Reinforcement learning algorithms are sensitive to hyper-parameters and require tuning and tweaking for specific environments for improving performance. Ensembles of reinforcement learning models on the other hand are known to be much more robust and stable. However, training multiple models independently on an environment suffers from high sample complexity. We present here a methodology to create multiple models from a single training instance that can be used in an ensemble through directed perturbation of the model parameters at regular intervals. This allows training a single model that converges to several local minima during the optimization process as a result of the perturbation. By saving the model parameters at each such instance, we obtain multiple policies during training that are ensembled during evaluation. We evaluate our approach on challenging discrete and continuous control tasks and also discuss various ensembling strategies. Our framework is substantially sample efficient, computationally inexpensive and is seen to outperform state of the art (SOTA) approaches


Myelin turnover that occurs normally with age or abnormally in disease overburdens the housekeeping function of microglial cells. Myelin is a membrane sheath formed around axons, and its loss with disease, injury, or normal aging causes neurological dysfunction. Microglia, the resident macrophages and housekeeping cells of the central nervous system, scavenge molecular plaques, microorganisms, and damaged cells to maintain a healthy nervous system. The number of microglia increases with age in mice. Safaiyan et al. found that myelin turnover may overwhelm microglia in the aging brain. Electron microscopy and immunohistochemistry detected myelin fragments in the extracellular space and within microglia in the brains of older mice. The abundance of galectin-3, a signal that activates microglia, increased with age in the white matter of mice. The lysates of microglia isolated from 1-year-old mice contained large amounts of high molecular weight—indicating aggregated—myelin basic protein (MBP), a constituent of the myelin sheath. Applying purified myelin to organotypic mouse hippocampal slice cultures increased the accumulation of insoluble lysosomal lipofuscin granules that partially colocalized with myelin in the microglia, indicating an accumulation of aggregates within microglia that could not be degraded. Microglia in mice with genetic impairment of lysosomal function (Rab7ΔMG mice) were more likely to accumulate MBP and lipofuscin and at a younger age. In addition, these mice were more likely to show functional and morphological markers associated with microglial senescence. RNA-sequencing and pathway analysis revealed that genes with increased expression in Rab7ΔMG mice were associated with immune function and overlapped with those that were increased in aged mice (compared with wild-type or young mice, respectively), indicating that lysosomal dysfunction and aging have common microglial phenotypes. Mice that are a model for the demyelinating Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease had increased MBP and lipofuscin accumulation in microglia coincident with decreased microglial function. Furthermore, in mice that at a young age underwent an acute demyelinating event induced by cuprizone ingestion, microglia accumulated MBP and lipofuscin shortly after cuprizone exposure, and this accumulation increased with age. Although a marker of microglial activation disappeared at an intermediate time point after cuprizone exposure, the marker returned with age, indicating that a single demyelinating event can have lasting effects in microglia. The findings suggest that through its effects on microglia function, the normal maintenance of myelin may contribute to age-associated neurological dysfunction. S. Safaiyan, N. Kannaiyan, N. Snaidero, S. Brioschi, K. Biber, S. Yona, A. L. Edinger, S. Jung, M. J. Rossner, M. Simons, Age-related myelin degradation burdens the clearance function of microglia during aging. Nat. Neurosci. 19, 995–998 (2016). [PubMed]


While the Royal Air Force was born in war, it was created in peace. In his 1919 memorandum on the Permanent Organization of the Royal Air Force, Air Marshal Sir Hugh Trenchard outlined his vision for the development of the Service. In this strategy, Trenchard developed the idea of generating an 'Air Force spirit' that provided the basis of the RAF's development in the years after the First World War. The basis for this process was the creation of specific institutions and structures that helped generate a culture that allowed the RAF to establish itself as it dealt with challenges from its sister services. This article explores the character of that culture and ethos and in analysing the early years of the RAF through a cultural lens, suggests that Trenchard's so-called 'doctrine' was focussed more on organisational developments rather than air power thinking as has often been suggested.


To what extent does social origin impact the disposition of students toward becoming politically involved in their future adult life? Using Chilean data from Civic Education Study, 1999 (N = 5688), and International Civic and Citizenship Education Study, 2009 (N = 5192), the present research analyzes, on the one hand, the impact of socioeconomic variables on attitudes toward future political participation and, on the other hand, explores to what extent the association between social origin and participation has changed over time. The analysis is performed in a multilevel framework, to account for both family socioeconomic status and individual school characteristics. The results support the hypothesis that social origin continues to have a strong influence on students' attitudes toward political participation, in the context of the two measurement points. The resulting discussion focuses on the role of schools in reducing socioeconomic differences, an issue that acquires additional relevance in societies with high inequality such as Chile.


Objectives: To evaluate the conflicts between the rights of society and those of mothers-to-be and the unborn, which raise difficult ethical and legal questions regarding decision-making, respect for autonomy, confidentiality, public health and individual rights in an 'opt-out' approach to HIV testing in antenatal care, which Botswana introduced in 2004. Methods: An empirical study with critical analysis of research studies since 2004, and documentary data/reports relating to opt-out HIV testing policy in prenatal cases in Botswana. Conclusions: The Government of Botswana's capacity to deal effectively with HIV/AIDS is inherently connected with larger societal, legal, policy and contextual issues. These issues appear to be insufficiently appreciated in Botswana, even though their consideration is essential if the country is to align its practices with existing national laws, as well as international conventions to which it is a signatory.


The aim of this study was to predict percentage tree cover from Envisat Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) imagery with a spatial resolution of 300 m by comparing four common models: a multiple linear regression (MLR) model, a linear mixture model (LMM), an artificial neural network (ANN) model and a regression tree (RT) model. The training data set was derived from a fine spatial resolution land cover classification of IKONOS imagery. Specifically, this classification was aggregated to predict percentage tree cover at the MERIS spatial resolution. The predictor variables included the MERIS wavebands plus biophysical variables (the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), leaf area index (LAI), fraction of photosynthetically active radiation (fPAR), fraction of green vegetation covering a unit area of horizontal soil (fCover) and MERIS terrestrial chlorophyll index (MTCI)) estimated from the MERIS data. An RT algorithm was the most accurate model to predict percentage tree cover based on the Envisat MERIS bands and vegetation biophysical variables. This study showed that Envisat MERIS data can be used to predict percentage tree cover with considerable spatial detail. Inclusion of the biophysical variables led to greater accuracy in predicting percentage tree cover. This finer-scale depiction should be useful for environmental monitoring purposes at the regional scale.


The experimental determination of calorific value of solid fuels is a cost intensive process, as it requires spatial instrumentation and highly trained analyst to perform the experiments, whereas proximate analysis data can be obtained easily using an ordinary muffle furnace compared to calorific value. Regression analysis and artificial neural network analysis methods have been introduced to simplify the task and also reduce the cost of analysis. An endeavor has been made in this present study to access the applicability of these correlation and artificial neural network with a spatial emphasize on Indian coals. Correlation have been created using simple linear regression and multivariable linear Regression analysis based on proximate analysis of data sets. Artificial neural network model is also designed to predict the gross calorific value of coals belonging to different Indian coal fields. 59 samples were collected from different coal fields of India including the South Eastern Coalfields (SECL), Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), Central Coalfields limited (CCL), Mahanadi Coalfield Ltd. (MCL), Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL), North Eastern Coalfield Limited (NECL), Jindal Steel and Power Limited. The intrinsic properties were determined by carrying out proximate analysis and gross calorific value (GCV) by using bomb calorimetry. It was observed that all the three models predict the calorific value fairly accurately. However, the ANN model gives a better prediction than the other methods. Therefore, prediction of gross calorific value by ANN model could be a viable option than experimentation in the laboratory. The ANN model considers the intrinsic properties determined by proximate analysis as input parameters, which is a routine task in the field as these are required to determine the grade of coals and hardly demand any costly experimental setup.


Brilliant and original, "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" introduces a remarkable first collection of stories about China from an author set to be a major literary talent. In this extraordinary first collection, Yiyun Li brings us a modern China facing up to a complex history of repression and guilt. In 'Immortality', a young man bears a striking resemblance to the dictator, and so finds a strange kind of calling. In 'Extra', first published in the New Yorker, a Chinese woman, alone in middle age, befriends a young boy who has become an outcast in a remote country school. In their friendship, we see how love can begin to overcome the strictures that dominate their lives. In turn horrifying and breathtakingly lyrical, Yiyun Li, a new and talented young Chinese writer, confronts the silence that dominated the history of her country, and illuminates how mythology, politics, history and culture intersect with personality. She leaves us with an enduring vision of a country undergoing tremendous change.


The Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method has been used for more than 50 years to simulate rarefied gases. The advent of modern supercomputers has brought higher-density near-continuum flows within range. This in turn has revived the debate as to whether the Boltzmann equation, which assumes molecular chaos, can be used to simulate continuum flows when they become turbulent. In an effort to settle this debate, two canonical turbulent flows are examined, and the results are compared to available continuum theoretical and numerical results for the Navier-Stokes equations.The Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method has been used for more than 50 years to simulate rarefied gases. The advent of modern supercomputers has brought higher-density near-continuum flows within range. This in turn has revived the debate as to whether the Boltzmann equation, which assumes molecular chaos, can be used to simulate continuum flows when they become turbulent. In an effort to settle this debate, two canonical turbulent flows are examined, and the results are compared to available continuum theoretical and numerical results for the Navier-Stokes equations.


Abstract. Noninvasive transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) with a 1064-nm laser has been reported to improve human performance on cognitive tasks as well as locally upregulate cerebral oxygen metabolism and hemodynamics. However, it is unknown whether 1064-nm tPBM also modulates electrophysiology, and specifically neural oscillations, in the human brain. The hypothesis guiding our study is that applying 1064-nm tPBM of the right prefrontal cortex enhances neurophysiological rhythms at specific frequency bands in the human brain under resting conditions. To test this hypothesis, we recorded the 64-channel scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) before, during, and after the application of 11 min of 4-cm-diameter tPBM (CW 1064-nm laser with 162  mW  /  cm2 and 107  J  /  cm2) to the right forehead of human subjects (n  =  20) using a within-subject, sham-controlled design. Time-resolved scalp topographies of EEG power at five frequency bands were computed to examine the tPBM-induced EEG power changes across the scalp. The results show time-dependent, significant increases of EEG spectral powers at the alpha (8 to 13 Hz) and beta (13 to 30 Hz) bands at broad scalp regions, exhibiting a front-to-back pattern. The findings provide the first sham-controlled topographic mapping that tPBM increases the strength of electrophysiological oscillations (alpha and beta bands) while also shedding light on the mechanisms of tPBM in the human brain.


BACKGROUND: En bloc resection of chordomas is associated with increased patient survival. Achievement of en bloc resection, however, may present a great surgical challenge, particularly in the mobile spine. Novel multidisciplinary techniques may enable en bloc resection of lesions presenting in anatomically challenging locations. A combined simultaneous thoracoscopic and posterior approach in a patient with an upper thoracic chordoma is presented; en bloc resection was achieved. OBJECTIVE: To show the feasibility, safety, and utility of performing a thoracoscopy-assisted en bloc resection of a chordoma involving the upper thoracic spine. METHODS: A case study is presented of a patient with biopsy-proven chordoma of T2-3 with predominantly paravertebral involvement who underwent multilevel en bloc resection via a simultaneous combined anterolateral thoracoscopic and posterior approach. Thoracoscopic assistance achieved separation of the tumor and ventral spine from the adjacent mediastinal structures. En bloc resection proceeded without complication. The spine was stabilized with posterior instrumentation. RESULTS: A multilevel en bloc resection was achieved with negative margins, preserving more than half of the remaining vertebral bodies and allowing short segment posterior fixation without extension into the cervical spine. The patient remained neurologically intact. CONCLUSION: A combined simultaneous thoracoscopic and posterior approach is safe and effective for en bloc resection of multilevel chordoma involving the upper thoracic spine. This technique allows for a plane to be established ventrally between the tumor and the mediastinum, thus assisting with safe osteotomies via the posterior approach.


This research focuses on contributions – oral and written – on the topic of linguistic diversity made by Members of the European Parliament during the plenary sessions from 2000 to 2003 inclusive and analyses the attitudes expressed by Members towards the concept of linguistic diversity, particularly as it applies to the national languages and the regional autochthonous languages of Member States. The analysis is set within a framework consisting of contemporary academic work and the classic work by Johann Gottfried von Herder and the German Philosophen. The European Year of Languages 2001 was widely supported by the European Commission; but an important question seemed to be what significance, if any, did maintaining linguistic diversity have for Members of the European Parliament in the years immediately following 2001. This research set out to discover to what extent issues related to linguistic diversity were given expression to in the plenary debates from 2000 to 2003, the years corresponding essentially to the fifth parliamentary term. Was only lip service paid to linguistic diversity in the years 2000 – 2003? Or did the European Year of Languages focus the attention of parliamentarians from all political groups in an ongoing way on issues of language use and preservation in the European Union, especially since the Union was to be significantly enlarged by the addition of ten Member States on January 1, 2004? Did the MEPs recognise that there were social and economic benefits accruing from pursuing policies of linguistic diversity? How important was linguistic diversity to the essence of the European Union in the eyes of its Members of Parliament? To what extent did MEPs espouse the use of just one language as a preferred method of communication in and around the Parliament? How much respect was there for the regional and minority indigenous languages of the European Union? Did MEPs regard linguistic diversity as an important consideration in determining the suitability of other countries seeking accession? The research reviews the response from the Commission in subsequent years to the views articulated by the MEPs. Finally, are there lessons in any of this for New Zealand?


Protein 14-3-3 isoforms are key to many cellular processes and are ubiquitous throughout the brain. 14-3-3 is a regulator of ser/thr phospho-signaling by binding and sequestering phosphorylated substrates including kinases, histone deactylases, and transcription factors. The role of protein 14-3-3 in conditioned taste aversion learning (CTA) has not previously been examined. We parameterized CTA learning in difopein-YFP transgenic mice, which have widespread by expression of the artificial peptide difopein in the forebrain, including the basolateral amygdala and insular cortex, resulting in functional knock-out (FKO) of all 14-3-3 isoforms. We found that a single pairing of saccharin or NaCl (CS) and LiCl injection (US) was not sufficient to induce CTA in FKO mice. Multiples pairings of CS and US did lead to CTA acquisition in the FKO mice; however, the CTA rapidly extinguished within 30 minutes to 24 hours after acquisition. Additionally, we found that 14-3-3 FKO mice have an attenuated visceral neuraxis response to LiCl as measured by c-Fos induction. The deficit in FKO was not due to an inability to discriminate or avoid tastants, because they showed normal unconditioned taste preferences for both palatable (saccharin, maltodextrin, low concentration NaCl) and unpalatable tastants (quinine, HCl, and high concentration NaCl) and they were able to reduce intake of a maltodextrin solution adulterated with quinine. The FKO did not have a global deficit in ingestive learning, because they were able to form a conditioned flavor-nutrient preference. Thus, FKO of forebrain 14-3-3 appears to disrupt CTA learning leading to forgetting, rapid extinction, or failure to reconsolidate. This further implicates ser/thr phospho-signaling pathways in the regulation of long-term CTA learning.


This Ph.D. by Published Works examines the dynamic interaction between a
re-thinking and a re-scaling of science. The ten Published Works are located at the
intersection between debates on the changing governance of science and science
policy governance in the context of a multi-scalar knowledge-based economy. Three
critical themes are examined relating to the relationship between excellence and
relevance, the roles of universities in knowledge-based coalitions and the relative
significance of regional and local knowledge-based developments for science policy
governance. The empirical emphasis is on two case studies of regional and local
science policies in North West England between 2002 and 2008, in international
comparative context.
The Published Works collectively construct a powerful story-line of change
and continuity within contemporary developments, undermining claims that a
paradigm shift has occurred in either the re-thinking or re-scaling of science.
Disembedded understandings of excellence predominate, despite the articulation of
alternative discourses on the roles of different knowledges for sub-national socioeconomic
development. Universities occupy ambiguous roles, with some better able
than others to mobilise institutional power to provide relative shelter from external
pressures. Sub-national interventions emphasise the re-development of physical
spaces and are acquisition-oriented, rather than predicated upon shifts in modes of
knowledge production.
A critical contribution of the Published Works is the forging of an
interdisciplinary agenda around re-thinking and re-scaling science that is both
academically excellent and policy relevant. The Ph.D. illustrates the need for more
integrated theoretical and practical understandings of the relationship between the
governance of science and of science policy governance and both defines and seeks to
populate critical gaps in this agenda.


Natural abundance radiocarbon analysis facilitates distinct source apportionment between contemporary biomass/biofuel (C-14 "alive") versus fossil fuel (C-14 "dead") combustion. Here, the first compound-specific radiocarbon analysis (CSRA) of atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was demonstrated for a set of samples collected in Lycksele, Sweden a small town with frequent episodes of severe atmospheric pollution in the winter. Renewed interest in using residential wood combustion (RWC) means that this type of seasonal pollution is of increasing concern in many areas. Five individual/paired PAH isolates from three pooled fortnight-long filter collections were analyzed by CSRA: phenanthrene, fluoranthene, pyrene, benzo[b+k] fluoranthene and indeno[cd]pyrene plus benzo[ghi]perylene; phenanthrene was the only compound also analyzed in the gas phase. The measured Delta C-14 for PAHs spanned from -138.3% to 58.0%. A simple isotopic mass balance model was applied to estimate the fraction biomass (fbiomass) contribution, which was constrained to 71-87% for the individual PAHs. Indeno[cd]pyrene plus benzo[ghi]perylene had an fbiomass of 71%, while fluoranthene and phenanthrene (gas phase) had the highest biomass contribution at 87%. The total organic carbon (TOC, defined as carbon remaining after removal of inorganic carbon) fbiomass was estimated to be 77%, which falls within the range for PAHs. This CSRA data of atmospheric PAHs established that RWC is the dominating source of atmospheric PAHs to this region of the boreal zone with some variations among RWC contributions to specific PAHs


Title of Dissertation: The Dynamics of Dense Stellar Systems with a Massive Central Black Hole Michael A. Gill, Doctor of Philosophy, 2011 Dissertation directed by: Professor M. Coleman Miller Department of Astronomy In this work, we explore the dynamics of two similar types of dense stellar systems with a central black hole of mass much greater than a typical stellar object. In particular, we use numerical N-body simulations to examine the effects that the massive black hole (MBH) has on the surrounding stars and compact objects as they pertain to indirectly observable signals. The first systems we consider are the highly uncertain cusps likely comprised of primarily massive compact objects that surround the MBHs at the center of typical galaxies. The gradual inspiral of a compact object by emission of gravitational radiation, called an extreme mass-ratio inspiral (EMRI), will produce a signal that falls in the peak detection range of the space-bound laser interferometer space antenna (LISA). Despite a veritable gold mine of astrophysical data that could be gleaned from such a detection, previous investigations in the literature have left the predicted rate of these events uncertain by several orders of magnitude. We present direct N-body simulations of the innermost . 100 objects with the inclusion of the first-order Post-Newtonian correction with the aim of reducing one of the key uncertainties in the dynamics of these systems the efficiency of resonant relaxation. We find that relativistic pericenter precession prevents a significant enhancement of the EMRI rate; the rate we derive during this work is consistent with those derived in the literature from less direct methods. We do find, however, that our EMRI progenitors originate from much closer to the MBH than previous investigations have suggested was likely. Our second investigation delves into the possibility of finding intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), with masses ∼ 102−4M , at the center of dense star clusters. Because of the substantial investment of telescope time needed to perform the multiyear proper motion studies that are likely needed to achieve a definitive detection, careful selection of candidate clusters is prudent. We provide a new observational signature of the presence of an IMBH in a dense star cluster a quenching of mass segregation. Our ensemble of direct N-body simulations with N ≤ 32768 objects and highly varied initial conditions show that the existence of an IMBH with mass ∼ 1% of the total cluster mass limits the mass segregation in visible stars, as measured by the radial gradient in average stellar mass. This effect is consistently visible in systems that have had enough time to reach their equilibrium value of mass segregation, usually about 5 initial half-mass relaxation times. In practical terms, our method will apply to Galactic globular clusters that are fairly small, and that are unlikely to have lost a significant portion of their mass to Galactic tidal stripping. We apply this method to two of the ∼ 30 Galactic globular clusters that fit our conservative criteria for application of this method, NGC 2298 and NGC 6254 (M10). Thanks to deep observations by the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys, data exist that are sufficient to allow a good comparison to our simulation data. We find that the degree of mass segregation we observe in NGC 2298 is clearly inconsistent with simulations harboring an IMBH at about the 3 − σ level. In contrast, application of the method to NGC 6254 reveals a mass segregation profile that can only be explained by the presence of either an IMBH or a significant population of primordial binaries (& 5%). Unfortunately, a reliable measure of the binary fraction of NGC 6254 does not exist; however, NGC 6254 is a good candidate for follow-up proper motion studies.


Descriptive-correlational research design and special tests were used in data gathering instrument. Validated questionnaires were distributed to the five biggest call center companies in Davao City. The respondents consisted of six hundred twenty-three call center agents aged 18 – 40 years old. Frequency distribution, percentage and weighted mean were used to describe the variables in the study which are the special tests (independent variable), the call center agents demographic profile and socio-graphic (intervening variable); incidence of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, functional capacity, frequency of symptoms and duration of symptoms (dependent variable). Most of the respondents fall between ages 25 – 30 years old and more than half of the respondents are female. The agents are normal in terms of body mass index for those who work 7 – 8 hours a day or 31 – 39 hours per week. Out of 623 respondents, 166 had positive results in carpal tunnel syndrome and the ages 31 – 35 years old were commonly susceptible to CTS. The gender of respondents in call centers is evenly split. Using the four special tests, the demographic profile and sociographic profiles, revealed that many employees are positive for CTS. In terms of functional capacity, those who tested positive had experienced alteration in their hand function. The incidence is high among female agents with prolonged working hours involving repetitive hand/wrist motion. A large number of the respondents also experience musculo-skeletal problems due to muscle and joint strain that are caused by long hours of physical work but they ignored the need to seek medical attention. Thus it is highly recommended that good ergonomics and proper education be implemented among call center agents and other workers whose job entails highly repetitive hand/wrist use.


Social and moral intelligence can enhance nurses' amenability and affect their professional performance in treatment settings, where there is considerable personality and individual diversity. The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between nurses' social and moral intelligence, and their attitude to patient education. This was a descriptive-analytic correlation study conducted on a statistical sample of 200 nurses selected from West Azerbaijan province during 2014 using the Cochran formula and cluster sampling. Lennick & Kiel's Moral Competency Inventory, Thet's Social Intelligence Scale and a researcher-compiled questionnaire on nurses' attitude to patient education were used for data collection. The data were analyzed by Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis. A positive relationship was found between nurses' attitude to patient education and the social intelligence variable (r=0.422, P=0.001), subscale integrity (r=0.554, P=0.001) subscale responsibility (r=0.292, P=0.001), subscale forgiveness (r=0.283, P=0.002) and subscale compassion (r=0.353, P=0.001) of moral intelligence. The results of multi-variable correlation coefficient using input method indicated that social intelligence and the subscales of moral intelligence influence nurses' attitude to patient education (R = 0.426). Patient education is among the main responsibilities of nurses. The results of this study showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between social intelligence and the subscales of moral intelligence, and nurses' attitude to patient education. It is therefore necessary to improve nurses' social and moral intelligence through group training in order to enhance their educational role.


This book presents the results of the study 'New Approaches for Improving the Development Outcomes of the Extractive Industry in Peru: Improving Impacts on Women in Poverty and Their Families.' In recent years, large amounts of 'development assistance' in the form of infrastructure and social programs have been made available to communities across Peru as a result of the presence of extractive industry (EI) companies. These funds have come through corporate-managed social programs; royalties; the tax on EI profits, which is redistributed through the various canons; trust funds; and the voluntary contribution, which was recently introduced. With increasing extractive industry presence, and a decreasing supply of international cooperation aid to Peru, 2 as of 2006, funds from the mining canon alone outstripped international cooperation aid to Peru. While recent commodities fluctuations have reduced company profits, and therefore taxes, canon, and voluntary contributions by companies, these payments are still very significant and are greater than international cooperation aid. Although it is hard in the current international economic climate to make clear projections, funding resources originating from mining in Peru will continue to be key to the development of the poorer communities surrounding the mining operations. One important way in which EI companies and local governments responsible for administering the oil, gas, and mining canons could significantly improve their development outcomes would be to make sure that their development assistance approaches have a stronger influence on women-particularly women from poorer families, who are the least likely to be able to take advantage of the employment opportunities and other benefits offered by the company's presence.


The blues aesthetic is an ethos of blues people that manifests itself in everything done, not just in the music. (ya Salaam 2) Readers of Toni Morrison's first novel, The Bluest Eye, are often so overwhelmed by the narrative's emotional content--the child Pecola's incestuous rape, ensuing pregnancy, and subsequent abandonment by her community and descent into madness--that they miss the music in this lyrically "songified" narrative. [1] Morrison has stated that her narrative "effort is to be like something that has probably only been fully expressed perhaps in music... " ("Interview" 408). The Bluest Eye is the genesis of her effort "to do what the music did for blacks, what we used to be able to do with each other in private and in that civilization that existed underneath the white civilization" (Morrison, "Language" 371). The catharsis and the transmission of cultural knowledge and values that have always been central to the blues form the thematic and rhetorical underpinnings of The Bluest Eye. The narrative's structure follows a pattern common to traditional blues lyrics: a movement from an initial emphasis on loss to a conclud ing suggestion of resolution of grief through motion. In between its initial statement of loss and its final emphasis on movin' on, The Bluest Eye contains an abundance of cultural wisdom. The blues lyrics that punctuate the narrative at critical points suggest a system of folk knowledge and values that is crucial to a young black woman's survival in the 1930s and '40s and which supports Claudia's cathartic role as storyteller. The lyrics also illustrate the folk knowledge and values that are not transmitted to Pecola--information without which she cannot survive as a whole and healthy human being. In traditional blues songs, the singer is the subject, the I who tells her (or his) own story. In The Bluest Eye, however, Claudia tells Pecola's story. Except for a few fragmented lines of dialogue, Pecola remains silent within Claudia's narrative. Much of the critical discourse on the novel has focused on the relationship between voice and empowerment, and on the problematics of a narrative that silences its dispossessed protagonist while seeking to empower the dispossessed and to critique power relations. This essay addresses the apparent contradiction between The Bluest Eye's silenced protagonist and its traditionally African American equation of voice with empowerment by situating Claudia's narrative voice within African American oral traditions and a blues aesthetic. I posit Claudia as the narrative's blues subject, its bluest "I" and representative blues figure, and Pecola as the abject tabula rasa on which the community's blues are inscribed. I assert that, rather than singing Pecola's blues, Claudia "sings" the community's blues. Claudia bears witness, through the oral tradition of testifying, to the community's lack of self-love and its transference of this lack onto the abject body of Pecola. In the first section below, I address the initial reference to a specific blues song in the novel by discussing the lyrics and structure of "The St. Louis Blues" as representative of traditional blues. I then lay the foundation for a discussion of The Bluest Eye as a blues narrative. In the ensuing section, I build upon this foundation to discern a female blues subjectivity in The Bluest Eye, a subjectivity constructed through African American oral traditions and embodied in the three whores' speech, song, and laughter, and in Claudia's narrative voice. Finally, I position Claudia's subjectivity within a blues aesthetic and her voice within the oral tradition of testifying. The earliest reference to a specific blues in The Bluest Eye follows the scene in which Mrs. MacTeer harangues the girls after Pecola consumes what Mrs. MacTeer deems more than her share of the milk in the refrigerator, and it precedes the narrative of Pecola's first menstruation. This reference to the blues, then, forms a bridge between childhood (the milk consumption represents Pecola's effort to consume--and become--Shirley Temple) and womanhood. …


Organic‐walled dinoflagellate cyst assemblages in surface sediments of the Benguela Current Upwelling System (eastern South Atlantic) show geographic patterns that cannot entirely originate from cyst production or transport. Aimed at answering how far these variations are due to taphonomic control, this study investigated a possible correlation with the changes in bottom‐water oxygen concentrations typifying this region. Based on 36 samples, multivariate statistics were used to analyze community variability with respect to bottom‐water oxygen concentration, temperature, salinity, nutrient content, chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentration, the organic carbon content of surface sediments, and a measure of water column stratification. Determined relationships to salinity, nutrient supply, nutrition, and environmental steadiness point out the requirements for dinoflagellate cyst production, while cross‐shelf transport processes could have introduced variability prior to burial of cysts in surface sediments. The offshore decrease in the relative abundance of protoperidinacean cyst types was consistent with their lower preservation potential under oxygenated conditions and coincided with a change in assemblage composition toward oxidation resistant species. On elimination of covariation, bottom‐water oxygenation was significantly related to this pattern and determined together with seasonal salinity, Chl a, and annual phosphate concentration, the parameter combination best explaining community variability. These results suggest that postdepositional degradation of peridinioid dinoflagellate cysts would partly explain the onshore‐offshore gradient in species distributions and could be responsible for more variability in assemblage compositions than is presently acknowledged.


This is an empirical inquiry about managing newswork change in newspaper organisations. It addresses a basic issue for the sustainability of newspapers: How do newspaper managers deal with newswork changes at a time of uncertainty and complexity? Media management focuses predominantly on the business and audience aspects of the newspaper's operation, with less attention to the professional and social aspects of managing newswork. Media management is not an established academic field, despite its growing popularity and progress in the past two decades. In the scholarship, there is a tendency to apply multidisciplinary knowledge to understand media change. However, many scholars simply 'import' organisational and management theory without questioning the relevance of the theory to their research on newswork. Drawing upon case studies at three newspaper organisations, this research examines three characteristics distinctive of newspaper organisations — the newspaper as a business with dual goals, news organising as institutionalised and professionalised processes, and newswork as a time machine, so as to explicate the contexts, content and processes of managing newswork during strategic change. It develops Pettigrew's theoretical framework of understanding organisational change by incorporating the sensemaking and sensegiving perspectives, and offers a new perspective on the managing of newswork during strategic change. The results show that there is a recurring story in the three cases — namely change is emergent, and people's views on change impact the strategic performance of newspaper organisations. Specifically, newspaper organisation is an emergent environment in which managing and doing newswork are parts of the same strategic processes, and that, therefore, they cannot be treated and studied as separate managerial entities. Applying the sensemaking and related process perspectives, the managing of newswork is understood as a social process of enactment in which both managers and journalists make and give meanings to their practices and in turn make the strategic change — which is emergent, incremental, and idiosyncratic in nature — meaningful and sustainable. This thesis concludes that during the strategic change, sensemaking about newswork has positive impacts on strategic performances only when the social goal of newswork is addressed simultaneously with the business goal, the past experiences and lessons gained by strategy doers on the frontline are valued and backed up by strategy makers, and when managers give the time and space which allow quality journalism to be achieved. These findings and the novel research design employed contribute to journalism, organisational change, and media management fields of research.


Smartphones consume a significant amount of power. Indeed, they can hardly provide a full day of use between charging operations even with a 2000 mAh battery. While power minimization and dynamic power management techniques have been heavily explored to improve the power efficiency of modules (processors, memory, display, GPS, etc.) inside a smartphone platform, there is one critical factor that is often overlooked: the power conversion efficiency of the power delivery network (PDN). This paper focuses on dc-dc converters, which play a pivotal role in the PDN of the smartphone platform. Starting from detailed models of the dc-dc converter designs, two optimization methods are presented: 1) static switch sizing to maximize the efficiency of a dc-dc converter under statistical loading profiles and 2) dynamic switch modulation to achieve the high efficiency enhancement under dynamically varying load conditions. To verify the efficacy of the optimization methods in actual smartphone platforms, this paper also presents a characterization procedure for the PDN. The procedure is as follows: 1) group the modules in the smartphone platform together and use profiling to estimate their average and peak power consumption levels and 2) build an equivalent dc-dc converter model for the power delivery path from the battery source to each group of modules and use linear regression to estimate the conversion efficiency of the corresponding equivalent converter. Experimental results demonstrate that the static switch sizing can achieve 6% power conversion efficiency enhancement, which translates to 19% reduction in power loss general usage of the smartphone. The dynamic switch modulation accomplishes similar improvement at the same condition, while also achieving high efficiency enhancement in various load conditions.


In the United Kingdom (UK) geological maps traditionally have been attributed with lithostratigraphical map units. However, without significant supplementary information, these maps can be only of limited use for planning and engineering works. During the middle part of the 20th century, as development of the science of engineering geology began to accelerate, engineering geological maps started to appear in various forms and at various scales to meet the challenge of making geological maps more suited to land-use planning, engineering design, building, construction and maintenance. Today, engineering geological maps are routinely used at various scales as part of the engineering planning, design and construction process. However, until recently there had been no comprehensive, readily available engineering geological map of the UK to provide the broad context for ground investigation. This paper describes the recently published (2011) 1:1 000 000 scale engineering geology superficial and bedrock maps of the UK. It describes the methodologies adopted for their creation and outlines their potential uses, limitations and future applications. Supplementary material: Engineering Geology (Bedrock) Map of the United Kingdom, Engineering Geology (Superficial) Map of the United Kingdom and Extended Key for the Engineering Geology Maps of the United Kingdom are available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18528.


Error correction software for Bose-Chaudhuri-Hochquenghem (BCH) codes is optimized for general purpose processors that do not equip hardware for Galois field arithmetic. The developed software applies parallelization with a table lookup method to reduce the number of iterations, and maximum parallelization under a cache size limitation is sought for a high throughput implementation. Since this method minimizes the number of lookup tables for encoding and decoding processes, a large parallel factor can be chosen for a given cache size. The naive word length of a general purpose CPU is used as a whole by employing the developed mask elimination method. The tradeoff of the algorithm complexity and the regularity is examined for several syndrome generation methods, which leads to a simple error detection scheme that reuses the encoder and a simplified syndrome generation method requiring only a small number of Galois field multiplications. The parallel factor for Chien search is increased much by transforming the error locator polynomial so that it contains symmetric exponents of positive and negative signs. The experimental results demonstrate that the developed software cannot only provide sufficient throughput for real-time error correction of NAND flash memory in embedded systems but also enhance the reliability of file systems in general purpose computers.


Since the creation of the EU, there have been instances in which a restricted number of member states has handled an issue of international security on behalf of the Union. This article argues that, while controversial, these 'lead groups' have been a valuable practice. They have been effective in generating intra-EU consensus on specific issues and spurring the EU into action, thereby enabling a European response in the context of conflict management and complex international negotiations. Lead groups are sub-optimal arrangements compensating for the in-built institutional shortcomings of unanimity-based decision-making in EU foreign policy. As such, they do not bring integration further. They have nonetheless shown significant potential in giving initiative and content to EU foreign policy. This is shown through the analysis of two case studies, the Anglo-Franco-German trio involved in Iran's nuclear issue and the Franco-German duo brokering a truce between Russia and Ukraine.


At midnight on 30 June 1997, the sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred from Great Britain to the People's Republic of China. Hong Kong entered upon a new incarnation, absorbed into the People's Republic as a Special Administrative Region, with its own constitution, the Basic Law, designed to ensure "one country, two systems'' in accordance with the agreement for the transfer reached by Britain and China. Under the Basic Law, Hong Kong retains as its legislature the body created by Britain known as the Legislative Council. On the transfer of sovereignty, however, the elected Legislative Council was replaced by an appointed Provisional Legislative Council. Within days the legitimacy of this body was challenged in the courts of Hong Kong. Three accused in a conspiracy case argued that the common law, under which they were charged, had, with the end of British rule, ceased to be a part of the law of Hong Kong. This argument led Hong Kong's Court ofAppeal, in HKSAR v Ma Wai-kwan, David1, to consider whether or not the Provisional Legislative Council was the properly constituted legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. This article examines the decision and the circumstances which gave rise to so remarkable a matter ever coming before the courts.


Locating fed cattle price discovery center is revisited using the framework that combines recent progress in causal research with time series analysis. The Bernanke factorization in innovation accounting is obtained by a graphical method called directed acyclic graph which uses data to identify the contemporaneous causal structure among the innovations. This may represent an improvement over the conventional methods which use human judgment and/or theory to supply such information. Results indicate that Kansas market is a dominant price leader where new information is discovered. Contrary to the previous studies, Nebraska market does not appear to be a price discovery location.


The property clause in the South African Constitution requires that legally insecure tenure of land must be made secure (s 25(6)). The Constitution also indicates that rights in customary law are protected (s 39(3)). The 1997 White Paper outlined various principles of land reform, including the objective of a 'unitary system of land rights'. On the face of it, secure tenure can be achieved statutorily. However, this approach raises many complexities, especially the inevitable consequence of undermining indigenous land rights, which flows from the fact that indigenous land rights are paradigmatically different from proprietary rights derived from Roman law but are currently recognised in South African law. The essence of property rights consists of an absolute notion of ownership, a deeds registration system and enforcement of real rights, dependent on surveying and subdivision of land into parcels; conveyancing of land transfer; and registration of ownership in a deeds registry. Indigenous land rights do not share this paradigm. To cause a paradigm shift for indigenous land rights in the quest to secure tenure of land is to institute a formal destruction of the very fabric of indigenous land rights. This paper explores why simply enacting legislation is probably the worst way to go about securing tenure. Rather, such a project requires excellent legal analysis of crucial technicalities and, simultaneously, ethnographic, historical and socio-economic information in considering whether, in fact, a unitary system of land rights is constitutionally feasible.


Abstract. Global warming is expected to be most pronounced in the Arctic where permafrost thaw and release of old carbon may provide an important feedback mechanism to the climate system. To better understand and predict climate effects and feedbacks on the cycling of elements within and between ecosystems in northern latitude landscapes, a thorough understanding of the processes related to transport and cycling of elements is required. A fundamental requirement to reach a better process understanding is to have access to high-quality empirical data on chemical concentrations and biotic properties for a wide range of ecosystem domains and functional units (abiotic and biotic pools). The aim of this study is therefore to make one of the most extensive field data sets from a periglacial catchment readily available that can be used both to describe present-day periglacial processes and to improve predictions of the future. Here we present the sampling and analytical methods, field and laboratory equipment and the resulting biogeochemical data from a state-of-the-art whole-ecosystem investigation of the terrestrial and aquatic parts of a lake catchment in the Kangerlussuaq region, West Greenland. This data set allows for the calculation of whole-ecosystem mass balance budgets for a long list of elements, including carbon, nutrients and major and trace metals. The data set is freely available and can be downloaded from PANGAEA: doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.860961 .


This paper describes work-in-progress on developing parallel visualization strategies for 3D Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) data. AMR is a simple and powerful tool for modeling many important scientific and engineering problems. However visualization tools for 3D AMR data are not generally available. Converting AMR data onto a uniform mesh would result in high storage requirements, and rendering the uniform-mesh data on an average graphics workstation can be painfully slow if not impossible. The adaptive nature of the embedded mesh demands sophisticated visualization calculations. In this work, we compare the performance and storage requirements of a parallel volume renderer for regular-mesh data with a new parallel renderer based on adaptive sampling. While both renderers can achieve interactive visualization, the new approach offers significant performance gains, as indicated by our experiments on the SGI/Cray T3E.


Liaison librarians everywhere are being asked to share more and more in the work of scholarly communication. In many cases they need extensive training to be prepared to talk about these topics with faculty and students. Since scholarly communication is a broad topic covering everything from author's rights to open educational resources, it is difficult to find a single webinar or conference that will expose liaisons to everything they need to know in this arena. Join East Carolina University's Scholarly Communication Librarian and Head of Collection Development as they talk about how they crafted a year-long scholarly communication boot camp using only free webinars and self-taught sessions designed to bring liaisons up to speed in this very important area. Attendees can expect to learn where to locate free resources when building such a program, the thought-processes that went into crafting the boot camp and whether it has been successful so far. Discussion will be heavily encouraged throughout the session.; The paper that corresponds to this presentation is called "Building a Scholarly Communication Boot Camp for East Carolina University Liaisons" and can be found at this URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10342/5075


Utilitarianism is the veiw that an act X is right if and only if the doing of X will have consequences at least as good as the consequences of any alternative act open to the agent. Among the many standard objections raised against this theory is the claim that it requires too much, We ordinarily classify some actions as supererogatory; that is, we say of some actions that, though they are ideal and morally meritorious, they are not obligatory because they require the agent to sacrifice or risk too much. But, the objection goes, the utilitarian theory cannot allow for the category of supererogatory acts. If an action is the one among the alternatives open to the agent that will maximize the good, then the agent is obligated to perform the action regardless of the sacrifice involve. This seems much too austere, and so utilitarianism conflicts with our ordinary beliefs about the moral life.


By combining a newly established single-cell cytotoxicity assay in agarose (16) with estimations of the maximum natural killer (NK) potential (Vmax) by 51Cr release that percentage of target-binding cells (TBC), the fraction of active killers among TBC, the kinetics of single-cell cytotoxicity, and the recycling of effector cells was studied. Using nylon wool-passed peripheral lymphocytes, approximately 10% of the cells will bind to NK- susceptible target cell lines. Most of these have receptors for IgG. Some 50% will go on to kill T cell targets and some 20% to kill the standard target cell K-562. As the individual NK cell is shown to have the capacity to recycle, i.e., to kill more than one target cell in the 3-h test period, and as recycling seems to vary between individuals, there is no consistent correlation between the number of TBC and 51Cr-release values. It seems as if the single-cell cytotoxicity assay, as presently performed in agarose, is a valuable complement to Vmax determinations by 51Cr-release to study the different steps involved in the cytolytic process: recognition, enzyme activation, and effector cell recycling. The discrimination between these steps will probably be necessary to define mechanisms influencing NK cells in different disease states as well as in learning more about the normal function and regulation of the human NK system.


Abstract The property of liquefaction of certain confined, water-logged, unconsolidated sedimentary layers is considered to play an important part in the development of much of convolute folding. Lateral intrastratal laminar flow of liquefied beds, according to flow patterns mainly determined by the distribution of parts of the layers that have remained solid, appears to account satisfactorily for internal folding. Although intra-stratal flow, which can result from a number of causes, may considerably deform the stratification planes of a liquefied layer, there is neither lateral shortening nor a notable change in the thickness of the bed.


Intertextual Afrikanissimo. Postcolonial narrative strategies in the East African chapter of Ilija Trojanow's Der Weltensammler (2006)
To rewrite colonial history from a postcolonial perspective is always a challenging enterprise. This is even more true in the case of German literature where, in contrast to other European literatures, the notion of ›the empire writes back‹ does not apply. The problem of how to ›adequately‹ remember a common past and represent the colonial ›other‹ in a non-reductive, non-humiliating way therefore seems to be especially complex in the German context, as the example of Uwe Timm's Morenga (1978) in this essay illustrates. In contrast to Timm who deliberately avoided imagining the point of view of ›the other‹, Ilija Trojanow's recent novel Der Weltensammler (2006) makes excessive use of an aesthetics of empathy, thus realising what in accordance to Said's postcolonial reading practice might be called ›contrapuntal writing‹. In spite of their divergent politics of representation, these two outstanding postcolonial German texts surprisingly meet in a decisive aspect of ›form‹ : both offer an aesthetic reflection of their representational dilemma. In the case of Morenga, this is achieved by Timm's use of magic realism (the narrating cattle), whereas Trojanow problematises his theoretically contested strategy of representation via intertextuality and takes back a great deal of his overbearing empathy by referring to anglophone East-African rewritings, namely Abdulrazak Gurnah's Paradise (1994) and Moyez G. Vassanji's The Gunny Sack (1989).


Testicular germ cell tumors (TGCTs) are the most common malignancies in men between the age of 15 and 35. Although cisplatin-based chemotherapy is highly effective in advanced disease, approximately 20% of patients have an unfavorable prognosis due to primary or acquired cisplatin resistance. For these patients, new therapeutic options are urgently needed. In numerous tumor entities, combinations of monoclonal antibodies or kinase inhibitors with chemotherapy exerted promising preclinical or clinical results, which have led to new treatment concepts. This prompted us to investigate the activity of different targeted agents alone or in combination with cisplatin in a panel of TGCT cell lines. Methods The in vitro activity of kinase inhibitors targeting mTOR (RAD001), EGFR, HER2/neu, VEGFR (AEE788) and IGF-1R (AEW541) alone or in combination with cisplatin was tested in the cisplatin sensitive TGCT cell lines H12.1 and GCT72 as well as in the resistant cell lines H12.1RA, H12.1D, 1411HP and 1777NRpmet using the sulforhodamin-B-(SRB)-cytotoxicity-assay. To evaluate the activity of the kinase inhibitors, western blot analysis of the targeted receptors and their phosphorylated state was performed before and after exposure to each substance. Results The different kinase inhibitors demonstrated significant cell growth inhibition in both cisplatin sensitive and resistant cell lines. The examined cell lines showed different protein expression levels of the targeted receptors. However there was no correlation between the targeted receptor expression and phosphorylation level and the antiproliferative effect of the respective agent. Furthermore, the combination of cisplatin and the kinase inhibitors exerted both additive and antagonistic effects in the studied cell lines. Conclusion Our data suggest potential activity of the investigated kinase inhibitors in both cisplatin sensitive and resistant TGCT cell lines as a single agent. However, when combined with cisplatin they did not demonstrate any promising ability to overcome cisplatin resistance in TGCTs.


Introduction: A major component of quality of health care is patient satisfaction. Patient satisfaction is multifaceted and a very challenging outcome to define. Patient expectations of care and attitudes greatly contribute to the satisfaction; other psychosocial factors, including facilities and treatments services are also known to contribute to patient satisfaction scores. Aim: To measure patient satisfaction about facilities, services and treatments offered by a dental hospital in India. Materials and Methods: Self administrated questionnaire was distributed to outpatients reporting to the dental hospital for treatment. The questionnaire consisted of 30 items that included information about personal data of the patients and their satisfaction with the facilities, services and treatment received in the hospital. Results: About 89.9% of patients felt that the cost of dental hygiene services were reasonable, 57.6% of patients felt that drinking water facilities were enough in the hospital, 31.9% of patients felt that they have problem with scheduling appointments, 86% of patients felt that they had problem in contacting student dentist. Conclusion: The majority of the patients were satisfied with the facilities, services and treatment received at hospital except for facilities such as water supply and scheduling appointments with patient convenience.


Laser micromachining has been utilised for fabricating channels in polymeric microfluidic devices. The present work focuses on a study of the influence of polymer molecular weight (Mw) on the depth and width of microchannels in polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) that are machined using a CO2 laser. PMMA of four molecular weights, namely, 96.7 kDa, 120 kDa, 350 kDa and 996 kDa were used. The laser cut was performed at low power ratings of between 0.25 W to 2.5 W and the cutting speeds ranged from 7.0 to 64 mm/s. The depth and width of the machined microchannels varied from 18 μm to 660 μm and 110 μm to 450 μm respectively. The effect of the number of cut passes during laser micromachining on the morphology of the microchannel was considered by subjecting each microchannel up to 7 cut passes. It was demonstrated that microchannels with smooth surfaces could be obtained using CO2 laser machining and that the conditions for obtaining the smooth microchannels depend on the polymer molecular weight.


In 1962, Ezra Jack Keats's picture book The Snowy Day introduced readers to young Peter, the first African American protagonist in a full-color children's book, who traipsed alone through the snowy, wondrous sidewalks of New York City. The book was a runaway success, capturing the Caldecott Medal and selling more than two million copies. In The Snowy Day and subsequent books, Keats's awareness of the city, its daily hum, and the role of its children are deeply felt and delicately rendered in words and bright collages and paintings. He made a prominent place for characters and places that had not been represented in children's books, saying about Peter, "My book would have him there simply because he should have been there all along." Coinciding with The Snowy Day's 50th anniversary, the current publication features more than 75 illustrations alongside essays by Claudia Nahson and Maurice Berger, who discuss Keats's Jewish background, his advocacy of civil rights, his inventive art, and his wide-ranging influence.


This paper uses extensive micro-level data from Argentine agriculture circa 1880-1914 to explore various hypotheses relating to the supposed unusual and favored position enjoyed by the owner-operated large scale estates (latifundia) on the pampas as compared to small-scale units operated by cash tenants and sharecroppers. I have access to several data sets which allow me to explore whether tenancy and scale mattered as determinants of technique and efficiency in the rural estates of Buenos Aires province at the turn of the century, and I obtain some surprising results. Tenants did not seem disadvantaged in terms of access to land. Accumulation of land in and of itself produced no direct gain in terms of augmented land prices (due to say, scale economies or monopoly power). And tenancy status appears to have mattered very little as a determinant of investment choices. I conclude that the case against the latifundia, and the pessimistic conventional view of tenant farming on the pampas rests, at present, on little firm quantitative evidence.


The following study aimed at exploring and understanding how higher education students develop interconnections and interaction patterns over time during an online collaborative task using a form of online discussion. A micro-genetic study was carried out by zooming in into four groups of students that showed extreme grading results in their final product. The study took place in a Psychology course at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) where 63 students participated in a two-week online discussion using two different interactive tools. These two different types of online discussion did not appear to affect students' interaction patterns, but groups using the Annotation tool did focus more on cognitive matters, while the space for discussion at the UOC had a more balanced focus on both social and cognitive dimensions. Continuous and meaningful feedback also proved to provide important conditions for this type of online collaborative task, which requires students to construct and maintain a shared conception of a problem over time.


The shipwrecks of the Graveyard of the Atlantic are a prime subject for heritage tourism development in North Carolina. Education about these irreplaceable cultural resources, and effective interpretation of them, is critical for their protection and preservation. Development of interpretive means for shipwrecks would foster heritage tourism, which would serve to educate the public about archaeological resources, and promote local economies. However, these benefits must be balanced with sustainable use and protection of the resources.  This study of heritage tourism development for North Carolina shipwrecks consists of a comparative evaluation of existing programs for shipwreck interpretation and protection. Evaluation is based on quantitative data, the qualitative measures of community involvement, effective interpretation, and active management, as well as each program's tradeoffs and accomplishment of its stated goals. The outcomes are also assessed for their feasibility in North Carolina, based on its shipwrecks, physical environmental conditions, political climate and initiative, and other relevant factors. The ultimate product is a series of recommendations for North Carolina of alternatives that may be most effective and feasible.  The selected programs represent a wide range of interpretive methods, and target diverse audiences. Four North Carolina programs are evaluated, all of which are recommended for continuation and expansion. Six programs from outside North Carolina are also evaluated, four of which are recommended for creation in North Carolina. Analysis of the policy implications of each program provides insight into how the recommendations may be approached to maximize their chances of successful implementation.  The further development of heritage tourism programs along the North Carolina coast will have a significant positive impact on local communities and on the maritime heritage of the Graveyard of the Atlantic. The growth and expansion of programs designed to protect, preserve, and interpret shipwrecks would increase public stewardship of these irreplaceable cultural resources, and stimulate local economies via job creation and tourism.


This article studies the U.S. establishment-size distribution from 1974–2006. The main findings are: (i) the size of the "representative" establishment is relatively constant; (ii) the size distribution has become slightly more evenly distributed; (iii) the relative stability of aggregate statistics obscures important movements in the manufacturing and service sectors; (iv) both intra- and intersector changes contribute to aggregate changes; and (v) changes in the size distribution of firms are similar to those of establishments. These findings will be useful to calibrate and test models with firms/establishments heterogeneity.


We present the first empirical investigation of why men are assumed to earn higher salaries than women (the salary estimation effect). Although this phenomenon is typically attributed to conscious consideration of the national wage gap (i.e., real inequities in salary), we hypothesize instead that it reflects differential, automatic economic valuing of men and women. In the four studies described here, we demonstrate that the salary estimation effect is present in both student and community samples, is not explained by participants' awareness of real gender inequities in pay, and appears in descriptive tasks (i.e., estimating what men and women do earn; Studies 1 and 2) as well as in a prescriptive task (i.e., determining what men and women should earn; Study 3). Further, the salary estimation effect is best predicted by the degree to which participants hold an automatic stereotype that links men, more than women, with wealth (Study 4). These results suggest that differential estimates of men's and women's salaries, rather than deliberately reflecting reality, instead indicate a male-wealth stereotype that operates largely outside of awareness. We discuss the implications of these results for salary decision making and the unintentional perpetuation of the gender gap in wages.


The pathophysiological significance of hepatic lipid accumulation in the absence of significant alcohol consumption is increasingly recognised. Thus, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is now considered the most common cause of liver enzyme elevation in Western countries.1 It is regarded as the hepatic manifestation of the metabolic syndrome (MS), characterised by central obesity and insulin resistance (IR), and resulting diabetes type 2, dyslipidaemia and hypertension.2 NAFLD encompasses mild hepatic steatosis to steatohepatitis (non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)) with significant necroinflammation and progressive fibrosis. NAFLD is believed to account for a large fraction, if not entirely for what was previously termed 'cryptogenic cirrhosis'.3

Since cirrhosis is the main risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), liver cancer could be simply a complication of end-stage NAFLD, similar to the situation encountered in other chronic fibrosing liver diseases. However, accumulating evidence suggests that hepatocarcinogenesis may also be related to earlier stages of NAFLD. Case series of patients with HCC and NAFLD as the only identified risk factor strongly suggest that hepatocarcinogenesis is part of the natural history of NAFLD. Based on the known association of NAFLD with IR and MS, approximately two-thirds of the patients were obese and/or diabetic,4 and a remarkable 25% of these patients had no cirrhosis. Considering the rapidly increasing prevalence of both conditions in affluent societies, and their significance in the pathophysiology of NAFLD, a rising incidence of NAFLD and its complications—including HCC—can be expected in the mid-term future. Therefore, it is particularly worrying that the most persuasive evidence for an association between NAFLD and HCC derives from studies on the risk of HCC in patients with MS. In a large prospective cohort study HCC mortality was significantly higher in obese subjects than in those with normal body mass index.5 The most comprehensive data underlining the significance …


This graduate-level course focuses on one-dimensional nonparametric statistics developed mainly from around 1945 and deals with order statistics and ranks, allowing very general distributions.

For multidimensional nonparametric statistics, an early approach was to choose a fixed coordinate system and work with order statistics and ranks in each coordinate. A more modern method, to be followed in this course, is to look for rotationally or affine invariant procedures. These can be based on empirical processes as in computer learning theory.

Robustness, which developed mainly from around 1964, provides methods that are resistant to errors or outliers in the data, which can be arbitrarily large. Nonparametric methods tend to be robust.


Although mistletoe is typically viewed as a parasite of juniper in a two-way interaction, its role may become neutral or even mutualistic when their common avian seed dispersing agents are considered as a threeway interaction. In the study area, wintering avian frugivores forage on both one-seed juniper (Juniperus monosperma) berries and on the fruit of its associated mistletoe (Phoradendron juniperinum). Three major findings emerged from our studies that support a threeway interaction and the hypothesis of conditional interactions. First, mistletoes provide a stable resource for shared avian seed dispersers; junipers do not. Whereas juniper berry production varied 10to 15-fold over the 3 years of our study, mistletoe fruit abundance did not vary significantly. Second, the abundance of avian seed dispersal agents, such as Townsend's solitaires (Myadestes townsendi), is strongly tied to the abundance of juniper berries in mast years and mistletoe fruits in all years. In fact, the best overall predictor of their common avian seed dispersal agents was the abundance of mistletoe; stands with mistletoe attracted up to 3 times more avian frugivores than stands with little or no mistletoe. Thus, mistletoe berries can serve as the main attractor for birds that disperse juniper berries. Third, in agreement with the hypothesis that mistletoe can benefit junipers by attracting and supporting greater populations of avian seed dispersal agents, the number of juniper seedlings was more than 2-fold greater in stands with high mistletoe density compared with stands that had little or no mistletoe. Results suggest that the occurrence of a three-way interaction, in the presence of environmental variation (in this case, annual variation in juniper berry crops), may change the ecological roles of associated species. A conceptual model is presented to illustrate how the role of mistletoe may range from parasitic to mutualistic, while the role of avian seed dispersers may conversely range from mutualistic to parasitic, the latter by acting as vectors for the spread of mistletoe.


In this exercise, students enrich for soil-associated microbes that perform three key nitrogen
cycle transformations: nitrogen fixation, aerobic ammonia oxidation, and anaerobic nitrate
reduction. In terms of nitrogen fixers, they isolate Azotobacter and Rhizobium
using adaptations of Beijerink's historic enrichments. In terms of aerobic oxidizers, they use
ammonia-based media, indirectly observing for lithotrophs by assaying for the production of nitrate
and nitrite. In terms of anaerobic reducers, they inoculate two different soils into standard
nitrate tubes and test for denitrification and transformations to fixed nitrogen compounds.


Did Martin Luther King's spiritual understanding of political struggle truly help the Civil Rights movement? Can breast cancer victims incorporate both spiritual wisdom and political action in their fight for life? Confronting questions that challenge the foundations of both politics and spirituality, Roger S. Gottlieb presents a brave new account of how religious ethics and progressive movements share a common vision of a transformed world. In doing so, he offers a bold and eloquent affirmation: that authentic religion requires an activist, transforming presence in the political world, and that the moral and psychological insights of religion are indispensable resources in political struggles for democracy, human rights and ecological sanity. With original and compelling interpretations of Martin Luther King and the civil rights struggle, feminism, disability rights, the global environmental movement, and the fight for breast cancer, Joining Hands will alter the way spiritual seekers, political activists, and society as a whole think about the political role of religion and the spiritual component of politics.


This report investigates whether Operation Twist (1961) and the Maturity Extension Program (MEP) (2011-2012), has induced a decline in the 10-year Treasury yield. I discuss the economic starting points for the two monetary policies and if the broader objective of economic stimuli is achieved in the American economy today. By estimating-and predicting the 10-year yield I assess whether fundamental conditions in the American economy warrant the level of the10-year yield today-and in 1961. I further review whether the current low level can be explained by other monetary policies-or macroeconomic conditions. My results indicate that MEP might have given a downward pressure on the 10-year Treasury yield. By predicting the 10-year Treasury yield with the variables PMI, inflation, the trade balance, the effective federal funds rate, federal debt held by foreign-and international investors and the St. Louis Financial stress index there still remains, on average, a 55 basis point unexplained spread between the model-predicted yield and actual yield. My results especially indicate that foreign inflow of capital to Treasuries has been an important determinant for the development in the 10-year yield in the last years. I further find a small-and short lived effect of Operation Twist on the 10-year Treasury yield. My conclusions are mainly based on a marginal decline in the actual 10-year yield in 1961, but also because the amount of U.S marketable federal debt held by the public remains roughly unchanged in 1961. Overall I conclude that MEP might have been stimulating for the economy; longer-term yields have declined and there are signs of eased credit conditions. However, Quantitative easing programs in 2008-2010 and continuous forward guidance by the Federal Reserve are factors that most likely have contributed to the current low levels of the longer-term Treasury yields.


The microdistribution and dynamics of deep-sea hydrothermal vent communities often reflect the extreme heterogeneity of their environment. Here we present an assessment of spatial variation in the reproductive development of the alvinellid polychaete Paralvinella palmiformis at the High Rise vent field (Endeavour Segment, Juan de Fuca Ridge, NE Pacific). Samples collected from different locations across the vent field suggest patchy reproductive development for this species. Males and females from several locations contained few or no developing gametes, while gametes were abundant in samples collected at the same time from other locations. Samples lacking gametes were distinguished by body size-frequency distributions with peaks at smaller sizes and the presence or absence of other fauna consistent with early stage assemblages in a successional mosaic model previously proposed for Endeavour Segment communities. Where gametes were present, synchrony of reproductive development between females within samples and between samples was evident. Reproductive synchrony between pairs of samples initially declined over a 7 d interval between samples, suggesting a rapid rate of reproductive development for P. palmiformis. Samples collected 1 mo apart, however, displayed similar frequency distributions of developing gametes. A peak of mature male and female gametes appeared to develop and disappear within the limited temporal resolution of the samples, consistent with possible simultaneous maturation of gametes despite pseudocopulation and sperm storage in this species.


To improve the speed of a quadruped robot, a novel electric-drive robot leg based on a double four-bar mechanism is proposed. This scheme avoids the need for constant alternation between the acceleration and deceleration of the motors and may thus achieve a higher rotation speed. However, the dimensional parameters of the double four-bar mechanism have a significant impact on the dynamic performance of the robot. To determine the optimal dimensions, a kinematic and dynamic analysis of the proposed robot leg is carried out, and the functional relations between the joint motors' peak torque, peak angular velocity and total energy consumption in a single gait cycle and the dimensional parameters are determined. In this way, a multi-objective optimization model for the leg design is constructed, and the gamultiobj algorithm is applied to obtain the Pareto optimal solution set of the optimization model. By determining the weight of each objective function based on a combination weighting method, the optimal dimensions of the leg are obtained from the Pareto optimal solution. Finally, a virtual prototype of the robot leg is built via ADAMS to conduct a walking simulation, and the physical prototype is installed on a self-developed test bench of one-legged movement to conduct a no-load walking experiment. The results of the theoretical calculations and simulation are well coincident with those of the tests, which verify the correctness and validity of the proposed algorithm. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.mech.23.6.19854


A daily peak load forecasting technique that uses artificial neural network with seasonal indices is presented in this paper. A neural network of relatively smaller size than the main prediction network is used to predict the daily peak load for a period of one year over which the actual daily load data are available using one step ahead prediction. Daily seasonal indices are calculated as a ratio of the predicted load to the actual load. The i th index is used as an additional input to a main network that predicts the load for the i th day of the year following the one for which the indices were computed. Both neural networks are trained by the back propagation algorithm. The technique is illustrated with data derived from the Nigerian national electric power system. Results obtained are good enough to meet the requirements of practical systems and show appreciable improvement over the normal one step ahead prediction with neural network. Keywords: load forecasting, neural network, seasonal indices, back propagation, actual load


This chapter reports on a case study on the effects of CLIL on a teacher's language use. The data consist of biology lessons by a teacher both in his L1, Finnish, and in English. Analysis focuses both on what the teacher says and how he uses language in the two settings. In line with its discourse-pragmatic orientation, the chapter pays special attention to social and interpersonal dimensions of language use. The findings suggest that patterns of interaction differ across the two contexts, lessons in Finnish containing more teacher monologues than CLIL lessons. However, when teaching in Finnish, the teacher has at his disposal a wider repertoire of subtle means to construct and negotiate the teacher–student relationship and its power asymmetries.


A quarter-rate sampling receiver with a 2-tap decision feedback equalizer (DFE) is implemented in 90-nm CMOS technology for low-power I/O links. An analog sampling and soft-decision technique is introduced to relax the timing critical feedback path of the DFE. The shortened critical path enables better power performance. Error rates are below the measurement capability of 10-12 with 231-1 PRBS at 6 Gb/s, with an 80-mV differential launch amplitude through a channel with 6.2-dB attenuation at 3 GHz. The receiver draws 4.08 mA from a 1.0-V supply


Objectives: This study was undertaken to determine if there is increased likelihood of popliteal artery injury as one places a fixed-angle lateral proximal tibia locking plate with posterior plate lift off and or anterior plate translation from the ideal position. Methods: A Synthes (Synthes USA, West Chester, PA) 3.5-mm and 4.5-mm lateral proximal tibia locking plate was placed consecutively on each of six specimens in the straight lateral (SL) position. Screw position with respect to the medial cortex was recorded as well as the distance of the posterior most screw tip to the popliteal artery. Next a 3-mm shim was placed under the posterior edge of the same plate to mimic posterior plate lift off (LO) followed by placement of a 6-mm shim. The same experiment was repeated with the plate translated 5 mm anteriorly (AT). Results: The popliteal artery was injured in zero of six specimens using the 3.5-mm plate. The popliteal artery was injured in six of six specimens using the 4.5-mm plate in the 5-mm AT 6-mm LO position, five of six with 5-mm AT and 3-mm LO, two of six with only 5-mm AT, four of six with SL and 6-mm LO, two of six with SL and 3-mm LO, and zero of six with SL. Conclusion: The Synthes 4.5-mm plate can put the popliteal artery at risk with as little as 3-mm posterior liftoff in the intended straight lateral position or with 5-mm anterior plate translation with no posterior liftoff. Therefore, placement of the 4.5-mm plate in the proper position and confirmation of its position with a true lateral radiograph is paramount to avoid injury to the popliteal artery.


The "Other"—source of fear and fascination; emblem of difference demonized and romanticized. Theories of alterity and cultural diversity abound in the contemporary academic landscape. Victor Segalen's early attempt to theorize the exotic is a crucial reference point for all discussions of alterity, diversity, and ethnicity.

Written over the course of fourteen years between 1904 and 1918, at the height of the age of imperialism, Essay on Exoticism encompasses Segalen's attempts to define "true Exoticism." This concept, he hoped, would not only replace nineteenth-century notions of exoticism that he considered tawdry and romantic, but also redirect his contemporaries' propensity to reduce the exotic to the "colonial." His critique envisions a mechanism that appreciates cultural difference—which it posits as an aesthetic and ontological value—rather than assimilating it: "Exoticism's power is nothing other than the ability to conceive otherwise," he writes.

Segalen's pioneering work on otherness anticipates and informs much of the current postcolonial critique of colonial discourse. As such Essay on Exoticism is essential reading for both cultural theorists or those with an interest in the politics of difference and diversity.


Deep neural networks are an extremely successful and widely used technique for various pattern recognition and machine learning tasks. Due to power and resource constraints, these computationally intensive networks are difficult to implement in embedded systems. Yet, the number of applications that can benefit from the mentioned possibilities is rapidly rising. In this paper, we propose a novel architecture for processing previously learned and arbitrary deep neural networks on FPGA-based SoCs that is able to overcome these limitations. A key contribution of our approach, which we refer to as batch processing, achieves a mitigation of required weight matrix transfers from external memory by reusing weights across multiple input samples. This technique combined with a sophisticated pipelining and the usage of high performance interfaces accelerates the data processing compared to existing approaches on the same FPGA device by one order of magnitude. Furthermore, we achieve a comparable data throughput as a fully featured x86-based system at only a fraction of its energy consumption.


The spacing between target and flankers is one of the main factors of crowding. The closer the flankers are to the target, the stronger is crowding. Recently, it was proposed that crowding strength is determined by the distance between target and flanker centroids (Levi & Carney, 2009). Here, we determined vernier offset discrimination in the periphery with different flanker configurations. When the vernier was flanked by two vertical lines, thresholds increased. Thresholds decreased compared to the two-lines condition when each of the lines was complemented to form a rectangle. This is in line with the centroid hypothesis because the rectangles' centroids are further away than the centroids of the single flankers. However, when crossing the upper and lower horizontal lines of the rectangles, performance deteriorated even though centroids are the same in this and the rectangle condition. These results can neither be explained by the spacing between the target and the flankers nor by centroid distance. Also simple pooling models fail to account for these results. We propose instead that grouping is a key factor in crowding: crowding decreases when target and flankers ungroup, crowding increases when target and flankers group.


Rationale: Employability features prominently in the current lexicon surrounding higher education. What is evident in the literature is that employability has no single definition and has evolved from an economic interpretation of the ability to secure work, to a multi-faceted concept, including skills, self-efficacy and self-regulated learning. Higher Education Institutions are coming under increasing pressure to address employability as part of their portfolio, while operating in an increasingly turbulent and competitive environment. Much of the existing research into employability in Higher Education concerns itself with the undergraduate population. There exists little research into postgraduate employability. This study seeks to contribute to that gap by exploring whether postgraduate management education has an impact on students' perceptions of their employability. Research Methods: A sequential mixed methods approach was used involving two phases of data collection. Phase 1 was a survey of 450 students from two Universities' Business Schools who completed a paper-based questionnaire. This quantitative data was analysed using SPSS. Phase 2 comprised follow-up interviews with 10 survey participants, following completion of their programme. The interviews were informed by the survey, and transcripts were analysed using NVIVO 10. Findings: Survey findings from the whole research population (n=450) saw some differences in students' perceptions of their employability following their engagement with the taught programme. Postgraduate education has a more positive impact on females' perceptions of skills and self-efficacy than on males' perceptions. Students with work experience perceive their employability higher than those without work experience. Those without work experience perceive their skills and self-regulated learning higher after postgraduate education. Discussion: The similarity in results in students' perceptions between the data collection points suggests more could be done within the programmes to make a difference to students' perceptions of their employability. Where differences do exist suggests opportunities for specific interventions, to enhance students' perceptions. Conclusion: Underpinning this work is the contention that increasing students' perceptions of employability requires postgraduate education to enhance students' perceptions of their skills, their perception of themselves as independent learners, and their perceived self-efficacy. Survey findings suggest postgraduate management education is achieving this aim in part, indicating opportunities for interventions to address this.


OBJECTIVE--To examine whether the geographical distribution of births associated with preconceptional exposure of fathers to radiation at the Sellafield nuclear installation is consistent with the suggestion that this exposure explains the excess of childhood lymphoid malignancy in the adjacent village of Seascale. DESIGN--Retrospective birth cohort study. SETTING--Cumbria, West Cumbria health district, and Seascale civil parish. SUBJECTS--The 10,363 children born in Cumbria during 1950-89 to fathers employed at Sellafield. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--The doses of external whole body ionising radiation received by fathers at Sellafield in the total time and in the six months before conception of their children; the proportions of the collective doses associated with Seascale and the rest of West Cumbria. RESULTS--9256 children were born to fathers who had been exposed to radiation before the child's conception. Of these, 7318 had fathers who were exposed in the six months before conception. Overall 7% (38 person-Sv) of the collective total preconceptional dose and 7% (3 person-Sv) of the collective dose for the six months before conception were associated with children born in Seascale. Of all the children whose fathers worked at Sellafield, 842 (8%) were born in Seascale. The mean individual doses before conception were consistently lower in Seascale than in the rest of West Cumbria. CONCLUSIONS--The distribution of the paternal preconceptional radiation dose is statistically incompatible with this exposure providing a causal explanation for the cluster of childhood leukaemias in Seascale.


Some ISPs are trying to become part of the online advertising market. Such ISPs either: (i) cooperate with online advertising entities (e.g., ad networks) by providing users' private information to achieve better ad targeting in exchange for a share of the revenue, or (ii) modify the ad traffic on-the-fly such that they divert part of the online advertising revenue for themselves. This is a very important issue because online advertising is at the core of today's business model and it fuels many "free" applications and services. We study this behavior using game theory to model the interactions between ISPs and ad networks, and we analyze the effects on the Web caused by ISPs taking part in online advertising. Our results show that if the users' private information can improve ad targeting significantly and if ad networks do not have to pay a high share of revenue to the ISPs, ad networks and ISPs will cooperate to jointly provide targeted online ads. Otherwise, ISPs will divert part of the online ad revenue for themselves. In that case, if the diverted revenue is small, ad networks will not react. However, if their revenue loss is significant, the ad networks will invest into improving the security of the Web and protecting their ad revenue.


The first dedicated, boat-based marine mammal
surveys in Cambodian coastal waters were conducted
over seven discrete survey periods, spanning
February to September 2001. These surveys
covered the majority of Cambodian coastal waters,
in addition to the main offshore islands.
As a result of these surveys, ten marine mammal
species have now been confirmed to occur in
Cambodian waters. Six of these, the false killer
whale, a long-beaked form of common dolphin,
pantropical spotted dolphin, dwarf spinner dolphin,
Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin, and Indo-
Pacific humpback dolphin, constitute new country
records for Cambodia. Additionally, a short-finned
pilot whale was found live-stranded, constituting
a further new country record. These initial results
indicate that the current status of marine mammals
in Cambodian waters is encouraging, both in terms
of species diversity and abundance. Cambodian
waters appear to support regionally, if not globally,
significant populations of several of these species.
The dugong is almost certainly the most highly
threatened marine mammal in the region.
Studies to date have provided important baseline
knowledge regarding the status, distribution, and
important areas of occurrence for marine mammals
in Cambodia. It is now essential that conservation
and management strategies are developed
and implemented. Public education and awareness
and community-based management programs, as
well as stricter laws, regulations, and adequate
enforcement will be essential to conserving the
remaining marine mammal populations and ensuring
their survival in Cambodian coastal waters.


Many elements which are essential to human and other animal health in small doses can
be toxic if ingested in excess. Selenium (Se), a naturally occurring metalloid element is
found in all natural materials on earth including rocks, soils, waters, air, plant and
animal tissues. Since the early 1930's, it has been recognised that Se toxicity causes
hoof disorders and hair loss in livestock. Se was also identified as an essential trace
element to humans and other animals in the late 1950's. It forms a vital constituent of
the biologically important enzyme glutathione peroxidase which acts as an anti-oxidant
preventing cell degeneration. Se deficiency has been implicated in the aetiology of
several diseases including cancer, muscular dystrophy, muscular sclerosis and cystic
fibrosis. Se can be assimilated in humans through several pathways including food,
drinking water and inhalation of Se-bearing particles from the atmosphere. In the
majority of situations, food is the most important source of Se, as levels in water are
very low. The narrow range between deficiency levels (<40 pg per day) and toxic
levels in susceptible people (> 900 pg per day) makes it necessary to carefully control
the amount of Se in the diet.
In China, Se deficiency has been linked to an endemic degenerative heart disease
known as Keshan Disease (KD) and an endemic osteoarthropathy which causes
deformity of affected joints, known as Kaschin-Beck Disease. These diseases occur in
a geographic belt stretching from Heilongjiang Province in north-east China to Yunnan
Province in the south-west. In the period between 1959 and 1970, peak KD incidence
rates exceeded 40 per 100 000 (approximately 8500 cases per annum) with 1400 - 3000
deaths recorded each year. Incidence rates have since fallen to less than 5 per 100 000
with approximately 1000 new cases reported annually (Levander, 1986). Se toxicity
(selenosis) resulting in hair and nail loss and disorders of the nervous system in the
human population, has also been recorded in Enshi District, Hubei Province and in
Ziyang County, Shanxi Province. China possesses one of the best epidemiological
databases in the world on Se-related diseases which has been used in conjunction with
geochemical data to demonstrate a significant geochemical control on human Se
exposure. However, the precise geographical areas at risk and the geochemical controls
on selenium availability have yet to be established.