Efficient and automated design of optimizers plays a crucial role in full-stack AutoML systems. However, prior methods in optimizer search are often limited by their scalability, generability, or sample efficiency. With the goal of democratizing research and application of optimizer search, we present the first efficient, scalable and generalizable framework that can directly search on the tasks of interest. We first observe that optimizer updates are fundamentally mathematical expressions applied to the gradient. Inspired by the innate tree structure of the underlying math expressions, we re-arrange the space of optimizers into a super-tree, where each path encodes an optimizer. This way, optimizer search can be naturally formulated as a path-finding problem, allowing a variety of well-established tree traversal methods to be used as the search algorithm. We adopt an adaptation of the Monte Carlo method to tree search, equipped with rejection sampling and equivalent-form detection that leverage the characteristics of optimizer update rules to further boost the sample efficiency. We provide a diverse set of tasks to benchmark our algorithm and demonstrate that, with only 128 evaluations, the proposed framework can discover optimizers that surpass both human-designed counterparts and prior optimizer search methods.


As cooling cost is a significant portion of the total operating cost of supercomputers, improving the efficiency of the cooling mechanisms can significantly reduce the cost. Two sources of cooling inefficiency in existing computing systems are discussed in this paper: temperature variations, and reactive fan speed control. To address these problems, we propose a learning-based approach using a neural network model to accurately predict core temperatures, a preemptive fan control mechanism, and a thermal-aware load balancing algorithm that uses the temperature prediction model. We demonstrate that temperature variations among cores can be reduced from 9°C to 2°C, and that peak fan power can be reduced by 61%. These savings are realized with minimal performance degradation.


Controversy exists regarding the biological effectiveness of low energy x-rays used for mammography breast screening. Recent radiobiology studies have provided compelling evidence that these low energy x-rays may be 4.42 ± 2.02 times more effective in causing mutational damage than higher energy x-rays. These data include a study involving in vitro irradiation of a human cell line using a mammography x-ray source and a high energy source which matches the spectrum of radiation observed in survivors from the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Current radiation risk estimates rely heavily on data from the atomic bomb survivors, and a direct comparison between the diagnostic energies used in the UK breast screening programme and those used for risk estimates can now be made. Evidence highlighting the increase in relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of mammography x-rays to a range of x-ray energies implies that the risks of radiation-induced breast cancers for mammography x-rays are potentially underestimated by a factor of four. A pooled analysis of three measurements gives a maximal RBE (for malignant transformation of human cells in vitro) of 4.02 ± 0.72 for 29 kVp (peak accelerating voltage) x-rays compared to high energy electrons and higher energy x-rays. For the majority of women in the UK NHS breast screening programme, it is shown that the benefit safely exceeds the risk of possible cancer induction even when this higher biological effectiveness factor is applied. The risk/benefit analysis, however, implies the need for caution for women screened under the age of 50, and particularly for those with a family history (and therefore a likely genetic susceptibility) of breast cancer. In vitro radiobiological data are generally acquired at high doses, and there are different extrapolation mechanisms to the low doses seen clinically. Recent low dose in vitro data have indicated a potential suppressive effect at very low dose rates and doses. Whilst mammography is a low dose exposure, it is not a low dose rate examination, and protraction of dose should not be confused with fractionation. Although there is potential for a suppressive effect at low doses, recent epidemiological data, and several international radiation risk assessments, continue to promote the linear no-threshold (LNT) model. Finally, recent studies have shown that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is more sensitive than mammography in detecting invasive breast cancer in women with a genetic sensitivity. Since an increase in the risk associated with mammographic screening would blur the justification of exposure for this high risk subgroup, the use of other (non-ionising) screening modalities is preferable.


The construction of accurate predictive models over sequence data is of fundamental importance in the pursuit of developing artificial agents that are capable of (near)-optimal sequential decision-making in disparate environments. If such predictive models are available, they can be exploited by decision-making agents, allowing them to reason about the future dynamics of a system. Constructing models with sufficient predictive capacity, however, is a difficult task. Under the standard maximum likelihood criterion, these models tend to have non-convex learning objectives, and heuristics such as expectation-maximization suffer from high computational overhead. In contrast, an alternative statistical objective, the so-called method of moments, leads to convex optimizations that are often efficiently solvable via spectral decompositions. This work further improves upon the scalability, efficiency, and accuracy of this moment-based framework by employing techniques from the field of compressed sensing. Specifically, random projections of high-dimensional data are used during learning to (1) provide computational efficiency and (2) regularize the learned predictive models. Both theoretical analyses, outlining an explicit bias-variance trade-off, and experiments, demonstrating the superior empirical performance of the novel algorithm (e.g., compared to uncompressed moment-methods), are provided. Going further, this work introduces a sequential decision-making framework which exploits these compressed learned models. Experiments demonstrate that the combination of the compressed model learning algorithm and this decision-making framework allows for agents to successfully plan in massive, complex environments without prior knowledge.


To continue to improve processor performance, microarchitects seek to increase the effective instruction level parallelism (ILP) that can be exploited in applications. A fundamental limit to improving ILP is data dependences among instructions. If data dependence information is available at run-time, there are many uses to improve ILP. Prior published examples include decoupled branch execution architectures and critical instruction detection. In this paper, we describe an efficient hardware mechanism to dynamically track the data dependence chains of the instructions in the pipeline. This information is available on a cycle-by-cycle basis to the microengine for optimizing its performance. We then use this design in a new value-based branch prediction design using available register value information (ARVI). From the use of data dependence information, the ARVI branch predictor has better prediction accuracy over a comparably sized hybrid branch predictor With ARVI used as the second-level branch predictor the improved prediction accuracy results in a 12.6% performance improvement on average across the SPEC95 integer benchmark suite.


MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs that mediate the repression of target transcripts in plants and animals. Although miRNAs are required throughout plant development, relatively little is known regarding their embryonic functions. To systematically characterize embryonic miRNAs in Arabidopsis thaliana, we developed or applied high-throughput sequencing based methods to profile hundreds of miRNAs and associated targets throughout embryogenesis. We discovered dozens of miRNAs that dynamically cleave and repress target transcripts including 30 that encode transcription factors. Transcriptome analyses indicated that these miRNA:target interactions have a profound impact on embryonic gene expression programs, and we further demonstrated that the miRNA-mediated repression of six transcription factors were individually required for embryo morphogenesis. These data indicate that the miRNA-directed repression of multiple transcription factors is critically important for the establishment of the plant body plan, and provide a foundation to further investigate how miRNAs contribute to these initial cellular differentiation events.


This article discusses strategies of constructing masculinity among German school boys and shows the close interrelation of social status, social and symbolic value, and the success or failure of playing with male gender orders. It highlights the important role of the body in these processes. Based on data from ethnographical research the article shows that the body is an actor as well as tar get in the subordination strategies, which often includes the feminisation of other boys.


Violence against girls and women is a global issue that must be addressed at its core for societies to progress. Often rooted in the low status of girls and women in the family and society the violence can manifest itself in various forms. In Egypt sexual harassment in public places is rampant and domestic violence remains an intractable problem. The vast majority of Egyptian girls undergo female genital cutting and many are married before age 18 even though both practices are prohibited under the law. While the harassment of women in public places has received national attention in recent years domestic abuse remains largely hidden from view and mostly untouched by policies and programs. Traditionally Egyptian culture like other Arab cultures has stressed the regulation of female behavior and has viewed men as responsible for protecting family honor by imposing control over their female family members. As a result domestic violence is often seen as a family matter rather than a societal problem. This policy brief examines: Research on the prevalence of violence against women in Egypt Recent national-level and grassroots efforts to prevent violence against women taking shape in Egypt The role of health care systems in supporting Egyptian women who have experienced domestic violence The broad multisectoral efforts needed for Egypt to eliminate all forms of violence against women in public and in private while helping survivors and The importance of building a knowledge base to inform policies and programs. This report argues that for lasting change to occur the government and civil society organizations must forge alliances to change the nation's attitudes toward gender-based violence and meet the needs of survivors by working with families the police the judiciary and health professionals in primary care settings and emergency rooms.


Ad-sponsored online video programs currently use a range of commercial loading that varies from exactly the same, compared with broadcast and cable networks, to very much lower. This paper provides empirical evidence about the effects of different levels of commercial loading in online video on perceptions of ad intrusiveness and ad effectiveness, and uses skin conductance to directly observe the potentially enhancing effects of commercial disruption on arousal during the program. The results show that one ad per break maximizes both this disruptive effect and ad recall. As predicted by Nelson, Meyvis, and Galak (2009), popular prime-time television shows do not evoke a decrease in arousal over time and are not enhanced by commercial disruption.


Non-centrosymmetric crystals -especially polar materials -are capable of producing electric current in response to uniform illumination. This is called the bulk photovoltaic effect (BPVE), which we show can be identified with ``shift current'' theory. Shift currents exhibit unique physics, which are discussed and clarified. A discrete form of the expression required for numerical implementation is derived that allows for robust and efficient calculation from first-principles calculations. The response for BaTiO3 and BiFeO3 is calculated and found to agree well with experiment, and careful analysis of the computed response reveals how the magnitude depends on structural and chemical properties, providing criteria for the search for and design of materials with large response. Additionally, the unique properties of shift currents allow for pure spin photocurrents in antiferromagnets with appropriate symmetry. We predict that these spin currents can be observed in BiFeO3 and hematite (Fe2O3), and calculate the expected response. Topological insulators are a class of materials that are bulk insulators with metallic surface states that take the form of helical Dirac cones protected by time-reversal symmetry. Here we explore phenomena that occur near or at the transition between the trivial and topological insulating phase. In Bi2Se3, the relationship between the topological gap and material strain is investigated and used to explore the topological phase transition. At the critical strain, there exists a bulk 3D Dirac point that is analogous to the 2D Dirac points in graphene, and may be expected to exhibit similar properties. However, this 3D Dirac point is not robust and can be easily gapped by perturbations. We propose that a 3D Dirac point marking a topological phase transition may be protected by spatial symmetries, and outline the constraints under which symmetry groups may contain materials with such points. Based on first principles calculations, we propose BiO2 in the β-cristobalite structure as a metastable 3D Dirac semimetal. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Chemistry First Advisor Andrew M. Rappe This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/725


ABSTRACT We have written this article both to honour a form of educational practice and to invite debate in the field of Human Resource Development (HRD). We begin with the observation that a number of postgraduate programmes in the UK whose pedagogies were characterized by inquiry-based, action-oriented experiential learning, which were thriving when Human Resource Development International (HRDI) was first developed, have now closed. These programmes enacted HRD as an approach to adult learning and teaching through educational practices mirroring the topics explored. As authors with some 40 or more years' combined experience as staff on such programmes, we aim first to set on record the nature and significance of the pedagogical approaches involved, which participants often experienced as transformational. We then consider how the changing climate of UK higher education, reflected in mechanisms like the Research Excellence Framework, may have influenced the demise of such programmes. The paper reflects on the significance of the pedagogies, outlines potential implications of their demise for the practice and scholarship of HRD as a field internationally, and considers the role that HRDI, as a leading journal in the field, might play in addressing the paper's concerns.


Polyampholytes, which contain both positive and negative charges along the backbone, represent a classical model system for certain types of 'intrinsically-disordered proteins' (IDPs). IDPs can possess biological functionality, even in an unfolded state, including the formation of phase-separated regions within a cell; while driven by a number of interactions, electrostatic attractions are thought to be key to forming these structures. This process of electrostatically-driven liquid–liquid phase separation, known as 'complex coacervation', can also be observed in simpler polymer or biopolymer systems. In this paper, we use a series of model polyampholytic polypeptides of increasing blockiness, that undergo 'self-coacervation' due to charge attraction between polycation and polyanion blocks along the same polymer chain. We show that these polypeptides undergo complex coacervation when sequences have at least 8–12 adjacent like-charges, with increasing blockiness leading to a larger two-phase region. We simultaneously develop a theory built on the transfer-matrix formalism developed by the authors, to show how blockiness increases the strength of electrostatic interactions and subsequently promote phase separation. We explore a tradeoff that emerges due to the presence of 'charge-pattern interfaces' where the sequence of polyampholyte charges switches sign, and how these contrast with chain-ends in equivalent homopolyelectrolyte coacervates.


We examine how immigrants in Canada fare in terms of promotions relative to their native peers. Using linked employer-employee data and firm effects, we identify the extent to which differences in promotion outcomes result from immigrants sorting into firms offering "dead-end" jobs versus facing intra-firm barriers to advancement. We find that while white immigrants experience broadly similar promotion outcomes relative to their white native peers, visible minority immigrants – particularly those in their first five years in Canada – are substantially less likely to have been promoted and have been promoted fewer times with their employers than their white native peers. Newly arrived female visible minority immigrants sort into firms offering "dead end" jobs, but most of the differences in promotion outcomes between immigrants and their native peers result from intra-firm differences in promotion outcomes. The findings imply that policies that do not tackle barriers to advancement within firms may be insufficient to address the difficulties faced by immigrants in the labor force.


This article reviews recent remote interpreting (RI) experiments carried out at the United Nations and European Union institutions, with emphasis on their salient technical features, which are also summarized in the Appendix. Motivations for remote interpreting with minimum technical requirements for sound and image transmission in compressed form as well as the methods used in recent experiments for image capture in the meeting room and display in the remote room are discussed. The impact of technical conditions upon interpreters' perception of remote interpreting is also examined using questionnaire data, which seem to suggest that the interpreters' visual perception of the meeting room, as mediated by image displays, is the determining factor for the "alienation" or absence of a feeling of presence in the meeting room universally experienced by interpreters under RI conditions. The paper also points out the advantages of a more coherent research methodology based upon the notion of presence in a virtual environment as well as possible innovative approaches to providing the interpreter with meeting room views.


Molecular analysis of genes related to androgens, their metabolism, and the regulation of inflammatory processes may be essential for the research on the causes of benign prostatic hyperplasia. The knowledge of the gene polymorphisms involved in the etiology of prostatic hyperplasia may be useful in screening for the risk of disease, and help understand complex interactions associated with its genesis and progression. The literature of the subject does not provide explicit data on important genetic markers of benign prostatic hyperplasia. However, numerous scientific publications suggest a marginal relationship between polymorphisms and the risk and symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia. Therefore, it is so essential to find molecular markers related to prostatic hyperplasia in big populations.


A nontargeted plasma metabolomic analysis was conducted to compare differentially expressed metabolites in women with and without fibromyalgia (FM) using data and samples collected from two parent studies in women with FM (n = 20) and comparative data collected from newly recruited age‐matched women (n = 20). Blood plasma samples were analyzed for metabolite content using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. Consolidation of positive and negative ion mode metabolomics data with fold change (>2 or <0.5) and variable importance of projection scores ≥1 revealed statistically significant metabolites comparing samples from women with and without FM. Metabolite profiles in patients with FM differed from the comparison group in energy, lipid and amino acid metabolites reflecting heightened oxidative stress, inflammation, and tryptophan degradation in patients with FM. Study results may contribute to further identification of unique metabolomic profiles enhancing understanding of the pathophysiology of FM and for the development of effective therapeutic options.


The recent literature provide compelling evidence of the existence of a significant added worker effect (AWE) - wives increase their labour supply in response to the job displacement of their husbands. However, little is known about the heterogeneity of the effect. I study the variation in the AWE depending on the reasons for the wife's inactivity, and on the husband's employment contract type. I find that the responses of discouraged women to the job displacement of their husbands were three times as strong as the responses of those women, who were inactive for reasons of health and family. This finding suggests that discouraged people are highly responsive to the income shocks that occur within a household. In addition, I find that the size of the AWE also depends on the type of employment contract the husband had. The results suggest that high employment protection reduces the wife's incentives to join the labour force after her husband's job displacement.


Despite recent reports suggesting that access to improved sources of drinking water is rising in Ghana, water access remains a daily concern for many of those living in the capital region. Throughout the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA), the urban poor manage uncertainty and establish themselves in the city by leveraging a patchwork system of basic services that draws importantly from informal systems and supplies. This paper takes a case study approach, using evidence gathered from two-months of fieldwork in a peri-urban informal settlement on the fringe of Accra, to explore everyday practices involved in procuring water for daily needs that routinely lead residents outside of the official water supply system. Findings from this case study demonstrate that respondents make use of informal water services to supplement or 'patch up' gaps left by the sporadic water flow of the official service provider, currently Ghana Water Company Ltd. (GWCL). Basic water access is thus constructed through an assemblage of coping strategies and infrastructures. This analysis contributes to understandings of heterogeneity in water access by attending to the everyday practices by which informality is operationalised to meet the needs of the urban poor, in ways that may have previously been overshadowed. This research suggests, for example, that although water priced outside of the official service provider is generally higher per unit, greater security may be obtained from smaller repetitive transactions as well as having the flexibility to pursue multiple sources of water on a day-to-day basis.


In a modified Twyman-Green interferometer, the optical path variation is measured with the heterodyne central fringe identification technique, as the light beam is focused by a displaced microscopic objective on the front/rear surface of the test transparent plate. The optical path length variation is then measured similarly after the test plate is removed. The geometrical thickness of the test plate can be calculated under the consideration of dispersion effect. This method has a wide measurable range and a high accuracy in the measurable range.


The research examines interaction between unacquainted teachers and students of English as a foreign language in the conversation lounge of a private university in Japan. It draws its primary data from an assigned task in which students were asked to make conversation with on-duty teachers. Such institutionalized conversation practice, or 'conversation-for-learning' (Kasper 2004), is problematized in the thesis of research, as it is taken to paradoxically blend elements of institutionality with the interpersonal goals of conversation making. Focussing on the role of the teacher, the research aims to illustrate the way in which such tensions are resolved at the level of self construction in the supposedly conversational event. In the Japanese context of English language learning, the 'native speaking' teacher may often be portrayed as the authentic embodiment of an Anglophone culture. It is here argued that the problematics of such 'authenticity' are compounded by the staged normativity of conversation-for-learning, in which the teachers appear to be 'playing' themselves to a heightened degree of reflexivity. The self is thus seen to be interactionally emergent in a dialectic of conversationality and institutionality. In the current setting of the research, the 'English-only' policy and official recommendation that students pre-select a topic of interaction prior to approaching a teacher present two significant elements of institutionality which are explored through discourse analysis. The participants' negotiation of topic and expertise further provides an interactional means of analyzing the interpersonal and intercultural facets of self construction in the first-time educational encounters. In addition, the research draws on ethnographic methods of data generation, as it seeks to qualitatively ground the interactional events in the voiced experience of the participants. The thesis concludes with some suggestions which may help both teachers and students to overcome the challenges of non-acquaintanceship and constraints of institutionality to the pursuit of conversation-for-learning.


The core used to build power inductors and transformers are soft magnetic materials. When there is alternating external field, the magnetic moments rotate and consume energy, which is the core loss. The core loss depends on the AC flux frequency, amplitude, waveform, DC bias and temperature. These dependences are nonlinear and difficult to predict. How to measure, model and analyze the core loss is a challenge for decades. In this dissertation, two new core loss measurement methods are introduced first. These two methods use the reactive cancellation concept to reduce the sensitivity to phase discrepancy, which will destroy the accuracy in classic two-winding method for high frequency high quality factor sample measurements. By using the new measurement techniques the accuracy can be improved by several orders. The first is for sinusoidal waveforms, and the second is for non-sinusoidal wave. The new methods enable high frequency core loss characterization capability, which will help scientists and engineers on material research and inductor/transformer design. Measurement examples, considerations and error analysis are demonstrated and discussed in detail. With the measurement techniques, the core loss under rectangular AC voltage and DC bias current are investigated. A new core loss model named rectangular extension Steinmetz equation (RESE) is proposed based on the measurement results. The new iii model is shown to be more accurate than the existing core loss models. Several commercially available MnZn ferrites are characterized and modeled. Other than conventional MnZn ferrite materials, three commercial LTCC ferrite materials are characterized for integrated power supply applications. Based on characterized properties of these LTCCs, a group of new LTCC ferrites are fabricated and tested. The new LTCC is fabricated by laminating commercial LTCC tapes and co-firing. The new LTCC is demonstrated to have over 50% more inductance over the commercial LTCC materials. This work indicates that the power electronics engineers should work with material engineers to get the optimum material for a given application. In the last part, the core loss of the partially saturated lateral flux planar inductor is analyzed. The challenge of the analysis is the complexity of the distribution of bias field and flux density in a highly biased planar inductor. Each point in the core is working at different excitation and bias condition, and the core loss density is very non-uniform. The proposed method combines the characterization tested in previous chapters and the commercial finite element tool. Experiments verified that the calculation errors are within about 10%. In conclusion, the research in this dissertation proposed a complete solution to measure, model and analyze the high frequency core loss. This solution will not only facilitate fundamental research on physics understanding and material innovation, but also development of power electronics and RF applications.


One of the major scientific goals of SmartKom is to design a new human-machine interaction metaphor fo ra multimodal dialog system that combines speech, gesture, and mimics input with speech, gesture and graphics output. The system behavior is based on the new situated delegation-oriented dialog paradigm (SDDP) in the sense that a communication assistant, realized as an animated life-like character, serves as the communication partner of th eu ser. Inthis pape rw e focus on the multimodal output of SmartKom, showing how these highly ambitious tasks of the SmartKom system are managed and realized on the output side, i.e., how the communication assistant adapts its behavior to the available output media and modalities with respect to the current dialog situation.


Computer-aided pathology diagnosis based on the classification of Whole Slide Image (WSI) plays an important role in clinical practice, and it is often formulated as a weakly-supervised Multiple Instance Learning (MIL) problem. Existing methods solve this problem from either a bag classification or an instance classification perspective. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end weakly supervised knowledge distillation framework (WENO) for WSI classification, which integrates a bag classifier and an instance classifier in a knowledge distillation framework to mutually improve the performance of both classifiers. Specifically, an attention-based bag classifier is used as the teacher network, which is trained with weak bag labels, and an instance classifier is used as the student network, which is trained using the normalized attention scores obtained from the teacher network as soft pseudo labels for the instances in positive bags. An instance feature extractor is shared between the teacher and the student to further enhance the knowledge exchange between them. In addition, we propose a hard positive instance mining strategy based on the output of the student network to force the teacher network to keep mining hard positive instances. WENO is a plug-and-play framework that can be easily applied to any existing attention-based bag classification methods. Extensive experiments on five datasets demonstrate the efficiency of WENO. Code is available at https://github.com/miccaiif/WENO.


A majority of 18–55-year-old women who visited an emergency department were at risk of pregnancy, and only a quarter of these patients were currently using birth control pills, according to a recent study at an urban hospital in Rhode Island. Patients were more likely to use birth control pills if they had private health insurance than if they had public or no insurance, andweremore likely to do so if they had had recent intercourse than if they had not. The likelihood of using oral contraceptives declined as women's age increased. Furthermore, women who had had an abortion and those who were more informed about emergency contraception were more likely to use emergency contraceptives than were those who had never had an abortion and those who knew less about this contraceptive method, respectively. The researchers believe that women who might benefit from reproductive health interventions in emergency departments can be identified and thus offered appropriate referrals or contraceptive services. The investigators examined women's use of and knowledge about birth control pills, emergency contraceptives and condoms, and their risk of getting pregnant, in an effort to improve the reproductive health services available to emergency department patients. (The few studies that have assessed the effectiveness of such interventions in emergency departments, the researchers observe, have been limited to emergency contraception.) The sample included 539 Englishspeaking women aged 18–55 who visited an urban emergency department in 2002– 2003; they answered questions on their demographic characteristics, sexual and pregnancy history, and contraceptive use and knowledge. Characteristics showing a statistical association with contraceptive use at p<.05 in univariate analyses were included in multivariate analyses. In all, 59% of the women were at risk of pregnancy (not currently pregnant, not using a nonsurgical form of birth control other than condoms, and having no history of tubal ligation or hysterectomy). Of these women, 76% were aged 18–35, 63% were white, 52% were single, 49% were Catholic and 63% had private health insurance. Twenty-six percent were currently using birth control pills, 10% had used emergency contraceptives and none were using other methods besides condoms; 23% had had an abortion. Nearly half reported having had intercourse in the week prior to the survey; 18% said they always used condoms, and 39% said they never did. Nearly six in 10 women who were at risk of pregnancy had ever been pregnant. Levels of contraceptive knowledge among women at risk of pregnancy were high: Eighty-nine percent of these women correctly answered all three questions asked about birth control pills (who should take them, why and how often), and 93% correctly answered the same questions about condoms. In contrast, only 32% correctly answered the question on emergencycontraception—''If a woman has had vaginal sexual intercourse with a man (without using birth control), can she take birth control pills afterwards to prevent pregnancy?'' Fewer than one in 10 women at risk of pregnancy believed that birth control pills cause abortions or conflict with their moral or religious beliefs. In multivariate analyses involving women whowere at risk of pregnancy, the likelihood of using oral contraceptives fell as women's age rose (odds ratio, 0.5), while the likelihoodwas higher amongwomenwith private insurance than among those with public or no insurance (2.5), and among those reporting intercourse in the last week than among those who had not had intercourse recently (1.6). Women who had had an abortion had elevated odds of having used emergency contraceptives (2.6), as did women who had correctly answered the question on this method (3.2). Among all 500 patients who had had sexual intercourse, regardless of their current pregnancy risk status, the odds of reporting more frequent use of condoms declined with increasing age (0.6), and were reduced among married women and others with a male sexual partner (0.4), and among those who had had recent intercourse (0.8). The researchers believe that because a large proportion of women who visit


This volume contains the proceedings of an NSF-CBMS Conference held at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, May 18-22, 2009. The papers, written especially for this volume by well-known mathematicians and mathematical physicists, are an outgrowth of the talks presented at the conference. Topics examined are highly interdisciplinary and include, among many other things, recent results on D-brane charges in $K$-homology and twisted $K$-homology, Yang-Mills gauge theory and connections with non-commutative geometry, Landau-Ginzburg models, $C^*$-algebraic non-commutative geometry and ties to quantum physics and topology, the rational homotopy type of the group of unitary elements in an Azumaya algebra, and functoriality properties in the theory of $C^*$-crossed products and fixed point algebras for proper actions. An introduction, written by Jonathan Rosenberg, provides an instructive overview describing common themes and how the various papers in the volume are interrelated and fit together. The rich diversity of papers appearing in the volume demonstrates the current interplay between superstring theory, geometry/topology, and non-commutative geometry. The book will be of interest to graduate students, mathematicians, mathematical physicists, and researchers working in these areas.|This volume contains the proceedings of an NSF-CBMS Conference held at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, May 18-22, 2009. The papers, written especially for this volume by well-known mathematicians and mathematical physicists, are an outgrowth of the talks presented at the conference. Topics examined are highly interdisciplinary and include, among many other things, recent results on D-brane charges in $K$-homology and twisted $K$-homology, Yang-Mills gauge theory and connections with non-commutative geometry, Landau-Ginzburg models, $C^*$-algebraic non-commutative geometry and ties to quantum physics and topology, the rational homotopy type of the group of unitary elements in an Azumaya algebra, and functoriality properties in the theory of $C^*$-crossed products and fixed point algebras for proper actions. An introduction, written by Jonathan Rosenberg, provides an instructive overview describing common themes and how the various papers in the volume are interrelated and fit together. The rich diversity of papers appearing in the volume demonstrates the current interplay between superstring theory, geometry/topology, and non-commutative geometry. The book will be of interest to graduate students, mathematicians, mathematical physicists, and researchers working in these areas.


From the Publisher:
Much discussion of new technologies and social equality has focused on the oversimplified notion of a "digital divide." Technology and Social Inclusion moves beyond the limited view of haves and have-nots to analyze the different forms of access to information and communication technologies. Drawing on theory from political science, economics, sociology, psychology, communications, education, and linguistics, the book examines the ways in which differing access to technology contributes to social and economic stratification or inclusion. The book takes a global perspective, presenting case studies from developed and developing countries, including Brazil, China, Egypt, India, and the United States.
A central premise is that, in today's society, the ability to access, adapt, and create knowledge using information and communication technologies is critical to social inclusion. This focus on social inclusion shifts the discussion of the "digital divide" from gaps to be overcome by providing equipment to social development challenges to be addressed through the effective integration of technology into communities, institutions, and societies. What is most important is not so much the physical availability of computers and the Internet but rather people's ability to make use of those technologies to engage in meaningful social practices.


The interest for developing hybrid electric locomotives consisting of diesel engine, regenerative braking and battery storage is growing due to increased demand and cost of diesel oil, uncertainty in the steady supply of oil, and increased standards for reduced emissions. Electrical energy is lost from electric locomotives in the form of heat during dynamic braking. Routing this energy using a regenerative braking system into battery stacks can improve the overall efficiency as it can be used later to provide traction force during acceleration. Objective of this study is to perform a feasibility analysis of modes of regenerating the energy developed in the braking and storing the energy in an electric battery storage system for use in road locomotive applications. Various road locomotive duty cycles, charge and discharge rates, and environmental conditions have been considered as this is expected to substantially influence the optimal performance and safety of the battery as well as the potential fuel savings that could be realized using a hybrid design. A computational algorithm is developed to determine the amount of energy that can be obtained from regenerative breaking during the run of locomotive and can be stored back into the stack of battery, which can be coupled with diesel engine to save additional consumption of fuel. A combined electrochemical and thermal simulation analysis of several battery configurations using multiphysics simulation code has also been performed in order to understand the thermal management and cooling requirements of the batteries subject to the charging and discharging requirements of a locomotive engine. Such an analysis assists in addressing the key issue of operating the battery at a maximum efficiency level while dissipating any excessive heat generated during the operation, and maintaining the battery at a desired temperature range using a cooling scheme. Keywords—Battery Storage, Simulation, Duty


The paper evaluates a range of policy documents, parliamentary debates, academic reports and statutes in an attempt to contextualise the condition of mental health policing in England and Wales. It establishes that mental health care plays an important role in public policing and argues that police organisations need to institute urgent reforms to correct a prevailing culture of complacency. An unethical cultural attitude towards mental health care has caused decision-making and the exercise of police discretion to be neither well informed nor protective in many cases, resulting in the substandard treatment of people with mental health problems. The paper argues that changes introduced by the Policing and Crime Act 2017 and the revised College of Policing mental health guidelines do not go far enough and that more extensive root-and-branch reforms are needed.


'The only English utopia since More's that deserves to be remembered as literature.' News from Nowhere (1890) is the best-known prose work of William Morris. The novel describes the encounter between a visitor from the nineteenth century, William Guest, and a decentralized and humane socialist future. Set over a century after a revolutionary upheaval in 1952, these 'Chapters from a Utopian Romance' recount his journey across London and up the Thames to Kelmscott Manor, Morris's own country house in Oxfordshire. Drawing on the work of John Ruskin and Karl Marx, Morris's book is not only an evocative statement of his egalitarian convictions but also a distinctive contribution to the utopian tradition. Morris's rejection of state socialism and his ambition to transform the relationship between humankind and the natural world, giveNews from Nowhere a particular resonance for modern readers. The text is based on that of 1891, incorporating the extensive revisions made by Morris to the first edition. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.


The evolution in both content and storage of information will change the way in which future media historians approach their task: in order to study the history of the mass media, telecommunications and new media of the late twentieth century, scholars will have to interact with digital sources, giving rise to a whole new series of concerns and questions. It is not clear if, how and in what format digital data will be available. What is the relationship between old and new sources? Who should be responsible for preserving the digital heritage? What should be preserved? How should digital data be preserved? All these questions are crucial for preservation strategies now and, above all, for studying media history in 2050.


We consider a two-period model. In the first period, individuals consume two goods: one is sinful and the other is not. The sin good brings pleasure but has a detrimental effect on second period health and individuals tend to underestimate this effect. In the second period, individuals can devote part of their saving to improve their health status and thus compensate for the damage caused by their sinful consumption. We consider two alternative specifications concerning this second period health care decision: either individuals acknowledge that they have made a mistake in the first period out of myopia or ignorance, or they persist in ignoring the detrimental effect of their sinful consumption. We study the optimal linear taxes on sin good consumption, saving and health care expenditures for a paternalistic social planner. We compare those taxes in the two specifications. We show under which circumstances the first best outcome can be decentralized and we study the second best taxes when saving is unobservable.


As modern drug formulations become more advanced, pharmaceutical companies face the need for adequate tools to permit them to model complex requirements and to reduce
unnecessary adsorption rates while increasing the dosage administered. The aim of the research presented here is the development and application of a general stochastic framework with agent-based elements for building drug dissolution models, with a particular focus on
controlled release systems. The utilisation of three dimensional Cellular Automata and Monte Carlo methods, to describe structural compositions and the main physico-chemical mechanisms, is shown to have several key advantages: (i) the bottom up approach simplifies
the definition of complex interactions between underlying phenomena such as diffusion,polymer degradation and hydration, and the dissolution media; (ii) permits straightforward extensibility for drug formulation variations in terms of supporting various geometries
and exploring effects of polymer composition and layering; (iii) facilitates visualisation, affording insight on system structural evolution over time by capturing successive stages of dissolution. The framework has been used to build models simulating several distinct
release scenarios from coated spheres covering single coated erosion and swelling dominated spheres as well as the influence of multiple heterogeneous coatings. High-performance computational optimisation enables precision simulations of the very thin coatings used and allows fast realisation of model state changes. Furthermore, theoretical analysis of the comparative impact of synchronous and asynchronous Cellular Automata and the suitability of their application to pharmaceutical systems is performed. Likely parameter distributions from noisy in vitro data are reconstructed using Inverse Monte Carlo methods and outcomes are reported.


Energetic particle precipitation (EPP) increases the production of odd hydrogen (HOX) species in the mesosphere, which catalytically destroy ozone (O3) in sunlight. Hence, the EPP‐HOX impact on the tertiary O3 maximum (TOM) depends on a complex geometry of a geographic‐oriented TOM, geomagnetic‐oriented auroral zone, producing short‐lived HOX species, and a destruction process depending on the solar zenith angle (SZA). Particle observations from the Medium Energy Proton and Electron Detectors telescopes aboard the Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites, and hydroxyl (OH) and O3 mixing ratios from Aura microwave limb sounder (MLS) are used to investigate the potential limitations of using the MLS observations to study EPP‐OH impact on the TOM in the Northern Hemisphere. Our results show limited overlap between the auroral zone and the TOM at twilight conditions. A composite analysis indicates O3 mixing ratio decrease over the auroral zone lagged by ∼1 day compared to the maximum energetic electron precipitation (EEP)‐OH impact. Hence, MLS is predominantly observing a lagged and lower estimate of the response of O3 to EEP‐OH at SZA > 95°. The EEP impact region within the TOM is smaller than the overlap region, strongly modulated by the background atmospheric dynamics. The results, although limited by the satellites viewing conditions, imply that the importance of EEP upon O3 mixing ratio is strongly influenced by the background atmosphere, both in terms of chemistry and dynamics. Multisatellite observations at different solar local times are required to separate the direct from the lagged EEP‐OH impact on O3.


The purpose of this study is to examine that the earnings components and banking efficiency are relevant to the market value of the banks or not. Testing the relationship we used DEA for the banking efficiency and regression model is estimated because it is panel study we used Common effect, fixed effect and random effect on the Pakistani banks included in this study. Frequency of data is yearly and is started from year 2008 to year 2012. Findings of our study gives number of directions, first of all in analysis it is found that the components of earnings are related to market value of the banks, secondly cost efficiency adds the additional information to the market. It can be concluded that earning's components and operational efficiency both explain the market value further these results suggest that stock prices reflect both the information generated through market as well from the accounting System. This study helps to explain the market value of the shares through banking efficiency and accounting information. According to our best knowledge this study is unique among the studies because it is the first study in the emerging economy which explains the market value through earnings components and efficiency of the banks


LAKKARSU, SWATHI. Correlation of electrical and optical derivatives in semiconductor lasers using a novel current modulation technique. (Under the guidance of Prof. Kolbas) The motivation behind this work is to better characterize the Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs) provided by Honeywell Inc. with derivative measurements based on current modulation. Electrical and optical derivatives (I-V, L-I, dV/dI, dV/dI, dL/dI) have been used to investigate these VCSELs. The new current modulation technique is compared with a prior voltage modulation technique using a standard edge emitting laser diode. The information supplied by I-V, L-I, dV/dI, dV/dI, dL/dI have been used to detect laser threshold, quasi Fermi level locking, quantum efficiency, series resistance, current ideality, light ideality and also subtle nonlinearities in the device behavior. Near field images of the optical output have been correlated with the electrical and optical measurements and shown to be consistent with our observation and analysis. Different methods of calculating the laser threshold, series resistance, ideality and quantum efficiency, by plotting appropriate curves, have been identified and were shown to be consistent for the edge emitting laser diode and the two types of VCSELs. This approach has been shown to be good for observing simple devices like the edge emitting laser diode that have a clean structure and also complex devices like the VCSELs, of which the oxide VCSEL was relatively featureless in contrast to the proton VCSEL which exhibited fine structure which we were able to detect and explain. Thus we have been able to show that the derivative measurements provide an accurate and reliable method for determining various parameters in photonic devices by a purely electrical measurement. Combined with optical measurements a powerful tool for understanding the inner workings of VCSELs is demonstrated. CORRELATION OF ELECTRICAL AND OPTICAL DERIVATIVES IN SEMICONDUCTOR LASERS USING A NOVEL CURRENT MODULATION TECHNIQUE


Budesonide (an anti-inflammatory glucocorticoid), R115777 (a farnesyl transferase inhibitor, Zarnestra, Tipifarnib) or combinations of them were evaluated for prevention of lung tumors and for modulation of DNA methylation in tumors. Lung tumors were induced by vinyl carbamate in female strain A mice. One week later, mice received 60 or 100 mg/kg R115777 by oral gavage and 5 days/week, 0.8 or 1.6 mg/kg of budesonide in their diet, or their combined treatment until killed at 20, 28 and 36 weeks after administering the vinyl carbamate. Other mice were administered the drugs for 2 weeks before killing at Week 20. At Week 20, the rank order for prevention of lung tumors was the combined treatment > budesonide > R115777. At later killings, R115777 was no longer effective, whereas budesonide and the combinations continued to prevent tumors, albeit at a reduced efficacy. DNA hypomethylation in lung tumors was prevented by treatment with R115777, budesonide and the combinations. When administered starting at Week 18 to tumor-bearing mice, the drugs reversed DNA hypomethylation in the tumors. In summary, combined treatment with budesonide and R115777 produced the following results: (i) it was more efficacious in preventing lung tumors than the individual drugs; and (ii) it prevented and reversed DNA hypomethylation in lung tumors. These results support the combined use of budesonide and R115777 in prevention of lung tumors and suggest that reversal of DNA hypomethylation in lung tumors would be useful as a surrogate end-point biomarker for prevention.


Recent detection of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star merger (GW170817) and the subsequent observations of electromagnetic counterparts provide a great opportunity to study the physics of compact binary mergers. The optical and near-infrared counterparts to GW170817 (SSS17a, also known as AT 2017gfo or DLT17ck) are found to be consistent with a kilonova/macronova scenario with red and blue components. However, in most previous studies wherein the contribution from each ejecta component to the lightcurves is separately calculated and composited, the red component is too massive of a dynamical ejecta, and the blue component is too fast of a post-merger ejecta. In this Letter, we perform a two-dimensional radiative transfer simulation for a kilonova/macronova, consistently taking the interplay of multiple ejecta components into account. We show that the lightcurves and photospheric velocity of SSS17a can be reproduced naturally by a setup that is consistent with the prediction of the numerical-relativity simulations.


The relationship between intellectual property (IP) and investment is old, but the debates are new. Recent high profile cases in which intellectual property rights (IPRs) are being sought to be protected by means of international investment law and treaties have generated visible debate and discussion. In the light of the recent decision on expedited objections in Bridgestone Licensing v. Republic of Panama, this article will explore arguments put forwarded by both parties regarding the interaction between IP Licence Agreements and the definition of investment, as well as the Tribunal's finding on the question whether an IP Licence with a revenue sharing model qualifies as an investment.


OBJECTIVE Postoperative cerebellar mutism syndrome (pCMS) occurs in 7%-50% of children after cerebellar tumor surgery. Typical features include a latent onset of 1-2 days after surgery, transient mutism, emotional lability, and a wide variety of motor and neurobehavioral abnormalities. Sequelae of this syndrome usually persist long term. The principal causal factor is bilateral surgical damage (regardless of tumor location) to any component of the proximal efferent cerebellar pathway, which leads to temporary dysfunction of cerebral cortical regions as a result of diaschisis. Tumor type, cerebellar midline location, and brainstem involvement are risk factors for pCMS that have been identified repeatedly, but they do not explain its latent onset. Ambiguous or negative results for other factors, such as hydrocephalus, postoperative meningitis, length of vermian incision, and tumor size, have been reached. The aim of this study was to identify perioperative clinical, radiological, and laboratory factors that also increase risk for the development of pCMS. The focus was on factors that might explain the delayed onset of pCMS and thus might provide a time window for taking precautionary measures to prevent pCMS or reduce its severity. The study was focused specifically on children who had undergone surgery for medulloblastoma. METHODS In this single-center retrospective cohort study, the authors included 71 children with medulloblastoma, 28 of whom developed pCMS after primary resection. Clinical and laboratory data were collected prospectively and analyzed systematically. Variables were included for univariate and multivariate analysis. RESULTS Univariate regression analysis revealed 7 variables that had a significant influence on pCMS onset, namely, tumor size, maximum tumor diameter > 5 cm, tumor infiltration or compression of the brainstem, significantly larger decreases in hemoglobin (p = 0.010) and hematocrit (p = 0.003) in the pCMS group after surgery than in the no-pCMS group, significantly more reported incidents of severe bleeding in the tumor bed during surgery in the pCMS group, preoperative hydrocephalus, and a mean body temperature rise of 0.5°C in the first 4 days after surgery in the pCMS group. Multiple regression analysis revealed that tumor size, tumor infiltration into or compression of the brainstem, and higher mean body temperature in the first 4 postoperative days were independent and highly significant predictors for pCMS. CONCLUSIONS The authors confirmed earlier findings that tumor-associated preoperative conditions, such as a maximum tumor diameter ≥ 5 cm and infiltration into or compression of the brainstem, are associated with a higher risk for the development of pCMS. Most importantly, the authors found that a 0.5°C higher mean body temperature in the first 4 postoperative days increased the odds ratio for the development of pCMS almost 5-fold. These data suggest that an important focus for the prevention of pCMS in children who have undergone medulloblastoma surgery might be rigorous maintenance of normothermia as standard care after surgery.


Despite unceasing efforts of the medical community, hepatitis B remains, besides
hepatitis C, the most serious type of viral hepatitis and one of the major problems of
global public health. According to the latest World Health Organization fact sheets
(2000), of the 2 billion people who have been infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV),
more than 350 million have chronic infections. These chronically infected persons are
at high risk of death from cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer, diseases that kill about 1
million persons each year (WHO, 2000).
The prevalence of HBV varies tremendously in different part of the world, with a much
higher incidence in the Eastern than in the Western Hemisphere (WHO, 2001). High
prevalence areas have been identified in Southeast Asia, China and Africa (reviewed by
Lee, 1997). About 100 million carriers, making up 75% of the world's HBV carriers
living in Asia, are from China (Tandon and Tandon, 1997). In Malaysia, voluntary
testing carried out on 17 048 healthy volunteers indicated a HBsAg seropositivity of
5.24% (Merican et al., 2000).
xxv
HBV belongs to the Orthohepadnavirus genus of the Hepadnaviridae family, which is
related to the large order of Retroid viruses (Kann and Gerlich, 1998). Within a size of
only about 3.2 kb, its compact, partially double-stranded DNA genome is extremely
small, bearing four highly overlapping open reading frames (ORFs), which encode at
least seven proteins (Kann and Gerlich, 1998; Nassal, 1999; Seeger and Mason, 2000).
Due to the use of a viral RNA-dependent polymerase without proofreading function,
HBV has a higher mutational rate than other DNA viruses (Blum1995; Petzold et al.,
1999). Thus, it is generally assumed that this reverse transcription step accounts for the
majority of point mutations and deletions or insertions that can be observed in the HBV
genome.
There are 2 major types of mutations in HBV. Firstly, there are genotype-specific
mutations that allow the distinction of currently eight genotypes (A-H) (Norder et al.,
1993; Stuyver et al., 2000; Arauz-Ruiz et al., 2002). These genotypes cluster
geographically. Genotype A seems to represent the main European inland strain;
genotype B and C, the Asian strain; genotype D, the Mediterranean basin strain;
genotype E, the African strain; and genotype F, the New World strain (Norder et al., 1994;
Magnius and Norder, 1995; Kidd Ljunggren, 1996). Genotype G was identified in
France and United States (Stuyver et al., 2000) and genotype H was recently encountered
in Nicaragua, Mexico and California (Arauz-Ruiz et al., 2002).
xxvi
The second type of HBV variability concerns mutations that emerge in an individual
during chronic infection. Several specific mutations of this type have been identified by
a large number of longitudinal as well as cross-sectional studies conducted during the
past decade (reviewed in Gunther et al., 1999). Most of the corresponding variants
accumulate during infection and persist as a dominant population until the late phase.
These mutants are clinically important. It is learned that the presence or emergence of
specific mutations is associated with particular stages of chronic infections (Gunther et al.,
1999).
In general, the enhancer II/core promoter and precore stop codon mutants appear to be
associated with disease severity and progression (Lindh et al., 1999; Scaglioni et al.,
1997; Pult et al., 1997; Takahashi et al., 1999). Mutations in the core antigen contribute
strongly to immune escape at the T helper and cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) level
(Wakita et al., 1991; Chisari and Ferrari, 1995). Recent reports also revealed that
mutations at basal core promoter (BCP) and precore/core (preC/C) mutations may
influence the response rate to interferon-alpha (IFN-α) therapy (Fattovich et al., 1995;
Zhang et al., 1996; Erhardt et al., 2000). Surface antigen mutants allow for escape from
humoral immune responses and reduce the effectiveness of diagnostic tests and
vaccination (Waters et al., 1992; Karthigesu et al., 1994; Carman et al., 1995,; Wallace
and Carman, 1997; Hsu et al., 1999a).
xxvii
HBV is a typical non-cytopathic virus that can induce tissue damage of variable severity
by stimulating a protective immune response that can simultaneously cause damage and
protection, by resolving intracellular virus through the destruction of virus infected cells
(Ferrari et al., 2003). Therefore, immune elimination of infected cells can lead to the
termination of infection when it is efficient, or to a persistent necroinflammatory disease
when it is not.
Destruction of infected cells, however, is not the only mechanism implicated in the
elimination of intracellular virus, as demonstrated by studies carried out in human
hepatitis B showing the importance of cytokine-mediated, non-cytolytic mechanisms of
antiviral protection. The first experimental evidence in favour of such mechanisms
derives from studies performed in the transgenic mouse model (Guidotti and Ferrari,
2001). These studies showed that single stranded and relaxed circular double stranded
HBV DNA replicative intermediates can be eliminated from the cytoplasm of HBV
transgenic hepatocytes as a result of the antiviral effect of the interferon-gamma (IFN-γ)
and tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) released within the transgenic liver primarily
by infiltrating HBV-specific CD8+ cells (Guidotti et al., 1996; Heise et al., 1999b) but
also CD4+ T cells (Franco et al., 1997).
Although the existence of genotypes is known for a long period of time, only very
recently an association of genotype and clinical outcome was proposed (Kao et al., 2000a;
Lindh et al., 1999). Recently, HBV genotypes have been partially clarified as
xxviii
influencing the clinical manifestation of chronic liver disease in hosts. A higher
disease-inducing capability of genotype C than genotype B has been observed in Asia
(Orito et al., 2001a; Kao et al., 2000a; Lindh et al., 1999). Several studies, mostly from
Taiwan and Japan, have shown that HBV genotype C is associated with the development
of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (Kao et al., 2000a; Ding et al., 2001; Fujie et al.,
2001) and has a lower response rate to interferon therapy as compared to genotype B
(Kao et al., 2000b). As for other HBV genotypes, most patients in Europe with genotype
A have chronic hepatitis, whereas most patients with genotype D have acute hepatitis
(Mayerat et al., 1999) and may predict the occurrence of HCC in young Indian patients
(Thakur et al., 2002).
The genotype-related differences in HBV pathogenesis have been associated with the
HBeAg/anti-HBe status. In the natural course of chronic HBV infection, early
HBeAg/anti-HBe seroconversion usually associated with the cessation of virus
replication and thus a favourable outcome (Chen, 1993). In contrast, late seroconversion
of HBeAg after multiple episodes of reactivation and remission may accelerate the
progression of chronic hepatitis B and thus have a poor clinical outcome (Perillo, 2001).
Reports have revealed that the prevalence of HBeAg is more common in HBV genotype
C than B. The reverse held true for the prevalence of anti-HBe, in that it is less common
in genotype C than B (Ding et al., 2002; Chu et al., 2002; Kao et al., 2002; Orito et al.,
2001a; Kobayashi et al., 2002; Yuen et al., 2003; Akuta et al., 2003).
xxix
Taken together, these data from different parts of the world have lent strong support to
possible pathogenic differences among HBV variants. At present, those findings have
been reported only in a few Asian countries. Moreover, the molecular virologic
mechanisms that contribute to these clinical differences among HBV genotypes remain to
be explored. The major limitation of previous studies is the lack of simple and efficient
genotyping methods. Genotyping of viruses by sequencing and subsequent homology
comparison or phylogenetic tree analysis is tedious and labour intensive and, therefore,
not practical for diagnostic purposes. With the recent advances in molecular techniques,
several novel genotyping methods, including polymerase chain reaction-restriction
fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) (Lindh et al., 1997; Mizokami et al., 1999),
PCR with type-specific primers (Naito et al., 2001), commercial hybridization assay
(Hou et al., 2001) and serologic genotyping assay (Usuda et al., 1999) have been
introduced.
In Malaysia, where the incidence rate of HBV was 12.19 per 100,000 population in 2001
(Ministry of Health Malaysia, 2001), limited information on the molecular biology of the
HBV is available. The prevalence of HBV genotypes and the clinical relevance of HBV
variants have not been discussed. The studies from other areas may not apply worldwide
because the HBV strains in various parts of the world are different, and thus the clinical
outcome and the mechanisms responsible may be different in this country. This
provided a strong motivation to investigate the molecular variants of HBV in our
population and the immune response evoked by these HBV variants.


This research examines the impact of collaborative technologies on group work processes for groups from Malaysia, which is traditionally known as a society with high Collectivism and Power Distance. Triandis (1994) defines collectivism as greater emphasis on the views, needs, and goals of the in-group rather than oneself. Hofstede (1980) defines Power Distance as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations accept that power is distributed unequally. The present study included two parts. The first part compared the supported groupwork of the groups from Malaysia as a representative of the 'East' culture with the supported groupwork of groups from Australia as a representative of the 'West' culture. The second part compared the supported and unsupported groupwork for groups from Malaysia. The first part used three different tasks with different degrees of structure and examined the possibility of observation of the cultural differences based on the qualitative analysis of the groupwork discussions in a supported environment. The second part examined the impact of GSS on groupwork for groups from Malaysia. The study used a qualitative content analysis to reveal the cultural values involved in their group work processes. The findings suggest a clear difference between the groupwork conducted in two different group work environments (supported and unsupported).


This paper develops a method to estimate and simulate the adoption of a network good. I estimate demand for mobile phones as a function of individuals' social networks, coverage, and prices, using transaction data from nearly the entire network of Rwandan mobile phone subscribers over 4.5 years. Because subscribers pay on the margin for calls, the calls placed reveal the value of communicating with each contact. This feature allows me to overcome traditional difficulties in measuring network effects, by estimating the utility of adopting a phone based on its eventual usage. I use this structural model to simulate the effects of two governmental policies. An adoption subsidy had a high social rate of return, and spillovers accounted for a substantial fraction of its impact. A requirement to serve rural areas lowered the operator's profits but increased net social welfare. Benefits from this policy were widely dispersed, with the majority accruing to individuals in areas where coverage was not affected.


This article explores the properties of formulations in a corpus of Hebrew radio phone-ins by juxtaposing two theoretical frameworks: conversation analysis (CA) and dialogic syntax. This combination of frameworks is applied towards explaining an anomalous interaction in the collection – a caller's marked, unexpected rejection of a formulation of gist produced by the radio phone-in's host. Our analysis shows that whereas previous CA studies of formulations account for many instances throughout the corpus, understanding this particular formulation in CA terms does not explain its drastic rejection by the caller. We therefore turn to an in-depth examination of strategies for lexical and syntactic resonance as a stance-taking device throughout the interaction. In so doing, we not only shed light on the anomalous interaction, but also offer an answer to a provocative question previously put forward by Haddington (2004) concerning which of the two – stances or actions – have more meaningful consequences for the description of the organization of interaction. In the particular interaction analyzed here, stances play the more significant role. We propose that the intersubjective stance-taking of participants may be viewed as a meta-action employed among participants as they move across actions, sequences, and activities in talk.


Abstract We examine the challenges that Swedish life insurers faced in managing the lapse risk of policies written on the lives of the industrial urban working class between 1915 and 1947. We observe that with the threat of State socialisation of insurance in the 1930s, industrial life insurers modified their business practices to better control policy lapses. Using firm-level data, we also analyse the effect of socio-economic changes, such as rising real wages, interest rate fluctuations and unemployment on life insurance policy lapses. Our results support contemporary tests of the emergency fund and interest rate explanations for the voluntary premature termination of life insurance policies.


Abstract A small assemblage of shelly fossils, dominated by the brachiopod Treptotreta jucunda and the bradoriid arthropod Mongolitubulus aspermachaera new species is described from a Furongian limestone of Västergötland, south-central Sweden. Mongolitubulus aspermachaera is represented in the assemblage by individual valves and numerous, ornamented spines. Valves and spines share identical ornament and microstructure leaving no doubt that the isolated spines were once attached to the bradoriid valves. Mongolitubulus aspermachaera adds to the increasing list of spinose Cambrian bradoriid arthropods, and Mongolitubulidae new family is erected here to incorporate the genera Mongolitubulus, Tubuterium and Spinospitella. Mongolitubulus aspermachaera represents the youngest member of the new family and supplements the biodiversity of bradoriids in the Furongian, an interval when bradoriid diversity is considered to be very much on the decline. The brachiopod Treptotreta jucunda described predominantly from the 'middle' to 'late' Cambrian of Australia is here documented for the first time from outside Gondwana, dramatically extending the biogeographical range of the species. Other elements of the faunal assemblage include typical Baltic Furongian representatives, such as the trilobite Parabolina, the agnostoid Agnostus and the phosphatocopids Hesslandona and Vestrogothia.


Coalition governments are sometimes made up of parties with sharply differing priorities and policy preferences. This is the case of Italy's governing alliance between the Lega and the Five Star Movement, hailed by the media as populist. Relying upon pledges of change, and seemingly united by the sovereigntist claim to 'take back control', this unprecedented coalition has been called upon to address the promises to upend 'the system'. Whether this would be a doable task for the government or would, rather, turn into a likely loss of votes for the two parties, however, will largely depend on the extent to which the ideas of 'desired change' of the two different electorates might actually converge. On examining survey data, we find that M5S and Lega voters are likely to share anti-establishment, conspiracy rhetoric and sovereigntist attitudes, but have diverging views on domestic economic policies, migration, and cultural issues. These findings provide empirical grounds to advance, in the concluding remarks, some tentative scenarios for the likely developments of a governing coalition between different allies, whose direction would ultimately hinge upon the strategic options available to them.


Thinking is hard - yet barely a waking moment passes when we're not labouring away at it. A few of us may be natural geniuses, able to work through the toughest tangles in an instant; others, blessed with reserves of willpower, stay the course in the dogged pursuit of truth. Then there's the rest of us. Not prodigies and a little bit lazy, but still aspiring to understand the world and our place in it. What can we do? In Intuition Pumps, Daniel Dennett, one of the world's most original and provocative thinkers, takes us on a profound, illuminating and highly entertaining philosophical journey. He reveals a collection of his favourite thinking tools, or 'intuition pumps', that he and others have developed for addressing life's most fundamental questions. Along with new discussions of familiar moves - Occam's Razor, reductio ad absurdum - Dennett offers cognitive tools built for the most treacherous subject matter: evolution, meaning, consciousness and free will. In his genial style, Dennett guides readers around the pitfalls in arguments, and reveals easier ways to better understand the world around us and our place in it. An enlightening and practical store of knowledge, Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking will teach you to think truly independently and creatively. [Praise for Daniel Dennett's Freedom Evolves]: "This is a serious book with a brilliant message". (Matt Ridley, Sunday Telegraph). "Dennett has produced the most powerful and ingenious attempt at reconciling Darwinism with the belief in human freedom to date". (John Gray, The Independent). "An outstandingly good book. There is no better philosophical exponent of what evolutionary biology really means". (The Times). Daniel Dennett is one of the most original and provocative thinkers in the world. A brilliant polemicist and philosopher, he is famous for challenging unexamined orthodoxies. His books include Brainstorms, Brainchildren, Elbow Room, Consciousness Explained, Darwin's Dangerous Idea and Freedom Evolves. He lives in North Andover, Massachusetts.


This is a literary study viewing the personality aspect of the main character in the novel "The Scarlet Letter". Literature reflects human being's life and is also concerned with states of mind, feelings, attitude and/ or behavior. One of literary work is novel. By reading the novel, readers get enjoyment and knowledge in its content. That is why the thesis writer is motivated in conducting and analyzing this novel. This study is conducted to analyze the personality aspect of Hester Prynne as one of the main characters. The investigation is focused on Hester Prynne's personality aspect based on The Humanistic Personality theory introduced by Abraham Harold Maslow. This novel was analyzed by using descriptive qualitative method because it described about personality aspect of Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter". Then, this novel was appreciated by using the objective approach. The object of this study was the whole events in the novel "The Scarlet Letter", whereas the data of this study were paragraphs, quotations and dialogues in the novel related to the presence of the personality aspect of the main character, as stated in the research problem. The result of this study showed that Hester Prynne had an interesting personality aspect. This aspect is related to Maslow theory of Humanistic Personality, in the way that she had a strong desire to fulfill her needs. Hester Prynne could develop her personality and became a strong woman than ever before. It made her able to solve her problems in life. She could take herself as a sinner but soon she changed her bad image of the letter "A" that she had to wear in her outchest from adultery became able because of her ability at needlework and her respect to poor people. This image showed that she made a positive change and her personality became better. In conclusion, Hester Prynne had five basic needs that each of them had condition of fulfillment and deficiency. Those needs are physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization needs. It made Hester Prynne a character who had the presence of complex personality in the novel. So, it made this novel to be interesting and need to be recommended to be read by general readers and student.


ABSTRACT The occurrence in Panama is documented for the South American frog genus Anomaloglossus (Dendrobatoidea: Aromobatidae). Two species are described from a low, forested uplift in eastcentral Panama, just northeast of Panama City. These low mountains, unnamed on maps, are designated the "Chagres Highlands" because a large part of the uplift lies in the Río Chagres drainage (which provides water critical to lock operation in the Panama Canal). The Chagres Highlands may be a lower montane forest refuge for some amphibians and reptiles, including the two Anomaloglossus and Atelopus limosus, and the rare snakes Atractus depressiocellus, A. imperfectus, Geophis bellus, and Rhadinaea sargenti. Several other rare species are not endemic but include the Chagres Highland area as part of their individually fragmented or mosaic distributions (Adinobates fulguritus, Anolis kunayalae, Coniophanes joanae, Geophis bracycephalus, Dipsas nicholsi). The two new frogs are at least broadly sympatric in the Chagres Highlands, but both species are rare. Anomaloglossus astralogaster, new species, is known only from the adult female holotype (22 mm SVL). Its ventral surfaces are covered overall with whitish dots (≤ 0.1 mm) somewhat similar to large chromatophores but possibly glandular; there is no appearance of glandular structure at ×50 magnification, but the edges of some of the pale dots can be "felt" with a fine (0.1 mm diameter) teasing needle and histological examination is needed. The other taxon is Anomaloglossus isthminus, new species, which is described from six specimens including four adult males (19–21 mm SVL), one adult female (23 mm SVL), and a juvenile female. Dorsal surfaces are basically brown mottled with darker brown. Small pale yellowish spots located proximally above the insertions of arm and thigh are not well defined and tend to disappear after preservation (unlike normal dendrobatid flash markings). Ventral surfaces are pale blue with some dark mottling but no pale dots. The vocalization of A. isthminus resembles calls of some South American species in being a train of "peeplike" notes, but there are fundamental interspecific differences in frequency modulation, note repetition rate, and call length.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture in treating chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in Hong Kong.

METHODS
A single-blinded, randomized controlled trial design was adopted. Participants meeting inclusion criteria were randomly assigned to a treatment and a control group according to 1:1 ratio, resulting in an effective sample size of 99, with 50 and 49 patients in treatment and control group respectively. The same set of acupuncture points, which were selected according to traditional Chinese medicine theories, was applied in both groups, while conventional needle acupuncture was applied in treatment group and sham acupuncture (without skin penetration) was applied in control group. Schedule of treatment was the same in both groups, i.e. twice a week for 4 weeks. Key outcome measures were Chalder's Fatigue Scale, diagnostic criteria for CFS of the US's Centre for Disease Control and SF-12 health-related quality of life (HQOL) questionnaire. Adverse events, if any, were recorded.

RESULTS
Improvements in physical and mental fatigue and HQOL in both groups were observed, but the improvements in treatment group were significantly bigger than in control group (P<0.01 or P<0.05). No adverse events occurred.

CONCLUSION
Acupuncture is a safe, effective treatment for CFS.


Background: Physical examination may be inconclusive in adolescents presenting with an acute traumatic knee effusion because of pain and guarding. The purpose of this study was to describe the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in adolescents with traumatic knee effusions and to compare injuries based on age, sex, and physeal maturity. Methods: All MRIs using a knee trauma protocol performed at our institution over a 2-year period were evaluated. One hundred thirty-one patients between the ages of 10 to 18 years of age with a clinical history of acute knee trauma and an effusion confirmed on MRI met our study inclusion criteria. They were divided into 2 age groups: 10 to 14 and 15 to 18 years old. Pathology was confirmed using clinical history, MRI, and any available surgical reports. Results: Of the 131 patients with an acute knee effusion, there were 59 patients in the younger group (10 to 14 y old) and 72 patients in the older group (15 to 18 y old). In the younger group, patellar dislocations (36%), anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears (22%), and isolated meniscus tears (15%) were the most common injuries. In the older group, ACL tears (40%), patellar dislocations (28%), and isolated meniscus tears (13%) were the most common injuries. ACL injuries represented 28% of injuries in males and 38% of injuries in females, whereas patellar dislocations represented 28% of injuries in males and 37% of injuries in females. There was a trend toward adolescents with active growth plates sustaining more patellar dislocations and adolescents with closed growth plates sustaining more ACL injuries. Forty-one percent of patients in this study underwent surgery. Conclusions: Patellar dislocation is a common injury in children who present with a traumatic knee effusion, especially in young adolescents and females. Adolescents presenting with a traumatic knee effusion should undergo MRI because of the high rate of positive findings missed by physical examination and plain radiographs that may warrant surgical repair or reconstruction. Level of Evidence: Level III.


Fuel cycles have not historically been integrated with repository design. Four alternative combinations of fuel cycles and repository systems are assessed in the present work: (a) traditional repositories, (b) repositories with spent nuclear fuel retrievability for recycle or as insurance against unforeseen repository failure, (c) colocation and integration of reprocessing and repositories, and (d) colocated specialized disposal facilities such as boreholes for different wastes. System design choices have major impacts on fuel cycle economics, accident risk, repository performance, nonproliferation, and repository siting. Consequently, there are large incentives to understand the different ways to couple fuel cycles and repositories. The evidence suggests that a repository as only a disposal site (the current system) is the least desirable option given current requirements for the United States. There are large incentives to develop repository sites that colocate and integrate all back-end fuel cycle facilities with the repository - independent of the fuel cycles that are ultimately chosen or how these fuel cycles evolve over time. Colocation and integration change the interface requirements between facilities by eliminating many storage and transport requirements such as the need for waste forms with high waste loadings. That, in turn, can result in reductions in cost, reductions in risk, and improved repository performance. For closed fuel cycles, colocation and integration may eliminate repository safeguards. This also suggests a repository business model similar to that of many airport authorities. Airport authorities manage the runways with colocated public and private airline terminals, aircraft maintenance bases, and related operations - all enabled and benefiting from the high-value runway asset. The common high-value back-end fuel cycle asset is the repository. For the local community and state government, such a strategy couples back-end fuel cycle benefits (high-technology jobs, tax revenue, etc.) with the repository site.


It is observed that Hebrew bare minimizers such as kelev (dog) differ from lexicalized minimizers such as pruta leforta (a red cent) in the following way. The former give rise to minimizing readings in negative environments but not in Yes/No questions, whereas the latter support such readings in both these environments. Thus, bare minimizers seem to have the same behavior as certain npis in other languages, which are licensed in some typical npi environments but not in others. The suggested explanation is this: While lexicalized minimizers have a covert even at LF, bare minimizers either do not have a covert even at all, or do not have a covert even with the right syntactic properties to induce wide scope alternatives.


Abstract. This is part of a research study addressing the potential co-benefits associated with selected black carbon (BC) emission reduction measures on mitigation of air pollution and climate forcing in Southeast Asia (SEA). This paper presents details of emission inventory (EI) results and WRF–CHIMERE model performance evaluation. The SEA regional emissions for 2007 were updated with our EI results for Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia and used for the model input. WRF–CHIMERE-simulated 2007 PM10, PM2.5, and BC over the SEA domain (0.25° × 0.25°) and the results were evaluated against the available meteorology and air quality monitoring data in the domain. WRF hourly simulation results were evaluated using the observed data at eight international airport stations in five SEA countries and showed a satisfactory performance. WRF–CHIMERE results for PM10 and PM2.5 showed strong seasonal influence of biomass open burning while the BC distribution showed the influence of urban activities in big SEA cities. Daily average PM10 constructed from the hourly concentrations were obtained from the automatic monitoring stations in three large SEA cities, i.e., Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Surabaya, for model evaluation. The daily observed PM2.5 and BC concentrations obtained from the Improving Air Quality in Asian Developing Countries (AIRPET) project for four cities (i.e., Bangkok, Hanoi, Bandung, and Manila) were also used for model evaluation. In addition, hourly BC concentrations were taken from the measurement results of the Asian Pacific Network (APN) project at a suburban site in Bangkok. The modeled PM10 and BC satisfactorily met all suggested statistical criteria for PM evaluation. The modeled PM2.5∕PM10 ratios estimated for four AIRPET sites ranged between 0.47 and 0.59, lower than observed values of 0.6–0.83. Better agreement was found for BC∕PM2.5 ratios with the modeled values of 0.05–0.33 as compared to the observation values of 0.05–0.28. AODEM (extended aerosol optical depth module) was used to calculate the total columnar aerosol optical depth (AOD) and BC AOD up to the top of the domain at 500 hPa (∼ 5500 m), which did not include the free-tropospheric long-range transport of the pollution. The model AOD results calculated using the internal mixing assumption were evaluated against the observed AOD by both AERONET and MODIS satellite in 10 countries in the domain. Our model results showed that the BC AOD contributed 7.5–12 % of the total AOD, which was in the same range reported by other studies for places with intensive emissions. The results of this paper are used to calculate the regional aerosol direct radiative forcing under different emission reduction scenarios to explore potential co-benefits for air quality improvement, reduction in the number of premature deaths, and climate forcing mitigation in SEA in 2030 (Permadi et al., 2017a).


A feasible method of combining the concept of fluorescence half-life and the power dependent photobleaching rate for characterizing the practical photostability of fluorescent proteins (FPs) was introduced. Furthermore, by using a fluorescent photostability standard, a relative comparison of the photostabilty of FPs from different research groups was proposed, which would be of great benefit for developing novel FPs with optimized emission wavelength, better brightness, and improved photostability. We used rhodamine B as an example to verify this method and evaluate the practical photostability of a far-red FP, mKate-S158C. Experimental results indicated good potential of this method for further study.


We identify an important feature of current digital governance systems: "third-party funded digital barter": consumers of digital services get many digital services for free (or underpriced) and in return have personal information about themselves collected for free. In addition, the digital consumers receive advertising and other forms of influence from the third parties that fund the digital services. The interests of the third-party funders are not well-aligned with the interests of the digital consumers. This fundamental flaw of current digital governance systems is responsible for an array of serious problems, including inequities, inefficiencies, manipulation of digital consumers, as well as dangers to social cohesion and democracy. We present four policy guidelines that aim to correct this flaw by shifting control of personal data from the data aggregators and their third-party funders to the digital consumers. The proposals cover "official data" that require official authentication, "privy data" that is either generated by the data subjects about themselves or by a second parties, and "collective data." The proposals put each of these data types under the individual or collective control of the data subjects. There are also proposals to mitigate asymmetries of information and market power.


The feeding behaviour of the shallow-water bonelliid echiuran Maxmuelleria lankesteri is described, based on underwater video recordings made in Loch Sween, Argyll, Scotland. We compare the observed utilization of the sediment surface with the systematic grazing pattern inferred for abyssal echiurans from stellate proboscis traces photographed on the deep-sea floor. M. lankesteri feeds by skimming off the sediment surface during the linear extension of the proboscis from the burrow opening. Successive proboscis extensions did not follow a regular clockwise or anticlockwise path around the burrow opening. The frequency distribution of displacement angles between successive extensions did not differ significantly from random. There was no significant tendency for the proboscis to 'followup' a successful feed by extending in a similar direction the next time, or for the proboscis to avoid a sector in which it had previously been disturbed. This unresponsiveness was shown irrespective of the time elapsed since the preceding extension. The orientation of the proboscis also showed no significant relationship to the direction of water flow. There was usually little or no overlap of proboscis feeding strokes on individual nights, but 1 individual which fed on 9 consecutive nights re-used a significantly greater proportion of the total area grazed than would be expected if feeding strokes were made randomly. The feeding behaviour of M. lankesteri differs from the pattern attributed to related deepsea forms in the lack of a systematic proboscis trajectory and in the willingness to re-use previously grazed areas. These differences, if real, may correlate with the trophic status of the habitat. The ability to concentrate feeding effort in specific areas may enable a sedentary deposit-feeder to sequester ephemeral or patchy food resources by 'caching' material within the burrow.


In 2009 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) rendered - for the first time - three important judgments on the relationship between pre-accession Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) of EU Member States with third states and Community law. As will be discussed below in more detail, the thrust of these judgments is that even in case of 'hypothetical incompatibilities' between the BITs and Community law, the BITs must be either brought into line with Community law or, if that proves impossible, be denounced.This approach not only illustrates that, according to the ECJ, Community law in any case supersedes even prior international obligations of the EU Member States, but - even more importantly - underlines the desire of the ECJ to ensure that no international court or arbitral tribunal gets into the position of interpreting or applying Community law, thereby undermining the exclusive jurisdiction of the ECJ. Moreover, with the entering into force of the Lisbon Treaty on December 1, 2009, foreign direct investment (FDI) has been added to the exclusive external trade competence of the EU (Article 207 TFEU, former Article 133 EC). Despite the fact that FDI is nowhere defined in the EU Treaties, the European Commission assumes that all the issues typically regulated in BITs (i.e. most favoured nation treatment (MFN), national treatment (NT), fair and equitable treatment (FET), dispute settlement procedures, compensation for expropriation) fall under this new exclusive competence of the EU. However, as will be discussed in more detail below, this view is certainly not shared by most, if not all EU Member States.In the light of these recent developments in EU law, the European Commission has published a Communication and a proposal for a Regulation that are intended to address most of the unsettled issues. Irrespective of the final outcome, one thing is certain: the already complicated matrix of investment law and public international law will become even more complicated by the addition of Community law as new important factor. The aim of this contribution is to analyze the new Common European Investment Policy (CEIP) that is currently in the making from the perspective of the Netherlands, which belongs to the leading EU Member States regarding inward and outward investments.The main argument that will be put forward is that the high standards of protection provided for by the existing Member States' BITs will - most probably - be lost in this transitional operation of transferring the FDI competence to the EU.


West Antarctica experienced a complex tectonic history, which is still poorly documented, in part due to extensive ice cover. Here we reconstruct the Cretaceous to present thermotectonic history of Pine Island Bay area and its adjacent coasts, based on a combination of apatite and zircon fission track and apatite (U‐Th‐Sm)/He thermochronology. In addition, we report petrographic information for the catchments of Pine Island, Thurston Island, and Thwaites glaciers. Our data suggest that the underlying bedrock of the Pine Island and Thwaites Glacier catchments are very different and vary from granitoids to (Cenozoic?) volcanogenic sequences and low‐grade metamorphics. Our thermochronology data show that the upper crustal rocks of Pine Island Bay experienced very rapid cooling during the late Cretaceous. We attribute this rapid cooling of basement rocks and associated reduction in mean elevation to tectonic denudation driven by gravitational collapse of the Cretaceous orogen along the proto‐Pacific Gondwana margin. Rapid Cretaceous crustal cooling was followed by very slow cooling during the Cenozoic, with no erosional response—within the limits of thermochronological methods—to the onset of glaciation and subsequent climatic changes. Cenozoic rifting within the West Antarctic Rift appears to have had little effect on erosion processes around Pine Island Bay; instead, our data suggest Cenozoic crustal tilting toward Pine Island Trough, a major geomorphic feature previously suggested to be a branch of the rift system.


In this paper the three-moment capital asset pricing model (TMCAPM) is tested using a sample of Australian equity returns over the thirty-year period 1963-1992. Specially, the tests are performed using a direct optimisation of nonlinear restrictions in a generalised method of moments (GMM) framework. In general, the results are quite mixed. While in several test periods, the TMCAPM could not be rejected, in others strong rejections were observed. The mixed nature of the results are reinforced by some ancillary observations regarding the relationship between estimates of market skewness; the price of gamma; and the marginal rate of substitution of skewness for variance.