Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene are being widely investigated for their addition in polymer, ceramic and metal matrices to prepare nanocomposites owing to the combination of the superlative mechanical, thermal, and electronic properties attributed to them. These materials are subject of significant research interest for their utilisation in an increasing number of applications including energy, transportation, defence, automotive, aerospace, sporting goods, and infrastructure sectors. Particularly among brittle materials (polymers and ceramics), carbon nanofillers have been reported to significantly improve mechanical, thermal and electrical properties. Apart from these improvements, such nanofillers also offer structural damage sensing ability to materials. Structural health monitoring (SHM) is a type of a Non-destructive Evaluation (NDE) technique that essentially involves the strategic embedding of conductive filler into a structure to allow continuous and remote monitoring for damage, deformation and failure. SHM technology is applied increasingly for research and industrial purposes as a potential tool for quality assurance. However, many of the developed and available NDE technologies are complex, expensive and require significant calibration with the passage of time. Nanostructured carbon embedded systems have proven to be more sensitive towards structural damage. The current talk focusses on the development of a novel method for assessing structural damage by analysing change in the electrical conductivities of ceramic and polymer nanocomposites filled with different types of carbon nanofillers (including carbon black).


Abstract Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the experiences and preferences of terminally ill cancer patients regarding truth telling in the communication of poor prognoses. Method: We recorded and transcribed interviews with 45 patients who knew their cancer was terminal, and analyzed their responses hermeneutically. Results: Patients identified three different modes of truth: (1) the absolute objective truth that they are dying; (2) the partial truth about their condition including some facts but not all of the details; and (3) the desired truth, originating in the patient's own beliefs about a healthy or better life. Coping strategies were related to patients' preferred mode of truth: (1) facing the truth in order to take action; (2) facing some parts of the truth in order to maintain hope; and (3) hovering between facing and avoiding the truth. In their struggle for existential survival, patients used different coping strategies, changing from one to another depending upon the circumstances. Significance of results: Varying use of different coping strategies impacts on patient preferences concerning communication about bad news with their doctors. Truth-telling entails more than merely providing information related to the forthcoming death. It also concerns how physicians or other healthcare staff can support the patient's existential survival by fine-tuning the communication of "truth" according to the individuals' preferences.


Specimens of the African air-breathing catfish Clarias mossambicus were acclimated to either aerated (PwO2 15.3 KPa) or hypoxic (PwO2 2.4KPa) water for up to 27 days at 20 °C. Routine respiration rate for fish acclimated to aerated water was 85.7 mlO2 (kgbodyweight)−1 h−1. Gas exchange across the suprabranchial chambers accounted for 25% of the total. In aerated water the interval between air-breaths varied from 1.4 to 30.6 min. On acute exposure to hypoxia air-breathing frequency was unaltered (6.3 h−1) although aerial respiration rate increased by 70%. This suggests that ventilation of the suprabranchial chambers is variable and that air-breathing frequency is a poor measure of air-breathing effort. Total respiration decreased by 46% on acute exposure to hypoxia (PwO2 2.4 KPa), reflecting a reduction in routine activity. Following acclimation to hypoxia, airbreathing frequency (8.1 h−1) was higher and total routine respiration rate increased from 46.3 to 67.8 mlO2 kg−1h−1. The increased oxygen consumption with hypoxia acclimation was largely the result of an increase in aquatic respiration from 10.4 to 27.5 mlO2kg−1h−1 Measurements were made of mitochondrial volume densities [Vv(mt,f)] and capillary supply to fast and slow myotomal muscles. The fraction of fibre volume occupied by mitochondria was 15 percnt; for slow and 2.5% for fast muscles. Values for [Vv(mt,f)] obtained for fish slow fibres are much higher than for homologous muscles in birds and mammals and show a good correlation with capillary density [NA(c,f)]. Hypoxia acclimation did not result in changes in either muscle Vv(mt,f) or NA(c,f). It is suggested that increased ventilation of the suprabranchial chambers and greater oxygen extraction across the gills obviates the need for modifications in these parameters.


Born in Japanese-occupied Taiwan, raised in the scholarly traditions of ancient China by his grandfather but forced into the Japanese educational system, Hu Taiming, the protagonist of Orphan of Asia, ultimately finds himself estranged from all three cultures. Wu's autobiographical novel, completed in 1945, is widely regarded as a classic of modern Asian literature and a groundbreaking expression of the postwar Taiwanese national consciousness. Originally written in Japanese and now translated into English for the first time, Orphan of Asia offers a powerful depiction of the political, cultural, and psychological impact of colonialism. Orphan of Asia begins during Taiming's childhood in Taiwan, which has been annexed to Japan only recently. Taiming eventually makes his mark in the colonial Japanese educational system and graduates from a prestigious college. However, he finds that his Japanese education and his adoption of modern ways have alienated him from his family and native village. He becomes a teacher in the Japanese colonial system but soon realizes that there is something seriously wrong with the status quo. He quits his post but finds that, having repudiated his roots, he doesn't seem to belong anywhere.Thus begins Taiming's long journey for his rightful place. But neither in Japan, where he goes to study physics in the belief that technology represents the future, nor in mainland China, where he marries and has a daughter, does he ever come to feel at home or find his calling. Although he assiduously avoids politics, Taiming can't help being caught up in the conflicts that shaped modern East Asian history. He is accused of spying for both China and Japan after hostilities breakout between the two countries, and he witnesses the effects of Japanese imperial expansion, the horrors of war, and the sense of anger and powerlessness felt by those living under colonial rule.


We consider a differentiated oligopoly where firms compete a la Cournot in the market phase, and each firms may invest in advertising activity, to enlarge its market size. Each firm`s advertising effort has positive external effects on the market size of all rivals. We derive the open-loop (and the coincident closed-loop) Nash equilibrium, and the optimal behavior of a cartel involving all firms setting both quantities and advertising efforts so as to maximize joint profits. The comparative assessment of these equilibria shows that a cartel may produce a steady state where social welfare is higher than the social welfare level associated wit the non-cooperative setting. This is due to the positive externalities from advertising activity.


Today, the development and evaluation of traffic management strategies heavily relies on microscopic traffic simulation models. In case detailed input (i.e. od matrix, signal timings, etc.) is extracted and incorporated in these simulators, they can provide valuable traffic state predictions. However, as this type of information is almost never available at the large-scale and traffic represents chaotic behavior in saturated networks, microscopic simulation models remain intractable and unstable. An alternative is a recently discovered network traffic model; macroscopic fundamental diagram (MFD). Nevertheless, large-scale traffic management strategies remain a big challenge partly due to unpredictability of choices of travelers (e.g. route, departure time and mode choice). Part I of the thesis is an attempt to fill this gap. Chapter 2, 3 and 4 elaborate new aspects of large-scale traffic modeling, and integrate route choice behavior into the modeling. Chapter 2 proposes a dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) model to establish equilibrium conditions in multi-region urban networks where the modeling is done through MFD dynamics. The method handles the stochastic components of the aggregated model through a sampling approach. In addition, the assignment model enables us to consider the response of drivers to changing traffic conditions in an aggregated modeling framework. Chapter 3 extends the DTA model presented in Chapter 2 to a route guidance system, where drivers are given a sequence of subregions to follow. Two aggregated models, region- and subregion-based models, are introduced to develop the guidance scheme and to test its effect, respectively. Notably, the challenge here is to translate certain variables across the traffic models without a loss of significance and assure certain degree of consistency. Chapter 4 extracts and reconstructs aggregated route choice patterns through an extensive GPS data set from taxis in a mega city. Observed GPS trajectories are first grouped together to provide a physical evidence for consistent route patterns. Second, in order to investigate the consistency of equilibrium assumptions considered in Chapter 2, observed trajectories are replaced with shortest path trajectories, and aggregated route choice patterns are reconstructed. Part II introduces novel travel time prediction and variability models. Travel time is a crucial performance measure in assessing the efficiency of transportation systems, and it provides a common index for both practitioners and travelers. Chapter 5 develops a travel time prediction model that jointly exploits traffic flow fundamentals and advanced data mining techniques. The prediction method detects the congestion patterns through the identification of active bottlenecks, and clusters the days with similar traffic patterns. This approach basically allows the model to train its predictions with relevant historical data sets. The method is applicable in oversaturated conditions and consistent with physics of traffic flow. Nevertheless, travelers not only consider travel time on average, but also value its variation. Day-to-day travel time variability, addressing the travel time variations of vehicles crossing the same route at the same period of time on different days, reveals interesting patterns. Departure time periods with similar mean travel times in the onset and offset of congestion exhibit quite different variance values. This phenomenon causes counter-clockwise hysteresis loops on the mean-variance curves. Chapter 6 investigates the empirical implications of hysteresis shape within the context of day-to-day travel time variability.


Abstract Teaching is influenced by myriad factors and a significant player in this context is the teacher and his/her cognition. Teacher cognition is 'the unobservable cognitive dimension of teaching – what teachers know, believe, and think' (Borg, 2003). In recent decades, much research has been conducted on English as a foreign language teaching and teacher cognition, which continues to highlight the crucial significance of the role of teacher cognition in teaching. Research in teacher cognition covers various aspects of teaching language and language skills, with grammar enjoying predominance, while language skills, particularly speaking and listening, play second fiddle. Teaching speaking in English as a foreign language is important as foreign language learners desire to learn to speak the language and use it actively to communicate with peers and others. The purpose of my qualitative case study is to: glean teacher cognition about teaching speaking in English as a foreign language teaching of seven grade 8 teachers in The Faroe Islands; ascertain the impact of teacher cognition on their teaching speaking praxis; and attempt to identify the reflection of the 'state of the art' in teaching speaking in English as a foreign language. The case study attempts to identify themes and categorise teacher behaviour and events rather than testing theory or hypotheses. It is a collective parallel case study, where seven cases are viewed concurrently. This case study attempts to add to the significant and under-researched field of teacher cognition on teaching speaking. Semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, observations and document analysis were used to elicit data to fulfil research aims. The results show that teacher cognition of grade 8 teachers does impact teaching speaking and congruence between the two appears to be the norm, with lesser representation of incongruence. The congruence between teacher cognition and teaching speaking is a result of two factors: firstly, the strong influence of 'apprenticeship of observation' i.e. the influence of teachers' personal experiences as students from years of school, university and teacher education, which influences the way they teach and think about teaching. Secondly, teacher interpretation of teaching speaking as facilitating student spoken performance in the classroom, i.e. 'doing speaking' instead of teaching speaking i.e. using specific strategies to teach students to speak. The teacher education curriculum up to 2008 in the department of Education in The University of The Faroe Islands, to which most of the participants belong, did not include second language acquisition theories or language pedagogy. The incongruence therefore arises from the teachers functioning based on 'apprenticeship of observation' and experiential knowledge gleaned from teaching experience to create their models of teaching speaking. As for the post 2008 participants, new and inexperienced teachers are more likely to be concerned with classroom management before being able to practise subject pedagogy when teaching a language. Though congruence predominates, there is minor incidence of incongruence between teacher cognition and teaching speaking, which may indicate the core-peripheral beliefs dichotomy. Core beliefs find expression in teaching and are chosen over peripheral beliefs, which account for the gap between cognition and teaching. Phipps and Borg (2009) posit that core beliefs are experience-based and tend to be more stable. They exert an influence greater than that of peripheral beliefs, which are theory-based and have not been tried and tested in practice by teachers to become part of the teaching repertoire. In the case of feedback, grade 8 teachers desist from using it actively as the core belief that feedback may discourage student participation in class overwhelms the peripheral belief about the usefulness of feedback for student learning. The 'Teaching-speaking cycle' of Goh and Burns (2012) has been chosen to identify the reflection of the 'state of the art' in grade 8 praxis in teaching speaking. It subsumes earlier teaching speaking models and advocates a holistic approach to teaching speaking with specific activities to be carried out successively to promote the teaching of speaking. There is sporadic reflection of aspects of the model in grade 8 teaching speaking praxis, emphasising that there is 'doing speaking' i.e. opportunities for speaking rather than teaching speaking. The study underlines the pivotal role of teacher education in equipping teachers for their profession and proactively helping pre-and post-service teachers to be critically self-aware of the influence of teacher cognition on their praxis. It pinpoints the importance of continued professional development for teachers during their careers and makes a case for educational research to impact teaching and make a difference in education.


Current economic activity in the beet sugar industry is below its highest point, and this encourages to search for and to shape specific development strategies. This article analyses the current state of Russian sugar markets, domestically and internationally. The investigation over the strategic potential of effective beet sugar sub-complex development has involved 78 large agricultural enterprises and 59 peasant farms of the Republic of Bashkortostan. By total production output, sugar beet producers are classified into several groups. The first group, which is the highest, includes 10 backbone strategic enterprises, which can produce 897.9 thousand tons of sugar beet. The second group includes 19 enterprises and produces 442.5 thousand tons of sugar beet. The third group, not a priority group, includes 43 enterprises (333.3 thousand tons). A similar classificationt was done for peasant farms.From the assessment encompassing the strategic potential of sugar beet industry certain scenarios have been considered such as: business-as-usual (72.2%), extensive growth (83.3%), intensive growth (100.0%) and hybrid growth (122.2%). These scenarios were composed to forecast the production target achievements. Forecasts were made using a model of strategic development of beet sugar sub-complex of the Republic of Bashkortostan, for the period until 2020. The approach developed in this article is recommended to be used as a guideline in developing long-term regional programs for agriculture development. It can be also addressed to adjust some measures that are being taken under the launched programs.


Some recent decisions have treated the issue of liability under Securities Exchange Act Rule 10b-5(a) or Rule 10b-5(c) as if it were a novel or unsettled question of federal securities law. At this writing, a pending appeal in the Ninth Circuit is considering a standard proposed by the SEC for scheme liability under those subparts of Rule 10b-5 where the defendant neither spoke nor owed a duty to speak but instead engaged in business transactions that were misreported by the issuer. Similar theories of liability have already been rejected by the Second and Eighth Circuits. This article draws on the U.S. Supreme Court's Section 10(b) cases, recent federal appellate decisions, and precedents involving other rules adopted under Section 10(b) to explain that existing precedent already compels the conclusion that liability under any subpart of Rule 10b-5 requires a misrepresentation, a duty to disclose, or a manipulative transaction in the issuer's securities.


The aim of this study was to determine the inter-examiner reliability of motion palpation to detect joint dysfunction in hindfoot and midfoot joints of asymptomatic feet and feet with chronic ankle instability syndrome. The rationale for this study was that motion palpation is a commonly used assessment tool that is used by the chiropractic profession to detect the need for manipulation of the spine and extremities. Also until the reliability of motion palpation is known, other studies using motion palpation as an assessment tool to detect the need for manipulation in the hindfoot and midfoot are questionable. The study was conducted at Durban University of Technology (DUT). Patients that responded to the adverts were then screened via telephonic interview. The researcher performed a case history, physical examination and a foot and ankle regional examination on each patient. Three masters chiropractic students then independently assessed both the symptomatic and asymptomatic feet of each patient and recorded their results. The data was then statistically analysed using SPSS version 15. It was found that the inter-examiner reliability of motion palpation for detecting restrictions in feet with chronic ankle instability syndrome was fair and for detecting instability, there was moderate reliability. In the asymptomatic group the examiners showed to have poor reliability in detecting restrictions and moderate reliability in detecting instability. Inter-examiner reliability was better in the symptomatic group and in this group examiners had more agreement on detecting instability as opposed to restrictions. This study has showed that inter-examiner reliability ranged from poor to moderate in the symptomatic and asymptomatic group with the reliability ranging from poor to moderate. Therefore, one can conclude that motion palpation can be used as an assessment tool to detect joint dysfunction in hindfoot and midfoot joints. However, further studies are warranted to address other subjective and objective measurements such as tenderness and range of motion together with motion palpation.


The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is impacting on the industrialization options for Africa inter alia through three interrelated sets of technologies, namely automation, additive manufacturing and the Industrial Internet. In this paper I set out the case for why Africa should industrialize. I then explore the opportunities and threats the 4IR pose for Africa. Threats include job-losses and the re-shoring of manufacturing to advanced economies. Among the opportunities are products-as-services, the sharing (collaborative) economy, and digital services and digital exports. These are markets that are currently underdeveloped in Africa but have substantial potential given Africa's geography, demography and on-going urbanisation. In order for the continent to benefit from the 4IR more needs to be done to improve entrepreneurship and education. A number of policy recommendations for 4IRcompatible entrepreneurship and education policies are made.


The tensile stress in light-emitting diode (LED)-on-Si(1 1 1) multilayer structures must be reduced so that it does not compromise the multiple quantum well emission wavelength uniformity and structural stability. In this paper it is shown for non-optimized LED structures grown on Si(1 1 1) substrates that both emission wavelength uniformity and structural stability can be achieved within the same growth process. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the stress distribution within such a structure, cross-sectional Raman and photo-luminescence spectroscopy techniques were developed. It is observed that for a Si:GaN layer grown on a low-temperature (LT) AlN intermediate layer there is a decrease in compressive stress with increasing Si:GaN layer thickness during MOCVD growth which leads to a high level of tensile stress in the upper part of the layer. This may lead to the development of cracks during cooling to room temperature. Such a phenomenon may be associated with annihilation of defects such as dislocations. Therefore, a reduction of dislocation intensity should take place at the early stage of GaN growth on an AlN or AlGaN layer in order to reduce a build up of tensile stress with thickness. Furthermore, it is also shown that a prolonged three dimensional GaN island growth on a LT AlN interlayer for the reduction of dislocations may result in a reduction in the compressive stress in the resulting GaN layer.


The new developments in cloud computing have introduced significant security challenges to guarantee the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of outsourced data. A service level agreement (SLA) is usually signed between the cloud provider (CP) and the customer. For redundancy purposes, it is important to verify the CP's compliance with data backup requirements in the SLA. There exist a number of security mechanisms to check the integrity and availability of outsourced data. This task can be performed by the customer or be delegated to an independent entity that we will refer to as the verifier. However, checking the availability of data introduces extra costs, which can discourage the customer of performing data verification too often. The interaction between the verifier and the CP can be captured using game theory in order to find an optimal data verification strategy. In this paper, we formulate this problem as a two player non-cooperative game. We consider the case in which each type of data is replicated a number of times, which can depend on a set of parameters including, among others, its size and sensitivity. We analyze the strategies of the CP and the verifier at the Nash equilibrium and derive the expected behavior of both the players. Finally, we validate our model numerically on a case study and explain how we evaluate the parameters in the model.


To modulate T-cell function for cancer therapy, one challenge is to selectively attenuate regulatory but not conventional CD4+ T-cell subsets [regulatory T cell (Treg) and conventional T cell (Tconv)]. In this study, we show how a functional dichotomy in Class IA PI3K isoforms in these two subsets of CD4+ T cells can be exploited to target Treg while leaving Tconv intact. Studies employing isoform-specific PI3K inhibitors and a PI3Kδ-deficient mouse strain revealed that PI3Kα and PI3Kβ were functionally redundant with PI3Kδ in Tconv. Conversely, PI3Kδ was functionally critical in Treg, acting there to control T-cell receptor signaling, cell proliferation, and survival. Notably, in a murine model of lung cancer, coadministration of a PI3Kδ-specific inhibitor with a tumor-specific vaccine decreased numbers of suppressive Treg and increased numbers of vaccine-induced CD8 T cells within the tumor microenvironment, eliciting potent antitumor efficacy. Overall, our results offer a mechanistic rationale to employ PI3Kδ inhibitors to selectively target Treg and improve cancer immunotherapy. Cancer Res; 77(8); 1892-904. ©2017 AACR.


Expressions are derived for the sixteen wave front aberration coefficients of a single grating. These give the wave aberrations to the fourth order for a plane symmetric grating system. The contributions from each mirror and grating can be added to give the aberrations in the final image. Problems encountered with intermediate astigmatic images are overcome by defining the wave front aberration with respect to an astigmatic reference surface. There is one field variable describing displacement of the object point from the symmetry plane. The aperture stop may be placed anywhere in the system, and equations are given for the aberration changes produced by shifting this position.


There is growing interest in and knowledge about the interplay of learning and emotion. However, the different approaches and empirical studies correspond to each other only to a low extent. To prevent this research field from increasing fragmentation, a shared basis of theory and research is needed. The presentation aims at giving an overview of the state of the art, developing a general framework for theory and research, and outlining crucial topics for future theory and research. The presentation focuses on the influence of emotions on learning. First, theories about the impact of emotions on learning are introduced. Second, the importance of these theories for school learning are discussed. Third, empirical evidence resulting from school-based research about the role of emotions for learning is presented. Finally, further research demands are stressed.


This poster session reports the examination of user tasks in the context of domain specific vocabulary interoperability. Two vocabularies, Library of Congress Subject Headings and the Art and Architecture thesaurus, were selected for comparison using a single user task (Cross-vocabulary discovery). Analyzing the structure of the vocabularies in the context of this task found challenges associated with the differences in concept representation, differences in vocabulary structures and varying levels of specificity. The exploration found that the similarities in structure and semantics for these two vocabularies provide a solid foundation for both user-determined on demand and automatically derived interoperability in the context of the cross-vocabulary discovery task. The exploration of AAT and LCSH vocabularies also found that considering the impact on stakeholders (e.g., end users, vocabulary creators, vocabulary implementers) is important when considering how to design and implement vocabulary interoperability applications.


Books under Suspicion: Censorship and Tolerance of Revelatory Writing in Late Medieval England. By Kathryn Kerby-Fulton. (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press. 2006. Pp. lii, 562. $50.00.) Kathryn Kerby-Fulton's Books under Suspicion is among the major books of the decade in medieval English studies. In this monumental volume on academic freedom and its discontents, Kerby-Fulton has given us nothing less than a new intellectual history of theological pluralism, dissent, and the limits of tolerance in the late Middle Ages. Challenging received wisdom, she shows that medieval England was not nearly so insular as scholars have supposed. While exquisitely attuned to the rise of Wycliffite heresy, medievalists tend to write as if unruffled orthodoxy prevailed until 1381, treating the English intellectual scene as exempt from such Continental currents as Joachimite apocalypticism, Free Spirit heresy, intra-Franciscan quarrels, the beatific-vision controversy, and even schism politics. Against the grain, Books under Suspicion speculates richly as to how all of these influenced the writings of Chaucer, Margery Kempe, Julian of Norwich, and above all, Langland: Piers Plowman scholars will find lush grazing for their oxen. What is incontestable, however, is the new evidence Kerby-Fulton provides to revitalize turf one might have thought worked to exhaustion. Since England had no papal inquisitors and no orchestrated royal campaign against heresy before Henry IV's assault on the Lollards, it is understandable that the Orthodox/Lollard binary has dominated English studies for the last generation. But England's decentralized approach to the repression of heresy does not imply the absence of either heresy or repression. Drawing on bishops' registers, university records, patent rolls, and other sources, Kerby-Fulton prefaces her work with a thirty-three-page chronology of "non-Wycliffite cases of heresy and related events" in England and Ireland from 1161 to 1457, although the bulk of her analysis focuses on the fraught decades of the 1380s and '90s. The work ends with an index of no fewer than 119 manuscripts consulted-many containing texts by Joachim of Fiore, Olivi, Rupescissa, and other suspect writers traveling incognito, often in bowdlerized or mutilated form. Kerby-Fulton's category of "revelatory writing" includes both women's texts laying claim to visionary inspiration and their male counterpart, exegetical works claiming intellectio spiritualis. Both strategies, she argues, offered a theological refuge for optimistic eschatologies and "salvational generosities"-a more precise term than "universalism."Though academics distrusted revelatory writing, they were compelled by Scripture to admit at least the possibility of authentic revelation in both forms, thus providing a fragile safe-conduct for many texts that might otherwise have been censured. And in times of trial, even hardened skeptics could seek reassurance from revelations. Thus Books under Suspicion becomes a study in strange bedfellows. Wycliffites, for example, shared the general skittishness about revelatory writing, but at times, their interest in disendowment led them to make common cause with Joachimiteleaning Franciscan Spirituals. Two of the most interesting "Lollard" texts, the testimony of Walter Brut and the anonymous Opus arduum (Kerby-Fulton proposes Nicholas Hereford as its author), prove to have been influenced by Continental apocalypticism. …


The striking economic agglomerations emerging in affluent democracies are generating, reproducing, and expanding inequalities. A major mechanism for this is housing, which is both a repository for wealth and, under these conditions, a magnifier of wealth. Access to urban areas – the site of educational, labor, and marriage market advantages – is contingent upon access to housing. We use comparative analysis of cases in Europe (London and Paris) and the United States (New York and San Francisco) to consider the capacities of different societies to limit or ameliorate these new sources of diverging opportunity. These seemingly local issues remain shaped by distinct national political contexts, which vary dramatically in their capacity to support local affordable housing and reduce the collective action problems confronting major metropolitan areas.


: This paper investigates possible mechanisms of cochlear two-tone suppression (2TS) in models of the hair cell transducer and the cochlea. The hair cell transducer model can be represented by a saturation function. To simulate cochlear mechanics, a nonlinear transmission line cochlear model is used. The mechano-electric transducer curve of the outer hair cell (OHC) is regarded as the source of nonlinearity in cochlear mechanics. The saturation function approximated by a power series can explain 2TS in the OHC transducer model. However, this mathematical formulation cannot account for cochlear 2TS because the cochlear mechanics is more complicated than the saturation in the OHC transducer. To clarify two-tone interference graphically, it is expressed as a residual vector, the entries of which are the frequencies of the probe and suppressor. In this construct, the stronger of two tones introduced to the system nonlinearly reduces the output by vector subtraction. The model accomplished 2TS and displayed similar horizontal and vertical residual vectors. These analytical results suggest that 2TS is obtained from simple interference between the probe and the suppressor in the cochlear mechanics with nonlinear variation of the OHC transducer current.


In this paper we study a model to estimate the probability that a target group of an advertising campaign is reached by a commercial message a given number of times. This contact frequency distribution is known to be computationally difficult to calculate because of dependence between the viewing probabilities of advertisements. Our model calculates good estimates of contact frequencies in a very short time based on data that is often available. A media planning model that optimizes effective reach as a function of contact frequencies demonstrates the usefulness of the model. Several local search procedures such as taboo search, simulated annealing and genetic algorithms are applied to find a good media schedule. The results show that local search methods are flexible, fast and accurate in finding media schedules for media planning models based on contact frequencies. The contact frequency model is a potentially useful new tool for media planners.


OBJECTIVE
Placental Leucine Aminopeptiadse (P-LAP) also known as oxytocinase, is secreted by syncytiotrophoblast and increases gradually during pregnancy until delivery. It is a regulator of uterine contractions, of vascular resistance and of volume of the retroplacental blood pool. Recently, it was shown that it could also regulate metalloproteinase 9 activity and thus, invasiveness of trophoblastic cells. Since development of preeclampsia could be initiated by decreased cytotrophoblastic invasion of spiral arterioles and a reduced uteroplacental perfusion, we speculate that circulating P-LAP activity could be decreased during preeclampsia.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Case-control study was evaluated in 84 women. P-LAP activity was measured in n=51 healthy pregnant women at term, and compared with n=16 normotensive women delivering preterm and n=17 women diagnosed with pre-eclampsia. P-LAP activity was determined by colorimetry in plasma samples using L-Leucine-p-nitroanilide as substrate.

RESULTS
P-LAP activity was significantly lower in sera of preeclamptic women (0.91+/-0.122 mDO/min) as compared to normotensive controls (1.41+/-0.103 mDO/min; p=0.003) irrespective of time of delivery.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings confirm the probable involvement of P-LAP in trophoblast invasion and development of preeclampsia.


In this paper, I argue that constant and continued news coverage of celebrities create a de facto visual biography in serial form. nfotainment seems to have a penchant for blondes, such as Paris Hilton, Anna Nicole Smith, Natalee Holloway, Amber Fry, etc. These news stories get more coverage than the war on terror and natural diasters; they attract more viewers and hence, more ad revenue. This is superficial news for economic profit.


Within contemporary research discussion in interaction design, HCI and pervasive media the word time is commonly used to represent a wide variety of meanings, concepts and dimensions. Often this is without differentiation between contradictory interpretations of the simple word that belies complex relationships with our world and increasingly with media.
The discussion or the experience of time can be traced to many sources, from Heraclitus and the river of time, Husserl's phenomenological concepts and the Bergsonian interpretations of time to empirical measurements of the swinging pendulum of Captain Clock conflicting concepts of time are freely used to discuss media and interaction. As Chen and Boroditsky argue even the languages we speak influence how we conceive of and verbalise our ideas of time and the effects this has on our lives.
This paper considers the issues of how to describe, compartmentalise and resolve the seemingly conflicting concepts of time using the consideration of time as a volume orthogonal to three dimensional space. Taking examples from digital culture, pervasive media, life logging and the quantified self the paper argues for a new analysis of concepts of time as discussed within contemporary digital media research and HCI practice.


This paper considers long-standing concerns about research/theory practice gaps in kinesiology, and proposes one potential solution. An analysis of the problem is followed by an overview and illustration of a new translational research mechanism: pedagogical cases (Armour, 2014). This mechanism has been designed to support the training and career-long development of practitioners in the broad field of physical activity education (PAE). It is argued that PAE practice is always interdisciplinary, therefore researchers in the kinesiology sub/disciplines have a responsibility to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries to develop new, interdisciplinary knowledge that meets the needs of practitioners. It is also argued that researchers and practitioners have a responsibility to work together to do the difficult synthesis work required to improve both research and practice.


Concrete, as the world's most implemented construction material, is increasingly being used because of the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization. Limited resources and progressive depravation of the environment are forcing scientific efforts to seek alternative and effective materials from large amounts of natural resources as additives in the partial replacement of cement. Cement is a main constituent of concrete. To solve and minimize environmental issues, research works attempting to employ the wide availability of agricultural wastes, such as sugar cane bagasse, rice husk, sugar cane straw, and palm oil fuel, among others, into cement, and to finally bring sustainable and environmentally friendly properties to concrete are being examined. Agro-waste materials are crushed into fine and coarse aggregates or are burnt into ash, and are then mixed with cement, which is known as agro-cement. The replacement of aggregates, either partially or fully, is also deemed as a sustainable material in construction. This paper mainly reviews the current research on agro-cement that has been researched and applied for the enhancement of the strength and durability of concrete. It further summarizes the relevant knowledge and techniques, while providing optimal parameters for applying agricultural wastes in concrete.


For nineteenth-century thinkers, the central problem of religious consciousness in the modern West was the tension between prevailing concepts of individual autonomy and the traditional Judaeo-Christian claim for divine revelation. The God Within brings together ten of Professor Emil Fackenheim's essays on the German Idealists who struggled to resolve this tension. This philosophic preoccupation found its most searching and comprehensive expression, when the traditional notion of 'God as Transcendent' was reconceptualized as 'the God within.' The internalization of God's 'otherness' reached its climax with Hegel, the subject of Fackenheim's earlier work, The Religious Dimension in Hegel's Thought. This long-awaited companion to that volume examines the earlier stages of the process, beginning with its initiator, Kant, then considering Schelling in both his earlier and later phases, and finally, looking once more at Hegel. The investigation of this movement, together with the related themes of history and the literary arts, leads to reflection on the significance of taking historicity seriously. Included is the classic, much-cited article 'Metaphysics and Historicity,' which connects the philosophy of German Idealists to twentieth-century questions of historicity and existential thought in particular. The previously unpublished essay 'Schelling in 1800-1801: Art as Revelation,' provides an overview of philosophical history from Kant through Fichte and Schleiermacher, to the later Schelling. All the essays gathered here are concerned with the radical singularity of history and existence on the one hand and the demands of philosophical truth on the other. They are informed by Professor Fackenheim's engagement with the profound philosophical challenges of our day--particularly his efforts, as a Jewish theologian, to confront the horrors of the Holocaust. We see, through Fackenheim's exposition, how these thinkers sought to come to terms with the presence of radical evil, a problem whose modern relevance is explored in this volume's epilogue, the 1988 essay 'Holocaust and Weltanschauung: Philosophical Reflections on Why They Did It.'


Until recently, the assumption of the language-teaching literature has been that new languages are best taught and learned monolingually, without the use of the students' own language(s). In recent years, however, this monolingual assumption has been increasingly questioned, and a re-evaluation of teaching that relates the language being taught to the students' own language has begun. This article surveys the developing English language literature on the role of students' own language(s) in the language classroom. After clarifying key terms, the paper charts the continuing widespread use of students' own languages in classrooms around the world and the contemporary academic and societal trends which have led to a revival of support for this. It then explores key arguments which underpin this revival, and reviews a range of empirical studies which examine the extent and functions of own-language use within language classrooms. Next, the article examines the support for own-language use that a range of theoretical frameworks provide, including psycholinguistic and cognitive approaches, general learning theory and sociocultural approaches. Having explored the notion of 'optimal' in-class own-language use, the article then reviews research into teachers' and students' attitudes towards own-language use. It concludes by examining how a bilingual approach to language teaching and learning might be implemented in practice.


Abstract So far, empirical evidence regarding the effects of extended education on externalizing behavior is mixed. To explore possible moderators, multilevel-analyses were conducted in a longitudinal sample of 492 students from 51 all-day schools in Switzerland. No main effects of utilization intensity, interaction quality and externalizing behavior in peers on the development of externalizing behavior from grade 1 to grade 2 were found. However, the relationship between utilization intensity and change in externalizing behavior was moderated by externalizing behavior in peers and by caregiver-student interactions. Subsequent analyses display a complex pattern of these cross-level interactions, indicating confounding characteristics. Implications for future research are discussed. Keywords: extended education, all-day schools, externalizing behavior, quality, peer contagion ----- Bibl iography: Frei, Lukas/Schuepbach, Marianne/Nieuwenboom, Wim/Benjamin von, Allen: Extended Education and Externalizing Behavior: Utilization Intensity, Interaction Quality and Peers as Possible Moderators, IJREE, Vol. 4, Issue 2-2016, pp. 92-109. https://doi.org/10.3224/ijree.v4i2.25783


OF DISSERTATION SELF-ADVOCACY AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES AND/OR ATTENTION-DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDERS The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a seven-week self-advocacy intervention on students' with LD and/or ADHD abilities to self-advocate with college professors and understand their disability. Prior research has indicated that students with LD and/or ADHD must, in order to accomplish their postsecondary educational goals, be skilled at and responsible for accessing and utilizing any accommodations they need to complete their course of study. Despite the amendments to 2004 IDEA specific to transition planning, compared with same age peers, many students with LD and ADHD demonstrate less self-awareness entering college in addition to limited skills in the areas of self-determination and selfadvocacy. This research study utilized an exploratory multiple case studies approach to investigate the effect of a self-advocacy instructional intervention on six college-aged students' with LD and/or ADHD abilities to advocate with their college professors and understand their disability. This study's sample was drawn from both the LD and ADHD student populations who were enrolled in an Academic Support Program (ASP) at the university level. This study extends Merchant's (1998) work in the following ways: first, by qualitatively exploring student perceptions of self-advocacy and accommodation seeking through pre/post-intervention interviews, secondly by the inclusion of participants with ADHD, and thirdly through the addition of another quantitative measure (Self-Advocacy Questionnaire (SAQ). Students took part in a seven-week instructional self-advocacy intervention. The director of the ASP conducted classes that met weekly for seven consecutive weeks. Students were presented the following topics: goal setting, differences between high school and college, part I and II, learning styles and preferences, knowledge of disability: strengths and challenges, accommodations, selfadvocacy and self-determination and putting it all together. Semi-structured pre/post interviews, pretest/posttest questionnaires on the components of self-advocacy, written knowledge pretest/posttests, and pretest/posttest role-play sessions requesting accommodations from a professor were utilized as measures for the study. Findings revealed that the early disability experiences in K-12 shaped the participants' capacities to learn and demonstrate self-advocacy skills. Four main themes emerged from the stories and lived experiences of six college students with LD and/or ADHD: (a) interactions between family support and educational experiences; (b) self-advocacy knowledge; (c) self-advocacy experiences; and (d) perceived benefits of the intervention. Students found the intervention curriculum helpful in supporting future self-advocacy behavior. Small improvements were seen in the quantitative measures utilized (role-play scores, knowledge test results, SAQ). Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.


Proliferating media forms, from tablets to Twitter, are changing communicative practice, delimiting new experiential horizons, and thus providing phenomenological research with novel variations on the experience of self and other. Videoconferencing via Skype or FaceTime offers prominent examples of these changing forms. Despite the use of these communication technologies in both educational contexts and everyday life, educational videoconferencing has been described in the research literature as "a hidden mode of delivery, employing invisible pedagogical techniques."  In this study I address this situation of simultaneous familiarity, invisibility and uncertainty by focusing particularly on the lived experience of space, the body and eye contact in videoconferencing contexts. This study suggests that the disruption of spatial coherence and power of gaze and mutual gaze are all but unavoidable features of this experience. It concludes by emphasizing the importance forms or expressions of absence , such as the diminution of eye contact, or the importance of not always being perceived as performing or "on" in videoconferencing contexts.


Samuel's parents and young sister, innocent bystanders during an uprising, are killed by South African police. Samuel is sent to live with his uncle, a tribal chief in the Bantu homeland, while his brother vows to join the African National Congress armed struggle and avenge his family's deaths. In the h omeland, Samuel discovers he can run faster than anyone and before long begins to train under his English-educated uncle. Years later, after the end of Apartheid, Samuel is selected as the token black South African athlete to run in the Olympics. President Nelson Mandela is there when he wins his gold medal, and Samuel dedicates it to 'a very special man...I was running for the President. I was running for my country.' This powerful and moving story portrays what it was like for blacks growing up in South Africa aunder Apartheid and the different ways in which they struggled to gain their freedom. For some, like Samuel's brother, it was an armed struggle, but for Samuel it was the opportunity to prove he could run better than any white man.


A series of N-Mannich bases of benzimidazolyl substituted 1H-isoindole-1,3(2H) dione have been derived by the reaction of different substituted amino acids with phthalic anhydride to yield 2-(substituted) 1H-isoindole-1,3(2H) diones (3), further condensation with o-phenylenediamine yields 2- substituted benzimidazolyl 1H-isoindole-1,3(2H) diones (4), followed mannich reaction with methanal and different amines to yields final products (5). The chemical structures of synthesized N-Mannich bases were determined by elemental analysis and spectral data (FTIR & 1 H NMR). All the synthesized derivatives have been evaluated for their antimicrobial, anthelmintic and insecticidal activities against microbes, helminthes and insects selected as compared to standard drugs by using disc diffusion method and Watkins technique respectively. All the synthesized N-Mannich bases possess the significant antimicrobial, anthelmintic and insecticidal activities.


The predictive coding framework construes the brain as performing a specific form of hierarchical Bayesian inference. In this framework the precision of cortical unsigned prediction error (surprise) signals is proposed to play a key role in learning and decision-making, and to be controlled by dopamine. To test this hypothesis, we re-analysed an existing data-set from healthy individuals who received a dopamine agonist, antagonist or placebo and who performed an associative learning task under different levels of outcome precision. Computational reinforcement-learning modelling of behaviour provided support for precision-weighting of unsigned prediction errors. Functional MRI revealed coding of unsigned prediction errors relative to their precision in bilateral superior frontal gyri and dorsal anterior cingulate. Cortical precision-weighting was (i) perturbed by the dopamine antagonist sulpiride, and (ii) associated with task performance. These findings have important implications for understanding the role of dopamine in reinforcement learning and predictive coding in health and illness.


We describe a new framework for efficiently computing and storing global illumination effects for complex, animated environments. The new framework allows the rapid generation of sequences representing any arbitrary path in a "view space" within an environment in which both the viewer and objects move. The global illumination is stored as time sequences of range-images at base locations that span the view space. We present algorithms for determining locations for these base images, and the time steps required to adequately capture the effects of object motion. We also present algorithms for computing the global illumination in the base images that exploit spatial and temporal coherence by considering direct and indirect illumination separately. We discuss an initial implementation using the new framework. Results and analysis of our implementation demonstrate the effectiveness of the individual phases of the approach; we conclude with an application of the complete framework to a complex environment that includes object motion.


A policy of free basic services (water, sanitation and electricity) was introduced by the government in 2000 to provide basic services to households unable to afford these services. The policy allows for six kilolitres of water free monthly to all households, irrespective of household size or demographics. The assumption was that water consumption is relatively insensitive to the tariff structure, thus alternative tariff structures were applied to obtain the same amount of revenue for unchanged consumption. Aggregate costs of water consumption of R3.8 billion in 2006 by households with piped water were relatively small compared to social spending of about R177 billion. In comparison to a fixed price structure, the gains from the actual tariff structure were quite small for most households who benefited. The net gains of the poorest 40% of households of R61 million per year from the IBT plus Free Basic Water was quite small when compared to social spending of R88 billion to their benefit. The analysis illustrates the limitation of redistributive policies at municipal level. Those who gain are more often in the middle of the national income distribution, although they are the poorer members of the urban population.


Extensive geophysical surveying of western Lake Superior has revealed the presence of a system of small extensional faults deforming a 10–15-m-thick interval of glacio-lacustrine clays of early Holocene age over an area of ∼5000 km2. Mapping of these closely spaced faults shows that they have (1) a polygonal planform geometry with a large range of strikes and (2) oblique to orthogonal intersection geometries. The fault system is layer bound and restricted to fine-grained postglacial sediments. The fault system is overlain by an extensive field of 100–400-m-diameter, 1–7-m-deep pockmarks, directly implicating the faults in the process of pockmark formation. The fault system is the youngest and most accurately dated example of a polygonal fault system described to date and the first to be described from a freshwater setting. This example conclusively demonstrates that nontectonic faulting can occur in sediment buried only a few meters and can be accompanied by highly focused fluid flow, a result that has wide implications for compaction processes of fine-grained sediments.


How young people make career/occupational choices and why they enter particular careers/occupations are questions to which the answers are complex. One hundred and ninety seven-students drawn from two non-selective comprehensive schools and two further education (FE) colleges in the North of England took part in a questionnaire survey relating to their perceptions of education and training. Forty-seven of these students were subsequently interviewed. The data, collected during 2005 and 2006, suggests a level of student uncertainty that may arise from being attuned to the ambivalent status surrounding vocational education and associated careers. There were indications that perceptions of earning capacity were a key factor in shaping ideas about careers, and that students aspired to courses that they believed offered the highest potential for future earnings. The uncertainty evident in young people's responses to questions about vocational courses may suggest that schools had failed to adequately inform them about vocationally related-qualifications, though there are, it is contended, socially embedded values and attitudes that simultaneously both shape and cloud their thinking.


While decades have passed since 1994's Violence Against Women Act, do we see American judges employing inaccurate, though widely held, myths about rape? Sexual assault has become an increasingly contested social, political, and public law issue, yet both inside and outside academia this question remains unsettled. This dissertation resolves this issue by undertaking a critical analysis of over a thousand judicial opinions discussing sexual violence in the American states. The project's foundational questions of whether rape myths are used by the judiciary anymore, and if so, when, are answered with the responses: frequently, but variably, depending on the myth in question. Following this finding, the demographic, institutional, and political correlates of this discourse are explored. The results of these analyses highlight that while women, as a monolithic group, do not seem to be judging in a "different voice," Democratic women are. Further, both men and women who choose to focus on gendered issues in their legal careers also have different rape myth usage patterns compared to those who do not. Finally, this gendered effect is also connected to the presence of a critical mass of women on the bench – where a critical mass of women can be found, rape myth usage among men and women on the bench is lowered, and challenges to rape myths increase. The results of these examinations inform how rape myth use by judges can be reduced and the findings of this study add critically to sociolegal scholarship's goal of learning more about the nexus of law and society.


Affluent Americans have disproportionate influence over policymaking and often use their power to advance conservative economic policies that increase inequality. I show that this behavior is partially driven by affluent Americans' desire for social status. First, I use a new survey scale to show that affluent Americans' desire for social status strongly predicts their level of economic conservatism. Second, I test my theory experimentally in the context of social media. On sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, affluent Americans compete for social status by sharing curated versions of their lives that highlight their upper-class lifestyle. When I randomly assign affluent Americans to experience this status competition, it causes them to become more economically conservative. The results help us understand the social and psychological origins of economic conservatism among affluent Americans, and provide the first evidence that social media encourages political behaviors that are conducive to inequality.


This interview discusses the portrayal of women in Indonesian media and advertising, and how social stereotypes of gender roles affect the way women see themselves and interact with society. Overview For this episode of Sub Rosa, Kate interviewed Firly Annisa, an activist and lecturer in Media and Communication at Muhammadiyah University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Firly is also involved with the NGO Rumah Sinema (Cinema House) where she promotes media literacy amongst young people. We spoke about issues around the portrayal of women in Indonesian media and advertising, and how social stereotypes of gender roles affect the way women see themselves and interact with society. We also discussed the rising trend of Muslim Middle class consumption, the concurrent rise of Islamic fashion amongst Indonesia's middle class, and the unrealistic moral and aesthetic pressures this highly visible consumer trend places on Indonesian women – from skin whiteness as an association with 'Muslim piety,' to the irony of the commodification of a pious aesthetic by the fashion industry.


Mercury (Hg) is a worldwide contaminant that can cause adverse health effects to wildlife and humans. While atmospheric modeling traces the link from emissions to deposition of Hg onto environmental surfaces, large uncertainties arise from our incomplete understanding of atmospheric processes (oxidation pathways, deposition, and re-emission). Atmospheric Hg reactivity is exacerbated in high latitudes and there is still much to be learned from polar regions in terms of atmospheric processes. This paper provides a synthesis of the atmospheric Hg monitoring data available in recent years (2011–2015) in the Arctic and in Antarctica along with a comparison of these observations with numerical simulations using four cutting-edge global models. The cycle of atmospheric Hg in the Arctic and in Antarctica presents both similarities and differences. Coastal sites in the two regions are both influenced by springtime atmospheric Hg depletion events and by summertime snowpack re-emission and oceanic evasion of Hg. The cycle of atmospheric Hg differs between the two regions primarily because of their different geography. While Arctic sites are significantly influenced by northern hemispheric Hg emissions especially in winter, coastal Antarctic sites are significantly influenced by the reactivity observed on the East Antarctic ice sheet due to katabatic winds. Based on the comparison of multi-model simulations with observations, this paper discusses whether the processes that affect atmospheric Hg seasonality and interannual variability are appropriately represented in the models and identifies research gaps in our understanding of the atmospheric Hg cycling in high latitudes.


Consistent with the governance shift towards network forms of governance, a number of new social movements have formed in response to the declining levels of physical activity in the Western world. One such movement is Active Canada 20/20: A Physical Activity Strategy and Change Agenda for Canada. Network governance is employed as the theoretical framework for this case study exploration of Active Canada 20/20 and the political landscape surrounding its development and implementation. Semistructured interviews were conducted in addition to document/policy analysis and direct observations. Analysis of the data resulted in three overarching themes – the defining characteristics of network governance, the political landscape, and intersectoral linkages – that interconnect multifariously based the nature of the Canadian federal government and its relationship with the voluntary sector for physical activity. Despite progress in driving Active Canada 20/20 forward, entrenched dynamics of power need to be navigated within the political landscape surrounding network governance.


A number of studies have cited immune cell infiltration as a mechanism for secondary injury following intracerebral hemorrhage. However, the role of monocytes remains poorly understood. We hypothesized that monocytes are a beneficial cell type that help remove extravasated blood and other pathogenic substances that enter brain parenchymal tissue during a hemorrhagic stroke. Using macrophage Fas-induced apoptosis (MAFIA) mice, this study documents a time course of monocyte infiltration into brain tissue. We then systemically knocked down monocytes prior to initiating an intracerebral hemorrhage, and studied the motor and cognitive outcomes relative to a vehicle treated group. The genetic alteration present in MAFIA mice causes the co-expression of green fluorescent protein and a suicide protein, exclusively in monocytes and dendritic cells. We established a time course of monocyte infiltration by counting cells expressing green fluorescent protein in brain parenchymal tissue at four time points after initiating a severe collagenase-induced hemorrhage. We found that at the 48-hour time point there was a v significant increase of immune cells infiltrating the core of the lesion relative to that observed at 6 hours and 24 hours, and non-significant decline at the 7-day time point. Furthermore, the administration of AP20187 to MAFIA mice causes the dimerization of the suicide proteins, which initiates Fas-induced apoptosis selectively in cells expressing the suicide protein. By administering10uL of AP20187 per animal for four consecutive days, we were able to knockdown monocytes both systemically and in brain parenchymal tissue following hemorrhage. To investigate the role of monocytes following intracerebral hemorrhage, we compared a monocyte-depleted group of MAFIA mice to a vehicle-treated group. Both groups underwent a collagenase-induced hemorrhage, and then were subjected to wire grip testing and Morris Water Maze. The group of monocyte-depleted MAFIA mice performed worse in wire grip testing (p < 0.02), as well as in the Morris Water Maze test (p < 0.01). Through the course of the 3week experiment there was 50% mortality in the monocyte-depleted group, while no animals died in the vehicle treated group. Both of the functional studies and the mortality data suggest that monocytes play an important role following intracerebral hemorrhage. The infiltration data suggests that monocytes are recruited to parenchymal tissue after 6 and 24 hours following hemorrhage and remain present for at least one week. This time fame offers a large window for therapeutic modulation of monocyte recruitment and/or function. Future studies should focus on identifying monocytes' mechanisms of action, as well as improving the MAFIA mouse model by controlling for the weight loss and the cause of profound splenomegaly observed in the monocyte-depleted group.


With the high rate of unemployment in Botswana, it has become imperative that the alternative source of employment seen by policy makers and researchers as the panacea to the problem, is entrepreneurship.  Although, research has been conducted on entrepreneurship, little has been done on the university students' perceptions of entrepreneurial behaviour in Botswana.  To fill this gap, this paper seeks to investigate university students' perceptions of various entrepreneurial characteristics, motivators and challenges in Botswana.  To achieve this, a sample of 394 undergraduate students of the University of Botswana was targeted.  Findings of the current study indicate that students perceived an entrepreneur as an individual who possesses the right managerial skills, take risks, contribute to the economy, utilize available resources optimally, is creative and successful.  Although the current study is based on undergraduate students, an investigation of entrepreneurial behaviour that exists among potential entrepreneurs in Botswana is important, since it will enable policy makers and other stakeholders to intensify and channel initiatives to promote self employment. Key words : Botswana, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, motivators, traits


The sedimentary fill of Sofia Basin represents a large variety of sedimentary rocks grouped into four lithostratigraphic units variegated terrigenous formation, Gniljane, Novi Iskar and Lozenec Formations (Kamenov, Kojumdgieva, 1983) that represent the distinct stages of the basin evolution alluvial, marshy-lacustrine and lacustrine. The variegated terrigenous formation is presented by irregular alternation of clayshales, siltshales, sands and sandstones, varying in color. Gniljane Formation comprises conglomerates, sands and sandstones, siltstones and silty clayshales with lignite interbeds ln the upper part (Balsha Member). Novi Iskar Formation comprises gray to gray-bluish clays, diatomaceous clays, silty clays and siltshales as well as varves, composed of alternation of carbonaceous and clayey siltshales. Lozenec Formation consists of irregular alternation of clays, siltshales, sands, and conglomerates with lignite interbeds (Novi Han Member) in the lowermost part of the formation and with micrite limestones (Bogiovci Member) in the upper part of the formation (Yaneva, 1998). The thickness of Neogene sediments in Sofia basin varies from 10 m in the borders up to 1400 min the central parts.


In this note, we consider the non-negative least square method with a random matrix. This problem has connections with the probability that the origin is not in the convex hull of many random points. As related problems, suitable estimates are obtained as well on the probability that a small ball does not hit the convex hull.


Ongoing research has identified a potential disconnect in academic and pedagogic expectation between academic staff and students. At the same time a context of higher tuition fees and changing student expectations renders this relationship even more important to the success of higher education institutions. This research investigated the sources of student expectations for the pedagogic relationship, the alignment between staff and student expectations and the potential impact of expectation fulfilment and frustration on the student experience. The study used the Psychological Contract as a theoretical framework, responding to recent calls for the further use of psychological contracts in education. The author has taught business in both secondary and university contexts for a number of years. This experience informed the phenomenological positioning of the thesis, its focus, its location in a large post -'92 business school, its mixed methods and an analytical method (template analysis) which has enabled both anticipated and emergent themes to be explored.
Data was collected from a sample of students at regular intervals throughout their first year of study and from staff. Both exploratory statistical analysis of survey data and template analysis of interviews suggested that staff and students' initial expectations broadly concur. However the practical implications of such notions as 'independent learning' develop significantly over the first year and it is contended that pre-entry expectations are significantly influenced by students' experience of the pedagogic relationship at tertiary education level. The initial pedagogic psychological contract changes significantly over the first year as post entry experiences (or the 'reality shock') reshapes and reconfigures their expectations.
The research developed a series of recommendations to both secondary schools and universities to improve the management of expectations.


Woody plant encroachment into savannas is a globally prevalent phenomenon and impacts ecosystem goods and services such as biodiversity, carbon storage, nutrient cycling, grazing and hydrology. The direct ecological and economic consequences for rangelands have been fairly well studied, but, to our knowledge, the economic impact on conservation efforts has not been investigated. African savannas are important as conservation areas because they support large numbers of the world's remaining megafauna. This study used visitor surveys and long-term mammal distribution data to investigate how an increase in tree density might affect the visibility of animals in a conservation area, which could reduce the satisfaction of visitors to the area. We found that apparent herd sizes and density of animals were much reduced in woody areas, suggesting that visibility is negatively impacted. Visitor surveys determined that a large fraction (almost half) of potential future visitors to the park may be lost if animals became more difficult to see and that the majority of these would be the higher-spending visitors. Responses differed depending on the origin of visitors, with international visitors being more interested in seeing animals, whilst local visitors were more content with just being away from the city. The results suggest that woody plant encroachment may have significant impacts on visitor numbers to savanna conservation areas, whilst animal numbers and densities may also be significantly impacted. Conservation implications: The results pointed to potentially significant economic consequences for conservation efforts as visitors become less satisfied with their experience. Perceptions of visitors are important for management decisions as park fees contribute significantly to conservation efforts. This could ultimately result in a reduced capacity for African conservation areas to conserve their biodiversity effectively. The results suggest that management may need to re-evaluate their approach to controlling woody plant encroachment.


Several groupware systems support casual real-time interaction over distance by providing periodically updated snapshots of other people's offices. People then monitor these snapshots to determine how available others are for communication. In this research, we try to isolate what information people use from these snapshots to help them infer another's availability. Research participants examined video snapshots of people posed in typical office situations, and judged how available those people were for interaction. Our first result suggests that people have difficulty extracting information from these images unless the image resolution is at least 128/spl times/128 pixels. Our second result indicates that people interpret stereotypical situations as indicating varying degrees of availability. In general, people are judged as less available when they are seen to be absent from their office, or in conversation with others. People are judged more available when they are in transition (e.g. entering or leaving a room), and when they do not appear to be working. People at work seem to portray a more ambiguous situation. However, all situations had a minority of people who interpreted the image quite differently. These results have implications on the design of both video- and non-video-based awareness and availability systems.


IR spectroscopy has been widely employed to distinguish between different crystal forms such as polymorphs, clathrates, hydrates and co-crystals. IR has been used to monitor co-crystal formation and single synthon detection. In this work, we have developed a strategy to identify multiple supramolecular synthons in polymorphs and co-crystals with this technique. The identification of multiple synthons in co-crystals with IR is difficult for several reasons. In this paper, a four step method involving well assigned IR spectral markers that correspond to bonds in a synthon is used. IR spectra of three forms of the co-crystal system, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid:4,4′-bipyridine (2 : 1), show clear differences that may be attributed to differences in the synthon combinations existing in the forms (synthon polymorphism). These differences were picked out from the three IR spectra and the bands analysed and assigned to synthons. Our method first identifies IR marker bands corresponding to (covalent) bonds in known/model crystals and then the markers are mapped in known co-crystals having single synthons. Thereafter, the IR markers are queried in known co-crystals with multiple synthons. Finally they are queried in unknown co-crystals with multiple synthons. In the last part of the study, the N–H stretching absorptions of primary amides that crystallize with the amide dimers linked in a ladder like chain show two specific absorptions which are used as marker absorptions and all variations of this band structure have been used to provide details on the environment around the dimer. The extended dimer can accordingly be easily distinguished from the isolated dimer.


This study assessed the performance of the drinking water distribution system of the Tavua/Vatukoula network, Fiji. An important aim and a requisite of the work was the collection and assessment of pertinent data, to enable the development of a detailed hydraulic system model for analyses and simulations.

This study utilized EPANET v2, a popular and freely available software package developed by US Environment Protection Agency. The major features and most important characteristics of EPANET presented and discussed in detail in this report.

The technical focus of this study was mainly on available water pressures in various hydraulic loading scenarios. Pressure conditions were determined for average daily demand, maximum hourly demand, minimum demand, and peak hourly at maximum water plant delivery, as well involved extended (24 h) simulation runs. These examinations revealed various bottlenecks and shortcomings in the network, and provided insight into the underlying causes to suggest effective remediation approaches.

System simulations show that currently the Tavua/Vatukoula system is capable of providing satisfactory supply to the gross majority of customers, and only several distinct locations experience pressure deficiencies. System capacity also would allow the connection and supply of the proposed new sugar mill south of Tavua town (up to 4.63 L/s continuous demand) with not significant impact on existing customers. However, service would be severely limited for increased demand, and widespread pressure problems would arise at maximum water plant deliveries, indicating that network augmentation will be necessary in the coming years.

There was no sufficient data to allow for any disinfectant residual modelling. Nevertheless, water age simulations were carried out over extended (168 hours) periods, which identified various mains and branch pipelines prone to water stagnation. Analysis of operational issues, such as access for maintenance, placement of pressure regulating (PRV) valves, and the promptness with which repairs can be made, among other multidisciplinary concerns, were outside the scope of this study.

While various shortcomings and problems of the water network system were identified in this study, the current hydraulic model has limitations and will benefit from future improvements. The design and planning of remediation and augmentation works will require more and better quality data for model calibration.


Lichen planus is an inflammatory mucocutaneous disorder. The pathogenesis of lichen planus is predominantly T cell mediated. The condition is associated with it are hepatitis C, graft versus host disease, medications [antiarrythmic drugs, anti-hypertensive], dental materials [amalgam restoration] etc. Immune modulators have been widely used in the management of lichen planus. Corticosteroids are the most widely used among them. There is various mode of delivering corticosteroids in oral lichen planus. The systemic administration is reported to cause more adverse drug reaction when compared to local drug delivery systems. The case series describes three cases of lichen planus at different sites. It also high lights the site-specific treatment applied in them. Key words: Lichen planus, Local drug delivery, Corticosteroids, Systemic steroids.


Abstract In recent years, experimental and theoretical methods have provided new insights into the size, shape, reactivity, and stability of clay minerals. Although diverse and complex, the surface chemistry of all clay minerals is defined spatially on a common scale of nanometres. This review is organized around the nanoscale architecture of clay minerals examined at several different length scales. The first, and perhaps most important, is the length scale associated with H bonding in clay minerals. H bonding interactions define the size and shape of 1:1 phyllosilicates and dominate the surface chemistry of many clay minerals. Structural and surface OH groups contained within and on the surface of clay minerals provide a type of 'molecular reporter group' and are sensitive to subtle changes in their local environment. Examples of OH-reporter group studies in clay minerals, and the spatial scales at which they provide diagnostic information, are examined. The second length scale considered here is that associated with clay-water and clay-organic interactions. Inorganic and organic solutes can be used to explore the surface chemistry of clay minerals. Similar to the use of reporter groups, molecular probes have diagnostic properties that are sensitive to changes in their molecular environment. Clay-water interactions occur at a length scale that extends from the size of the H2O molecule (~0.3 nm) to the larger scales associated with clay-swelling (>10 nm). Similarly, clay-organic interactions are also defined, in part, on the basis of their molecular size, in addition to the type of chemical bonding interactions that take place between the organic solute and the clay surface. Examples illustrating the use of clay-water and clay-organic solute interactions as molecular probes are presented. The largest scale to be considered is that of the particles themselves, with scales that approach micrometres. Recent developments in the synthesis and characterization of ultrathin hybrid films of clay minerals provide complementary information about the nature and distribution of active sites on clay minerals, as well as providing new opportunities to exploit the surface chemistry of clay minerals in the design of functional materials.


We simulated heat propagation in the integrated graphene heat spreaders within the interconnect hierarchy. In the considered design, the graphene layers perform the dual functions of interconnects and heat spreaders. We investigated Joule heating effects within the chip with graphene interconnect networks and heat spreaders. Numerical solutions for direct current and heat propagation equations were found using the finite-element method. The simulation results showed that the use of graphene as interconnects as well as heat spreaders lowers the maximum temperature of the chip. The maximum temperature of the chip was studied as a function of the interconnect current and thickness of few-layer graphene. Our results are important for design of graphene-based thermal and electrical interconnect networks in the next generations of integrated circuits and 3-D electronics.


Seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum) is a prostrate, perennial turfgrass used on golf courses and athletic fields in warm-season climates. Research data on the traffic tolerance of seashore paspalum compared with hybrid bermudagrass (Cyndon dactylon × Cynodon transvaalensis) is minimal. A study was conducted in 2008 to evaluate the traffic tolerance of 'Sea Isle 2000', 'Salam', 'Sea Dwarf', and 'Sea Isle 1' seashore paspalum relative to 'Tifway' hybrid bermudagrass. Traffic was applied with a Cady Traffic Simulator (CTS) and traffic tolerance was assessed visually through measurements of percentage of turfgrass cover after 36, 54, 72, and 90 passes were applied with the CTS. After 90 passes (45 simulated professional football games) with the CTS, 'Salam', 'Sea Dwarf', and 'Sea Isle 1' seashore paspalum exhibited greater traffic tolerance than 'Tifway' hybrid bermudagrass; 'Sea Isle 2000' seashore paspalum exhibited the least amount of traffic tolerance in this study. These data suggest that some seashore paspalum cultivars may be a suitable alternative to hybrid bermudagrass on athletic fields in warm-season climates.


Aqueous ethanol is the standard medium for all drugs used in homeopathy. X-ray and Magnetispoli ambo are 2 homeopathic drugs prepared by exposure of aqueous ethanol to x-rays and static magnetic field, respectively.Mother tinctures (MT)weresuccessively diluted with solvent 1:100 and succussed in several steps to prepare centesimal potencies 8 cH, 14 cH and 32 cH. The solvent was processed in the same way. Although identical in chemical composition (0.03 molar ethanol) and water content (96%) these preparations like the Mother tinctures and three potencies of X-ray and Magnetispoli amboexhibit different therapeutic pathological effects. Potency 8cH of each preparation was diluted with water to reach concentrations 4%, 20%, 40% and 80% ethanol. The aim of the study was to establish whether these potencies exhibited variation in free water molecules. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) of MT and potencies exhibited almost similar freezing and melting points, but they remarkably differed in freezing and melting enthalpy and free water molecules. The various dilutions of potency 8cH exhibited variation in enthalpies and free water molecules, being this variation independent of the amount of water added. We conclude that exposure of aqueous ethanol to x-rays and magnetic field, with subsequent dilution and agitation induces changes in the solvent involving free water molecules. All X-ray and Magnetispoli ambo potencies were analyzed by means of Raman spectroscopy for free water molecules. The results were compared to the ones of DSC, being more or less similar.


Abstract Fans, landforms that record the storage and transport of sediment from uplands to depositional basins, are found on Saturn's moon Titan, a body of significantly different process rates and material compositions from Earth. Images obtained by the Cassini spacecraft's synthetic aperture radar reveal morphologies, roughness, textural patterns and other properties consistent with fan analogues on Earth also viewed by synthetic aperture radar. The observed fan characteristics on Titan reveal some regions of high relative relief and others with gentle slopes over hundreds of kilometres, exposing topographic variations and influences on fan formation. There is evidence for a range of particle sizes across proximal to distal fan regions, from c. 2 cm or more to fine-grained, which can provide details on sedimentary processes. Some features are best described as alluvial fans, which implies their proximity to high-relief source areas, while others are more likely to be fluvial fans, drawing from larger catchment areas and frequently characterized by more prolonged runoff events. The presence of fans corroborates the vast liquid storage capacity of the atmosphere and the resultant episodic behaviour. Fans join the growing list of landforms on Titan derived from atmospheric and fluvial processes similar to those on Earth, strengthening comparisons between these two planetary bodies.


The increasing critique on the business practices of the major online platforms in Europe is gradually leading to a rising in the number of abuse of dominance investigations and prohibition decisions. Such present and future cases revolving around the dominant position of various online platforms depend greatly on the correct definition of the relevant market. The process of the market definition with regard to online platforms requires, however, revisiting the compatibility of the current competition law tool kit, particularly in the case of the hypothetical monopolist test (HMT). Accordingly, the application of the HMT based on a small but significant non transitory increase in price (SSNIP) test of demand elasticity, will require an overhaul in order to maintain its relevance in the case of zero-pricing strategies commonly used by online platforms. In such cases the only feasible option for assessing demand elasticity for the purpose of performing the HMT entails converting the price centred analysis into a quality oriented one, namely based on a small but significant non transitory decrease in quality (SSNDQ). In the absence of such a conversion the market definition in the case of online platforms relying on zero-pricing will be performed solely based on a qualitative evaluation of the functionalities facilitated by such platforms as seen in the Google Shopping case. Although such outcome is not inherently problematic it does imply backtracking to older practices rather than advancing the development of a more future resilient legal framework and tool kit which should always be pursued.


In many research textbooks the distinction between qualitative and quantitative research is inadvertently linked with philosophical perspectives. This in essence creates a mutually exclusive relationship between method and philosophy. Initially researchers are led to believe, from these textbooks, that research is neatly divided into mutually exclusive categories, these being quantitative and qualitative research and 'never the twain shall meet'. This divide is further strengthened with the inference that the relationship extends further; associating deduction with quantitative methods and similarly induction with qualitative methods. What happens in most texts is that qualitative research methods and quantitative research methods are set against each other as polar opposites (Crotty 1998, p19). This paper argues that methodological pluralism is acceptable but what is not acceptable is philosophical pluralism. By naively linking methods and approaches to specific philosophy researchers and students may miss out on potentially innovative or creative data collection methods. Alternatively and more importantly by feeling tied or constrained by their philosophical stance to particular methods and approaches, associated with them by textbooks, they may in fact reduce the credibility, validity, and or significance of the research. There maybe an elective affinity between certain philosophies and methods but this should not necessarily constrain the methods chosen.


The results from processing and analyzing SPOT and Landsat images of time series to assess changing and development tendency of the ecosystems of mangroves and tidal flats by using the indicatators of square area show that: recent years, mangrove area has decreased dramatically; meanwhile aquaculture pond area has largely increased, particularly in the period after 2000. Similar to mangroves, tidal flat area has much decreased since 2000 and also related to the development of aquaculture ponds. The area of land filling in coastal area has a tendency of much increase since 2000, by factor of 2.5 only from 2002 to 2004, and mainly taken place in Ha  Long - Bai Tu Long area. With the direct corelation of spatial use of tidal flat and mangroves for development of aquaculture ponds and land filling in Quang Ninh, it is projected that the area for aquaculture development to 2010 will be about 20,000 ha and total area of mangrove and tidal flat will be in correspondence about 35,000 ha. For only mangroves, the area in Quang Ninh is predicted about 10,000 ha. With this area, mangrove ecosystem will have not enough environmental carrying capacity against wastes to be generated by aquaculture development.


UHF radio frequency identification (RFID) has gathered significant interest in the field of long-distance automatic identification applications. Since UHF RFID shares the frequency band with other RFID and/or other wireless systems, it is important to determine how much interference can be applied without causing a significant degradation of anti-collision speed. In this paper, the permissible link quality for RFID anti-collision in a practical environment is discussed by considering an erroneous communication link, taking into account of bit encoding and the type of interference. We approach the quantification of permissible link quality experimentally along with protocol simulations and the mathematical analyses. An international standard protocol, employing frame slotted ALOHA, was used as the air protocol. For these investigations, the present authors developed a protocol simulator. The simulation results were compared with analytical values based on Poisson distribution. The investigation in the return (tag to reader) link, and the forward (reader to tag) link, were analyzed separately. As result of the protocol simulation, it is generally important to secure the Pulse Error Rate 10-4 or better in both return and forward links for the anti-collision of 64 or less tags. The quality of the return link may be relaxed when the application does not require fast anti-collision. The degradation of the forward link, on the other hand, may entail loss of important commands, resulting in extremely slow anti-collision. It is measured experimentally that the required link quality can be relaxed by up to 10dB in the return links and by 5dB in the forward link when the primary source of interference originates in the interfering readers.


This Article offers a model for addressing current inequities in U.S. municipal criminal regulation through design justice theory. Historically, municipal courts in the United States have been the arbiter of minor crimes, processing traffic tickets and other low-level criminal charges. They have also served to uphold Black Codes, segregation, anti-protest laws, and "broken windows" criminal regulation. Enhancing equality in municipal courts requires meaningful participation from across the city's populace. Participatory design- a framework within urban planning, architecture and design fields- is a practice with honed protocols for implementing meaningful participation from "users" of a place or product. The goal of participatory design is to seek out and implement guidance from the people most affected. Design justice, a modern refinement of participatory design, prioritizes perspectives marginalized in local planning and decision-making. Municipal courts have had a disproportionate and deep impact on the advancement of minorities and poor people. This Article proposes that municipalities implement design justice processes in municipal criminal regulation.

In this piece, I analogize the use of design justice in contemplating Confederate monuments and other public sites of exclusion to the redesign of municipal criminal regulation. Design justice has emerged as a practice centered on the re-envisioning sites of exclusion and recognizing the invisible power hierarchies that undergird public uses of space. I emphasize that participatory design, and design justice in particular, provides critical tools for meaningful change in municipal criminal regulation. Applying design justice to the reform of local criminal regulation involves three precepts: grappling with the historic role of municipal courts, creating tools for public participation, and articulating clear and shared understandings of the spatial impacts of municipal criminal regulation.

Critical uses of design justice allows municipalities to subvert traditional roles of insider and outsider, disenfranchised, and expert in criminal regulation. Ultimately, design justice offers a path towards a broader understanding of court experiences and is adaptable to the work of deconstructing criminal municipal regulation and rebuilding more equitable laws.


To determine whether body weight is a risk factor for mortality among older persons, we analyzed body mass index (weight [kilogram]/height [square meter]) data for 4710 white, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey respondents who were aged 55 to 74 years during 1971 through 1975, in relation to their survival over an average of 8.7 years of follow-up. In a multivariate analysis that controlled for elevated blood pressure, smoking, and poverty, we found no additional risk associated with weight among women and a statistically significant, but moderate, additional risk (relative risk, 1.1 to 1.2) among men in the upper decile (body mass index, greater than or equal to 30 kg/m2). In contrast, low weight (body mass index, less than 22 kg/m2) was associated with increased mortality (relative risk, 1.3 to 1.6) except for women aged 55 to 64 years. We conclude that the accepted definition of overweight (body mass index, greater than or equal to 27.8 kg/m2 [men] or greater than or equal to 27.3 kg/m2 [women]) lacks specificity and may be inappropriate for older persons who do not have weight-related medical conditions. The low-weight mortality association, consistently demonstrated, deserves serious scrutiny.


The manifesto is commonly defined as a call-toarms, a public declaration of principles and intentions and a "powerful purveyor of ideology" (Helfand, 2001). For the Italian Futurists, typographic experimentation allowed language itself to be a tool for attacking, disrupting or subverting convention. For the designer, the manifesto may be used to give more "meaning to our present way of life" (Garland, 1964), to "deliberately manipulate the public view" (Cawes, 2001) or to playfully blast and bless the cultural landscape. My hypothesis is that the manifesto is not only a forum for design debate, a framework for a visual argument, but also a script for action. From the pamphleteers of 17th century England designers have appropriated the most effective means of communicating an urgent message to the masses, forming a sphere of popular public opinion. Whether online or in print the manifesto demands a re-envisioning both message and medium, in this context a 'Manifesto for Sustainable Design' project given to first year graphic design degree students. By embedding notions of sustainability, responsibility and action into their design curriculum the manifesto has enabled individual students to engage in incendiary debate in a non-dogmatic format.


We developed a high-precision frequency-measurement system for continuously scanning single-mode cw lasers. The high precision for wide frequency range is realized by employing an optical frequency comb. The developed system operates as a strong tool for analyzing the spectral profile and scan characteristics of lasers, which is suitable for high-resolution molecular spectroscopy. We demonstrated the ability of our system with Doppler-free spectroscopy of molecular iodine.