A fluorescent liquid-penetrant inspection of an experimental stator vane of a first-stage axial compressor revealed the presence of a longitudinal crack over 50 mm (2 in.) long at the edge of a resistance seam weld. The vane was made of titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V (AMS 4911). The crack was opened by fracturing the vane. The crack surface displayed fatigue beach marks emanating from the seam-weld interface. Both the leading-edge and trailing-edge seam welds exhibited weld-metal expulsions up to 3.6 mm (0.14 in.) in length. Metallographic examination confirmed that metal expulsion from the resistance welds was generally present. The stator vane failed by a fatigue crack that initiated at internal surface discontinuities caused by metal expulsion from the resistance seam weld used in fabricating the vane. Expulsion of metal from seam welds should be eliminated by a slight reduction in welding current to reduce the temperature, by an increase in the electrode force, or both.


This study explores the experience of mature students in a Further Education college
in Ireland. It looks at the development of the further education sector and its current
role in Irish education. Further education is a major provider of education for adults as
more than half the students in further education are now mature students. The system
grew largely within the Vocational Education system and, it is suggested, has adopted
many of the neo-liberal ideas and practices prevalent in society more generally.
The first research element was a survey and focus group, followed by nine qualitative
interviews which explored with the students their reasons for returning to education,
their experience while in further education and what they consider to be the benefits of
participation. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach the data were
generated and analysed through a systematic process of coding, categorisation and the
development of core concepts grounded in the students' lived experience. Three
significant concepts emerged from the analysis. The first concept of 'The latent self'
describes the range of social, personal, structural and biographical influences and
discusses how they interact and impact on the decision to return to education. The
second concept, 'The Emerging Self' describes the negotiation of challenges faced by
the students in the process of change. The third concept, 'The Revised Self', describes
the changed self emphatically described by the students as resulting from their
participation and characterised by greatly enhanced confidence and agency.
The conceptual label 'Finding a voice' was used to describe this 'Revised Self' as
many of the participants spoke in terms of feeling able to speak and having things to
say. It encompasses willingness and a sense of entitlement to participate and engage
with others and a sense of having something to contribute.
The findings demonstrate that further education is a site of significant learning for
adults. Although the purpose of the further education sector is to provide students with
the skills needed in the workplace and many students came for vocational reasons, the
actual learning went beyond the instrumental and resulted in many surprising benefits
to the students and to society more generally.


It is well established that beginning teachers need support to bridge the gap from college teacher preparation to the classroom setting (Fletcher & Strong, 2009; Wong, 2003). In fact, lack of support in this transition has been identified as a leading factor that causes beginning teachers to leave the profession at high rates early in their careers (Andrews, Gilbert & Martin, 2006). Research suggests that coaching is an effective way to support beginning teacher's learning (Ingersoll & Strong, 2011). The purpose of this qualitative research is to tell the lived experiences of nine teachers who took part of in a statewide induction coaching program. Using narrative inquiry methodology with semi-structured interviews, the study sought to gain the individual stories of past beginning teachers who worked with an induction coach, identify common themes across beginning teachers' narratives, and to understand what their retrospective stories tell us about working with their induction coach. Four main implications of the findings include the needs of beginning teachers in the field, phases of coaching in reaction to the needs of beginning teachers, qualities of an induction coach, and the need for coaches to mediate the identities of the beginning teacher.


This study aimed at optimizing the medium of a new Ganoderma lucidum strain CAU5501 to enhance the yield of exopolysaccharides (EPS) and mycelial growth. Firstly, the suitable level of glucose, magnesium, phosphate and C/N ratio was determined by single factor experiment. Subsequently, the optimum concentrations of these medium components were investigated using the orthogonal matrix method. The results indicated that the higher levels of EPS were correlated with the level of cell growth when glucose concentration was studied (data no show). The optimum medium for EPS yield was found to be 70 g/l glucose, 5 C/N ratio, 2.5 g/l KH2PO4, 0.75 g/l MgSO4·7H2O, and for mycelial growth was 50 g/l glucose, 5 C/N ratio, 1.5 g/l KH2PO4, 0.5 g/l MgSO4·7H2O. When cultivated in the obtained optimal media in 3 L shake flask, compared to the basal medium, the EPS yield increased markedly from 1.003 to 1.723 g/l, and the mycelium formation was also markedly improved from 2.028 to 7.235 g/l. Results obtained in this study are beneficial to further study for enhancing the production of Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides in large scale commercialized production.


The increasing availability of high resolution satellite images is an opportunity to detect urban objects such as roads. In order to increasing the precision a new image analysis using object-based approaches has been proposed. In this paper, designing steps of knowledge based of road detection has been presented. In this field, an important challenge is the use of knowledge for automatic road objects identification, and a major issue is the formalization and exploitation of this knowledge. At first, optimum features, including spectral, texture and structural features, are detected using a genetic algorithm with a k-nearest neighbor classifier. After that a rule based road detection strategy has been developed using prior knowledge and optimum features interpretation. The method is designed and validated by IKONOS images of the urban areas of Hobart, Kish and Shiraz. The validation results highlight the capacity of the proposed method to automatically identify road objects using the knowledge based proposed system.


This Article applies the emerging field of information markets to the prediction of Supreme Court decisions. Information markets, which aggregate information from a wide array of participants, have proven highly accurate in other contexts such as predicting presidential elections. Yet never before have they been applied to the Supreme Court, and the field of predicting Supreme Court outcomes remains underdeveloped as a result. We believe that creating a Supreme Court information market, which we have named Tiresias after the mythological Greek seer, will produce remarkably accurate predictions, create significant monetary value for participants, provide guidance for lower courts, and advance the development of information markets.


'Spike in The DataWhen scientists at CERNs Large Hadron Collider wanted to share potentially ground breaking results regarding the possible detection of the elusive theoretical elementary particle the Higgs Boson they stopped cautiously short of declaring the detection as a discovery using instead the term 'Spike in the Data' in relation to their findings.The installation Spike in the Data' takes its title from their loaded caution. It is part of a body of work called 'Quantum Questions for Dummies' informed by popular interest in some of the more abstract and speculative ideas regarding the structure of the universe. The work has been facilitated through ongoing dialogue with astronomers at Armagh Observatory.The installation consists of a precariously balanced model of the mountain Gran Sasso in central Italy, accompanied by an animation of a possible Higgs boson event. Gran Sasso is the site of an underground lab where neutrinos, another form of sub atomic particle, fired from CERN were measured as having travelled at a speed fractionally faster than the speed of light. Scientists are also understandably cautious about this result giving the implications for current understandings of physics of the cosmic speed limit being broken.These spikes in the data have resulted in physics being at a very interesting turning point.If the Higgs exists it confirms the Standard Model as a theoretical framework which goes some way to explaining how the forces of nature work, if it does not exist the Standard Model is in for an exciting rethink.If it's proven that the speedy neutrinos actually did travel faster than the speed of light current understandings of the very nature of space and time as they are currently understood will need radical reworking.The installation Spike in the Data attempts to consider these events from a layperson's point of view.


The effects of interesterification and fatty acid supplementation on the nutritive value of homogenised fats in milk replacers for calves were studied in two digestibility experiments, each of a 6 × 6 latin square design. Using a level of 20% added fat, the mean apparent digestibilities of the total dietary lipids were: butterfat, 96.5%; interesterified butterfat, 95.5%; tallow, 88.7%; interesterified tallow, 93.1%; tallow supplemented with trimyristin and triolein by interesterification, 92.3%; tallow supplemented with trimyristin and triolein by simple admixture, 89.9%. The high digestibility of butterfat is not dependent apparently on any specific non-random distribution of its constituent fatty acids. The digestibility of the tallow was lower and interesterification just failed to give a significant improvement. The inclusion of additional myristic and oleic acids had no significant effect.

Using a level of 15% added fat, the mean apparent digestibilities of the total dietary lipids were: tallow, 79.7%; interesterified tallow, 89.2%; interesterified, reduced stearic acid, tallow 87.9%; interesterified, reduced stearic acid, added butyric acid, tallow, 96.3%; interesterified, added butyric acid, tallow 94.7%; tallow admixed with tributyrin, 84.0%. The inclusion in tallow of butyric acid by a process involving interesterification resulted in substantial increases in digestibility to values similar to those obtained for butterfat and interesterified butterfat in the first experiment. The improvement was not achieved by simple admixture of tributyrin with tallow. Reduction of the stearic acid content in tallow to a level similar to that in butterfat had no significant effect on fat digestibility.

The lower digestibility of tallow than of butterfat was due mainly to lower digestibility of palmitic and stearic acids and a higher percentage of the latter acid in tallow. Modifications which effected an improvement in the digestibility of tallow generally did so by improving the digestibility of these acids.


I. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE POLARIZING AREA OF GLOBAL WARMING THE ISSUE of global warming or climate change remains a polarizing subject and a continuing source of heated political, social, and economic debate. On one end of the spectrum, there are those who subscribe to the belief that global warming poses a devastating threat to continued life on the planet. This group points to the intensified hurricanes that have battered the South in the last few years (Katrina, Rita, and others), flooding coastlines, the raging wildfires in the West, the El Nino phenomenon, droughts in Africa, rising sea levels in Asia, and a host of other matters as signs of a serious existing problem and as frightening signals of things yet to come. It has been argued in some American courtrooms that human-induced global warming has, among other things, reduced California's snow pack--a vital source of fresh water, raised sea levels along California's coastline, increased ozone pollution in urban areas, increased the threat of wildfires, and cost the State of California millions of dollars in assessing those impacts and preparing for future impacts. (1) On the other end of the spectrum, there are those who maintain that the "threat of catastrophic global warming [is] the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." (2) This article is not a foray into the political debate on global warming; but instead, it is intended to provide insurance and reinsurance professionals and practitioners with an overview of global warming, the legal theories, defenses, and early results in underlying litigation predicated upon global warming, and some of the coverage issues and defenses that may be presented by global warming claims. Global warming is an emerging, dynamic area with enormous implications to the insurance industry. Understandably, much of the focus on the impact of climate change has been on first-party policies in view of the recent hurricane experiences. Many of the early underlying cases have involved efforts to require governmental entities to regulate such things as emissions of greenhouse gasses--which generally do not name corporate policyholders and, viewed properly, generally should not be covered under their liability policies--or actions by private parties or government entities seeking declaratory and injunctive relief as opposed to damages. As the focus shifts to claims seeking damages against corporate policyholders and professionals based upon alleged culpable conduct, more companies and professionals will turn to their liability insurers, seeking to be defended in lawsuits and indemnified for resulting settlements and judgments. As the allegations may implicate conduct, knowledge, and damages dating back in time, the potential exists for policyholders to seek to implicate policies issued years or decades earlier. Yet, insurers will have substantial coverage defenses to many such claims. II. THE GLOBAL WARMING PHENOMENON 101: THE BASICS A. "Climate Change"--A Consensus Emerges The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") defines the term "climate change" as "any significant change in measures of climate (such as temperature, precipitation, or wind) lasting for an extended period (decades or longer)." (3) According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, climate change is, "a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods." (4) At its core, the fundamental premise of global warming is that energy from the sun heats the earth, which radiates the energy into the earth's atmosphere (5) Atmospheric greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide, trap some of the outgoing heat in the earth's atmosphere. Carbon dioxide emissions are reported to persist in the atmosphere for several centuries and, thus, have a lasting effect on climate. …


'Consumer' examines the influence of capitalism on the visual landscape. During March – May 2015 Woolley purchased advertising space around Cardiff city centre and populated it with artworks that critique capitalism. The artworks employ the methods of enticement that are often found in adverts but invite people to think about the pervasiveness of capitalist consumption rather than impel them to buy something. By creating disruptions within the commercial advertising field the exhibition aims to provoke the audience to reconsider consumerism as a distraction that inhibits positive social development towards social justice and equality.

Alongside Woolley, three artists participated in the project. Ellie Harrison is an artist based in Scotland. She studied Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University, Goldsmiths College and Glasgow School of Art, where she undertook a Leverhulme Scholarship on the Master of Fine Art programme. In 2012 she created The Redistribution of Wealth installation at Tate Britain. Peter Kennard's artwork aims to instigate debate about art, politics and society. It attempts to bring together different issues to stimulate the development of new forms of art that deal with everyday global themes. He is a Professor in Political Art at the Royal College of Art and his work is
in many major collections, including Tate, the V&A and the Imperial War Museum. Davin Watne is an inter-disciplinary artists based in Kansas City in Missouri, USA. He received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1994 and his MFA at Maryland Institute College of Art in 2013. He has been awarded the Charlotte Street Foundation Award, ArtsKC Inspiration Grant, Avenue of Arts Municipal Arts Grant, and a Studios Inc. Residency. Watne is a lecturer at University of Missouri Kansas City and is the head curator at UMKC Gallery of Art.


How are nonstate actors within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held to account? In this article, we introduce the concept of "institutional accountability" to complement the wider literature(s) on accountability in climate governance. Within institutional frameworks, actors employ rules, norms, and procedures to demand justifications from one another. In light of those justifications, actors then use "exit, voice, or loyalty" to positively or negatively sanction each other. To depict the dynamics of institutional accountability, we analyze the role of nonstate actors in the nine constituency groups of the UNFCCC. We outline the constituency structure and the population of observer organizations. We then identify examples where nonstate actors employed institutional rules in tandem with exit, voice, or loyalty to foster accountability. In making this analysis we draw upon three years of on-site participation at UNFCCC meetings, document analysis, and more than 40 semi-structured interviews with state and nonstate actors. We conclude by discussing the scope and conditions under which institutional accountability may occur in other issue areas of global governance.


Background To date, no direct scientific evidence has been found linking tissue changes in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, such as demyelination, axonal destruction or gliosis, with either steady progression and/or stepwise accumulation of focal CNS lesions. Tissue changes such as reduction of the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and the total macular volume (TMV), or brain- and spinal cord atrophy indicates an irreversible stage of tissue destruction. Whether these changes are found in all MS patients, and if there is a correlation with clinical disease state, remains controversial. The objective of our study was to determine, whether there was any correlation between the RNFL or TMV of patients with MS, and: (1) the lesion load along the visual pathways, (2) the ratios and absolute concentrations of metabolites in the normal-appearing white matter (NAWM), (3) standard brain atrophy indices, (4) disease activity or (5) disease duration. Methods 28 MS patients (RRMS, n = 23; secondary progressive MS (SPMS), n = 5) with moderately-high disease activity or long disease course were included in the study. We utilised: (1) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and (2) -spectroscopy (MRS), both operating at 3 Tesla, and (3) high-resolution spectral domain-OCT with locked reference images and eye tracking mode) to undertake the study. Results There was no consistency in the pattern of CNS metabolites, brain atrophy indices and the RNFL/TMV between individuals, which ranged from normal to markedly-reduced levels. Furthermore, there was no strict correlation between CNS metabolites, lesions along the visual pathways, atrophy indices, RNFL, TMV, disease duration or disability. Conclusions Based on the findings of this study, we recommend that the concept of 'clinico-radiologico paradox' in multiple sclerosis be extended to CROP–'clinico-radiologico-ophthalmological paradox'. Furthermore, OCT data of MS patients should be interpreted with caution.


ABSTRACT Asaphellus Callaway, 1877 is the earliest widespread genus of the family Asaphidae Burmeister, 1843, and although its systematics bears several problematic issues, an input to overcome these difficulties has been attempted. Our main focus is a group of strongly effaced Asaphellus species from the Cordillera Oriental (NW Argentina), including new material from the Santa Rosita Formation (Furongian-Tremadocian), mainly belonging to Alfarcito and Rupasca members (Quebrada del Arenal, Perchel, Jujuy Province). Asaphellus is reconsidered herein in order to restrict some features and discuss others not taken in account before. Moreover, several problematic Argentinean species are revised. The poorly known, but extensively cited, A. catamarcensis Kobayashi, 1935 is assessed here upon the type series in order to clarify its taxonomy and previous assignments. A reappraisal of A. stenorhachis (Harrington, 1938), another enduring problematic taxon, is proposed. Besides, A. isabelae n. sp., a unique species within the genus mainly due to its extreme effacement is defined herein. Other species left in open nomenclature are also described. Regarding local random occurrences in the Furongian, the genus radiated locally from the early Tremadocian (Tr1) onwards, however, taxonomic diversification was not mirrored by the abundance of Asaphellus in local communities. From the middle Tremadocian (Tr2) this diversification is associated with an increase in abundance, and even dominance of the taxon in numerous assemblages, further expanding its environmental range into shallower settings. The increase of Asaphellus diversity (Tr1- early Tr2) is decoupled from the records of local increase in Asaphidae diversity since the late Tremadocian (Tr3) and Floian, underscoring the complex pattern of diversification at different taxonomic levels.


In this article good governance in public procurement, with particular reference to accountability is discussed. The principle of providing adequate remedies in public procurement is put under the spotlight. This is done with reference to the decision in Steenkamp NO v Provincial Tender Board, Eastern Cape. In this case the Constitutional Court had to consider whether an initially successful tenderer could lodge a delictual claim for damages to compensate for expenses incurred after conclusion of a contract, which was subsequently rendered void on an application for review of the tender award. The applicable principles of good governance and the applicable provisions of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Public Procurement and the WTO plurilateral Government Procurement Agreement are analysed. This is done to enable an evaluation of the decision by the Constitutional Court in the above case. It is concluded that the South African public procurement system does in this instance comply with the basic principles of good governance with regard to accountability.


Highlights are presented from studies of the electric field data from various regions along the CLUSTER orbit. They all point towards a very high coherence for phenomena recorded on four spacecraft that are separated by a few hundred kilometers for structures over the whole range of apparent frequencies from 1 mHz to 9 kHz. This presents completely new opportunities to study spatial-temporal plasma phenomena from the magnetosphere out to the solar wind. A new probe environment was constructed for the CLUSTER electric field experiment that now produces data of unprecedented quality. Determination of plasma flow in the solar wind is an example of the capability of the instrument.


Oil palm frond has been used for many applications especially as a source of industrial fibers. Drying of oil palm frond particles is essential before the material could be used for subsequent applications. This research aimed to study the drying kinetics of oil palm frond particles in a spouted bed dryer. Spouted bed dryer has been used by various industries because of its ability to dry large size and irregular shape particles. In this research, experiments were conducted to study the effect of various operating variables on the drying kinetics of oil palm frond particles in a spouted bed dryer. The manipulated variables were hot air temperature, superficial air velocity and bed height. Batch drying experiments of oil palm frond particles were performed by varying the hot air superficial velocity (1.3 m/s, 1.5 m/s and 1.6 m/s), temperature of hot air (50⁰C, 60⁰C and 70⁰C) and bed height (10 cm and 15 cm). For comparison purposes, samples of oil palm fronds were also dried under the sun. The fiber color changes subjected to two different drying methods were also observed. Drying kinetic results from the spouted bed drying experiments indicated that the drying duration decreased with an increased in air temperature and air velocity and a decreased in bed height. The color of the fiber from spouted bed dryer was less deteriorated compared to that dried by direct sun drying. Drying of oil palm fronds in a spouted bed dryer produced fibers that were lighter in color than the product dried by sun drying.


Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is a retrovirus that can cause extensive cytopathicity in T cells. However, long-term productive infection of T-cell lines has been described. Here we show that although Vpr has no effect on the initial cytopathic effect of HIV-1, viruses that contain an intact vpr gene are unable to establish a chronic infection of T cells. However, virus with a mutated vpr gene can readily establish such long-term cultures. The effect of Vpr is independent of the env gene and the nef gene. Furthermore, expression of Vpr alone affects the progression of cells in the cell cycle. These results suggest that HIV-1 has evolved a viral gene to prevent chronic infection of T cells.


Anew partial skull (preserved as a natural mould) of a trematosaurid temnospondyl from the Lower Triassic of the Ankitokazo Basin, Diego Suarez Province, NW Madagascar, is described. It provides new information on the palatal anatomy, poorly known in the Malagasy trematosaurids, the more important concerning the morphology of the cultriform process, which is squared in cross section and comparatively wide. The new specimen represents a taxon well distinct from both Malagasy lonchorhynchine trematosaurid Wantzosaurus elongatus and other trematosaurid genera known out of Madagascar. The taxonomic and phylogenetic affinities found between the new skull and all the Malagasy non-lonchorhynchine specimens so far described suggest that the material may belong to a single species, closely related to the German species Trematolestes hagdorni, and more similar to Tertrema acuta than to Trematosaurus brauni. The new skull is therefore tentatively referred to cf. Tertremoides madagascariensis, the only non-lonchorhynchine trematosaurid species from Madagascar that we regard as valid, following the systematic review by Schoch & Milner (2000).


This research addresses the path planning problem with a nonlinear optimization method running in real time. An optimization problem is continually solved to find a time-optimal, dynamically feasible trajectory from the vehicle's position to some receding horizon ahead (20m-70m forward). The locally optimal numerical solver optimizes both the spatial and temporal components of the trajectory simultaneously, and feeds its output to a trajectory-following controller. The method has been implemented and tested on a modified Ford E350 van. Using one stereo pair and four LADAR units as terrain sensors, the vehicle was able to consistently traverse a 2 mile obstacle course at the DGC qualifying event. At the main DGC event, the vehicle drove 8 autonomous miles through the Nevada desert before experiencing non-planning issues. During this time, the planning system generated a plan 4.28 times per second on average. This execution speed, coupled with a feedback-based trajectory-following controller was shown to be adequate at providing smooth and reliable obstacle avoidance even on complicated terrain.


Solomon Lefschetz pioneered the field of topology--the study of the properties of many sided figures and their ability to deform, twist, and stretch without changing their shape. According to Lefschetz, "If it's just turning the crank, it's algebra, but if it's got an idea in it, it's topology." The very word topology comes from the title of an earlier Lefschetz monograph published in 1920. In Topics in Topology Lefschetz developed a more in-depth introduction to the field, providing authoritative explanations of what would today be considered the basic tools of algebraic topology. Lefschetz moved to the United States from France in 1905 at the age of twenty-one to find employment opportunities not available to him as a Jew in France. He worked at Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh and there suffered a horrible laboratory accident, losing both hands and forearms. He continued to work for Westinghouse, teaching mathematics, and went on to earn a Ph.D. and to pursue an academic career in mathematics. When he joined the mathematics faculty at Princeton University, he became one of its first Jewish faculty members in any discipline. He was immensely popular, and his memory continues to elicit admiring anecdotes. Editor of Princeton University Press's Annals of Mathematics from 1928 to 1958, Lefschetz built it into a world-class scholarly journal. He published another book, Lectures on Differential Equations, with Princeton in 1946.


Reported benefits of environmental citizen science include the collection of large volumes of data, knowledge and skills gained by participants, local action, and policy influence. However, it is unclear how diverse citizen science participants are, raising concerns about representativeness of data and whether individual, societal, and environmental benefits are evenly distributed. We surveyed 8,220 people representing a cross section of the population in Great Britain to ask whether they had participated in environmental citizen science, allowing us to examine who is and who is not participating. Using logistic regression, we examined relationships between demographic variables, and crucially the interactions between these variables, and the likelihood of participation and whether participation was repeated. Men were more likely to participate than women. People identifying as from white ethnic groups were more likely to participate than those identifying as from minority ethnic groups; participation by women from minority ethnic groups was particularly low. Participation by those from white ethnic groups declined with socio-economic status, but this was not the case for those from minority ethnic groups. Participation was highest amongst those in education (studying at school, college, or university) and lowest amongst the unemployed. We recommend citizen science practitioners carefully consider the aims of projects and thus the diversity of participants they wish to attract. We discuss potential mechanisms for widening participation, for example, engaging participants through third parties already embedded in communities and providing a variety of tasks for people with different amounts of time and types of skills to offer. Finally, we encourage practitioners to document and publish participant demographics to monitor diversity in citizen science.


We investigate the impact of Great Recession policies in California that substantially increased lender pecuniary and time costs of foreclosure. We estimate that the California Foreclosure Prevention Laws (CFPLs) prevented 250,000 California foreclosures (a 20% reduction) and created $\$$300 billion in housing wealth. The CFPLs boosted mortgage modifications and reduced borrower transitions into default. They also mitigated foreclosure externalities via increased maintenance spending on homes that entered foreclosure. The CFPLs had minimal adverse side effects on the availability of mortgage credit for new borrowers. Altogether, findings suggest that policy interventions that keep borrowers in their homes may be broadly beneficial during times of widespread housing distress.


Over 5,000 entries
 Clear and authoritative, this popular dictionary provides an invaluable guide to every aspect of chemistry and its related fields. Its coverage is broad, ranging from physical chemistry to biochemistry, and is informed by the most current research. Eight informative appendices supplement the text, as well as over 200 diagrams, graphs, and tables, to provide a useful visual aid for the more complex definitions.
 Now in its eighth edition, the dictionary has been fully revised, making it the most up-to-date reference work of its kind. Areas such as analytical chemistry, environmental chemistry, and organic chemistry have been expanded to reflect recent developments in the field. There are also 176 entirely new entries, including bioethanol, electron ionization, genome, and nanochemistry.
 With its comprehensive and reliable content, this dictionary is an essential resource for students and teachers of chemistry at every level.


Abstract. The four-spacecraft Cluster mission has provided high-time resolution measurements of the magnetic field from closely maintained separation distances (200–600 km). Four-point coverage of the Earth's magnetopause began on the 9 and 10 November 2000 when all spacecraft first exited the dusk-side magnetosphere at about 19:00 LT, providing extensive coverage of the near flank magnetosheath and magnetopause boundary layer on re-entry to the magnetosphere. The traversals on this occasion were caused by the arrival of an intense CME at the Earth, which produced a large compression of the magnetopause and high magnetic activity. The magnetopause traversals represent an unprecedented data set, allowing detailed analysis of the local magnetic structure (gradients) and dynamics of the magnetopause boundary. By performing minimum variance analysis (MVA) on the magnetic field data from all four spacecraft, we demonstrate that the magnetopause was planar on the scale of the spacecraft separation scales and that the transverse scale size of the magnetopause boundary layer was 1000–1100 km. We also show that the motion of the boundary (defined by the magnetic shear at the current layer), is changing over the sequence of spacecraft crossings so that acceleration of the magnetopause can be very high in this region of the magnetosphere. Indeed, the magnetopause speed reaches the order of 300 km/s in response to the arrival of the interplanetary shock. Using MVA coordinates, we have identified a number of magnetospheric and magnetosheath FTE signatures, which are sampled simultaneously by all spacecraft at different distances from and on either side of the magnetopause. The signatures show a variation of scale with distance from the boundary. Key words. Magnetospheric physics (magnetopause, cusp and boundary layers) Space plasma physics (discontinuities; magnetic reconnection)


A nongeniculate, crustose coralline alga (Rhodophyta, Corallinaceae) from South Africa, is found growing epiphytically on fronds of species of the geniculate genus Amphiroa. Analysis of the vegetative and reproductive morphology and anatomy of the alga shows that it belongs to the subfamily Melobesioideae and genus Clathromorphum. It is the only known representative of the genus in South Africa. It has tetrasporangial conceptacles that are significantly smaller than those of any other described species of the genus and it is described as the new species Clathromorphum tubiforme. The diagnostic features of Clathromorphum and other genera of the Melobesioideae are discussed and it is considered that, among melobesioid genera, Clathropmorphum is probably most closely related to Melobesia.


The volume of the skull defect should be one of the most important quantitative measures for decompressive craniectomy. However, there has been no study focusing on automated estimation of the volume from postoperative computed tomography (CT). This study develops and validates three methods that can automatically locate, recover and measure the missing skull region based on symmetry without preoperative images. The low resolution estimate (LRE) method involves downsizing CT images, finding the axis of symmetry for each slice, and estimating the location and size of the missing skull regions. The intact mid-sagittal plane (iMSP) can be defined either by dimension-by-dimension (DBD) method as a global symmetry plane or by Liu's method as a regression from each slices. The skull defect volume can then be calculated by skull volume difference (SVD) with respect to each iMSP. During a 48-month period between July 2006 and June 2010 at a regional hospital in northern Taiwan, we collected 30 sets of nonvolumetric CT images after craniectomies. Three board-certified neurosurgeons perform computer-assisted volumetric analysis of skull defect volume VMan as the gold standard for evaluating the performance of our algorithm. We compare the error of the three volumetry methods. The error of VLRE is smaller than that of VLiu(p < 0.0001) and VDBD(p = 0.034). The error of VDBD is significant smaller than that of VLiu(p = 0.001). The correlation coefficients between VMan and VLRE, VLiu, VDBD are 0.98, 0.88 and 0.95, respectively. In conclusion, these methods can help to define the skull defect volume in postoperative images and provide information of the immediate volume gain after decompressive craniectomies. The iMSP of the postoperative skull can be reliably identified using the DBD method.


Detecting changes in the environment with respect to an earlier data acquisition is important for several applications, such as finding Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). We explore and evaluate the benefit of depth sensing in the context of automatic change detection, where an existing monocular system is extended with a second camera in a fixed stereo setup. We then propose an alternative frame registration that exploits scene geometry, in particular the ground plane. Furthermore, change characterization is applied to localized depth maps to distinguish between 3D physical changes and shadows, which solves one of the main challenges of a monocular system. The proposed system is evaluated on real-world acquisitions, containing geo-tagged test objects of 18 18 9 cm up to a distance of 60 meters. The proposed extensions lead to a significant reduction of the false-alarm rate by a factor of 3, while simultaneously improving the detection score with 5%.


Since the world9s first land-based desalination plant was established in Australia in 1903, brackish groundwater and seawater desalination became a common water supply technology in many countries around the world. Desalination has proven as a reliable technology in times of drought and/or water scarcity, while in some countries it is an indispensable water supply source on a regular basis. This paper compares and evaluates major desalination leaders in the world (USA, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Australia, and China) with the aim of pointing out similarities and differences that made each of them successful. It also depicts a comprehensive picture of developments, trends and experiences in desalination at the global scale. Establishing desalination plants and ensuring their successful operation is a complex and multifaceted process dependent on capital and operational costs, production capacity, water salinity, geographical location, socio-economic and environmental conditions, and many other factors. The country specific comparison presented in this paper emphasizes the importance of regional planning for successful and sustainable desalination processes in the long term.


We have measured the absolute optical frequencies of 90 rovibrational lines of the 12C2H2 and 13C2H2 1.5-µm bands. Using an optical frequency comb generator, we could precisely measure the relative frequencies between two lasers stabilized on the saturation dip of the rovibrational lines up to 2 THz apart. The absolute frequencies were determined with respect to the Rb two-photon transition at 0.778 µm with a HCN rovibration line at 1.556 µm used as an intermediate reference. This measurement provides an accurate frequency atlas of acetylene 1.5-µm bands with an uncertainty of ∼10-9.


Although parent and self rating scales are often used in clinical and research settings, their
accuracy in the prediction of psychiatric disorders according to ICD-10 or DSM-IV often
remains unclear. In the present thesis the diagnostic accuracy of three parental rating scales
in the prediction of Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Oppositional Defiant
Disorder (ODD) and two self rating scales in the prediction of adolescent depression were
tested in three separate studies. The first study found the recently introduced DSM-oriented
attention problem scale of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) more adequate than the
previous empirical defined attention problem scale in the identification of ADHD. This was in
particular true for subjects in a clinical sample referred for various psychiatric disorders. A
cut-off score of 5 was recommended for clinical practice. In a second study a sample of
adolescents with clinical depression was compared to a sample of unreferred community
controls. The Youth Self Report (YSR) and the Center of Epidemiological Studies-
Depression Scale (CES-D) showed excellent ability in the discrimination of these two
samples. A range of acceptable cut-off scores between 5 and 9 on the YSR affective
problem scale and between 12 and 31 on the CES-D scale served best in the prediction of
clinical depressive episodes in adolescents. In a third study the Conners' Parent Ratings
Scale Revised (CPRS-R) and the parent version of the Strength and Difficulties
Questionnaire (PSDQ) were tested in the prediction of ODD in a large transnational sample
of ADHD referred children and adolescents. Furthermore, the construct validity of three
previously described dimensions of ODD was examined and finally the accuracy of the
CPRS-R and the PSDQ were tested in the prediction of these separate ODD dimensions.
The CPRS-R oppositional scale and the PSDQ conduct problem scale showed adequate
diagnostic accuracy. Furthermore, the construct validity of three ODD dimensions labeled
ODD-irritable, ODD-headstrong and ODD-hurtful was confirmed. Furthermore, our results
convincingly show that a three factor structure of ODD is more appropriate than a single
general factor of ODD. The CPRS-R emotional lability scale was able to predict ODD-irritable
significantly. Overall, these three studies confirmed the diagnostic accuracy of clinical rating
2
scales in the prediction of psychiatric disorders in youth. Furthermore, these results are of
clinical importance as newer and diagnosis-oriented rating scales showed better diagnostic
accuracy and can be recommended for the initial psychiatric assessment of children and
adolescents. However, despite the good validity of rating scales, further information on age
of onset, continuity, impairment, specificity of symptoms and information about other
psychiatric disorders should be included in order to arrive at the final diagnosis.


Abstract Fossilized leaf mines and other traces of phytophagous insects provide a unique window into ecological and evolutionary associations of the past. Leaf-mining flies (Diptera: Agromyzidae) are an important component of the recent leaf-mining fauna, but their fossil record is sparse compared to other mining insect lineages; many putative agromyzid body fossils and traces are dubiously assigned. Agromyzid leaf mines often can be distinguished from those of other insects by the presence of an intermittent, fluidized frass trail that may alternate between the sides of the mine. Here, we describe two new Paleogene leaf mine fossils, Phytomyzites biliapchaensis Winkler, Labandeira and Wilf n. sp. from the early Paleocene of southeastern Montana, USA, occurring in leaves of Platanus raynoldsii (Platanaceae); and Phytomyzites schaarschmidti Wappler n. sp., from the middle Eocene of Messel, Germany, occurring in leaves of Toddalia ovata (Rutaceae). These fossils both exhibit frass trails indicative of an agromyzid origin, and P. biliapchaensis also exhibits associated stereotypical marks identical to damage caused by feeding punctures of extant adult female Agromyzidae prior to oviposition. Phytomyzites biliapchaensis represents the earliest confirmed record of Agromyzidae, and one of the earliest records for the large dipteran clade Schizophora. Plant hosts of both species belong to genera that are no longer hosts of leaf-mining Agromyzidae, suggesting a complex and dynamic history of early host-plant associations and, for the early Paleocene example, an evolutionary, possibly opportunistic colonization in the midst of the ecological chaos following the end-Cretaceous event in North America.


The paper presents a programming language, DSystemJ, for dynamic distributed Globally Asynchronous Locally Synchronous (GALS) systems, its formal model of computation, formal syntax and semantics, its compilation and implementation. The language is aimed at dynamic distributed systems, which use socket based communication protocols for communicating between components. DSystemJ allows the creation and control at runtime of asynchronous processes called clock-domains, their mobility on a distributed execution platform, as well as the runtime reconfiguration of the system's functionality and topology. As DSystemJ is based on a GALS model of computation and has a formal semantics, it offers very safe mechanisms for implementation of distributed systems, as well as potential for their formal verification. The details and principles of its compilation, as well as its required runtime support are described. The runtime support is implemented in the SystemJ GALS language that can be considered as a static subset of DSystemJ.


Traditional media literacy models are mostly left-brained, inherited from the legacy of alphabetic literacy, the Gutenberg press revolution, and industrial mass media production. New digital media radically alter the environment: their nonlinear, multisensory, field-like properties are more right-brain oriented. Consequently, rather than focus exclusively on deconstructing the products of design objects (such as an advertisement «text), digital learning should respond to the design of the system itself, including cultural and cognitive bias. Mediacology proposes a design-for-pattern approach called «media permaculture, which restructures media literacy to be in sync with new media practices connected with sustainability and the perceptual functions of the right brain hemisphere. In the same way that perma-culture approaches gardening by establishing the natural parameters of its ecological niche, media permaculture explores the individual's «mediacological niche in the context of knowledge communities. By applying bioregional thinking to the symbolic order, media perma-culture redresses the standard one-size-fits-all literacy model by taking into account diverse cognitive strategies and emerging convergence media practices. Antonio Lopez applies a practical knowledge of alternative media, cross-cultural communication, and ecology to build a meaningful theory of media education.


Globalization has become a powerful force shaping our political, economic, and social lives during the past decades. In order to promote the role of universities in economic development and international competition, national governments worldwide started to reform higher education systems. During this global transition, academics are encouraged to build collaborations with industry and international researchers. The development of new policies ensures the states to achieve this aim. The changing governance and its related education policies have far reaching influences on academic work and academic identities. There is a substantial literature documenting the impacts of this globalizing process on academics' workplace in Western countries. However, limited studies have been conducted to investigate the effects of these reforms in Chinese context. This thesis draws on the socio-cultural theory to analyse the experiences of Chinese academics doing research and how their academic work and professional identities are shaped during these global transformations. Guided by the new model of governance, Chinese governments and universities reformed their educational polices that govern faculty members' work. This study focuses specifically on the effects of evaluation policies, salary policies, and funding policies in higher education, as these polices have direct influences on academic work and academic identities. This study reports on a case study at a leading university in China. Using in-depth semi-structured interviews, this study documents how industry collaborations and international collaborations of academics in social science departments are shaped by the changing policies. When the Chinese government responds to the globalizing processes, the policy changes produce significant impacts on higher education. Academics are regulated by polices at both university level and department level. The changing policies applied in Chinese universities are double-edged swords. They affect academic work and professional identities by creating challenges and constraints, as well as opportunities and possibilities. This study shows that Chinese academics cherish the traditional academic values, such as academic freedom, autonomy, self-regulation and control, searching for truth, independent work, and low level of outside interference. Instead of being passive recipients of the education reform and the changing policies, they actively engage in the reforms. Although there are increasing rules regulating their research activities, they still have the capacity to negotiate in their workplace.


Cranioplasty helps to restore skull's integrity, stability the state of the intracranial structure, also to improve the aesthetic immensely and reduce the concerns caused by weakened of brain protection with decompressive craniectomy. By using stress-strain analyzing of the finite element methods, to analyse the shock resistance, ability of absorbing concussion and the stability after the implanting of four different skull implants, in the end to select the implant with the one with the best biological-mechanical properties combined with CT data of 2D imaging and computer-aided design technology to establish four implants: a. conventional 3D blanket titanium mesh; b. conventional wedge-shaped PEEK mesh; c. 3D blanket triangular parabolic titanium mesh with hole button; d. half wedge-shaped triangular parabolic PEEK mesh with hole button. To second by importing ansys-workbench 17.0 software, loading adding a 500N static force at the center of the implants area of 3.982 cm2 which simulate four different scenarios of the implants suffering a real impact of heavy weight or vehicles. Comparing stress distribution, the maximum stress, the strain distribution and the maximum deflection of four different implants and the corresponding defective skulls. Under 500N load force, both four implants and defective skulls didn't have breakdown or deformation, On the models a and c the stress concentrated at the temporal region of skull base. Pars orbitalis and the connecting areas by implants and defective skulls and the points of strength of the prosthesises. On the model b, the stress concentrated at the frontoparietal, the points of strength of the prosthesis, temporal region of skull base and titanium strip. The outcome of the model d is similar to the case b, but without obvious stress concentration of triangular parabolic mesh with hole button. The σ and e of implants a-d are respectively: 243.800 mpa; 21.002 mpa; 386.200 mpa; 2.731 mpa and 0.1644 mm; 0.0825 mm, 0.2782 mm, 0.0828 mm. The σ of defective skulls c is 6.039 mpa, its e is 0.0408 mm. The σ and e of th defective skulls of d are accordingly 1.829 mpa and 0.0175 mm. The mechanical properties of PEEK are superior to the titanium implant. It can take the better role of brain protection. D of four prosthesis demonstrates the best ability in the biomechanics, followed by the b.


This Essay, which was prepared for a University of Chicago Law School's symposium on "Rethinking the Local Government Toolkit," argues that affordable private schools serve an important urban-development function: They partially unbundle the residential and educational decisions of families with children. Thus, state and local officials hoping to make our make central city neighborhoods attractive places to raise children should consider employing a familiar urban development tool - tax incentives - to make quality private schools more financially accessible to middle-income families. The Essay proceeds in three parts. Part I builds the case for a middle class city. Part II demonstrates the centrality of quality educational options, including affordable private schools, to the goal of building a middle class city. Finally, Part III suggests a use of tax policy to help make private schools accessible for those of modest means. Specifically, the Essay proposes that either state or city governments grant tax credits for charitable donations to nonprofit organizations that award scholarships to children attending private elementary and secondary schools. Seven states already have such "scholarship tax credit" programs in place, which could either be replicated in other states or adapted to the local government setting.


Abstract Expanded instructional time has become increasingly popular as a strategy to improve the academic outcomes of low-skilled students, particularly in the 9th grade. We evaluate the efficacy of a double-period algebra policy initiated in the Chicago Public Schools in 2003. This policy required all students with 8th-grade test scores below the national median to enroll in a support algebra course in addition to regular algebra in the 9th grade. Using regression discontinuity combined with interrupted time series designs, and instrumental variable models, we show the effects of the policy on students' grades, failure rates and test scores in 9th-grade algebra and 10th-grade geometry. Providing support courses improved algebra test scores for the target population but only modestly affected grades and failure rates. Students with very low initial abilities benefited less than students close to the national median. The policy also led schools to track algebra classes by students' entering math skills. As a result, it affected academic outcomes among students not targeted by the policy; test scores among high-ability students improved whereas their grades declined.


Using character strengths is associated with optimal functioning, psychological fulfilment, and wellbeing in general. While Peterson and Seligman (2004) assumed that character strength use may vary across specific contexts and situations, little research has examined whether these assumptions are true. The current study (a) examined whether level of character strengths differs across general as well as specific eating, exercising, and work contexts, (b) determined how contextualized strengths are, and (c) assessed if the relationships between strengths and positive outcomes in eating, exercise, and work contexts were similar. Participants (N = 270) recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk completed questionnaires assessing character strengths in various contexts as well as psychological need satisfaction, job satisfaction, and eating and exercise behaviors. Results showed that strengths did vary by context, with participants commonly using strengths in general (no context suggested) and at work more than while exercising and while eating. Most strengths demonstrated moderate levels of contextualization by domain, with about half of the variance due to between-person and about half due to within-person variability, except for the less-contextualized strength of religiousness. Finally, across eating, exercising, and work contexts, a set of all (or almost all) strengths related to satisfaction of self-determination theory's psychological needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Although there are differences in how applicable strengths are across specific contexts, using character strengths appears advantageous in each of these contexts.


This paper analyzes a non-temporal interpretation of the adverb sempre "always" in European Portuguese and Italian, in which the adverb expresses persistence of the truth of a proposition over time and displays specific contextual constraints (TP- sempre ). Despite an overlap in the contexts in which TP- sempre may occur in both languages, we provide data showing that its distribution is not exactly the same in European Portuguese and Italian. In view of these data, we propose that TP- sempre is a modal operator of confirmation in both languages, but that it is more restricted in Italian in that it has a plan presupposition only in this language.


This paper uses a relatively new approach to quantify the effects of trade liberalisation on poverty.  It relies on the  combination of a standard, social accounting, matrix-based, computable general equilibrium model and household micro-data.  These two tools are used sequentially in order to simulate the impact of trade policy reform.  This framework enables the  decomposition of the effects of trade liberalisation, which in turn allows for an analysis of alternative social policy  packages.  The methodology is applied to Zimbabwe for illustration.  The results show that poverty is reduced by tariff  reduction, although the poor households get the least benefits.


The aim of this qualitative case study is to gain greater insight into the impact of online synchronous (chat) interaction on the learning process from a sociocultural constructivist perspective in the context of an online undergraduate unit. Given the sparse research on the effectiveness of chat interaction in supporting knowledge construction processes, few appropriate analytical methods available for examining educational chat discourse, together with the pedagogical imperative to determine the extent to which the real-time computer-mediated communication (CMC) mode satisfies student learning needs, this study fills the gaps in current research by examining the impact of chat interaction in facilitating participation, knowledge construction, and quality of online learning experience of two different online tutorial groups.

Although the literature largely regards chat interaction as fragmented and characterized by interactional incoherence that disrupts the dialogic knowledge construction process, findings from this single-embedded case study of tutorial groups 1 and 4 (G1 and G4), involved in weekly critical discussions on set-readings over 11 weeks (one semester), show that chat interaction is more structured and complex than the literature suggests.

This study utilizes a new methodological design that integrates discourse and social network analytical methods which are triangulated with self-reports of learning experiences from an online survey instrument. The application of a refined Exchange Structure Analysis coding instrument (Kneser, Pilkington, and Treasure-Jones, 2001) with social network analysis (Wasserman and Faust, 1994; Scott, 2000) to transcripts of chat interaction shows educational chat discourse to be coherent; reflecting the typical structure of pedagogical classroom exchanges. Findings from this study further establish that chat interaction enables participation opportunities in tutorial discussions which are valued as important, with variations in levels of participation within and between groups suggesting a pattern of active and peripheral participation which is not necessarily detrimental to learning.

Chat interaction is also found to facilitate collaborative sharing of individual understandings and critical negotiation of meaning which are characteristic of the knowledge construction process, in the form of information-sharing and topic development phases in the exchanges of both groups. Although it is beyond the scope of this study to determine the exact form of knowledge constructed, individual and mutual appropriations of shared knowledge through chat interaction are reported by both groups.

A between group comparison of available tutor scaffolding reveals consistently weak G1 tutor presence compared to strong G4 tutor support at the initial learning stages with gradual withdrawal of scaffolding over time. These results suggest differences in quality of online educational experiences which are confirmed by findings that compared to G1, G4 reported greater satisfaction with more chat tutorial factors; indicating an overall more positive, higher quality of experience with collaborative learning and group work processes afforded by the chat interaction.

With its methodological design, instruments, and findings, this study contributes to existing knowledge on online interaction, advances on previous studies regarding impact of chat interaction on learning, and offers directions for future work in the fields of educational technology, linguistics, and group dynamics in educational social networks. When extrapolated to comparable cases, findings from this study could guide the pedagogical design of collaborative-constructivist learning activities that takes into account the role of chat interaction in the construction of learning conversations.


A cladistic analysis of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) restriction site variation was per- formed on Columnea (Gesneriaceae) sections Pentadenia and StVgnan,he. Two species of Alloplectus were included in the analyses and one of Drymonia was used as the outgroup. Restriction site variation was analyzed using Wagner parsimony and character state weighting that favors conver- gent losses over convergent gains. The large numbers of equally most parsimonious trees prevented examination of each tree independently. Thus, examination of phvlogenetic relationships was based on a strict consensus of all most parsimonious trees. The resulting phylogeny is largely congruent with recent classification schemes, although the positions of several species are not in accordance with traditional relationships. As a result of the cladistic analysis of the cpDNA restriction site variation, section Pentadenia is at least paraphyletic, and possibly polyphyletic with section Styg- nanthe. The lack of resolution among the several clades within section Stygnanthe does not provide evidence for or against monophyly of this section. Several clades are strongly supported with cpDNA data and provide insight into biogeography and origin of morphological adaptations.


ABSTRACT We studied the vocal ontogeny of black-capped chickadees Poecile atricapilla from hatching through approximately age 40 days, at which time the juveniles dispersed from their hatching area. Development of three vocalisations (chick-a-dee call, fee-bee song, gargle call) was monitored by tape recording daily. Spectrographs quantification and comparison were carried out with Sound Analysis software. Developmental changes in offspring vocalisations were compared to the parent birds, allowing a measure of acoustic similarity between adults and young throughout early life. The chick-a-dee call developed all four of its component syllables (ABCD) from a single sound of day-old nestlings, but the four syllables emerged in adult form at different times in ontogeny. The fee-bee song was produced in impressively adult form starting at about age 20 days, with no precursor sounds to indicate gradual emergence. The principal difference between adult and juvenile fee-bee songs was the persistent production of three or four notes by juveniles rather than the adults' species-typical two notes. Gargle calls appear to develop from "subsong" strings of precursor gargle syllables. Juvenile gargles began to be identifiable at about age 33–35 days but did not match any of the gargle calls of the local adult population. Post-dispersal juveniles may develop gargles that match the gargle types of local birds where they settle.


Abstract Asia is not a Westphalian system. Transnational politics, in which political communities are subdivided by nominally sovereign boundaries, are just as common in Asia as international politics. This non-Westphalianism is also a persistent feature of Asian security, as subnational, transnational, and international conflicts are embedded in each other. This article examines China's security relations with Central Asia in terms of these features, beginning with a discussion of the developmental and ethno-national politics of China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The Chinese state has advanced a program of economic modernization and intensive security campaigns to eradicate what it terms the "three evils" of splittism, terrorism, and extremism and to promote a common political identity for modern China. But this campaign has resulted in a segregated Xinjiang in which Uyghurs still look to a transnational community outside of China as an alternative to political assimilation. The second part of the article examines the interaction between transnational and international security in Central Asia, and China's promotion of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as its preferred mechanism for managing this relationship. The authors identify three aims of the SCO — repressing transnational radicalism; stabilizing regional regimes and their foreign policy orientations; and checking U.S. influence — but argue that these are more restraints on the political options of others than a means to expand China's own options. The fact that the problems of China's transnational regions and the future of SCO remain unresolved leads the authors to conclude that an ascendant China faces an uncertain future in the fluid environment of Central Eurasia.


An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature: Two Centuries of Dual Identity in Prose and Poetry, edited by Maxim D. Shrayer. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2007. 2 vols., 1278 pp. $225.00. As a reader of Russian-Jewish literature, I have to welcome Maxim Shrayer's anthology, because there are few resources on the subject. But I have reservations that I will raise in the course of this review. The anthology consists of two volumes and features over a hundred writers, some well known and others less so. Consisting of eleven sections, the anthology groups together authors who wrote at the same time. In each section the editor provides an introduction and gives a short biographical sketch of each author. Because of the large number of authors, the original prose stories are often abridged, which makes them less valuable for scholars, but perhaps still useful for the classroom. The working definition that Professor Shrayer uses for the selection of authors in the volume is this: "Any Russian-language writer of Jewish origin for whom the question of Jewish identity is, on some level, compelling" (p. xxx). Borrowing this formulation from Alice Stone Nakhimovsky, Shrayer applies it to some writers for whom it does not work well. For example, while the definition leads Nakhimovsky to write about Vladimir Jabotinsky, Isaac Babel, and Felix Roziner, Professor Shrayer features a long list of writers of Jewish background for whom Jewish identity is hardly compelling. This is particularly true for writers in the former Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia who either purposely drew attention away from their ethnicity or did not consider it a significant fact of their biography. Such authors in the volume as Joseph Brodsky, Naum Korzhavin, YuIy Daniel, Vassily Aksyonov, Nadezhda Mandelstam, Yury Trifonov, Evgeny Reyn, Michael Kreps, Sergei Dovlatov, Anatoly Nayman, Ludmila Ulitskaia, Mikhail Zhvanetsky, Ilya Kutik, and Yuri Leving cannot be said to have a compelling attitude toward their Jewish identity. They are, for better or worse, Russian authors. The issue of definition is central because it reflects the editor's conception of Jewish identity and Jewish-Russian literature (as he uniquely calls it; the conventional name is Russian-Jewish literature). Ordinarily one defines a RussianJewish writer according to the author's involvement with Jewish life, whether in politics, culture, or society. Here authence, orientation, and context matter. In their discussions about who belongs to Russian-Jewish literature, experts like Vladimir Jabotinsky and Shimon Markish ask directly whether this literature is important to the Jewish people and to Jews for whom Jewish life and culture is central to their consciousness. This is why most scholars - including the ones Professor Shrayer praises in his introduction - do not consider Boris Pasternak or Osip Mandelshtam authors of Russian-Jewish literature. These authors were not occupied with Jewish life and the problems of the Jewish world even if they were born Jews and at times wrote on Jewish themes. To decide if an author should be in an anthology of Russian -Jewish literature, one should ask, what is the context, to which literary world, political orientation, and social context is the author speaking? Jewish background or the so-called "piatyi punkt" (ethnicity) in one's passport is not the determining factor. For example, there are good reasons why no one calls Walter Benjamin a writer of German -Jewish literature, and why everyone knows that Gershom Sholem is a Get man-Jewish writer. It is because, while both are Jewish and even deal at times with Jewish issues, one, Sholem, is occupied with Jewish problems in a Jewish context, while the other has devoted himself to German literature and cosmopolitanism. …


Abstract Background: Medical practitioners need to have knowledge of statistics and research principles, especially with the increasing emphasis on evidence-based medicine. The aim of this study was to determine the profile of research methodology and statistics training of undergraduate medical students at South African universities in terms of which topics are taught, by whom teaching is done, when these topics are taught and how they are taught. Method: Respondents for this descriptive study were persons responsible for the teaching of statistics and research methodology at the eight medical schools in South Africa. They were identified by the head of each school who also gave permission for the school to participate. The respondents completed a questionnaire and checklist after giving informed consent. No response was obtained from one university. Responses were compared to international guidelines. Results: At five universities the material is taught in the first year, at one in the second year and one in the third or fourth year, depending on when it is selected as an elective. The material is reinforced in other modules in the medical programme at three universities. The persons responsible for teaching are mainly statisticians (six universities). Class sizes vary from 40 to 320 students with four universities having 200 or more students per class. At two universities the current course has been in place since 2003, at two since 2000, and at two since the 1970/80s. The following topics are taught at the majority of universities: study designs in medical research, exploring and presenting data, summarising data, probability, sampling, statistical inference, analysis of cross tabulation and critical reading. At four universities there are practical classes, three of these mainly for computer work. At three universities tutors are used, at two of these the tutors are postgraduate students in statistics whereas at one university registrars, doctors and researchers are used as tutors. Students at three of the universities complete a research project, at two of these the students complete the full research process from planning up to reporting, whereas the project at the other university focuses mainly on the analysis of data. Conclusion: Recommendations have been made regarding topics which should be covered and teaching methods which should be used at all universities. Doctors should be involved in the training to ensure clinically appropriate material and examples.


A method to treat contaminated land is stabilisation/solidification (S/S), which physically encapsulates and chemically stabilises the contaminants. The current knowledge on the behaviour of S/S systems is based upon scarce and incomplete data, mostly obtained from laboratory simulations or small scale trials of the technology. The field performance of S/S soils is largely unknown.

The aim of this research was to improve the understanding of the long-term performance of S/S soils, by examining samples retrieved from eight full-scale remedial operations. The sites were selected to encompass a broad range of contaminants, binder systems, environmental exposures, and ages since the remediation.

Conceptual models for each site were developed, based upon historical information from the literature. The models were used to identify the environmental loads, acting at the sites, and to predict their likely impact on the S/S soils. These impacts were considered by examining the microstructure, mineralogy, leaching behaviours and mechanical properties of the aged soils. Risk indicators for the performance of S/S soils were identified and they included reactions involving sulfates, carbonation, microcracking and the presence of weathered minerals.

There was no link between the age of the S/S soils and degradation. The performance of the S/S soils was site specific and was influenced by the design of the remediation formulation, the implementation of the treatment and not least the environment of exposure.

The behaviour of S/S soils is commonly compared to that of concrete. However, whilst the results suggested that some degradation mechanisms occur, properties such as permeability and unconfined compressive strength differed. The S/S soils were two orders of magnitude weaker and five orders of magnitude more permeable than normal concretes.

Microstructural investigations revealed that although expansive phases developed with time in the SIS soils, there was no damage associated with them. According to their mechanical properties seven out of eight soils performed to their design criteria, up to 16 years after remediation. However, three sites failed to meet the limits following pass/fail leaching tests. This was due in part to the choice of leaching test carried out for the evaluation and the use of inappropriate remedial leaching limits, such as Drinking Water Quality values. However, the pH dependent leaching test showed that the contaminants were well immobilised in the old SIS soils and their release, at the natural pH of these soils did not exceed 1 mg/1.

The acid resistance of the aged SIS soil was low to moderate and was mainly assured by the carbonates present. This fact will impact on the durability of SIS soils; however, estimates from the literature indicate that the acid resistance of carbonated materials would be exhausted in thousands of years.

Based upon these results, the integrity of the soils had endured, and no obvious signs of impending failure were observed.


A decade ago, a study was reported on the management of pediatric burns using cell therapy and foetal skin progenitor cells. We now present follow-up on the patients in that original clinical study. We describe the regulatory requirements for clinical research, specifically that research conducted in a hospital environment and involving human cell and tissue based products. Also, how these requirements have changed since 2007 and how these changes might adversely affect burn victims and their Clinical Care Pathways in the future will be addressed in this report.


TuRKEY Kurds of Modern Turkey: Migration, Neoliberalism and Exclusion in Turkish Society, by Cenk Saracoglu. $92. Reviewed by Ebru Erdem-Akcay Kurds of Modern Turkey is neither focused on Kurds as an ethnic group nor on their armed or political struggle for cultural rights in Turkey. It studies how urban middleclass residents of Izmir (Izmirlis) recognize and exclude immigrants from Eastern Anatolia, whom they categorize as Kurds. In his quest to explore the anti-Kurdish sentiments among middle-class Izmirlis, Saracoglu develops the concept of exclusive recognition. The book identifies the relations and processes in urban social life that facilitate the emergence of exclusive recognition and traces their history. Exclusive recognition refers to the "particular way in which the middle-class Izmirlis construct the category of 'Kurd'(or ethnicise Kurdish migrants) based on their social relationships with the Kurds who migrated to the city after the mid-1980s" (p. 25). Saracoglu has conducted 90 interviews with middle-class Izmirlis who hold anti- Kurdish sentiments and developed the concept of exclusive recognition based on four common features in their discourse: Anti- Kurdish discourse acknowledges Kurds as a distinct and homogeneous group of people, recognizes the Kurdish migrants as "Kurds" through the interactions in the urban space, excludes them through negative stereotypes and labels, and attaches these stereotypes and labels exclusively to the Kurdish migrants. Saracoglu argues that exclusive recognition is not a product of discourses on Kurds employed by the state or the media. He also argues that the anti-Kurdish sentiments among middle-class Izmir residents is not a burst of Turkish nationalism or a sudden reaction to macro political developments. It is produced and reproduced at the micro level through social contact and interaction in everyday life, the locus of exclusive recognition. What has produced the social context that has brought middle-class Izmirlis and migrants together in a way that the everyday contact between the two yielded such social exclusion? The book analyzes three post- 1980 macro developments that transformed urban life and facilitated the emergence of exclusive recognition: neoliberal economic transformation, armed conflict between the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the state, and voluntary or forced migration associated with this conflict. The neoliberal reforms employed in 1980 transformed the Turkish economy in a way that disadvantaged the fixed-wage-earning middle-class, deepened social inequalities, and expanded the informal sector. Urban residents in western Turkey could ignore the conflict in the East in the 1980s; however, the Kurdish question became a part of their political reality as Kurds formed political parties and started engaging in politics through electoral competition in the 1990s. …


Background: Although researchers have evaluated nurse competence in past studies, few have focused on the compe- tence levels of nursing students immediately prior to graduation. Additionally, many of the competence scales were not supported with strong evidence of reliability or validity. The purpose of this study was to develop and test the psycho- metric properties of the Clinical Competence Questionnaire (CCQ) that measures the perceived clinical competence of upcoming baccalaureate nursing graduates. Methods: The Clinical Competence Questionnaire was developed based on Patricia Benner's "From Novice to Expert" model. This developed instrument was evaluated in a cross-sectional study. A total of 340 baccalaureate students in their final semester of a 2-year RN-to-BSN program in Taiwan completed and returned the questionnaire. Out of the 340 students, data from 293 students who did not have work experience were used to test reliability and validity of the scale. The instrument was tested for content, construct, and criterion-related validity. Results: The Cronbach's alpha for the entire CCQ was .98. Content and known-groups validity were confirmed. Principal component analysis showed a high degree of explanation of competence and revealed four components of competence: nursing professional behaviors, core nursing skills, general performance, and advanced nursing skills. Conclusion: The results from our study indicate the CCQ demonstrates good reliability and validity for measuring the perceived clinical competence of upcoming baccalaureate nursing graduates. The CCQ is also a useful tool and is easy to administer for the self-assessment of nursing clinical competence. Study limitations and further recommendations for nursing are discussed.


How have immediate school-to-work transitions and early careers changed in different labor market entry regimes since the early 1980s? How do institutional frameworks differ with regard to insecurity perception? This book investigates these topics from a cross-national perspective while focusing on Denmark, the darling of flexicurity literature. The results show that in all the labor market entry regimes, the school-to-work transition has become increasingly difficult, and flexible forms of work are more typical in the first job. Furthermore, the liberal institutional framework of the United States seems to produce a similarly low degree of job-loss worry among young people in their early careers as does the Danish paradigm. Contents include: employment flexibilization and increasing economic insecurity at labor market entry * the role of institutional settings for shaping school-to-work transitions * the Danish flexicurity as a framework for labor market entry processes * insecurity experiences: the development of employment risks at labor market entry since the 1980s * insecurity perception: the translation of unemployment risks into job-loss worry in times of flexible employment.


Weld quality features are difficult or impossible to directly measure and control
during welding, therefore indirect methods are necessary. Penetration is the most
important geometric feature since in most applications it is the most significant factor
affecting joint strength. Observation of penetration is only possible from the back face
of the full penetration weld. In all other cases, since direct measurement of depth of
penetration is not possible, real time control of penetration in the Gas Metal Arc
Welding (GMAW) process by sensing conditions at the top surface of the joint is
necessary. This continues to be a major area of interest for automation of the process.
The objective of this research has been to develop an on-line intelligent process
control model for GMAW, which can monitor and control the welding process. The
model uses measurement of the temperature at a point on the surface of the workpiece
to predict the depth of penetration being achieved, and to provide feedback for
corrective adjustment of welding variables. Neural Network and Fuzzy Logic
technologies have been used to achieve a reliable Neuro-Fuzzy control model for
GMAW of a typical closed butt joint having 60° Vee edge preparation.
The neural network model predicts the surface temperature expected for a set of fixed
and adjustable welding variables when a prescribed level of penetration is achieved.
This predicted temperature is compared with the actual surface temperature occurring
during welding, as measured by an infrared sensor. If there is a difference between the
measured temperature and the temperature predicted by the neural network, a fuzzy
logic model will recommend changes to the adjustable welding variables necessary to
achieve the desired weld penetration.
Large scale experiments to obtain data for modelling and for model validation, and
various other modelling studies are described. The results are used to establish the
relationships between the output surface temperature measurement, welding variables
and the corresponding achieved weld quality criteria. The effectiveness of the modelling methodology in dealing with fixed or variable root gap has also been
tested.
The result shows that the Neuro-fuzzy models are capable of providing control of
penetration to an acceptable degree of accuracy, and a potential control response time,
using modestly powerful computing hardware, of the order of one hundred
milliseconds. This is more than adequate for real time control of GMAW. The
application potential for control using these models is significant since, unlike many
other top surface monitoring methods, it does not require sensing of the highly
transient weld pool shape or surface.


This study investigated the change in Singaporean pre-service teachers' epistemological beliefs and beliefs about learning and teaching over the course of a teacher preparation program. An online survey was administered during the first week of a nine-month program and the same survey was administered after the 413 participants had completed all their course work and teaching practice. Participants exhibited significant changes in epistemological beliefs and beliefs about learning and teaching – participants indicated more relativistic epistemological outlooks and less constructivism in beliefs about teaching. At the end of the teacher preparation program, they seemed to less value effort in learning and believed more in innate ability.


Intense pulsed active detection (IPAD, [1]; also see presentations at this conference by B.V. Weber, et al., D.P Murphy et al., S.B. Swanekamp et al. and J.C. Zier, et al.) has been proposed as a means of detecting contraband fissile material from a distance. In this approach, an intense bremsstrahlung pulse is used to induce photo fission, the products of which are detected. In this work, we report on an initial effort to evaluate the applicability of various pulsed-power architectures to this approach. The electron energy is 12 MeV with an effective electron charge at 12 MeV of 3 mC to 5 mC delivered in <; 100 ms, in either a single pulse or a burst. The eventual goals for the accelerator are compactness, especially short length; relatively light weight; transportability; and ease of setup and operation in the field. We first consider designs that could be constructed in a few years with minimum development. We compare induction voltage adders (IVA), ferrite-core linear induction accelerators (LIA), and linear transformer drivers (LTD). Conceptual point-designs are developed for each approach using essentially demonstrated technology, though the LTD assumes scaling and repackaging. The IVA design was considered for further design development [2]. We then sought approaches that are not demonstrated technology but have promise for achieving substantially less weight and volume. We considered recirculating LI As, auto-accelerators, air-core LI As, dielectric wall accelerators, and vacuum inductive stores with plasma opening switches. A partial pre-conceptual design of a 100 kA, single-pulse air-core LIA suggested that this might be a promising advanced candidate, and it is described here. An evaluation of the other advanced concepts will be published elsewhere [3].


—Policy based management is a very effective method to protect sensitive information. However, the overclaim of privileges is widespread in emerging applications, including mobile applications and social network services, because the applications' users involved in policy administration have little knowledge of policy based management. The overclaim can be leveraged by malicious applications, then lead to serious privacy leakages and financial loss. To resolve this issue, this paper proposes a novel policy administration mechanism, referred to as Collaborative Policy Administration (CPA for short), to simplify the policy administration. In CPA, a policy administrator can refer to other similar policies to set up their own policies to protect privacy and other sensitive information. This paper formally defines CPA, and proposes its enforcement framework. Furthermore, in order to obtain similar policies more effectively, which is the key step of CPA, a text mining based similarity measure method is presented. We evaluate CPA with the data of Android applications, and demonstrate that the text mining based similarity measure method is more effective in obtaining similar policies than the previous category based method.


Background: To identify nurses' needs and problems in relation to research, and thereby enhance nursing research output, a valid measure of nurses' attitudes toward research is necessary. Aim: This study aimed to develop, validate and conduct reliability analysis of a newly developed questionnaire assessing nurses' attitudes towards conducting research. Subject and methods: We evaluated the content validity of the new questionnaire using an expert panel, while nurses with similar characteristics as the target group assessed for face validity. The content and face validity were determined by six experts and 11 nurses, respectively. The construct validity of the draft questionnaire was assessed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis from pilot-study data. The reliability (internal consistency and composite) of the final version of the questionnaire was then assessed. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS version 20 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY) and SPSS AMOS version 18.0 for confirmatory factor analysis. Results: Two factors were extracted using an exploratory factor analysis. The confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that the two-factor structure, which contained 10 items in total, was the best fit to the data. The Cronbach's alpha was good (0.81 and 0.77 for Factors 1 and 2, respectively). The composite reliability and discriminant validity of the final model were confirmed. Conclusion: We confirmed the validity and reliability of this questionnaire, making it a useful measure of attitudes towards conducting research among nurses.


Benthic foraminiferal research in the North Pacific has a long history, with works published over a century ago providing important information about the taxonomy and distribution of morphospecies. These studies focused mainly on areas outside the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ). Our knowledge of foraminiferal faunas within the CCZ originates largely from recent baseline investigations related to likely future seabed mining of the polymetallic nodule deposits. These have revealed highly diverse assemblages of sediment-dwelling morphospecies among the meiofauna and macrofauna, as well as megafaunal xenophyophores and nodule-attached fauna. Morphological analyses have been complemented by metabarcoding studies that yielded even higher numbers of molecular species (Operational Taxonomic Units - OTUs). Monothalamids, the vast majority undescribed, constitute a substantial proportion of both morphological and molecular datasets, with multichambered agglutinated and calcareous foraminifera being less common. Their importance in this abyssal (>4,000 m depth) habitat likely reflects food limitation combined with carbonate dissolution close to and below the carbonate compensation depth. Literature records, supported in a few cases by genetic data, suggest that many morphospecies found in the CCZ have wide geographical distributions across the Pacific abyss and in other oceans. At smaller spatial scales (several 100s of kilometers) there is a general uniformity in assemblage composition. Nevertheless, many morphospecies are too rare to conclude anything about their geographical distributions. Similarly, the part played by benthic foraminifera in CCZ ecosystems is largely a matter of speculation, although their abundance across different size classes suggests that it is significant. Meiofauna-sized taxa that consume freshly-deposited organic detritus may be important in carbon cycling, particularly at the shallower, more eutrophic eastern end of the CCZ. Megafaunal xenophyophores can provide habitat structure for other organisms, potentially enhancing benthic biodiversity. Foraminifera of all sizes could be among the earliest recolonisers of disturbed or redeposited sediments. Their potential contributions in terms of both ecology and biodiversity make these protists significant members of benthic communities in the CCZ.


: Organisational learning has been widely acknowledged as holding the key for companies to survive and prosper and has, in recent years, gained currency in construction management research. Much research centred upon the study of organisational learning as a process, as well as the view and understanding of companies as learning organisations. However, non-construction management researchers have recently begun to recognise the incoherence of the concepts presented in the literature and identified a lack of a solid theoretical and empirical foundation. To further exacerbate the challenge of embracing organisational learning in construction, the industry is largely project based, thus increasing the difficulties for organisational learning to occur. This review paper suggests that past research into organisational learning had also mainly concentrated on an intra-organisational perspective and where construction is specifically concerned, on project partnering. However, we regard such a focus to be myopic as a means of exploring organisational learning at the construction project level. As such, a number of research challenges are recommended including the need to examine organisational learning beyond project partnering; an emphasis on the interorganisational dynamics involved in both the process and outcomes of organisational learning and the investigation of construction projects as learning networks.


The temperature sensitivity (Q10) of soil heterotrophic respiration (Rh) is an important ecological model parameter and may vary with temperature and moisture. While Q10 generally decreases with increasing temperature, the moisture effects on Q10 have been controversial. To address this, we conducted a 90-day laboratory incubation experiment using a subtropical forest soil with a full factorial combination of five moisture levels (20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100% water holding capacity - WHC) and five temperature levels (10, 17, 24, 31, and 38°C). Under each moisture treatment, Rh was measured several times for each temperature treatment to derive Q10 based on the exponential relationships between Rh and temperature. Microbial biomass carbon (MBC), microbial community structure and soil nutrients were also measured several times to detect their potential contributions to the moisture-induced Q10 variation. We found that Q10 was significantly lower at lower moisture levels (60%, 40% and 20% WHC) than at higher moisture level (80% WHC) during the early stage of the incubation, but became significantly higher at 20%WHC than at 60% WHC and not significantly different from the other three moisture levels during the late stage of incubation. In contrast, soil Rh had the highest value at 60% WHC and the lowest at 20% WHC throughout the whole incubation period. Variations of Q10 were significantly associated with MBC during the early stages of incubation, but with the fungi-to-bacteria ratio during the later stages, suggesting that changes in microbial biomass and community structure are related to the moisture-induced Q10 changes. This study implies that global warming's impacts on soil CO2 emission may depend upon soil moisture conditions. With the same temperature rise, wetter soils may emit more CO2 into the atmosphere via heterotrophic respiration.


This thesis introduces a new type of sensor that detects the position information of a paramagnetic microfiber and transforms it to computational electrical signal. The original purpose of the sensor is to solve the problem of feedback signal detection of the microfiber control system, which is the problem of detecting the position information for the microfiber. The microfiber will be presented as the experimental object of this sensor to test its capability. A novel optical based approach is used to transfer the position signal to a computer scrutable signal for further analysis. The purpose of the sensor design comes from the question of how to detect the position information in the feedback section of the microfiber control system. It is crucial since it provides the feedback for the whole control system. The information can be difficult to detect since our microfiber is designed to achieve high frequency (up to 100 ∼ 1000Hz) low range reciprocating motion and low frequency high range movement in future. Thus, a sensing system is required to be able to input high speed movement and output analytical electrical signal. A high-speed camera can be used with an approach of image processing techniques, but considering the high-end and high-cost camera be applied in a simple purpose as in our system is inefficient, and another disadvantage relates to the image processing speed will be a limitation which will affect speed of signal detection. A general idea of the design of the sensing system is presented in this thesis. The sensor relies on optical based sensing method. This method with related electronic components is able to sense fast speed movement and high frequency reciprocating motion. A modulation and demodulation approach is also included to eliminate the possible noise from the environment. Results are presented in the thesis to show the effectiveness of the sensing system and to indicate in general the sensor is providing a robust result for the microfiber's position analysis.


Hexa-deutero dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO-d6) solutions of terphenyl-based Nd3+ , Yb3+, and Er3+ complexes functionalized with a triphenylene antenna chromophore exhibit room temperature near-infrared luminescence at wavelengths of interest for the optical telecommunication network (~ 1330 and ~ 1550 nm). The sensitizing process takes place through the triplet state of triphenylene as can be concluded from the oxygen dependence of the sensitized luminescence. A significant fraction of the excited triphenylene triplet state is quenched by oxygen, instead of contributing to the population of the luminescent state of the lanthanide ion. The luminescence lifetimes of the triphenylene-functionalized lanthanide complexes ((2)Ln) are in the range of microseconds with a lifetime of 18.6 µs for (2)Yb, 3.4 µs for (2)Er, and 2.5 µs for (2)Nd in DMSO-d6. These luminescence lifetimes seem almost completely dominated by the vibrational quenching by the organic groups in the polydentate ligand and solvent molecules, which leads to low overall luminescence quantum yields.