find out about mobility, hotspots, and campus wireless networks Grasp Open Authentication, MAC-based authentication, shared key authentication, EAP authentication protocols, WEP, WPA, and 802.11iCisco Wireless LAN Security is an in-depth guide to wireless LAN technology and security, introducing the key aspects of 802.11 security by illustrating major wireless LAN (WLAN) standards that can protect the entire network. Because a WLAN is less effective as an isolated piece of the network, this book emphasizes how to effectively integrate WLAN devices into the wired network while maintaining maximum security.Cisco Wireless LAN Security covers the spectrum of WLAN security, including protocols and specifications, vulnerabilities and threats, and, especially, deployment patterns and design guidelines. With a unique combination of theory and practice, this book addresses fundamental wireless concepts, such as WEP, and innovations, such as EAP, switching, and management. Each chapter includes detailed illustrations, checklists, design templates, and other resources. You will also find generic wireless deployment patterns based on real-world customer installations and functional examples of architecture, design, and best practices.Whether you currently design, configure, implement, and maintain WLANs or simply want to explore wireless security issues, Cisco Wireless LAN Security has everything you need to understand how to create a seamlessly secure, impenetrable 802.11 network.This book is part of the Networking Technology Series from Cisco Press"i?? which offers networking professionals valuable information for constructing efficient networks, understanding new technologies, and building successful careers.


The author discusses the development of mathematical models for the flow of blood in the human circulatory system. By necessity, such a model of a living system must include several simplifications, ignore some factors, and make several assumptions. This is not a simple fluid flow problem with a routine application of Navier-Stoke equations. There are several chemical reactions going on, there is a coupling between the fluid flow and the motion of the vessel wall. Moreover, the material of the vessel is not easily described. It would be a good experimental project to come up with even approximate constitutive equations for the wall region of a human artery. Thus we have a moving boundary type of flow, with mechanical interactions between the boundary and the fluid not really defined. The resulting compromise ignores nonlinearities by making the ``small displacement assumption''. The author uses a compromise between the Eulerian and Lagrangian description of the flow. A geomerically conforming finite element grid is reconstructed at each finite step i.e. at each time interval of the flow. A linear variation accompanies each such ``small'' time step. An electrical circuit analogue describes the flow based on a lumped parameter model.par Probably the next step shall be to coordinate the measurements predicted by this model by using a computerized feedback control identification loop, thus clinically checking the validity of these models of cardiovascular systems, and perhaps revising some assumptions.


Abstract Arsenic is a very common by-product of the processing of Cu, Au and polymetallic ores worldwide, where the ore is roasted (calcined) to remove volatile elements. In southwest England, a diverse range of As-mineral species occur as efflorescent secondary mineral growths on historic calciner buildings. Gypsum occurs as abundant dendritic growths comprising either interlocking blades or tabular crystals. Ca-arsenate minerals are locally very abundant as white colloform masses. Positively identified Ca arsenates include pharmacolite, weilite and haidingerite. Other secondary minerals include arsenolite, scorodite, bukovskyite and an As-bearing potassium alum, together with a wide variety of unidentified minerals, including an Al-As-S phase and As-rich F-bearing phases. Gypsum contains As concentrations up to ~7 wt.%. Efflorescent growth at sites exposed to the prevailing weather systems is less abundant than at sheltered sites. This is interpreted as being due to 'pressure washing' of exposed sites by driving rain. Successive concentric growths of gypsum and Ca arsenate on masonry are interpreted as being the result of seasonal crystallization. Understanding both current and historical mining and mineral processing methods is critical in the evaluation of the potential impact on the modern environment. In particular, due to the abundance of As-bearing minerals in a wide range of ore types, many buildings worldwide are potentially significantly contaminated with As even though few are directly related to As production or handling. Characterizing the secondary As mineral species present at mine and mineral processing sites is critical in understanding the potential health risk these sites might pose.


We present a real-time approach for multi-person 3D motion capture at over 30 fps using a single RGB camera. It operates successfully in generic scenes which may contain occlusions by objects and by other people. Our method operates in subsequent stages. The first stage is a convolutional neural network (CNN) that estimates 2D and 3D pose features along with identity assignments for all visible joints of all individuals. We contribute a new architecture for this CNN, called SelecSLS Net, that uses novel selective long and short range skip connections to improve the information flow allowing for a drastically faster network without compromising accuracy. In the second stage, a fullyconnected neural network turns the possibly partial (on account of occlusion) 2D pose and 3D pose features for each subject into a complete 3D pose estimate per individual. The third stage applies space-time skeletal model fitting to the predicted 2D and 3D pose per subject to further reconcile the 2D and 3D pose, and enforce temporal coherence. Our method returns the full skeletal pose in joint angles for each subject. This is a further key distinction from previous work that do not produce joint angle results of a coherent skeleton in real time for multi-person scenes. The proposed system runs on consumer hardware at a previously unseen speed of more than 30 fps given 512x320 images as input while achieving state-of-the-art accuracy, which we will demonstrate on a range of challenging real-world scenes.


Introduction
The link between occupation and wellbeing is frequently discussed in occupational therapy literature and is a foundational tenet of the profession. Wilcock (2006) proposes that human beings are by nature occupational beings and therefore engagement in occupation should be included in the health promotion agenda to improve health and wellbeing. Identifying the relationship between occupation and well-being in the homeless population is the goal of the authors' doctoral studies and presents methodological challenges in relation to this population.

Objectives
This paper will explore the literature regarding the importance of occupation to well-being from different perspectives. Definitions of well-being will be discussed in relation to the experience of homelessness and poverty. Some initial finding from the research will be shared.

Methods
The link between occupation and wellbeing as discussed in occupational therapy literature was explored to provide a theoretical basis for this project. The relationship between meaningful occupation and homelessness was explored and applied. Cultural definitions of well-being were also reviewed to provide a basis for the study which included both indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

Results
The existing literature pertaining to occupation and wellbeing focuses largely on the experiences of
those with physical or mental illnesses and the process of recovery and rehabilitation. There is minimal literature regarding the experiences of those that are occupationally marginalised for reasons of social exclusion and poverty, and yet these are perhaps the most vulnerable to lower levels of wellbeing. This discovery resulted in the development of a range of methods utilised to explore the meaning of wellbeing to people experiencing homelessness.

Conclusion
There is a need for further research to back the professions claim for the health promoting effects of
meaningful occupation. The development of specific tools and strategies that will enable research to be conducted is required.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Treatment of complex ureteral stenosis or lesions can be challenging. Ureteral bypass connects directly the renal cavities to the bladder with a specially designed subcutaneous tube. The main indication is in patients with an indwelling nephrostomy tube due to a ureteral obstruction related to malignancy. It has been previously reported that this option improves patients' quality of life. We present a modified technique of ureteral bypass in the supine position that facilitates the procedure. METHODS: The Detour™ nephro-vesical subcutaneous bypass is a 30 Fr tube that is made of 2 components: an outer reinforced PTFE sheath with porous structure and a silicone inner sheath. We modified the position of the patient based on our experience with percutaneous nephrolithotomy in the supine position. If the patient has an indwelling nephrostomy catheter in a proper position then we proceed with a dilatation of the percutaneous access using fascial dilators or a balloon, and a 30 Fr Amplatz sheath is inserted. If the nephrostomy is not in an adequate position, an ultrasound guided percutaneous access is performed through an adequate calyx with a direct access to the renal pelvis. Dilatation then proceeds as described above. The Detour™ proximal end is positioned into the renal cavities through the Amplatz sheath. The bladder is then isolated through a minilaparotomy. A subcutaneous tract between the bladder and the percutaneous access is created with a tunneler and the Detour™ in passed through the tract in order to reach the bladder. A 1 cm cystotomy is performed on the bladder dome. The Detour™ distal end is then tailored to the proper length and it is anastomosed to the bladder. A bladder catheter is left in place for 5 days. RESULTS: 19 subcutaneous extra-anatomical urinary diversions were performed in 17 patients (2 bilateral) using the modified technique between 2016 and 2018. Mean operative time was 120'. In 12 cases an ex-novo percutaneous access was created. There were no intraoperative complications. In 4 cases an explant was performed: 1 due to displacement of the bypass distal end, 1 due to a multidrug-resistant infection and in 2 cases due to an enteric fistula. CONCLUSIONS: The supine oblique position or the lithotomy oblique position allows a direct simultaneous access to the kidney and to the bladder simplifying the procedure. Still, the procedure may be complex due to high comorbidity patients with previous radiation or surgery and the high risk of infection. Patients must be appropriately informed about these risks. Source of Funding: none


Geography faces several challenges in a changing South Africa. These include the challenge to initiate a primary curriculum that helps to provide a foundation for sustainable living in a society that faces serious problems of unemployment, violence, irreparable damage to the environment and the lack of housing, water and basic services for the majority of the population. This thesis attempts to provide a case for geography in the primary school by examining the value of the subject for pupils' development and by reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of an integrated approach in view of the possible introduction of an integrated primary curriculum in South Africa. The second aspect of the study is concerned with a survey of teachers in the Natal Education Department to evaluate the perceived value of geography as a subject and support for geography as a discrete subject. The main thrust of geography in the primary school is to develop concepts, skills, values and attitudes that allow pupils to be more understanding and caring about the local and global environment, about people, communities, species and the natural environment on which we all depend. The results of the survey reveal that teachers support geography as a discrete subject with an intra-curriculum approach. The introduction of an integrated core curriculum in South Africa would prove problematic as teachers are not in favour of an integrated approach across the curriculum. The lack of teacher support in Kenya for an integrated curriculum was one of the main reasons for its failure. Hopefully South Africa will learn from other countries experiences with introducing an integrated curriculum. Teachers value the role of geography in the education of the child and suggest the introduction of environmental and development themes to make the subject more relevant to children's lives. The syllabus analysis revealed that a unified pnmary curriculum is required which is influenced by the needs of society in South Africa. Recommendations are made regarding ideas for a future primary curriculum.


This paper addresses the problem of image alignment based on random measurements. Image alignment consists of estimating the relative transformation between a query image and a reference image. We consider the specific problem where the query image is provided in compressed form in terms of linear measurements captured by a vision sensor. We cast the alignment problem as a manifold distance minimization problem in the linear subspace defined by the measurements. The transformation manifold that represents synthesis of shift, rotation, and isotropic scaling of the reference image can be given in closed form when the reference pattern is sparsely represented over a parametric dictionary. We show that the objective function can then be decomposed as the difference of two convex functions (DC) in the particular case where the dictionary is built on Gaussian functions. Thus, the optimization problem becomes a DC program, which in turn can be solved globally by a cutting plane method. The quality of the solution is typically affected by the number of random measurements and the condition number of the manifold that describes the transformations of the reference image. We show that the curvature, which is closely related to the condition number, remains bounded in our image alignment problem, which means that the relative transformation between two images can be determined optimally in a reduced subspace.


Traditional syntax models typically leverage part-of-speech (POS) information by constructing features from hand-tuned templates. We demonstrate that a better approach is to utilize POS tags as a regularizer of learned representations. We propose a simple method for learning a stacked pipeline of models which we call "stack-propagation". We apply this to dependency parsing and tagging, where we use the hidden layer of the tagger network as a representation of the input tokens for the parser. At test time, our parser does not require predicted POS tags. On 19 languages from the Universal Dependencies, our method is 1.3% (absolute) more accurate than a state-of-the-art graph-based approach and 2.7% more accurate than the most comparable greedy model.


Poplar is considered a good candidate for phytoremediation, but its tolerance to heavy metals has not been fully investigated yet. In the present work, two different culture systems (in vitro and aeroponic/hydroponic) and two different stress tolerant clones of Populus alba (AL22 and Villafranca) were investigated for their total polyphenol and flavonoid content, individual phenolic compounds, polyamine, lipid peroxidation and hydrogen peroxide levels in response to Cu. In AL22 poplar plants cultured in vitro in the presence or absence of 50 μM Cu, total leaves polyphenol and flavonoid content was higher in treated samples than in controls but unaltered in the roots. Equally the same clone, grown under aeroponic conditions and hydroponically treated for 72 h with 100 μM Cu, displayed increased amount of polyphenols and flavonoids in the leaves, in particular chlorogenic acid and quercetin, and no differences in the roots. In exudates from treated roots total polyphenols and flavonoids, in particular catechin and epicatechin, were more abundant than in controls. Polyamine levels show an increase in conjugated putrescine (Put) and spermidine (Spd) was found. In the Villafranca clone, treated with 100 μM Cu for 6, 24 and 72 h, the pattern of polyphenol and flavonoid accumulation was the same as in AL22; in Cu-treated roots these compounds decreased compared with controls while they increased in root exudates. Free polyamine levels rose at 24 and 72 h while only conjugated Put increased at 24 h. Cu-treated Villafranca plants exhibited a higher malondialdehyde production than controls indicative of membrane lipid peroxidation and, therefore, oxidative stress. An in vitro experiment was carried to investigate the antioxidant effect of the polyamine spermidine (Spd). Exogenous Spd, supplied together with 100 μM Cu, reduced the accumulation of polyphenols and flavonoids, MDA and hydrogen peroxide induced by Cu.


F1 hybrids between exotic Eucalyptus nitens plantations and native E. ovata have previously been reported among seedlings grown from open-pollinated seed collected from E. ovata, on the island of Tasmania. Such exotic hybrid seedlings have now been found in the wild adjacent to plantations at three locations. The proportion of exotic hybrids in open-pollinated seed collected from nearby mature E. ovata was 5.5%. This level compares with only 0.4% for natural hybrids between native species at these sites (E. ovata, E. viminalis and E. rodwayi). Detection of hybrids was initially based on their deviant morphology, which was generally intermediate between parental species. This subjective classification was then successfully verified by morphometric and allozyme analyses. Pure E. nitens seedlings (wildlings) were restricted to within 30 m of these plantations, whereas established hybrids were found up to 310 m from the plantations. This pattern of establishment reflects dispersal of exotic seed and pollen respectively. It is likely that the recent expansion of the eucalypt plantation estate in Australia will cause an increase in the frequency of exotic hybrids. However, the long-term impact of such hybridisation is yet to be assessed.


Presented in this paper is a methodology for a spatially based multi-criteria evaluation of land suitability for irrigation (IR). A group of experts use the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the consensus convergence model (CCM) to define weights of factors relevant in validating areas of land as suitable for IR and to develop IR suitability maps in the geographic information system (GIS) environment. Then, using those maps, a group of policy-makers apply voting methods to identify districts with priorities for installing new IR systems. The presented methodology has several benefits. Group decision can aggregate the wisdom of the different domain experts involved in the process while effectively coping with the risk inherent in any decision problem. In CCM, cooperation among experts is rewarded and non-cooperation yields the risk of being excluded from the process or having very little impact on the group decision. The presented methodology is more precise than previously published methodologies, which is more helpful for policy-makers. Finally, sometimes experts' opinions are not comprehensive enough to formulate an objective decision, as they are based on scientific facts whereas real-life decision-making is often based on economic or political factors. Owing to that, policy-makers are included in the presented methodology.


This essay considers the general definition of unlawful exclusionary practices under Section 2 of the Sherman Act as acts that: (1) are reasonably capable of creating, enlarging or prolonging monopoly power by impairing the opportunities of rivals; and (2) that either (2a) do not benefit consumers at all, or (2b) are unnecessary for the particular consumer benefits claimed for them, or (2c) produce harms disproportionate to any resulting benefits. An important purpose of this progression of queries is to permit the court to avoid balancing, although balancing certainly cannot be avoided in some close cases. The given definition is very general, in the sense that it does not provide precise tests for specific practices, such as improper patent infringement suits or predatory pricing. Numerous definitions of exclusionary conduct have been proposed that are more focused or more technical, and some of these may be more useful for analyzing specific exclusionary practices than the very general definition offered here. However, as this paper develops, these definitions are also incomplete, in the sense that they do not account for every type of exclusionary conduct that the law of monopolization should condemn. Proof of actual consumer harm is generally unnecessary to the definition, but the challenged conduct must be of a type that the anticipated end result is actual consumer harm. Of course, the private plaintiff must prove the requisite actual or threatened harm to itself. Most importantly, the given definition of monopolizing conduct is flexible and frees the court of doctrinal rigidity, but it requires an extremely careful determination that the defendant has substantial market power.


This is a review of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland's (ACNI) Arts and Older People Strategy 2010–2013, which sets out the council's policy on improving rates of access for older people in the arts in Northern Ireland (NI). Set in the context of falling rates of participation, the strategy seeks to address key social justice issues such as poverty, isolation, loneliness and mental health. This review article establishes the context of the arts in NI in relationship to creative industries policy, the roles of arts in enabling a more integrated society, and the demographics of older people. It suggests that while the Arts and Older People Strategy has a strong social democratic agenda, the ACNI overlooks key threats to such a policy direction that come from the influence of the market, and an over reliance on the Internet for promotion.


Initial Mesozoic sedimentation in western Chiapas, represented by the Upper Jurassic-lowermost Cretaceous Todos Santos and San Ricardo Formations, occurred over a horst-and-graben terrane formed during rifting in the ancestral Gulf of Mexico Basin. The Todos Santos consists of fluviolacustrine sequences deposited over block-faulted granodiorite. The San Ricardo overlies and interfingers with the Todos Santos, and consists of siliciclastics, carbonates, and evaporites deposited in arid tidal flat, beach, restricted back-barrier lagoon, barrier, shoreface, and shelf environments. San Ricardo facies distribution outlines three transgressive and regressive or still-stand sequences of Oxfordian, Kimmeridgian, and Tithonian-early Hauterivian age. The correspondence between the ages of these sequences and the age of eustatic cycles suggests that their development was primarily influenced by global sea-level changes. Superimposed on this eustatic pattern are stratigraphic features attributed to variable tectonic subsidence of basement blocks, including abrupt lateral thickening or thinning of facies, the localization of ooid grainstone deposition on horsts, and carbonate-platform drowning. Locally consistent patterns of thickening or thinning of both continental and marine facies indicates rift-related block faulting was active throughout Todos Santos and San Ricardo deposition. This style of rift-basin sedimentation contrasts with the Atlantic-margin type by including normal-salinity marine facies in addition to continental and restricted-marine facies. The identification of this style in the Gulf of Mexico is important for reconstructing and differentiating rift and postrift stages of basin development and for predicting the subsurface pattern of Upper Jurassic-Neocomian facies.


My empirical analyses are conducted based on a monthly survivorship-bias free sample of all single-managed equity mutual funds in Norway, Sweden and Denmark from 2005 to 2014. Using a pooled regression approach, I investigate whether Scandinavian investors chase past returns, and further whether flows are sensitive to the fund manager's gender. To address the concern that it is impossible to empirically observe and control for all potential drivers of fund flows, the empirical analysis in the second part of my study is supplemented with an experimental investment task conducted on students at NHH. The experiment attempts to capture the effect of the fund manager's gender on investment decisions in a "real life" setting, controlling for any confounding real world factors that might influence flows. My findings suggest that Scandinavian investors chase past performance, which is similar to findings from the U.S. They do not, however, tend to disproportionately flock around top performing funds, implying that the convexity of the flow-performance relationship, suggested by the literature, is not present in Scandinavia. This finding deviates from several studies on mutual fund flows conducted on U.S. data. However, it is in line with a worldwide study of fund flows by Ferreira, Keswani, Miguel and Ramos (2012), suggesting significant differences in the flow-performance relationship between countries. Furthermore, I find neither empirical, nor experimental, evidence of Scandinavian investors preferring male fund managers to female fund managers. Whereas a similar study from the U.S. by Niessen and Niessen-Ruenzi (2013) suggest that investment decisions are affected by gender biases, my results indicate that Scandinavian investors behave differently, and that they do not disproportionally allocate money to male-managed funds.


Taking antiretroviral drugs as prescribed can fully suppress an HIV infection, keeping disease at bay for decades. And people who have undetectable levels of the virus in their blood rarely spread the infection to others. Yet antiretroviral drugs are having nowhere near the treatment or prevention impact they could have on the U.S. epidemic. This spring, Science met with HIV-infected people, at-risk communities, researchers, caregivers, health officials, and advocates in 10 U.S. cities, traveling to the Deep South and the West and East coasts to see the varied epidemics and the local responses up close. The package of stories looks at everything from the social and structural issues to the medical and scientific challenges through the eyes of people on the front lines, as well as the research efforts under way to try to slow, if not one day bring to a halt, the spread of HIV.


In hydraulic turbines, the tip-leakage vortex is responsible for flow instabilities and for promoting erosion due to cavitation. To better understand the tip vortex flow, Reynolds- averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) and large eddy simulation (LES) computations are carried out to simulate the flow around a NACA0009 blade including the gap between the tip and the wall. The main focus of the study is to understand the influence of the gap width on the development of the tip vortex, as for instance its trajectory. The RANS computations are performed using the open source solver OpenFOAM 2.1.0, two incidences and five gaps are considered. The LESs are achieved using the YALES2 solver for one incidence and two gaps.
The validation of the results is performed by comparisons with experimental data available downstream the trailing edge. The position of the vortex core, the mean velocity and the mean axial vorticity fields are compared at three different downstream locations. The results show that the mean behaviour of the tip vortex is well captured by the RANS and LES computations compared to the experiment. The LES results are also analysed to bring out the influence of the gap width on the development of the tip-leakage vortex. Finally, a law that matches the vortex trajectory from the leading edge to the mid-chord is proposed. Such a law can be helpful to determine, in case of cavitation, if the tip vortex will interact with the walls and cause erosion.


This thesis examines spirituality in the Japanese martial art aikidō, which was created in the 1940s in Japan by Ueshiba Morihei. He described aikidō entirely in spiritual terms and claimed that it is an art of peace which leads religion to completion. The study has two aims: first, to show how spirituality, defined as ultimate concern and action directed towards it, is possible in the context of a martial art; second, to gain an overview of the original teaching of Ueshiba Morihei which has been fragmented and often misunderstood since his death. After considering some conceptual hindrances to appreciation of spirituality in the martial arts, the main themes of Japanese spirituality are identified in order to provide context for spirituality in aikidō. An analysis of Ueshiba's life and the evolution of aikidō is then given. Spirituality in this martial art is then evaluated by comparing the aikidō world view and method of practice with those of four religious belief systems influential in Japan: Daoism, Zen Buddhism, Shingon Mikkyō and Shinto. The research entailed reading and analysing primary and secondary documents concerning aikidō in several languages scattered in private archives and libraries, as well as discussion with a member of the Omoto organisation, consultation of library resources and quality internet sites. By positioning aikidō within a religious context, this work aims to provide a clearer understanding of the origins of aikidō in Japanese spirituality and the intent of its founder. In so doing, it hopes to contribute to removing some of the confusion which has surrounded this art's role as spiritual technique since it spread outside Japan.


Acceptance Requirement in Life Insurance Contracts
In the South African stipulatio alteri it is a requirement that the beneficiary must accept the benefit in order for his right to vest. This is against the "privity of contract" doctrine where one may not put the beneficiary of a life insurance contract under any obligations. It seems, however, that the obligation of acceptance by the beneficiary has become set in the South African law through our old writers and legislation that failed to interpret the principle clearly and resulted in a unique application of the agreement on behalf of a third party in South Africa. A distinction must also be drawn between revocable and irrevocable life insurance contracts and the impact thereof on the acceptance by the beneficiary. The moment of acceptance by the beneficiary has important implications for the application of the rights for the beneficiary. Acceptance by the beneficiary before the death of the life insured, seems to have no effect, and no rights vest for the beneficiary. It is only after the death of the life insured that the nominated beneficiary can accept, and with this a right immediately vests in the beneficiary. The question of what the beneficiary must accept, may be seen as nugatory as this is confirmation that acceptance by the beneficiary should not be an obligation or a requirement before the right vests. Otherwise, the third party creates a right for himself by his actions, which is not the intention of a contract in favour of a third party. A look at English law might shed some light on the South African position because of the fact that they implemented a set of formal rules regarding a contract in favour of a third party. It is suggested that South Africa should also include a set of formal rules in legislation to govern the unique South African application of the stipulatio alteri.


The southwestern borderland region of the United States is characterized by poverty, significant unemployment, and high rates of homelessness, especially among the immigrant population. One difficuly in determining how to assist the homeless is the lack of information about this population. This study was undertaken in response to the research gap in one border community - El Paso, Texas. The aim of this study is to determine the characteristics of homeless persons in El Paso using the "point in time" or "point prevalence" technique. The El Paso Coalition for the Homeless collaborated with the Social Work Program at the University of Texas at El Paso to address this issue. A total of 664 persons residing in homeless shelters were counted and 333 individuals were surveyed. Of these, 227 were adults over the age of 18. In this study, the characteristics of the people surveyed are described and compared to the general population of El Paso and the homeless population in a number of non-border locations.


Slave law in early America may be found in the formal written laws created in metropolitan places such as Paris or Madrid as well as locally within English colonies such as Barbados or South Carolina. These written laws constitute only one portion of the known law governing slave behavior, for individual masters created their own rules to restrict enslaved persons. These master-made rules of conduct almost never appear in print and were conveyed most often through oral transmission. Such vernacular laws provide another element of the limitations all enslaved people experienced in the colonial period. Those without literacy, including Native Americans or illiterate settlers, nonetheless had rules to limit slave behavior, even if they remained unwritten. Customary law, Bible precepts, and Islamic law all provided bases for understanding the rules that bound unfree persons. Most colonial law mandated barbaric punishments for slave crime, though these were sometimes commuted to banishment. Spanish and French codes and local ordinances did not always agree on how slaves should be treated.
 The numerous laws found in English colonies, sometimes wrongly denominated as codes, spread widely as individuals migrated; the number and variety of such laws makes comprehensive transimperial comparisons challenging. Laws might occasionally ban keeping slaves or trading in them, but most such laws were ignored. Slave courts typically operated in arbitrary, capricious ways that assumed slave guilt and accepted weak evidence to prove it. Runaways might, if they joined strong maroon communities (bands of runaways living together), end up enforcing the laws against slave flight, much as slave catchers and slave patrols did. Laws to prevent manumission by a master frequently required the posting of bonds to prevent those freed from becoming a financial burden on their communities. Later manumission laws often mandated the physical departure of those freed, creating emotional turmoil for the newly emancipated.


Global change has been shown to alter the amount of above-ground litter inputs to soil greatly, which could cause substantial cascading effects on below-ground biogeochemical cycling. Despite extensive study, there is uncertainty about how changes in above-ground litter inputs affect soil carbon and nutrient turnover and transformation. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis on 70 litter-manipulation experiments in order to assess how changes in above-ground litter inputs alter soil physicochemical properties, carbon dynamics and nutrient cycles. Our results demonstrated that litter removal decreased soil respiration by 34%, microbial biomass carbon in the mineral soil by 39% and total carbon in the mineral soil by 10%, whereas litter addition increased them by 31, 26 and 10%, respectively. This suggests that greater litter inputs increase the soil carbon sink despite higher rates of carbon release and transformation. Total nitrogen and extractable inorganic nitrogen in the mineral soil decreased by 17 and 30%, respectively, under litter removal, but were not altered by litter addition. Overall, litter manipulation had a significant impact upon soil temperature and moisture, but not soil pH; litter inputs were more crucial in buffering soil temperature and moisture fluctuations in grassland than in forest. Compared to other ecosystems, tropical and subtropical forests were more sensitive to variation in litter inputs, as altered litter inputs affected the turnover and accumulation of soil carbon and nutrients more substantially over a shorter time period. Our study demonstrates that although the magnitude of responses differed greatly among ecosystems, the direction of the responses was very similar across different ecosystems. Interactions between plant productivity and below-ground biogeochemical cycling need to be taken into account to predict ecosystem responses to environmental change.


Mitragyna speciosa is a narcotic plant but with specific medicinal importance. The main components of the leaves of M. speciosa are indole alkaloids. Previous scientific researches have shown that the alkaloidal extracts possess very potent anti-inflammatory, analgesic and opioid properties. The three most abundant indoles are mitragynine, paynanthine and speciogynine the first two of which appear to be unique to this species. All these compounds were obtained from classical organic solvent (diethyl acetate, dichloromethane or methanol) extraction. In this research programme, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) of M. speciosa was performed. An optimal condition of supercritical fluid extraction was developed using an analytical-scale SFE system. The conventional extraction methods were conducted in parallel for comparison. CO2 extract of M. speciosa has never been studied yet and CO2 was chosen as the media of extraction because it is non-toxic and environmentally safe to prepare and use.


Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici, the pathogen that causes wheat powdery mildew, can oversummer as mycelia or conidia on leaves of volunteer wheat plants in cool mountainous areas in China. In this study, the regions in China where B. graminis f. sp. tritici can oversummer were identified on the basis of the probability that temperature remains below a critical temperature that is lethal to B. graminis f. sp. tritici. Two methods, one describing the relationship between the average temperature (20 to 26°C) in a given continuous 10-day period and wheat powdery mildew severity, the other describing the relationship between the average temperature (26 to 33°C) and the number of lethal days on powdery mildew development, were used to calculate the oversummering probability using weather data for 743 sites across China. Spatial interpolation based on the ordinary kriging method was conducted for the regions without observation. Oversummering probability values were similar for most locations estimated between the two methods. The B. graminis f. sp. tritici oversummering regions in China were identified to be in mountainous or high-elevation areas, including most regions of Yunnan, west and central areas of Guizhou, south and northwest Sichuan, south and east Gansu, south Ningxia, north and west Shaanxi, central-north Shanxi, west Henan and Hubei, and some regions in Qinghai, Tibet, and Xinjiang. When the oversummering sites from this study were compared with observed survey data for some of these sites, about 90% of sites where B. graminis f. sp. tritici oversummering was observed had been found suitable by both methods. The coincidence frequency and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for model 2 were higher, albeit only slightly, than those for model 1. Thus, both methods may be used to assist in disease management and further investigation on pathogen oversummering.


We propose a satisficing objective for the multi-armed bandit problem, i.e., where the objective is to achieve performance above a given threshold. We show that this new problem is equivalent to a standard multi-armed bandit problem with a maximizing objective and use this equivalence to find bounds on performance in terms of the satisficing objective. For the special case of Gaussian rewards we show that the satisficing problem is equivalent to a related standard multi-armed bandit problem again with Gaussian rewards. We apply the Upper Credible Limit (UCL) algorithm to this standard problem and show how it achieves optimal performance in terms of the satisficing objective.


The Business Intelligence (BI) system provides users with multi-dimensional information (so-called BI product) to support their decision-making. However, very often business users still could not fully understand the BI product, nor have a clear picture of the entire information manufacturing chain of the BI product. In response to this situation, this paper presents an integrated metadata framework ("BIP-Map") to facilitate the traceability and accountability of a BI product following the design science research approach. Specifically, the salient modelling and management techniques from the business process modelling notation (BPMN), the information product map (IP-Map), and the metadata management are adapted to construct a three-layered integrated metadata framework enabling the business users to make timely and informed decisions. A BIP-Map informed prototype system has been developed in collaboration with online job recruitment firms. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with seven key BI stakeholders of the recruitment firms to evaluate the usefulness of the BIP-Map. It is envisaged that the metadata framework allows the technical personnel to understand the business processes that relate to certain information provided in the BI reports. Business users will also be able to gain insights into the logic behind any BI report.


Between 2014 and 2015, on the occasion of a roundabout construction along the Romea main road (SS 71bis), near the inhabited area of Cervia (RA), Emilia-Romagna, Italy, wooden elements belonging to a Roman saltworks were discovered. The excavation has brought to light a series of shallow basins into which, through a system of canalization, marine water ran. Sluices were in operation along these channels, so that the flow of water could be blocked and the water in the basins got evaporated during hot summer months. The uncovering of the site and the study of the Roman saltworks have been carried out through a multidisciplinary approach which permitted to put in evidence the complex relationship between human and natural landscape in this area.


The increasingly fashionable concept and framing of post-secularism aims to construct simplistic dichotomies and clear-cut ruptures between pre-secular, secular and post-secular ages or epochs, in order to paint generalised and homogenised pictures of societies and their inevitable evolution. This conceptual strategy drastically reduces, or even neglects, historical contingency and societal complexity. Against the background of a brief reflection on thepossibilities and limits of a transcultural and transhistorical concept of religion, this article engages in a critical discussion of 'Secularisation and the Conditions of Post-Secularism' from a sociological point of view and critically reflects on some of the 'normative issues of how citizens' of a 'post-secular society should understand themselves'. In this regard, the main assertion is that we should opt to drop both secularism and post-secularism from our constitutional and legal language, and replace it with priority for liberal democracy or, more specifically, with liberal-democratic constitutionalism.


The redbay ambrosia beetle, Xyleborus glabratus Eichoff, and its associated fungus Raffaelea lauricola T.C. Harrl, Fraedrich & Aghgayeva are exotic species, recently invasive to the United States. Together, they cause a vascular wilt disease that is highly destructive to some species in the Lauraceae (Fraedrich et al., 2008). Xyleborus glabratus is a member of the subtribe Xyleborina, within the subfamily Scolytinae. No synonyms are reported (Rabaglia et al., 2006).


In recent decades, Genetic issues play a large role in health and public policy and new knowledge in this field continues to have significant implications for individuals and society. In spite of this increased exposure to genetics, recent studies of the general public's genetics knowledge show a relatively low understanding of genetics concepts. Eepigenetics is a new paradigm in biology. Nevertheless, the notion of genetic determinism is still present in syllabuses and textbooks. The present research explores Biology students' conceptions related to the genetic determinism of human behaviors and performances. The research method is a questionnaire elaborated by the Biohead-Citizen consortium. The findings revealed that those students still reducing the biological identity to a genetic program. The set can also enhance the danger of hereditarian ideology that justifies the fatalism and racism. We concluded that the teaching of epigenetics becomes a scientific and citizen challenge.


Abstract— Splash‐form tektites are generally acknowledged to have the form of bodies of revolution. However, no detailed fluid dynamical investigation of their form and stability has yet been undertaken. Here, we review the dynamics and stability of spinning, translating fluid drops with a view to making inferences concerning the dynamic history of tektites. We conclude that, unless the differential speed between the molten tektite and ambient is substantially less than the terminal velocity, molten tektites can exist as equilibrium bodies of revolution only up to sizes of 3 mm. Larger tektites are necessarily non‐equilibrium forms and so indicate the importance of cooling and solidification during flight. An examination of the shapes of rotating, translating drops indicates that rotating silicate drops in air will assume the shapes of bodies of rotation if their rotational speed is 1% or more of their translational speed. This requirement of only a very small rotational component explains why most splash‐form tektites correspond to bodies of revolution. A laboratory model that consists of rolling or tumbling molten metallic drops reproduces all of the known forms of splashform tektites, including spheres, oblate ellipsoids, dumbbells, teardrops, and tori. The laboratory also highlights important differences between rolling drops and tumbling drops in flight. For example, toroidal drops are much more stable in the former than in the latter situation.


Spam is still an open problem from the
network operator's perspective. The common state-of-the-art
strategy is to place filters against spam at the recipient's edge.
Although this strategy largely solves the spam problem from the
user's perspective but the false positives/negatives may still
exist. This strategy is also unable to prevent spam from traversing
the Internet. Consequently, we now have around 260 billion spam
messages sent across the Internet each day. Spam is therefore
consuming large amounts of Internet bandwidth and is imposing
non-negligible financial loss to network operators. Therefore it
becomes imperative to mitigate spam much earlier than is typically
done today. The main part of this thesis proposes LENS, a novel,
easily adaptable and scalable spam protection system that is
incrementally deployable with low processing overheads. LENS
leverages the recipient's social network to allow correspondence
within the social network to directly pass to the mailbox of the
recipient. LENS further mitigates spam beyond social circles and
stops spam messages early on, instead of filtering these messages
from user mailboxes or at the recipient's edge. The key idea in
LENS is to select legitimate and authentic users, called
Gatekeepers (GKs), from outside the recipient's social circle and
within predefined social distances. LENS utilizes the GK to
generate a voucher, and new senders are required to obtain these
vouchers (to communicate with the recipient) from a GK in their
social neighborhood. Recipients recover from compromised GKs simply
by selecting replacements and revoking vouchers. Unless a GK
vouches for the emails of potential senders from outside the social
circle of a particular recipient, those e-mails are prevented from
transmission. In this way LENS drastically reduces the consumption
of Internet bandwidth by spam. The contributions of this thesis are
the development of social network based spam mitigation framework
(LENS), a system design based on this framework, the evaluation of
the system by means of simulation and a prototype implementation.
The evaluations show that with the help of hundreds of GKs, LENS
can provide reliable email delivery from millions of potential
users. LENS imposes Zero overhead for the common case of frequent
and familiar senders, and remains lightweight for the general case.
Using real email traces, the simulations show that LENS is
effective in accepting all legitimate inbound emails. Our prototype
implementation of LENS in Postfix/MailAvenger shows that LENS
consumes up to 75% less CPU, 9% less memory and it is around 2-3
orders of magnitude faster in processing emails than traditional
solutions like SpamAssassin.


In Hungary, similarly to developed countries, the share of agriculture in the GDP has declined. Even so, preparation of the sector's long term strategy is crucial, as the role of agriculture exceeds the results represented in the GDP. Environmental and social functions of agriculture are revaluated in developed countries, and consumers at the end of the food chain actually govern the entire process. This is why information plays an increasingly important role, and gives signals (Verbeke, 2005) to the actors in the economy and society. This research area is diverse (including agricultural policy, environmental policy, rural development and sustainable development), and so I applied an interdisciplinary approach and conducted an integrated examination. The results show that in recent decades, the pressure of agriculture on the environment has been lower in Hungary than in the EU-15 and agri-environmental measures have taken hold in all types of land-use systems, even though they are more important in protected areas. Although this development provides a good basis for a long term strategy social capital has lost strength (Csath, 2002), so fostering the creation of internal and external rural networks – one instrument for this could be the Leader programme – is essential for sustainable rural development.


The paper deals with the political and economic determinants of EU agri-environmental measures (AEMs) applied by 59 regional/country units, during the 2001-2004 period. Five different groups of determinants, spanning from positive and negative externalities, to political institutions, are highlighted and tested using an econometric model. Main results show that AEMs implementation is mostly affected by the strength of the farm lobby, and the demand for positive externalities. At the same time it emerges a prominent role played by political institutions. On the contrary, AEMs do not seem implemented by the willingness to address negative externalities.


Abstract The aim of the present article is to analyze the convergence of regional inflation rates in Turkey from 2004 to 2015 by adopting sigma convergence and distribution dynamics approaches. The outcomes of our research can be summarized in two groups. First, inflation disparities tend to decline over time, especially during the post-crisis period after 2010. Hence, the aggregate price stabilization and disinflation process in Turkey is coupled with convergence in inflation rates across regions. Second, in addition to the findings in the literature, we find that regions change their relative inflation rate positions quite often. This indicates that regional inflation behavior is random and non-structural, as the relatively high and low inflationary places tend to change their quintiles frequently. The results imply several policy suggestions. First, achieving inflation convergence is a harder task than initially understood, as it seems to show random behavior. Second, trade integration can be an option to foster regional price convergence.


This work explores the possibility of using plausible inferences as a means of retrieving relevant documents. An attempt is made to simulate the common sense reasoning of a human being (e.g. a reference librarian) when (s)he is asked to provide references on selected subjects. Collins and Michalski developed a theory of plausible reasoning for question-answering situations, we modify their theory to accommodate information retrieval. Methods are proposed to represent document contents by logical terms and statements, and queries by incomplete logical statements. Extensions to plausible inferences are discussed and examples of reference retrieval using these extensions are given. Several relationships namely, Broader-Narrower, ISA, X, Y, REF, AUTH and CITE, are defined. Some techniques are developed to extract these relationships from text. Methods of converting these relationships to forms suitable for reasoning, such as logical terms, statements and mutual dependencies, are proposed.
Two versions of the extended plausible reasoning system were implemented, one using dominance weights as described in detail in this dissertation and the other using tf.idf (Term Frequency Inverse Document Frequency) weights. A vector space retrieval system was also implemented for purposes of comparison. Experiments were conducted using the titles and abstracts of the CACM collection. Each item in the collection was scanned for REF, X, Y and Broader-Narrower relationships, and the extracted relations were stored in a semantic network. A standard set of queries was posed against this corpus by each system. Using the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test of statistical significance to determine the significance of the results, it was found that both versions of the extended system are better than the vector space model and the system using dominance weights performed better than the system with tf.idf weights.
Our plausible reasoning techniques seem to be more general and more robust than other logics applied to information retrieval. This was further investigated by using plausible inferences to simulate the behavior of several well-known retrieval models. It is thereby demonstrated that plausible reasoning as a formalism encompasses retrieval models such as semantic networks using spreading activation inferences like GRANT or I$\sp3$R, all logic-based IR systems including the Boolean model and Van Rijsbergen's conditional logic, mathematical models like the vector space model, and Thomas, a cognitive approach to information retrieval.


Electric log, core, and optical petrographic analysis of a metamorphosed and deformed PreCambrian-aged rhyolite effusive event identified 2 litho-facies and effected characterization of the rock deformation. Single-point resistance (SPR) and spontaneous potential (SP) electric logs identified the ubiquitous clay seams and localized dikes. The igneous/metamorphic rocks had naturally elevated gamma emissions; consequently, natural gamma (NG) logging was useless in the identification of clay seams. However, NG logs proved useful in the identification of dikes, which had readings of less than 150 cps. The SPR/SP suite also identified intrusive black zones, characterized as martite by thin section analysis, within the rhyolite. Acoustic televiewer (AT) logs identified a conjugate shear fracture set with the main fracture set bearing a strike of N35W and dip 80NW or SE. The minor fracture set trends N35E and dips 80NE or SW. Thirty percent of the fractures logged are horizontal suggesting a vertically upward stress relief consistent with granite emplacement. Porous zones within the rhyolite porphyry and contiguous with fractures appear to be the result of subsurface potassium feldspar phenocryst weathering and erosion. These zones are invisible to SPR, SP, and NG tools. Much of the feldspars within the rhyolite porphyry show weathering to kaolinite. Erosion and mobilization of the kaolinite is putatively considered to be the causative agent for the deposition of clay in the horizontal fracture sets.


Prompt learning approaches have made waves in natural language processing by inducing better few-shot performance while they still follow a parametric-based learning paradigm; the oblivion and rote memorization problems in learning may encounter unstable generalization issues. Specifically, vanilla prompt learning may struggle to utilize atypical instances by rote during fully-supervised training or overfit shallow patterns with low-shot data. To alleviate such limitations, we develop RetroPrompt with the motivation of decoupling knowledge from memorization to help the model strike a balance between generalization and memorization. In contrast with vanilla prompt learning, RetroPrompt constructs an open-book knowledge-store from training instances and implements a retrieval mechanism during the process of input, training and inference, thus equipping the model with the ability to retrieve related contexts from the training corpus as cues for enhancement. Extensive experiments demonstrate that RetroPrompt can obtain better performance in both few-shot and zero-shot settings. Besides, we further illustrate that our proposed RetroPrompt can yield better generalization abilities with new datasets. Detailed analysis of memorization indeed reveals RetroPrompt can reduce the reliance of language models on memorization; thus, improving generalization for downstream tasks. Code is available in https://github.com/zjunlp/PromptKG/tree/main/research/RetroPrompt.


Since 2004 the Educational Department of Taipei City Government has been annually holding an English policy debate contest, called the Taipei High School Cicero English Debate Tournament. Because of this interscholastic event, the long neglect of debate as a pivotal pedagogical vehicle in high school English curriculums in Taiwan may finally stand a chance for change. While the competition warrants applause for its intended goals, it is unclear to what extent the participants of this competitive event, which was in its fifth year of existence, had grasped the spirit and essence of a competitive English policy debate. To answer that question, a content analysis was applied to eight debate matches randomly selected from the 2007 Cicero Debate Tournament with a focus on the contentions in debate speeches and questioning and responding strategies and techniques in cross-examinations. It was found that (a) affirmative and negative contentions were not constructed or clearly phrased around the stock issues of a policy debate, (b) contentions were not supported by evidence and thus were merely assertions, (c) the evidence cited did not speak cogently for the contention and its citation was incomplete, (d) appropriate and concise debate language was missing, and (e) cross-examination was misused or ineffectively executed. All these flaws or inadequacies suggest a lack of comprehensive understanding by the participants (debaters and coaches alike) about the nature and basic requirements of an English policy debate.