This paper seeks to contribute a gender perspective to the analysis of rural livelihoods in three Uganda districts, focusing specifically on how gender-related constraints influence the livelihood options of male- and female-headed households variously. The general picture emerging from this review is that the livelihood portfolios in Mbale, Kamuli and Mubende districts vary substantially between male- and female-headed households, and among men and women. In all three districts, household assets and endowments, which are important determinants of household income, are strongly differentiated between male- and female-headed households, with the latter consistently disadvantaged relative to their male counterparts. Evidence also suggests that households are diversifying away from farming due to land and capital constraints that make reliance on agriculture as a sole income source less viable. However, the potential for, and benefits of, diversification are contingent upon the nature of household headship, as well as upon the kinds of off-farm activities in which households are likely to engage.

While the Ugandan government has implemented a far-reaching approach to gender policy, FHHs face a number of de facto constraints that circumscribe their capacity to expand and/or diversify their livelihood portfolios. These include gender specific constraints such as unequal gender divisions of labour, gender intensified constraints such as asymmetries in land rights and financial capital, and gender imposed constraints such as discrepancies in the provision of credit. The paper argues that while certain constraints pose more serious challenges for the livelihood security of FHHs than others, changing the way gender relations are materially expressed will require long-term commitment to realise the government's objectives of gender equity.


2010, the International Year of Biodiversity, celebrates Earth9s glorious variety of species and ecosystems. But many are threatened or damaged, and the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has failed to meet its lofty goal of a significant slowdown in biodiversity loss by 2010. Next month, CBD will meet to adopt a new strategic plan, see p. 1298. The draft revises several of the 21 previous subtargets, such as controlling invasive species and creating more nature reserves. Science examines the major modifications proposed for six central targets. For each, we include a recent example of an advance or setback, as well as the assessment of progress by CBD9s Global Biodiversity Outlook 3. The charts show the change over time of key parameters; however, these global trends mask large regional variation.


This collection brings together new and original critical essays by eleven established European American Studies scholars to explore the 1960s from a transatlantic perspective. Intended for an academic audience interested in globalise American studies, it examines topics ranging from the impact of the American civil rights movement in Germany, France and Wales, through the transatlantic dimensions of feminism and the counterculture movement. It explores, for example, the vicissitudes of Europe's status in US foreign relations, European documentaries about the Vietnam War, transatlantic trends in literature and culture, and the significance of collective and cultural memory of the era.


Protozoan grazing on bacteria is among the oldest predator-prey interactions in nature. While bacteria developed different defence strategies such as toxicity and microcolony formation to prevent grazing losses, protozoa developed different feeding mechanisms to compass these strategies. One important mode of grazing protection is biofilm formation. Its characteristics such as high bacterial densities and thus possible toxin production, as well as excretion of an extracellular matrix provide bacteria in biofilms with advantages in grazing protection compared to suspended bacteria. However, despite its importance, studies of protozoan grazing on biofilms are rare. This is partly due to the lack of appropriate methods to test mechanisms under complex field conditions. Here, different laboratory as well as field experiments were developed to investigate defence mechanisms of bacterial biofilms against protozoan grazers.
The first part of this thesis demonstrates the impact of the ciliate Tetrahymena pyriformis on biofilms of the microcolony forming bacterial strain Acinetobacter sp. C6 and toxigenic and non-toxigenic strains of Vibrio cholerae, respectively. The grazer had a strong impact on the morphology of Acinetobacter sp. biofilms grown under various nutrient conditions. Microcolony formation did not protect the biofilms as such. However, biofilm biovolume of the grazed treatments stayed the same or increased during the course of the experiment indicating possible nutrient recycling. In a comparative study with T. pyriformis grazing on a toxigenic wild-type Vibrio cholerae strain A1552 and a genetically modified, non-toxigenic V. cholerae strain hapR it could be demonstrated that biofilms of the toxic V. cholerae A1552 supported less ciliates than biofilms of the non-toxic V. cholerae hapR. Microcolony abundances and active bacterial cells within the biofilms of V. cholerae A1552 increased compared to non-grazed control biofilms arguing for a mutual benefit for grazer and bacteria possibly due to nutrient recycling and chemical cues.
In the second part of this thesis two new tools for environmental biofilm experiments are presented. (i) Diffusion chambers were successfully modified to expose toxigenic and non-toxigenic V. cholerae strains into the natural environment. The toxicity of wild-type V. cholerae A1552 for the flagellate Rhynchomonas nasuta could be verified. However, in comparison with the natural hapR mutant strain V. cholerae N16961, the level of toxicity impact on the flagellate varied dependent on seasonal background. The importance of nutrient concentration on V. cholerae toxicity could be demonstrated in subsequent laboratory experiments. This suggested a separate toxicity pathway beside the beforehand known hapR pathway. (ii) Two established methods of biofilm and protozoa observation were combined to quantify grazing interactions. The coupling of natural biofilm establishment in flow cells and video microscopic analysis of individual flagellate feeding revealed inter- as well as intra-specific differences and similarities in feeding behaviour and food preferences in three flagellate species. Whereas the three species showed distinct feeding behaviour, individuals of all species were only able to ingest single prey cells. Although microcolonies were contacted no cells were ingested. Thus, microcolony formation did protect bacteria against flagellate grazing.
Taken together these experiments demonstrate the complex interactions of protozoa and bacteria on biofilms. Nutrient recycling, chemical and structural defence strategies of the bacterial community and the physical presence of the grazer have a major impact on biofilms. The presented methods such as the modified diffusion chambers and video microscopy in combination with the flow cell system are powerful tools to unravel the dynamics of predator-prey interactions on biofilms.


Abstract The moss Bryoerythrophyllum latinervium var. rotundatum X.L.Bai, D.M.Ren et L.Q.Yang is described as a new variety from Inner Mongolia, China. It is distinguished from Bryoerythrophyllum latinervium (Holmen) Fedosov et Ignatova by its rounded leaf apex. Light microscope photographs of the significant characters are provided and its distinctions from closely related taxa are discussed. A key to the Chinese species of Bryoerythrophyllum is provided.


Abstract With the discussions on the nature of mathematics, mathematics is regarded as a value laden area. That it contains a wide range of values has led to consideration of new approaches in classroom practices. The modelling approach which also includes traditional problem solving is consistent with different values of mathematics. With the recognition of mathematics that has different values with the traditional values, mathematics teacher training programs need to be addressed again. It has been intended to contribute the implementation of the program by examining the profiles of prospective mathematics teachers in the current state and the views for modelling. The profiles and modelling levels of 136 prospective mathematics teachers who study in mathematics teacher training programme at Abant Izzet Baysal University in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 academic years have been analyzed. When the participants' levels of having positivist values and levels of having constructivist values were compared, a significant difference was determined in favor of constructivist values. When the values were analyzed in terms of gender variable, the female participants' levels of having constructivist and positivist values showed a significant difference in favor of constructivist values. Modelling levels were examined in different dimensions, and it was determined significant differences between sub-dimensions. In terms of gender variable, when sub-dimensions of each modelling levels were analyzed, there was no significant difference between female and male prospective mathematics teachers. Also, there was a positive correlation between values and modelling levels among prospective mathematics teachers. Key Words Values in Mathematics, Constructivist Value, Positivist Value, Modelling, Prospective Mathematics Teachers. Although mathematics and mathematics teaching are different study fields, the nature of mathematics and application of mathematics to mathematics teaching are inseparable complements. Mathematics just like many other fields interacts with social sciences such as psychology, sociology, and philosophy (Bishop, 2000). In addition, there are many examples of these interactions in the history of mathematics (Davis & Hersh, 2002). This new perspective on the nature of mathematics requires us to reconsider teaching mathematics (Ernest, 2007). In this context, two points are raised as the starting point of this study: Values in mathematics and modelling approach. Whereas values are about what is attached importance to in teaching mathematics, modelling is about how to approach teaching mathematics. Values in Mathematics Education While beliefs are mostly about true/false kinds of views and judgments, values correspond to significant/ insignificant kinds of views and judgments (Chin & Lin, 2001; Jorgensen & Ryan, 2004; Seah, Bishop, FitzSimons, & Clarkson, 2001). Values directly affect learning (Gedik, 2010). Hence, values should be taken into consideration in mathematics (Matthews, 2001). Indisputability of corollaries in mathematics is related to assumptions (axiom and series of theorems based on it) which are made during the process. This leads to the acceptance of them in terms of values (in an unquestionable way). However, when the values such as accuracy and fallibilism are investigated in the context of mathematics, it can be concluded that it is similar to the results in social sciences (Bishop & Clarkson, 1998; Bishop & Seah, 2002; Ernest, 1998, 2004; Glas, 1998). The accuracy of mathematical knowledge together with fallibilism calls forth questioning common knowledge in mathematics. Thus, the research on the nature of mathematics is directed towards this subject (Baki, 2008; Bishop, 2000; Brown, 1999; Chin & Lin, 2001; Dede, 2010; Ernest, 1998, 2004; FitzSimons, Bishop, Seah, & Clarkson, 1999; Glas, 1998; Seah, Bishop, FitzSimons, & Clarkson, 2001). …


In this book Jan Albers examines the history--natural, environmental, social, and ultimately human--of one of America's most cherished landscapes: Vermont.Albers shows how Vermont has come to stand for the ideal of unspoiled rural community, examining both the basis of the state's pastoral image and the equally real toll taken by the pressure of human hands on the land. She begins with the relatively light touch of Vermont's Native Americans, then shows how European settlers--armed with a conviction that their claim to the land was "a God-given right"--shaped the landscape both to meet economic needs and to satisfy philosophical beliefs. The often turbulent result: a conflict between practical requirements and romantic ideals that has persisted to this day.Making lively use of contemporary accounts, advertisements, maps, landscape paintings, and vintage photographs, Albers delves into the stories and personalities behind the development of a succession of Vermont landscapes. She observes the growth of communities from tiny settlements to picturesque villages to bustling cities; traces the development of agriculture, forestry, mining, industry, and the influence of burgeoning technology; and proceeds to the growth of environmental consciousness, aided by both private initiative and governmental regulation. She reveals how as community strengthens, so does responsible stewardship of the land.Albers shows that like any landscape, the Vermont landscape reflects the human decisions that have been made about it--and that the more a community understands about how such decisions have been made, the better will be its future decisions.


Background: Many sustainability initiatives are successful and produce results that benefit the environment. However, others miss the mark and fail to produce the desired outcome. Past research has typically focused on understanding why initiatives fail, without first considering differences in how they fail. Focus of the Article: This manuscript is related to Research and Evaluation—specifically, the social marketing concept it focuses on is evaluating the outcome of sustainability initiatives. Research Question: What are the different ways in which sustainability initiatives can fail? Program Design/Approach: A multi-day workshop of interdisciplinary behavioral sustainability scholars led to the identification of five systematic differences in how sustainability initiatives can fail, suggesting that failure can take on not only different levels of severity, but different forms altogether. Within this framework, we provide examples of each type of failure. Importance to the Social Marketing Field: We argue that diagnosing how instead of just why an initiative fails offers important insights that can reduce the likelihood of future failures—insights that may be missed by a narrow focus on the why behind any given failure. Recommendations for Research or Practice: The identification of the different ways in which sustainability initiatives fail can lead to improvements in the design and implementation of behavioral interventions, facilitating successful sustainability outcomes and preventing unintended outcomes. Specific recommendations are discussed for each type of failure. Limitations: The examples in our framework are not exhaustive, but are instead intended to be illustrative exemplars of each type of failure. Moreover, as our focus is on how sustainability initiatives fail, we do not attempt to diagnose why particular initiatives fail.


To simulate the effects of shear stress in regions of the vasculature prone to developing atherosclerosis, we subjected human umbilical vein endothelial cells to reversing shear stress to mimic the hemodynamic conditions at the wall of the carotid sinus, a site of complex, reversing blood flow and commonly observed atherosclerosis. We compared the effects of reversing shear stress (time-average: 1 dyn/cm(2), maximum: +11 dyn/cm(2), minimum: -11 dyn/cm(2), 1 Hz), arterial steady shear stress (15 dyn/cm(2)), and low steady shear stress (1 dyn/cm(2)) on gene expression, cell proliferation, and monocyte adhesiveness. Microarray analysis revealed that most differentially expressed genes were similarly regulated by all three shear stress regimens compared with static culture. Comparisons of the three shear stress regimens to each other identified 138 genes regulated by low average shear stress and 22 genes regulated by fluid reversal. Low average shear stress induced increased cell proliferation compared with high shear stress. Only reversing shear stress exposure induced monocyte adhesion. The adhesion of monocytes was partially inhibited by the incubation of endothelial cells with ICAM-1 blocking antibody. Increased heparan sulfate proteoglycan expression was observed on the surface of cells exposed to reversing shear stress. Heparinase III treatment significantly reduced monocyte adhesion. Our results suggest that low steady shear stress is the major impetus for differential gene expression and cell proliferation, whereas reversing flow regulates monocyte adhesion.


Objective Salivary duct carcinoma (SDC) is a highly aggressive and uncommon tumor arising not only de novo but also in pleomorphic adenoma. Androgen receptor (AR)- and HER2-targeted therapy have recently been introduced for SDC as promising treatment options; however, no predictive biomarkers have yet been established. EZH2 and H3K27me3 are closely linked to the development and progression of various cancers, and EZH2 is also expected to be a desirable therapeutic target. We therefore explored the clinicopathological and prognostic implications of EZH2 and H3K27me3 in a large cohort of SDC patients, focusing on their impact on the therapeutic efficacy of AR- or HER2-targeted therapy. Materials and Methods The EZH2 and H3K27me3 immunohistochemical expression and EZH2 Y646 gain-of-function mutation status were examined in 226 SDCs, and the relationship with the clinicopathological factors as well as clinical outcomes were evaluated within the three groups depending on the treatment: AR-targeted (combined androgen blockade with leuprorelin acetate and bicalutamide; 89 cases), HER2-targeted (trastuzumab and docetaxel; 42 cases), and conventional therapy (112 cases). Results EZH2 and H3K27me3 were variably immunoreactive in most SDCs. A positive correlation was found between the expression of EZH2 and H3K27me3. The EZH2 expression in the SDC component was significantly higher than that in the pre-existing pleomorphic adenoma component. EZH2 Y646 was not identified in any cases. EZH2-high cases more frequently had an advanced clinical stage and aggressive histological features than EZH2-low cases. An EZH2-high status in patients treated with AR-targeted therapy was associated with a significantly shorter progression-free and overall survival as well as a lower objective response rate and clinical benefit rate. In addition, a H3K27me3-high status in patients treated with AR-targeted therapy was related to a shorter overall survival. Conversely, there was no association between the EZH2 and H3K27me3 expression and the clinical outcomes in the conventional or HER2-targeted therapy groups. Conclusions A high expression of EZH2 and H3K27me3 in SDC might be a predictor of a poor efficacy of AR-targeted therapy. Our data provide new insights into the role of EZH2 and H3K27me3 in therapeutic strategies for SDC.


A large number of different machine learning methods can potentially be used for ligand-based virtual screening. In our contribution, we focus on three specific nonlinear methods, namely support vector regression, Gaussian process models, and decision trees. For each of these methods, we provide a short and intuitive introduction. In particular, we will also discuss how confidence estimates (error bars) can be obtained from these methods. We continue with important aspects for model building and evaluation, such as methodologies for model selection, evaluation, performance criteria, and how the quality of error bar estimates can be verified. Besides an introduction to the respective methods, we will also point to available implementations, and discuss important issues for the practical application.


At a time where the relevance of the social sciences is under threat, this innovative book offers a speculative experimentation on the philosophy and methodology of the social sciences to rethink what 'relevance' is, and to cultivate a new ethos of knowledge-making for an eventful world. Engaging a diverse a range of thinkers including Alfred North Whitehead, Gilles Deleuze and Isabelle Stengers, as well as the American pragmatists John Dewey and William James, Martin Savransky challenges longstanding assumptions in the social sciences and argues that relevance is an event that is part and parcel of the immanent and situated processes by which things come to matter. He develops new conceptual tools for cultivating an empiricist ethos of inquiry that is attuned to the question of how things come to matter– an ethics that turns social inquiry into a veritable adventure. The result is an original and rigorous book that infuses knowledge-practices in the social sciences with new sensibilities, creative possibilities, and novel habits of thinking, knowing, and feeling.


Web application programmers must be aware of a wide range of potential security risks. Although the most common pitfalls are well described and categorized in the literature, it remains a challenging task to ensure that all guidelines are followed. For this reason, it is desirable to construct automated tools that can assist the programmers in the application development process by detecting weaknesses. Many vulnerabilities are related to web application code that stores references to application state in the generated HTML documents to work around the statelessness of the HTTP protocol. In this paper, we show that such client-state manipulation vulnerabilities are amenable to tool supported detection. We present a static analysis for the widely used frameworks Java Servlets, JSP, and Struts. Given a web application archive as input, the analysis identifies occurrences of client state and infers the information flow between the client state and the shared application state on the server. This makes it possible to check how client-state manipulation performed by malicious users may affect the shared application state and cause leakage or modifications of sensitive information. The warnings produced by the tool help the application programmer identify vulnerabilities. Moreover, the inferred information can be applied to configure a security filter that automatically guards against attacks. Experiments on a collection of open source web applications indicate that the static analysis is able to effectively help the programmer prevent client-state manipulation vulnerabilities.


The place of Empedocles in metaphysical-mystical tradition This article argues that Empedocles was more than a pre-Socratic philosopher. His thinking was also essentially mystical and should be situated on a large map of metaphysical-mystical continuities with the following dimensions: A historically discernable cultural and religious pool, encompassing not only South-Eastern Europe, Asia Minor and Mediterranean Africa, but also the north-eastern Eurasian shamanic tradition, and India; an historically largely inaccesible esoteric tradition; a set of structural elements of the human psyche, running under and across historical religions through time; and the development of a new convergence of previously historically unconnected mystical traditions in the social and cultural circumstances of today. In particular, the article investigates similarities and differences between Empedocles and Indian (specifically Buddhist) views on various issues, such as the four roots and the cyclical dialectic of love and strife. In that context the article notes the remarkable interpretation of Empedocles by Peter Kingsley which seems to draw Empedocles closer to Buddhism, but without explicating this implication of his reception.


Erectile dysfunction following radical prostatectomy remains a frequent problem despite the development of nerve-sparing techniques. This erectile dysfunction is believed to be neurogenic, enhanced by hypoxia-induced structural changes which result in additional veno-occlusive dysfunction. Recently, daily use of intracavernous vasoactive substances and oral use of PDE5-inhibitors have been clinically studied for treatment of postprostatectomy erectile dysfunction. Since these studies showed benefits of "penile rehabilitation therapy," these effects have been studied in a preclinical setting. We reviewed experimental literature on erectile tissue preserving and neuroregenerative treatment strategies, and found that preservation of the erectile tissue by the use of intracavernous nitric oxide donors or vasoactive substances, oral PDE5-inhibitors, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy improved erectile function by antifibrotic effects and preservation of smooth muscle. Furthermore, neuroregenerative strategies using neuroimmunophilin ligands, neurotrophins, growth factors, and stem cell therapy show improved erectile function by preservation of NOS-containing nerve fibers.


For more than a half-century, David Brinkley has been regarded as o leader in the field of broadcast journalism. Born in Wilmington, North Carolina, seventy-six years ago, he started writing for his hometown newspaper while still in high school, eventually joining United Press upon the recommendation of his journalism teacher. He went to work for NBC Radio in Washington, D.C., in 1943 and beginning in 1952 was assigned to network television coverage of the national political conventions. He quickly established that he could offer unique insights and observations into the process of selecting a president without taking himself too seriously, a quality viewers seemed to appreciate. Four years later, he began co-anchoring the NBC evening newscast, "Huntley-Brinkley Report," with partner Chef Huntley reporting from New York, while Brinkley remained in the nation's capital. The program became the biggest revenue producer on the NBC-V network during that era, except for prime-time motion pictures. The series aired from 1956 to 1970, making the transition from fifteen minutes to a half-hour on September 9, 1963. Brinkley made other contributions in the form of special reports such as "David Brinkley's Journal," which won EMMY Awards in both 1962 and 1963 as the best public affairs series on television. When coanchor Huntley retired in 1970, the program was retitled the "NBC Nightly News," and Brinkley continued serving as anchor. He turned those duties over to John Chancellor in 1979 and assumed a commentator's role. Brinkley left NBC in 1981 and joined the ABC Network where he currently hosts "This Week with David Brinkley" from his home base in Washington, D.C. His first book, Washington Goes To War, was published in 1988. It examined the World War II transition period in the nation's capital, including the period of his first national broadcast assignments in the 1940s. His autobiography, David Brinkley, published this fall, documents his personal experiences in network television, utilizing correspondence he received from the American people over the past half-century. This telephone conversation was taped May 5, 1995, and focuses on his key accomplishments and special programs, including the "Huntley-Brinkley Report." Murray: When you were a kid, your first editor at the Wilmington Star News, Al Dickson, said you were a "natural" newspaperman. When did you first get started writing? How did a local newspaperman from North Carolina become a national figure in the field of broadcast news? Brinkley: I started very young at that very small paper doing everything. Over the years, I went to three or four different colleges, but before that I had a tutor, and that's where I really learned everything. I began writing for the newspaper and was pretty good at it--was hired by United Press to write radio wire copy, and was pretty good at that, too. Murray: In an interview you did some time ago, you said some of the major people in radio news tried to avoid television because they thought it was a fad. Later on--when they tried to make the transition, it did not work out for them? Brinkley: Well, that was true in the very early years of television--the 1950s and '60s. The big name radio broadcasters in those years, like H. V. Kaltenborn and Lowell Thomas, avoided television at first. It was hard work, there was no money in it, and it was more complicated than radio. H. V. Kaltenborn said to me once, "I hate television." But later they found that it was television or nothing, and they tried to make the transition. Every one failed. Not a single one was able to move from radio to television, because they had been doing the same thing for so long, they couldn't change. Murray: The fortieth anniversary of the "Huntley-Brinkley" program is coming up pretty soon. How would it compare to other programs you did? Have you ever thought about why that program attracted so many viewers? Brinkley: I never thought about it very much. …


Hodson introduces the SpiderSense suit. The suit, called SpiderSense and built by Victor Mateevitsi of the University of Illinois in Chicago has small robotic arms packaged in modules with microphones that send out and pick up ultrasonic reflections from objects. When the ultrasound detects someone moving closer to the microphone, the arms respond by exerting a growing pressure on the body. Seven of these modules are distributed across the suit to give the wearer as near to 360 degree ultrasound coverage as possible.


The clear sky greenhouse effect (G) is defined as the trapping of infrared radiation by the atmosphere in the absence of clouds. The magnitude and variability of G is an important element in the understanding of Earth's energy balance; yet the quantification of the governing factors of G is poor. The global mean G averaged over 2000 to 2016 is 130–133 W m−2 across data sets. We use satellite observations from Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System Energy Balance and Filled (CERES EBAF) to calculate the monthly anomalies in the clear sky greenhouse effect (ΔG). We quantify the contributions to ΔG due to changes in surface temperature, atmospheric temperature, and water vapor by performing partial radiation perturbation experiments using ERA‐Interim and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory's Atmospheric Model 4.0 climatological data. Water vapor in the middle troposphere and upper troposphere is found to contribute equally to the global mean and tropical mean ΔG. Holding relative humidity (RH) fixed in the radiative transfer calculations captures the temporal variability of global mean ΔG while variations in RH control the regional ΔG signal. The variations in RH are found to help generate the clear sky super greenhouse effect (SGE). Thirty‐six percent of Earth's area exhibits SGE, and this disproportionately contributes to 70% of the globally averaged magnitude of ΔG. In the global mean, G's sensitivity to surface temperature is 3.1–4.0 W m−2 K−1, and the clear sky longwave feedback parameter is 1.5–2.0 W m−2 K−1. Observations from CERES EBAF lie at the more sensitive ends of these ranges and the spread arises from its cloud removal treatment, suggesting that it is difficult to constrain clear sky feedbacks.


Over the last two decades, satellite altimetry has provided one of the most important tools for global monitoring and understanding of ocean dynamics, ranging from large-scale to smaller mesoscale processes. This paper will present some recent results using altimetry to detect smaller ocean processes in the open ocean and in coastal regions. The space and time scales being analysed by standard gridded altimetric maps and from alongtrack data will be reviewed, and compared to the scales we are expecting in the ocean, derived from models or in-situ spectra. The future SWOT altimetric mission will provide sea surface height observations with a 1 km resolution globally [1], which will enable us to observe the smaller scales open ocean and coastal processes. A review of these processes will be presented.


In this study, the application of thermal lens spectroscopy to detection of analytes in agarose gels was examined. It was found that a long-term refractive index gradient is produced in the sample, in addition to the thermally induced refractive index gradient, and gives rise to a long-term thermal lens signal. It is argued that the most likely source of the long-term signal is a concentration gradient formed in the sample. The long-term refractive index gradient results in a focusing lens, and is thus opposite to the thermal gradient. The formation of this gradient requires as much as 500 s to reach equilibrium during constant irradiation. The existence of the long-term refractive index gradient is verified by time-resolved Z-scan experiments. The signal resulting from this gradient is termed the long-term thermal lens and is shown to depend on temperature, is observed only for gelled agarose solutions, and is sensitive to anisotropies in the sample.


Many recent incidents and attacks on cyber physical systems across various industries demonstrate that the risks emerge from combination of vulnerabilities in different elements as opposed to IT networks and systems where a single vulnerability in an element can compromise the entire system. In the past decade, efforts have been increasingly invested in CPS security research worldwide, sharpening or adapting guidelines, recommendations, standards and tools. However, a gap remains in understanding the vulnerability level as well as the capacities of recovery in case of composite vulnerabilities in such systems. This paper presents a brief literature review followed by a road map for composite vulnerability research in CPS.


b Almost a billion people globally lack access to potable water. In the early 1990's, attempts to improve potable water access in the global south included a massive push for water services privatization, often involving the transfer of public water services to private companies. Critics of water privatization claim it rarely improves access to water, and in most cases, unfairly affect poor people. Proponents on the other hand argue that it is necessary for efcient management and capital investment in the water sector. Although development NGOs play an important role in developing country water provision, hardly any studies have sought to understand their perceptions about the potential role of water privatization towards improving access to potable water in developing countries. We interviewed the key staff among 28 international and national NGO staff about water privatization, its opportunities and constraints. Their perceptions were mixed. While most criticized water privatization as increasing water costs to the poor, some noted that privatization is necessary for improving water access through increased capital investment. We present the ndings and discuss larger implications for water policies and reforms in developing countries.


Vocabulary acquisition traditionally has been a struggle for students with special learning needs. This study involved an eleven year old fifth grade student with learning disabilities in reading and writing and limited English proficiency. Assistive technology assistance was provided from the Franklin Language Master 6000b and Microsoft's Power Point 2003. Visual representation (e.g., student drawings) was also used to aid student connections to an individual vocabulary word in the context of the text read. Best practices pedagogy (i.e., trade book use, choice, discovery, interactive learning, reciprocal teaching, and repetition) were utilized and have been framed in a lesson structure entitled, Individualized Direct Vocabulary Discovery Method with Assistive Technological Scaffolding (IDVDMATS). This case study provides readers rich descriptions of the special vocabulary learning needs of one student following the IDVDMATS approach.


Powerful local elites are quite common in developing countries. Thus, whether decentralization reduces or not the level of corruption in the presence of these elites is a relevant issue for these economies. We motivate this paper with some empirical evidence. Using cross-country information we find that the negative average effect of decentralization on corruption documented in the literature is absent for developing countries. Then, we build an imperfect information model of corruption and political accountability to study if the influence local elites may have on the allocation of public resources can explain this outcome. We find that not only the power of the elites but also other unexpected factors matter. In particular, both the existence of regions with a relatively weak accountability sector and the design of decentralization and grants can also explain the lack of success of decentralization in combating corruption in these economies.


Abstract: While Christianity is among the fastest growing religions in the reform era, state-led sporadic demolition campaigns have targeted unauthorized church structures and sites in order to contain massive Christian growth, especially in regions where there is a high concentration of Christian population. Such campaigns often stir heated international concerns about China's religious freedom violations, naturally making church-state relations the recurring central theme of both public and academic discourses on the church in China. However, a heightened emphasis on church-state tensions and religious persecution may obscure the cultural and spatial dimensions of local church development. Focusing on the case of the recent campaign against rooftop crosses in Wenzhou—the most Christianized Chinese city, I go beyond the one-dimensional framework of church-state relations by offering a multifaceted analysis of the local religious scene in the political economic contexts of contested spatial modernity and of central-local relations amid the party-building process. In so doing, I methodologically place Chinese Christian studies at the center of contemporary China studies.


The regulation of cell function by fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) classically occurs through a dual receptor system of a tyrosine kinase receptor (FGFR) and a heparan sulfate proteoglycan co-receptor. Mutations in some consensus N-glycosylation sites in human FGFR result in skeletal disorders and craniosynostosis syndromes, and biophysical studies in vitro suggest that N-glycosylation of FGFR alters ligand and heparan sulfate binding properties. The evolutionarily conserved FGFR signaling system of Caenorhabditis elegans has been used to assess the role of N-glycosylation in the regulation of FGFR signaling in vivo. The C. elegans FGF receptor, EGL-15, is N-glycosylated in vivo, and genetic substitution of specific consensus N-glycosylation sites leads to defects in the maintenance of fluid homeostasis and differentiation of sex muscles, both of which are phenotypes previously associated with hyperactive EGL-15 signaling. These phenotypes are suppressed by hypoactive mutations in EGL-15 downstream signaling components or activating mutations in the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase pathway, respectively. The results show that N-glycans negatively regulate FGFR activity in vivo supporting the notion that mutation of N-glycosylation sites in human FGFR may lead to inappropriate activation of the receptor.


Compromising between two powers: Q and the Roman Empire. The study underlying this article investigated the attitude of Sayings Source Q towards the Roman authorities and their representatives. It primarily aimed at contributing to scholarly discussions on the relationships between early Christianity and the Roman Empire, but it also attempted to put the research in a broader context of present-day discussions on the issue of 'church and state'. The first part of the study dealt with Q's views on the government. The second part studied Q's views on the emperor cult. The third and final part aimed at putting Q's views on the authorities and on the veneration of the emperor in the right context. It concluded that Q compromises between idealism and realism. Its attitude towards the government is quite hostile. It portrays worldly power as demonic (Q 4:5–6; 11:18, 20), it regards God as the only true Lord of heaven and earth (Q 10:21) and rejects the legitimacy of the imperial cult (Q 4:5–8). It fully focuses on the completion of the kingdom of God (Q 6:20; 7:28; 10:9; 11:2b). Yet, as a relatively small community (Q 10:2), the Q people seem to have realised that there was no point in standing up against the Roman authorities and their representatives. Q's propagated views on Roman power are not characterised by active resistance, but by passive dissidence (Q 6:22–23, 27–32; 12:4–5). Within the context of the Roman Empire, it was better to be a realist than a revolutionist.


International audience

 In a recent work, Bensmail, Blanc, Cohen, Havet and Rocha, motivated by applications for TDMA scheduling problems, have introduced the notion of BMRN*-colouring of digraphs, which is a type of arc-colouring with particular colouring constraints. In particular, they gave a special focus to planar digraphs. They notably proved that every planar digraph can be 8-BMRN*-coloured, while there exist planar digraphs for which 7 colours are needed in a BMRN*-colouring. They also proved that the problem of deciding whether a planar digraph can be 3-BMRN*-coloured is NP-hard. In this work, we pursue these investigations on planar digraphs, in particular by answering some of the questions left open by the authors in that seminal work. We exhibit planar digraphs needing 8 colours to be BMRN*-coloured, thus showing that the upper bound of Bensmail, Blanc, Cohen, Havet and Rocha cannot be decreased in general. We also generalize their complexity result by showing that the problem of deciding whether a planar digraph can be k-BMRN*-coloured is NP-hard for every k ∈ {3,...,6}. Finally, we investigate the connection between the girth of a planar digraphs and the least number of colours in its BMRN*-colourings.


OBJECTIVE
Hip and knee arthroplasties are the most frequent surgical procedures in Catalonia. The aim of this study was to describe changes in the rates of these procedures and in their characteristics between 1994 and 2005.

METHODS
We performed a cross-sectional study of total hip (THR) and knee (TKR) primary and revision joint replacement discharges using the Minimum Data Set (ICD-9-CM codes 81.51, 81.53, 81.54 and 81.55). Standardized THR and TKR rates by age and sex and revision burden were calculated and changing trends were analyzed through joinpoint regression. Four time periods were defined and patient and hospital stay characteristics were analyzed by comparing period 4 with period 1 through logistic regression models.

RESULTS
In THR, the rates per 10,000 inhabitants increased from 4.1 to 6.6 between 1994 and 2000. In TKR, rates increased from 2.6 to 15.5 between 1994 and 2005. Hip revision burden increased until 2001, whereas knee revision burden increased for the entire period. The main reason for surgery was osteoarthritis. In both THR and TKR, the number of patients aged 75 or older and comorbidity increased.

CONCLUSIONS
The increase in the rates and the change in patients' profile may reflect broadening of the indication criteria for these procedures. The impact of the foreseeable increase in revision surgery could be reduced by developing systems to evaluate prosthesis survival and clinical practice guidelines.


This article discusses the state of the art in geovisualization supporting climate change adaptation. We reviewed twenty selected map-based Web tools, classified by their content and functionality, and assessed them by visual representations, interactive functions, information type, target audience, and how vulnerability and adaptation to climate change are addressed. Our study concludes that the tools (1) can be classified as data viewers with basic functionality and data explorers offering more sophisticated interactive functions; (2) mostly feature moderate or high richness of data content; and (3) predominantly target expert users.


The research aims to look at the giving of various dose combinations Palm Empty Fruit Bunch compost (PEFB) and spacing on the growth and yield of edamame soybean and to get the best treatment combination between compost PEFB and planting distance of the growth and production of edamame soybean. Research conducted in the experimental field Fakultas Pertanian Universitas Riau. Research period on June until August 2014. Experiments with 4 x 3 factorial using a randomized block design (RBD). The first factor is composting palm empty fruit bunch consisting of 4 levels (5, 10, 15 and 20 ton / ha). The second factor is planting distance consists of 3 levels (10 × 20, 15 × 20 and 20 × 20 cm), combination is repeated three times respectively. The efect of each treatment combination known through Duncan multiple test 5% level. Parameters measured were leaf area, root nodule effective, flowering time, the percentage of pods pithy, pithy number of pods per plant and yield per plot. The results showed that the combination of composting palm empty fruit bunch with planting distance effect on the effective root nodules, number of pods pithy planting, production per plot but did not affect the leaf area, flowering time, the percentage of pods pithy. The highest production was found in compost treatment of palm empty fruit bunches of 20 ton / ha and distance of (15 × 20) cm with a production that is 1717.2 g / plot. Keyword : edamame soybeans, composting palm empty fruit bunch, spacing on


Goldstein, D. M. (2012), Outlawed: Between Security and Rights in a Bolivian
City (Durham: Duke University Press), 344 pp., 9 photographs, 1 map,
ISBN: 978-0-8223-5311-9 (paperback).Daniel M. Goldstein's Outlawed: Between Security and Rights in a Bolivian
City (2012) is a thickly described and richly detailed ethnography of
uncertainty in the barrios of Cochabamba, Bolivia. It holds important
insights for legal anthropology, particularly where the sub-discipline
intersects with the anthropology of the state and the anthropology of
human rights. The ethnographic detail is exemplary, with the work here
having serious implications for anthropological theory and opening up
several avenues for further investigation. That it opens new debates more
than it offers cohesive answers – as is, admittedly, possibly fitting for the
'uncertain anthropology' that Goldstein advocates – both is the prime
strength of the work and can be offered as a gentle critique. I consider
this to be because of the ambitious breadth of the work to the extent that
directions that were implied were ultimately left somewhat unexplored.
This review article is an attempt to consider the prime contributions of
Outlawed and to tentatively map some of these implied connections.


This thesis examines three made-for-television 'Event Movies' from the German production company teamWorx, made between 2006 and 2007 – Dresden (2006), Nicht alle waren Morder (2006) and Die Flucht (2007) – within the context of contemporary debates of 'Vergangenheitsbewaltigung' or 'coming to terms with the past' in Germany. It will deal with specific debates in memory of the National Socialist past, namely representations of Germans as victims of the Second World War and memory of the Holocaust. Although in recent years the importance of teamWorx's television films has begun to be acknowledged by scholars in both Germany and the UK, this thesis represents the first attempt to analyse these three Event Movies as a unit and to explore in-depth the teamWorx company and its attitudes to historical film. As such, two interviews will be relied on throughout this thesis, with chairman of the board Nico Hofmann and Die Flucht's director Kai Wessel.
 In order to place the films within the context of contemporary debates on memory of the Nazi past in Germany, the thesis will undertake a filmic analysis of the Event Movies, supported by both the intentions of the filmmakers and critical responses in the contemporary press. Of primary importance for the thesis will be the twin concerns of the authenticity of teamWorx's productions, as claimed by the filmmakers and the Event Movies' borrowing of filmmaking devices from Hollywood genres, in particular the melodrama. Following this analysis it will be asked to what extent the Event Movies affect and reflect contemporary debates on the legacy of National Socialism and how these films contribute to the normalisation of the Nazi past in Germany.


There are many books on counterpoint and harmony, but few indeed on the theory of rhythm. Those few approach it through its graphic notation, or in terms of metrical feet, as if it were poetry. Maury Yeston treats rhythm instead in the context of sounded music, with a view to clarifying its ambiguous and little studied, but crucial, relationship with pitch. Although his work is strongly influenced by the methods of the German theorist Heinrich Schenker, it is a strikingly original contribution to musical theory in its own right. Maury Yeston begins by developing analytic procedures for understanding the rhythm of tonal music in terms of pitch levels. He then focuses on certain structures that arise from the interaction of these levels, thereby discovering some fundamental aspects of logical form in the system of musical rhythm. In the course of the inquiry, Mr. Yeston redefines traditional notions of meter, syncopation, and accent. In addition, his study provides a basis for understanding the relationships by which unique rhythmic designs are integrated aesthetically in a cohesive musical composition.


This paper undertakes a descriptive analysis of changes in economic institutions across countries from 2000-2016, using Economic Freedom of the World and the "State Economic Modernity" index. This latter index is a recent creation, similar conceptually to state capacity, measuring what can variously be thought of as state building, effectiveness, and economic power. State Economic Modernity can also be thought of as the economic institutions associated with social democracy. These two indexes are used in concert with one another to classify countries into eight directions of institutional change. Despite recent pessimism, countries besides those at the top income bracket have continued to liberalize, while wealthy countries have merely stagnated. At the high level aggregates, there is little movement in "State Economic Modernity" over this period, although there is considerably heterogeneity among individual countries. Rwanda is the single country to make the greatest movement towards the development benchmark of "Getting to Denmark," while, directionally, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, and Indonesia have made significant positive movements as well.


Each year The Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies (ACPNS) at QUT analyses statistics on donations to Deductible Gift Recipients (DGRs), made by Australian individual taxpayers and claimed as deductions in their income tax returns. The information presented below is based on the amount and type of tax-deductible donations made to DGRs and claimed by Australian taxpayers for the period 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015 extracted from the Australian Taxation Office's (ATO) publication Taxation Statistics 2014–15.


Computing power and analytical methods allow us to create, collate, and analyze more data than ever before. When datasets are unusually large in volume, velocity, and variety, they are referred to as "big data.�? Some observers have suggested that in order to cope with big data (a) organizational structures will need to change and (b) the processes used to design organizations will be different. In this article, we differentiate big data from relatively slow-moving, linked people data. We argue that big data will change organizational structures as organizations pursue the opportunities presented by big data. The processes by which organizations are designed, however, will be relatively unaffected by big data. Instead, organization design processes will be more affected by the complex links found in people data.


Today's three-dimensional (3D) virtual environments (VEs) are usually based on textured polygonal 3D models, which represent the appearance and geometry of the virtual world. However, some application domains require other graphical paradigms, which are currently not adequately addressed by 3D user interfaces. We introduce a novel approach for a technical human-robot telepresence setup that allows a human observer to explore a VE, which is a 3D reconstruction of the real world based on point clouds. Such point cloud virtual environments (PCVEs) represent the external environment, and are usually acquired by 3D scanners. We present an application scenario, in which a mobile robot captures 3D scans of a terrestrial environment, which are automatically registered to a coherent PCVE. This virtual 3D reconstruction is displayed in an immersive virtual environment (IVE) in which a user can explore the PCVE. We explain and describe the technical setup, which opens up new vistas of presenting a VE as points rather than a polygonal representation.


It is well-known that sample members who find the survey topic more important are more likely to respond. What is less known is the effect of different topic compositions. To reduce respondent burden, some social science surveys split long multi-topic questionnaires into varying components and administer only subsets to sample members. The rest of the questionnaire is asked in a second (follow-up) part. Whether respondents who answered more questions of importance to them in the first part are more likely to respond to the second part has never been tested.
In this paper, we examine this question using data from a multi-topic push to web survey with six questionnaire subsets, which are assigned at random to sample members in the first part. At the beginning of the first part respondents are asked the importance the different topics have in their lives and at the end whether the survey was interesting to complete. This design allows assessing effects of topic distribution and topic importance on interest in the survey and on response to the follow-up.
We first found that the subsets of the questionnaire are jointly associated with how interesting the respondent found the survey. Yet, we do not find support for our idea that respondents who answered more questions on topics important for them found the survey more interesting. Neither were these respondents more likely to participate in the second part of the survey. This shows that respondents to the first part do not self-select into the follow-up depending on topic importance.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the phenotype, genotype and relationships of vancomycinresistant Enterococcib (VRE) strains isolated from Minjiang River of Fujian province, residence district pond, university fish farm, cesspool and sewer. PCR was used to confirm Enterococci and amplify antibiotic resistance genes. Relationships between different strains were determined by repetitive extragenic palindromic elements-PCR (REP-PCR). A total of 17 VRE strains were isolated from water environment, among which 9 strains were isolated from cesspool, 6 strains were isolated from sewer and 2 strains were isolated from university fish farm. VRE was not isolated from Minjiang River or residence district pond. Analysis on the antibiotic resistance gene showed that 3 strains belong to genotype VanB, 9 strains belong to VanC1 and 5 strains belong to genotype VanC2/3. Genotype VanA was not detected. REP-PCR analysis showed that 17 strains were divided into type A1 (n=6), type A2 (n=1), type A3 (n=2), type B (n=3), type C (n=1), type D (n=3) and type E (n=1). These results demonstrated that the antibiotic resistant phenotype was consistent with the genotype of 17 VRE strains. VRE strains isolated from water sources were resistant to multiple antibiotics. The majority of the strains isolated in this study shared high similarity.


The highways in the Midwest are experiencing a considerable amount of truck traffic due to increased freight transportation. There is clearly a risk to the highway infrastructure caused by this additional truck traffic that will also have an increasingly detrimental effect on the safety of the citizens, the traveling public in terms of congestion, and the economy of the entire region. Traditionally the life of the pavements has been extended by a variety of rehabilitation techniques. For example, techniques used by the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) include route and crack seal, chip seal, 1- to 4-inch overlay, 1- to 4-inch inlay, heater scarification, cold in-place recycling (4-inch), and cold milling. Recently, due to a tight maintenance budget, thin surfacing, like the ultra-thin bonded bituminous surface (NovaChip), and modified slurry seal (microsurfacing), is being used increasingly. The thin-surfacing strategy has been touted as one of the most cost-effective measures that can extend pavement life, improve ride quality, correct surface defects (leveling), improve safety characteristics, enhance appearance, and reduce road-tire noise. This report discusses performance of pavements treated with two commonly used types of thin surfacing: ultrathin bonded bituminous surface and microsurfacing.


The subject of the thesis at hand is the description of an efficient algorithm for finding an elliptic curve over a finite prime field of large characteristic suitable for use in cryptography. The algorithm is called cryptoCurve. It makes use of the theory of complex multiplication. Our work relies on proposals of A.-M.Spallek and G.J.Lay/H.G.Zimmer. However, their work leaves several important questions and problems unanswered. First, neither author presents an algorithm to find a suitable cardinality, that is a prime field and a cardinality of a suitable elliptic curve group. We develop and describe a very efficient algorithm for this task; in addition, we give upper bounds of its complexity. In this efficient algorithm the prime field may not be chosen in advance. However, in some cases the field is given first. For instance, all international cryptographic standards which describe an algorithm for finding a suitable cardinality, make use of the latter approach (P1363, Chapter A.14.2.3, p.155, X9.62, Chapter E.3.2.c, p.115-116). We show how to significantly speed up these algorithms. Second, no previously proposed algorithm for the generation of an elliptic curve considers the class number of the endomorphism ring of the curve. The German Information Security Agency requires the class number of the maximal order containing the endomorphism ring to be at least 200. Our algorithm cryptoCurve respects this condition. Third, we develop and thoroughly investigate different methods to compute class polynomials. The computation of a class polynomial is an important subalgorithm in the complex multiplication approach. In general the integer coefficients of a class polynomial are very large. Hence their computation in practice is rather difficult. It was believed in the cryptographic community that only class polynomials of low degree, say of degree at most 50, are amenable to the complex multiplication approach. However, using our efficient algorithm, we are able to compute a class polynomial of degree up to 3000 in reasonable time, that is in less than 10 minutes on an ordinary PC. In addition, we are able to compute a class polynomial of degree 15000 on the same computer in less than two days. Fourth, we carry out a detailed practical investigation of the floating point precision needed to compute a class polynomial. The precision in use is important for the run time to compute a class polynomial in practice. However, in order to get a correct result, we have to choose the floating point precision with care. As of today, different precisions were proposed. All of them are only based on heuristic arguments, and none of the authors presents a practical investigation. In addition, none of the cryptographic standards P1363 or X9.62 gives a hint on how to choose an appropriate floating point precision. Furthermore, in case of the class polynomial due to N.Yui and D.Zagier, which uses Weber functions, we propose a new floating point precision to compute this polynomial in practice. Our precision yields a significant performance improvement. Sample tests show an acceleration of about 45 % in practice compared to the precision proposed by Lay/Zimmer. All algorithms of this thesis are implemented in C++ and available via the LiDIA module gec.


We study statistical patterns in the DNA sequence of human chromosome 22, the first completely sequenced human chromosome. We find that (i). the 33.4 x 10(6) nucleotide long human chromosome exhibits long-range power-law correlations over more than four orders of magnitude, (ii). the entropies H(n) of the frequency distribution of oligonucleotides of length n (n-mers) grow sublinearly with increasing n, indicating the presence of higher-order correlations for all of the studied lengths 1<or=n<or=10, and (iii). the generalized entropies H(n)(q) of n-mers decrease monotonically with increasing q and the decay of H(n)(q) with q becomes steeper with increasing n<or=10, indicating that the frequency distribution of oligonucleotides becomes increasingly nonuniform as the length n increases. We investigate to what degree known biological features may explain the observed statistical patterns. We find that (iv). the presence of interspersed repeats may cause the sublinear increase of H(n) with n, and that (v). the presence of monomeric tandem repeats as well as the suppression of CG dinucleotides may cause the observed decay of H(n)(q) with q.


Gay and lesbian prides and marches are of crucial relevance to the way in which non-heterosexual lives are imagined internationally despite regional and national differences. Quite often, these events are connected not only with increased activist mobilisation, but also with great controversy, which is the case of Poland, where gay and lesbian marches have been attacked by right-wing protesters and cancelled by right-wing city authorities on a number of occasions. Overall, the scholars analysing these events have largely focused on the macro-context of the marches, paying less attention to the movement actors behind these events. The contribution of this thesis lies not only in filling a gap when it comes to research on sexual minorities in Eastern Europe/Poland, but also in its focus on micro-level movement processes and engagement with theories of collective identity and citizenship. Furthermore, this thesis challenges the inscription of Eastern European/Polish movements into the narrative of victimhood and delayed development when compared to LGBT movements in the Global North. This thesis is grounded in qualitative research including participant observation of public activist events as well as forty semi-structured interviews with the key organisers of gay and lesbian marches in Warsaw, Poznan and Krakow between 2001 and 2007, and five of these interviews were further accompanied by photo-elicitation (self-directed photography) methods. Starting from the processes whereby from 2001 onwards, marches, pride parades and demonstrations became the most visible and contested activity of the Polish lesbian and gay movement, this thesis examines how the activists redefined the meanings of citizenship in the post-transformation context, by incorporating the theme of sexual minorities' rights. Using Bernstein's (1997, 2002, 2005, 2008) concept of identity deployment, I show how and when movement actors use identity tactically, depending on their goals. Specifically, in the context of movement-media interactions, I examine the ways in which the activists use marches to challenge the negative representations of sexual minorities in Poland. I also broaden Bernstein's framework to include the discussion of emotion work as relevant to public LGBT activism in Poland. Later, I discuss how the emotions of protests allowed the activists to inscribe their efforts into the "revolutionary" narrative of the Polish Solidarity movement and by extension, the frame of citizenship. Finally, this thesis engages with the dilemmas of identity deployment strategies, and seeks to problematise the dichotomy between identity-based gay and lesbian assimilationist strategies and the anti-identity queer politics.


Levels of basic literacy and numeracy skills among Vietnamese primary school children are high by comparison with other countries of a similar income level, and the country has made impressive gains in primary enrolment in recent years as well as improving the quality of schooling. Nonetheless, there remain substantial gaps in school performance between children from more and less advantaged backgrounds. Part of the justification of free public schooling consists in the equalisation of 'opportunities to learn' and the mitigation of learning inequalities which result from differences in home-background advantage. In this paper we examine the learning achievement of pupils in primary Grade 5 and explore the relationships between home-background, teacher, peer and school factors and learning progress in Grade 5, using data from Young Lives. We find that disadvantaged pupils receive relatively equitable access in relation to indicators of 'fundamental' school quality, a considerable policy success regarding the provision of 'minimum standards'. However, differences by home advantage are relatively large where more sophisticated 'opportunities to learn' are considered, such as the number of hours of instruction received, including through 'extra classes', as well as access to learning resources such as computers, internet and non-text books. Analysis of the predictors of attainment suggests that some of these are likely to constitute an important part of the explanation for the persistence of learning inequalities by home background in Vietnam, suggesting that following success in equalising basic inputs, policy attention should turn more directly to boosting wider 'opportunities to learn' among disadvantaged pupils.


The new field of machine ethics is concerned with giving machines ethical principles, or a procedure for discovering a way to resolve the ethical dilemmas they might encounter, enabling them to function in an ethically responsible manner through their own ethical decision making. Developing ethics for machines, in contrast to developing ethics for human beings who use machines, is by its nature an interdisciplinary endeavor. The essays in this volume represent the first steps by philosophers and artificial intelligence researchers toward explaining why it is necessary to add an ethical dimension to machines that function autonomously, what is required in order to add this dimension, philosophical and practical challenges to the machine ethics project, various approaches that could be considered in attempting to add an ethical dimension to machines, work that has been done to date in implementing these approaches, and visions of the future of machine ethics research.


Introduction Ronda Garvey, assistant manager of a Tastee Max restaurant located in the food court of one of upstate New York's busiest malls, pored over the turnover statistics for her restaurant. In 2008, average employee turnover within the nine-unit quick service restaurant chain was 66.3 percent--well below the industry average of 120 percent (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009). However, the average annual turnover rate for Ronda's restaurant was 122.7 percent, approximately double the turnover rate of other Tastee Max stores. Ronda chafed at the knowledge that her restaurant was known as the chain's "bad store" due to frequent employee problems and high turnover, and she was determined to improve her unit's performance. Ronda had several ideas about how the turnover problem could be addressed, but knew that obtaining support for her ideas would not be easy. Noting that the chain's employee turnover was about half the industry average for quick service restaurants, Tastee Max's corporate managers had been relatively unconcerned about the problem. Key to the success of any initiative taken to curb turnover was gaining the support of corporate management. Ronda wondered, "What actions should I suggest for lowering employee turnover, and how can I make a business case for my ideas?" Company History Tastee Max was a family restaurant chain established in upstate New York in 1955. The original store was a small refreshment stand featuring ice cream and hand-made root beer; over time the menu expanded to include hamburgers, hot dogs, hot sandwiches, and French fries (see Appendix: Table 1, page six). The restaurant was known for its uncompromising standards for excellent product and service quality. For example, choice cuts of beef were ground daily in every store for hamburgers; only all-meat hot dogs with natural casings were used; and the restaurant's handcrafted root beer was made on site. Tastee Max won a devoted following among customers, who were known to drive long distances to purchase a Tastee burger or frosty mug of root beer. Over the next five decades, Tastee Max opened a total of nine restaurants (called units or stores by company insiders) across upstate New York. Six units were standalone restaurants, while the remaining three--including Ronda's unit--were located in the food courts of area malls. All restaurants featured a menu consisting of hamburgers, hot dogs, hot sandwiches, cold salads, French fries, ice cream, and soft drinks. In 1985, a group of local businesspeople purchased the chain, but continued to operate the company using the original name, menu, and business concept. Tastee Max's company culture continued to be based on nine core values handed down by the restaurant's founder: * The Golden Rule: Always treat customers and co-workers as you would like to be treated. * Customer Focus: Our success is directly tied to how customer focused and attentive we are. Always remember that the customer is the reason we are here. * Professionalism: We honor co-workers and ourselves by prohibiting the use of profanity in the workplace. * Work Performance: Promotion and pay raises are based on work performance, teamwork, and customer service skills rather than seniority. * Investment: Investing money in our facilities is important; investing in employee training is ten times as important. * Diversity: We create a work environment in which everyone can do their best regardless of race, religion, or sexual orientation. * Caring: We exhibit care and concern for our fellow workers. * Cost Control vs. Product Quality: Controlling costs is important to our business success. However, we will never comprise product quality for the sake of saving money. * Simplicity: Our systems and procedures must be simple to permit consistent, flawless execution. Employment Practices At Tastee Max Tastee Max restaurants were open for service from 10:30 am-9:30 pm (9:00 pm in stand-alone stores) Monday through Saturday, and from 11:00 am-6:00 pm on Sundays. …


Inherited familial Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by small increases in the ratio of Aβ42 versus Aβ40 peptide which is thought to drive the amyloid plaque formation in the brain of these patients. Little is known however whether ageing, the major risk factor for sporadic AD, affects amyloid beta‐peptide (Aβ) generation as well. Here we demonstrate that the secretion of Aβ is enhanced in an in vitro model of neuronal ageing, correlating with an increase in γ‐secretase complex formation. Moreover we found that peroxynitrite (ONOO−), produced by the reaction of superoxide anion with nitric oxide, promoted the nitrotyrosination of presenilin 1 (PS1), the catalytic subunit of γ‐secretase. This was associated with an increased association of the two PS1 fragments, PS1‐CTF and PS1‐NTF, which constitute the active catalytic centre. Furthermore, we found that peroxynitrite shifted the production of Aβ towards Aβ42 and increased the Aβ42/Aβ40 ratio. Our work identifies nitrosative stress as a potential mechanistic link between ageing and AD.


OBJECTIVE: To assess the reliability of aortic valve area planimetry by multiplane transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE) in aortic stenosis. DESIGN: Study of the diagnostic value of aortic valve area planimetry using multiplane TOE, compared with catheterisation and the continuity equation, both being considered as criterion standards. SETTING: University hospital. PATIENTS: 49 consecutive patients (29 male, 20 female, aged 44 to 82 years, average 66.6 (SD 8.5)), referred for haemodynamic evaluation of an aortic stenosis, were enrolled in a prospective study. From this sample, 37 patients were eligible for the final analysis. METHODS: Transthoracic and multiplane transoesophageal echocardiograms were performed within 24 hours before catheterisation. At transthoracic echo, aortic valve area was calculated by the continuity equation. At TOE, the image of the aortic valve opening was obtained with a 30-65 degrees rotation of the transducer. Numerical dynamic images were stored on optical discs for off-line analysis and were reviewed by two blinded observers. Catheterisation was performed in all cases and aortic valve area was calculated by the Gorlin formula. RESULTS: Feasibility of the method was 92% (48/52). The agreement between aortic valve area measured at TOE (mean 0.88 (SD 0.35) cm2) and at catheterisation (0.79 (0.24) cm2) was very poor. The same discrepancies were found between TOE and the continuity equation (0.72 (0.26) cm2). TOE planimetry overestimated aortic valve area determined by the two other methods. Predictive positive and negative values of planimetry to detect aortic valve area < 0.75 cm2 were 62% (10/16) and 43% (9/21) respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Planimetry of aortic valve area by TOE is difficult and less accurate than the continuity equation for assessing the severity of aortic stenosis.


From the time of its discovery, the new world was regarded by American settlers as a new Eden and a new Jerusalem. Although individual pioneers' visions of paradise were inevitably corrupted by reality, some determined ideatists carved out enclaves in order to develop collective models of what they believed to be more perfect societies. All such communitarian groups consciously attempted to express their social ideals in their buildings and landscapes; invariably, ideological predispositions can be inferred from a close study of the environments they created. The interplay between ideology and architecture, the social design and the physical design of American utopian communities, is the basis of this remarkable book by Dolores Hayden.At the heart of the book are studies of seven communitarian groups, collectively stretching over nearly two centuries and the full breadth of the American continent-the Shakers of Hancock, Massachusetts; the Mormons of Nauvoo, lllinois; the Fourierists of Phalanx, New Jersey; the Perfectionists of Oneida, New York; the Inspirationists of Amana, Iowa; the Union Colonists of Greeley, Colorado; and the Cooperative Colonists of Llano del Rio, California. Hayden examines each of these groups to see how they coped with three dilemmas that all socialist' societies face: conflicts betweeft authoritarian and participatory processes, between communal and private territory, and between unique and replicable community plans.The book contains over 260 historic and contemporary photographs and drawings which illustrate the communitarian processes of design and building. The drawings range in scale from regional plans showing land ownership, access to transportation, and availability of natural resources, through site plans of communal domains and building plans of dwellings and assembly halls, down to detailed diagrams of furniture configurations. To aid readers in making comparisons, a series of site and building plans drawn at constant scales has been provided for all seven case studies.


Native oyster reefs once dominated many estuaries, ecologically and economically. Centuries of resource extraction exacerbated by coastal degradation have pushed oyster reefs to the brink of functional extinction worldwide. We examined the condition of oyster reefs across 144 bays and 44 ecoregions; our comparisons of past with present abundances indicate that more than 90% of them have been lost in bays (70%) and ecoregions (63%). In many bays, more than 99% of oyster reefs have been lost and are functionally extinct. Overall, we estimate that 85% of oyster reefs have been lost globally. Most of the world's remaining wild capture of native oysters (> 75%) comes from just five ecoregions in North America, yet the condition of reefs in these ecoregions is poor at best, except in the Gulf of Mexico. We identify many cost-effective solutions for conservation, restoration, and the management of fisheries and nonnative species that could reverse these oyster losses and restore reef ecosystem services.


Recent technological advancements in Bioethics have been rapid and incremental, leaving little time for Christian ethicists to reflect or develop a coherent methodological approach. To assess the situation in the Reformed Churches in South Africa (RCSA), a bioethical questionnaire was developed and administered during the synod in 2009. Three practical questions served as point of departure, viz. which bioethical issues confronted ministers in their work environment, which value judgement trends are evident when counselling members of their congregations and what theoretical frameworks or resources do they call upon when reflecting on these difficult situations? The survey consisted of 19 questions with several subquestions that sought demographic information to determine the population and information about bioethical issues confronting them, methodological strategies they apply and how they think they can contribute to the resolution of any such bioethical dilemmas. The results were tabulated and it was concluded that recent advancements in biotechnology cannot be ignored or dealt with in a piecemeal fashion any longer, either by the RCSA or its ministers. The need for clarity and analysis of the principles underlying those theories that guide or should guide their decision-making and pastoral care in dealing with bioethical dilemmas was emphasised. The findings highlighted the need for appropriate courses in Bioethics to be taught during initial theological training, as well as the need to keep the debate alive by offering workshops, seminars and short courses for practicing ministers to enhance awareness and allay fears and uncertainties in this very dynamic and morally challenging field of human and scientific endeavour.


Touch MEdical MEdia Abstract Treatment for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is being guided increasingly by driver mutations and, routinely, tumors from patients with adenocarcinoma are screened for mutations in the kinase domain of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) as well as for other genomic abnormalities (i.e. anaplastic lymphoma kinase [ALK] and ROS1 translocations). Effective, well-tolerated treatment options that specifically target the EGFR T790M mutation (the "gatekeeper" residue) in patients with NSCLC remains an unmet need. Rociletinib is an oral, irreversible, potent, covalent inhibitor of the activating EGFR mutations (del19 and L858R) and the T790M resistance mutation; it also spares wild-type EGFR. TIGER-X is the first of the TIGER trial series, which is a clinical development program for rociletinib in patients with mutant EGFR NSCLC. This phase I–II study is evaluating rociletinib in patients who have progressed following their first and only EGFR-directed tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy who have developed the T790M mutation and in later-line T790M positive patients who have progressed on their second or later TKI therapy or subsequent chemotherapy. In the ongoing TIGER-X study, rociletinib has shown encouraging activity in patients with EGFR mutant-positive NSCLC and is well tolerated. Future aims of the ongoing TIGER programme include to investigate rociletinib treatment in other lines of therapy, determine whether rociletinib treatment can lead to an improvement in overall survival (OS) and to explore the potential benefits of combining rociletinib with other anti-cancer agents such as anti-programmed cell death protein and programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 monoclonal antibodies, mitogen-activated protein kinase enzyme inhibitors, vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitors, and c-Met inhibitors. Other aims include evaluating the outcome of progression-free survival associated with rociletinib treatment and determining the efficacy of rociletinib in patients with T790M negative status.


This article is a theoretical approach on retail reverse logistics. Environmental concern and the current marketing strategy have spurred retailers to implement strategies to facilitate product returns from end customers. Reverse logistics, indicating the process of this return flow, encompasses such activities as the movement of returned products, facilities to accommodate returned items, and overall remedy process for returned items. The retail industry, under great competitive pressure, has used return policies as a competitive weapon. Grocery retailers were the first to begin to focus serious attention on the problem of returns and to develop reverse logistics innovations. Grocery retailers first developed innovations such as reclamation centers. Reclamation centers, in turn, led to the establishment of centralized return centers. Centralizing returns has led to significant benefits for most firms that have implemented them. Over the last several years, retailers have consolidated. Now, more than ever, reverse logistics is seen as being important. This reverse distribution activity can be crucial to the survival of companies, because the permanent goodwill of the company is at stake. Businesses succeed because they respond to both external and internal changes and adjust in an effective manner to remain competitive.


The paper contains an analysis of the efforts undertaken by the Italian legislator in the last few decades - spurred also by the enactment of European directives on the matter - to establish a progressively more precise, but ultimately stratified and precarious, regulatory framework with respect to a phenomenon in great expansion: electronic commerce, which offers a clear exemplification of the difficulties that characterize the complex relationship between law and technology. Highlighting the immanent limits and problems with respect to the legislator's choices, prominence has particularly been given to the difficulties arising from an obstinate application of general rules to a set of economic practices that would, instead, call for the enactment of subject-specific provisions, thereby requiring the establishment of an entire new branch of the law.The foregoing analysis is further performed with a special focus on the paradigmatic case of consumer protection. Consumer protection rules in the context of e-commerce are in fact interlaced with both the general discipline of contracts, and the dedicated rules enacted purposefully with a view to e-commerce, thereby offering the clearest example of a regulatory framework caught between old and new and, as such, undermined by interpretive controversies.


This paper describes an optimisation methodology that has been specifically developed for engineering design problems. The methodology is based on a Tabu search (TS) algorithm that has been shown to find high quality solutions with a relatively low number of objective function evaluations. Whilst the methodology was originally intended for a small range of design problems it has since been successfully applied to problems from different domains with no alteration to the underlying method. This paper describes the method and it's application to three different problems. The first is from the field of structural design, the second relates to the design of electromagnetic pole shapes and the third involves the design of turbomachinery blades.


Background: Urease activity has been proposed to have a significant effect on dental caries, showing reduced caries activity with increased urease levels. Thus, the aim of the study was to evaluate the ureolytic activities of saliva and plaque in caries-active and caries-free institutionalized blind children. Materials and Methods: Fifty-two institutionalized blind children were divided into two equal groups using decayed, missing, and filled Teeth index as Group A – caries free and Group B – caries active. Urease activity was measured by collecting saliva and plaque samples from them. Children were refrained from any oral hygiene procedures during the 12 h preceding the sample collection. Urease enzyme activity was obtained by carrying out biochemical procedures. Mann–Whitney test was used to determine the statistical significance of the data. Results: In saliva, caries-free group had higher mean urease levels of 1.82 ± 0.497 as compared to caries-active group which had mean urease levels of 0.445 ± 0.304. In plaque, caries-active group had lower mean urease levels of 0.877 ± 0.942 as compared to caries-free group which had mean urease levels of 1.570 ± 0.918. The specific urease activity in saliva and plaque was significantly higher in individuals with low caries rates. Conclusion: Caries-free children had a higher ammonia generation activity by urease for both saliva and plaque samples than low caries-active children. High levels of alkali production in the oral environment were related to caries-free children.


Online bipartite matching and allocation models are widely used to analyze and design markets such as Internet advertising, online labor, and crowdsourcing. Traditionally, vertices on one side of the market are fixed and known a priori, while vertices on the other side arrive online and are matched by a central agent to the offline side. The issue of possible conflicts among offline agents emerges in various real scenarios when we need to match each online agent with a set of offline agents.For example, in event-based social networks (e.g., Meetup), offline events conflict for some users since they will be unable to attend mutually-distant events at proximate times; in advertising markets, two competing firms may prefer not to be shown to one user simultaneously; and in online recommendation systems (e.g., Amazon Books), books of the same type "conflict" with each other in some sense due to the diversity requirement for each online buyer.The conflict nature inherent among certain offline agents raises significant challenges in both modeling and online algorithm design. In this paper, we propose a unifying model, generalizing the conflict models proposed in (She et al., TKDE 2016) and (Chen et al., TKDE 16). Our model can capture not only a broad class of conflict constraints on the offline side (which is even allowed to be sensitive to each online agent), but also allows a general arrival pattern for the online side (which is allowed to change over the online phase). We propose an efficient linear programming (LP) based online algorithm and prove theoretically that it has nearly-optimal online performance. Additionally, we propose two LP-based heuristics and test them against two natural baselines on both real and synthetic datasets. Our LP-based heuristics experimentally dominate the baseline algorithms, aligning with our theoretical predictions and supporting our unified approach.


This article, part of a symposium honoring the 25th anniversary of Owen Fiss's Against Settlement, takes issue with the basic premise that settlement indicates defeat of the weak by the powerful, the poor by the rich, the injured by the wrongdoers. The argument is both empirical and normative. On the empirical side, this article challenges the basic claim advanced by Fiss and Marc Galanter that repeat players in the courts of justice are more likely to prevail because they will marshal and deploy greater resources. Over the past quarter century, the emergence of the well-heeled plaintiffs' firm together with referral and other market organizing practices have allowed plaintiffs to fight and defeat institutional defendants across all sorts of mass harm cases. Normatively, this article challenges the assumption that the driving organizational framework of the court system should be derived from the structural injunction that characterized an episodic phase of the civil rights movement. Instead, resolution of mass harms has been and continues to be one of the great challenges of the judicial system, a process for which settlement is a critical and likely inescapable component.


The Glucatell (1-->3)- beta-D-glucan (BG) detection assay (Associates of Cape Cod) was studied as a diagnostic adjunct for invasive fungal infections (IFIs). On the basis of findings from a preliminary study of 30 candidemic subjects and 30 healthy adults, a serum BG level of >or=60 pg/mL was chosen as the cutoff. Testing was performed with serial serum samples obtained from 283 subjects with acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome who were receiving antifungal prophylaxis. At least 1 serum sample was positive for BG at a median of 10 days before the clinical diagnosis in 100% of subjects with a proven or probable IFI. IFIs included candidiasis, fusariosis, trichosporonosis, and aspergillosis. Absence of a positive BG finding had a 100% negative predictive value, and the specificity of the test was 90% for a single positive test result and >or=96% for >or=2 sequential positive results. The Glucatell serum BG detection assay is highly sensitive and specific as a diagnostic adjunct for IFI.


Abstract The term "date rape drug" has traditionally been applied by the media to powerful sedatives, such as gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and flunitrazepam (Rohypnol), which can render a person unconscious and hence unable to resist and/or recall an assault. However, some law enforcement agents and others have recently obtained convictions by arguing that the empathy-generating and sensual effects of MDMA. and an occasional increase in disinhibition and sexual desire linked with methamphetamine use, remove a person's ability to give a reasoned consent, turning the person into "a helpless slave" to their own sexual desires and those of the alleged perpetrator. The argument holds that the victim becomes part of the assault because they may appear to be cooperating and colluding with activity which they would not have consented to without taking these drugs. This interpretation of the term "date rape" has been fed by data that sometimes finds MDMA and amphetamines in samples taken from sexual assault victims, and hence these prosecutions sometimes rely on expert testimony from toxicologists, pathologists and police officers rather than psychologists and psychiatrists who are expert in the human effects of these drugs. Some of those in the latter group have dismissed claims that MDMA is an aphrodisiac or a date rape drug as myths propagated by the media. In this article, these arguments and their respective strengths and weaknesses will be examined to assist professionals and others who may become involved in these cases.


The high brilliance laboratory small angle X-ray scattering instrument GALAXI, which is operated by JCNS, Forschungszentrum Julich, permits the investigation of chemical correlations in bulk materials or of structures deposited on a surface at nanometre and mesoscopic length scales. The instrument is capable to perform GISAXS experiments in reflection at grazing incidence as well as SAXS experiments in transmission geometry. The X-ray flux on sample is comparable or higher than the one obtained at a comparable beamline at a second generation synchrotron radiation source.


[SummaryThe proposal to create the European External Action Service (EEAS) seemed to be an acceptance by the European Union's political elites that, in the post-Westphalian world, more attention needed to be given to collective European diplomacy rather than individual national diplomacy. Yet there was no guarantee that existing officials, whether from EU institutions or from the EU member states, would easily accept the related diplomatic norms and values. Melding different epistemic communities into one effective new diplomatic community is not a foregone conclusion. Europe's new diplomatic service 'an sich' is not a diplomatic service 'fur sich'. While creating a team with a spirit of unity was the formal goal, ambiguities in the Lisbon Treaty's articles on the EEAS have facilitated a major reassertion of bureaucratic politics, which are destined to keep Westphalian diplomacy alive and to produce even more turf battles and complexity. The mind-sets of the component parts of the EEAS are so diverse that, without serious discussion of these issues and concentrated training, creating a new European diplomacy will be difficult., Summary The proposal to create the European External Action Service (EEAS) seemed to be an acceptance by the European Union's political elites that, in the post-Westphalian world, more attention needed to be given to collective European diplomacy rather than individual national diplomacy. Yet there was no guarantee that existing officials, whether from EU institutions or from the EU member states, would easily accept the related diplomatic norms and values. Melding different epistemic communities into one effective new diplomatic community is not a foregone conclusion. Europe's new diplomatic service 'an sich' is not a diplomatic service 'fur sich'. While creating a team with a spirit of unity was the formal goal, ambiguities in the Lisbon Treaty's articles on the EEAS have facilitated a major reassertion of bureaucratic politics, which are destined to keep Westphalian diplomacy alive and to produce even more turf battles and complexity. The mind-sets of the component parts of the EEAS are so diverse that, without serious discussion of these issues and concentrated training, creating a new European diplomacy will be difficult.]


The aim of this study is to compare the recent Eclipse Acuros XB (AXB) dose calculation engine with the Pinnacle collapsed cone convolution/superposition (CCC) dose calculation algorithm and the Eclipse anisotropic analytic algorithm (AAA) for stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SAbR) treatment planning of thoracic spinal (T-spine) metastases using IMRT and VMAT delivery techniques. The three commissioned dose engines (CCC, AAA, and AXB) were validated with ion chamber and EBT2 film measurements utilizing a heterogeneous slab-geometry water phantom and an anthropomorphic phantom. Step-and-shoot IMRT and VMAT treatment plans were developed and optimized for eight patients in Pinnacle, following our institutional SAbR protocol for spinal metastases. The CCC algorithm, with heterogeneity corrections, was used for dose calculations. These plans were then exported to Eclipse and recalculated using the AAA and AXB dose calculation algorithms. Various dosimetric parameters calculated with CCC and AAA were compared to that of the AXB calculations. In regions receiving above 50% of prescription dose, the calculated CCC mean dose is 3.1%-4.1% higher than that of AXB calculations for IMRT plans and 2.8%-3.5% higher for VMAT plans, while the calculated AAA mean dose is 1.5%-2.4% lower for IMRT and 1.2%-1.6% lower for VMAT. Statistically significant differences (p<0.05) were observed for most GTV and PTV indices between the CCC and AXB calculations for IMRT and VMAT, while differences between the AAA and AXB calculations were not statistically significant. For T-spine SAbR treatment planning, the CCC calculations give a statistically significant overestimation of target dose compared to AXB. AAA underestimates target dose with no statistical significance compared to AXB. Further study is needed to determine the clinical impact of these findings. PACS number: 87.55.D-, 87.53.Ly.