A template matching method for detection of isolated objects in GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) images is proposed. Echoes from point-like or line-like targets such as cable ducts and utility pipes form characteristic patterns in images measured by GPR. Such characteristic patterns in the images are searched as candidates of the targets by using template matching. Then the candidate is tested whether it effectively reduce the norm of the image or not when the template is subtracted from its neighborhood. The template is prepared based on a model of the targets and response of the GPR. The template matching enables identification of the target position and elimination of transient response of GPR at the same time. Effects of errors in models on identification of the targets are evaluated by numerical simulations to show the method can identify the targets even when small errors exist in the model. Also, it is successfully tested by using field data to obtain a 3D image of a flexible duct. The method takes time comparable to diffraction stack migration to process images and produces images easier to understand than the diffraction stack migration.


Abstract.Having considered the mapping of logical traffic and control channels onto physical channels, speech and error correction coding, interleaving as well as the TDMA hierarchy and synchronisation problems in Part I of this contribution, here mainly transmission issues are addressed [I - 61 and some performance figures are provided. Constant envelope partial response Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) with a channel spacing of 200 kHz is deployed to support 125 duplex channels in the 890 - 91 5MHz uplink and 935 - 960 MHz downlink bands, respectively. At a transmission rate of 271 kbitls 1.35 bitlslHz spectral efficiency is achieved. The controlled GMSK-induced and un-controlled channel-induced inter-symbol interferences are removed by the channel equaliser. The set of standardised wide-band GSM channels is introduced in order to provide bench-markers for performance comparisons. Efficient power budgeting and minimum co-channel interferences are ensured by the combination of adaptive power- and handover-control based on weighted averaging of up to eight uplink and downlink system parameters. Discontinuous transmissions (DTX) assisted by reliable spectral-domain voice activity detection (VAD) and comfort-noise insertion further reduce interferences and power consumption. Due to ciphering, no unprotected information is sent via the radio link. As a result, spectrally efficient, high-quality mobile communications with a variety of services and international roaming is possible in cells of up to 35km radius for signal to noise- and interference-ratios in excess of 10 - 12 dBs.


The 4th International Instituto Valenciano de Infertilidad (IVI) Congress, held in Valencia (Spain) at the beginning of April, followed in the footsteps of three previous congresses organized by the IVI network of fertility clinics. Over the years the meetings have grown in size and scope, mirroring the remarkable success of the IVI itself. The 4th IVI Congress was no exception, boasting a distinguished international faculty, addressing a broad range of subjects relevant to reproductive medicine. The meeting was divided into ten sessions and this article will attempt to give a flavor of the data presented and the conclusions reached in each.


In recent decades, the effects of religious pluralism on religious participation has been a much debated topic among sociologists of religion. During most of the 20th century, the traditional view among sociologists was that pluralism undermines religion because competition between religious organizations was assumed to impair the credibility of religion as such. In the 1980s, however, this view was challenged by Rodney Stark and Roger Finke, and since then, the debate about the effects of religious pluralism has been lively. A central point of the discussion has been the relationship between religious pluralism and religious participation in Europe and whether or not Europe should be described as secularized. In this article, some points in the debates about the relationship between religious pluralism and religious participation and about the religious situation in Europe are discussed from a theoretical perspective and illustrated by empirical data from Sweden. (Less)


Existing pattern-based compiler technology is unable to effectively exploit the full potential of SIMD architectures. We present a new program synthesis based technique for auto-vectorizing performance critical innermost loops. Our synthesis technique is applicable to a wide range of loops, consistently produces performant SIMD code, and generates correctness proofs for the output code. The synthesis technique, which leverages existing work on relational verification methods, is a novel combination of deductive loop restructuring, synthesis condition generation and a new inductive synthesis algorithm for producing loop-free code fragments. The inductive synthesis algorithm wraps an optimized depth-first exploration of code sequences inside a CEGIS loop. Our technique is able to quickly produce SIMD implementations (up to 9 instructions in 0.12 seconds) for a wide range of fundamental looping structures. The resulting SIMD implementations outperform the original loops by 2.0x-3.7x.


Two signaling pathways that control axon guidance are the cyclic nucleotide-protein kinase A (PKA) pathway and a pathway controlled by plexin A, a guidance receptor that responds to the repulsive guidance cue semaphorin 1A. Terman and Kolodkin have determined that a single protein, nervy, links these two pathways in Drosophila neurons. Nervy is an A kinase-anchoring protein that binds to both PKA and to plexin A. When not bound to PKA, nervy antagonizes both axonal repulsion and plexin A signaling. J. R. Terman, A. L. Kolodkin, Nervy links protein kinase A to Plexin-mediated semaphorin repulsion. Science 303, 1204-1207 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Spirituality as a subjective experience, intrinsic, and central to people's well-being is underscored. Positive Psychology is presented as a possible framework for explaining the relationship between spirituality and well-being. However, for a more coherent understanding of the nature of spirituality, recommendation for a process-based rather than an outcome-based approach is made. As such, focus is shifted from identifying behavioral indicators and values check-list to studying people's lived experience of spirituality. Rather than plain descriptive, the approach is believed to yield in-depth results that are more explicatory of the nature of spirituality. Moreover, the cultural specificity of spirituality is stressed. Viewed and actually practiced differently from culture to culture, a call to examine similarities and variations of psychological processes across cultures is proposed. Implications of the approaches to clinical practice and test development are indicated.


1. Fat malabsorption caused by bile-salt deficiency is not easily corrected by standard therapy. It has been shown in rats with bile-salt deficiency that non-ionic detergents can replace bile salts and improve fat absorption. A careful assessment of the place of synthetic detergents such as Tween in human therapy has not been reported. 2. The effects of Tween were studied in 13 patients with bile-salt-deficient steatorrhoea, eight of whom received Tween 80 and five Tween 20. 3. Tween therapy reduced steatorrhoea in 10/13 patients; a mean decrease in faecal fat of 33% was achieved with best effect seen in patients with severe steatorrhoea. 4. In the five patients given Tween 20, duodenal/jejunal intubation was conducted using meals with or without added Tween. Jejunal bile salt concentrations were low in all subjects and Tween had no effect on bile-salt output. 5. With Tween addition micellar free fatty acids and phospholipids were increased in four out of the five patients (mean increases 100% and 260% respectively). The mean ratio of fatty acid to bile salt increased from 1·26 to 3·53 and of phospholipid to bile salt from 0·09 to 0·21 in the presence of Tween. 6. The results suggest that in steatorrhoea due to bile-salt deficiency Tween causes increased micellization of ingested fat and improvement in fat absorption. 7. Tween and other non-ionic detergents may, therefore, find a place in therapy of bile-salt deficiency.


Invasion of the bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes into human host cells requires specialized surface molecules for attachment and induction of phagocytosis. However, efficient invasion is also dependent on factors with house-keeping functions, such as SecA2-dependent secretion of autolysins for post-divisional segregation of daughter cells. Mutations in this pathway prevent degradation of peptidoglycan cross-walls, so that long cell chains are formed that cannot be phagocytosed. The extreme chaining of such mutants manifests as rough colony phenotype. One rough clone was isolated from a transposon library with a transposon insertion in the uncharacterized lmo0720 gene (lftS) together with a spontaneous point mutation in the secA2 gene. We separated both mutations and demonstrated that this point mutation in the intramolecular regulator 2 domain of SecA2 was sufficient to inactivate the protein. In contrast, lftS deletion did not cause a ΔsecA2-like phenotype. lftS is located in an operon with lftR (lmo0719), encoding a PadR-like transcriptional regulator, and lftR deletion affected growth, invasion and day-light dependent coordination of swarming. Inactivation of lftS partially suppressed these phenotypes, suggesting a functional relationship between LftR and LftS. However, the invasion defect of the ΔlftR mutant was only marginally suppressed by lftS removal. LftR regulates expression of the lmo0979–0980 (lieAB) operon, encoding a putative multidrug resistance transporter and lieAB transcription was strongly upregulated in the absence of LftR. Deletion of lieAB in the ΔlftR background restores wild type-like invasion levels. Hence, we conclude that tight transcriptional repression of the lieAB operon is essential for efficient listerial host cell invasion.


Objective: The current study was conducted to compare the efficacy and side effects of bifrontal electrode placement with standard bitemporal electrode placement in the treatment of patients with major depression. Method: Eighty nine patients with major depression were treated with a course of bifrontal or bitemporal ECT. All patients received 8 sessions of ECT treatment; and the Hamilton Rating scale for Depression and the standardized Mini-Mental state were administered 24 hours prior to the first session and 24 hours after the last session. This study was a Double Blind Randomized Clinical Trial. Results: 68 of the 89 patients completed the study in the two groups of bifrontal (31 patients) and bitemporal (37 patients). The mean decrease in the Hamilton Rating scale for Depression score after ECT was the same in the both groups and was about 20 (SD± 3/2),showing a significant difference between the 2 groups. Nevertheless, the mean decrease in Mini-Mental state Examination score was different in the 2 groups and was 0/67 for the bifrontal ECT group (SD± 0/65) and 2/35 for the bitemporal ECT group (SD±0/94),, indicating a statistically significant difference(P Conclusion: The result of this study demonstrates that cognitive side effects of bifrontal ECT were significantly lower than bitemperal ECT ; however, the two methods are the same with regards to efficacy . Keywords: Electroconvulasive therapy, Major depressive disorder, Methods Iran J Psychiatry 2009; 4:13-16 Electroconvulsive therapy has evolved in many respects over the past 70 years since its introduction and remains our most effective treatment for major depression. In 1938, chemical induction methods were superseded by electrical induction. In the 1950s, the introduction of general anesthesia reduced morbidity from the treatment. The move from sine wave electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to brief pulse stimulation during the 1980s greatly reduced the severity of cognitive side effects of the treatment and provided the first clear demonstration that the type of electrical current applied to the scalp was a major determinant of side effects (1-4). Recent research has extended that finding by demonstrating that electrode placement interacts with electrical dosage in determining efficacy as well as side effects (2). ECT is the most effective treatment for severe depression (American Psychiatric Association, 2001) Despite many evolutions in ECT methodology, the main limitation of ECT is cognitive side effects, particularly memory dysfunction. Memory impairment in ECT may be related to focal involvement of the dominant temporal lobe (5). Variations in treatment technique, such as electrode placement and stimulus dose, have been investigated to maximize therapeutic efficacy while minimizing cognitive side effects. Right unilateral ECT causes significantly fewer memory side effects than bitemporal ECT but is less clinically effective unless the stimulus is increased to relatively high doses. Bifrontal ECT has been studied less extensively, and conlusive clinical efficacy data have not been available, however, preliminary reports suggest that it has similar or better anti-depressant efficacy compared to bitemporal ECT (6). Bitemporal ECT, bifrontal ECT, and right unilateral ECT all induce a "generalized" tonic -clonic seizure; however, these different methods of stimulation result in different focal clinical, EEG, and imaging manifestations. Bitemporal ECT activates focal bilateral frontotemporal and parietal association cortex, sparing other regions; bifrontal ECT mainly activates prefrontal cortex; in right unilateral ECT the left frontotemporal region is relatively spared(7). Thus, the pattern of neuronal involvement during ECT is not homogenous throughout the brain, and it differs depending on stimulus configuration. Bitemporal ECT, Bifrontal ECT, and right unilateral ECT all differ in their clinical effects and cognitive side effects. …


This essay reads Paul's apostrophe to Death in 1 Corinthians 15:54–55 in relation to the wider literary topos of theomachy, or god-fighting. The god-fighter is typically a human or a demigod who, by challenging the gods, threatens to subvert the natural order of the cosmos. A close reading of 1 Corinthians 15 in comparison to other examples of the theomachy topos in Greek, Roman, and Jewish writings shows that Paul presents Christ as a god-fighter throughout this chapter. Paul concludes this presentation with a set of strategically reworked scripture quotations, which he uses to taunt the personified figure of Death for failing to defeat Christ. Far from providing a mere rhetorical flourish, as commentators have suggested, these quotations illustrate the mythological significance of Christ's coming back to life. As a complement to Paul's exegetical and philosophical defense of bodily resurrection, they show that the old gods and daimones no longer hold sway over the power of life and death.


ECJ trade mark case law has been very rich in the past five years that are covered in this survey. While certain fundamental issues, such as the general concept of distinctiveness and descriptive character of marks as well as the assessment of likelihood of confusion were clarified already in the past, more recent decisions have elaborated on more sophisticated issues, such as the impact of trade mark functions on the scope of protection, which became relevant in particular in the context of marks being used in comparative advertisement as well as in keyword advertising. Other topics addressed in ECJ case law were, inter alia, exclusion from protection of product shapes conferring substantial value on the goods, as well as application in bad faith, infringement by goods entering the EU on transit, and the requirements for genuine use of a mark in the Community. The latter topic also figured strongly in political debates accompanying the current preparations for a major legislative overhaul of the European trade mark system. Commission proposals for amendment of the Community Trade Mark Regulation and the Trade Mark Directive were published at the end of March 2013 and will likely trigger more debates before the reform projects are ultimately concluded.


Continued industrialization in China and increase in its agricultural productivity imply that surplus rural workers will to be attracted into non-agricultural production activities and, consequently, will have the opportunity to increase their off-farm income. Studying the structure of the rural labor force and its characteristics is important for evaluating its migration potential into non-agricultural sectors. This study examines the rural labor market in China exclusively based on China's first national agricultural census. We analyzed the demographic characteristics of the rural labor force and their association with the type of employment, place of work, and labor migration. Furthermore, we investigated demographic distributions of rural labor force and attempted to capture their relation with the distribution of other resources especially land availability or land constraints. We finally applied a generalized polytomous logit technique to analyze the patterns of rural labor employment and forecast rural migration. In this framework, we related rural labor migration with demographic characteristics, types of occupation, place of work, geographic characteristics, and various economic development indicators.


Tanycytes play multiple roles in hypothalamic functions, including sensing peripheral nutrients and metabolic hormones, regulating neurosecretion and mediating seasonal cycles of reproduction and metabolic physiology. This last function reflects the expression of TSH receptors in tanycytes, which detect photoperiod-regulated changes in TSH secretion from the neighbouring pars tuberalis. The present overall aim was to determine the signal transduction pathway by which TSH signals in tanycytes. Expression of the TSH receptor in tanycytes of 10-day-old Sprague Dawley rats was observed by in situ hybridisation. Primary ependymal cell cultures prepared from 10-day-old rats were found by immunohistochemistry to express vimentin but not GFAP and by PCR to express mRNA for Dio2, Gpr50, Darpp-32 and Tsh receptors that are characteristic of tanycytes. Treatment of primary tanycyte/ependymal cultures with TSH (100  IU/l) increased cAMP as assessed by ELISA and induced a cAMP-independent increase in the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 as assessed by western blot analysis. Furthermore, TSH (100  IU/l) stimulated a 2.17-fold increase in Dio2 mRNA expression. We conclude that TSH signal transduction in cultured tanycytes signals via Gαs to increase cAMP and via an alternative G protein to increase phosphorylation of ERK1/2.


State of the Nordic Region 2013 gives a comprehensive status of the latest development in the Nordic region, with a specific focus on both regional and municipal levels. It incorporates the latest available statistics with analyses on population structure, migration, labour market trends as well as economy. In order to develop and implement successful regional development strategies Nordic professionals and policymakers need to see their area in a larger context. One of the main prerequisites for this is the ability to access up to date and reliable statistical information. Such information is available in Nordregio's database, which is the only complete database that covers the whole Nordic region with regard to comparable socio-economic data on the municipal and regional levels. This report is the thirteenth volume in the series "Regional Development in the Nordic countries", which has, since 1981, supplied practitioners with comprehensive analyses of the Nordic regional development scene. It incorporates the latest available statistics with analyses on population structure and migration and labour market trends as well as economic status and performance. The themes of the chapters have been selected in relation to Nordregio's thematic focus areas, database activities and to existing development patterns as described in the Nordic cooperation programme for regional policy 2013 – 2016. Each of the chapters can be read either as an independent article, thus giving the reader the opportunity to focus on topics of particular interest, or as part of a coherent report. The State of the Nordic Region 2013 divides the Nordic countries into 1221 municipalities and 78 regions. Division into labour market and NUTS2 regions has also been used when insufficient data was available at the municipal or administrative regional level. In order to set the development status and trends in a wider perspective, comparisons with Nordic and European averages are presented when relevant. The chapters on demographic development describe the main driving forces behind trends in population change in the Nordic countries during the last decade; and how changes in age structure, especially the increasing share of elderly people, are distributed and how they affect the dependency ratio. Elements on international migration and its regional distribution can also be found. The chapters on labour market trends focus on levels of employment and unemployment, sickness and activity leave. One chapter also provides insight on highly educated people and their localisation in the Nordic region. The chapters on economic performances include elements on regional differences in GDP and productivity, aspects of the economic crises, regional innovation and entrepreneurship, research and development as well as a discussion on green growth as a policy concept in the Nordic region.


Since the 1990s, structural engineering practice geared toward the use of hollow structural sections (HSS), notably square HSS, for their economy, and ease of design and construction. According to the AISC Seismic Provisions, during a severe earthquake, these braces could undergo post-buckling axial deformations 10 to 20 times their yielding deformation. However, recent experimental studies indicate that braces made of square HSS, depending on their size, width-to-thickness, and slenderness ratio, are vulnerable to fracture even prior to 10. Therefore, relying on past experimental studies comprised of a few square HSS specimens to develop seismic requirements for SCBF with square HSS could lead to underestimation of the seismic risk. This paper aims to evaluate the fracture risk of braces in existing SCBFs designed in accordance with AISC 341-05 and AISC 341-16 through incremental dynamic analyses (IDA) along with experimentally developed regression model that estimates fracture.


Agustin Torres was thrust into gang life as a fourth grader, desperate for belonging and a means to provide for his struggling family that was absent a stable father figure. He was angry and without hope. But because of the Salem Dream Center in Salem, Ore., Agustin's life is the polar opposite of what it once was.


Land policy in Ethiopia has been controversial since the fall of the military socialist derg regime in 1991. While the current Ethiopian government has implemented a land policy that is based on state ownership of land (where only usufruct rights are given to land holders), many agricultural economists and international donor agencies have propagated some form of privatized land ownership. This article traces the antagonistic arguments of the two schools of thought in the land reform debate and how their antagonistic principles ‐ fairness vs. efficiency ‐ are played out. It then goes on to explore how these different arguments have trickled down in the formulation of the federal and regional land policies with a particular view on the new Oromia regional land policy as it is considered the most progressive (with regards to tenure security). We provide some empirical material on ongoing practices of implementing the Rural Land Use and Administration Proclamation of Oromia Region. Our analysis suggests that while the laws are conceptual hybrids that accommodate both fairness and efficiency considerations, regional bureaucrats have selectively implemented those elements of the proclamation that are considered to strengthen the regime's political support in the countryside.


In the world today, an awareness and consideration of sustainability and sustainable development is becoming increasingly important. Education and public awareness have been identified as critical components of the transition to sustainability. A great deal of responsibility is now placed on universities in order to achieve a sustainable future due to their heavy influence on students' skills and attitudes. This dissertation investigates staff and student perceptions and understandings of, and attitudes towards, sustainability and its integration into university curricula. The study also explores the sustainability of student lifestyles and the factors influencing their views and behaviour. The project's data was collected using in-depth student questionnaires, six interviews with Programme Leaders, and three senior support staff members at the University of Chester. The project revealed that there is greater awareness of sustainability among staff and students as well as engagement with the issue. Although sustainability-related content is being increasingly integrated within university curricula, the extent of its integration varies significantly between disciplines due to staff perceptions.


The Polish Episcopate critically assessed the social and economic situation in Poland in the period of the transition from communism to democracy and freemarket economy. Privatizations led to production being stopped and an increase in unemployment. Profit became the measure of labor, not human dignity. The economic and social reality was dominated by the treatment of economics and financial success as the highest values, and the dissemination of the opinion that in politics and economics there are no values. The political elites showed an inability to develop long-term strategies for getting out of the crisis. The disappearance of the morality of many representatives of public life, which manifested itself in universal corruption and the aspiration to improve their social status as soon as possible, contributed to this state of affairs. As a result, there was a crisis of the idea of the common wealth and an increase in crime. The social crisis was particularly visible in moral attitudes, social behaviour, and in the economic sphere, public finance, on the labour market, and in the quickly progressing social stratification.


Abstract. Global model estimates of soil carbon changes from past land-use changes remain uncertain. We develop an approach for evaluating dynamic global vegetation models (DGVMs) against existing observational meta-analyses of soil carbon changes following land-use change. Using the DGVM JSBACH, we perform idealized simulations where the entire globe is covered by one vegetation type, which then undergoes a land-use change to another vegetation type. We select the grid cells that represent the climatic conditions of the meta-analyses and compare the mean simulated soil carbon changes to the meta-analyses. Our simulated results show model agreement with the observational data on the direction of changes in soil carbon for some land-use changes, although the model simulated a generally smaller magnitude of changes. The conversion of crop to forest resulted in soil carbon gain of 10 % compared to a gain of 42 % in the data, whereas the forest-to-crop change resulted in a simulated loss of −15 % compared to −40 %. The model and the observational data disagreed for the conversion of crop to grasslands. The model estimated a small soil carbon loss (−4 %), while observational data indicate a 38 % gain in soil carbon for the same land-use change. These model deviations from the observations are substantially reduced by explicitly accounting for crop harvesting and ignoring burning in grasslands in the model. We conclude that our idealized simulation approach provides an appropriate framework for evaluating DGVMs against meta-analyses and that this evaluation helps to identify the causes of deviation of simulated soil carbon changes from the meta-analyses.


In 2010, the UN General Assembly declared the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights. Yet, findings from the Competing for Water research programme suggest that all too often, people in need of water for domestic purposes lose out to people and companies who claim access to water for productive purposes. Likewise, in many countries, specific water authorities at national as well as basin and watershed level have been formed and assigned the responsibility to allocate water according to the water policy and the associated legal framework. Yet, findings from the Competing for Water research programme show that real-world water allocation takes place through a wide array of institutions, ranging from the rural community, over agreements mediated by local lawyers, district officials and non-governmental organisations, to decisions made in the president9s office. The Competing for Water programme entails empirical research conducted in Bolivia, Mali, Nicaragua, Vietnam and Zambia. Based on findings from this research, this paper identifies the discrepancies between statutory and actual water governance, analyses the underlying causes and explores the implications for ongoing water governance reform.


High frequency activity (HFA) is oscillatory brain activity faster than ~100 Hz. It is subdivided into physiological ripples (~100-250 Hz) and pathological fast ripples (~250-500 Hz). Ripples in the hippocampus are paced by recurrent inhibition from interneurons. The mechanism for pathological HFA is unknown, but may be the same as for ripples and could provide new insight into the pathological nature of epileptic tissue.
HFA was induced using the high potassium (\({in vitro}\)) and tetanus neurotoxin (\({ex vivo}\)) models of epilepsy. Field HFA was recorded simultaneously with action potentials from visually targeted interneurons, made possible using VGAT-Venus A rats and a membrane chamber. The phase relationship between HFA and interneuron firing was examined.
In both models, HFA frequency was normally distributed between 100-300 Hz. Interneurons increased their firing rate during epileptiform bursts and were subdivided into four groups based on their firing patterns. The most pertinent group fired at >100 Hz throughout epileptiform bursts and were candidates to pace HFA. Of this group, significant phase relationships were seen in four interneurons using high potassium and one interneuron with tetanus neurotoxin.
These interneurons were compatible with the hypothesis that they pace HFA, but blockade of GABAergic signalling using bicuculline did not abolish HFA, suggesting a modulatory rather than causative role for interneurons.


The delivery Design Build projects across the built environment in Ireland has begun to take significant shape. There are many examples of the traditional are moving towards more collaborative practices. There exists support for the integration of a design build project approach in the retrofit realm where designer, client and developer can work collaboratively. As with the regular design build process the intent behind this collaborative approach is to encourage those associated with the built environment to consider how retrofit design and construction can contribute positively to addressing elements of climate change and the design build process. The opportunity to share the rich nature of the design build process in a unique environmentally and heritage focused project excited the authors. Secondly concerns about the way such projects are captured historically, and specifically the disciplinary knowledge and skills employed in the restoration of such a significant landmark building could be lost if not afforded some place in the research annals. This paper presents a Restoration Design-Build (RDB) process employed in the realignment of a state building in the United States adopting this novel initiative. The author, working closely with the design build manager, adopted a descriptive case study method to enhance the capabilities of understanding and generate constructive reflections and analysis. The intention was to empower the reader to explore new horizons by 'clarifying and negotiating' ideas and concerns around the RDB process. The author evaluated the usefulness of the RDB approach based on direct and indirect measures. The framework approach presented is a part of an ongoing initiative between state and project stakeholders that have shown positive results based on the teams' performance in the presented case study as well as affirmative feedback from some stakeholder participants. The positive measures adopted in this project are shared with the view of trying to encourage those associated with restoration project to adopt this approach.


Abstract Eighteen sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs), a number that includes reactors in operation or shut down, have provided 388 reactor-years of operating experience to date. This paper summarizes the important incidents related to fast reactor sodium components and systems. The solutions incorporated, based on experience, analysis, experimental tests, and research and development for past and current SFRs, are described. The paper also describes lessons learned for future SFRs.


The concept of 'digital phenotyping' was originally developed by researchers in the mental health field, but it has travelled to other disciplines and areas. This commentary draws upon our experiences of working in two scientific projects that are based at the University of Oxford's Big Data Institute – The RADAR-AD project and The Minerva Initiative – which are developing algorithmic phenotyping technologies. We describe and analyse the concepts of digital biomarkers and computational phenotyping that underlie these projects, explain how they are linked to other research in digital phenotyping and compare and contrast some of their epistemological and ethical implications. In particular, we argue that the phenotyping paradigm in both projects is grounded on an assumption of 'objectivity' that is articulated in different ways depending on the role that is given to the computational/digital tools. Using the concept of 'affordance', we show how specific functionalities relate to potential uses and social implications of these technologies and argue that it is important to distinguish among them as the concept of digital phenotyping is increasingly being used with a variety of meanings.


This article employs the notion of legitimation strategy in new religious movements to explore and compare the use of scientific rationales and language in Christian Science and the Unity School of Christianity. I examine how Christian Science and Unity used science to present their beliefs and practices, and I focus on Christian Science testimonials and Unity9s advocacy of vegetarianism to demonstrate their reliance upon scientific epistemologies. I argue that the two movements used scientific rationales and language as a strategy to validate themselves in late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century America, which had largely accepted the scientific worldview as a primary source of knowledge about the world. A key difference in the way they used science helps to explain the vastly different levels of social controversy involving the two movements.


"HOW SOLEMN IS THE DUTY OF THE MIGHTY CHIEF"(1): MEDIATING THE CONFLICT OF RIGHTS IN Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, 120 S. Ct. 2446 (2000) I. INTRODUCTION Since 1910, the Boy Scouts of America(2) has provided what it describes as an educational program for boys and young men to build character, to train in the responsibilities of participatory citizenship, and to develop personal fitness.(3) For much of its ninety-year history, Scouting has been seen as the "embodiment of liberalism," exemplifying values such as "the belief in merit, autonomy, equal treatment, patriotism, community, [and] child development."(4) More recently, however, many of Scouting's values and views have come into question as "bigoted, outmoded boilerplate."(5) As society's mores have shifted away from a "Norman Rockwell" depiction of America, the Boy Scouts has found itself defending lawsuits against some of those they have denied admission.(6) The plaintiffs in these cases maintain that the Boy Scouts of America constitutes a place of public accommodation under state or federal law,(7) and that their denial of admission is unlawful discrimination.(8) Until 1998, the Boy Scouts successfully argued that Scouting was not covered by those statutes or that it fell within a statutory exception, thus avoiding federal constitutional questions.(9) However, when the Boy Scouts faced litigation under New Jersey's broad public accommodations statute,(10) it brought the Scouts' constitutional rights of speech and free association directly into conflict with the State's compelling interest in eliminating discrimination.(11) Last Term, in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale,(12) the Supreme Court resolved this conflict, holding that requiring the Boy Scouts to admit an avowed homosexual into adult membership violates the Scouts' First Amendment right of expressive association. As the author of the opinion, Chief Justice Rehnquist had the weighty responsibility of mediating the conflicting interests of organizations like the Boy Scouts and excluded individuals such as James Dale, as well as state interests all entangled in public accommodations laws. The Court found that the application of New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination (LAD)(13) to the Boy Scouts in this case "would significantly burden the [Boy Scouts'] right to oppose or disfavor homosexual conduct."(14) Although the Court was correct in determining that "the First Amendment prohibits the State from imposing" such a "severe intrusion on the Boy Scouts' rights to freedom of expressive association,"(15) the Court should have also considered the case directly under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment and the seldom-discussed freedom of intimate association.(16) Boy Scouts thus provided an opportunity not only to delineate the meaning of the right of intimate association, but also to forge greater consensus generally on the protections afforded by the freedoms of speech and association. Part II of this Comment details the factual and procedural history leading up to the Court's decision as well as the majority and dissenting opinions in Boy Scouts. Part III.A examines the Boy Scouts' claim to a right of expressive association and in particular focuses on the dissent's argument that BSA is agnostic on issues of sexuality. Part III.B discusses the Scouts' free speech claim, which is analogous to the expressive association argument. Part III.C explores the application of the doctrine of intimate association to the Boy Scouts. In concluding, Part IV considers the implications of an opposite outcome in Boy Scouts for religious organizations. II. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY A. The Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America is a "private, not-for-profit organization engaged in instilling its system of values in young people"(17) and "prepar[ing] them to make ethical choices over their lifetime in achieving their full potential. …


The predominant approach to African-American parenting research fo- cuses on disadvantages associated with single parenthood to the exclusion of other issues. The current research suggests that this does not represent the diversity in family structure configurations among African-American families, nor does it give voice to the parenting resilience of single mothers. We argue that rather than marital status or family configuration, more at- tention needs to be given to the inadequacy of resources for this population. In the current study, we examined the parenting of infants by African- American mothers and found that mothers' marital status and family configuration did not affect parenting stress or practices. This suggests, then, that single mothers parent as well as their married, partnered, and multigenerational counterparts. It seems that the economic status and parenting perceptions of mothers contributed more to parenting stress than did marital status or family structure. Our study, then, challenges the accepted wisdom in our political and popular culture that has insisted upon the centrality of the nuclear family to all aspects of familial and even national health. Instead, we have shown that a true commitment to strong families and healthy children begins with a focus on the debilitating effects of poverty in the African-American community.


CO2-Responsive polymer materials have received enormous attention in recent years, since CO2 as a new trigger has many advantages such as abundant availability, low cost, energy-saving, environment-friendly, non-toxic, good reversibility as well as great biocompatibility. In this review, we first discuss the virtues of CO2-responsiveness by comparing with traditional stimuli-sensitive materials that respond to pH, light, or redox stimuli. Then, the chemical fundamentals of CO2-responsive polymer materials are revealed including recently discovered "unexpected" CO2-sensitive features. Recent progress of CO2-responsive polymer materials is highlighted followed by various CO2-responsive "smart" polymer systems. Finally, challenges and outlooks in this area are discussed.


This article takes the work of the Austrian collective AO& as its primary case study. Immanuel Kant's concept of 'civilized bliss', as considered by Peter Melville, allows for further enquiry into the history of food preparation, as outlined by Luce Giard in her research on 'living and cooking'. The article also looks to ephemerality and meaning, juxtaposing Henri Lefebvre's assertion that the everyday is the mediator between nature and culture with notions of meal time. From a temporal perspective grounded in Henri Bergson's conception of consciousness and slowed rhythms, it is argued that the methodology of AO& allows for the extension and distillation of the everyday by rescuing an aesthetics of eating from readymade urban experience.


Pollution by crude oil is wide spread and a common problem, and particularly endemic in countries whose economies are dependent on the oil industry. Such pollution arises either accidentally or operationally wherever oil is produced, transported, stored, processed or used. Benzene contamination of soil may also occur due to oil production facilities and coastal refineries. This problem arises because most of petrochemicals including benzene and its derivatives are carcinogens and mutagens with the capacity to affect both the structural integrity of DNA and the fidelity of its biologic expression. Jatropha curcas (L.) is a multipurpose and drought resistant tree, widespread throughout the tropics and subtropics. Its seeds are rich in oil and protein. J. curcas can also be used for human food, animal feed, fertilizer, fuel and traditional medicine. Therefore, the objective of this work is to evaluate protective effect of detoxified J. curcas kernel meal (DJKM) against benzene-induced clastogenicity in male rats. Eighty adult male rats were allocated in several groups treated with benzene and/or several concentration of DJKM. The results revealed that low, medium and high doses of DJKM did not increase the DNA fragmentation, incidence of MnPCEs and alterations in the stress related genes (Hsp70a, MT and CYP450 genes) compared with benzene induced high levels of these parameters. The protection effects of DJKM on the genetic toxicity were attributed to its imact on the glutathione peroxidase activity which was increased significantly with DJKM treatment compared to benzene exposure.


Although drug combinations have proven efficacious in a variety of diseases, the design of such regimens often involves extensive experimental screening due to the myriad choice of drugs and doses. To address these challenges, we utilize the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism to evaluate whether drug synergy or antagonism is mediated through genetic interactions between their target genes. Specifically, we hypothesize that if the inhibition targets of one chemical compound are in close proximity to those of a second compound in a genetic interaction network, then the compound pair will exhibit synergy or antagonism. Graph metrics are employed to make precise the notion of proximity in a network. Knowledge of genetic interactions and small-molecule targets are compiled through literature sources and curated databases, with predictions validated according to experimentally determined gold standards. Finally, we test whether genetic interactions propagate through networks according to a "guilt-by-association" framework. Our results suggest that close proximity between the target genes of one drug and those of another drug does not strongly predict synergy or antagonism. In addition, we find that the extent to which the growth of a double gene mutant deviates from expectation is moderately anti-correlated with their distance in a genetic interaction network.


Objectives Head and neck cancers (HNCs) may be among the health consequences of involvement in the World Trade Center (WTC) response on and after 11 September 2001. We conducted a nested case–control study of WTC Health Program (WTCHP) general responders to examine the effects of WTC exposures and behavioural risk factors on HNC. Methods We enrolled 64 cases and 136 controls, matched on age, sex and race/ethnicity within risk sets. We assessed tobacco and alcohol use, sexual activity, and occupational exposures prior to, during and after WTC exposure until case diagnosis via questionnaire. We obtained WTC exposure information (duration (first to last day), total days and location of work) from the WTCHP General Responder Data Center. We assessed associations with HNC, and interaction among exposures, using conditional logistic regression. Results Responders in protective services versus other occupations had increased odds (OR: 2.51, 95% CI 1.09 to 5.82) of HNC. Among those in non-protective services occupations, arriving to the WTC effort on versus after 11 September 2001 was significantly associated with HNC (OR: 3.77, 95% CI 1.00 to 14.11). Duration of work was not significantly associated with HNC. Lifetime and post-WTC years of cigarette smoking and post-WTC number of sex partners were positively and significantly associated with HNC, while alcohol consumption was not. Conclusions These findings suggest opportunities for HNC risk factor mitigation (eg, smoking cessation, human papillomavirus vaccination) and contribute to a risk factor profile which may assist WTCHP clinicians with identifying high-risk responders and improve detection and treatment outcomes in this population.


Although both trust and the ability of employees to work in an autonomous manner are often cited as being essential for effectiveness of self-managed teams, little is known on the effect of interpersonal trust on knowledge acquisition of team members, and the consequences for team performance. A survey of 49 self-managing . teams (239 individuals) was carried out to investigate the relationship between the dimensions of interpersonal trust, knowledge acquisition, and team performance. Overall, findings support that most of interpersonal trust dimensions are positively related to the variables of knowledge acquisition. Moreover, the results showed that the effects of 'interpersonal trust' on team performance to a large extent are mediated by the intervening variables of knowledge acquisition.


Drawing upon findings from interviews, this paper explores the frontiers that Indian women immigrants in New Zealand face in their entrepreneurial endeavours in New Zealand. While research on ethnic minorities has emerged as a burgeoning stream in entrepreneurship and there is some amount of research on entrepreneurship among Polynesian peoples and Asians of Chinese origin in New Zealand, there seems to be a lacuna in the sphere of Indian women entrepreneurs. Utilising the theoretical framework of mixed embeddedness, this research offers insights into the psycho-social and economic frontiers experienced by Indian women entrepreneurs in New Zealand. The struggles and determination to achieve economic independence and self efficacy in the country of resettlement serve as a testimony to the possibility of permeable frontiers to facilitate minority ethnic enterprise.


Instrumented impact tests are useful to characterise the dynamic behaviour of materials as they provide continuous load, strain and deflection histories of an impact test. When these tests are used for low strength-to-weight ratio materials like concrete, considerable parasitic effects of inertial loads are manifested in the test records. With proper choice of the test parameters these parasitic effects can be minimised. Even with proper choice of the test parameters, one needs to understand the mechanics of such test set-up in order to evaluate and isolate inertial effects from the true material response. It is with this motivation that this paper outlines an analytical model to analyse the mechanics of an instrumented impact test set-up including damping and inertial effects associated with the tests and provides guidelines for proper selection of test parameters for testing tension-weak brittle materials. Good agreement was found between the test and proposed model analytical results.


The Chief Minister Adam Giles is pleased to announce the Territory Government has awarded Major Project Status to the Mount Peake project in Central Australia. "This project is great news for Central Australia and more evidence the Territory is open for business," Mr Giles said. "The Government is committed to developing the Territory's regions by supporting projects such a Mount Peake which create jobs and economies in the bush." TNG's strategic metals project is located 235 km northwest of Alice Springs and is currently going through a feasibility study which is due for completion early next year. "If it proceeds to full development, Mount Peake would be one of the largest emerging vanadium projects in the world. This granting of Major Project Status recognises how important the project could be to the economy," Mr Giles said. "We look forward to working with the company as it moves through the normal feasibility and approvals process for Mount Peake. "We are committed to ensuring this happens as smoothly as possible to help get this important project off the ground." TNG is aiming to begin construction of the project in 2014 with production and exports scheduled to begin in 2015. If the project proceeds to full development, it would involve strategic metals mining, processing and export to overseas markets via Darwin's East Arm Wharf. The Vanadium-Iron-Titanium operation has an anticipated life-span of 20 years. The products are used in jet engines, airframes and other high-end specialty materials, as well as in the chemical industry, notably in batteries, plastic, glass and pigments.


In essence, every network is the sum of nodes and ties among them. In physical networks, it is difficult to track nodes and identify ties among them, especially when the scale is greater. While it is possible to track, identify and map physical networks, this possibility is limited in time, space and human capability. However, the ability to track and identify nodes and ties among them on digital networks is possible because every single click leaves a digital trace and we can track, identify, collect, and analyze these digital traces. In this context, social network analysis provides techniques, tools and approaches to practice social networking, while social network theory provides the conceptual background to interpret the network data. This is where this book steps in and provides a systematic walkthrough for those interested in social network analysis. With a special focus on social networking in digital networked spaces, "Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL: Insights from a Connected World" explains how to practice social network analysis by using NodeXL software.


This article expounds a framework for analyzing issues of vagueness and statutory construction in criminal cases. If ambiguity in a criminal statute raises concern regarding either of the main policies served by the vagueness doctrine, providing fair notice and limiting arbitrary and discriminatory law enforcement, vagueness analysis proceeds to a balancing of considerations: the need for the statutory ambiguity in order to achieve a significant legislative goal, weighed against the chilling effect of the ambiguity on protected or desirable conduct. This balancing inevitably involves evaluating legislative goals and guaranteed rights. Thus in order to conduct vagueness analysis, courts must discriminate among legislation and among rights, though their warrant to do either is questionable. The framework used for vagueness claims is also serviceable in analyzing construction issues. As with vagueness, if a statutory interpretation argued by the prosecution raises the potential for lack of fair notice or for arbitrary and discriminatory law enforcement, courts deploy a balancing test, again arraying the necessity of the construction to further a significant legislative goal against the impact of the construction on protected or desirable conduct. Here also, courts must engage in an evaluation of statutes and rights that seems inconsistent with the standard conception of the proper role of the judiciary. The article identifies the courts' use of balancing to resolve questions of vagueness and statutory construction first in significant opinions of the last generation and then in a broader selection of decisions of more recent vintage.


Thomas Sharp was a key figure in mid-C20 British planning whose renown stems from two periods in his career. First, he came to attention as a polemical writer in the 1930s on planning issues, including as a virulent opponent of garden cities. His prose tempered over time and this phase perhaps culminated in Town Planning, first published in 1940 and reputed to have sold over 250,000 copies. Subsequently the plans he produced for historic towns in the 1940s, such as Oxford, were very well known and were influential in developing ideas of townscape. The Anatomy of the Village originated from a brief phase between these two periods when Sharp was seconded during the early war years to work for the Ministry of Town and Country Planning. Started as an official manual on village planning, it followed on from the Scott Report, for which Sharp had been one of the Secretaries. When the Ministry decided not to proceed with the publication, Sharp himself published it 1946. The Anatomy of the Village became one of Sharp's best known works, with lucid prose and generous illustration by photograph and beautiful linedrawings of village plans. The aim of The Anatomy of the Village was to set out the main principles of village planning, especially in relation to physical design. Anatomy became a key text in thinking about villages in the post-war period; a period when there was great concern that settlements should develop in more sensitive ways than inter-war ribbon and suburban development patterns. The problems of poor quality development, unrelated to settlement form, was to continue to stimulate books such as Lionel Brett's Landscape in Distress and campaigns from the Architectural Review. Reading the text today it still has much to offer: while some of its assumptions about the level of services a village might support clearly belong to another era, its beautiful and simple typological analyses of village form continue to be of relevance.


Vowel reduction as a function of speaking rate within individuals has been well established (Fourakis, 1991; van Bergem, 1995; Weismer et al., 1995). This phenomenon is challenged by the finding that differences exist in the control of speech rate for both slow and fast talker groups (see Tsao, 1995). This study will therefore examine vowel reduction in the speech of individuals separated on the rate continuum (i.e., slow versus average versus fast). The hypothesis that the habitual vowel spaces and the rate‐induced degree of vowel reduction is different for habitually slow versus fast talkers will be explored. Subjects will produce a reading passage, and vowel reduction will be measured based on the target frequencies for F1, F2, and F3 for the four corner vowels (e.g., /a/, /i/, /ae/, /u/). A linear ergression function will be used to demonstrate the relationship between vowel reduction of the 60 subjects (15 slow, 15 fast, and 30 average) and their habitual speech rate along the rate continuum. [Work supported by University of Nebraska—Kearney and UW—Madison Speech Acoustics Laboratory.]


This study focuses on Seved, a segregated and socioeconomically "poor" neighborhood in the city of Malmo in Sweden. It has attracted wide media coverage, a possible consequence of which is its increased stigmatization. The wide disparity between perceived or imagined fear and the actual incidence of, or exposure to, violence attests to the important role of the media in shaping mental maps and place images. Critical discourse analysis of daily newspaper articles shows that Seved is predominantly construed as unruly and a place of lawlessness. Mobility comprises an important aspect of the stigmatization of places, the politics of fear, and discourses of the "other." In turn, place stigmatization, discourses of the other, and the politics of fear directly and indirectly affect mobility strategies of individuals and groups. (Less)


This landmark collection of over 200 complete musical compositions and movements, ranging in time from the Middle Ages to the present, contains a large and varied body of music for study. In addition to providing ample material for both a full-year course in the analysis of musical forms and a one-semester course in twentieth-century techniques, the book offers first- and second-year music theory classes a wealth of illustrations of chords, voice-leading techniques, and forms--plus some material for figured-bass realization and score reading. Because the book consists primarily of music and takes no theoretical position, it is adaptable to any theoretical approach and to any type of curriculum, including those that combine theory study with music literature and the history of musical style.


today, the name RKW Architektur + Stadtebau evokes two hundred architects whose work never fails to convince. The reason does not lie in the narrowly defined architectural language of individual leaders of the firm. More than in any other firm, the various teams are given generous latitude for independent initiative. Thus, this documentation of the last ten years, with cross - references to the development of this unique partnership since 1950, doesn't just present sixty - five structures and projects from an internationally sought - after firm. On the contrary, in its search for the secret of the firm's success, it looks behind the scenes in numerous interviews and essays. The works considered range from the research facilities for AUDI, the new sciences campus of RWTH Aachen University, and the corporate headquarters of Vodafone, Debitel, and Arag to urban revitalization projects, residential buildings, schools, sports halls, railroad stations, city halls, banks, urban office buildings and shopping centers, and the stadium for the 2012 European Soccer Championship in Gdansk.


This thesis explores how professional identity figures in the enactment of IS and
focuses on groups of professionals as users and developers of information systems
and investigates how they relay their professional knowledge via the system to retain
identified aspects, in this case autonomy, of their professional identity. The study
looks at how these professional groups of staff control, tailor and maintain important
modules within an information system and how this facilitates the appropriation of it
into their everyday working practices.
It has been argued that the rise of professions in society has been such that they
are seen as integral to post-industrial society. Yet, within information systems,
minimal research has considered users as professionals and moreover users as
developers. Instead, professions, professionalism and users as developers as units of
analysis have usually been intertwined with discussions of IT/IS
workers/professionals and codes of conduct via systems development. Additionally,
many still propose the technologically deterministic route of rolling out information
and communications technologies (ICTs) expecting that users will, and indeed can,
'download' what they know into a system. This approach is usually underpinned by
the predominant assumption that the system will be developed by one group
(developers) and used by another group (users). Therefore this study focuses on two
professional developer-user groups within environments populated with skilled
professional workers and considers the implications of the deployment of IS in such
contexts.
In particular, the author attends to the influence of technology on a central feature of
professional identity - autonomy. The melding of professional workers, who often
enjoy a particularly autonomous status in organisations, with information systems that
have the potential to erode this, offers a fruitful site for investigation. This study looks
at contact centre and academic environments and therefore, investigates how
professional identity figures in situations where it would be expected that officially
sanctioned autonomy, is as a rule minimal, within a contact centre environment and
typically normal practice within an academic environment. In order to do this, the
author draws on case study data, which provides insights into the deployment of a module of an enterprise-wide student information system in a department of a UK
university and a scripting module in a HR contact centre.


This paper presents the application of a statistical framework that allows to endow a humanoid robot with the ability to perform a collaborative manipulation task with a human operator. We investigate to what extent the dynamics of the motion and the haptic communication process that takes place during physical collaborative tasks can be encapsulated by the probabilistic model. This framework encodes the dataset in a Gaussian Mixture Model, which components represent the local correlations across the variables that characterize the task. A set of demonstrations is performed using a bilateral coupling teleoperation setup; then the statistical model is trained in a pure follower/leader role distribution mode between the human and robot alternatively. The task is reproduced using Gaussian Mixture Regression. We present the probabilistic model and the experimental results obtained on the humanoid platform HRP-2; preliminary results assess our theory on switching behavior modes in dyad collaborative tasks: when reproduced with users which were not instructed to behave in either a follower or a leader mode, the robot switched automatically between the learned leader and follower behaviors.


During the turbulent period prior to colonial India's partition and independence, Muslim intellectuals in Hyderabad sought to secularize and reformulate their linguistic, historical, religious, and literary traditions for the sake of a newly conceived national public. Responding to the model of secular education introduced to South Asia by the British, Indian academics launched a spirited debate about the reform of Islamic education, the importance of education in the spoken languages of the country, the shape of Urdu and its past, and the significance of the histories of Islam and India for their present. The Language of Secular Islam pursues an alternative account of the political disagreements between Hindus and Muslims in South Asia, conflicts too often described as the product of primordial and unchanging attachments to religion. The author suggests that the political struggles of India in the 1930s, the very decade in which the demand for Pakistan began to be articulated, should not be understood as the product of an inadequate or incomplete secularism, but as the clashing of competing secular agendas. Her work explores negotiations over language, education, and religion at Osmania University, the first university in India to use a modern Indian language (Urdu) as its medium of instruction, and sheds light on questions of colonial displacement and national belonging. Grounded in close attention to historical evidence, The Language of Secular Islam has broad ramifications for some of the most difficult issues currently debated in the humanities and social sciences: the significance and legacies of European colonialism, the inclusions and exclusions enacted by nationalist projects, the place of minorities in the forging of nationalism, and the relationship between religion and modern politics. It will be of interest to historians of colonial India, scholars of Islam, and anyone who follows the politics of Urdu.


Children who witness wife assault may be helped by appropriate intervention. This study sought to discover from teenagers, who witnessed abuse as children, whether a specific program of intervention in which they participated some years earlier had longstanding positive benefit. As well, in describing the efficacy of such a program, a better understanding about the recovery needs of children was gained. Seven adolescents (ages 14-16) from Eastern Newfoundland, Canada, participated in two ninety-minute interview sessions. A combination of open and close-ended questions focused on how being witness to wife assault shaped their attitudes and on their opinions of the program. Child witnesses presented a picture of homelife in which abusive episodes were woven into the fabric of daily living. The witnessing of the violence, along with the emotional climate, was depicted as an integrated experience and one which had lasted from their earliest remembrances until they escaped with their mothers. Fear, anger and helplessness characterized their immediate responses to the violence. The sense of loss with respect to place of origin, family, friends and childhood milestones was described as a more long-term response. Maintaining a close relationship with the mother was a significant way in which participants tried to cope with their feelings. In attempts to stop the violence participants would actively urge their mothers to leave, try to keep the peace with the abuser or, failing those, would fantasize about a peaceful life. The participants were divided in their perceptions about the positive benefit of the group intervention. Four teens had actively worked at promoting change in their behaviors and attitudes, attributing their positive outlook to two factors. First, they were no longer living with abuse and, secondly, they had the opportunity to be involved in the group experience and to talk about their lives. Breaking the isolation was vitally important in allowing them to make sense of their lives. Three participants questioned the usefulness of the program. They did not feel that, even though they had left the abusive situations, their lives were much improved; nor did they view the world with a sense of optimism. They felt that they had to look after themselves, by themselves, trusting nobody else to help. Their willingness to participate in this research, however, suggests that they may be open to further intervention in an attempt to understand and accept their past. The intervention program had positive outcomes and could be used with confidence by helping professionals. More importantly, the themes identified should be useful information for individuals working with child witnesses of wife assault in the home.


Frequency combs are having a broad impact on science and technology because they provide a way to coherently link radio/microwave-rate electrical signals with optical-rate signals derived from lasers and atomic transitions. Integrating these systems on a photonic chip would revolutionize instrumentation, time keeping, spectroscopy, navigation, and potentially create new mass-market applications. A key element of such a system-on-a-chip will be a mode-locked comb that can be self-referenced. The recent demonstration of soliton mode locking in crystalline and silicon nitride microresonators has provided a way to both mode lock and generate femtosecond time-scale pulses. Here, soliton mode locking is demonstrated in high-Q silica resonators. The resonators produce low-phase-noise soliton pulse trains at readily detectable pulse rates—two essential properties for the operation of frequency combs. A method for the long-term stabilization of the solitons is also demonstrated, and is used to test the theoretical dependence of the comb power, efficiency, and soliton existence power on the pulse width. The influence of the Raman process on the soliton existence power and efficiency is also observed. The resonators are microfabricated on silicon chips and feature reproducible modal properties required for soliton formation. A low-noise and detectable pulse rate soliton frequency comb on a chip is a significant step towards a fully integrated frequency comb system.


Abstract Representatives of the family Inaniguttidae dominate a diverse and well-preserved radiolarian assemblage from Kazakhstan. The fauna was extracted from a limestone sample of the Shundy Formation, a limestone sequence that accumulated on the slope of a carbonate platform and which crops out in the Aksuran Mountains (North Balkhash Region). The family Inaniguttidae is represented in the studied assemblage by five genera and 14 species (including two new species, Triplococcus aksuranensis and Inanibigutta maletzi). The genus Triplococcus is particularly abundant, representing half of the Inaniguttids in the studied assemblage. Based on the presence of species Haplentactinia juncta, the fauna can be correlated with the upper Darriwilian Haplentactinia juncta–Inanigutta unica assemblage. Identified trilobites (Endymionia semielliptica and Porterfieldia sp. aff. P. delicata) found in the same sample also suggest a late Darriwilian age, which agrees with the age suggested previously by graptolites.


In the regression‐discontinuity (RD) design, units are assigned to treatment based on whether their value of an observed covariate exceeds a known cutoff. In this design, local polynomial estimators are now routinely employed to construct confidence intervals for treatment effects. The performance of these confidence intervals in applications, however, may be seriously hampered by their sensitivity to the specific bandwidth employed. Available bandwidth selectors typically yield a "large" bandwidth, leading to data‐driven confidence intervals that may be biased, with empirical coverage well below their nominal target. We propose new theory‐based, more robust confidence interval estimators for average treatment effects at the cutoff in sharp RD, sharp kink RD, fuzzy RD, and fuzzy kink RD designs. Our proposed confidence intervals are constructed using a bias‐corrected RD estimator together with a novel standard error estimator. For practical implementation, we discuss mean squared error optimal bandwidths, which are by construction not valid for conventional confidence intervals but are valid with our robust approach, and consistent standard error estimators based on our new variance formulas. In a special case of practical interest, our procedure amounts to running a quadratic instead of a linear local regression. More generally, our results give a formal justification to simple inference procedures based on increasing the order of the local polynomial estimator employed. We find in a simulation study that our confidence intervals exhibit close‐to‐correct empirical coverage and good empirical interval length on average, remarkably improving upon the alternatives available in the literature. All results are readily available in R and STATA using our companion software packages described in Calonico, Cattaneo, and Titiunik (2014d, 2014b).


ABSTRACT Humane education programs designed to increase children's empathy for animals are becoming more common. A quasi-experiment tested the effectiveness of one such program by comparing 80 children who had completed the program with a control group of 57 children who had not. The children read a story involving an injured dog and rated the degree of empathic concern they felt for him. The results showed that girls tended to express more empathy for a dog than did boys, but this difference was not significant for children who underwent an animal empathy training program. This suggests that humane education programs can reduce sex differences by increasing boys' empathy.


Abstract Land‐use change is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity globally. The effects of land use on biodiversity manifest primarily at local scales which are not captured by the coarse spatial grain of current global land‐use mapping. Assessments of land‐use impacts on biodiversity across large spatial extents require data at a similar spatial grain to the ecological processes they are assessing. Here, we develop a method for statistically downscaling mapped land‐use data that combines generalized additive modeling and constrained optimization. This method was applied to the 0.5° Land‐use Harmonization data for the year 2005 to produce global 30″ (approx. 1 km2) estimates of five land‐use classes: primary habitat, secondary habitat, cropland, pasture, and urban. The original dataset was partitioned into 61 bio‐realms (unique combinations of biome and biogeographical realm) and downscaled using relationships with fine‐grained climate, land cover, landform, and anthropogenic influence layers. The downscaled land‐use data were validated using the PREDICTS database and the geoWiki global cropland dataset. Application of the new method to all 61 bio‐realms produced global fine‐grained layers from the 2005 time step of the Land‐use Harmonization dataset. Coarse‐scaled proportions of land use estimated from these data compared well with those estimated in the original datasets (mean R 2: 0.68 ± 0.19). Validation with the PREDICTS database showed the new downscaled land‐use layers improved discrimination of all five classes at PREDICTS sites (P < 0.0001 in all cases). Additional validation of the downscaled cropping layer with the geoWiki layer showed an R 2 improvement of 0.12 compared with the Land‐use Harmonization data. The downscaling method presented here produced the first global land‐use dataset at a spatial grain relevant to ecological processes that drive changes in biodiversity over space and time. Integrating these data with biodiversity measures will enable the reporting of land‐use impacts on biodiversity at a finer resolution than previously possible. Furthermore, the general method presented here could be useful to others wishing to downscale similarly constrained coarse‐resolution data for other environmental variables.


This paper examines the role of human capital persistence in explaining long-term development. We exploit variation induced by a state-sponsored settlement policy that attracted a pool of immigrants with higher levels of schooling to particular regions of Brazil in the late 19th and early 20th century. We show that municipalities that received settlements experienced increases in schooling that persisted over time. One century after the policy, localities that received state-sponsored settlements had higher levels of schooling and income per capita. We provide evidence that long-run effects were driven by persistently higher supply and use of educational inputs and shifts in the structure of occupations towards skill-intensive sectors.


Eucalyptus globulus Labill. is native to southeastern Australia and is the most important temperate hardwood plantation species in the world. It consists of four subspecies that are morphologically and geographically distinct but that are linked by morphologically and geographically intermediate populations. The Jeeralang provenance, an intermediate population from southeastern Victoria, is an important source of seed for plantations and genetic material for breeding programs because of its superior growth and wood density. To determine the genetic affinities of this provenance, 154 trees from three subspecies and the Jeeralang provenance were sampled. Analysis of 12 morphological characters verified that the Jeeralang provenance is intermediate between subspecies bicostata (Maiden, Blakely, & J. Simm.) Kirkpatr., globulus and pseudoglobulus (Naudin ex Maiden) Kirkpatr., with individuals having closest affinities to either ssp. globulus or ssp. bicostata. However, eight microsatellite loci showed that the Jeeralang provenance has greater affinities to Victorian ssp. globulus to which it is geographically closest. In contrast, Tasmanian and Victorian ssp. globulus are morphologically similar yet appear to be distinct at the molecular level. This study emphasizes the importance of using traits that are unlikely to be influenced by selection when determining the origin and affinities of populations.


An Atlantic wide compilation of biogenic silica (Bsi), total organic carbon (TOC) and calcium carbonate content in sea surface sediments were conducted, supplemented by a compilation of benthic fluxes of silicic acid and nitrate. By using spatial modeling and Geo-Information System (GIS) techniques regional differentiated geographical distribution of sedimentary inventories and benthic fluxes will be presented. Appropriate area integrated mass balances were established by regionalizing the seafloor in terms of benthic provinces. Furthermore, geostatistical analyses of the spatial distribution and mass balances yield the amount of interdependences of geochemical inventories with regard to oceanographic regimes of the seafloor. Finally, this study adds to clarify the role of the seafloor within the ocean wide nutrient cycle.


In this paper we describe two approaches
to the well-posedness of Lagrangian flows
of Sobolev vector fields.
One is the theory of renormalized solutions
which was introduced by DiPerna and Lions
in the eighties. In this framework
the well-posedness of the flow is a corollary
of an analogous result for the corresponding
transport equation. The second approach
has been recently introduced by Gianluca Crippa
and the author and it is instead based
on suitable estimates performed directly on the
lagrangian formulation.


By the end of 2020 all newly constructed buildings have to be nearly zero energy buildings (nZEB). In school and office buildings the ventilation system has a large contribution to the total energy use. A smart control strategy that adjusts the operation of the ventilation to the actual demand can significantly reduce this energy use. Consequently, control systems are becoming an important part of the ventilation system in these nZEB buildings. To make an accurate prediction of the operation and energy consumption, building energy simulation (BES) programs need to include detailed control strategies. In most simulation programs the dynamics of the HVAC systems are difficult to implement since idealized controllers are used in the component model. The aim of this paper is to study the implementation of control strategies in different BES environments and to identify the effect of control of the ventilation system on the energy use and indoor climate (i.e. temperature and CO2). For this research, an all air ventilation system in an existing university building is studied. The building consists of two lecture rooms, each with a capacity of 80 students. Balanced mechanical ventilation is provided with a total supply airflow of 4400 m3/h. The airflow rate is controlled by VAV boxes based on measurements of CO2concentration and temperature in each lecture room. In this building, a building monitoring system (BMS) logs the data for all the parameters, e.g. room temperature, air flow, CO2 and energy use, on a one-minute time interval. Furthermore, global horizontal solar radiation and outdoor temperature data from the weather station on the existing building is used as input data. The BES model is set up in Modelica. The results of the simulation model is compared to an already calibrated model created with Designbuilder/EnergyPlus and measurement data. The implementation of the control strategy in both Modelica and EnergyPlus is compared to show the differences and possible limitations. This comparison shows that both Modelica and EnergyPlus enable the functionality to implement a smart control strategy for ventilation systems commonly found in commercial buildings. The results show that the IEQ and indoor temperature could be controlled as measured in the case study building. However, Modelica is a useful simulation tool to include a more complex control for HVAC systems compared to EnergyPlus. In contrast, EnergyPlus does not include detailed control for P, PI and PID control. In order to simulate these effects the BES tool needs to include the dynamics for these components. Since the impact of control in nZEB buildings on the total energy consumption is more significant. Modelica is a good option to include a more complex control for HVAC systems compared to EnergyPlus, since it allows to control the dynamics of the dampers and valves. However, EnergyPlus is still a useful and powerful and accurate BES software to calculate energy consumption.


Near-infrared (NIR)-absorbing conjugated polymer nanoparticles are interesting for imaging-guided combination therapy, especially for synergistic photothermal therapy and chemotherapy; however, most of them target tumours passively through the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect, leading to low utilization efficiency. To address this problem, we report an active tumour-targeting strategy of tumour-homing chimeric polypeptide-conjugated NIR-absorbing conjugated-polymer nanoparticles as a new class of drug nanocarriers for imaging-guided combination therapy of cancer. Methods: A tumour-homing chimeric polypeptide C-ELP-F3 was genetically engineered, and chemoselectively conjugated to polypyrrole (PPy) nanoparticles via a facile thiol-maleimide coupling reaction to form ELP-F3 conjugated PPy (PPy-ELP-F3) nanoparticles. Doxorubicin (DOX) was physically adsorbed onto PPy-ELP-F3 nanoparticles to yield DOX-loaded PPy-ELP-F3 (DOX/PPy-ELP-F3) nanoparticles. The physicochemical properties of DOX/PPy-ELP-F3 were characterized. The pharmacokinetics of DOX/PPy-ELP-F3 was studied in a mouse model. The photoacoustic imaging and photothermal imaging of tumours were tested in a melanoma-bearing mouse model. The photothermal-chemical combination therapy of tumours was investigated by using melanoma cells in vitro and in a melanoma-bearing mouse model. Results: DOX/PPy-ELP-F3 nanoparticles showed enhanced cytotoxicity to melanoma cells in vitro and improved tumour-targeting efficiency in vivo, as compared with both DOX/PPy-ELP nanoparticles without the tumour-homing function and free DOX. The photothermal effect of DOX/PPy-ELP-F3 nanoparticles could accelerate the release of DOX from PPy-ELP-F3. Under the guidance of photoacoustic and photothermal imaging, the synergy of photothermal and chemical therapy could completely abolish tumours without detectable systemic toxicity. Conclusion: Tumour-homing chimeric polypeptide-conjugated NIR-absorbing conjugated-polymer nanoparticles are promising as a new multifunctional drug delivery platform for highly-efficient imaging guided combination therapy.


Interreligious dialogue (IRD) has been one of the vehemently debated topics in Turkey since the late 90s. Many socio-political factors played a significant role in the proliferation of IRD discussions within the academic circles in this period. The multifaceted and complex nature of the term also attracted a wide audience outside the academia, and particularly, politically motivated organisations. Correspondingly, the term became one of the reference points for their propaganda goals. Facing the complexity of the issue, this paper aims to disclose the evolution of IRD in Turkey by seeking answers to the question "how has the term IRD been perceived by Turkish scholars?" by providing insights about the major milestones in the discussions. The article concludes with an analysis of the main trends in the related discussions as follows: IRD as (1) a necessity for social welfare, (2) an instrument for religious propaganda, (3) and as part of dialogic relation.


The efficiency of solar cells may be increased by utilizing photons with energies below the band gap of the absorber. This may be enabled by upconversion of low energy photons into high energy photons via triplet–triplet annihilation (TTA) in organic chromophores. The quantum yield of TTA is often low due to competing processes. The singlet pathway, where a high energy photon is emitted, is one of three possible outcomes of an encounter between two triplet excitons. The quintet pathway is often too high in energy to be accessible, leaving the triplet pathway as the main competing process. Using many-body perturbation theory in the GW approximation and the Bethe–Salpeter equation, we calculate the energy release in both the singlet and triplet pathways for 59 chromophores of different chemical families. We find that in most cases the triplet pathway is open and has a larger energy release than the singlet pathway. Thus, the energetics perspective explains why there are so few TTA emitters and why the quantum yield of TTA is typically low. That said, our results also indicate that the performance of emitters from known chemical families may be improved by chemical modifications, such as functionalization with side groups, and that new chemical families could be explored to discover more TTA emitters.


We examine the impact of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on surface ozone abundance observed over the continental United States (U.S.) during 1993–2013. The monthly ozone decreases (increases) during El Niño (La Niña) years with amplitude up to 1.8 ppb per standard deviation of Niño 3.4 index. The largest ENSO influences occur over two southern U.S. regions during fall when the ENSO develops and over two western U.S. regions during the winter to spring after the ENSO decays. ENSO affects surface ozone via chemical processes during warm seasons in southern regions, where favorable meteorological conditions occur, but via dynamic transport during cold seasons in western regions, where the ENSO‐induced circulation variations are large. The geographic dependence and seasonality of the ENSO impacts imply that regulations regarding air quality and its exceedance need to be adjusted for different seasons and U.S. regions to account for the ENSO‐driven patterns in surface ozone.


A Hidden Madness tells the story of an accomplished individual who has reached the pinnacle of his profession despite suffering for over thirty years from the severe mental illness bipolar disorder. He has done so mostly in silence because of fear of stigma. Extreme childhood bullying helped cause his condition, which has seen him hospitalized five times in psychiatric facilities for periods as long as six months. It is an eye-opening voyage through the little-understood realm of severe mental illness featuring its powerful medications, periodic hospitalizations, often rocky relationships, and light as well as dark moments. The story offers both real hope for those afflicted by serious mental illness and deep insight into their many symptoms, numerous drugs, periodic crises, and potential triumphs. It shows that by being compliant with a medical regimen of therapy and medication, getting help and support from others with the same illness, benefiting from a loving family, discovering coping mechanisms to get through every day, having caring and understanding friends, and being too stubborn to let a disease ruin his life one can enjoy a successful and fulfilling professional and personal life. James T. R. Jones earned an undergraduate degree with highest distinction from the University of Virginia and a law degree with honors from Duke University School of Law, where he served on the Editorial Board of the Duke Law Journal and graduated second in his class. He worked for an elite law firm on Wall Street, clerked for a judge on the United States Court of Appeals, and was a finalist for a clerkship with the then-Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He taught for a year at the Law School of the University of Chicago, and since 1986 has been a member of the faculty of the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville, where he is a full professor of law. He wrote a series of seven articles about using tort law to force law enforcement officials and medical professionals to report domestic violence to the appropriate authorities and has been recognized as a national expert on this important social issue. In 2008 he ended twenty-two years of secrecy about his disease at the Brandeis School of Law and twenty-eight years overall when he wrote the article "Walking the Tightrope of Bipolar Disorder: The Secret Life of a Law Professor" that was published in the leading peer-reviewed journal in legal education. The article generated an enormous positive response, as did pieces that appeared in public media in the Louisville area. Since 2008 he has spoken extensively about "Severe Mental Illness, Stigma, and the Value of Treatment" and is widely recognized for his award-winning mental health advocacy efforts. He now serves on the Boards of four local and national groups that focus on mental health and the way society treats those with serious mental illness. He has been happily married to attorney Kathleen Murphy Jones since 1997 and has two wonderful daughters. A Hidden Madness includes a foreword by Elyn R. Saks, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestseller The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness and winner of a 2009 MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant." Saks, who is a professor at the Gould School of Law at the University of Southern California and suffers from schizophrenia, is the only other law professor in the United States publicly to acknowledge having a severe mental illness. The book's foreward and first chapter are available for download at SSRN. The complete book is available for purchase through Amazon.


The purpose of this study is to find the factors that influence corporate liquidity holdings in Canada. This study also seeks to extend the studies of Isshaq and Bokpin [1] and Bruinshoofd and Kool [2] related to corporate liquidity management. A sample of 164 Canadian firms listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange for a period of 3 years (from 2008-2010) was selected. This study applied co-relational and non-experimental research design. The findings of this paper show that corporate liquidity holding is influenced by liquidity ratio, firm size, net working capital, near liquidity, short-term debt, investment, internationalization of firm, and industry. This study contributes to the literature on the factors that affect corporate liquidity holdings. The findings may be useful for financial managers, investors, and financial management consultants.


The ability to clone elite breeding animals, aimed at addressing the needs of modern food production, had been earmarked as a possibility for the agricultural sector since the birth of Dolly the sheep in 1996. A ruling by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States in 2008 that permits under-license, the commercial cloning of agricultural animals has seen this possibility realised. No such ruling exists here in Europe, but the FDA policy not to label cloned-derived products, and a history of wariness to food biotechnology in Europe may expedite this debate. With the plethora of issues that cloning of animals presents (animal welfare, religious issues, trade issues etc.), the policy debate in Europe looks set to incorporate ethical, legal and social issues from a complex set of state and civil stakeholders. Against the backdrop of ambitious targets for the Irish beef and dairy sectors and with biotechnology identified as a driver of growth, this study is an attempt to generate insight in an Irish context. The aim of this research is to canvass the views of Irish key opinion leaders with respect to the use of animal cloning for food production purposes, as well as those of the Irish public. Specifically, this research aims to gauge the current levels of awareness among specific groups and examine their likely acceptance. In accomplishing the research aim, the development of the methodology took a qualitative approach. A series of in-depth interviews was carried out with Irish key opinion leaders (n=19) spanning regulatory organisations, scientific institutions, consumer interest groups, industry representatives, retail and other non-government organisations. The methodological challenge of engaging with the public on a complex technology was overcome with a novel methodology called Food-Bio QUIS (Food-Biotechnology Qualitative InsightS). Food-Bio QUIS uses established methodology from the area of citizen engagement to develop dialogue and established methodology from qualitative research (specifically focus groups) in the selection of individuals and in analysis of the data. In total 6 Food-Bio QUIS groups were carried out with a cross section of the Irish public (n=35). The results indicate that formal discussion on the use and implications of animal cloning in food production had not occurred within key opinion leader organisations. While receptivity to agri-food cloning varied among interviewees, the near-term prospects for this technology were largely viewed with scepticism. Among the Irish public, key findings on the receptivity to cloning included animal welfare aspects, varying interpretations on modern agriculture and the influence of science-fiction on the receptivity to new technologies.


OBJECTIVES
We used a life course approach to assess the ways in which childhood socioeconomic position may be associated with disability in later life.

METHODS
We used longitudinal data from the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study (1998-2006) to examine associations between parental education, paternal occupation, and disabilities relating to activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs).

RESULTS
Respondents whose fathers had low levels of education and those whose fathers were absent or had died while they were growing up were at increased risk of disability in later life, net of social, behavioral, and pathological health risks in adulthood. Social mobility and health behaviors were also important factors in the association between low childhood socioeconomic position and ADL and IADL disabilities.

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings highlight the need for policies and programs aimed at improving the well-being of both children and families. A renewed commitment to such initiatives may help reduce health care costs and the need for people to use health and social services in later life.


ABSTRACT Situational awareness (SA) is critical to mobilizing a rapid, efficient, and effective response to disasters. Limited by time and resources, response agencies must make decisions about rapidly evolving situations, which requires the collection, analysis, and sharing of actionable information across a complex landscape. Emerging technologies, if appropriately applied, can enhance SA and enable responders to make quicker, more accurate decisions. The aim of this systematic review is to identify technologies that can improve SA and assist decision-making across the United States Government and the domestic and international agencies they support during disaster response operations. A total of 1459 articles and 36 after-action reports were identified during literature searches. Following the removal of duplicates and application of inclusion/exclusion criteria, 302 articles and after-action reports were included in the review. Our findings suggest SA is constrained primarily due to unreliable and significantly delayed communications, time-intensive data analysis and visualization, and a lack of interoperable sensor networks and other capabilities providing data to shared platforms. Many of these challenges could be addressed by existing technologies. Bridging the divide between research and development efforts and the operational needs of response agencies should be prioritized.


: This article presents laboratory studies of the archaeological collection from the Sucuriju site which has been stored for decades at the technical reserve of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. These materials result from Mário Simões' investigations at the Urubu River area, in the municipality of Itacoatiara, Amazonas, Brazil, in the late 1970's and 80's. Recently, this region has been hypothesized as a cultural frontier and is considered key to understanding ethnogenetic and cultural interaction processes in late pre-Columbian times. The reassessment of this old collection, which remained untouched for over 20 years, yielded unprecedented osteological (dental) data for the site. The new analysis of Sucuriju ceramics enabled a better understanding of the local ceramic complexes. We highlight the need for integration between past and current research in this region in order to improve archaeological data both at local and regional scales.


Noun phrases, such as this photo, can often appear both with modifiers, such as the adjective old, and with arguments, typically PPs such as of the queen. Most of the literature on the syntax of DPs has adopted the hypothesis that adjectives are base-generated higher than nominal arguments, just as adverbs are merged higher than arguments in the clause. This squib looks at the syntax of the Italian DP, focusing on the distribution of modifier PPs and argument PPs, and offers novel evidence that, contrary to the received view, nominal modifiers such as adjectives are in fact base-generated lower than nominal arguments.