Biolistic-mediated transformation is an approach to transfer a gene of interest into a plant cell using particle bombardment method. Tissue culture experiment was conducted to optimize shoot regeneration from cotyledon explant of 7 day-old seedlings I. balsamina. The maximum average number of shoots (6.8 ± 1.05 shoots) per explant was obtained on full strength MS-based medium containing 1 mg/L BAP after three weeks of culture. For rooting induction, there was no significant difference on percentage of root regeneration on full strength (84%-94%) and half strength MS–based medium (78%-96%) supplemented with IAA (0.1 - 1mg/L), IBA (0.5 - 2 mg/L) and NAA (0.1 - 1 mg/L) after two weeks of culture. Plantlets were successfully produced on full strength MS plates supplemented with 1 mg/L BAP (93%) for shooting and half strength MS media supplemented with 0.1 mg/L IAA (92%) for rooting in eight-week culture. Biolistic technique was used for the transformation of uidA and hph genes into I. balsamina. The 7 day- old cotyledons explants were bombarded with pRQ6 containing uidA gene encode for s-glucuronidase (GUS) and hph gene conferring resistance to hygromycin and co-transformation was carried out using pRQ6 with pAHG11 (contain bar gene conferring resistance to herbicide Basta). The physical and biological factors of bombardment such as target distance (6 - 12 cm), helium pressure (650 - 1100 psi), number of bombardments (once and twice), DNA concentrations (0.5 - 1.5µg), preculture times (4 - 32h), osmotic treatments using mannitol , sorbitol and combination of mannitol and sorbitol at 0.2 M, 0.4 M and 0.6 M and post-bombardment incubation times (4 - 48 h) were optimized. Transformation of I. balsamina with pRQ6 and cotransformed with pRQ6 and pAHG11 at 28 mm Hg vacuum using optimized bombardment conditions (9 cm target distance, 1100 psi helium pressure, one time bombardment, 1.0 µg DNA, 16 h pre-culture time with osmotic treatment of 0.4 M mannitol and sorbitol and 24 h post-bombardment incubation time) showed the highest average number of GUS spots of 149.3 and 128.1, respectively. Delay selection method was used to delay the timing of selection on shooted explants after bombardment to obtain transformed plants. Out of 160 bombarded explants with pRQ6, only 84 plants were successfully regenerated from selected 35-day old shooted explants after five weeks grown on MS –based medium containing 75 mg/L hygromycin. All regenerated plants (84 plants) were GUS positive. However, there was no plant regenerated on MSbased medium containing 1 mg/L phosphinothricin (PPT) after co-transformed with pRQ6 and pAHG11. Furthermore, PCR results showed only 14 of 40 GUS positive plants survived at 75 mg/L hygromycin were hph gene positive. In conclusion, the PCR results also showed the possibility integration of hph gene into the genomic DNA of transformed plants.


Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides (Walbaum)) are widely distributed over wide geographic areas of the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, with no break in the continuity of the distribution from the arctic Frans Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya archipelagos in the north and east to beyond the boreal Shetland Islands in the south. Although the entire Greenland halibut resource in the North Atlantic is genetically homogeneous, they comprise a single interbreeding stock in the Barents Sea and Norwegian Sea areas, which is known as the Northeast Arctic stock. In general, and for most of the year, larger fish become more abundant and smaller fish less abundant in progressively deeper water with peak abundance occurring over a depth range of 400-1 000 m. But during the spring and summer, the mature and bigger fish may be shallower. Greenland halibut in the Northeast Atlantic were observed to be most abundant in bottom temperatures mainly between 0o C and 4o C. The fishery for Greenland halibut in the Northeast Arctic was unregulated until 1992, although since 1995 catches have substantially exceeded those advised. The spawning stock size reached historically low levels during the 1990s and recruitment to the spawning stock remained uncertain. The stock is now showing clear signs of improvement, and is at present rebuilt to above the long-term average of the past 20 years.


This essay responds to Professor Fenster's article in the Iowa Law Review, Disclosure's Effects: WikiLeaks and Transparency, assessing the effects of the recent WikiLeaks disclosures. The essay agrees with many of Professor Fenster's conclusions regarding the promise and peril of those disclosures, especially his concern regarding the problematic balancing approaches used to assess the likely impact when confidential information is revealed. It specifically elaborates on courts' current application of the Espionage Act, a criminal law likely to be applied to the WikiLeaks disclosures, and the implications of that deferential application for WikiLeaks, Julian Assange and journalists in general.


Objective: Glaucoma is the second popular blinding disease worldwide, and is mainly caused by abnormal function or structure of trabecular meshwork and consequent aqueous humor effluent dysfunction, ocular hypertension, leading to vision deficit. eNOS and CAV1 might be correlated with glaucoma onset. This study thus investigated their expression in trabecular meshwork cells and effects on glaucoma pathogenesis.
Patients and Methods: Trabecular meshwork tissues were collected during surgery from POAG patients, and eNOS/CAV1 gene expressions were analyzed by qRT-PCR and Western-Blot. eNOS and CAV1 genes were over-expressed in cultured HTMC cells, whose survival rate was analyzed by MTT assay, whilst cell free radicals clearance rate was analyzed by chemiluminescence method.
Results: HE staining revealed significant pigment deposition in trabecular meshwork of POAG patients compared to normal group, accompanied with stenosis of mesh. Expression levels of eNOS and CAV1 were significantly higher in POAG group (p<0.05 compared to healthy control group). In vitro overexpression of eNOS and CAV1 significantly suppressed cell survival rate and free radical clearance rate (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Trabecular meshwork cells in glaucoma patients showed elevated eNOS and CAV1 expression. Up-regulation of eNOS expression may suppress cell survival rate at cellular level, impaired ability to clear free radicals, eventually leading to cell or tissue damage.


As urban planning moves from a centralized, top-down approach to a decentralized, bottom-up perspective, our conception of urban systems is changing. In Cities and Complexity, Michael Batty offers a comprehensive view of urban dynamics in the context of complexity theory, presenting models that demonstrate how complexity theory can embrace a myriad of processes and elements that combine into organic wholes. He argues that bottom-up processesin which the outcomes are always uncertaincan combine with new forms of geometry associated with fractal patterns and chaotic dynamics to provide theories that are applicable to highly complex systems such as cities. Batty begins with models based on cellular automata (CA), simulating urban dynamics through the local actions of automata. He then introduces agent-based models (ABM), in which agents are mobile and move between locations. These models relate to many scales, from the scale of the street to patterns and structure at the scale of the urban region. Finally, Batty develops applications of all these models to specific urban situations, discussing concepts of criticality, threshold, surprise, novelty, and phase transition in the context of spatial developments. Every theory and model presented in the book is developed through examples that range from the simplified and hypothetical to the actual. Deploying extensive visual, mathematical, and textual material, Cities and Complexity will be read both by urban researchers and by complexity theorists with an interest in new kinds of computational models. Sample chapters and examples from the book, and other related material, can be found at http://www.complexcity.info.


Mutant IDH1 coexpressed with inactivating TP53 and ATRX mutations in glioma enhances DNA repair, causing resistance to genotoxic therapies. Linking glioma metabolism and DNA repair Mutations in isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) are frequently found in gliomas and are associated with better outcomes. Núñez et al. discovered that, in addition to its roles in metabolism and epigenetics, mutant IDH1 also helps maintain genomic stability in tumors by enhancing the DNA damage response. This finding helps explain why patients with IDH1-mutant tumors have better survival despite their tumors being less sensitive to radiation than other gliomas. The authors also examined the mechanism for this phenomenon in mouse models and demonstrated that pharmacological inhibition of the DNA damage response sensitizes IDH1-mutant tumors to radiation, suggesting a potential direction for further therapeutic advances. Patients with glioma whose tumors carry a mutation in isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1R132H) are younger at diagnosis and live longer. IDH1 mutations co-occur with other molecular lesions, such as 1p/19q codeletion, inactivating mutations in the tumor suppressor protein 53 (TP53) gene, and loss-of-function mutations in alpha thalassemia/mental retardation syndrome X-linked gene (ATRX). All adult low-grade gliomas (LGGs) harboring ATRX loss also express the IDH1R132H mutation. The current molecular classification of LGGs is based, partly, on the distribution of these mutations. We developed a genetically engineered mouse model harboring IDH1R132H, TP53 and ATRX inactivating mutations, and activated NRAS G12V. Previously, we established that ATRX deficiency, in the context of wild-type IDH1, induces genomic instability, impairs nonhomologous end-joining DNA repair, and increases sensitivity to DNA-damaging therapies. In this study, using our mouse model and primary patient-derived glioma cultures with IDH1 mutations, we investigated the function of IDH1R132H in the context of TP53 and ATRX loss. We discovered that IDH1R132H expression in the genetic context of ATRX and TP53 gene inactivation (i) increases median survival in the absence of treatment, (ii) enhances DNA damage response (DDR) via epigenetic up-regulation of the ataxia-telangiectasia–mutated (ATM) signaling pathway, and (iii) elicits tumor radioresistance. Accordingly, pharmacological inhibition of ATM or checkpoint kinases 1 and 2, essential kinases in the DDR, restored the tumors' radiosensitivity. Translation of these findings to patients with IDH1132H glioma harboring TP53 and ATRX loss could improve the therapeutic efficacy of radiotherapy and, consequently, patient survival.


Introduction: Clinical education plays an important role in medical education, in which students learn new skills and obtain knowledge of their usage in patients. Log book, as an evaluation tool, can be used to improve the clinical education levels as well as educational planning and evaluation process. Since there is no study about the usage of log book in clinical education of physiotherapy students in Iran, and due to the incomplete studies on log book usage in other disciplines, our study aimed at using log book in clinical education of physiotherapy students with the emphasis on the content of log book. Methods: Twenty four undergraduate semester 7 physiotherapy students, who have already experienced the routine clinical education, were selected using convenience sampling. The students were allocated randomly into 4 clinical education centers affiliated with the Faculty of Rehabilitation. They were educated and evaluated for the whole semester by using log book. A valid and reliable written questioner in different educational domain was used for analysis. Results: In this preliminary study, our finding following the intervention (log book) demonstrated descriptively. The study results showed that among 23 analyzed educational items, the students' most satisfactions by using log book obtained from the education of physiotherapy recording manner, documentation of experience and their possible comparison in different semesters, improvement of self-evaluation spirit, and systematic recording of educational tasks. Conclusion: Log book in clinical education of physiotherapy students can be used as an effective tool in improvement of the quality of clinical education.


Plasma engineering applies the unique properties of plasmas (ionized gases) to improve processes and performance over many fields, such as materials processing, spacecraft propulsion, and nanofabrication. Plasma Engineering considers this rapidly expanding discipline from a unified standpoint, addressing fundamentals of physics and modeling as well as new real-word applications in aerospace, nanotechnology, and bioengineering. The book starts by reviewing plasma particle collisions, waves, and instabilities, and proceeds to diagnostic tools, such as planar, spherical, and emissive probes, and the electrostatic analyzer, interferometric technique, and plasma spectroscopy. The physics of different types of electrical discharges are considered, including the classical Townsend mechanism of gas electrical breakdown and the Paschen law. Basic approaches and theoretical methodologies for plasma modeling are described, based on the fluid description of plasma solving numerically magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations and the kinetic model particle techniques that take into account kinetic interactions among particles and electromagnetic fields. Readers are then introduced to the widest variety of applications in any text on the market. Space propulsion applications such as the Hall thruster, pulsed plasma thrusters, and microthruster are explained. Application of low-temperature plasmas in nanoscience and nanotechnology, another frontier in plasma physics, is covered, including plasma-based techniques for carbon-based nanoparticle synthesis (e.g., fundamental building blocks like single-walled carbon nanotubes and graphene). Plasma medicine, an emerging field studying plasmas for therapeutic applications, is examined as well. The latest original results on cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) applications in medicine are presented, with a focus on the therapeutic potential of CAP with a in selective tumor cell eradication and signaling pathway deregulation. * The first textbook that addresses plasma engineering in the aerospace, nanotechnology, and bioengineering fields from a unified standpoint* Includes a large number of worked examples, end of chapter exercises, and historical perspectives* Accompanying plasma simulation software covering the Particle in Cell (PIC) approach, available at http://www.particleincell.com/blog/2011/particle-in-cell-example/


Increasing numbers of women have gained entry into the arena of representative politics in recent times. Yet the extent to which shifts in the sex ratio within formal democratic spaces translates into political influence, and into gains in policies that redress gendered inequities and inequalities remains uncertain. At the same time, a plethora of new democratic spaces have been created – whether through the promotion of 'civil society organizations' or the institutionalization of participatory governance mechanisms – which hold the prospect of democratizing other political spaces beyond those of formal politics. This study examines factors that constrain and enable women's political effectiveness in these different democratic arenas. We suggest that 'engendering democracy' by adding women or multiplying democratic spaces is necessary but not sufficient to address historically and culturally embedded forms of disadvantage that have been the focus for feminist politics. We suggest that an important, but neglected, determinant of political effectiveness is women's political apprenticeship –their experiences in political parties, civil society associations and the informal arenas in which political skills are learned and constituencies built. Enhancing the democratizing potential of women's political participation calls, we argue, for democratizing democracy itself: building new pathways into politics, fostering political learning and creating new forms of articulation across and beyond existing democratic spaces.


The work presented as part of this dissertation is primarily motivated by a randomized trial for HIV serodiscordant couples. Specifically, the Multisite HIV/STD Prevention Trial for African American Couples is a behavioral modification trial for African American, heterosexual, HIV discordant couples. In this trial, investigators developed and evaluated a couple-based behavioral intervention for reducing risky shared sexual behaviors and collected retrospective outcomes from both partners at baseline and at 3 follow-ups to evaluate the intervention efficacy. As the outcomes refer to the couples' shared sexual behavior, couples' responses are expected to be correlated, and modeling approaches should account for multiple sources of correlation: within-individual over time as well as within-couple both at the same measurement time and at different times. This dissertation details the novel application copulas to modeling dyadic, longitudinal binary data to estimate reliability and efficacy. Copulas have long been analytic tools for modeling multivariate outcomes in other settings. Particularly, we selected a mixture of max-infinitely divisible (max-id) copula because it has a number of attractive analytic features. The dissertation is arranged as follows: Chapter 2 presents a copula-based approach in estimating the reliability of couple self-reported (baseline) outcomes, adjusting for key couple-level baseline covariates; Chapter 3 presents an extension of the max-id copula to model longitudinal (two measurement occasions), binary couples data; Chapter 4 further extends the copula-based model to accommodate more than two repeated measures in a different application examining two clinical depression measures. In this application, we are interested in estimating whether there are differential treatment effects on two different measures of depression, longitudinally. The copula-based modeling approach presented in this dissertation provides a useful tool for investigating complex dependence structures among multivariate outcomes as well as examining covariate effects on the marginal distribution for each outcome. The application of existing statistical methodology to longitudinal, dyad-based trials is an important translational advancement. The methods presented here are easily applied to other studies that involve multivariate outcomes measured repeatedly. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Epidemiology & Biostatistics First Advisor Scarlett L. Bellamy Second Advisor Andrea B. Troxel This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1564


This article discusses the enforcement of local and foreign arbitral awards in the courts of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The article explains the procedures required to give executory force to local arbitral awards according to the Bahraini Civil and Commercial Procedures Law. It also describes enforcement of awards under the Arbitration Procedural Rules of the GCC Commercial Arbitration Centre and the Bahrain Chamber for Dispute Resolution. As to the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards, the article outlines the standards and procedures for recognition and enforcement according to the New York Convention of 1958.


Background and motivation

Building industry impacts natural cycles and has potential for optimization. While impairment on nature reached a new dimension already some three centuries ago the building industry started to realize the dependency in the second half of the 20th century. With LCA method all life cycle phases can be monitored and the environmental impact of each can be quantified. The energy consuming and emission generating components in the building context can be distinguished in the groups transport, operation and material. An architect deals with the operational energy and the building substance. With nearly zero (not renewable) energy for operation an ecological building is defined by the building substance.

Evaluation of the building substance

While the building structure accounts for the highest share of embodied energy and GWP, the facade offers high potential for optimisation. This potential is even higher when considering a long (50-100 years) usage life span; the building structure remains while the (non load-bearing) facade is object to exchange cycles.

Findings and their integration into the architectural planning process

The city is a depot for resources and we (it involves a variety of professions) need to learn how to organize it. Modularity, light construction, the use of renewable materials and mono materials are also interesting fields which are looked at from a different point of view. They are relevant for all building elements. Although they are not initially invented to reduce the ecological impact of the built environment, they show potential to do so. The facade is the essential parameter for the resource-efficiency of a building as it is exchanged and binds relevant amounts of material. Impact can be made within this element due to its high variation in construction and materialization. The material cycles need to become smaller and the gaps – landfill or downcycling need to be closed. The use of resources will increasingly develop impact on architecture and by that resource efficiency is a successor of energy efficiency.


As we approach the end of the 20th century, the United States is faced with a unique opportunity to eliminate syphilis within its borders. Syphilis is easy to detect and cure, given adequate access to and utilization of care. Nationally, it is at the lowest rate ever recorded and it is confined to a very limited number of geographic areas. The last epidemic peaked in 1990, with the highest syphilis rate in 40 years. By 1998, the number of cases had declined by 86 percent. Although the national syphilis rate has declined to historic lows, syphilis remains a severe public health problem in a small number of U.S. counties. In 1998, over 50% of infectious (primary and secondary or P&S) syphilis cases were reported from only 28 (<1%) U.S. counties, the majority of which are in the South. In addition, where syphilis does persist in the U.S., it disproportionately affects African Americans living in poverty. Although the Black:White ratio for reported syphilis rates has decreased by almost one-half since the early 1990s, the 1998 P&S syphilis rate for non-Hispanic Blacks was still 34 times greater than that for non-Hispanic whites. Elimination of syphilis would have far-reaching public health implications because it would remove two devastating consequences of the disease—increased likelihood of HIV transmission and compromised ability to have healthy babies due to spontaneous abortions, still-births, and congenital syphilis acquired from mothers with syphilis. In addition, more than $996 million is spent annually as a result of syphilis. Eliminating syphilis in the United States would be a landmark achievement because it would remove these direct health burdens, and it would significantly decrease one of this Nation's most glaring racial disparities in health. The persistence of high rates of syphilis in the United States is a sentinel event identifying communities in which there is a fundamental failure of basic public Executive Summary health capacity to control infectious diseases and ensure reproductive health. In these areas, syphilis elimination will be the leading edge of a broader effort to begin rebuilding this capacity. Based on the repeatedly observed seven-to ten-year syphilis cycle, there is currently a narrow window of opportunity to eliminate this disease while cases are still on the decline. At the national level, syphilis elimination is defined as the absence of sustained transmission in the United States. At the local level, syphilis elimination is defined as the absence of transmission of new …


When legal language and the effects of public intervention are indeterminate, generalist lawmakers (legislatures, courts, top-level administrators) often rely on the normative output of contextualizing regimes - institutions that structure deliberative engagement by stakeholders and articulate the resulting understanding. Examples include the familiar practices of delegation and deference to administrative agencies in public law and to trade associations in private law. We argue that resorting to contextualizing regimesis becoming increasingly common across a broad range of issues and that the structure of emerging regimes is evolving away from the well studied agency and trade association examples. The newer regimes mix public and private participation in novel ways. Their structures are less hierarchical than those of traditional administrative agencies and less clearly bounded than those of traditional trade associations. While the traditional regimes function to make solutions developed in more specialized realms available to generalist lawmakers, the newer ones function to organize collaborative inquiry where neither specialists nor generalists have well-developed understandings of problems or solutions. We explore the structure of such regimes and their relation to generalist lawmakers through three examples - a health and safety regime that straddles private and public law (the California Leafy Greens Products Handler Marketing Agreement), a civil rights regime (the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative), and an international environmental regime (the Dolphin Conservation Program of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission).


Periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) has, in recent years, become a very useful and prominent material for use in optical parametric oscillators (OPO's) and other nonlinear optical devices. In synchronously pumped OPO's, the combination of high peak power from short pulse cw modelocked lasers and the large nonlinearity of PPLN, allows a very large parametric gain to be achieved. This, in turn, allows the use of convenient tuning elements, such as diffraction gratings, whose loss would be unacceptable for low gain cw devices. The strong frequency discrimination, of diffraction gratings, allows operation close to degeneracy, while still maintaining singly resonant operation (SRO). The attraction of operating around degeneracy is that due to the large parametric gain bandwidth, a broad tuning range can be conveniently achieved, without the need to change the temperature or the grating period of the PPLN. The standard approach for achieving singly resonant operation, by using resonator mirrors whose reflectivity discriminates against the idler wave, precludes reliable operation around degeneracy due to insufficient frequency discrimination. The diffraction grating in place of one of the mirrors overcomes this problem. In this paper we report on results obtained by equipping a PPLN OPO, pumped by a 4ps, 120MHz Nd:YLF laser at 1047nm, with a diffraction grating as one of its reflectors. A 20mm long PPLN crystal, with a grating period of 30.4 µm, held at a fixed temperature of 190 °C, was used to obtain a tuning range of 1900 - 2300nm, simply by tilting the diffraction grating. Fig. 1 shows this tuning behaviour. The good beam quality of the signal is confirmed by a measured M2 of 1.16. A measurement of the spectral width and pulse duration (via extra-cavity SHG auto-correlation) gives a time-bandwidth-product of 0.46.


Network worms are a clear and growing threat to the security of today's Internet-connected hosts and networks. The combination of the Internet's unrestricted connectivity and widespread software homogeneity allows network pathogens to exploit tremendous parallelism in their propagation. In fact, modern worms can spread so quickly, and so widely, that no human-mediated reaction can hope to contain an outbreak.

In this paper, we propose an automated approach for quickly detecting previously unknown worms and viruses based on two key behavioral characteristics - a common exploit sequence together with a range of unique sources generating infections and destinations being targeted. More importantly, our approach - called "content sifting" - automatically generates precise signatures that can then be used to filter or moderate the spread of the worm elsewhere in the network.

Using a combination of existing and novel algorithms we have developed a scalable content sifting implementation with low memory and CPU requirements. Over months of active use at UCSD, our Earlybird prototype system has automatically detected and generated signatures for all pathogens known to be active on our network as well as for several new worms and viruses which were unknown at the time our system identified them. Our initial experience suggests that, for a wide range of network pathogens, it may be practical to construct fully automated defenses - even against so-called "zero-day" epidemics.


In recent years, there has been a significant increase in cloud computing, networking, virtualization, and storage applications, leading to an increase in demand for high-performance servers. The increase in performance demands is currently being met by increasing CPU and GPU power densities that require more efficient cooling technologies as compared to air traditional cooling methods. Cold plate-based liquid cooling in air-cooled servers enables efficient thermal management with minimal changes to existing air-cooling infrastructure. In a hybrid cooled server, the demand for air cooling is reduced as the primary heat-generating components are indirectly cooled by cold plates. In this study, experiments are performed with optimized chassis of a hybrid cooled Cisco C220 server. The chassis design is optimized to improve the airflow by providing additional vents on the chassis to allow more low-temperature airflow rather than the heated airflow approaching from the drive bay. Also, the design of the heat sink baffle is improved which allows a more streamlined flow to approach the heat sinks. This is done by designing and manufacturing a new 3-D printed baffle. This optimized baffle design helps in reducing the pressure drop across the system hence helping in the reduction of fan speeds and reducing the fan power consumption. Results are generated by iterating the fan speed and inlet temperature of air and comparing them with the baseline design of the server. Conclusions are made on the reduction in fan power due to the improved chassis design and any reduction in temperatures of air-cooled components.


Paper given at a conference organised by the Centre for Metropolitan History and supported by the Economic and Social Research Council, 7 July 1999


Objectives:During cardiopulmonary resuscitation, adequate coronary perfusion pressure is essential for establishing return of spontaneous circulation. Current American Heart Association guidelines recommend standardized interval administration of epinephrine for patients in cardiac arrest. The objective of this study was to compare short-term survival using a hemodynamic directed resuscitation strategy versus chest compression depth-directed cardiopulmonary resuscitation in a porcine model of cardiac arrest. Design:Randomized interventional study. Setting:Preclinical animal laboratory. Subjects:Twenty-four 3-month-old female swine. Interventions:After 7 minutes of ventricular fibrillation, pigs were randomized to receive one of three resuscitation strategies: 1) Hemodynamic directed care (coronary perfusion pressure-20): chest compressions with depth titrated to a target systolic blood pressure of 100 mm Hg and titration of vasopressors to maintain coronary perfusion pressure greater than 20 mm Hg; 2) Depth 33 mm: target chest compression depth of 33 mm with standard American Heart Association epinephrine dosing; or 3) Depth 51 mm: target chest compression depth of 51 mm with standard American Heart Association epinephrine dosing. All animals received manual cardiopulmonary resuscitation guided by audiovisual feedback for 10 minutes before first shock. Measurements and Main Results:Forty-five–minute survival was higher in the coronary perfusion pressure-20 group (8 of 8) compared to depth 33 mm (1 of 8) or depth 51 mm (3 of 8) groups; p equals to 0.002. Coronary perfusion pressures were higher in the coronary perfusion pressure-20 group compared to depth 33 mm (p = 0.004) and depth 51 mm (p = 0.006) and in survivors compared to nonsurvivors (p < 0.01). Total epinephrine dosing and defibrillation attempts were not different. Conclusions:Hemodynamic directed resuscitation targeting coronary perfusion pressures greater than 20 mm Hg during 10 minutes of cardiopulmonary resuscitation for ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrest improves short-term survival, when compared to resuscitation with depth of compressions guided to 33 mm or 51 mm and standard American Heart Association vasopressor dosing.


The proportions of T cell subsets and Leu 7+ cells and the spontaneous cell-mediated cytotoxicity (SCMC) of isolated mononuclear cells have been determined across the mesenteric vascular bed and along the intestinal mucosal-mesenteric lymph node (MLN) axis in patients undergoing abdominal surgery. Whereas the proportion of T4+ and T8+ cells were similar in simultaneously taken PVB and mesenteric venous blood (MVB), the proportion of Leu 7+ cells was higher in MVB in 16 of 17 studies (15.4 +/- 6.8%, 10.8 +/- 5.1%). Additional studies showed that the proportions of lymphocyte subsets in peripheral arterial blood are the same as those in PVB. Thus, an enrichment of Leu 7+ cells occurs across the mesenteric vascular bed. Isolated intestinal and MLN mononuclear cells contained similarly high proportions of T4+ and T8+ cells as in PVB but Leu 7+ cells made up a minority subpopulation in intestinal (1.3 +/- 0.8%) and MLN mononuclear cells (1.0 +/- 0.9%). The SCMC of intestinal and MLN mononuclear cells was low and paralleled the proportion of Leu 7+ cells. Despite the higher proportions of Leu 7+ cells in MVB, the SCMC was less than that of PVB in eight patients with inflamed intestine and not significantly different from PVB in seven patients with normal intestines. These paradoxical findings were at least in part due to inhibitory factors in mesenteric plasma. In conclusion, NK cells appear to be largely confined within the vascular system and the enrichment of Leu 7+ cells across the mesenteric vascular bed suggests that this compartmentalization may be due to differences in the traffic of lymphocyte subpopulations through the intestinal mucosa and MLN.


This paper tries to explore the evolution of luxury consumption or prestige seeking consumption behavior. While it upholds the luxury consumption in the Indian context, citing the statistical growth of the 'the rich class' it rationalizes the origin of such indulgence. It also tries to project the significant change sweeping the Indian society that has turned conspicuously consumerist unlike the past when display of wealth was shunned at. The paper unearths the origin of luxury consumption through sociology and anthropology and tries to explain the cultural factors underlying luxury consumption. INTRODUCTION As a result of the spectacular growth of luxury markets over the past 10 years, the marketing literature has recently seen substantial interest in the study of prestige brands. Yet very little is known about how to best market prestige brands. Research conducted by Powderly and Mac Nulty (1990) anticipated important social changes as the year 2000 neared. Their research identified that people's needs for appearances and materialism were increasing. That is they recognized an increasing demand for conspicuous and status products. Evidences of launch of MBA programs specialized in luxury marketing (e.g., ESSEC, Paris) are a few. A review and attempt to reconcile the accounts from the literature of economics, marketing and psychology, show a general lack of consensus relating to the definition of luxury. The concept of 'luxury' in different discipline may have specific definition(s). Marketing textbooks suggest the concept of luxury when an organization is planning to position a product as high quality or exclusive; "prestige pricing is setting a rather high price to suggest high quality or high status" (Mc Carthy and Perreault, 1987, p. 506). Finally, social psychologists have long been using the concept of luxury to study the effect of group forces on the formation and change of opinions and attitudes (e.g., Lorge, 1936; and Asch, 1948). Early research on the topic of luxury started in the last century from the work of Rae (1834), Veblen (1899) and Keasbey (1903). Wong and Ahuvia (1998) conceptualized Asia's rising significance as the market for luxury and prestige brands compared to the West. Their articles examined the cultural factors that lie behind the 'luxury' phenomenon based on distinctions between Southeast Asian and Western cultures. UNDERSTANDING THE INDIAN LUXURY MARKET India's luxury market is still small, an estimation of $100 mn at best as on 2007 (Chadha and Husband, 2007). In a near virgin market, the rewards are almost instant - research conducted by the Foreign Investors' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) found that Louis Vuitton was the most prestigious accessory brand, while Armani topped the charts in apparel category. As signs of the times, the World Luxury Council has opened an Indian operation. In terms of the spread of Luxury Model, India is at the threshold, the emerging middle class is aspiring for quality of life, while a small elite segment indulges in luxury brands. This segment has been acquiring luxury goods internationally, and hence, they are the first customers of luxury brands in India. While India may be the next China in terms of market size, the forces shaping its development are quite different. If China's starting point was a slate wiped clean by Mao, India's chalk board is covered by myriad of traditions, religious beliefs and colorful festivals. India's multi-tiered consuming classes are mostly poor but income levels are improving. In time, the poor are becoming poorer. The rich are getting richer, as well as increasing in number, but they will continue to remain in minority. The myth of the Great India Middle Class - that large mass of homogenous consumers with growing incomes, who are supposed to form the mainstay of consumer India - has been exploded. The texture of India's population of approximately 1.17 billion people (as on July, 2009) , in many shades and grades of affluence and price-value orientation. …


Muscular arteries possess the ability to control actively their lumen by altering the tone of the smooth muscle cells of the arterial wall, a property which is vital for a large number of the hemodynamical functions of the body. Arterial contraction is due to an increase in the smooth muscle cytosolic calcium concentration. Abnormalities in the contractile mechanisms of arteries contribute to a variety of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension. The understanding of the mechanisms of vascular smooth muscle functions can therefore contribute to a better diagnosis and treatment of such diseases. Muscular arteries, arterioles and capillaries display also slow rhythmic diameter variations, called vasomotion, independent on other rhythms in the body (cardiac, respiratory, circadian). It is well established that vasomotion is due to the contractile activity of vascular smooth muscle cells, but its underlying mechanisms are not well understood. The aim of the present thesis is to develop a theoretical model to get a better understanding of vasomotion in muscular arteries and arterioles. Many experimental studies have shown that arterial smooth muscle cells respond with cytosolic calcium rises to stimulation by substances causing arterial contraction (vasoconstrictors). A low vasoconstrictor concentration gives rise to asynchronous "all or none" calcium rises (calcium flashes) in few cells. With a higher vasoconstrictor concentration, the number of smooth muscle cells responding in this way increases (recruitment). When all cells are recruited, synchronous calcium oscillations are observed that generate arterial contraction and vasomotion. We show that these phenomena of recruitment and synchronization naturally emerge from a theoretical model of a population of smooth muscle cells coupled through their gap junctions. The effects of electrical, calcium and inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate couplings are studied. In our model, the asynchronous calcium flashes arise from stochastic opening of channels. The calcium oscillations result from a dynamic system instability and can be synchronized by gap junctional coupling. Our model is validated by published in vitro experiments obtained on rat mesenteric arterial segments. Several experimental studies report that cells presenting only a transient calcium increase when freshly dispersed may present calcium oscillations when they are coupled. Such observations suggest that the role of gap junctions is not only to coordinate calcium oscillations of adjacent cells. Gap junctions may also be important to generate oscillations. To address this point, we study in more detail the properties of electrically coupled smooth muscle cells. We show that the effect of electrical coupling may not only be to synchronize the calcium oscillations in smooth muscle cells, as intuitively expected. A bifurcation analysis in the case of two cells reveals that electrical coupling can cause the calcium oscillations to be synchronous or asynchronous. In a larger population of smooth muscle cells, electrical coupling may result in the formation of groups of cells presenting synchronous calcium oscillations. The elements of one group may be distant from each other. Moreover, our results highlight a general mechanism by which gap junctional electrical coupling can give rise to out of phase calcium oscillations in smooth muscle cells that are non oscillating when uncoupled. Even though it is now established that vasomotion is induced by synchronous calcium oscillations of smooth muscle cells, the role of the endothelium for vasomotion is still unclear and controversial. Some experimental studies claim that the endothelium is necessary for synchronization and vasomotion, whereas others report rhythmic diameter oscillations in absence of endothelium. Moreover, endothelium derived factors have been shown to abolish vasomotion by desynchronizing the calcium signals in smooth muscle cells. By modeling the calcium dynamics of a population of smooth muscle cells coupled to a population of endothelial cells, we analyze the effects of a smooth muscle vasoconstrictor stimulation on endothelial cells and the feedback effects of endothelium derived factors. Our results show that the endothelium essentially decreases the calcium level in smooth muscle cells and may move these cells from a steady state to an oscillatory domain, and vice versa. In the oscillatory domain, a population of coupled smooth muscle cells exhibits synchronous calcium oscillations. Outside this domain, the coupled smooth muscle cells present only irregular calcium flashes. Our findings provide explanations for the published contradictory experimental observations. Smooth muscle and endothelial cells in the arterial wall are exposed to mechanical stress. Indeed, blood flow induces intraluminal pressure variations and shear stress. An increase in pressure may induce a vessel contraction, a phenomenon known as the myogenic response. Vasomotion has also been shown to be modulated by pressure changes. To get a better understanding of the effect of stress and in particular pressure on vasomotion, we propose a model of a blood vessel describing the calcium dynamics in a coupled population of smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells and the consequent vessel diameter variations. We show that a rise in pressure increases the calcium concentration. This may either induce or abolish vasomotion, or increase its frequency depending on the initial conditions. In our model the myogenic response is less pronounced for large arteries than for small arteries and occurs at higher values of pressure if the arterial wall is thickened. Our results are in agreement with experimental observations concerning a broad range of vessels. In vitro different techniques are used to study the calcium dynamics and contraction/relaxation mechanisms on arteries. Most experimental studies use either an isometric (i.e. the arterial diameter is kept constant) or an isobaric (i.e. the intraluminal pressure is kept constant) setup. However none of these setups correspond to the in vivo situation. In vivo, a blood vessel is neither isobaric nor isometric nor isotonic (i.e. the wall tension is kept constant), since it is continuously submitted to intraluminal pressure variations arising from heart beat. We determine theoretically whether results may be considerably different depending on the experimental setup (isometric, isobaric, or isotonic) used. We show that the vasoconstrictor sensitivity is higher in isometric than isobaric or isotonic conditions, in agreement with experimental observations. The threshold vasoconstrictor concentration necessary for vasomotion is therefore higher in isobaric than isometric setups. The model suggests that isometric conditions may generate the coexistence of multiple stable states. The contraction is less pronounced in isotonic than in isobaric conditions, in agreement with experimental findings.


This review paper examines the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets postulated by a range of organizations seeking to reduce the consequences of global climate change and how, or if, the global tourism sector can achieve its share of those targets. It takes both existing estimates of current tourism GHG emissions and emissions projected in a business-as-usual scenario through to 2035 and contrasts them with the "aspirational" emission reduction targets proclaimed by the sector. Analysis reveals that with current high-growth emission trends in tourism, the sector could become a major global source of GHGs in the future if other economic sectors achieve significant emission reductions. Success in achieving emission reductions in tourism is found to be largely dependent on major policy and practice changes in air travel, and stated tourism emission reduction targets do not appear feasible without volumetric changes considering the limited technical emission reduction potential currently projected for the aviation sector. The opportunities and challenges associated with a shift towards a low-carbon global economy are anticipated to transform tourism globally and in all respects. Much greater consideration and dissemination of these issues is required to inform future tourism development and travel decisions.


The popularity of cloud hosting services also brings in new security challenges: it has been reported that these services are increasingly utilized by miscreants for their malicious online activities. Mitigating this emerging threat, posed by such "bad repositories" (simply Bar), is challenging due to the different hosting strategy to traditional hosting service, the lack of direct observations of the repositories by those outside the cloud, the reluctance of the cloud provider to scan its customers' repositories without their consent, and the unique evasion strategies employed by the adversary. In this paper, we took the first step toward understanding and detecting this emerging threat. Using a small set of "seeds" (i.e., confirmed Bars), we identified a set of collective features from the websites they serve (e.g., attempts to hide Bars), which uniquely characterize the Bars. These features were utilized to build a scanner that detected over 600 Bars on leading cloud platforms like Amazon, Google, and 150K sites, including popular ones like groupon.com, using them. Highlights of our study include the pivotal roles played by these repositories on malicious infrastructures and other important discoveries include how the adversary exploited legitimate cloud repositories and why the adversary uses Bars in the first place that has never been reported. These findings bring such malicious services to the spotlight and contribute to a better understanding and ultimately eliminating this new threat.


The Ring-necked Parakeet, Psittacula krameri, an invasive bird species in Oman was found to be feeding on the immature green pods of another invasive tree species, Prosopis juliflora, commonly known as Mesquite. This parakeet strips the pods and consumes the soft seeds within. The green pods collected from the base of trees were a mixture of stripped pods showing various levels of feeding damage and un-stripped pods without any damage. The percentage of stripped pods was significantly higher than that of un-stripped pods. The mean percentage number of pods in the five levels of feeding damage (10, 25, 50, 75 and 100%) significantly differed from each other. The un-stripped and undamaged pods indicate wasteful feeding activity. The comparison of the five levels of feeding damage (10, 25, 50, 75 and 100%) and the undamaged condition (0%) to the mean number of pods as percentages suggests that wasteful feeding is not a random event; the reasons for this relationship are discussed.


Providing safe drinking water in rural areas is a major challenge because it is not easy to establish institutional arrangements that will ensure that drinking water facilities are provided, maintained, and managed in an efficient, equitable, and sustainable way. Like many other countries, Ghana has adopted a community-based approach to meet this challenge. Community-based water and sanitation committees (WATSANs) are in charge of managing drinking water facilities at the local level. They are supported by water and sanitation teams of each district administration and by the Community Water and Sanitation Agency, an independent agency that has been created to facilitate the community-based approach. This paper is based on the analysis of two survey datasets of WATSANs and households in rural Ghana. The paper confirms some findings of the earlier literature on this topic. For example, communities that have a higher level of existing community groups are more likely to have functioning WATSANs, while ethnically diverse communities are less likely to have these organizations. The paper also indicates that WATSANs have a positive effect on the mobilization of payment for water services. Using empirical data on local leaders, the paper shows that leadership also matters for the provision of safe drinking water. In particular, the paper suggests that female leaders seem to be effective in this respect.


The prevalence and energetics of quasar feedback is a major unresolved problem in galaxy formation theory. In this paper, we present Gemini Integral Field Unit observations of ionized gas around eleven luminous, obscured, radio-quiet quasars at z~0.5 out to ~15 kpc from the quasar; specifically, we measure the kinematics and morphology of [O III]5007 emission. The round morphologies of the nebulae and the large line-of-sight velocity widths (with velocities containing 80% of the emission as high as 1000 km/s combined with relatively small velocity difference across them (from 90 to 520 km/s) point toward wide-angle quasi-spherical outflows. We use the observed velocity widths to estimate a median outflow velocity of 760 km/s, similar to or above the escape velocities from the host galaxies. The line-of-sight velocity dispersion declines slightly toward outer parts of the nebulae (by 3% per kpc on average). The majority of nebulae show blueshifted excesses in their line profiles across most of their extents, signifying gas outflows. For the median outflow velocity, we find a kinetic energy flow between 4x10^{44} and 3x10^{45} erg/s and mass outflow rate between 2000 and 20000 Msun/yr. These values are large enough for the observed quasar winds to have a significant impact on their host galaxies. The median rate of converting bolometric luminosity to kinetic energy of ionized gas clouds is ~2%. We report four new candidates for "super-bubbles" -- outflows that may have broken out of the denser regions of the host galaxy.


To meet the dietary requirements of a burgeoning human population, the demand for animal-dependent crops continues to grow. To meet the demand, intensive farming practices are used. The gains in food production associated with agricultural intensification may be offset by its detrimental effects on pollinator populations through natural habitat fragmentation and pesticide use. Abundance and species richness of pollinators have been found to decrease with increasing distance to natural habitat in agroecosystems, reducing crop yields. A key aspect of crop pollination lies in the diversity of functional traits (functional diversity, FD) of flower-visitor communities within crop fields. Higher FD allows improved pollination success through complementarity between flower-visitors' morphology, phenology and behaviour. Many studies reported negative effects of increasing distance to natural habitats on the abundance and richness of flower-visitor communities, but the link between FD and natural habitat isolation is less well understood. Also, a more complete understanding of the functional traits of flowervisitor communities within crops should consider potential variations through time. Differences in resources availability between seasons are important in tropical areas and could modify ecological responses of flower-visitor communities to isolation. In this study, we surveyed the Hymenoptera and Diptera communities within mango orchards of South Africa using pan traps at 100 m, 200 m and at the maximal distance possible from any natural habitat. We measured the response of insect abundance, wing span and body size as well as functional diversity to habitat isolation during mango flowering (dry season), and during the wet season (after mango fruit harvest). Flying insect abundance decreased with increasing distance to natural habitat during mango flowering, but no effect was detected during the wet season. FD of flying insects declined with increasing distance to natural habitat in both sampling periods. Insects captured during mango flowering were smaller but had higher wing length/body length ratios than those caught during the wet season. This study highlights that mango orchards are more inhospitable for flying insects during mango flowering. This effect might be due to low palatability of mango flowers, or pesticide use in mango fields. In order to maintain a high FD of flower-visiting species, and reduce the detrimental effects of habitat isolation to ultimately ensure better crop pollination, we propose establishment of patches of resource-rich habitats combined with judicious use of pesticides within orchards.


In September, world leaders will meet at the United Nations in New York to discuss non-communicable diseases.1 A decade ago, at a similar meeting on HIV/AIDS, they created the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria—a revolutionary new global health funding mechanism.2

The September meeting will focus on four leading conditions—heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and respiratory disease—that together cause more than half of all deaths in low and middle income countries.3 Without action, the number of premature deaths (age < 60) caused by non-communicable diseases is expected to rise from 3.8 million each year to 5.1 million in poor countries by 2030, trapping a generation of families in cycles of poverty and disease.4 5 6 As Thomas Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recently stated, developing countries must immediately tackle the rapid rise of non-communicable diseases because they will "kill four times as many people by 2020 as infectious diseases."7

Hopes are high that the UN meeting will mark a turning point and avoid the belated response that hampered HIV strategies. Progress on HIV required not only technical discussions about which drugs work and how to make them cost effective; it also needed to tackle the broader ethical, social, and political dimensions of the HIV pandemic.8

Throughout the process, the imperative to act was presented as one of social justice. It emphasised that HIV was a manifestation of inequalities in power and resources. Efforts by drug companies to protect long term patents on antiretroviral drugs were met by activists fighting for access to treatment and declaring that human lives in poor countries were just as valuable as those in rich ones.

Non-communicable diseases, by contrast, remain neglected despite their social parallels to HIV.9 10 11 As with HIV, …


Climate change is literally and metaphorically bringing the Arctic in from the cold in international affairs with new economic opportunities emerging with the retreat of the ice sheets. Prominent amongst these is the prospect of previously inaccessible oil and gas sources in the High North becoming available for extraction. A spate of extended maritime claims by the states of the region and some high profile diplomatic posturing has prompted much anticipation of a new scramble of resources and even a new, more literal Cold War. The reality, however, appears to be more mundane with the Arctic oil rush proving to be more of a slow and cooperative saunter thus far, as the Arctic powers, and others, seek the new riches with a degree of caution, employing – and even sharing – lawyers and geologists rather than deploying troops.


A thick late Pleistocene sequence, comprising multiple beds of massive diamict facies resting on outwash gravels, occurs along the Bow River, near Banff, Alberta. Diamicts have a simple sheet-like geometry which dip downvalley at between 5° and 10°, with largely conformable bedding contacts. The sediments are strongly bimodal in texture, consisting of clasts supported by a silty sand matrix. Prolate clasts show a weak a-axis alignment parallel and transverse to the trend of the Bow Valley with a weak imbrication. Clasts of soft sediment are common. The diamict sequence has a maximum thickness of 30 m, infills the valley floor over an area of approximately 12 km2 and buries a channelled topography cut on the surface of underlying outwash gravels. Abandoned braided channels, veneered by windblown sand containing volcanic tephra dated at 6600 yr bp, occur on the infill surface.Diamict facies were emplaced as subaerial debris flows derived by the mixing and remobilization of large volumes of outwash and glaciolacustrine sediment. Orientation data from clasts and a few basal grooves indicate that debris was derived upvalley and from adjacent valleyside slopes. A major episode of debris flow sedimentation may have been triggered by the abrupt drainage of lakes in tributary valleys as the Bow Valley glacier retreated. Downslope resedimentation of large volumes of sediment resulted in braided river aggradation downstream along the Bow River and can be dated to between 12 000 and 10 000 yr bp. Similar conditions probably occurred during deglaciation throughout the Canadian Cordillera and many other alpine areas, where poorly-sorted late glacial debris-flow facies have been mistaken for tills deposited directly by glaciers. The late glacial setting identified in this paper provides a basis of comparison with ancient continental glacial facies preserved in areas of active tectonism and high relief.


Innovation is often measured based on how the product performs on the market. This makes it difficult to measure the performance of a team since the time to develop a product may take several years. In this paper we show the importance of creating a common ground and facilitation in a team, two aspects that is not easy measure, but should be assessed. We also discuss innovation on three interrelated organizational levels, the operational, which is the development team and in focus in this paper, the managerial and the strategic level.We found that companies need indicators to measure and/or assess performance on all three levels and that more research is needed to find the inter-links between the levels to prescribe measures and assessment points


Abstract. Air pollution is the number one environmental cause of premature deaths in Europe. Despite extensive regulations, air pollution remains a challenge, especially in urban areas. For studying summertime air quality in the Berlin–Brandenburg region of Germany, the Weather Research and Forecasting Model with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) is set up and evaluated against meteorological and air quality observations from monitoring stations as well as from a field campaign conducted in 2014. The objective is to assess which resolution and level of detail in the input data is needed for simulating urban background air pollutant concentrations and their spatial distribution in the Berlin–Brandenburg area. The model setup includes three nested domains with horizontal resolutions of 15, 3 and 1 km and anthropogenic emissions from the TNO-MACC III inventory. We use RADM2 chemistry and the MADE/SORGAM aerosol scheme. Three sensitivity simulations are conducted updating input parameters to the single-layer urban canopy model based on structural data for Berlin, specifying land use classes on a sub-grid scale (mosaic option) and downscaling the original emissions to a resolution of ca. 1 km × 1 km for Berlin based on proxy data including traffic density and population density. The results show that the model simulates meteorology well, though urban 2 m temperature and urban wind speeds are biased high and nighttime mixing layer height is biased low in the base run with the settings described above. We show that the simulation of urban meteorology can be improved when specifying the input parameters to the urban model, and to a lesser extent when using the mosaic option. On average, ozone is simulated reasonably well, but maximum daily 8 h mean concentrations are underestimated, which is consistent with the results from previous modelling studies using the RADM2 chemical mechanism. Particulate matter is underestimated, which is partly due to an underestimation of secondary organic aerosols. NOx (NO + NO2) concentrations are simulated reasonably well on average, but nighttime concentrations are overestimated due to the model's underestimation of the mixing layer height, and urban daytime concentrations are underestimated. The daytime underestimation is improved when using downscaled, and thus locally higher emissions, suggesting that part of this bias is due to deficiencies in the emission input data and their resolution. The results further demonstrate that a horizontal resolution of 3 km improves the results and spatial representativeness of the model compared to a horizontal resolution of 15 km. With the input data (land use classes, emissions) at the level of detail of the base run of this study, we find that a horizontal resolution of 1 km does not improve the results compared to a resolution of 3 km. However, our results suggest that a 1 km horizontal model resolution could enable a detailed simulation of local pollution patterns in the Berlin–Brandenburg region if the urban land use classes, together with the respective input parameters to the urban canopy model, are specified with a higher level of detail and if urban emissions of higher spatial resolution are used.


International investment law is marked by the proliferation of bilateral investment agreements (BITs). Close to 3000 BITs have been concluded by 2014 and virtually every country is a signatory. In this paper we construct a novel data set of 1623 BIT texts and compute q-gram string distances between treaty pairs to analyze similarity and dissimilarity in the BIT universe. First, we identify patterns of legal coherence (close mutual distances) and find strong support for the hypothesis that Western capital-exporting countries are rule-setters in the treaty-making process. Second, we examine causes of legal innovation (change of treaty distance over time for treaty-making countries) and show that being hit by an Investor-State arbitration claim does not lead to a change in treaty design, in contrast to the predictions of previous studies. Our research thereby demonstrates that text as data models of treaty design can be a powerful tool for policy-makers, arbitrators and scholars to trace consistency and innovation within and across individual country's BIT networks. We developed a companion website to showcase the findings of this paper in an interactive fashion.


This is a care study research on floortile Company CV. Penataran Blitar with the little ?Analisis Penentuan Harga Pokok Produksi sebagai Dasar Perencanaan Laba pada Perusahaan Tegel CV. Penataran Blitar.? The aim of the research are to give a description about decide the main price production the product to help the company reaching the goals, that is maximum profit, and also to explain that by applied the variable costing method, the company would be able to make a plan about the next year profit. The analysis manner which is used to make is used to make the profit planning, is analysis cost volume profit. To separate the semi variable cost become fixed cost and variable cost, are using least quare method that is y = a + bx. The calculation result by using variable costing method, for planning the 20% profit would be reach when the floortile sales 20 x 20 cm size floortile Rp. 193.803.434 and floortile with colour Rp. 163.292.815, 30 x 30 cm size floortile Rp. 167.485.491 and floortile with colour Rp. 300.509.345. These would be a balance condition when the sale of those producs has been reach 20 x 20 cm size floortile sales 155.524 unit and floortile with colour sales 60.502 unit. 30 x 30 cm size floortile sales 12.526 unit and floor tile with colour sales 15.912 unit. Based on the above conclusion, it could be implicated that it is better for the floortile company CV. Penataran Blitar to use variable costing method as a manner to decide the main price production, because it would easily the company to plan the profit. The need of minimum sale level information balance point is really important, so there would be no looses the company by the information, it would help the manajemen in solving the problems. Keyword : LABA Link Terkait : http://skripsi.umm.ac.id/files/disk1/31/jiptummpp-gdl-s1-2004-dewisukesi-1518-Pendahul-n.pdf


"I went on a journey in order to acquaint myself with my province, in a two-horse wagon with a lot of fodder and a tin bucket rattling in the back. The bucket was required for the horses to drink from. I traveled through a country of hills and pine groves that gave way to woodlands, where swirls of smoke hovered over the roofs of houses, as if they were on fire, for they were chimneyless cabins; I crossed districts of fields and lakes. It was so interesting to be moving, to give the horses their rein, and wait until, in the next valley, a village slowly appeared, or a park with the white spot of a manor in it. And always we were barked at by a dog, assiduous in its duty. That was the beginning of the century; this is its . I have been thinking not only of the people who lived there once but also of the generations of dogs accompanying them in their everyday bustle, and one night-I don't know where it came from-in a pre-dawn sleep, that funny and tender phrase composed itself: a road-side dog." --"Road-Side Dog"


The U.S. Supreme Court's jurisprudence on Parker state-action immunity from federal antitrust laws has remained largely muddled since its inception. The Court recently attempted to bring clarity to the doctrine in North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC, holding that state occupational licensing boards with a controlling number of active market participants are subject to the same active supervision requirement as private actors performing state governmental functions. Given that most state licensing boards are comprised of active market participants in the industry they are charged with regulating, state licensing boards can no longer assume they are immune from antitrust suits.In response, states have been scrambling to reassess the composition and oversight of their regulatory bodies in order to reduce antitrust liability for board members. In addition, litigants are bringing more claims against these boards for alleged antitrust violations. Lower courts are left with the task of determining whether these boards are closer to private actors or to prototypical state agencies. For those boards classified as private, lower courts are left with the task of determining whether the regulatory regimes overseeing the boards' anticompetitive conduct satisfy the active supervision requirement.In light of these rapid developments, however, doctrinal confusion about Parker immunity persists. This confusion largely stems from the Court's failure to formally adopt a rule of decision incorporating the two bedrock principles that have explained Parker immunity doctrine since its inception: financial disinterest and political accountability. In pursuit of bringing much-needed clarity to the doctrine, this Comment makes a descriptive case, inspired by Professor Einer Elhauge's seminal article on Parker immunity, that Parker immunity jurisprudence has been shaped by inquiring into the functional purposes the public-private distinction serves in the context of delegating state power to municipalities, prototypical state agencies, and private entities. This Comment will argue that the U.S. Supreme Court should formally adopt a rule of decision inspired by the principles of financial disinterest and political accountability to govern Parker immunity doctrine. The Comment will lastly incorporate this rule of decision and square it directly with the Court's recent opinion in North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC.


Peripheral (extragonadal) metabolism of the primary reproductive steroids, testosterone (T) and estradiol (E2), occurs in a variety of vertebrate body tissues. The primary steroids may be modified in two main ways: derivatisation to more biologically active forms, or conjugation to increase solubility. The molecular structures of these steroid metabolites vary between vertebrate classes. Such phyologenetic differences are of intrinsic evolutionary interest; furthermore some of these metabolites may function as semiochemicals, communicating location, reproductive condition and even synchronising mating behaviour in some species. However, such data is rare for reptiles. We have investigated and confirmed the occurrence of substantial peripheral steroid metabolism using in vitro incubations of tissues from the blue-tongued skink, Tiliqua nigrolutea. Additionally, we have demonstrated that the relative proportions of primary steroids undergoing each of these types of conversions vary with sex, reproductive condition and tissue type. This study has identified a group of steroid molecules that are potentially communicating information to conspecifics during the mating period.


1.0 INTRODUCTION: LEARNING TO LEARN AND LEARNING TO PUT KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION As I was writing this paper, I realized that there was an inconsistency between the title of the paper I was asked to prepare and to present, and some of the comments that I was going to make on the subject.(2) These comments reflected my belief about what should be happening in educational institutions - learning, not just teaching. Teaching, as it is traditionally thought of, is one way in which learning takes place, but it is not the only way - nor should it be the only way. The basic premise of this paper is that multiple methods for facilitating learning are necessary. Continuing to make my assumptions and beliefs clear, another orientation that will be expressed in this paper is the need to learn how to put knowledge into action - how to use what is already known, rather than simply accumulating more information that might not be used either. After all, as B. Joseph White, Dean of the University of Michigan Business School has stated, "Business is not just an intellectual game, it's an action game."(3) This 'learning to put knowledge into action' orientation does not suggest halting the accumulation of knowledge or stopping the sharing of this new knowledge but, rather, it suggests the need to increase the emphasis on the action part of the game. International management educators and business schools need to increase their efforts to develop in their students the ability to use knowledge in the practice of international management. This concern with putting knowledge into action, coupled with an interest in how to learn while in action, has increased in the past year for the author as a result of various teaching experiences. The subtitle reflects some of the "experiments" with pedagogical techniques that have been incorporated into, and are being considered for, the International Management Behavior course at the Western Business School in an effort to improve students' ability to function effectively in international business. Finally, the last orientation the author wants to identify is that learning is a life-long activity that should not come to a stop upon graduation from business school. Business schools should not bear the total responsibility for preparing people for international business. The individual bears a major responsibility for his or her continuing education and skill development, and employers have a responsibility as well in preparing people to function in the globalized economic environment. These three groups - individuals, schools and employers - may have to meet the challenge through some form of long-term partnership. This paper represents an initial attempt to put into writing some of the author's recent reflections on ways to improve the learning of some important international management skills, and some tentative conclusions about directions in which to start moving. As such, this paper should be considered "thoughts in progress" which are preliminary in nature and which may undergo revision. 2.0 THE EDUCATIONAL TASK: TO KNOW OR TO DO? In the past few years there has been a noticeable increase in interest and activity related to internationalizing management education in North American universities. Conferences have been held across the continent to discuss what should be done and how to do it, and to share experiences. The concern that usually inspires these meetings is something to the effect that businesses in the United States and Canada need to become more competitive globally, and that business schools have to help develop people who can function in the new, globalized economic system. The following is one such statement. In the 1990s, business enterprises will continue to address the challenge of staying competitive in an increasingly global market environment. Accordingly, business schools need to internationalize their curricula, faculty, and student experiences if they are to remain competitive and relevant (Cavusgil, Schecter and Yaprak, 1992). …


We propose a novel framework for approximations to intractable probabilistic models which is based on a free energy formulation. The approximation can be understood as replacing an average over the original intractable distribution with a tractable one. It requires two tractable probability distributions which are made consistent on a set of moments and encode different features of the original intractable distribution. In this way we are able to use Gaussian approximations for models with discrete or bounded variables which allow us to include non-trivial correlations. These are neglected in many other methods. We test the framework on toy benchmark problems for binary variables on fully connected graphs and 2D grids and compare with other methods, such as loopy belief propagation. Good performance is already achieved by using single nodes as tractable substructures. Significant improvements are obtained when a spanning tree is used instead.


Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922) and Philosophical Investigations (1953) are among the most influential philosophical books of the twentieth century, and also among the most perplexing. Wittgenstein warned again and again that he was not and would not be understood. Moreover, Wittgenstein's work seems to have little relevance to the way philosophy is done today. In Wittgenstein in Exile, James Klagge proposes a new way of looking at Wittgenstein -- as an exile -- that helps make sense of this. Wittgenstein's exile was not, despite his wanderings from Vienna to Cambridge to Norway to Ireland, strictly geographical; rather, Klagge argues, Wittgenstein was never at home in the twentieth century. He was in exile from an earlier era -- Oswald Spengler's culture of the early nineteenth century. Klagge draws on the full range of evidence, including Wittgenstein's published work, the complete Nachlass, correspondence, lectures, and conversations. He places Wittgenstein's work in a broad context, along a trajectory of thought that includes Job, Goethe, and Dostoyevsky. Yet Klagge also writes from an analytic philosophical perspective, discussing such topics as essentialism, private experience, relativism, causation, and eliminativism. Once we see Wittgenstein's exile, Klagge argues, we will gain a better appreciation of the difficulty of understanding Wittgenstein and his work.


This dissertation is primarily concerned with the structure of relative clauses in
Standard Arabic (SA) within the framework of phrase structure proposed in Kayne
(1994). According to Kayne, relative clauses are assigned the structure [D CP]
where D is base-generated externally and takes CP as complement.
This study emphasises that D in SA originates within the relative clause and moves
with its NP complement to SpecCP. The moved DP enters into Spec-head
agreement with the complementizer since both the head and Spec carry the same
[c]-features, in addition to [+defj and, sometimes, [+Case]. The subject trace in
main clauses, which I assume to be a null resumptive pronoun, is properly governed
by the complementizer which agrees both with the antecedent and the verb. Object
extraction, in some cases, requires an overt resumptive pronoun. In such cases, we
adopt the analysis that treats resumptive pronouns as spell-out traces. We have
proposed that in cases where a resumptive pronoun appears, the "head" moves to
SpecCP but its [c]-features remain in the extraction site. When a gap appears, the
"head" and its features move together to SpecCP.
Subject relativization from ? an-embedded clauses is different from subject
relativization from ? anna-embedded clauses. The former takes place from the
postverbal position to avoid the Empty Category Principle (ECP). We adopt the
Split-CP hypothesis (Rizzi 1997) and assume that subject extraction in ? annaembedded
clauses takes place from SpecTop. The extraction site is obligatorily filled with a resumptive pronoun. The object, too, can be extracted from SpecTop or
from its base-position. In both cases, an obligatory resumptive pronoun occupies the
extraction site. We have shown that the intermediate CP is not a proper landing site
for the extracted subject or object. The reason is that the head of the intermediate
CP does not bear the features of the antecedent and therefore movement to the Spec
of the intermediate CP is not legitimate.
We have proposed that free relatives also involve movement to SpecCP. This
proposal is based on the fact that 11adhii can be overt only if DP occupies its Spec
position. We therefore have proposed that features of a null DP must occupy the
Spec position in this type of relatives. Thus Spec-head agreement in these relatives is
also realised.
Reduced (participial) relatives are analysed as full relatives and therefore are
assigned the same structure apart from the fact that they contain a functional head
which I call partA° (Participle Affix). We have proposed that the morpheme
preceding the participle is a reduced form of the complementizer lladhii. This
assumption is supported by the fact that it can only be preceded by a DP whether
overt or null. Here again we have Spec-head agreement as in full relative clauses


This essay explores the complex set of sociological barriers to interethnic marriage that the Khmer-Kinh couples face and the facilitating factors that bridge the gaps and facilitate interethnic marriage. The findings highlight that geographical and socioeconomic disparities, as well as stereotypes between the ethnic groups, are significant barriers to Khmer-Kinh interethnic marriage. The study unpacks the significance of modernization factors, as well as recent demographic and social changes in bridging the geographical, social, cultural, and psychological gaps between groups.


The three Himalayan lithologic units, the Lesser Himalayan Sequence, the Greater Himalayan Crystalline complex, and the Tethyan Himalayan Sequence, have a specific structural correlation with the Main Central thrust and South Tibet detachment in the central Himalaya. There, the Main Central thrust places the Greater Himalayan Crystalline complex over the Lesser Himalayan Sequence, and the South Tibet detachment places the Tethyan Himalayan Sequence over the Greater Himalayan Crystallines. Although this division has formed the basis for all Himalayan tectonic models, it fails to explain aspects of the geology of the western Himalaya where the Main Central thrust places the Tethyan Himalayan Sequence directly above the Lesser Himalayan Sequence. Our mapping in NW India shows that this relationship results from southward merging of the Main Central thrust and South Tibet detachment. This finding, in conjunction with observed alternating shear senses on the South Tibet detachment, is inconsistent with the wedge-extrusion and erosion-induced channel-flow models (both require only top-to-the-N motion on the South Tibet detachment) but is consistent with a tectonic-wedging model.


Porous materials play an important role in numerous environmental applications including energy storage, energy conversion and environmental remediation systems. Reducing structural features down to the nanoscale drastically alters materials properties and leads to the enhancement of materials performance. The successful fabrication of efficient functional materials requires a high degree of control over their morphology addressing the needs of target applications.

The goal of this work was to develop a versatile general approach towards the synthesis of nanoporous metal oxides by using biogenic cellulose nanocrystals. Nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) is an abundant biological nanomaterial that can be extracted from natural bulk celluloses. The present thesis demonstrates that the unique properties of NCC enable the efficient synthesis of porous titania and iron oxide (hematite) thin films by using sacrificial templating with cellulose nanocrystals. In particular, this study reveals the mechanism of metal oxide formation in the presence of cellulose, as well as the effect of NCC-templated porous scaffolds on titania performance in photocatalysis and dye sensitized solar cells.

Chapter 1 provides general information about properties, application areas and common synthesis methods of nanoporous metal oxides, with an emphasis put on titanium oxide materials and biotemplating approaches. Chapter 2 discusses the basic principles of analytical methods employed to characterize porous nanomaterials. Chapters 3‒6 reveal the experimental procedures towards NCC-templated porous titania and hematite thin films, their characterization and their applications.

First, the extraction of cellulose crystals from bulk celluloses is discussed. Different cellulose sources, as well as variable hydrolysis parameters have been employed to define the optimal procedure for the NCC preparation. Cotton fibers have provided the best results regarding the crystallinity, purity and shape of extracted cellulose crystals. Furthermore, repeated washings have been shown to narrow down the size distribution and to improve the crystallinity of cotton NCC.

Chapter 4 focuses on the synthesis of porous titania thin films assisted by nanocrystalline cellulose. The tunable porosity of titania thin films is a key factor for successful applications in photovoltaics, sensing and photocatalysis. To synthesize NCC-templated titania, the cellulose nanocrystals are introduced to a titania precursor solution. The colloidal mixtures can be directly spin- or dip- coated on glass, silicon and transparent conducting oxide (TCO) substrates and then calcined to remove the template and to crystallize the titania porous network. The obtained structures are highly porous anatase morphologies having well-defined, narrow pore size distribution.

We show that by varying the titania-to-template ratio it is possible to tune the surface area, pore size, pore anisotropy and dimensions of titania crystallites in the films. Post-treatment at high humidity and subsequent slow template removal promote pore widening; this treatment is also beneficial for the multilayer deposition of thick films. The NCC-templated mesoporous titania films show very high activity in the photocatalytic NO (nitrogen(II) oxide) conversion and in the degradation of 4-chlorophenol. Furthermore, the films are successfully applied as anodes in dye-sensitized solar cells.

Chapter 5 presents a strategy toward enhancement of the photocatalytic activity of NCC-templated titania thin films by introducing solvothermally synthesized preformed anatase nanoparticles into a sol-gel based biotemplated titania scaffold. The synthesis is based on the self-assembly of two types of precursors, namely crystalline and sol-gel titania, directed by the biogenic NCC template. Due to the shape persistence of the template, the NCC-templated titania scaffolds can accommodate large amounts of preformed titania without a significant reduction of the film porosity.

The resulting dual source titania thin films containing different amounts of preformed crystalline species were investigated with time resolved microwave conductivity (TRMC) measurements and tested in the photocatalytic conversion of 4-chlorophenol. The gradual addition of preformed nanoparticles leads to a consistent increase of the mean size of titania crystalline domains, whereas the porosity of the composite is well-preserved due to the rigid nature of the NCC template. The microwave conductivity studies establish increased photoconductivity of the films containing preformed anatase nanoparticles, in comparison to that of films made without the nanoparticles.

The synergistic features of the dual source titania, namely the improved crystalline properties brought by the preformed nanocrystals in combination with the high surface area provided by the NCC-templated sol-gel titania, result in a very high photocatalytic activity of the films in the photocatalytic decomposition of 4-chlorophenol. In quantitative terms, the dual source titania films prepared with 75% nanoparticles exhibit a first order degradation rate constant of 0.53 h-1, strongly outperforming the activity of commercial P90 nanopowder showing a rate constant of 0.17 h-1 under the same conditions.

We have also adapted the NCC templating protocol for the fabrication of porous iron oxide (hematite) thin films. Chapter 6 discusses the formation of porous iron oxide nanostructures via sol-gel transformations of molecular precursors in the confined space of self-organized cellulose nanocrystals used as a shape-persistent template. The obtained structures are highly porous hematite morphologies featuring pronounced anisotropic porosity. The character of the porous nanostructure depends on the iron salt used as precursor and on the heat treatment, respectively. Moreover, a post-synthetic hydrothermal treatment of the NCC/iron salt composites strongly affects the crystal growth, as well as the porous nanomorphology of the obtained hematite scaffolds. We demonstrate that the hydrothermal treatment alters the crystallization mechanism of the molecular iron precursors, which proceeds via the formation of anisotropic iron oxyhydroxide species.

The present study reveals that the nanocellulose templating technique enables a straightforward fabrication of a variety of porous crystalline scaffolds with well-defined mesoporous structure. For the first time the NCC has been used for the fabrication of homogeneous porous metal oxide films on different substrates, in contrast to the previously reported powders or free-standing membranes. The versatility and flexibility of the NCC templating approach offers broad perspectives towards the generalization of this method for the fabrication of different types of nanoporous metal oxides.


Background : Growing medical evidence shows that access to the natural environment improves health and wellbeing, prevents disease and helps people recover from illness. Experiencing nature in the outdoors can help tackle obesity and coronary heart disease. Green areas exert their benefits on both physical and mental health, promoting physical activity and strengthening the sense of community thus positively influencing social interaction. Urbanization poses problems through effects such as environmental pollution, accidents, heat island effects, climate change and a consequent demand for urban green areas. Material and methods : We performed literature searches of electronic journal databases for studies and reviews that focused on the relationship between green spaces and health. We looked at the effects on physical health, mental health, social health, physical activity and well-being in its broadest sense and then we categorically organized our findings. Results : We found many contradictory and unexpected results. However, the reported findings were generally consistent and supported the current view that urban design and the availability of urban green spaces are key elements of prosperity and individual/collective comfort, so as to influence both the perceived health and the objective physical conditions in a measurable way. A weak relationship between physical activity levels and green space availability is observed. Conclusions : The occasionally contradictory results that emerged in this study suggest that a opulation's esponse to urban design interventions is often unpredictable. Further research is needed to quantify the trength of relation between green spaces and urban health, but also to investigate the social and behavioural spects which are more difficult to measure and understand.


Since the time of Germany's belated industrialisation, corporate governance in Germany has
been stakeholder oriented in the dual sense of attaching importance to the interests of
stakeholders who are not at the same time shareholders, and of providing certain opportunities
for these stakeholders to influence corporate decisions.
Corporate governance is also systemic. It is a system of elements that are complementary to
each other, and also consistent. In other word, it is composed of elements for which it is
important that they fit together well, and in the German case these elements did fit together
well until quite recently. Corporate governance as a system is itself an element of the German
bank-based financial system at large and possibly even of the entire German business and
economic system. Stakeholder orientation of governance is consistent with the general
structure this system, and even represents one of its central elements.
In retrospect, German corporate governance has also proved to be surprisingly stable. Its
fundamental traits date back to the turn from the 19th to the 20th century. There are strong
reasons to assume that the systemic features, that is, its complementarity and consistency,
have greatly contributed to its past stability.
Since about ten years now, there are growing tendencies to question the viability and stability
of the German corporate governance system and even the financial system as a whole. One of
the central topics in the new debate concerns the stakeholder orientation of the system, which
some observers and critics consider as the main weakness of the ?German model? under the
increasing pressures of globalisation and European integration.
As far as their development over time is concerned, systems of complementarity elements
exhibit certain peculiarities:
(1) They do not adjust easily to changing circumstances.
(2) Changes concerning important individual elements, such as the stakeholder orientation of
governance, tend to jeopardize the viability and the stability of the entire system.
(3) While they appear to be stable, systems shaped by complementary may simply be rigid
and tend to break under strong external pressure.
?Breaking? means that a system undergoes a fundamental transformation. It seems plausible
to assume that the German financial system is already in the middle of such a transformation.
It is yet another consequence of its systemic character that this transformation is not likely to
be a smooth and gradual process and that it will not lead to a ?mixed model? but rather to the
adoption of a capital market-based financial system as it prevails in the Anglo-Saxon
countries. In such a system, corporate governance cannot be geared to catering to the interests
of stakeholders, and an active role for them would not even make any economic sense.


This paper is concerned with the problem of Boolean approximation in the following sense: given a Boolean function class and an arbitrary Boolean function, what is the function's best proxy in the class? Specifically, what is its strongest logical consequence (or envelope) in the class of affine Boolean functions. We prove various properties of affine Boolean functions and their representation as ROBDDs. Using these properties, we develop an ROBDD algorithm to find the affine envelope of a Boolean function.


Raisins (Vitis vinifera L.) are dried grapes largely consumed as important source of nutrients and polyphenols. Several studies report health benefits of raisins, including anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, whereas the anti-inflammatory activity at gastric level of the hydro-alcoholic extracts, which are mostly used for food supplements preparation, was not reported until now. The aim of this study was to compare the anti-inflammatory activity of five raisin extracts focusing on Interleukin (IL)-8 and Nuclear Factor (NF)-κB pathway. Raisin extracts were characterized by High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Diode Array Detector (HPLC-DAD) analysis and screened for their ability to inhibit Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)α-induced IL-8 release and promoter activity in human gastric epithelial cells. Turkish variety significantly inhibited TNFα-induced IL-8 release, and the effect was due to the impairment of the corresponding promoter activity. Macroscopic evaluation showed the presence of seeds, absent in the other varieties; thus, hydro-alcoholic extracts from fruits and seeds were individually tested on IL-8 and NF-κB pathway. Seed extract inhibited IL-8 and NF-κB pathway, showing higher potency with respect to the fruit. Although the main effect was due to the presence of seeds, the fruit showed significant activity as well. Our data suggest that consumption of selected varieties of raisins could confer a beneficial effect against gastric inflammatory diseases.


South Africa has a multicultural society in which legal pluralism prevails. Within the dual-systems state-law paradigm, the Western common law is the principal legal system that directs legal development and reform. The common law is hybrid in nature: predominantly founded on the civilian tradition (Roman-Dutch law) but substantially influenced by the common-law tradition (English law). African customary law is recognised as state law but assumes a secondary position. The dominance of the common law is revealed in the interplay of the two state-law systems, but it is evident in judicial decisions that a measure of convergence of the systems has taken place. Attempts at the harmonisation of the two systems of law are onesided and directed only at the adaptation of the African customary law. This has resulted in the expansion of the existing multiplicity of legal sources by the creation of a new official legal system that has features of the Western common law and vaguely resembles African customary law. Further, the adaptation of the African customary law to bring it in line with the predominantly Western constitutional values has enhanced the divide between the official customary law and the unofficial living African customary law that has developed in accordance with fundamental African jural postulates.