The Court has long accepted that the government has a strong interest in shielding children from speech that's supposedly unsuitable for them, for instance speech that's sexually explicit or profane. But the Court has also long accepted that such speech does have substantial First Amendment value. The question thus becomes: How is the Court to reconcile the strong claim of government interest with the strong claim of First Amendment rights? The conventional answer, which the Court followed in the recent cyberspace indecency case (Reno v. ACLU), is that the court must apply "strict scrutiny" -- must uphold the law if and only if it's the least restrictive means of serving the government interest. In this article, I make four claims: 1. Though the Court's result in Reno was right, its application of strict scrutiny was less than candid. 2. Under a more accurate application of strict scrutiny, the Court might well have had to uphold the Communications Decency Act. In my view, this suggests that strict scrutiny is itself an unsound test for such cases. 3. There are several different alternatives for dealing with speech restrictions aimed at shielding children; the best one is probably something analogous to the Court's "undue burden" (or, more precisely, "substantial burden") test. 4. This criticism of the Court's "strict scrutiny" approach also applies to other kinds of speech restrictions. Strict scrutiny is generally an unsound approach to free speech cases; I offer some suggestions for a possible framework to replace it.


Meseron therapy was developed by Alfred Awaritefe in 1995, the word Meseron is an Urhobo word which means "I reject it". The core component in Meseron therapy is the power of the spoken word which cuts across cultural and religious boundaries. A general opinion is that words are powerful; they can make or mar, indeed, life and death are said to lie in the tongue. [Prv. 18:21] The Urhobos characteristically reject the unwholesome by saying "Meseron" i.e. "I reject it" at the mention of anything unwholesome. Incidentally this practice has found its way into conventional expression among Nigerians as reflected in an increased sensitivity to reject the unwholesome, unwelcome and unpleasant with phrases like "I reject poverty", "I reject ill health" "it is not my portion" "God forbid" and so on. This widespread "I reject it" mind-set makes Meseron therapy a viable tool in clinical practice if well harnessed. Meseron therapy possess therapeutic strength and value with its undertone of optimism and resilience. However, Meseron therapy does not subscribe to empty optimism, the flipside of rejecting the unwholesome is accepting the wholesome. Research evidence abound on its use in therapeutic interventions like the management of fear, emotional disorder, as an antidote to stress etc. Meseron therapy also compares favourably well with western therapies of cognitive and motivational perspectives. This paper attempts to expose the rich theoretical viewpoints of Meseron therapy with the hope that its use in research/ clinical practice will be further enhanced.


Since the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992, biodiversity has become an important topic for scientific research. Much of this research is focused on measuring and mapping the current state of biodiversity, in terms of which species are present at which places and in which abundance, and making extrapolations and future projections, that is, determining the trends. Biodiversity databases are crucial components of these activities because they store information about biodiversity and make it digitally available. Useful biodiversity databases require data that are reliable, standardized, and fit for up-scaling. This paper uses material from the EBONE-project (European Biodiversity Observation Network) to illustrate how biodiversity databases are constructed, how data are negotiated and scaled, and how biodiversity is globalized. The findings show a continuous interplay between scientific ideals related to objectivity and pragmatic considerations related to feasibility and data availability. Statistics was a crucial feature of the discussions. It also proved to be the main device in up-scaling the data. The material presented shows that biodiversity is approached in an abstract, quantitative, and technical way, disconnected from the species and habitats that make up biodiversity and the people involved in collecting the data. Globalizing biodiversity involves decontextualization and standardization. This paper argues that while this is important if the results of projects like EBONE are to be usable in different contexts, there is a risk involved as it may lead to the alienation from the organizations and volunteers who collect the data upon which these projects rely.


For over a century, dark visions of moral collapse and social disintegration in American cities spurred an anxious middle class to search for ways to restore order. In this important book, Paul Boyer explores the links between the urban reforms of the Progressive era and the long efforts of prior generations to tame the cities. He integrates the ideologies of urban crusades with an examination of the careers and the mentalities of a group of vigorous activists, including Lyman Beecher; the pioneers of the tract societies and Sunday schools; Charles Loring Brace of the Children's Aid Society; Josephine Shaw Lowell of the Charity Organization movement; the father of American playgrounds, Joseph Lee; and the eloquent city planner Daniel Hudson Burnham. Boyer describes the early attempts of Jacksonian evangelicals to recreate in the city the social equivalent of the morally homogeneous village; he also discusses later strategies that tried to exert a moral influence on urban immigrant families by voluntarist effort, including, for instance, the Charity Organizations' "friendly visitors." By the 1890s there had developed two sharply divergent trends in thinking about urban planning and social control: the bleak assessment that led to coercive strategies and the hopeful evaluation that emphasized the importance of environmental betterment as a means of urban moral control.


In this paper, I share a hybrid quantitative reasoning/algebra two-course sequence that challenges the common assumption that quantitative literacy and reasoning are less rigorous mathematics alternatives to algebra and illustrates that a quantitative reasoning framework can be used to teach traditional algebra. The presentation is made in two parts. In the first part, which is somewhat philosophical and theoretical, I explain my personal perspective of what I mean by "algebra" and "doing algebra." I contend that algebra is a form of communication whose value is precision, which allows us to perform algebraic manipulations in the form of simplification and solving moves. A quantitative reasoning approach to traditional algebraic manipulations rests on intentional and purposeful use of simplification and solving moves within contextual situations. In part 2, I describe a 6-week instructional module intended for undergraduate business students that was delivered to students who had placed into beginning algebra. The perspective described in part 1 heavily informed the design of this module. The course materials, which involve the use of Excel in multiple authentic contexts, are built around the use of inquiry-based learning. Upon completion of this module, the percentage of students who successfully complete model problems in an assessment is in the same range as surveyed students in precalculus and calculus, approximately two "grade levels" ahead of their placement.


We present a comparison of recommender systems algorithms along four dimensions. The first dimension is offline evaluation where we compare the performance of our algorithms in an offline setting. The second dimension is online evaluation where we deploy recommender algorithms online with a view to comparing their performance patterns. The third dimension is time, where we compare our algorithms in two different years: 2015 and 2016. The fourth dimension is the quantification of the effect of non-Algorithmic factors on the performance of an online recommender system by using an A/A test. We then analyze the performance similarities and differences along these dimensions in an attempt to draw meaningful patterns and conclusions.


I identify wage spillovers from the public to the corporate sector with the help of a large and sudden public sector wage increase, which raised real compensation by 40 percent in two years, changing the average public wage premium from minus 10 to plus 12 percent. Using a dataset covering about 7 percent of Hungarian workers and their employer, the spillover effect is identified with the variation of the share of public sector employment within groups defined by gender, experience and occupation. The analysis shows that 10 percent higher share of public sector workers within worker-type induces an additional wage growth of 15-20 percent around the wage increase. Controlling for firm (worker spell) fixed effects does not change the results qualitatively and results in a spillover effect of 11-14 (7.5-12) percent. The spillover effect is positively correlated with the public wage premium within worker type, with occupations which are abundant in the public sector, with the availability of public sector jobs and being hired after the wage increase.


As relevant and influential now as it was when first published in 1963, "Tomorrow Is Now" is Eleanor Roosevelt's manifesto and her final effort to move America toward the community she hoped it would become. In bold, blunt prose, one of the greatest First Ladies of American history traces her country's struggle to embrace democracy and presents her declaration against fear, timidity, complacency, and national arrogance. An open, unrestrained look into her mind and heart as well as a clarion call to action, "Tomorrow Is Now" is the work Eleanor Roosevelt willed herself to stay alive to finish writing. For this edition, former U.S. President Bill Clinton contributes a new foreword and Roosevelt historian Allida Black provides an authoritative introduction focusing on Eleanor Roosevelt's diplomatic career. Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) was First Lady from 1933 to 1945. She was a significant advocate both for the New Deal and for civil rights and a strong supporter of the formation of the United Nations. She was a delegate to the UN General Assembly from 1945 to 1952 and chaired the committee that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the last decade of her life she was particularly active in promoting women's rights. "Tomorrow Is Now" was published shortly after her death.


Understanding the iconoclastic work of a lifelong cinematic pioneer With a career spanning over seventy years, Portuguese film director Manoel de Oliveira may be the oldest active filmmaker in the world today. Known for his distinctive formal techniques and philosophical treatment of themes such as frustrated love, nationhood, evil, and divine grace, the director's work has run consistently against the mainstream. Focusing primarily on his feature films, Randal Johnson navigates Oliveira's massive oeuvre, locating his work within the broader context of Portuguese and European cinema. He also examines multiple aspects of Oliveira's conception of film language, ranging from early concerns with cinematic specificity to hybrid discourses suggesting a tenuous line between film and theater on the one hand, and between fiction and documentary on the other. A volume in the series Contemporary Film Directors, edited by James Naremore


Are production factors allocated efficiently across countries? To differentiate misallocation from factor intensity differences, we provide a new methodology to estimate output shares of natural resources based solely on current rent flows data. With this methodology, we construct a new dataset of estimates for the output shares of natural resources for a large panel of countries. In sharp contrast with Caselli and Feyrer (2007), we find a significant and persistent degree of misallocation of physical capital. We also find a remarkable movement toward efficiency during last 35 years, associated with the elimination of interventionist policies and driven by domestic accumulation. (JEL E22, E23, O13, Q21, Q31, Q32)


Washington DC, capital of USA, and Delhi, capital of India are situated at a time difference of 12/13 hours. If we travel this distance by a rocket with a speed of 10 mile/second it will take only 9/10 minutes. When we start at this speed from Washington DC to Delhi at 8 PM we will reach Delhi by 8:10 PM, Washington standard time. When we return back to Washington DC it will be 8:20 PM, Washington standard time. Only 20 minutes is gone by the coming and going process. Though it will be morning in Delhi. But this will happen in case of every short and long distance. No matter you travel at speed of, rocket, Light or more than the speed of light. If you travel at the speed of light for 2 years and when you will come back again to the earth; it will be passed-a total of 4 years; 2 years for going and 2 years for coming. Both the traveler and non-traveler will pass the same time. If the travelers are twin, they both will be older by 4 years more. There is no such thing as twin paradox will happen. Their look may be a bit different due to gravitational force on the earth.


Though long acknowledged for their military prowess under Makaba II (ruled c. 1780-1824), the emergence of the Ngwaketse among the southern Tswana in the pre-difaqane era has not been sufficiently accounted for, and its significance to regional developments has gone unrecognised and unexplained. Argued here is that the Ngwaketse embarked on territorial domination of southern Botswana during the reign of Moleta (ruled c. 1750 – c. 1780), when they subordinated previous inhabitants, introduced military training as part of initiation, and reached their apogee as a territorial entity prior to Makaba's reign. The area that the Ngwaketse colonised (Gangwaketse) in Moleta's time became during the reign of his son Makaba II a base for frequent stock raids among their neighbours and for building a formidable regional state. Their success was derived to an important degree from their use of the hilly terrain in northeastern Gangwaketse suited for stone-wall stock posts secure from their enemies. The Ngwaketse built their military might, in other words, by adapting to the landscape they colonised and shaping each of their settlements to varied local resources. Research is based on a correlation of oral histories, settlement locations, initiation and totemic lists, topographical and Google earth surveys, and field surveys and site mapping in parts of northeastern Gangwaketse and the Kanye area.


The Ellsworth-Whitmore Mountain terrane of central Antarctica was part of the early Paleozoic amalgamation of Gondwana, including a 13,000 m section of Cambrian−Permian sediments in the Ellsworth Mountains deposited on Grenville-age crust. The Jurassic breakup of Gondwana involved a regional, bimodal magmatic event during which the Ellsworth-Whitmore terrane was intruded by intraplate granites before translation of the terrane to its present location in central Antarctica. Five widely separated granitic plutons in the Ellsworth-Whitmore terrane were analyzed for their whole-rock geochemistry (X-ray fluorescence), Sr, Nd, and Pb isotopic compositions, and U-Pb zircon ages to investigate the origins of the terrane magmas and their relationships to mafic magmatism of the 183 Ma Karoo-Ferrar large igneous province (LIP). We report high-precision (±0.1 m.y.) isotope dilution−thermal ionization mass spectrometry (ID-TIMS) U-Pb zircon ages from granitic rocks from the Whitmore Mountains (208.0 Ma), Nash Hills (177.4−177.3 Ma), Linck Nunatak (175.3 Ma), Pagano Nunatak (174.8 Ma), and the Pirrit Hills (174.3−173.9 Ma), and U-Pb sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) ages from the Whitmore Mountains (200 ± 5 Ma), Linck Nunatak (180 ± 4 Ma), Pagano Nunatak (174 ± 4 Ma), and the Pirrit Hills (168 ± 4 Ma). We then compared these results with existing K-Ar ages and Nd model ages, and used initial Sr, Nd, and Pb isotope ratios, combined with xenocrystic zircon U-Pb inheritance, to infer characteristics of the source(s) of the parent magmas. We conclude that the Jurassic plutons were not derived exclusively from crustal melts, but rather they are hybridized magmas composed of convecting mantle, subcontinental lithospheric mantle, and lower continental crustal contributions. The mantle contributions to the granites share isotopic similarities to the sources of other Jurassic LIP mafic magmas, including radiogenic 87Sr/86Sr (0.706−0.708), unradiogenic 143Nd/144Nd (eNd < −5), and Pb isotopes consistent with a low-µ source (where μ = 238U/204Pb). Isotopes and zircon xenocrysts point toward a crustal end member of predominantly Proterozoic provenance (0.5−1.0 Ga; Grenville crust), extending the trends illustrated by Ferrar mafic intrusive rocks, but contrasting with the inferred Archean crustal and/or lithospheric mantle contributions to some basalts of the Karoo sector of the LIP. The Ellsworth-Whitmore terrane granites are the result of mafic rocks underplating the hydrous crust, causing crustal melting, hybridization, and fractionation to produce granitic magmas that were eventually emplaced as post-Ferrar, within-plate melts at higher crustal levels as the Ellsworth-Whitmore terrane rifted off Gondwana (47°S) before migrating to its current position (82°S) in central Antarctica.


ZIF-8 encapsulated Pt nanoparticles (NPs) were investigated for the hydrogenation of 3-methylcrotonaldehyde to prenol using the geometric effect. HR-TEM, HAADF-STEM, XRD, nitrogen adsorption isotherm characterization and size-selective reaction evaluation demonstrated that the Pt NPs were encapsulated in the inner space of ZIF-8. The Pt NPs in the Pt@ZIF-8 catalyst were surrounded by apertures with sizes commensurate with 3-methylcrotonaldehyde molecules. These narrow apertures forced the 3-methylcrotonaldehyde molecules to linearly approach the active sites. The CC bond in the middle of the 3-methylcrotonaldehyde molecule was prevented from interacting with the Pt active sites by the narrow apertures around the Pt NPs, while the CO bond at the tail-end was easily adsorbed and further hydrogenated to prenol. Using this geometric effect, the Pt@ZIF-8 catalyst exhibited a high selectivity to prenol (>84%) even at a high conversion (>90%).


The CICAS-SSA sign is a roadside driver support system that is intended to improve gap rejection at rural stop-controlled intersections. The CICAS-SSA system tracks vehicle locations on a major roadway and then displays a message to a driver on the minor road via an active LED icon-based sign. The basis of this sign is a "Divided Highway" sign that is commonly presented in traffic environments. Overlaid on the roadways of the sign are yellow or red icons that represent approaching vehicles that are at a distance at which the driver on the minor road should proceed with caution or at a distance that is considered unsafe to enter the intersection. Previous research conducted in a driving simulation environment indicated potentially beneficial changes in driver decision-making relative to approaching vehicle gap sizes and indicated that drivers perceive the system as being both useful and satisfying. While simulation-based evaluations provide a wealth of useful information, their ability to replicate the full array of behavioral, cognitive, and perceptual elements of a driving environment do have some limitations. It is because of these limitations that it is useful to confirm simulation-based findings in a real-world environment. The primary goal of the current work was to evaluate the candidate CICAS-SSA sign in a real-world setting to confirm previously identified benefits and identify any unintended consequences of sign usage. This goal was accomplished through a validation field test performed at the intersection of US Highway 52 and County Road 9 in Southern Minnesota. The findings of the work are summarized in this report.


Derivative-free optimization methods are suitable for sophisticated optimization problems, while are hard to scale to high dimensionality (e.g., larger than 1,000). Previously, the random embedding technique has been shown successful for solving high-dimensional problems with low effective dimensions. However, it is unrealistic to assume a low effective dimension in many applications. This paper turns to study high-dimensional problems with low optimal e-effective dimensions, which allow all dimensions to be effective but many of them only have a small bounded effect. We characterize the properties of random embedding for this kind of problems, and propose the sequential random embeddings (SRE) to reduce the embedding gap while running optimization algorithms in the low-dimensional spaces. We apply SRE to several state-of-the-art derivative-free optimization methods, and conduct experiments on synthetic functions as well as non-convex classification tasks with up to 100,000 variables. Experiment results verify the effectiveness of SRE.


Education and training is widely acknowledged as being one of the key factors for leveraging organisational success. However, it is equally acknowledged that skills development and the acquisition of learning through managed cognitive approaches has yet to provide a 'perfect' match. Whilst it is argued that an ideal learning scenario would be one that is distinctly tailored to meet individual learner preferences (learning styles), and customisable to meet pedagogic needs; in reality, there are a few more steps needed. For example, the specific context of education and training per se, through 'traditional' education and training delivery approaches are now going through a paradigm shift in order to provide learners with a better overall learning experience. Personalised Learning Environments (PLEs) are now being used to address learners' needs and preferences through mature technological solutions such as managed Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). Evidence highlights that learners can learn better with a bespoke (tailored) PLE's, as the deployment of teaching and learning material is augmented towards their individual needs. Moreover, from an organisational perspective, efficiency gains have also been acknowledged using this approach, as learners using managed learning environments are generally more engaged with the learning process. In this respect, there is an exigent need for organisations to evaluate how managed learning can be more effectively aligned to organisational strategy, so that business goals can be more purposefully executed. This requires decision-makers to not only understand the core business functions, processes and critical success factors (organisational need); but also the training, learning and development needs of staff within the organisation (intellectual capital). For example, it is important to appreciate how organisational strategy 'drives' education and training through organisational systems and procedures in order to procure organisational success. This paper reports the findings from the development of a conceptual Diagnostic Learning Styles Questionnaire (DLSQ) Framework. This framework highlighted six interrelated dependencies (Business Strategy; Pedagogy; Process; Resources; Systems Development; Evaluation). The pedagogical effectiveness of this and core organisational drivers needed to help organisations augment their strategic priorities and resources to this framework are discussed. Research findings note that whilst pedagogical effectiveness can be improved by tailoring learning styles to learner preferences, there are other dominant drivers that can also enhance (or hinder) learner effectiveness within organisational settings.


New documentary findings and available paleoseismological evidence provide both new insights into the historical seismic sequence that ended with the giant 1960 south-central Chile earthquake and relevant information about the region's seismogenic zone. According to the few available written records, this region was previously struck by earthquakes of varying size in 1575, 1737, and 1837. We expanded the existing compilations of the effects of the two latter using unpublished first-hand accounts found in archives in Chile, Peru, Spain, and New England. We further investigated their sources by comparing the newly unearthed historical data and available paleoseismological evidence with the effects predicted by hypothetical dislocations. The results reveal significant differences in the along-strike and depth distribution of the ruptures in 1737, 1837, and 1960. While the 1737 rupture likely occurred in the northern half of the 1960 region, on a narrow and deep portion of the megathrust, the 1837 rupture occurred mainly in the southern half and slipped over a wide range of depth. Such a wide rupture in 1837 disagrees with the narrow and shallow seismogenic zone currently inferred along this region. If in fact there is now a narrow zone where 200 years ago there was a wider one, it means that the seismogenic zone changes with time, perhaps between seismic cycles. Such change probably explains the evident variability in both size and location of the great earthquakes that have struck this region over the last centuries, as evidenced by written history, and through millennia, as inferred from paleoseismology. Electronic Supplement: First-hand written accounts of the 1737 and 1837 earthquakes, method to compute the tidal level on the 1837 earthquake's day, hypothesis to explain the minor local effects of the 1837 tsunami, modeling results for each of the 1837 earthquake's hypothetical sources, and nineteenth-century maps.


When unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) perform missions near the ocean floor, optical sensors can be used to improve local navigation. Video mosaics allow to efficiently process the images acquired by the vehicle, and also to obtain position estimates. We discuss in this paper the role of lens distortions in this context, proving that degenerate mosaics have their origin not only in the selected motion model or in registration errors, but also in the cumulative effect of radial distortion residuals. Additionally, we present results on the accuracy of different feature-based approaches for self-correction of lens distortions that may guide the choice of appropriate techniques for correcting distortions.


Objectives: To assess inconsistencies in reported age at first sex (AFS) and age at first marriage (AFM) in three African cohorts, and consider their implications for interpreting trends in sexual and marital debut. Methods: Data were analysed from population-based cohort studies in Zimbabwe, Uganda and South Africa with 3, 10 and 4 behavioural survey rounds, respectively. Three rounds over a similar time frame were selected from each site for comparative purposes. The consistency of AFS and AFM reports was assessed for each site by comparing responses made by participants in multiple surveys. Respondents were defined as unreliable if less than half of all their age-at-event reports were the same. Kaplan-Meier functions were used to describe the cumulative proportion (1) having had sex and (2) married by age, stratified by sex, birth cohort and site, to compare the influence of reporting inconsistencies on these estimates. Results: Among participants attending all three comparable rounds, the percentage with unreliable AFS reports ranged from 30% among South African women to 56% among Zimbabwean men, with similar patterns observed for AFM. Inclusion of unreliable reports had little effect on estimates of median age-at-event in all sites. There was some evidence from the 1960–9 birth cohort that women in Uganda and both sexes in South Africa reported later AFS as they aged. Conclusion: Although reporting quality is unlikely to affect comparisons of AFS and AFM between settings, care should be taken not to overinterpret small changes in reported age-at-event over time within each site.


The main objective of this thesis was to understand the environmental variables that affect humans psychological states when it comes to stress. More specifically, the environmental variables at the company Maintpartner AB's new Swedish headquarters office in Arsta, Stockholm, a company concentrated on customized industrial maintenance and operation service.In my thesis I found evidence that open-plan solutions would be a stressor due to increase disturbance from coworkers. Open-plan offices could also be perceived as a stressor because of the limitation in personal control. Through implementing nature and/or integrating it via visual escape the space could be perceived as more attractive and less crowded.Maintpartner AB's administrative personnel has highly individual work tasks and therefore a need for customized workplaces. This resulted in a design concept with separated office rooms, individually designed to meet the staffs individual need. Some areas are designed to work as meeting areas for work or social related encounters


Foreign assistance is often characterized by a mix of altruistic and self-interested considerations of the donor country. Swedish environmental support to the Baltic States during the 1991-96 period was designed primarily to promote Swedish interests. Based on a classification of the different supported issue-areas according to collective good content, it is clear that areas with large trans-boundary effects were favoured. The most important targets for Swedish assistance were wastewater treatment facilities, measures to decrease emissions from point sources and increased nuclear safety, while for example handling of solid waste and nature protection received scant attention. Since Sweden, like most other donors, required the recipient country to cover a significant proportion of the cost of every joint project with local funding, domestic financial resources were furthermore drawn to the areas preferred by the donors. Depending on the scarcity of investment funds as well as of administrative capacity in the Baltic States, other domestically prioritized environmental issue-areas were thus largely neglected.


Political fragmentation in metropolitan regions makes equitable and efficient delivery of public services difficult. Regionalism, although promoted as more equitable and rational, has found limited political support. Public choice theory argues, against regionalism, that political fragmentation can promote competition and efficiency by creating markets for public services. The authors assess the efficacy of market solutions for metropolitan public service provision by comparing privatization with intermunicipal cooperation and evaluating each on efficiency, equity, and democracy grounds. Using probit regression analysis of a national survey of local government service delivery from 1992 and 1997, the authorsfind that both alternatives promote efficiency, but equity and voice are more associated with intermunicipal cooperation than privatization.


The mixed siliciclastic/carbonate sediments of Baffin Bay, Texas, provide a record of the evolution of the Bay for the last 10 ka. Flooding surfaces at 8 ka and 5.5 ka provided an a priori separation of sediments in a core into three groups. Discriminant analysis and interpretation of species composition of the foraminifera from these groups indicated a progression from deltaic to open-bay to hypersaline environments. This traditional paleoecological analysis, however, does not utilize the information available in the relative abundance distribution (RAD) within each community. An approach capable of assessing within community change is provided by S (species richness), H (Shannon information function) and E (evenness) analysis. Using this approach not only can communities be designated without a priori assumptions and environments identified easily, but also the RAD within each community can be evaluated, providing a record of community growth, decline or stasis with time. Stasis, or the ecological balance of nature, is mathematically defined as an equilibrium between S and E such that diversity (H) remains constant with time. This stasis requires that, as the number of individuals (N) gets larger with time, the value of H remains constant. Thus, at stasis a regression between H versus lnN will have a 0 value for the regression coefficient (β 1H ), here termed the Relative Abundance Distribution Index, RADI. A positive value of RADI indicates community growth, a negative value indicates community decline. In the Baffin Bay core 6, communities were identified from 46 samples using SHE analysis. At ~9 ka the RADI was positive, indicating the growth of a normal marine community with a high S. A second community, still largely normal marine but with a slightly negative RADI, formed at ~8 ka. Beginning at ~6.4 ka, the 3 rd and 4 th marginal marine communities with highly negative RADIs formed, indicating a sharp decline for ~1 ka during the formation of Padre Island, which may have taken ~1000 years. At ~5 ka the 5 th and 6 th marginal marine communities were established with RADIs indicating a prolonged period of stasis. The 5 th community was dominated by Elphidium with a high percentage of miliolids. The 6 th community, established at ~2 ka, was dominated by Ammonia and a moderate percentage of miliolids. These last two communities, both at stasis, were apparently responding to changes in salinity brought on by changes in rainfall.


In 25-27 May 2005, a conference entitled "Ottoman Armenians During the Decline of the Empire: Issues of Scientific Responsibility and Democracy," referred to as the "Armenian conference" in this thesis, was scheduled to be held at Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey. There were two conflict escalation periods, in May and September 2005 about the conference. Such conflict escalation periods strengthen the parties' own understanding of the issue and context of conflict; thus, further demarcates the adversaries by increasing the number of issues and parties to the conflict. The purpose of this endeavor is to question a possible link between the media rhetoric and newspapers' ideological positioning in Turkey in a conflict escalation period and to identify whether the media rhetoric in the Armenian conference was escalation-oriented or de-escalation oriented. The main aim for such an exploration is to emphasize the role of media in conflict escalation processes and the need to develop a constructive conflict environment with conflict analysis and resolution perspective in Turkey. The results of the research suggest that in both escalation periods, escalation-oriented rhetoric was used more by the media. Moreover, it was found that there is a link between the media rhetoric and newspapers' ideological positioning. Consequently, in Turkey more attention should be paid to the roles of media in conflict situation and most importantly new constructive media policies should be developed by considering the other structural factors that create such a media environment.


[1] CO2 exchange between lake water and the atmosphere was investigated at Toolik Lake (Alaska) and Soppensee (Switzerland) employing the eddy covariance (EC) method. The results obtained from three field campaigns at the two sites indicate the importance of convection in the lake in driving gas flux across the water-air interface. Measurements were performed during short (1-3 day) periods with observed diurnal changes between stratified and convective conditions in the lakes. Over Toolik Lake the EC net CO2 efflux was 114 +/- 33 mg C m(-2) d(-1), which compares well with the 131 +/- 2 mg C m(-2) d(-1) estimated by a boundary layer model (BLM) and the 153 +/- 3 mg C m(-2) d(-1) obtained with a surface renewal model (SRM). Floating chamber measurements, however, indicated a net efflux of 365 +/- 61 mg C m(-2) d(-1), which is more than double the EC fluxes measured at the corresponding times (150 +/- 78 mg C m(-2) d(-1)). The differences between continous (EC, SRM, and BLM) and episodic (chamber) flux determination indicate that the chamber measurements might be biased depending on the chosen sampling interval. Significantly smaller fluxes (p < 0.06) were found during stratified periods (51 +/- 42 mg C m(-2) d(-1)) than were found during convective periods (150 +/- 45 mg C m(-2) d(-1)) by the EC method, but not by the BLM. However, the congruence between average values obtained by the models and EC supports the use of both methods, but EC measurements and the SRM provide more insight into the physical-biological processes affecting gas flux. Over Soppensee, the daily net efflux from the lake was 289 +/- 153 mg C m(-2) d(-1) during the measuring period. Flux differences were significant (p < 0.002) between stratified periods (240 +/- 82 mg C m(-2) d(-1)) and periods with penetrative convection (1117 +/- 236 mg C m(-2) d(-1)) but insignificant if convection in the lake was weak and nonpenetrative. Our data indicate the importance of periods of heat loss and convective mixing to the process of gas exchange across the water surface, and calculations of gas transfer velocity using the surface renewal model support our observations. Future studies should employ the EC method in order to obtain essential data for process-scale investigations. Measurements should be extended to cover the full season from thaw to freeze, thereby integrating data over stratified and convective periods. Thus the statistical confidence in the seasonal budgets of CO2 and other trace gases that are exchanged across lake surfaces could be increased considerably.


ABSTRACT This work, drawing on the literature on alcohol consumption, sexual behavior, and researching sensitive topics, tests the efficacy of the unmatched-count technique (UCT) in establishing higher rates of truthful self-reporting when compared to traditional survey techniques. Traditional techniques grossly underestimate the scope of problems when questions asked are socially sensitive (LaBrie & Earleywine, 2000). The study employed a large student sample from a Midwestern University, in which randomly assigned students completed either a traditional or UCT self-report survey. Using a difference of proportion test, results suggest the UCT method is more effective in eliciting affirmative responses to sensitive questions. Gender effects were identified. Both males' and females' responses challenge cultural stereo-types of perpetration and victimization. The work addresses several shortcomings in the literature, contributes to the emergent empirical research employing the UCT, and casts a critical eye on prevailing base rates. Policy implications and avenues f or future research are discussed. Keywords. Alcohol consumption, sexual behavior, unmatched-count technique, base rates ********** Concern for excessive alcohol consumption and its relationship to sexual behavior on college and university campuses throughout the United States has provided the impetus for decades of empirical research exploring prevalence rates, prevention techniques, and awareness through education. Work to date has been vast and varied though particular emphasis has been on the consequences of binge drinking, also known as heavy episodic (HE) drinking, and its influence on poor sexual decision making, including risky sexual practices, use of force, coercion, and sexual victimization (see Abbey, Clinton-Sherrod, McAulsen, Zawacki, & Buck, 2003; Carr & VanDeusen, 2004; Desiderato & Crawford, 1995). The vast majority of prior works has relied heavily, if not exclusively, on student based samples and traditional self-report questionnaires to assess sensitive subjects, many of which have been administered in large lecture based classrooms or similar settings. This dynamic creates a potential shortcoming in the empirical work--socially desirable responding by participants which can impact the overall validity of survey results and hinder accurate interpretation. The present work compares results of the traditional self-report survey technique and an alternative approach, the unmatched count technique (UCT), in an effort to test the efficacy of the UCT as a preferred means of collecting base rate or aggregate level data on the sensitive subjects of excessive alcohol consumption and it's negative effect on sexual decision making, including risk taking behavior, perpetration, and victimization. A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION AND SEXUAL RELATIONS LITERATURE For most college students, alcohol consumption and experimentation is an accepted reality of the college experience leading to unintended and unanticipated consequences. The Harvard School of Public Health's College Alcohol Study (CAS), the largest study in the U.S. with a nationally representative sample of 140 four-year colleges and more than 17,000 student participants across multiple waves of data, has consistently found that more than 40 percent of U.S. college students qualify as "binge" drinkers (Wechsler et al., 2002; Wechsler, Lee, Kuo, & Lee, 2000). Excessive alcohol consumption has been implicated in educational difficulties, psychological problems, antisocial behaviors, and, especially, high-risk sexual behavior. Sexual Behavior Sexual experimentation in college, similar to alcohol consumption, is a rite-of-passage for most college students with many learning through their newfound autonomy and self-governance how to, for the first time, manage their sexual relationships and their sexuality (Cooper, 2002, p. …


Latin America has made significant progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However the overall picture hides major inequalities between individual countries. Latin America remains the most unequal region in the world (Barcena 2016) with most vulnerable groups excluded from many opportunities (ECLAC 2015a). Young girls and boys are being left behind as decent employment opportunities for youth reduction of teenage pregnancy and completion of mandatory education remain challenges within the region (De Hoyos et al. 2016). Women still face discrimination and unequal access to labour participation (ECLAC 2015a). All of these challenges are greater for families living in poverty and for indigenous and afro-descendant communities (ECLAC 2015b). This paper considers the potential of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1 3 and 5 to reduce the aforementioned gaps between vulnerable populations and those who are better off. Based on a comprehensive literature review and interviews with key informants we identify policy recommendations to enable these SDGs to be achieved as well as priority actions for successful implementation by Latin American governments. If followed these proposals have the potential to reduce current inequality gaps and to create an enabling environment for an inclusive and sustainable path for development.


Many facilities, such as patient health care centers, data processing systems, and critical telecommunication links, rely on uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) to maintain a continuous supply of power in case of a line outage. In addition to requiring continuous power, many critical nonlinear loads are sensitive to incoming line transients and input harmonic voltage distortion. Conventional UPS systems operate to protect against such disturbances using complex filtering schemes, often employing large passive components. This paper presents the advantages of using real time digital signal processing (DSP) control of UPS systems. A DSP controlled UPS inverter and harmonic conditioning system is described and the performance is verified on a 150 kVA system.


Molecular imaging allows for in vivo monitoring of important processes for tumor development, tumor growth and, finally, treatment response. The major goal of this study was to investigate different multi-modal imaging techniques for the assessment of different tumor specific molecular processes (Jacobs et al., 2005a; Ullrich et al., 2008a; Ullrich et al., 2008b). In the first step, I investigated the use of [18F]FLT for the non-invasive in vivo assessment of tumor proliferation in different types of tumor models in men and mice. [18F]FLT reacts as a substrate of thymidinkinase 1 (TK1) that is highly expressed during S-phase of the cell cycle. Shields et al could show that the accumulation of [18F]FLT reflects cells entering the s-phase in vitro and in vivo (Shields et al., 1998). Here, we first sought to analyze the accuracy of [18F]FLT to detect tumor cell proliferation in patients with gliomas. We investigated the dynamic [18F]FLT distribution for the asessment of tumor cell proliferation in vivo (Ullrich et al., 2008a). In patients with newly diagnosed high grade gliomas we showed by the use of kinetic analyses that the phosphorylation rate of [18F]FLT by thymidine kinase 1 can be detected and, most importantly, is related to tumor cell proliferation as in vitro assessed by Ki-67 immunostaining. We concluded that [18F]FLT PET represents an accurate marker for the in vivo assessment of tumor cell proliferation in patients with gliomas. We next hypothesized that [18F]FLT PET might provide a sensitive marker for monitoring treatment induced G1 arrest in Non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Herewith, we analyzed [18F]FLT in comparison to [18F]FDG PET as a marker for monitoring anti-proliferative treatment response. In collaboration with the Cancer Genomic Group by Dr. Roman Thomas we investigated the potential of [18F]FLT to detect treatment response to specific Epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibition in an EGFR-dependent NSCLC model. We used two EGFR-inhibition sensitive cell lines harboring the L858R mutation leading to oncogenic dependency on EGFR signaling. To validate the specificity of EGFR-inhibition we applied the EGFR inhibition resistant cell line H1975 harboring both the L858R and the T790M mutation. The T790M mutation prevents Erlotinib from binding to the intracellular domain of the EGFR. Only two days after initiation of treatment we observed a striking decrease in [18F]FLT uptake in the EGFR-mutant tumor xenograft due to 6 therapy induced G1 arrest. The specificity of this approach is confirmed by a complete lack of [18F]FLT response in the T790M EGFR-resistant xenografts. Moreover, the reduction of [18F]FLT uptake after 2 days translated into dramatic tumor shrinkage 6 days later (Ullrich et al., 2008c). Together, these data strongly suggest [18F]FLT PET as a robust marker to assess tumor proliferation, to detect induction of G1 arrest and, thus, to detect therapy response at a very early time point. Tumor growth requires new vessel formation as a critical step in tumor progression. In a recent study our group found a significant correlation between the expression of CD31 and [11C]MET uptake in gliomas (Kracht et al., 2003). [11C]MET is transported via the L amino acid transporter that is expressed on endothelial cells suggesting this tracer for imaging angiogenesis. Based on these findings we further investigated the relationship between [11C]MET uptake and angiogenesis during tumor progression by comparing uptake ratios of [11C]MET and the expression of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in patients with gliomas. Here, we again found a significant correlation between changes in VEGF expression and [11C]MET uptake (Ullrich et al., 2009). Moreover, increase in [11C]MET uptake of more than 14,6 % was highly sensitive and specific to detect malignant progression in patients with gliomas. In summary, multi-modal imaging enables to assess tumor relevant processes, to monitor changes in tumor growth and, finally, to assess treatment response to agents targeting those processes.


Fact verification has attracted a lot of attention in the machine learning and natural language processing communities, as it is one of the key methods for detecting misinformation. Existing large-scale benchmarks for this task have focused mostly on textual sources, i.e. unstructured information, and thus ignored the wealth of information available in structured formats, such as tables. In this paper we introduce a novel dataset and benchmark, Fact Extraction and VERification Over Unstructured and Structured information (FEVEROUS), which consists of 87,026 verified claims. Each claim is annotated with evidence in the form of sentences and/or cells from tables in Wikipedia, as well as a label indicating whether this evidence supports, refutes, or does not provide enough information to reach a verdict. Furthermore, we detail our efforts to track and minimize the biases present in the dataset and could be exploited by models, e.g. being able to predict the label without using evidence. Finally, we develop a baseline for verifying claims against text and tables which predicts both the correct evidence and verdict for 18% of the claims.


Nurse practitioner (NP) roles within hospital teams are evolving worldwide. However, understanding of their practice within the context of interprofessional (IP) teamwork remains limited. This two-phase study undertaken within Ontario, Canada provides a new multi-perspective understanding of the value of NP practice within IP hospital teams. Constructivist grounded theory, a modification of the classic methodology, guided an interpretive approach based in exploration of process and meaning construction, privilege and power exposure, and juxtaposition with extant theory. A conceptual rendering of NP practice was determined through supplemental analysis of 30 team member focus groups. This new perspective emerged as three practice foci: easing others' workload, holding patient care together, and evolving practice. Phase two substantiated and expanded the team member rendering through exploration of perceptions of 17 hospital-based (HB) NPs, exposure of privilege and power influences, and congruence with theoretical aspects of IP teamwork and collaboration. The study offers four new discoveries: a team perspective framework of HB NP practice, dimensions of the HB NP role position within hospital teams, explanation of why HB NP role clarity remains elusive, and an emerging theory of HB NP IP practice. The emerging theory illuminates three practice foci that are distinct yet hold relationships of interest: evolving NP role and advancing the specialty, focus on team working, and holding patient care together. The emerging theory provides understanding of HB NP actions deemed of value within IP teams and identifies the HB NP role as pivotal in promoting IP work. The study provides pragmatic and useful new knowledge that is of interest to NPs, healthcare providers, hospital leaders, and academics. The categories provide foci that may aid in assessing needs, envisioning role enactment or change, and considering role outcome measures. Sub-categories emphasize how HB NPs can practice to the full extent of their value, including promotion of IP practice. Privilege and power awareness may aid in effective role integration and conflict resolution. The emerging theory provides a new perspective to enhance NP curricula. Further research may use or test the framework to continue building knowledge of this expanded nursing role.


Four cultivars of winter barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and two cultivars of combining pea (Pisum sativum L.) were grown in the field in the UK (52°N) and irradiated under banks of UV-B lamps in 1994/95 (barley) and 1996 (pea). Supplementary UV-B radiation was applied to treated plots as a proportional addition to the UV-B dose received under a control plot. Treated plants received a UV-B enhancement simulating the consequence of a 15% reduction in the amount of stratospheric ozone. No significant effect on yield and few significant effects on growth, pigment composition or chlorophyll fluorescence variables were detected. However, interplot variability was such that yield differences of <8·5% (pea) and <21·6% (barley) had less than a 95% probability of being detected as significant at the 5% level. The results indicate that yields of pea, and probably barley, would not be markedly affected by the increase in UV-B associated with a 15% reduction in stratospheric ozone. However, given uncertainties, such as the possible interactions between the effects of UV-B and those of other environmental factors, the possibility of significant crop responses to stratospheric ozone depletion cannot be excluded.


Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relation between human capital and the performance of the various types of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). Research Methodology: The analysis conducted on business services industry level took into account the role of education in knowledge transfer, a major factor enriching the KIBS industry. A conceptual framework based on cluster analysis (CA) and classification and regression trees (CART) was developed to analyse human capital, the main asset in the KIBS sector (according to the resource-based theory), and its relations with the performance of KIBS providers. Results: The results pointed to the significant differences between various types of knowledge-based services. Findings suggest that there could be applied additional approach to classifying the KIBS services into three clusters according to the business characteristics (including human capital). Our third cluster closely related to human capital (HC) and information and communication technologies (ICT) demonstrated the best business performance. The results confirmed that KIBS providers with high average remuneration and high wage growth dynamic noted over doubled performance indicator (measured as profit growth). In that group of KIBS providers were (a) Software and IT companies, (b) Temporary employment agency activities and (c) Other human resources provision. Limitations: Our analysis is based on statistical data gathered by a public entity covered 3125 firms aggregated into twenty service types, which limits the scope of the research questions. Contribution: This study contributes to the state of knowledge of the performance dynamics of the various business services. Keywords: Business Services (BS), Human Capital (HC), Performance, Knowledge, Education


The newly described microorganism 'Simkania Z', related to the Chlamydiae, has been shown to be associated with bronchiolitis in infants and community acquired pneumonia in adults. The prevalence of infection in the general population is unknown. A simple ELISA assay for the detection of serum IgG antibodies to 'Simkania Z' was used to determine the prevalence of such antibodies in several population samples in southern Israel (the Negev). The groups tested included 94 medical and nursing students, 100 unselected blood donors, 106 adult members of a Negev kibbutz (communal agricultural settlement), and 45 adult Bedouin, residents of the Negev. IgG antibodies to 'Simkania Z' were found in 55–80% of these presumably healthy individuals, independently of antibodies to Chlamydia trachomatis and Chlamydia pneumoniae. The Bedouin had a seropositivity rate of 80%, while all other groups had rates of between 55 and 64%. These results indicate that 'Simkania Z' infection is probably common in southern Israel.


In this paper, the dependency of surface tension and droplet radius is investigated by determination of pressure jump across the interface of a nano-scale droplet. For this goal, a gasliquid system consists of a nano-droplet and surrounding vapour is modelled using a diffuseinterface, free energy lattice Boltzmann method. The density and pressure distribution inside and outside the droplet can be obtained from LBM. Consequently, the surface tension is calculated by Laplace equation. Surface tension is found initially for carbon dioxide and then the results are extended for different materials and conditions. Interface thickness can be calculated as a function of material properties and conditions. The results show that, when the ratio of droplet radius to interface thickness (R* = R / h) is greater than 8.0, the surface tension is not a function of radius and it will be equal to the flat surface tension (constant regime). But if this ratio be less than 6.0, the surface tension decreases with radius in a linear pattern (linear regime). It is also shown that for a wide range of properties and conditions the quantitative behaviour of surface tension relative to droplet radius is the same.


Sustainable intensification of Ghana's smallholder farming is critical to mitigate rural poverty. Innovations for sustainable intensification include agro-ecological practices, which build up soil fertility, and mulching, which conserves soil moisture. To stimulate the adoption of these innovations, development organizations and business stakeholders provide training for farmers, to demonstrate proper usage and convince the farmers of their profitability. Using unique panel data, we analyze whether the provided training increases adoption-rates. We find effect of training is significant for the adoption of agro-ecological practices but not for mulching. The explanation is that agro-ecological practices are complex but inexpensive, so that information is the main constraint. Mulching in contrast is already a little more diffused, easier to understand but more expensive. Therefore, mulching is less constrained by lacking information and mostly by finance, which includes restricted credit access and uninsured risk.


The impact of WTO membership both on China and its trading partners, both for good and for ill, has been greatly overstated. WTO treaty obligations and Dispute Settlement Body rulings will not become part of Chinese domestic unless specifically incorporated by Chinese legislation. Moreover, the WTO does not require a perfect legal system of its members; instead, it requires a degree of transparency and fairness in certain limited areas. Although some of China's WTO commitments will be difficult for it to fulfill, even non-fulfillment will not result in the predicted flood of WTO dispute settlement proceedings, since such proceedings can be brought only by member governments with their own particular set of priorities, diplomatic considerations, and limited resources.


Multiple treatment comparison (MTC) meta-analysis uses both direct (head-to-head) randomized clinical trial (RCT) evidence as well as indirect evidence from RCTs to compare the relative effectiveness of all included interventions. The methodological quality of MTCs may be difficult for clinicians to interpret because the number of interventions evaluated may be large and the methodological approaches may be complex. Clinicians and others evaluating an MTC should be aware of the potential biases that can affect the interpretation of these analyses. Readers should consider whether the primary studies are sufficiently homogeneous to combine; whether the different interventions are sufficiently similar in their populations, study designs, and outcomes; and whether the direct evidence is sufficiently similar to the indirect evidence to consider combining. This article uses the existing Users' Guides format to address study validity, interpretation of results, and application to a patient scenario.


ABSTRACT Alkaline, sulfidic, 54 to 60°C, 4 to 53 million-year-old meteoric water emanating from a borehole intersecting quartzite-hosted fractures >3.3 km beneath the surface supported a microbial community dominated by a bacterial species affiliated with Desulfotomaculum spp. and an archaeal species related to Methanobacterium spp. The geochemical homogeneity over the 650-m length of the borehole, the lack of dividing cells, and the absence of these microorganisms in mine service water support an indigenous origin for the microbial community. The coexistence of these two microorganisms is consistent with a limiting flux of inorganic carbon and SO42− in the presence of high pH, high concentrations of H2 and CH4, and minimal free energy for autotrophic methanogenesis. Sulfide isotopic compositions were highly enriched, consistent with microbial SO42− reduction under hydrologic isolation. An analogous microbial couple and similar abiogenic gas chemistry have been reported recently for hydrothermal carbonate vents of the Lost City near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (D. S. Kelly et al., Science 307:1428-1434, 2005), suggesting that these features may be common to deep subsurface habitats (continental and marine) bearing this geochemical signature. The geochemical setting and microbial communities described here are notably different from microbial ecosystems reported for shallower continental subsurface environments.


In this paper we explore the relation between the meaning of number denoting determiners ('numerals') and the polarity of the context in which they occur. We claim that when numerals are embedded in positive (i.e. Upward Entailing) contexts they are given an upper bounded ('exactly') reading more often than when they are embedded in minimally different Downward Entailing contexts. Since this corresponds to the behavior of scalar triggers, we suggest that the stronger interpretation of a numeral is really due to a Scalar Implicature. We review the outcome of two experiments, a questionnaire and a reading task where eye movements were recorded, which tested this claim empirically. Finally, we discuss these findings in light of the current approaches on the semantics of numerals, analyzing in detail the relation between the meaning of a numeral and scalar strenghtening.


Most mobile health apps employ data visualization to help people view their health and activity data, but these apps provide limited support for visual data exploration. Furthermore, despite its huge potential benefits, mobile visualization research in the personal data context is sparse. This work aims to empower people to easily navigate and compare their personal health data on smartphones by enabling flexible time manipulation with speech. We designed and developed Data@Hand, a mobile app that leverages the synergy of two complementary modalities: speech and touch. Through an exploratory study with 13 long-term Fitbit users, we examined how multimodal interaction helps participants explore their own health data. Participants successfully adopted multimodal interaction (i.e., speech and touch) for convenient and fluid data exploration. Based on the quantitative and qualitative findings, we discuss design implications and opportunities with multimodal interaction for better supporting visual data exploration on mobile devices.


Abstract During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when blubber oil fuelled house lamps, the king penguin population at Macquarie Island was reduced from two very large (perhaps hundreds of thousands of birds) colonies to about 3000 birds. One colony, located on the isthmus when the island was discovered in 1810, was extinct by 1894 and it took about 100 years for king penguins to re-establish a viable breeding population there. Here we document this recovery. The first eggs laid at Gadget Gully on the isthmus were recorded in late February 1995 but in subsequent years egg laying took place earlier between November and February (this temporal discontinuity is a consequence of king penguin breeding behaviour). The first chick was hatched in April 1995 but the first fledging was not raised until the following breeding season in October 1996. The colony increased on average 66% per annum in the five years between 1995 and 2000. King penguins appear resilient to catastrophic population reductions, and as the island's population increases, it is likely that other previously abandoned breeding sites will be reoccupied.


Complete flux-calibrated spectra covering the spectral range from 6000u to 2.5µm have been obtained along the HH1 jet and analysed in order to explore the potential of a combined optical/near-IR diagnostic applied to jets from young stellar objects. The main physical parameters (visual extinction, electron temperature and density, ionization fraction and total density) have been derived along the jet using various diagnostic line ratios. This multi-line analysis shows, in each spatially unresolved knot, the presence of zones at different excitation conditions, as expected from the cooling layers behind a shock front. In particular, a density stratification in the jet is evident from ratios of various lines of different critical density. We measure electron densities in the range 610 2 -310 3 cm −3 with the (S ii) optical doublet lines, 410 3 -10 4 cm −3 with the near-IR (Fe ii) lines, and 10 5 -10 6 cm −3 with optical (Fe ii) and CaII lines. The electron temperature also shows variations, with values between 8000-11000 K derived from optical/near-IR (Fe ii) lines and 11000-20000 K from a combined diagnostic employing optical (O i) and (N ii) lines. Thus (Fe ii) lines originate in a cooling layer located at larger distances from the shock front than that generating the optical lines, where the compression is higher and the temperature is declining. The derived parameters were used to measure the mass flux along the jet, adopting different procedures, the advantages and limitations of which are discussed. The (Fe ii)1.64µm line luminosity turns out to be more suitable to measure u Mjet than the optical lines, since it samples a fraction of the total mass flowing through a knot larger than the (O i) or (S ii) lines. u Mjet is high in the initial part of the flow (�2.210 −7 M⊙ yr −1 ) but decreases by about an order of magnitude further out. Conversely, the mass flux associated with the warm molecular material is low, u MH2�10 −9 M⊙ yr −1 , and does not show appreciable variations along the jet. We suggest that part of the mass flux in the external regions is not revealed in optical and IR lines because it is associated with a colder atomic component, which may be traced by the far-IR (O i)63µm line. Finally, we find that the gas-phase abundance of refractory species, such as Fe, C, Ca, and Ni, is lower than the solar value, with the lowest values (between 10 and 30% of solar) derived in the inner and densest regions. This suggests a significant fraction of dust grains may still be present in the jet beam, imposing constraints on the efficiency of grain destruction by multiple low-velocity shock events.


Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common bacterial agent of sexually transmitted infections worldwide and a common co-infection in AIDS patients. Chlamydial genital tract infections are often asymptomatic; therefore many infections go untreated and result in complications like chronic inflammation, ectopic pregnancy, and pelvic inflammatory disease. Chlamydia share a unique developmental cycle and under stress, can enter a state known as persistence, in which the bacteria are noninfectious but still viable. Removal of the stressor allows the chlamydiae to re-enter and complete the developmental cycle. Exposure to low-dose quinolones can cause the chlamydiae to enter persistence and halt the developmental cycle. Notably, 1 in 20 people living with HIV/AIDS also suffers from chlamydial infections. Since the anti-HIV drug Elvitegravir (EVG) is a quinolone derivative, we hypothesized that EVG exposure would inhibit chlamydial development. To ascertain whether EVG affects chlamydial development, HeLa cells were infected with C. trachomatis or C. muridarum and then either mock treated or treated with EVG. The percent infectivity and production of infectious progeny were determined by immunofluorescence assay and chlamydial titer assay, respectively. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to examine chlamydial morphology and determine whether EVG caused Chlamydia to become persistent. Though percent infectivity and chlamydial morphology were similar between treated and untreated Chlamydia -infected cells, the production of infectious progeny was significantly decreased in EVG-exposed Chlamydia infected cells. These data indicate that EVG is not a persistence-inducer, but does inhibit chlamydial development in vitro . In other studies, we tested chlamydial polymorphic membrane protein (PMP) expression in chlamydia/HSV co-infected cells by immunofluorescence staining. Since penicillin-induced the expression of some chlamydial PMPs, we hypothesized that expression of PMP-A and PMP-B would be decreased by HSV-induced persistence. The results indicated that there was no significant difference in expression of PMP-A or PMP-B in co-infected versus C. trachomatis singly-infected cells. These data suggest that PMP expression is not a good indicator of chlamydial persistence when induced by HSV.


Objectives To investigate the role of microRNA-193b-3p (miR-193b) in the vascular pathophysiology of systemic sclerosis (SSc). Methods Expression of miR-193b in skin biopsies and fibroblasts from patients with SSc and normal healthy (NH) controls were determined by real-time PCR. Transfection with miR-193b precursor and inhibitor were used to confirm targets of miR-193b. Proliferative effects of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) were determined by water-soluble tetrazolium salt-1 assay and by analysis of proliferating cell nuclear antigen expression. Fluorescence activated cell sorting analysis was performed to investigate the effect of uPA on apoptosis. For inhibition of the uPA-cellular receptor for uPA (uPAR) pathway, uPAR neutralising antibodies and low molecular weight uPA were used. Results We found that miR-193b was downregulated in SSc fibroblasts and skin sections as compared with NH controls. The expression of miR-193b was not affected by major profibrotic cytokines and hypoxia. Induction of miR-193b in SSc fibroblasts suppressed, and accordingly, knockdown of miR-193b increased the levels of messenger RNA and protein for uPA. uPA was found to be upregulated in SSc as compared with NH controls in a transforming growth factor-β dependent manner, and uPA was strongly expressed in vascular smooth muscle cells in SSc skin section. Interestingly, uPA induced cell proliferation and inhibited apoptosis of human pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells, and these effects were independent of uPAR signalling. Conclusions In SSc, the downregulation of miR-193b induces the expression of uPA, which increases the number of vascular smooth muscle cells in an uPAR-independent manner and thereby contributes to the proliferative vasculopathy with intimal hyperplasia characteristic for SSc.


The Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science and Medicine provides comprehensive and authoritative definitions of nearly 8000 sports science and sports medicine terms. All major areas are covered, including exercise psychology, sports nutrition, biomechanics, anatomy, sports sociology, training principles and techniques and sports injury and rehabilitation The dictionary will be an invaluable aid to students, coaches, athletes and anyone wanting instant access to the scientific principles, anatomical structures, and physiological, sociological and psychological processes that affect sporting performance. It will also be of interest to the general reader interested in sports science and medicine terminology.


Rapid technological change, the advent of Big Data, and the creation of society-wide government surveillance programs have transformed the accessibility of highly personal information; these developments have highlighted the ambiguous treatment of privacy and personal intimacy. National legal systems vouchsafe and define "privacy," and its first cousin "dignity," in different ways that reflect local legal and cultural values. Yet, in an increasingly globalized world, purely local protection of privacy interests may prove insufficient to safeguard effectively fundamental autonomy interests - interests that lie at the core of self-definition, personal autonomy, and freedom. Privacy Revisited articulates the legal meanings of privacy and dignity through the lens of comparative law, and argues that the concept of privacy requires a more systematic approach if it is to be useful in framing and protecting certain fundamental autonomy interests. The book begins by providing relevant, and reasonably detailed, information about both the substantive and procedural protections of privacy/dignity in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and among Council of Europe member states. Second, the book explores the inherent tension between affording significant legal protection to the right of privacy (or human dignity) and securing expressive freedoms, notably including the freedom of speech and of the press. The author then posits that the protection of privacy helps to illuminate some of the underlying social and political values that lead the U.S. to fail to protect privacy as reliably or as comprehensively as other liberal democracies. Finally, the book establishes that although privacy and speech come into conflict with some regularity, it is both useful and necessary to start thinking about the important ways in which both rights are integral to the maintenance of democratic self-government.


(S)-3-(Aminomethyl)-7-(3-hydroxypropoxy)-1-hydroxy-1,3-dihydro-2,1-benzoxaborole (GSK2251052) is a novel boron-containing antibiotic that inhibits bacterial leucyl tRNA synthetase, and that has been in development for the treatment of serious Gram-negative infections. In this study, six healthy adult male subjects received a single i.v. dose of [14C]GSK2251052, 1500 mg infused over 1 hour. Blood, urine, and feces were collected over an extended period of 14 days, and accelerator mass spectrometry was used to quantify low levels of radioactivity in plasma at later time points to supplement the less-sensitive liquid scintillation counting technique. An excellent mass balance recovery was achieved representing a mean total of 98.2% of the dose, including 90.5% recovered in the urine. Pharmacokinetic analysis demonstrated that radioactivity was moderately associated with the blood cellular components, and together with GSK2251052, both were highly distributed into tissues. The parent compound had a much shorter half-life than total radioactivity in plasma, approximately 11.6 hours compared with 96 hours. GSK2251052 and its major metabolite M3, which resulted from oxidation of the propanol side chain to the corresponding carboxylic acid, comprised the majority of the plasma radioactivity, 37 and 53% of the area under the plasma versus time concentration curve from time zero to infinity, respectively. Additionally, M3 was eliminated renally, and was demonstrated to be responsible for the long plasma radioactivity elimination half-life. A combination of in vitro metabolism experiments and a pharmacokinetic study in monkeys with the inhibitor 4-methylpyrazole provided strong evidence that alcohol dehydrogenase, potentially in association with aldehyde dehydrogenase, is the primary enzyme involved in the formation of the M3 metabolite.


An icosahedral-hexagonal grid on the two-sphere is created by dividing the faces of an icosahedron and projecting the vertices onto the sphere. This grid and its Voronoi tessellation have several desirable features for numerical simulations of physical processes on the sphere. While several methods to construct the icosahedral grid mesh have been proposed over the past decades, and empirical data have been collected to understand and help improve the grid, rarely have analytical analyses been done to investigate the basic geometric properties of the grid. In this paper, we present an analytical analysis of several geometric properties of the icosahedral grids based on two basic constructions: recursive and nonrecursive construction. We point out that these geometric properties can be improved with modified construction procedures. We demonstrate how these improvements impact the numerical integration of PDEs over the sphere.


By 1902, Georges Melies's Le Voyage Dans La Lune had already articulated a pivotal function for visual effects or VFX in the cinema. It enabled the visual realisation of concepts and ideas that would otherwise have been, in practical and logistical terms, too risky, expensive or plain impossible to capture, re-present and reproduce on film according to so-called "conventional" motion-picture recording techniques and devices. Since then, VFX – in conjunction with their respective techno-visual means of re-production – have gradually become utterly indispensable to the array of practices, techniques and tools commonly used in filmmaking as such.

For the Hollywood cinema industry, comprehensive VFX applications have not only motivated the expansion of commercial filmmaking praxis. They have also influenced the evolution of viewing pleasures and spectatorship experiences. Following the digitisation of their associated technologies, VFX have been responsible for multiplying the strategies of re-presentation and story-telling as well as extending the range of stories that can potentially be told on screen. By the same token, the visual standards of the Hollywood film's production and exhibition have been growing in sophistication. On the basis of displaying ground-breaking VFX – immaculately realised through the application of cutting-edge technologies and craftsmanship – and of projecting such a significant degree of visual innovation and originality, certain Hollywood movies have established techno-visual trends and industrial standards for subsequent filmmaking practice.

While the production of VFX-intensive Hollywood motion pictures is by no means a recent phenomenon, Hollywood films have included progressively larger amounts of digital VFX, computer graphics and animation. This has been a result of intensive development and innovation in the industry. It began with the "simple" use of computers during VFX production in the late 1970s. Then brief sequences of computer-generated images began to appear; soon followed by more elaborate digital VFX sequences and spectacular digital VFX extravaganzas. This culminated in the production of entirely computer-generated motion pictures by the late 1990s. With the advent of digital theatrical exhibition, it had taken the Hollywood cinema industry just over two decades to fully embrace the digital realm.

Chronicling Hollywood cinema's entry into the digital realm constitutes a narrative that is intertwined with a number of others. Here we are referring to the intensification of conglomeratic practices within the movie business and the domain of techno-scientific R&D in filmmaking, and to the unification of corporate media, information technology and entertainment. Hence the standardisation of, and convergence toward, the digital medium is emblematic of Hollywood cinema's techno-industrial evolution in the late 20th century. Accordingly, we can identify various synergies and partnerships – between VFX providers, movie studios, research laboratories, graphic designers, computer programmers, software developers, computer and filmmaking hardware manufacturers – that have emerged from a progressive growth of awareness in Hollywood of the digital medium's potential.

In the light of this, the main aims of this thesis are:
(1) to investigate Hollywood cinema's techno-visual metamorphosis following the digitisation of VFX-related tools and of filmmaking technologies commonly used in the industry;
(2) to locate the origins, nature and ramifications of the most important technoindustrial transition for Hollywood cinema since the advent of sound, colour and widescreen;
(3) to examine the techno-industrial circumstances, motivations and outcomes of digitisation for Hollywood cinema;
(4) to identify the impact on the Hollywood digital cinemascape of continuous techno-industrial innovation, research and development in the VFX domain;
(5) to analyse and evaluate the impact of digitisation on VFX, on its practitioners, on filmmaking technologies, and on Hollywood film production practice generally.


Recent decreases in costs, and improvements in performance, of silicon array detectors open a range of potential applications of relevance to plant physiologists, associated with spectral analysis in the visible and short-wave near infra-red (far-red) spectrum. The performance characteristics of three commercially available 'miniature' spectrometers based on silicon array detectors operating in the 650–1050-nm spectral region (MMS1 from Zeiss, S2000 from Ocean Optics, and FICS from Oriel, operated with a Larry detector) were compared with respect to the application of non-invasive prediction of sugar content of fruit using near infra-red spectroscopy (NIRS). The FICS–Larry gave the best wavelength resolution; however, the narrow slit and small pixel size of the charge-coupled device detector resulted in a very low sensitivity, and this instrumentation was not considered further. Wavelength resolution was poor with the MMS1 relative to the S2000 (e.g. full width at half maximum of the 912 nm Hg peak, 13 and 2 nm for the MMS1 and S2000, respectively), but the large pixel height of the array used in the MMS1 gave it sensitivity comparable to the S2000. The signal-to-signal standard error ratio of spectra was greater by an order of magnitude with the MMS1, relative to the S2000, at both near saturation and low light levels. Calibrations were developed using reflectance spectra of filter paper soaked in range of concentrations (0–20% w/v) of sucrose, using a modified partial least squares procedure. Calibrations developed with the MMS1 were superior to those developed using the S2000 (e.g. coefficient of correlation of 0.90 and 0.62, and standard error of cross-validation of 1.9 and 5.4%, respectively), indicating the importance of high signal to noise ratio over wavelength resolution to calibration accuracy. The design of a bench top assembly using the MMS1 for the non-invasive assessment of mesocarp sugar content of (intact) melon fruit is reported in terms of light source and angle between detector and light source, and optimisation of math treatment (derivative condition and smoothing function).


Background: Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase Activating Peptide (PACAP) has a significant protective effect on nerve cell damage induced by several neurotoxins. The ubiquitin proteasome inhibitor lactacystin, one new neurotoxin, could cause cell damage by inducing dopaminergic cells apoptosis. Whether PACAP has a protective effect on lactacystin-induced cytotoxic model has not been reported.
Aims: The present study was designed to explore whether PACAP can effectively inhibit the lactacystininduced dopaminergic apoptosis.
Methods: Pheochromocytes (PC12 cells) differentiated by nerve growth factor as neurons were treated with lactacystin (20 μmol/l) for 24 h, to establish the Parkinson's disease cells model. Groups are set up as control group, lactacystin group, PACAP1-27 intervention group, PACAP1-27 and PACAP6-27 cointervention group.
Results: Treatment with lactacystin can make the cell vitality obviously decline. Compared with control group, cell morphology presented obviously damaged change in lactacystin group. After treatment with lactacystin, the expression of mitochondrial bcl-2 dramaticly decreased, expression of mitochondrial bax had no change, the rate of bcl-2/bax dramaticly decreased, and thus expression of caspase-3 increased. Meanwhile, caspase-12, the characteristic marker of endoplasmic reticulum stress, increased significantly in lactacystin group. However, these changes could be partly reversed by treatment with PACAP1-27. This protective effect of PACAP1-27 was negated by PACAP6-27, a receptor antagonist of PACAP1-27.
Conclusion: Lactacystin led to cell damage by inducing mitochondrial damage and endoplasmic reticulum stress; PACAP1-27 played a protective role by regulating the mitochondrial and endoplasmic reticulum related dual signal pathway. As one PACAP1-27 receptor antagonist, PACAP6-27 attenuated this effect of PACAP1-27.


Many have suggested that placing body-worn cameras (BWCs) on police officers improves the civility of police-citizen encounters and enhances citizen perceptions of police transparency and legitimacy. In response, many police departments have adopted this technology to address public concerns over the quality of policing in their communities. The existing program evaluation evidence on the intended and unintended consequences of outfitting police officers with BWCs is still developing, however. This study reports the findings of a randomized controlled trial involving more than 400 police officers in Las Vegas, Nevada. We find that officers equipped with body-worn cameras generated fewer complaints and use of force reports relative to officers without cameras. BWC officers also made more arrests and issued more citations than their non-BWC counterparts. The findings of this randomized controlled trial raise the possibility that planning for the placement of BWCs on officers should consider the competing effects of improvement in civilian perceptions of police generated by reductions in complaints and use of force incidents and of public concerns about increased enforcement activity.


Abstract. Laboratory experiments of efficient oligomerization from methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) in the bulk aqueous phase were simulated in a box model. Kinetic data are applied (if known) or fitted to the observed MVK decay and oligomer mass increase. Upon model sensitivity studies, in which unconstrained rate constants were varied over several orders of magnitude, a set of reaction parameters was found that could reproduce laboratory data over a wide range of experimental conditions. This mechanism is the first that comprehensively describes such radical-initiated oligomer formation. This mechanism was implemented into a multiphase box model that simulates secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation from isoprene, as a precursor of MVK and methacrolein (MACR) in the aqueous and gas phases. While in laboratory experiments oxygen limitation might occur and lead to accelerated oligomer formation, such conditions are likely not met in the atmosphere. The comparison of predicted oligomer formation shows that MVK and MACR likely do negligibly contribute to total SOA as their solubilities are low and even reduced in aerosol water due to ionic strength effects (Setchenov coefficients). Significant contribution by oligomers to total SOA might only occur if a substantial fraction of particulate carbon acts as oligomer precursors and/or if oxygen solubility in aerosol water is strongly reduced due to salting-out effects.


Acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) is the primary limitation of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. Corticosteroids remain the standard initial therapy, yet only 25% to 41% of patients completely respond. This randomized, 4-arm, phase 2 trial was designed to identify the most promising agent(s) for initial therapy for aGVHD. Patients were randomized to receive methylprednisolone 2 mg/kg per day plus etanercept, mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), denileukin diftitox (denileukin), or pentostatin. Patients (n = 180) were randomized; their median age was 50 years (range, 7.5-70 years). Myeloablative conditioning represented 66% of transplants. Grafts were peripheral blood (61%), bone marrow (25%), or umbilical cord blood (14%); 53% were from unrelated donors. Patients who received MMF for prophylaxis (24%) were randomized to a non-MMF arm. At randomization, aGVHD was grade I to II (68%), III to IV (32%), and (53%) had visceral organ involvement. Day 28 complete response rates were etanercept 26%, MMF 60%, denileukin 53%, and pentostatin 38%. Corresponding 9-month overall survival was 47%, 64%, 49%, and 47%, respectively. Cumulative incidences of severe infections were as follows: etanercept 48%, MMF 44%, denileukin 62%, and pentostatin 57%. Efficacy and toxicity data suggest the use of MMF plus corticosteroids is the most promising regimen to compare against corticosteroids alone in a definitive phase 3 trial. This study is registered at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00224874.


Liquid and semi-solid culture
media are used to maintain and proliferate bacteria, fungi, and Oomycetes for
research in microbiology and plant pathology. In this study, a comparison was
made between soybean milk medium, also referred to as soymilk, and media
traditionally used for culturing soybean pathogens to determine if soymilk
medium was an effective medium for growth of Colletotrichum truncatum, Fusarium virguliforme, Macrophomina phaseolina, Passalora sojina, Phomopsis longicolla, Phytophthora
sojae, Pythium irregulare, Rhizoctonia solani, and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Based on
radial mycelial colony growth rates, C.
sojina grew
significantly (P C. truncatum and F. virguliforme grew significantly (P P S. sclerotiorum grown on SDA as compared
to PDA. Soymilk used with agar or used alone as a broth may be an
option for replacing more expensive processed culture media.


Accumulated knowledge about nature is an important part of people's capacity to manage and conserve the environment. Local ecological knowledge is vital if natural habitats are to receive sufficient public support for their conservation and if local capacity for self-management is to be maintained. Loss of traditional knowledge is a worldwide phenomenon, resulting in reduced environmental awareness and diminished local capacity for sustainable use and conservation of natural resources. Economic development leading to environmental disconnection through reduced local resource dependence and interaction is causing local knowledge to be hybridised and lost or replaced with modern knowledge systems. Simultaneously, globalisation and increased opportunities to trade can result in severe overexploitation. To date, there have been few cross-cultural and quantitative studies to describe this knowledge loss. This study illustrates the loss of local knowledge using an Indonesian case study, the Kaledupa sub-district of Wakatobi Marine National Park. Kaledupa has a population of around 17,000 comprised of two distinct cultural groups, Kaledupan Islanders (Pulo) and traditionally nomadic boat people (Bajo) now living in permanent houses on stilts over the sea. Marine resources are heavily exploited for income, food, building materials and waste disposal by both groups. Marine ecological knowledge differed significantly between Bajo and Pulo communities (U = 1305.000; p < 0.001). An inverse relationship was shown between marine ecological knowledge and wealth (Rs = -0.395; p < 0.001), and a positive relationship between marine ecological knowledge and support for traditional management practices (Rs = 0.396; p < 0.001). This has implications for the future management of marine and coastal systems in the area and in similar small island communities worldwide.


We present measurements of the photoexcited states of poly(p-phenylene vinylene), PPV, and a model oligomer, trans,trans-distyrylbenzene, probed by detection of photoluminescence and photoinduced absorption. Photoluminescence is strong in both materials and due to radiative recombination of the singlet exciton. Triplet excitons are also photogenerated, and in the case of the oligomer are seen directly in light-induced ESR measurements. We find a signal with a peak-to-peak width of 12 G at 1580 G for a probe frequency of 9.14 GHz. We assign this to the ``forbidden'' \ensuremath{\Delta}${\mathit{m}}_{\mathit{s}}$=2 transition between the triplet sublevels. From the position of the minimum field ${\mathit{H}}_{\mathrm{min}}$ for this microwave transition, we determine the zero-field splitting of the triplet sublevels to be 0.07 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$. We find an associated photoinduced absorption at 1.95 eV in the oligomer which we attribute to a triplet-triplet transition of the excited state. For the polymer we find a photoinduced absorption response at 1.45 eV, very similar to that of the oligomer, and we consider that this is similarly due to a triplet exciton, although we have not been able yet to find direct ESR evidence. In the case of the polymer, charged photoexcitations are also seen in photoinduced absorption measurements, characteristic of bipolarons, with induced absorption at 0.6 and 1.6 eV. We do not find similar excitations in the oligomer, and we consider that intermolecular charge transport is necessary for the generation of the long-lived charged excitations probed in our experiments.


ABSTRACT The unresolved status of the proximate cause for sexual size dimorphism in horseshoe crabs has practical consequence, because harvest recommendations rely on assumptions about sex-specific growth and maturity. We propose and evaluate competing hypotheses for the proximate cause of sexual size dimorphism in horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) by comparing size and estimated age frequencies from spring-captured juveniles (n = 9,075) and adults (n = 36,274) to predictions from the competing hypotheses. We found that the number of identifiable juvenile size distributions was greater for females than males and the probability of remaining a juvenile was higher for females than males among older juveniles. These findings are consistent with males maturing earlier than females. Molt increments and mean sizes were similar for male and female juveniles, which is not consistent with differential growth. Among adults, one size distribution accounted for ≥90% of females regardless of carapace wear. Also, size ratio of adult females to males was 1.26, and size ratio of the largest adult to largest juvenile female was 1.28. These observations are not consistent with females continuing to molt as adults. Differential-maturity is the most parsimonious explanation for sexual size dimorphism in Delaware Bay horseshoe crabs. In addition, because of a low frequency of juvenile females >195 mm relative to adult females and male-biased sex ratios starting at 105 mm, we hypothesize that females, more than males, migrate as older juveniles and mature in the ocean. Management implications include that (1) minimum size limits, as previously suggested, would not allocate harvest to older adults as intended because size does not indicate age among adult horseshoe crabs in the Delaware Bay population, and (2) the Shuster Horseshoe Crab Reserve, which has reduced harvest on the continental shelf, could be protecting older juveniles and newly mature females from harvest prior to their first spawn.


Dermatophytosis is a disease that affects the stratum corneum of the skin, hair and nails in guinea pigs, causing bad aspect of the carcass, affecting its commercialization and generating economic losses. For the study 189 samples of guinea pigs with dermatological lesions were collected in intensive breeding farms; the guinea pigs were analyzed by cytopathology and mycological culture in the Laboratory of Microbiology and Microscopy of Universidad Cientifica del Sur. The frecuency of dermatophytosis was 18.5 +- 5.5% by mycological culture and 43 +- 7.1% by cytopathology; according to the age stratum, the dermatophytosis frecuency was 0% / 0% in breeding, 25.6% / 62% in rearing, and 4.8% / 6% in reproductive guinea pigs by mycological culture and cytopathology, respectively. About the location of the lessions, a frequency of 0% / 0% was found in cages by both techniques, while for animals raised in pools a frequency of 26.5% / 61% was found by culture and cytopathology, respectively. The grade of congruity between these two tests was determined by the value of Kappa (k) equal to 0.46. The result indicates that there is a moderate degree of association.


Polar Regions are experiencing environmental changes at unprecedented rates. These changes can spread throughout entire food webs from lower trophic levels to apex predators. As many top predators forage over large areas, these indirect effects may be associated with large-scale patterns of climate variability. Using global climate indices that are known to impact the Southern Ocean ecosystem (the El Nino Southern Oscillation and Antarctic Oscillation Indices) we assessed their efficacy to predict variation in the demographic parameters of Antarctic seabirds. First, we used a long-term dataset on adult survival (estimated from capture–mark–recapture data) and reproduction of Antarctic petrel Thalassoica antarctica, from the largest known breeding colony (Svarthamaren, Dronning Maud Land) and examined whether large-scale oceanographic fluctuations impact survival and reproduction. Second, we conducted an exhaustive literature review to determine whether the effects of large-scale environmental variability on Antarctic seabirds have a coherent fingerprint across the Antarctic continent and nearby islands. We found that most of the variation in both reproductive success, timing of hatching, and survival of Antarctic petrels can be accurately modeled using the two modes of large-scale climate variability in Antarctica. The literature review, combined with the results from our field study, suggests that while the anticipated trends in the global patterns of climatic variability will generally have detrimental effects on populations of top predators in the Southwest Atlantic, these conclusions cannot be extrapolated to all seabird populations in Antarctica without additional data.


Previous analyses have indicated that steroid hormone receptors undergo an allosteric change in structure upon binding by the steroid ligand. This structural change was envisioned as an intramolecular unmasking of the protein's DNA-binding domain, thus allowing the receptor to function in gene regulation. We report an analysis of the effect of hormone on the DNA-binding activity of the chicken progesterone receptor. Using an isocratic elution of DNA affinity columns we show that unliganded receptor (aporeceptor) can bind a 23-basepair progesterone response element with high affinity and a high degree of sequence preference. Hormone causes a 1.5-fold increase in affinity for the PRE sequence and a 2-fold decrease in affinity for non-specific DNA. Kinetic analysis of the off-rate of receptor-DNA complexes is consistent with this minor effect of hormone. In addition, gel retardation analysis of receptor-progesterone response element complexes further substantiates that hormone is not required for sequence-specific DNA binding. These results indicate that hormone is not necessary for the progesterone receptor to fold into a conformation that recognizes specific gene regulatory sequences.