Abstract. Aerosol heating due to shortwave absorption has
implications for local atmospheric stability and regional dynamics. The
derivation of heating rate profiles from space-based observations is
challenging because it requires the vertical profile of relevant properties
such as the aerosol extinction coefficient and single-scattering albedo
(SSA). In the southeastern Atlantic, this challenge is amplified by the
presence of stratocumulus clouds below the biomass burning plume advected
from Africa, since the cloud properties affect the magnitude of the aerosol
heating aloft, which may in turn lead to changes in the cloud properties and
life cycle. The combination of spaceborne lidar data with passive imagers
shows promise for future derivations of heating rate profiles and curtains,
but new algorithms require careful testing with data from aircraft
experiments where measurements of radiation, aerosol, and cloud parameters
are better colocated and readily available. In this study, we derive heating rate profiles and vertical
cross sections (curtains) from aircraft measurements during the NASA
ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS (ORACLES)
project in the southeastern Atlantic. Spectrally resolved irradiance
measurements and the derived column absorption allow for the separation of
total heating rates into aerosol and gas (primarily water vapor) absorption.
The nine cases we analyzed capture some of the co-variability of heating
rate profiles and their primary drivers, leading to the development of a new
concept: the heating rate efficiency (HRE; the heating rate per unit aerosol
extinction). HRE, which accounts for the overall aerosol loading as well
as vertical distribution of the aerosol layer, varies little with altitude
as opposed to the standard heating rate. The large case-to-case variability
for ORACLES is significantly reduced after converting from heating rate to
HRE, allowing us to quantify its dependence on SSA, cloud albedo, and solar
zenith angle.


This study advanced knowledge on charisma by (a) introducing a new personality-based model to conceptualize and assess charisma and by (b) investigating curvilinear relationships between charismatic personality and leader effectiveness. Moreover, we delved deeper into this curvilinear association by (c) examining moderation by the leader's level of adjustment and by (d) testing a process model through which the effects of charismatic personality on effectiveness are explained with a consideration of specific leader behaviors. Study 1 validated HDS charisma (Hogan Development Survey) as a useful trait-based measure of charisma. In Study 2 a sample of leaders (N = 306) were assessed in the context of a 360-degree development center. In line with the too-much-of-a-good-thing effect, an inverted U-shaped relationship between charismatic personality and observer-rated leader effectiveness was found, indicating that moderate levels are better than low or high levels of charisma. Study 3 (N = 287) replicated this curvilinear relationship and further illustrated the moderating role of leader adjustment, in such a way that the inflection point after which the effects of charisma turn negative occurs at higher levels of charisma when adjustment is high. Nonlinear mediation modeling further confirmed that strategic and operational leader behaviors fully mediate the curvilinear relationship. Leaders low on charisma are less effective because they lack strategic behavior; highly charismatic leaders are less effective because they lack operational behavior. In sum, this work provides insight into the dispositional nature of charisma and uncovers the processes through which and conditions under which leader charisma translates into (in)effectiveness.


This paper provides an overview of Wastewater Treatment issue in Lebanon, past, present, and Future. The paper briefs the status of wastewater types adopted in the general study approved by Lebanese Government to cover the country at the level of design and implementation along with the relevant energy consumption. Accordingly, we shall consider that paper as a recapitulation on exerted efforts by both Government and Council of Development and Reconstruction (CDR) to reach reliable and sustainable wastewater network and wastewater treatment plants. The perspective that we intend as a conclusion is the potential of renewable energy exploitation and treated wastewater reuse assisting the path of autonomy of WWTP's and improvement of the energy management in wastewater treatment based on the integration of renewable energy and biogas .


The frequency range above the "traditional" harmonic range up to about 2 to 3 kHz has been under investigation for a while but less attention has been paid to the frequency range slightly above. This paper presents measurements both in laboratory environment and in the field on different types of equipment and general long- term measurement on site in the low voltage network. The general aim of this paper is to increase the knowledge about voltage and current distortion in the frequency range above 2 kHz.


B3 antibody specifically binds the LewisY-related carbohydrate antigen of many carcinomas, and it is used as a model antibody in this study. In a previous study, the Fab fragment of the antibody was fused to a 38 kDa truncated form of Pseudomonas exotoxin A, PE38, to make Fab- PE38, where PE38 is fused to the Fd fragment of the Fab domain. This parent monomer molecule, Fab-PE38, had no cysteine in the hinge region, and it could not make a disulfide bond to form a disulfide bond bridged homodimer. In this study, we constructed three different kinds of divalent Fab-toxin fusion homodimers where the toxin is fused to the light chain of Fab, (Fab-PE38fl)2. In addition to the PE38 toxin fused to the light chain, these three molecules have different hinge sequences h1, h2, and h3 making Fabh1-, Fabh2-, and Fabh3-PE38fl monomers, respectively. These hinges contain only one cysteine on different positions of the hinge sequence. The disulfide bond between the hinge region of two monomers forms homodimers (Fabh1-PE38fl)2, (Fabh2-PE38fl)2, and (Fabh3- PE38fl)2. The refolding yields of these dimers were 5- 16-fold higher than a previously constructed dimer where the PE38 was fused to the Fd fragment (Fabh1-PE38)2. Our data suggest that the steric repulsion between the two PE38s in (Fabh1-PE38)2 during disulfide bridge formation is relieved by fusing it at the end of the light chain. The best cytotoxicity value of these dimers showed about 2.5-fold higher on an MCF7 cell line than that of the monovalent reference molecule in ng/ml scale, which is 15-fold higher in pM scale.


Microfluidic Devices and Biosensors Long-Fang Tsai Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, BYU Doctor of Philosophy My research broadly covers various important aspects of microfluidic devices and biosensors. Specifically, this dissertation reports: (1) a new and effective room temperature method of bonding polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidics to substrates such as silicon and glass, (2) a new microfluidic pump concept and implementation specifically designed to repeatedly drive a small sample volume (<1 μL) very rapidly (~500 μL/min) through a sensorcontaining flow channel to significantly decrease sensor response time through advection-driven rather than diffusion-driven mass transport, (3) use of a new microfluidic material based on polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) to implement impedance-based dynamic nanochannel sensors for protein sensing, and (4) an investigation of galvanoluminescence and how to avoid it for conditions important to fluorescence-based dielectrophoresis (DEP) microfluidic biosensors. Over the last decade, the Nordin research group has developed a lab-on-a-chip (LOC) biosensor based on silicon photonic microcantilever arrays integrated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidics for protein biomarker detection. Integration requires reliable bonding at room temperature with adequate bond strength between the PDMS element and microcantilever sensor substrate. The requirement for a room temperature process is particularly critical because microcantilevers must be individually functionalized with antibody-based receptor molecules prior to bonding and cannot withstand significant heating after functionalization. I developed a new room temperature bonding method using PDMS curing agent as an intermediate adhesive layer. Two curing agents (Sylgard 184 and 182) were compared, as well as an alternate UV curable adhesive (NOA 75). The bond strength of Sylgard 184 was found to be stronger than Sylgard 182 under the same curing conditions. Overnight room temperature curing with Sylgard 184 yields an average burst pressure of 433 kPa, which is more than adequate for many PDMS sensor devices. In contrast, UV curable epoxy required a 12 hour bake at 50 °C to achieve maximum bond strength, which resulted in a burst pressure of only 124 kPa. In many biosensing scenarios it is desirable to use a small sample volume (<1 μL) to detect small analyte concentrations in as short a time as possible. I report a new microfluidic pump to address this need, which we call a reflow pump. It is designed to rapidly pump a small sample volume back and forth in a flow channel. Ultimately, the flow channel would contain functionalized sensor surfaces. The rapid flow permits use of advection-driven mass transport to the sensor surfaces to dramatically reduce sensor response times compared to diffusion-based mass transport. Normally such rapid flow would have the effect of decreasing the fraction of analyte molecules in the volume that would see the sensor surfaces. By configuring the pump to reflow fluid back and forth in the flow channel, the analyte molecules in the small sample volume are used efficiently in that they have many opportunities to make it to the sensor surfaces. I describe a 3-layer PDMS reflow pump that pumps 300 nL of fluid at 500 μL/min for 15 psi actuation pressure, and demonstrate a new two-layer configuration that significantly simplifies pump fabrication. Impedance-based nanochannel sensors operate on the basis of capturing target molecules in nanochannels such that impedance through the nanochannels is increased. While simple in concept, the response time can be quite long (8~12 hours) because the achievable flow rate through a nanochannel is very limited. An approach to dramatically increase the flow rate is to form nanochannels only during impedance measurements, and otherwise have an array of nanotrenches on the surface of a conventional microfluidic flow channel where they are exposed to normal microfluidic flow rates. I have implemented such a dynamic nanochannel approach with a recently-developed microfluidic material based polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA). I present the design, fabrication, and testing of PEGDA dynamic nanochannel array sensors, and demonstrate an 11.2 % increase in nanochannel impedance when exposed to 7.2 μM bovine serum albumin (BSA) in phosphate buffered saline (PBS). Recently, LOC biosensors for cancer cell detection have been demonstrated based on a combination of dielectrophoresis (DEP) and fluorescence detection. For fluorescence detection it is critical to minimize other sources of light in the system. However, reported devices use a nonnoble metal electrode, indium tin oxide (ITO), to take advantage of its optical transparency. Unfortunately, use of non-noble metal electrodes can result in galvanoluminescence (GL) in which the AC voltage applied to the electrodes to achieve DEP causes light emission, which can potentially confound the fluorescence measurement. I designed and fabricated two types of devices to examine and identify conditions that lead to GL. Based on my observations, I have developed a method to avoid GL that involves measuring the impedance spectrum of a DEP device and choosing an operating frequency in the resistive portion of the spectrum. I also measure the emission spectrum of twelve salt solutions, all of which exhibited broadband GL. Finally, I show that in addition to Au, Cr and Ni do not exhibit GL, are therefore potentially attractive as low cost DEP electrode materials.


The monitoring of emissions to air and water represents an important element in preventing and reducing pollution from industrial installations and in ensuring a high level of protection of the environment taken as a whole. Therefore, the Industrial Emissions Directive 2010/75/EU (IED) addresses the monitoring of emissions in a number of instances. This JRC Reference Report on Monitoring (ROM) summarises information on the monitoring of emissions to air and water from IED installations, thereby providing practical guidance for the application of the Best Available Techniques (BAT) conclusions on monitoring in order to help competent authorities to define monitoring requirements in the permits of IED installations. Moreover, the information and recommendations provided by this document may help the Technical Working Groups (TWGs) to derive BAT conclusions during the drawing up and review of BAT Reference documents (BREFs). Printed in Ispra (Italy)


In this paper, the requirements for models, methods and tools to support servitisation through collaboration of manufacturing enterprises and service providers are addressed. The Manufacturing SErvice Ecosystem (MSEE) European project has applied a novel approach to elicit these requirements and aims to fulfil them by establishing a manufacturing service ecosystems (MSE) concept. After identifying and specifying the requirements for support, MSEE has developed models, methods and tools to realise products and services in virtual enterprises, established from the MSE and validated them in four European test cases.


As rainfall in South-Central Chile has decreased in recent decades, local communities and industries have developed an understandable concern about their threatened water supply. Reconstructing streamflows from tree-ring data has been recognized as a useful paleoclimatic tool in providing long-term perspectives on the temporal characteristics of hydroclimate systems. Multi-century long streamflow reconstructions can be compared to relatively short instrumental observations in order to analyze the frequency of low and high water availability through time. In this work, we have developed a Biobío River streamflow reconstruction to explore the long-term hydroclimate variability at the confluence of the Mediterranean-subtropical and the Temperate-humid climate zones, two regions represented by previous reconstructions of the Maule and Puelo Rivers, respectively. In a suite of analyses, the Biobío River reconstruction proves to be more similar to the Puelo River than the Maule River, despite its closer geographic proximity to the latter. This finding corroborates other studies with instrumental data that identify 37.5°S as a latitudinal confluence of two climate zones. The analyzed rivers are affected by climate forcings on interannual and interdecadal time-scales, Tropical (El Niño Southern Oscillation; ENSO) and Antarctic (Southern Annular Mode; SAM). Longer cycles found, around 80-years, are well correlated only with SAM variation, which explains most of the variance in the Biobío and Puelo rivers. This cycle also has been attributed to orbital forcing by other authors. All three rivers showed an increase in the frequency of extreme high and low flow events in the 20th century. The most extreme dry and wet years in the instrumental record (1943-2000) were not the most extreme of the past 400-years reconstructed for the three rivers (1600-2000), yet both instrumental record years did rank in the five most extreme of the streamflow reconstructions as a whole. These findings suggest a high level of natural variability in the hydro-climatic conditions of the region, where extremes characterized the 20th century. This information is particularly useful when evaluating and improving a wide variety of water management models that apply to water resources that are sensitive to agricultural and hydropower industries. Powered by Editorial Manager® and ProduXion Manager® from Aries Systems Corporation


Mounting evidence indicates that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) was strongly reduced during cold climate episodes in the past, possible due to freshwater influx from glacial melting. It is also expected that the freshwater input to high northern latitudes will increase as human‐induced global warming continues, with potential impacts on the AMOC. Here we present results from a 150 years sensitivity experiment with the Bergen Climate Model (BCM) for the present‐day climate, but with enhanced runoff from the Arctic region throughout the integration. The AMOC drops by 30% over the first 50 years, followed by a gradual recovery. The simulated response indicates that the present‐day AMOC might be robust to the isolated effect of enhanced, high‐latitude freshwater forcing on a centennial time scale, and that the western tropical North Atlantic may provide key information about the long‐term variability, and by that monitoring, of the AMOC.


Steven T. Katz and James Spickard have argued that even though mystical and ecstatic experiences are often self-defined as unmediated experiences of the divine, fundamentally these experi- ences are always mediated to some degree through the mystic's own cultural milieu and religious language. The filtration of Mormon naturalist Terry Tempest Williams' mystical encounters with nature through a Mormon cultural lens, which is tied to a historic and mythic topophilia, lends Williams' writing a creative organicism that deftly combines diverse and contradictory elements. On one hand, Williams points to the irony of her chosen subject in light of the problematic relation Mormon culture has had with environmentalism and eroti- cism. On the other hand, a distinctly Mormon sensibility shapes Williams' love for the sacred geography of Utah and her attunement to the spiritual dimensions of the American landscape. In Williams' "greening" of Mormonism, we see the work of religio-cultural pro- duction in action, as she creates a unique fusion of nature mysticism and Latter-day sensibilities.


Abstract. The Eurasian (née European) Modern Pollen Database
(EMPD) was established in 2013 to provide a public database of high-quality
modern pollen surface samples to help support studies of past climate,
land cover, and land use using fossil pollen. The EMPD is part of, and
complementary to, the European Pollen Database (EPD) which contains data on
fossil pollen found in Late Quaternary sedimentary archives throughout the
Eurasian region. The EPD is in turn part of the rapidly growing Neotoma
database, which is now the primary home for global palaeoecological data.
This paper describes version 2 of the EMPD in which the number of samples
held in the database has been increased by 60 % from 4826 to 8134. Much of
the improvement in data coverage has come from northern Asia, and the
database has consequently been renamed the Eurasian Modern Pollen Database
to reflect this geographical enlargement. The EMPD can be viewed online
using a dedicated map-based viewer at https://empd2.github.io and
downloaded in a variety of file formats at
https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.909130 (Chevalier et al., 2019).


Using the tools of complexity theory, Stephen Judd develops a formal description of associative learning in connectionist networks. He rigorously exposes the computational difficulties in training neural networks and explores how certain design principles will or will not make the problems easier.Judd looks beyond the scope of any one particular learning rule, at a level above the details of neurons. There he finds new issues that arise when great numbers of neurons are employed and he offers fresh insights into design principles that could guide the construction of artificial and biological neural networks.The first part of the book describes the motivations and goals of the study and relates them to current scientific theory. It provides an overview of the major ideas, formulates the general learning problem with an eye to the computational complexity of the task, reviews current theory on learning, relates the book's model of learning to other models outside the connectionist p radigm, and sets out to examine scale-up issues in connectionist learning.Later chapters prove the intractability of the general case of memorizing in networks, elaborate on implications of this intractability and point out several corollaries applying to various special subcases. Judd refines the distinctive characteristics of the difficulties with families of shallow networks, addresses concerns about the ability of neural networks to generalize, and summarizes the results, implications, and possible extensions of the work.J. Stephen Judd is Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science at The California Institute of Technology. Neural Network Design and the Complexity of Learning is included in the Network Modeling and Connectionism series edited by Jeffrey Elman.


This 'in perspective' piece addresses the (re-)positioning of civil society within new structures of city-region governance within Greater Manchester. This follows on from the processes of devolution, which have given the Greater Manchester City-Region a number of new powers. UK devolution, to date, has been largely focused upon engendering agglomerated economic growth at the city-region scale. Within Greater Manchester City-Region, devolution for economic development has sat alongside the devolution of health and social care (unlike any other city-region in the UK) as well. Based on stakeholder mapping and semi-structured interviews with key actors operating across the Greater Manchester City-Region, the paper illustrates how this has created a number of significant tensions and opportunities for civil society actors, as they have sought to contest a shifting governance framework. The paper, therefore, calls for future research to carefully consider how civil society groups are grappling with devolution; both contesting and responding to devolution. This is timely given the shifting policy and political discourse towards the need to deliver more socially inclusive city-regions.


The refugee admissions ceiling for fiscal year 2000 is 90,000, with Europe accounting for more than half the numbers. P.L. 106-104 reauthorized the Department of Health and Human Service's Office of Refugee Resettlement (HHS/ORR) program through FY2002. P.L. 106-113, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, appropriated $426.5 million for for (HHS/ORR) for FY2000. P.L. 106-113 also extended the socalled Lautenberg amendment for an additional year; and reenacted a version of the McCain amendment, relating to Vietnamese refugees, for 2 years. The principal refugee issue in 1999 was the emergency admission of Kosovar refugees, in what was probably the most significant test of the flexibility of the refugee provisions since their enactment in 1980. The United States has admitted 15,825 Kosovar Albanians from the refugee camps in Macedonia who had close family ties here or were particularly vulnerable. The State Department reports that 2,750 refugees have returned to Kosovo. P.L. 106-31, the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, included $100 million for resettling Kosovar refugees in the United States, plus additional funds for transporting them here. This report will be updated to reflect legislative and other action.


Skeletal muscles contain an undifferentiated myogenic stem cell pool (satellite cells) that can be mobilized to regenerate myofibers in response to injury. We have determined that the winged helix transcription factor MNF is expressed selectively in quiescent satellite cells, which do not express known regulators of the myogenic program. Following muscle injury, MNF is present transiently in proliferating satellite cells and in centralized nuclei of regenerating myofibers, but expression declines as these fibers mature, until only the residual stem cell pool continues to express detectable levels of MNF. MNF also is expressed selectively but transiently at embryonic stages of myogenesis in the developing myotome, limb bud precursors, and heart tube, but by late fetal stages of development, MNF is down-regulated within differentiated cardiac and skeletal myocytes, and persistently high expression is observed only in satellite cells. These data identify MNF as a marker of quiescent satellite cells and suggest that downstream genes controlled by MNF serve to modulate proliferative growth or differentiation in this unique cell population.


The cancer bush (Lessertia frutescens L.) is an important leguminous perennial native to southern Africa and has been used for centuries in traditional medicine by the continent's diverse cultural groups. Like many other legumes, the seeds of this species exhibit dormancy. Moreover, woody plants are typically difficult to propagate in in vitro culture systems. But in vitro shoot cultures are valuable in providing an alternative means of deriving desired secondary metabolites or phytocompounds, under controlled conditions. This study describes novel protocols for breaking seed dormancy, rapid and efficient in vitro propagation, bioreactor culture, and comprehensive phytochemical data following screening and analysis of in vitro and field extracts of L. frutescens. Experiments using physical, mechanical and chemical pre-sowing treatments were conducted to determine the germination response of this species. The results indicated that seeds of L. frutescens exhibited exogenous dormancy due to the inhibitory effect of the hard coat on germination. Seed dormancy was released by mechanical scarification in which 100 % germination was achieved. In vitro propagation studies using single node explants in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with combinations of different concentrations of benzyladenine and naphthaleneacetic acid revealed a maximum number of 10 shoots per explant in solid medium, and 12.9 shoots per explant in liquid medium inside a temporary immersion bioreactor. Indirect shoot organogenesis and plant regeneration using rachis and stem segments was achieved with the highest percentage of explants forming shoots (88.8 %) from rachis explants cultured onto MS medium supplemented with thidiazuron. Direct shoot organogenesis from hypocotyl and cotyledon segments was also achieved in L. frutescens. The highest shoot regeneration using hypocotyls (83 %) was obtained in MS medium supplemented with kinetin whilst the highest shoot regeneration using cotyledons (46 %) was obtained in MS medium supplemented with kinetin in combination with benzyladenine. Successful rooting (up to 80 %) and acclimatization (up to 90 % survival rate) was attained. Spectrophotometric and gravimetric methods indicated that saponins were the most abundant, followed by phenolics, flavonoids and then alkaloids in in vitro leaf extracts then in field leaf extracts and seed extracts, respectively. After qualitative analysis these extracts were also found to contain tannins, phlobatannins and cardiac glycosides of medicinal interest. By using gas and liquid chromatography the presence of the medicinally important L-canavanine, gamma amino-butyric acid and D-pinitol was verified in in vitro leaf, field leaf and seed extracts. In vitro leaves had higher quantities of all compounds, except for D-pinitol. Phytocompound analysis of shoots derived from several of the cytokinin-enhanced media showed that these organs contained higher quantities of L-canavanine compared to the control. This study, therefore, highlights the potential techno-economic production of medicinal phytocompounds from in vitro leaves of L. frutescens following large scale production using the protocols described in this study.


The beneficial effects of probiotics are now widely reported, although there are only a few studies on their anti-aging effects. We have found that Lactobacillus plantarum HY7714 (HY7714) improves skin hydration and has anti-photoaging effects, and in the present study, we have further evaluated the anti-aging effect of HY7714 via a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. The trial included 110 volunteers aged 41 and 59 years who have dry skin and wrinkles. Participants took 1 × 10(10) CFU/day of HY7714 (probiotic group) or a placebo (placebo group) for 12 weeks. Skin hydration, wrinkles, skin gloss, and skin elasticity were measured every 4 weeks during the study period. There were significant increases in the skin water content in the face (p < 0.01) and hands (p < 0.05) at week 12 in the probiotic group. Transepidermal water loss decreased significantly in both groups at weeks 4, 8, and 12 (p < 0.001 compared with baseline), and was suppressed to a greater extent in the face and forearm in the probiotic group at week 12. Volunteers in the probiotic group had a significant reduction in wrinkle depth at week 12, and skin gloss was also significantly improved by week 12. Finally, skin elasticity in the probiotic group improved by 13.17% (p < 0.05 vs. controls) after 4 weeks and by 21.73% (p < 0.01 vs. controls) after 12 weeks. These findings are preliminary confirmation of the anti-aging benefit to the skin of L. plantarum HY7714 as a nutricosmetic agent.


Quality management is an essential part in creating a trustworthy digital archive. The German network of expertise in Digital long-term preservation (nestor), in cooperation with the German Institute for Standards (DIN), has undertaken a small study to analyse systematically the relevance and usage of quality management standards for long-term preservation and to filter out the specific standardisation need for digital archives. This paper summarises the results of the study. It gives an overview on the differences in understanding the task "quality management" within different organisations and how they carry out appropriate measures, such as documentation, transparency, adequacy, and measureability in order to demonstrate the trustworthiness of their digital archive.


The effects of gender and age on lexical choice in Arabic sociolinguistics have been found to be contradictory and problematic. This is because the prestigious dialect is not necessarily the standard variety, or Standard Arabic (SA) in the Arab world. The objective of this study is to delve into the inner workings of Baghdadis' linguistic system in pursuit of a better understanding of the interface between the social and the linguistic by adding the cognitive approach. The cognitive approach to lexical choice is primarily interested in the subjective meanings or experiences of individual language users within their social groups. This quantitative research is based on the differences in lexical choices depending on gender and age of the literate Baghdadis. Patterns of lexical variables are identified according to males'/females' (24 males/24
females) choice of new lexical items of the Baghdadi Dialect (BD) speakers. This study also identifies any patterns of change according to three age groups (18-24, 30-40, and 50-60) by comparing their lexical choices. The informants were chosen using judgment sampling procedure. The speech of the 48 BD speakers was investigated using face-to-face interviews. Correlations and F-tests were conducted using the SPSS (Version 18) to process data on the independent variables (age and gender) and lexical choices. It was found that variation is not mechanical or automatic, but is based on personal conscious choices. It was also found that gender is one of the most important social factors correlating with lexical variation. Among Baghdadi women, the prestigious linguistic form was found to be associated with Standard Arabic. Thus, females who opt for SA can be considered to represent competent Arabic teachers since they are linguistically more prestige conscious than males. Future studies can analyze the relationship between BD and SA and its educational impact on Iraqi schools.


Earnings per share (EPS) Is considered by many to be one of the most Important summary Indicators presented In the financial statements. Many financial statement users rely on EPS as the most Important single measure of corporate performance. Previous empirical evidence suggests that a strong link exists between EPS changes and stock price changes. The objective of this study was to determine If the provisions of APB 15 provide for consistent reporting of comparable EPS figures across preparers of financial statements. The application of alter native Interpretations of provisions of APB 15 has the potential to produce materially different EPS figures. As a result, the degree of comparability of the reported EPS figures across companies Is unclear. The existence and application of alternative Interpretations of four provisions of APB 15 were examined via a field study approach. Questionnaires were mailed to a random sample of preparers of EPS to elicit data concerning the following provisions: (1) the 3 percent materiality provision, (2) the future expectation exception to the 3 percent materiality provision, (3) the no antl-dllutlve security pro vision, and (4) the warrant/option dilution determination provision. None of the three interpretations of the 3 percent materiality provision were favored over any of the other Interpretations In the reporting of EPS. The application of the future expectation exception depended on the materiality of the expected dilution. The exception lx was Invoked when material future dilution was expected, but not when Immaterial future dilution was expected. The aggregate approach to the no antl-dllutlve security provision was favored, but only for the calculation of PEPS. No one approach was favored for FDEPS computations. The opposite situation occurred for the warrant/option dilution determination provision. No technique was favored for the calculation of PEPS; however, utilization of year-end market prices was preferred for the FDEPS computations. The results of this study Indicate that, after almost 20 years, a set of consensus Interpretations of the provisions of APB 15 has not yet been achieved. The findings Imply that EPS reflects the preparer*s individual lnterpretatlonal approach rather than a uniform, consistent profession-wide approach. As a result, the comparability of the re ported EPS figures across companies does not exist.


The incidence of lower third oesophageal tumours is increasing in most Western populations. With the role of radiotherapy dose escalation being identified as a research priority in improving outcomes, it is important to quantify the increased toxicity that this may pose to sites such as the lower oesophagus. This study therefore aims to investigate the feasibility of lower oesophageal dose escalation with a focus on stomach tissue toxicity.The original 3D-conformal plans (50Gy3D) from 10 patients in the SCOPE1 trial were reviewed and compared to two RapidArc plans created retrospectively to represent the treatment arms of the forthcoming SCOPE2 trial: 50GyRA and 60GyRA (50Gy to PTV1 with a simultaneously integrated boost of 60Gy to PTV2). The stomach was contoured as stomach wall and dose constraints set according to QUANTEC. Normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) was estimated for the stomach wall for an endpoint of gastric bleeding. There was a mean increase of 5.93% in NTCP from 50Gy3D to 60GyRA and a mean increase of 8.15% in NTCP from the 50GyRA to 60GyRA. With NTCP modelling restricted to volumes outside PTV2, there was a mean decrease of 0.92% in NTCP from the 50Gy3D to 60GyRA, and a mean increase of 2.25% from 50GyRA to 60GyRA. There was a strong correlation between the NTCP and Stomach Wall/PTV1 overlap volume for all plans (R=0.80, 0.77 and 0.77 for 60GyRA, 50GyRA and 50Gy3D respectively). There was also a strong correlation between NTCP and the Stomach Wall/PTV2 overlap volume for 60GyRA (R= 0.82).Radiobiological modelling suggests that increasing the prescribed dose to 60Gy may be associated with a significantly increased risk of toxicity to the stomach within the boost volume. It is recommended that stomach toxicity be closely monitored prospectively when treating patients with lower oesophageal tumours in the forthcoming SCOPE 2 trial.


This is a practice based Ph.D. in Fine Arts. The subject of the research deals with strategies of doubling as a means to explore the relation between what technology promises and the fantasy of the viewer/user. The visual material that constitutes my research attempts to raise, in various interrelated ways, a set of core questions regarding the nature of surface as receptacle of images and to take into account the filiation that new media partake of, namely that computer-aided art is seen as a subset of fine art. Indeed, the first line of enquiry is to address what constitutes the 'picture plane' of a computer screen.

Interrogating the nature of the digital Image and Its relations to the viewer/user, my question is "how does computer-aided art (animation, video and interactive installation) address the connection between surface and image, particularly when digital manipulation is used to consistently postpone a totalising view of the image?" This includes the analysis of how static and dynamic states of the image are generated in (digital) art, or where the phenomenon of doubling raises questions about what kind of visual economy operates with respect to art that uses advanced technologies. I critically analyse these aspects occurring in work by artists, whose practice deals with certain modes of addressing the totalising view of an image, an image that appears virtually complete.

As a practising artist, in terms of the media I choose to work with, doubling is enabled by providing a certain degree of Interactivity with the computer screen, giving the viewer the illusion of control over the production of the image. However, the illusory nature of this control is revealed by the systematic Incompleteness of the image being 'painted' on the screen. Apart from provoking and frustrating the desire for totalising visuality, the deliberate incompleteness of the images holds open questions of scale, animation, and the relationship of image to surface.

Given the nature of the medium in which the moving images were created, the pieces share the potential for continuing the loop in which they play ad infinitum. But, as the cyclicity of the loops makes manifest, nearly all of them are also predicated on an ontological duality whereby the same object, the same entity, can transform into something phenomenally other through the permeable interplay between emergent and receding aspects inherent within it. So integral to image-forming I find this doubling that I have extended the theme to my own public Identity, by sometimes functioning under an alias, the name of Sissu Tarka.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to examine whether cognitive factors, such as attributions, expectations, and anger management style, contribute to the decision to seek medical care for fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS).

METHOD
We recruited 3 groups of subjects; patients from a FMS tertiary care setting, community residents with FMS who had not sought medical care for their FMS symptoms (nonpatients), and healthy controls. In all, 38 FMS nonpatients were compared to 37 FMS patients and 41 healthy controls on measures of anxiety, depression, anger, locus of control (LOC), attributions, pain intensity, and disability, as well as demographic characteristics.

RESULTS
The prevalence of FMS non-patients was 2%. There was a significant difference between the 3 groups on the measures of anxiety, depression, LOC, and somatic and normalizing subscale scores of the symptom interpretation questionnaire (SIQ). FMS nonpatients, relative to FMS patients and healthy controls, were characterized by a significantly higher measure of both LOC and normalizing subscale score on the SIQ. There were no differences between the 2 FMS groups in demographical percentage and other psychometric measures. A hierarchical logistic regression model showed that the number of tender points, normalizing attribution style, and depression were independent predictors of help-seeking behavior.

CONCLUSION
The rate of psychiatric and medical history is not related to the FMS syndrome. Expectations and a normalizing attribution style may contribute to help-seeking behavior for FMS.


Inflammatory factors are elevated in animal and human subjects with hypertension and renal injury. We hypothesized that inflammation contributes to hypertension-induced renal injury by impairing autoregulation and microvascular reactivity to P2X(1) receptor activation. Studies were conducted in vitro using the blood-perfused juxtamedullary nephron preparation. Rats receiving ANG II (60 ng/min) infusion were treated with the anti-inflammatory agent pentosan polysulfate (PPS) for 14 days. The magnitude and progression of hypertension were similar in ANG II and ANG II+PPS-treated rats (169 ± 5 vs. 172 ± 2 mmHg). Afferent arterioles from control rats exhibited normal autoregulatory behavior with diameter decreasing from 18.4 ± 1.6 to 11.4 ± 1.7 μm when perfusion pressure was increased from 70 to 160 mmHg. In contrast, pressure-mediated vasoconstriction was markedly attenuated in ANG II-treated rats, and diameter remained essentially unchanged over the range of perfusion pressures. However, ANG II-treated rats receiving PPS exhibited normal autoregulatory behavior compared with ANG II alone rats. Arteriolar reactivity to ATP and β,γ-methylene ATP was significantly reduced in ANG II hypertensive rats compared with controls. Interestingly, PPS treatment preserved normal reactivity to P2 and P2X(1) receptor agonists despite the persistent hypertension. The maximal vasoconstriction was 79 ± 3 and 81 ± 2% of the control diameter for ATP and β,γ-methylene ATP, respectively, similar to responses in control rats. PPS treatment significantly reduced α-smooth muscle actin staining in afferent arterioles and plasma transforming growth factor-β1 concentration in ANG II-treated rats. In conclusion, PPS normalizes autoregulation without altering ANG II-induced hypertension, suggesting that inflammatory processes reduce P2X(1) receptor reactivity and thereby impair autoregulatory behavior in ANG II hypertensive rats.


Between October 2007 and January 2008 we got the chance to live in Toronto, the most diverse city in the world. Our choice of study has been to explore how sustainabile city planning can be dealt with in a new community of the Central Waterfront of Toronto. The themes presented by us are a new transportation system to decrease our oil-dependency and how to weave environmental and social sustainability together. Focus has been on a new transit system in the form of a Personal Rapid Transit System, which is simplified a system of loops of guideways with small pods that takes you from A to B without stops on the way. Ideas of PRT was introduced in the 60s, and is by its forespokers quick, environmentally friendly, reliable, convenient and cheap. It takes on the challenge to attract people who rather take the car in everyday life. A PRT system between Toronto Downtown and Port Land area as a way to decrease barriers and connecting new and existing built environment. Further, the Swedish model of Hammarby Sjostad, has attracted city planners from all over the world, among them Canadians working with the transformation of the Central Waterfront into becoming new mixed communities. The Hammarby sjostad model is a great example of new urbanism with focus on the environmental part of the sustainability concept. But what can be seen as missing is diversity. Diversity is a key word in Toronto with a couple of well visited neighbourhoods, Kensington Market and the Islands that can be seen as everyday urbanism areas. Still newly built areas at the Central Waterfront were missing these qualities. This led to a focus of what benefits and problems that can occur in weaving environmental and social sustainability together, using ideas of both new urbanism and everyday urbanism in building a new community. This thesis is the result of our ideas of sustainable city planning and presents a planning proposal for Cherry beach at the Waterfront of Toronto.


Abstract : Quantification of spatial variability is a vital prerequisite agriculture.This study was aimed at quantifying the spatial variability of selected chemical properties in a tropical peat cultivated with pineapple. A 1 –ha study plot was established in a commercial pineapple plantation in Simpang Rengam , Johor. Georeferenced topsoil samples ( n = 60 ) were obtained systematically from 8 x 18 m spacings in the x and y direction, respectively.These samples were tested for total C , extractable P , K , Cu , Zn and B.Soil data were first explored using univariate statistics , including normality check , non – spatial outlier detection and data transformation.This was followed by variography and kriging analyses to quantify the spatial variability of chemical properties.Results revealed a high degree of spatial variability in the majority of chemical properties , which exhibited non- normal distributions with CVs ranging from 12 to 54 %.All properties exhibited a definable spatial structure , which were described by either spherical or exponential models.Carbon , P and B showed strong spatial dependence. The majority of properties had a short effective range.Surface maps of chemical properties clearly showed spatial clustering of test values.Expecting K , all other properties showed acceptable accuracy of interpolated values. These combined data suggest the need for a site – specific approach in managing tropical peat cultivated with pineapple , particulary with regard to nutrient management.


A few years ago, when I began interviewing for a position as a law professor, Pepperdine University School of Law invited me to interview for a position on their impressive law faculty. The Vice-Chair of the Faculty Appointments Committee asked if I would send for their review, as part of their normal evaluation process, a statement of my research agenda and a brief description of my teaching philosophy. These requests are relatively standard, but the third request was quite unusual — the Chair asked if I would also provide a statement describing how I could contribute to the mission of the University and the law school, including, of note to me, a description of my involvement, if any, with a community of faith. I responded that I was uncomfortable with a discussion of my faith, or my involvement in a faith community, as part of my professional interactions, and thus, declined the interview. However, the experience remained with me as I pondered the question that their faculty at the law school had already answered — what role should the personal ethics and morality of a law professor play in teaching?
At the time of the interview, I was teaching full-time at Georgetown University, a Catholic Jesuit university, and currently, I teach at DePaul University, a Catholic Vincentian university. In both instances, the universities promote certain values in their missions and seek to incorporate those social justice values into the curriculum. The law schools at both institutions promote an ideal of social justice that encourages law students to provide pro bono legal assistance, either in legal clinics or through pro bono programs, to those financially unable to afford it. However, a growing number of law schools go beyond simply making these social justice opportunities available to those students who choose to participate. Instead, some law schools now mandate legal clinics and pro bono service, many of which serve the dual purpose of promoting social justice and legal education, as a condition of graduation.
As a result, law professors, specifically those teaching in a law school legal clinic, are in a unique position to shape the social justice morality of law students. Many law professors embrace this role, extensively writing that clinicians, specifically, are in the best position to develop the next generation of social justice lawyers and have a duty to do so. Social justice advocacy is often an integral aspect of legal clinics and many law professors, as part of this advocacy, train students to view certain legal events as social or legal injustices and instill in the student a sense of obligation to resolve them.
This Article vigorously advocates for exposing law students to social justice legal issues, but in contrast to other participants in this conversation, concludes that mandatory pro bono, while reflective of my personal ideals, is an encroachment upon law students' personal morality and an attempt to impose social justice service upon students based upon the moral and ethical lens of professors. This Article also concludes that mandatory legal clinics, while providing vital legal training and serving a population that is unquestionably in need of robust legal services, should only be mandatory when there is a sufficient variety of clinical offerings reflecting a meaningful range of social justice activities that extend beyond a limited set of moral views.
In April 2015, I was invited to speak at a symposium at Indiana University — Bloomington where I similarly argued that law schools, through their experiential learning opportunities, and summer and post-graduation financial support for public interest and social justice undertakings, impose a social justice morality upon law students. After the extensive debate that ensued from the publication of those arguments, this Article seeks to continue that debate and expand on these timely questions.


Serious critical analysis of Katharine Burdiken's dystopic novel Swastika Night began nearly fifty years after it was first published in 1937. The First Feminine Press's publication of its edition in 1985 placed the book and its author squarely into two burgeoning streams of analysis. One stream focuses on the rediscovery of feminist literature written and published during and between the two world wars. The other stream has to do with a new look at dystopic fiction in light of the advent and passing of the year 1984, which served as the setting for George Orwell's famous novel. Though the critical thinking about Swastika Night has crossed both of these streams, it has been weighted in the direction of Burdiken's feminist message. Daphne Patai for example, in her Introduction to the 1985 edition, focuses on Burdiken's critique of "gender ideology and sexual politics" (iii). Swastika Night provides ample material for this important line of analysis. For example, a woman's lowly place in the dystopic social hierarchy, as well as the fact that she does not have a soul and is not human, is established in the first chapter of the book. But this perspective suggests a limited view of Burdiken's contribution to dystopic literature. Burdiken envisions her state as a theocracy, which provides the very foundation for her dystopia. My aim in this essay is to suggest a reading of the novel based on the primacy of this proposition and that, grounded as it and its fundamental tenets are in the reality of Hitler's place in Germany at the time, the dismal future of  Swastika Night is all the more realistic and frightening. Unlike Orwell or Aldous Huxley, Burdiken does not stake the Night in her future on an imaginary cataclysm. Rather, as I shall argue, her dystopia is a plausibly projected consequence of the actual state of things as they were when she wrote. As we shall see, Burdiken's Hitlerism as religion was already nascent in the early 1930s. The preeminence of violence for the Nazis had been established. The fate of women, Jews, and of Christians for that matter, was prefigured. Homosexuality, though publicly condemned, was tacitly tolerated at the highest levels of Nazi leadership, and homoeroticism was portrayed in propagandist art. Even the formal movement to change history, or the public's perception of it, was imminent. All of these elements of the Nazi order are embedded in the theocratic structure of Swastika Night .


Preventive measures yield much higher cost effective benefits as compared to remedial measures. To verify this hypothesis, a survey was conducted in two different regions of Rawalpindi district of Pakistan by comparing the cost on medication and mitigation expenditures for reduction in the burden of water borne diseases. Water Quality monitoring of the study areas in comparison to WHO Drinking Water Guidelines revealed the satisfactory level of physico-chemical parameters, however; significant bacteriological contamination was found at 86% of the monitored sites in Gujar Khan and 87% in Murree region. A field questionnaire was used to estimate the expenditures on disinfection and sanitation and concluded that 8.09% of total income of each family were spent by the inhabitants of the study area on medication for water borne diseases. Correlation was worked out between the rate of water related diseases ( V WRD ), unsafe drinking water ( C DW ), poor sanitation ( P S ), unhealthy personal hygiene and environment (UH PHE ). A simulation model "Victim's Rate Calculator" was developed to forecast the estimated number of victims within a population. Findings of the study verified the hypothesis that preventive measures are better choice than remedial measures due to cost benefit ratio (1 : 1.6) with a clear advantage of 60%.


The Entomopathogenic bacterium Pseudomonas putida from Steinernema abbasi and its metabolic secretions were lethal to the Galleria mellonella larvae. Different laboratory experiments on time interval, substrate, moisture, temperature, dose, penetration of cells, stored and dried metabolites were conducted in sand and filter paper bioassays. It was concluded that death was probably due to the toxic metabolites. This bacterium and its metabolites were found very effective at 30 degree C. Penetration of bacterium was rapid after application on G. mellonella larvae. P. putida cells were recovered from the haemocoele when suspensions containing bacterial cells were applied to the G. mellonella indicating that bacterial symbionts do have a free-living existence and can enter the haemocoele in the absence of nematode vector. Stored metabolite and dried metabolites were found persistent for long time. This bacterium or its toxic secretions can be used for insect control that can be important component of integrated pest management against different insect pests. P. putida and its secretions are suggested as the most appropriate suspension to apply against insect pest control program in tropical ecological regions.


An approximate analytical approach for calculating the dispersion relations of two-dimensional photonic crystals, which was earlier developed for E-polarization, is extended for H-polarization (which is usually problematic for analytical treatment, because of field discontinuities). Useful analytical formulas, for calculating the dispersion relations and the magnetic fields, are developed. We show that the presented approach and the derived expressions provide a good approximation for a wide range of photonic crystal parameters. The results are also compared with accurate numerical calculations to check the validity of the approximations. This approach provides not only a fast way for photonic crystal calculations, but it also can be useful for the investigation of various physical effects as well as for the design and analysis of new photonic crystal devices.


Crises can occur on any day in our lives. Contemporary society is increasingly exposed to a multitude of situations where it is required to reconcile the diverse information needs of differing groups of people in different places. The consequential level of economic and human loss depends on timely and relevant information distribution together with appropriate guidance to actual and potential victims. The sharing, distribution and dissemination of adequate information in special and unexpected situations is one of the crucial roles of any governmental level. Unfortunately this role is not always fulfilled correctly. The current emergency and communication systems, controlled mostly by governmental agencies, are currently unable to satisfy the existing information needs of individuals as well as distributing the required information only to affected areas. Critical deficiencies of current warning system are highlighted in the paper, including failure of information channels during electrical black-outs and absence of positional based broadcasting. The article describes Radio-Help as a possible solution based on the integration and exploitation of existing ICT. The special broadcasting sender transmits in HD-Radio or DRM mode data and voice to Personal Communication Terminals (PCT) that are, for the most part, already integrated within mobile phones. The role of PCT is compared with that of position codes in digital broadcasting. Matching of internal and received codes activates radio reception in the target location. The Radio-Help receivers could be realized as an integral part of any audio/video devices. This paper outlines systemic approach to alternatives based on the integration and application of Radio-Help system with respect to real problems using examples in transport and electricity distribution.


Background. South Africa (SA), as a middle-income country, faces the nutrition transition and associated double burden of undernutrition and obesity. School feeding programmes are one way of ensuring that malnutrition in children is addressed, but questions remain about whether they can address both undernutrition and obesity.  Objectives. To compare the obesity and stunting outcomes for children receiving different combinations of school feeding programmes in a rural district of SA.  Methods. The evaluation involved a comparative design that compared the stunting and obesity levels of three groups of children. Group 1 received one lunch meal a day for a prolonged period, group 2 both lunch and breakfast, and group 3 had started receiving a daily lunch shortly before the commencement of the research.  Results. Group 1 had stunting levels in line with the national average. Group 2 had lower stunting levels than those receiving only the lunch meal. Children from group 3 had lower stunting levels than groups 1 and 2. Rates of obesity and overweight were markedly different between the groups. Group 3 had very high rates of overweight and obesity – above the national average of 28%. In contrast, group 1 had far lower rates of overweight and obesity, and group 2 exhibited the lowest levels. There was a significant decrease in the percentage of learners classified as overweight in group 3 over the 6-month period, from 26.1% to 19.2%.  Conclusion. One lunch meal a day is associated with positive outcomes in relation to rates of stunting and obesity, and the lowest rates of obesity were measured when a breakfast meal was added. The addition of a breakfast meal to a lunch feeding programme shows promise, but this requires further investigation to understand whether causal linkages exist.


The Generalized Generation Gap (G3) algorithm is one of the most efficient and effective state-of-the-art real-coded genetic algorithms (RCGAs) for unconstrained global optimization. However, its performance on multimodal optimization problems is known to be poor compared to unimodal optimization problems. The G3 algorithm currently relies on crossover operations only. The objective of this paper is to augment the G3 algorithm with adaptive mutation operations which are dynamically activated according to some explicit feedback during the evolutionary optimization process in order to improve its performance for solving multimodal optimization problems. The performance of the enhanced algorithm is compared with its original version based on the global optimization accuracy and the evolutionary dynamics of the optimization process. The proposed algorithm is tested using five benchmark test problems with highly deceptive fitness landscapes. It was found that the performance of the G3 algorithm with adaptive mutation improved significantly in two of the five test problems. In one of these test problems, no optimal solutions could be found previously by the G3 algorithm but can now be solved by the proposed G3 algorithm with augmented adaptive mutation operations.


Computer games are significant since they embody our youngsters' engagement with contemporary culture, including both play and education. These games rely heavily on visuals, systems of sign and expression based on concepts and principles of Art and Architecture. We are researching a new genre of computer games, 'Educational Immersive Environments' (EIEs) to provide educational materials suitable for the school classroom. Close collaboration with subject teachers is necessary, but we feel a specific need to engage with the practicing artist, the art theoretician and historian. Our EIEs are loaded with multimedia (but especially visual) signs which act to direct the learner and provide the 'game-play' experience forming semiotic systems. We suggest the hypothesis that computer games are a space of deconstruction and reconstruction (DeRe): When players enter the game their physical world and their culture is torn apart; they move in a semiotic system which serves to reconstruct an alternate reality where disbelief is suspended. The semiotic system draws heavily on visuals which direct the players' interactions and produce motivating gameplay. These can establish a reconstructed culture and emerging game narrative. We have recently tested our hypothesis and have used this in developing design principles for computer game designers. Yet there are outstanding issues concerning the nature of the visuals used in computer games, and so questions for contemporary artists.

Currently, the computer game industry employs artists in a 'classical' role in production of concept sketches, storyboards and 3D content. But this is based on a specification from the client which restricts the artist in intellectual freedom. Our DeRe hypothesis places the artist at the generative centre, to inform the game designer how art may inform our DeRe semiotic spaces. This must of course begin with the artists' understanding of DeRe in this time when our 'identities are becoming increasingly fractured, networked, virtualized and distributed'

We hope to persuade artists to engage with the medium of computer game technology to explore these issues. In particular, we pose several questions to the artist: (i) How can particular 'periods' in art history be used to inform the design of computer games? (ii) How can specific artistic elements or devices be used to design 'signs' to guide the player through the game? (iii) How can visual material be integrated with other semiotic strata such as text and audio?


Growing media are used in a broad range of applications, for which special consideration must be given to their physical and hydraulic character. Because they are relatively fragile, dominantly consisting of dried plant remnants, their preparation, processing, and handling before potting affect their properties. This is complicated by their subsidence and decomposition during use, which leads to a reduction of their initial bulk volume. Organic growing media show many similarities to Histosols because of the common botanical origin of some of their components. For both growing media and Histosols, classical concepts and values related to physical properties like air‐filled porosity, bulk density, available water, hydraulic conductivity, gas diffusivity, and field capacity need to be adapted to reflect distinct differences in their composition, structure, and stability compared with mineral soils. Their use in containers with a variety of shapes and sizes influences water and air storage and exchange as well. They can subside extensively as they undergo decomposition. They shrink. Hence, the range of values observed for the physical properties of organic media differs from those of mineral soils. The methods to be used for measuring such properties must be adapted to that specific context of use and to account for their fragile and dynamic nature. Finally, specific norms to guide substrate manufacturing and for diagnosis of plant growth problems have been derived specifically and should be used in such a situation.


For decades, the semiconductor industry has been steadily shrinking transistor sizes to fit more performance into a single silicon-based integrated chip. This technology has become the driving force for advances in education, transportation, and health, among others. However, transistor sizes are quickly approaching their physical limits (channel lengths are now only a few silicon atoms in length), and Moore's law will likely soon be brought to a stand-still despite many unique attempts to keep it going (FinFETs, high-k dielectrics, etc.). This technology must then be pushed further by exploring (almost) entirely new methodologies. Given the explosive growth of optical-based long-haul telecommunications, we look to apply the use of high-speed optics as a substitute to the digital model; where slow, lossy, and noisy metal interconnections act as a major bottleneck to performance. We combine the (nonlinear) optical Kerr effect with a single add-drop microring resonator to perform the fundamental AND-XOR logical operations of a half adder, by all-optical means. This process is also applied to subtraction, higher-order addition, and the realization of an all-optical arithmetic logic unit (ALU). The rings use hydrogenated amorphous silicon as a material with superior nonlinear properties to crystalline silicon, while still maintaining CMOS-compatibility and the many benefits that come with it (low cost, ease of fabrication, etc.). Our method allows for multi-gigabit-per-second data rates while maintaining simplicity and spatial minimalism in design for high-capacity manufacturing potential.


Justice Kennedy's concurrence in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District Number 1 raised an important and timely constitutional issue: whether the Constitution permits K-12 public school districts not under existing desegregation orders to use site selection of new schools or rezoning plans to achieve racial diversity. Numerous scholars and journalists have interpreted Justice Kennedy's concurrence as explicitly answering the question in the affirmative. This Note argues that the opposite is true. Justice Kennedy's past jurisprudence, as well as his language in Parents Involved, favors the use of strict scrutiny. Indeed, in Parents Involved, Justice Kennedy reveals his three principal concerns: classification of individuals by race, courts interfering with school districts in their daily functions, and the inappropriate use of strict scrutiny when school districts do not intend to affect students because of their race. This Note contends that all three of those concerns militate in favor of using strict scrutiny for rezoning and site selection plans. Such plans most likely will result in the classification of students by race, strict scrutiny of such plans will not prevent school districts from performing their daily functions, and courts may still implement a lower level of scrutiny when school districts do not intend to act based on race. School districts should, therefore, proceed with caution and ensure that any racially based rezoning or site selection plans they use are narrowly tailored to achieve the compelling interest of diversity.


LHCb is a high-precision experiment for the study of CP violation and rare decays in B physics. It has two Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) counters for particle identification. The RICH system uses Hybrid Photon Detectors (HPD) for single photon detection. This thesis describes tests performed on individual HPDs for quantum efficiency and vacuum quality. It then presents work done monitoring HPD vacuum quality through regular ion feedback measurements after they were mounted into the RICH. Also discussed is HPD vacuum degradation and how replacement and repair of deteriorated HPDs was implemented using data from the vacuum monitoring. Preparations for an upgrade to LHCb have started. The upgrade will extend the discovery potential of the LHCb by increasing the rate of data collection. This thesis presents particle identification and flavour tagging studies using upgrade simulations. Flavour tagging using kaons was then reoptimised for upgrade conditions and this work is described with discussions of the results.


Book synopsis: For the last half century, Mikulas Teich has made many eminent contributions to the histories of science, technology, medicine and society. His essentially Marxist historiographical stance has resisted the notion that science is an autonomous entity, and has instead stressed the interplay of the economic, the social and the scientific forces in history. At the same time, particularly in studies of biochemistry, he has emphasized the significance of the role of science and technology in modern economic change.
In a career divided between Czechoslovakia and the UK, he has always been highly internationalist in his historical outlooks, combining what is valuable in Contentinal and British methods.
This volume is to honour him on his eightieth birthday. Examining European developments since the sixteenth century, the essays, many by old friends and colleagues, cluster around themes close to his own personal scholarship and related to volumes which he has edited. The book is divided into sections on Questions of History; Scientific Lives; Disciplines; Natural History, and Science and Disease.


In this paper, we investigate the determinants of the Euro term structure of credit spreads. More specifically, we analyze whether the sensitivity of credit spread changes to financial and macroeconomic variables depends on bond characteristics such as rating and maturity. According to the structural models and empirical evidence on credit spreads, we find that changes in the level and the slope of the default-free term structure, the market return, implied volatility, and liquidity risk significantly influence credit spread changes. The effect of these factors strongly depends on bond characteristics, especially the rating and to a lesser extent the maturity. Bonds with lower ratings are more affected by financial and macroeconomic news. Furthermore, we find that liquidity risk significantly increases credit spreads, especially on lower rated bonds.


The radio as a vehicle of mass communication has undergone many changes over the years through the development of informatics and cybernetics. The process of digitization suffered by conventional broadcasters and the availability of its content on the Internet, produced the latest step in the recent history of media - the Web Radio. In turn, the education has been used in the new technological resources to produce educational programs multidisciplinary in several areas of knowledge and in different parts of the world. Therefore, the present educational-communicative paradigm requires a new way of thought about the pedagogic models and new intervention strategies in society, which are able to respond to contemporary educational and intervenient processes. In this sense, the radio has been a great ally for Education for over one hundred and fifty years, taking the information and knowledge to the most inhospitable places. Nowadays, with a web format, the radio makes available, in virtual space, an ample group of technological interfaces with an alternative and complementary environment of teaching-learning. Appears, therefore, learning through the Internet radio, providing the virtual space and a set of interfaces for technology that teachers can disseminate their scientific work, suggest readings, stimulate debate on issues related to discipline (forums discussion), information notes, reviews, interviews with local experts and invited, promotion of academic events (congresses, seminars, lectures, conferences or meetings), lessons in podcast, beyond the possibility of synchronous communication with the network, through email, blog, facebook, forum, messenger, chat, myspace, twitter and others. In this communication, we will make a reflection about the web radio, showing its present panorama as an educational-communicative media and highlighting the case study of the Rádio Universitária do Minho (RUM).


Blade Tip Timing (BTT) technology is concerned with the estimation of turbomachinery blade stress. The stress is determined from BTT data by relating the measured tip displacement to the stress via Finite Element (FE) models based on the sensing position. However, the correlation of BTT data with FE predictions involves a number of uncertainties. One of the main ones is the effective positions detected by sensors may deviate from their nominal position due to the blade deformation, which will yield deceptive calibration factors. To deal with this problem, a novel method based on the amplitude ratio and virtual displacement optimization under the distance constraints of sensors installed in different axial positions is proposed to determine the accuracy calibration factors and sensing positions. It realizes the identification of sensing positions without the information of static deformation, and overcomes the inapplicability of the corrected displacement to bending modes. Both synchronous and asynchronous vibrations of five typical vibration modes are discussed to illustrate the applicability of this method. The results show that this method has better performance than traditional method. The prediction errors of bending modes are reduced from 20~30% to 7%, and the maximum error of other modes is reduced from 72% to 23%. In addition, sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate the influence of vibration levels and mode shape inaccuracies. Results demonstrate the great potential of this method in vibration stress determination.


In this paper we extend and prove in detail the Finite Rank Theorem for connection matrices of graph parameters definable in Monadic Second Order Logic with counting (CMSOL) from B. Godlin, T. Kotek and J.A. Makowsky (2008) and J.A. Makowsky (2009). We demonstrate its vast applicability in simplifying known and new non-definability results of graph properties and finding new non-definability results for graph parameters. We also prove a Feferman-Vaught Theorem for the logic CFOL, First Order Logic with the modular counting quantifiers.


The objective of the research in this dissertation is to develop a software system to automatically detect and characterize solar flares, filaments and Corona Mass Ejections (CMEs), the core of so-called solar activity. These tools will assist us to predict space weather caused by violent solar activity. Image processing and pattern recognition techniques are applied to this system.
For automatic flare detection, the advanced pattern recognition techniques such as Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), Radial Basis Function (RBF), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) are used. By tracking the entire process of flares, the motion properties of two-ribbon flares are derived automatically. In the applications of the solar filament detection, the Stabilized Inverse Diffusion Equation (SIDE) is used to enhance and sharpen filaments; a new method for automatic threshold selection is proposed to extract filaments from background; an SVM classifier with nine input features is used to differentiate between sunspots and filaments. Once a filament is identified, morphological thinning, pruning, and adaptive edge linking methods are applied to determine filament properties. Furthermore, a filament matching method is proposed to detect filament disappearance. The automatic detection and characterization of flares and filaments have been successfully applied on Hα full-disk images that are continuously obtained at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). For automatically detecting and classifying CMEs, the image enhancement, segmentation, and pattern recognition techniques are applied to Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) C2 and C3 images.
The processed LASCO and BBSO images are saved to file archive, and the physical properties of detected solar features such as intensity and speed are recorded in our database. Researchers are able to access the solar feature database and analyze the solar data efficiently and effectively. The detection and characterization system greatly improves the ability to monitor the evolution of solar events and has potential to be used to predict the space weather.


Spectrum allocation and management is an ongoing process that will benefit from guidance by a set of fundamental technical principles. Historically, spectrum allocation has been an ad hoc, piecemeal system driven by the logic of the moment: in most cases, a commercial enterprise or government agency with a need requested an allocation, and if the regulator agreed, it allocated the best available fit from the inventory. In other cases, spectrum assignment has been initiated by the regulator itself, either to good effect or otherwise. The result of 80 years of ad hoc allocation is a system in which neighboring allocations sometimes pose tremendous burdens on each other, particularly in cases where high-power systems adjoin low-power ones. Such allocation errors give rise to intractable disputes over spectrum usage rights. Market dynamics are helpful, but not altogether sufficient to create a system of rational allocation as each player maximizes its own interests, which in the short term preserve inefficient allocations in the overall frequency map. A more rational system of spectrum assignment would respect the principles that are evident in the operation of actual high-demand, high-performance, and high-efficiency wireless networks and in the trajectory of near-term spectrum research and development. In brief, these principles are: 1. Upgrade and Repack: When upgrades to existing systems will free up spectrum for additional uses, as was the case in the DTV transition, require the upgrade and reassign the excess. 2. Strive for Sharing: Prefer assignments that serve multiple users, as general-purpose commercial networks do, over those for single users, as some government systems do. 3. Reward Application Flexibility: Prefer assignments that support a variety of applications over those that support a single application. 4. Optimize Dynamic Capacity Assignment: Prefer networks that allow capacity to be adjusted on demand to those that allocate capacity statically. 5. Permit Technology Upgrade Flexibility: Allow technology upgrades without permission and with a minimum of coordination. 6. Recognize Aggregation Efficiency: Prefer large allocations over small ones to minimize guardband losses. 7. Create Facilities-Based Competition: Allocate spectrum to multiple systems of the same general kind in order to create market competition and technical resiliency. 8. Reward High-Performance Receivers: Favor systems of high-performance receivers over those that can't tolerate common sources of RF noise, and penalize low-performance receivers. 9. Allocate in All Relevant Dimensions: Allocate "patches" of spectrum by frequency, power level, place, transmission direction, beam spread, modulation, coding, and time. 10. Promote New Technologies: Use rules modification and market transactions rather than exclusive allocation as a means of enabling future generations of spectrum technologies. These allocation principles flow from empirical knowledge of the nature of spectrum, the current state of the art in radio engineering, and the likely timeline of new developments in radio engineering. They are complemented by an analysis of research initiatives on spectrum utilization that may make the entire enterprise of spectrum allocation by regulators moot.


Bladder cancer is the fifth most common cancer in Western society, with the global burden predicted to increase significantly in the foreseeable future. Over 90% of these bladder cancers are transitional cell carcinomas of urothelial origin (urothelial carcinomas or UCs) and at presentation, over 70% will be non–muscle-invasive or stage Ta/T1 tumours, with the remainder being muscle-invasive or stages T2-4. Bladder UC is a highly heterogeneous disease: for the 50–55% of bladder cancer patients presenting with Ta tumours, recurrence is the main issue, but for the 20–25% of patients presenting with T1 tumours, progression is the main issue. Progression to, or presentation with, muscle-invasive disease represents the critical step for patients, necessitating more aggressive therapies and carrying significantly worse survival rates. We therefore urgently require detailed molecular insights into the pathogenesis of muscle-invasive bladder cancer so that the disease can be more adequately and appropriately treated at presentation, so that progression from stages Ta/T1 can be abrogated, and so that the risk of recurrence following treatment can be minimised. The recently identified bladder cancer stem cells are considered to be mediators of resistance to current therapies and therefore represent strong candidate biological targets. The aim of this review is to discuss the background and basic science of such cells, and the implications for current and future therapies.


We address the question of whether the trading of retail investors causes stock price anomalies. Our intent is to study settings in which retail investors are most likely to have influence on market prices. Previous research suggests that retail investors have more influence in small capitalization stocks, and argues that retail investors are most likely to be irrational. Most theories of stock price anomalies hypothesize the presence of irrational traders. Consequently, we focus on stock price anomalies in primarily small capitalization stocks. Our data are from the Australian Stock Exchange Clearinghouse. The Australian stock market is characterized by a high level of direct stock holdings by individual investors, further enhancing the likelihood of retail investors' influence. We investigate the Granger causality between investor category trading and stock prices, and display the relative trading volume of the investor categories. We conclude that retail investors are not responsible for stock mispricing. Since retail investors do not affect prices in this carefully selected environment, we infer that their trading is unlikely to influence stock market prices. Our conclusion has important implications for theories, particularly behavioral finance theories, that are dependent on the influence of retail investor trading in stock markets.


Dip-pen nanolithography (DPN), based on atomic force microscope (AFM) system, is an effective method for nanoscale science and engineering and the potential applications of DPN feature in the fields of nanomechanics, nanomaterials, nanobiotechnology and nanomedicine and combined dynamic mode DPN, rather than the often used contact mode DPN or the tapping mode DPN, becomes an important tool for the creation of nanodots with the direct writing method of depositing the ink onto the hard silicon surface at the predetermined position with a very high resolution, which is presented in the corresponding experiments. For a better nanolithography quality of the nanodot, the nanolithography process, under the optimised process parameters, is accomplished once without the intermediate scan imaging process as much as possible. In addition, the size of the nanodots subsequently decreases with the increase of the number of the nanodots in the case of the AFM tip dipping in ink once. Consequently, for the creation of a nanodot within the controllable mass, the measurement scheme about the deposition mass of ink, theoretically analysed and experimentally achieved in the aspect of quantification, is also proposed in this Letter.


Choroidal metastasis rarely reveals a primary cancer. At this stage, they are associated with multiple metastases. Adenoid cystic carcinoma also known as cylindroma is very rare and constitutes 1% of major and minor salivary glands malignancies. In the parotid gland, the ACC is relatively rare, constituting only 2–3% of all tumors. The purposes of this study are to report the first case of parotid gland adenoid cystic carcinoma metastatic to the choroid and discuss treatment approaches. The systemic prognosis of salivary gland ACC is poor, with frequent local recurrences and late distance metastases. Even though uncommon, ocular metastases should be considered, and plaque radiotherapy may be useful to treat these patients.


Abstract Background and aims Ibogaine is an indole alkaloid used in rituals of the African Bwiti tribe. It is also used in non‐medical settings to treat addiction. However, ibogaine has been linked to several deaths, mainly due to cardiac events called torsades des pointes preceded by QTc prolongation as well as other safety concerns. This study aimed to evaluate the cardiac, cerebellar and psychomimetic safety of ibogaine in patients with opioid use disorder. Design A descriptive open‐label observational study. Setting Department of psychiatry in a university medical center, the Netherlands. Participants Patients with opioid use disorder (n = 14) on opioid maintenance treatment with a lasting wish for abstinence, who failed to reach abstinence with standard care. Intervention and measurements After conversion to morphine‐sulphate, a single dose of ibogaine‐HCl 10 mg/kg was administered and patients were monitored at regular intervals for at least 24 hours assessing QTc, blood pressure and heart rate, scale for the assessment and rating of ataxia (SARA) to assess cerebellar side effects and the delirium observation scale (DOS) to assess psychomimetic effects. Findings The maximum QTc (Fridericia) prolongation was on average 95ms (range 29‐146ms). Fifty percent of subjects reached a QTc of over 500ms during the observation period. In six out 14 subjects prolongation above 450ms lasted beyond 24 hours after ingestion of ibogaine. No torsades des pointes were observed. Severe transient ataxia with inability to walk without support was seen in all patients. Withdrawal and psychomimetic effects were mostly well‐tolerated and manageable (11/14 did not return to morphine within 24 hours, DOS scores remained below threshold). Conclusions This open‐label observational study found that ibogaine treatment of patients with opioid use disorder can induce a clinically relevant but reversible QTc prolongation, bradycardia, and severe ataxia.


Common agricultural practices such as excessive use of agro-chemicals, deep tillage and luxury irrigation have degraded soils, polluted water resources and contaminated the atmosphere. There is increasing concern about interrelated environmental problems such as soil degradation, desertification, erosion, and accelerated greenhouse effects and climate change. The decline in organic matter content of many soils is becoming a major process of soil degradation, particularly in European semi-arid Mediterranean regions. Degraded soils are not fertile and thus cannot maintain sustainable production. At the same time, the production of urban and industrial organic waste materials is widespread. Therefore, strategies for recycling such organic waste in agriculture must be developed. Here, we review long-term experiments (3–60 years) on the effects of organic amendments used both for organic matter replenishment and to avoid the application of high levels of chemical fertilizers. The major points of our analysis are: (1) many effects, e.g. carbon sequestration in the soil and possible build-up of toxic elements, evolve slowly, so it is necessary to refer to long-term trials. (2) Repeated application of exogenous organic matter to cropland led to an improvement in soil biological functions. For instance, microbial biomass carbon increased by up to 100% using high-rate compost treatments, and enzymatic activity increased by 30% with sludge addition. (3) Long-lasting application of organic amendments increased organic carbon by up to 90% versus unfertilized soil, and up to 100% versus chemical fertilizer treatments. (4) Regular addition of organic residues, particularly the composted ones, increased soil physical fertility, mainly by improving aggregate stability and decreasing soil bulk density. (5) The best agronomic performance of compost is often obtained with the highest rates and frequency of applications. Furthermore, applying these strategies, there were additional beneficial effects such as the slow release of nitrogen fertilizer. (6) Crop yield increased by up to 250% by long-term applications of high rates of municipal solid waste compost. Stabilized organic amendments do not reduce the crop yield quality, but improve it. (7) Organic amendments play a positive role in climate change mitigation by soil carbon sequestration, the size of which is dependent on their type, the rates and the frequency of application. (8) There is no tangible evidence demonstrating negative impacts of heavy metals applied to soil, particularly when high-quality compost was used for long periods. (9) Repeated application of composted materials enhances soil organic nitrogen content by up to 90%, storing it for mineralization in future cropping seasons, often without inducing nitrate leaching to groundwater.


Most numerical applications using arrays require extensive program transformation in order to perform well on current machine architectures with deep memory hierarchies. These transformations ensure that an execution of the application exploits data-locality and uses the caches more effectively.
The problem of exploiting data-locality is well understood only for a small class of applications—for programs in which all statements are present in the innermost loop of a loop-nest (called perfectly-nested loops). For such programs, statement instances can be mapped to an integer lattice (called the iteration space), and important transformations can be modelled as unimodular transformations of the iteration space. This framework has permitted the systematic application of transformations like loop-permutation, skewing and tiling in order to enhance locality in perfectly-nested loops.
In dealing with programs that do not fall into this category, current compilers resort to ad-hoc techniques to find the right sequence of transformations. For some important benchmarks, no technique is known that will discover the right sequence of transformations. In my thesis, I propose a technique that extends the framework for perfectly-nested loops to general programs. The key idea is to embed the iteration space of every statement in the program into a special iteration space called the product space. The product space can be viewed as a perfectly-nested loop nest, so this embedding generalizes techniques like code sinking and loop fusion that are used in ad hoc ways in current compilers to produce perfectly-nested loops from imperfectly-nested ones. In contrast to these ad hoc techniques however, embeddings are chosen carefully to enhance locality. The product space is then transformed further using unimodular transformations, after which fully permutable loops are tiled, and code is generated. Code can also be generated to emulate block-recursive versions of the original program. I demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach for dense numerical linear algebra benchmarks, relaxation codes, and the tomcatv code from the SPECfp95 benchmark suite.


Research data paid for by public funds should be available to the public as openly as possible, whilst protecting the rights of the originating researcher. To enable this data must be managed appropriately throughout its lifecycle. Awareness of this need continues to grow, as evidenced by the introduction of Research Council policies such as the EPSRC Policy Framework on Research Data (EPSRC, 2011). JISC has funded a series of projects through its Managing Research Data strand to develop and share the technologies, policies and new ways of working required to meet these funder requirements. The authors' project is one such project, aiming to develop infrastructure for data management at the Authors' University (Authors, 2011). Open data provides a resource for learning that can be exploited by students for practical work and project dissertations, enabling development of skills including critical evaluation and navigation of data repositories (Conole, 2006; Lyon, 2003). To facilitate this, learning technologists must develop an understanding of the research data management process. This workshop will explore how research data can be exploited for learning and teaching in Further and Higher Education, addressing the following questions: What is research data? How can data be exploited for teaching and learning? Where can I find suitable data? What license applies to the data and how do I comply? What contextual information is needed to make effective use of data? The session will start with a brief introduction (10-15 minutes) to the area of research data management and related issues, such as attitudes towards openness and technology, many of which will be familiar to those in the e-learning community. Participants will then examine a set of data resources and discuss how they might be used for teaching and what issues may arise in doing so (30-40 minutes). Participants will find it easier to explore the resources fully if they have access to a laptop and wireless network. This symposium is aimed at learning technologists and teachers in HE and FE interested in e-research in general and research data management in particular. Participants will gain an understanding of the purpose and challenges of research data management and its relevance to learning and teaching.


The study of the robust features of the magnetosphere is motivated both by new " whole system " approaches, and by the idea of " space climate " as opposed to " space weather ". We enumerate these features for the AE index, and discuss whether self-organised criticality (SOC) is the most natural explanation of the " stylised facts " so far known for AE. We identify and discuss some open questions, answers to which will clarify the extent to which AE's properties provide evidence for SOC. We then suggest an SOC-like reconnection-based scenario drawing on the result of Craig (2001) as an explanation of the very recent demonstration by Uritsky et al. (2001b) of power laws in several properties of spatiotemporal features seen in auroral images.


We introduce a simple new model of sequential search among finitely many options that fits many economic applications. Each payoff is the sum of a random "known factor" and a "hidden factor", learned at cost. Weitzman (1979) solved the ex post Pandora's box problem, given known factors. Ours is the ex ante model for estimation, unconditional on known factors, and so resolves major selection effects.

1. Search intensifies over time, as one increasingly exercises the current option, recalls a prior one, or quits. If one recalls, earlier options are recalled more often.

2. We solve a long open question in all search models: which stochastic changes lead one to search longer? Answer: more dispersed payoffs.

3. The stationary search model poorly approximates search with many options: If the known factor density lacks a thin tail (eg. exponential), the recall chance is boundedly positive with vastly many options.

4. Search lasts longer with more options. Hence, if low search frictions increase worker applicant pools of firms, vacancy duration increases.


Beef is nearly twice as expensive in Indonesia as in the international market. This creates a
massive challenge for around 28 million poor people in the country and contributes to Indonesia's
low beef consumption compared to its neighbors, including the Philippines, Malaysia, and
Vietnam. Low beef consumption in turn contributes to the fact that around 29% of children under
the age of five in Indonesia suffer from chronic malnutrition
The government claims that domestic supply is able to meet most of the demand for beef, but it is
expensive due to a long and complicated distribution process. They argue that the solution to high
beef prices is to shorten the distribution process by making government agencies responsible
for most distribution and imposing a nationwide price ceiling for consumers. However, this
centralized approach is difficult to implement. Carrying out distribution alone would drain the
government's budget, costing nearly IDR 713 billion (USD 52.8 million) to cover the complicated
transportation needed to reach the Indonesian archipelago. If the government instead leaves
distribution to retailers, then retailers will be left unable to comply with the price ceiling if they
are to cover production and transportation costs, which would make the ceiling ineffective.
A better alternative is relying more on imported beef. Imported beef has a much shorter
distribution chain, and beef in the international market is nearly half the price of domestic beef
in Indonesia. Imported beef would provide consumers with more affordable supply as domestic
beef retailers struggle to comply with the price ceiling. Therefore, we recommend four regulatory
policy changes.
First, the government should remove Regulation of the Minister of Trade (MOT) 27/2017, which
imposes a price ceiling on beef, and instead use international trade to lower consumer prices.
Second, the government should revise MOT 59/2016 Article 10 (1) and Article 11, which results
in a long import licensing process that takes more than 30 working days to complete. This
procedure must be simplified and shortened, and import licensing should focus on the speedy
and reasonable processes of identification and quality checks. Third, the government should
revise MOT 59/2016 Article 9 (1 and 2), which allows beef from countries that are not entirely free
of animal diseases to be imported only by state-owned enterprises. As stipulated in Indonesia's
agreements with the World Trade Organization (WTO), all qualified beef importers, private or
state-owned, must have the same opportunities to import beef into the country. Fourth, the
government should remove MOT 59/2016 Article 19, which forbids imported beef in traditional
markets. A large majority (70.5%) of markets in Indonesia are traditional markets, so this
regulation hampers the ability to access imported beef. Allowing imported beef into traditional
markets will ensure a more reliable beef supply because it will come from various sources. This
will help beef prices stay competitive and eventually benefit consumers.