This paper reports on experiences of Indigenous students and staff involved in Bond Indigenous Tutoring (BIT). It aimed to gain insight regarding topics including challenges faced by Indigenous students, why some students discontinued their studies, and concepts of success at university. Findings revealed the main challenges included the transition from secondary to tertiary education and not being prepared academically. BIT staff identified family responsibilities and being dislocated from kinship networks as challenges, while students stated these were factors explaining why Indigenous students discontinued their studies. A whole of university approach was found to be required to effectively support Indigenous students. Success was defined as more than Grade Point Average, as it entailed being able to enjoy future endeavours. This paper contributes to the evidence that tuition programmes and Indigenous centres at university are key contributors to success, and it is argued that such success must become the norm as opposed to the exception.


Prosthetic devices that replace an absent body part are generally considered to be either cosmetic or functional. Functional prostheses aim to restore (some degree of) lost physical functioning. Cosmetic prostheses attempt to restore a "normal" appearance to bodies that lack (one or more) limbs by emulating the absent body part's looks. In this article, we investigate how cosmetic prostheses establish a normal appearance by drawing on the stories of the users of a specific type of artificial limb: the facial prosthesis. Given that prostheses are first and foremost devices worn upon the body, such an analysis requires an understanding of the ways in which bodies and technologies interact. We thus interpret users' stories by critically engaging with the work of disability researcher and Actor-Network theorist Myriam Winance, as well as with the postphenomenological scholarship of Don Ihde and Peter-Paul Verbeek. Using this framework, we explore users' attempts to achieve a proper fit between their faces and their prostheses, the technological transparency such a fit enables, and the ways in which transparency mediates users' everyday exchanges with others. We conclude that a normal appearance, when it is achieved by means of prosthetics, enables the device's user to navigate a precarious social environment as they encounter and interact with others in public.


Engineering works have affected the morphology of rivers (e.g., by cut-offs, artificial levees, revetments, and reservoir and dam constructions). These human impacts also have hydrological impacts, as they alter the natural channel geometry, affect the carrying capacity of the channel and confine the floodplains. The goals of the present paper are to analyse flow changes for the Tisza River (in Hungary) with its highly regulated channel using a long (141 y) daily hydrologic dataset and to evaluate the engineering works from the point of hydrological and morphological equilibrium. Since the late 19th century, the flood level along the Lower Tisza River has increased by 216 cm; further, since 1998, flood levels increased by over 80 cm without an increase in discharge. In addition, river stages for low flows have decreased, and the water slope has decreased. These changes are likely connected to morphological changes in the channel (e.g., incision, narrowing, disappearance of point bars, intensifying mass movements), which have been driven by the complex response to human impacts. While the channel could adjust itself to convey larger floods after the cut-offs, the revetments impede the channel adjustment and contribute to the hydrological and morphological disequilibrium state along the Tisza River.


We develop a general theory of intertwined diffusion processes of any dimension. Our main result gives an SDE characterization of all possible intertwinings of diffusion processes and shows that they correspond to nonnegative solutions of hyperbolic partial differential equations. For example, solutions of the classical wave equation correspond to the intertwinings of two Brownian motions. The theory allows us to unify many older examples of intertwinings, such as the process extension of the beta-gamma algebra, with more recent examples such as the ones arising in the study of two-dimensional growth models. We also find many new classes of intertwinings and develop systematic procedures for building more complex intertwinings by combining simpler ones. In particular, `orthogonal waves' combine unidimensional intertwinings to produce multidimensional ones. Connections with duality, time reversals and Doob's h-transforms are also explored.


In this engaging, optimistic close reading of five late twentieth-century novels by American women, Magali Cornier Michael illuminates the ways in which their authors engage with ideas of communal activism, common commitment, and social transformation. The fictions she examines imagine coalition building as a means of moving toward new forms of nonhierarchical justice; for ethnic cultures that, as a result of racist attitudes, have not been assimilated, power with each other rather than power over each other is a collective goal. Michael argues that much contemporary American fiction by women offers models of care and nurturing that move away from the private sphere toward the public and political. Specifically, texts by women from such racially marked ethnic groups as African American, Asian American, Native American, and Mexican American draw from the rich systems of thought, histories, and experiences of these hybrid cultures and thus offer feminist and ethical revisions of traditional concepts of community, coalition, subjectivity, and agency. Focusing on Amy Tan's "The Joy Luck Club", Barbara Kingsolver's "The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven", Ana Castillo's "So Far from God", and Toni Morrison's "Paradise", Michael shows that each writer emphasizes the positive, liberating effects of kinship and community. These hybrid versions of community, which draw from other-than-dominant culturally specific ideas and histories, have something to offer Americans as the United States moves into an increasingly diverse twenty-first century. Michael provides a rich lens through which to view both contemporary fiction and contemporary life.


Infantile myofibroma is the most common benign, mesenchymal tumor found in this age group but as compared to the vast variety of benign tumors found in infants this has been rarely identified. Clinically a solitary lesion of infantile myofibroma can present with a wide variety of symptoms depending on the site of the lesion. However, infantile myofibromas can also be asymptomatic. Rarely, a lesion affecting the respiratory center can be fatal. We present the largest solitary infantile myofibroma found in the head and neck region in this case report. A comparison with other reported cases of head and neck infantile myofibroma is also mentioned in this report.


The Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) is a specialized web
transfer protocol for constrained devices and constrained networks. It
is anticipated that constrained devices will often naturally operate
in groups (e.g., in a building automation scenario, all lights in a
given room may need to be switched on/off as a group). This
specification defines how CoAP should be used in a group communication
context. An approach for using CoAP on top of IP multicast is detailed
based on existing CoAP functionality as well as new features
introduced in this specification. Also, various use cases and
corresponding protocol flows are provided to illustrate important
concepts. Finally, guidance is provided for deployment in various
network topologies.


This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects on hatching performance of single and multi-stage operations in incubators which can be used in both single and multi- stage. The experiment was carried out in two different hatcheries. In the first hatchery, eggs were collected from an old flock (63 weeks) and were divided into 4 groups randomly and were placed far from the fan (Group I), in the middle (Group 2), near the fan (Group 3) and the last group was moved every week by setting the first week far from the fan, the second week in the middle and the third week near the fan (Group 4). The first 3 groups were placed in the same place until the transfer time. The hatchability of fertile (H:F) eggs was significantly lower in the first group, while the highest H:F ratio was obtained from the third and fourth groups. In the second hatchery, eggs were collected from the flock of broiler breeders 34 and 60 weeks-old. All groups were tested the same as tin he first hatchery except the 4th group. The differences among groups were not significant for H:F ratio for eggs from breeders at 34 weeks of age. However, similar to the first experiment, when eggs from breeders 60 weeks of age were used, the H:F ratio was higher for eggs placed close to the fan.


Humanity has entered the Age of the Anthropocene, a geologic era marked by the emergence of human activity as the single most dominant influence on Earth's environment. Every ecosystem shows signs of anthropogenic influence, and the environments we experience everyday are often shaped almost entirely by human actions and decisions. The new discipline of reconciliation ecology recognizes this reality and suggests that we must manage the new habitats we create in order to protect species diversity and ecosystem services. But the 2015 rule defining the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act explicitly excludes many manmade environments, including many artificial lakes, farm ponds, reflecting pools, and most ditches, treating these landscape features as faux nature somehow unworthy of protection. This treatment is a marked departure from past Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers practices, which allowed for consideration of such places on a case-by-case basis. This departure finds no support in the Supreme Court precedent leading up to the new rule and seems to be based entirely on a shortsighted view of these places as somehow unimportant to protecting the waters of the United States. Based on the law and science surrounding ditches, we conclude that such places merit protection under the Clean Water Act.


Abstract. Atmospheric black carbon (BC) absorbs solar radiation, and exacerbates global warming through exerting positive radiative forcing (RF). However, the contribution of BC to ongoing changes in global climate is under debate. Anthropogenic BC emissions, and the resulting distribution of BC concentration, are highly uncertain. In particular, long-range transport and processes affecting BC atmospheric lifetime are poorly understood. Here we discuss whether recent assessments may have overestimated present-day BC radiative forcing in remote regions. We compare vertical profiles of BC concentration from four recent aircraft measurement campaigns to simulations by 13 aerosol models participating in the AeroCom Phase II intercomparison. An atmospheric lifetime of BC of less than 5 days is shown to be essential for reproducing observations in remote ocean regions, in line with other recent studies. Adjusting model results to measurements in remote regions, and at high altitudes, leads to a 25% reduction in AeroCom Phase II median direct BC forcing, from fossil fuel and biofuel burning, over the industrial era. The sensitivity of modelled forcing to BC vertical profile and lifetime highlights an urgent need for further flight campaigns, close to sources and in remote regions, to provide improved quantification of BC effects for use in climate policy.


The use of electronic media and tools is central to many higher education teaching and learning strategies, but adoption of new technology is more often negatively received by staff, although enthusiastically embraced by students. Longer term, it has been questioned whether universities will meet the needs of shifting knowledge-based societies and increasingly diverse student populations. Barriers to the adoption of e-learning by staff have been identified largely from research within scientific and technical subjects. Our aim was to explore the attitudes of staff towards e-learning across both the Arts and Sciences, to understand more fully some of the reasons why educators fail to make the best use of technology-driven opportunities. Staff (n=36) from Schools of Politics, American Studies, Medicine, Nursing and Bioscience at one University were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire (see Appendix 1). The results showed that staff did not have a consensual idea of what e-learning meant, or the breadth of technologies involved. Science staff were more aware of the potential benefits, feeling that their academic subjects suited the use of e-learning. In the Arts, staff felt that their academic subjects required deeper levels of analysis and discussion that e-learning could not provide. This perhaps reflects a lack of understanding of what e-learning tools were available and could potentially offer. To conclude, the Arts lag behind the Sciences in the provision of e-learning, with staff suggesting that the use of e-learning was perhaps of less benefit to the subject. The lack of clarity and divergent attitudes provides an insight into how e-learning strategies must be adapted in order to improve staff understanding of what e-learning technologies are available, what the benefits are and how best to adopt them.


To investigate the interannual variability in the northwestern Pacific, an empirical mode decomposition (EMD) was applied to 17-year Absolute Dynamic Topography (ADT) data west of Luzon Island, the Philippines. The mean sea surface height in this area is an appropriate index for the Kuroshio intrusion into the South China Sea (SCS). Significant interannual fluctuations were extracted by the EMD. The interannual variability was strongly correlated with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) index, but not the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). This indicated the potential impact of the PDO on the circulation in the area. In the warm phase of the PDO (positive index), a southerly anomalous wind off the Philippines causes a northward shift of the North Equatorial Current Bifurcation Latitude (NECBL). This leads to a weakened Kuroshio off Luzon, favoring Kuroshio intrusion into the SCS. The northward migration of the NECBL also results in a weakened Kuroshio off southeast Taiwan and a larger Kuroshio transport off northeast Taiwan. The abundant westward propagating eddies impinging on the Kuroshio in the Subtropical Countercurrent region increases this transport. Although the ENSO has little effect on monsoonal winds during the warm PDO phase, it has a strong impact on the monsoon and meridional migration of the NECBL during the cold phase of the PDO. Therefore, NECBL variations only show a close correspondence with the ENSO during the cold PDO phase. Because the influence of the ENSO is not stationary, the impact of the PDO should be taken into account when examining interannual variability in the low-latitude western North Pacific. 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


Two Are Not Necessarily Better Than One Gene duplication is one of the major drivers of the evolution of gene and protein networks. However, specific examples of how genes change to maintain two paralogous gene copies within an organism are relatively rare. Baker et al. (p. 104) examined the functional divergence of the paralogs Mcm1 and Arg80, MADS-box transcription factors in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The partitioning of ancestral functions in a fungal transcription factor appeared to be affected by competitive interference between the newly formed gene duplicates. Thus, in yeast, gene duplication has created a selective conflict between the paralogs, which appear to have driven the evolution of a novel protein function. Interactions between recent gene duplicates may create functional interference, selecting for regulatory complexity. Most models of gene duplication assume that the ancestral functions of the preduplication gene are independent and can therefore be neatly partitioned between descendant paralogs. However, many gene products, such as transcriptional regulators, are components within cooperative assemblies; here, we show that a natural consequence of duplication and divergence of such proteins can be competitive interference between the paralogs. Our example is based on the duplication of the essential MADS-box transcriptional regulator Mcm1, which is found in all fungi and regulates a large set of genes. We show that a set of historical amino acid sequence substitutions minimized paralog interference in contemporary species and, in doing so, increased the molecular complexity of this gene regulatory network. We propose that paralog interference is a common constraint on gene duplicate evolution, and its resolution, which can generate additional regulatory complexity, is needed to stabilize duplicated genes in the genome.


After declining steadily for over a decade, homelessness has risen in recent years. Nationally, this trend is driven by an increase in the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, which has increased each year since 2015 while the number of people in shelters has gone down. This report has two key components. The first component is a descriptive analysis of housing market factors in communities with different trends in their unsheltered homeless counts. Consistent with previous work, the authors found that communities with increasing trends had tighter housing markets. The second component provides case studies of efforts to address unsheltered homelessness in three communities – Richmond, VA; Montgomery County, MD; and San Diego, CA. Data from Richmond showed positive outcomes for an effort to target Rapid Re-Housing (RRH) to people experiencing unsheltered homelessness and those with high levels of vulnerability. Montgomery County demonstrated the value of additional housing resources when paired with a more targeted vulnerability assessment. San Diego launched two emergency shelter options in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: non-congregate shelter in hotels and congregate shelter at the city's convention center. While formerly unsheltered residents of the convention center had comparable housing stability outcomes measured by rates of returning to homelessness, residents of the hotels did substantially better than those in the convention center, and in the mainstream shelter system overall.


NORTH WIND: A JOURNAL OF GEORGE MACDONALD STUDIES. #30 (2011). Edited by Fernando Soto and John Pennington. ISSN 0265-7295. http://www.snc.edu/english/northwind.html. Available with membership, $18 annually in US. MALLORN: THE JOURNAL OF THE TOLKIEN SOCIETY. #53 (SPRING 2012). Ed. Henry Gee. ISSN 0308-6674. With membership; 26 [pounds sterling] UK, 35 [pounds sterling] outside of Europe. TOLKIEN STUDIES: AN ANNUAL SCHOLARLY REVIEW. #9 (2012). Ed Verlyn Flieger and Michael D.C. Drout. West Virginia University Press. ISSN 1547-3155. $60.00. FASTITOCALON: STUDIES IN FANTASTICISM ANCIENT TO MODERN. #2.1&2 (2011). Ed. Thomas Honegger and Fanfan Chen. Wissenschftlicher Verlag Trier. ISSN 1869-960X. 20,00[euro]. NORTH WIND'S 2011 ISSUE STARTS OFF WITH GEOFFREY REITER'S "'Down the Winding Stair': Victorian Popular Science and Deep Time in 'The Golden Key.'" Reiter's thesis is that our understanding of MacDonald's themes can be improved if we are aware of the upheavals in natural science taking place contemporaneously with his writing. Robert Chambers's Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation was a particularly popular book, outselling Darwin's Origin of Species until the late 1880s, and the influence of its "variant Genesis" account can be seen at a fairly straightforward level in The Princess and Curdie and more symbolically in Tangle's descent "down the winding-stair" in "The Golden Key." Next Osama Jarrar discusses how MacDonald questions the dominant Victorian social and familial structure of his time through his fairy tales and fantasy novels. It is unfortunately marred by his misuse of the term 'genetic' as an opposite for 'hereditary'; perhaps a better term for his purposes would have been 'innate.' Jarrar argues that in characters such as Curdie and Diamond, MacDonald opposes a social scale based of hereditary social status with one privileging inner nobility of spirit. Robin Phillips's "George MacDonald and the Anthropology of Love" represents another case where the terminology used could be more precise, as we are really being asked to consider religion and philosophy, not anthropology, in this article. Phillips begins with a review of two opposing religious influences on MacDonald--the rigid and legalistic Calvinism of his paternal grandmother and the more joyful and caring approach of his father--and how they manifest in his works in an existentialist preference for works over thoughts and a transformation of work into beauty through love, thus "anticipat[ing] a type of aesthetic apologetics that would concern later writers like G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers and C.S. Lewis" (36). Melody Green next examines how MacDonald and Lewis Carroll, friends and influences upon each other, both used nonsense poetry to challenge contemporary ideas and customs about death. Carroll, in his Alice books, tends to treat death as a joke and something to be made mock of--think of the "gently smiling jaws" of Alice's crocodile--where MacDonald turns this around to propose that a familiarity with death gives us the ability to create and enjoy nonsense in response to its absurdity. A similar article takes on the same topic in Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's works in Fastitocalon, described below. Next we turn to the subject of corpus-stylistic criticism, which involves the computer-assisted analysis of vocabulary used in a selected portion of an author's output. It can be as simple as a word frequency list (the sort used to generate "word cloud" visual representations) or as complex as semantic tagging which places individual words into linguistic categories. Patrick Maiwald analyzes forty-one items of MacDonald's fiction, first at a simple word-frequency level, then in comparison with a similar group of contemporary Victorian fiction, and continuing on to more complex analysis of phrases and tagging. Maiwald freely admits that this sort of analysis is very limited and does not really have a great deal of importance on its own at present, but it can bring precision and corroboration to the study of an author's particular style or the development of themes and influences over his lifetime. …


Abstract: This article focuses on the implications of current political and sociocultural processes for youth politics in post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine. The author briefly examines the dynamics in the developments underway within Ukrainian and Russian youth movements by looking at specific policies and tools of cultural propaganda aimed at Russian and Ukrainian youth today to engage them in active mass political participation at the national level. This article is an attempt to understand how the cultural politics of the states and the cultural activity of particular youth groups are incorporated and sustained in a powerful discursive framework of national and international politics. Key questions include: What young people enter politics in modern-day Russia and Ukraine? What political ideas do they hold? Is their entry in political life motivated by a special cultural vision? And, most important, to what degree are those ideas an extension of their cultural preferences and views? The author demonstrates a correlation between political and cultural motivations among Russian and Ukrainian adolescents. This is accomplished through distinctive models of youth participation in national politics to show how national cultural discourses construct political agency among young people because each discourse inevitably empowers particular youth groups. The author argues that although having similar agendas, Ukrainian and Russian youth movements are formed by different means of political propaganda that stem from different approaches to the formulation and articulation of the national cultural politics. Key words: adolescence, culture, cultural politics, heroes, ideals, identity, ideology, mass political participation, political agency, political propaganda, Russia, Ukraine, youth movements, youth politics ********** In this article, I present a conceptual framework for the research on a topic that is still largely neglected by "serious" scholars, although it is becoming obvious that questions surrounding cultural politics, state policies, and the impact of those policies on youth movements in post-Soviet states should be researched in more detail. The successful role of youth movements in recent political battles in Georgia and Ukraine has advanced the subject, which is becoming an area of discussion and analysis in its own right. However, there is little accurate information about the scope of national youth movements, their ideals and leaders, purposes and sponsors, and tactics and strategies. Even membership numbers are elusive. It would be wiser to consider the recent spate of publications on youth politics and culture in these countries as interesting preliminary comments, based on a narrow selection of evidence that pays only scant attention to the structure and content of youth movements in both countries. At the moment, there seems to be different, but overlapping, ideas about the social roots of youth movements and the emergence of adolescents as powerful political actors in postcommunist Russia and Ukraine. The first assumption is that youth movements have attracted predominantly the most progressive young people--students. Traditionally, any student generation in Russia and Ukraine lasts five years, with its ranks always being refilled. The second assumption is that the post-Soviet milieu has expected that their young men and women--as distinct from their parents--inevitably embrace a new reality and change on the way to "settling down." And finally, the third assumption--logically distinct from the second--is that the emergence of the adolescent as a self-conscious political actor was finally recognized in Russia in the course of the presidential campaign of 2004 in Ukraine. Although they were enthusiastically recognized by the public, the ruling political elite were much less willing to acknowledge them. In many ways, the "orange experience" has been increasingly conceived by young people in both countries as a "political coming of age"--a viable and preferable alternative of their social adjustment to the already established morale and order of transitional societies, in which adolescents have been largely marginalized and neglected during the 1990s. …


Abstract In this paper we address the problem of deciding whether a water source should be used by a water utility such that the production cost as well as the penalty cost due to water shortages is minimized while certain constraints are satisfied. The problem is modeled using composition of multiple open hybrid automata while the decision logic depends on certain parameters that need to be optimized. Subsequently, infinitesimal perturbation analysis (IPA) is used to optimize these parameters. The proposed approach is non-parametric in the sense that it does not depend on any assumptions on the stochastic processes that drive the system dynamics and it can be used online to continuously adjust the control parameters even when the input processes are not stationary.


Osteoarthritis (OA); the most common form of degenerative joint disease; is associated with variations in pro-inflammatory growth factor levels; inflammation and hypocellularity resulting from chondrocyte apoptosis (1). Pituitary adenylate cyclaseactivating polypeptide (PACAP) is a neuropeptide endowed with a range of trophic effects in several cell types; including chondrocytes (2). However; its role in OA has not been studied. To address this issue; we investigated whether PACAP expression is affected in OA cartilage obtained from experimentally-induced OA rat models; and then studied the effects of PACAP in isolated chondrocytes exposed to IL-1β in vitro to mimic the inflammatory milieu of OA cartilage. OA induction was established by histomorphometric and histochemical analyses. Changes in PACAP distribution in cartilage or its concentration in synovial fluid (SF) were assessed by immunohistochemistry and ELISA. Results showed that PACAP abundance in cartilage tissue and SF was high in healthy controls. OA induction decreased PACAP levels both in affected cartilage and SF. In vitro; PACAP prevented IL-1β-induced chondrocyte apoptosis; as determined by MTT assay; Hoechst staining and western blots of apoptotic-related proteins. These changes were also accompanied by decreased i-NOS and COX-2 levels; suggesting an anti-inflammatory effect. Altogether, these findings support a potential role for PACAP as a chondroprotective agent for the treatment of OA.


Introduction At the end of life, a move into or out of hospital is one of the most disruptive events for older adults and their carers, with consequences for their mental, physical and emotional wellbeing. Evidence from elsewhere suggests that transitions are frequent and make little contribution to patients' wellbeing. Little is known about socioeconomic differences in end of life hospital admissions in England. Aims and Methods To investigate patterns of end-of-life hospital admissions by socioeconomic disadvantage. Analysis of linked hospital episode statistics and mortality data for England. Results Between 2001 and 2010, 300,304 people aged over 75 were admitted to hospital in England at least once in their last year of life with a diagnosis of lung cancer or heart failure. Eighty five percent of people admitted with lung cancer and 72% of heart failure cases underwent a transition into hospital in the last 3 months of life. In multivariate analysis, lower socioeconomic status (given by the index of multiple deprivation) being male and younger age were associated with frequent hospital admissions amongst people with heart failure (above the 90th centile). For lung cancer cases, younger age and male sex were associated with numbers of admissions above the 90th centile. People with lung cancer in the most disadvantaged IMD quintile were less likely to be admitted frequently, adjusting for age and sex. Residence in a care home was not associated with frequent admissions to hospital. Conclusions Hospital admissions at the end of life are frequent, and vary with social disadvantage. Equitable end-of-life care in the community should be a future priority.


Australia is losing its Indigenous linguistic and cultural identity at an alarming rate. Of the 250 Indigenous languages on this continent 250 years ago, only eighteen are 'strong'. However, if decisive action is not taken immediately we risk losing the remaining languages by 2050. Not only have these Indigenous languages been lost, but many have disappeared without adequate documentation. There is a strong desire expressed by Indigenous communities and Australian policies to reverse this situation before the remaining Indigenous languages are lost. Documentation and maintenance activities by linguistically trained Indigenous adults are vital to reducing this loss. This research project analyses the past 30 years of courses and graduates of linguistics training that has been specifically designed for Australian Indigenous adults. It then explores what enhances or constrains the work of graduates, whether due to training or other factors, from the point of view of Indigenous people at the grassroots level. The data were gathered through openended interviews with 98 participants in 22 Indigenous communities representing 32 Australian Indigenous languages across the northern half of Australia. The data show that graduates of linguistics training specifically designed for remote Indigenous adults are not working in the field or are achieving limited language documentation and maintenance outcomes. The analysis shows that changes are needed in (i) curriculum developments and delivery methods, (ii) the policy and practices of educational institutions, particularly with respect to literacy and student numbers, and (iii) access to regional language centres to help negotiate cultural and project support issues in remote communities. The details of these issues vary systematically across the diversity of social and cultural environments faced by Indigenous Australians. The results provide guidance to educational institutions, the linguistics profession and governments. They assist in the development of targeted, culturally appropriate and effective training for Indigenous language researchers and identify the vital linguistic support and policy needed in remote regions of Australia.


New seismic imaging and seismotectonic data from the southwest Iberian margin, the site of the present-day boundary between the European and African plates, reveal that active strike slip is occurring along two prominent lineaments that have recently been mapped using multibeam bathymetry. Multichannel seismic and subbottom profiler images acquired across the lineaments show seafloor displacements and active faulting to depths of at least 10 km and of a minimum length of 150 km. Seismic moment tensors show predominantly WNW–ESE right-lateral strike-slip motion, i.e., oblique to the direction of plate convergence. Estimates of earthquake source depths close to the fault planes indicate upper mantle (i.e., depths of 40–60 km) seismogenesis, implying the presence of old, thick, and brittle lithosphere. The estimated fault seismic parameters indicate that the faults are capable of generating great magnitude (Mw ≥ 8.0) earthquakes. Such large events raise the concomitant possibility of slope failures that have the potential to trigger tsunamis. Consequently, our findings identify an unreported earthquake and tsunami hazard for the Iberian and north African coastal areas.


NIBOR, the Norwegian Interbank Offered Rate, is an important reference rate for financial products in the Norwegian market. It has also become of increasing interest as conventional monetary policy tools have become less effective in influencing market rates. Furthermore, there has been an increase in the risk premium in NIBOR associated with quantitative easings in the eurozone, new Liquidity Coverage Ratio requirements and a US money market fund reform. We utilize daily data and investigate the long-term and dynamic effects of the US money market fund reform on the risk premium in NIBOR. We focus on the period from the announcement of the money market fund reform to its implementation on 23 July 2014 and 14 October 2016, respectively. We first estimate an error correction model (ECM) and analyze both long-term and short-term effects on the NIBOR risk premium. Then we expand the model into an ECM-GARCH(1,1) model, which allows for stochastic processes and time-varying volatility. We find indications of structural breaks on 23 September 2015 and 24 October 2016, respectively. The long-run estimates indicate that the reform accounts for an increase of 0.067 or 0.053 of approximately 0.4 percentage points in the risk premium and a greater effect of quantitative easings. In the short-term, there is a significant adjustment to the long-run relationship. We find mixed evidence of negative and positive short-term effects of total liquidity and market risk, respectively. We find mixed evidence of a year-end effect and a coinciding positive effect of the Liquidity Coverage Ratio requirements. The conditional variance of the first-differenced risk premium has a slowly decaying autocorrelation. The relationship between the long-run variables changes after the implementation of the reform. The subsequent decrease in the risk premium suggests that the model estimations may have underestimated the effect of the reform.


Fungal pathogens have been recorded for virtually all groups of multicellular organisms. They are the major cause of disease in insects in nature, sometimes causing devastating epizootics. Entomopathogenic fungi are applied in the field as biological control agents worldwide. However, there remain many gaps in our knowledge concerning pathogenicity of fungi towards insects (St. Leger and Screen 2001). This study focuses on the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae. In particular, it focuses on the evolutionary significance and biocontrol potential of gene duplication and loss events among its plethora of serine proteases. The serine proteases produced by M. anisopliae and other pathogenic fungi currently provide the best-understood model of fungal determinants of pathogenicity (St. Leger and Screen 2001). The importance of subtilase Pr1A during the progress of infection by M. anisopliae was first identified through its high concentration at the site of penetration, and its considerable ability to degrade the cuticular integument (St. Leger et al 1987, 1989). Here a phylogenomic approach is adopted with fungi of very different virulence and habitat to survey and characterize their serine proteinases with the goal of providing a framework of information on these important enzymes, as well as improving understanding of general processes in fungal gene family evolution. Serine proteases became candidate for gene manipulation due to their critical role in the infection process. A strain of M. anisopliae was genetically modified so it overexpressed Pr1A and kills insects faster than the wild type does in laboratory tests (St. Leger et al. 1996). This technology has potential for pest control (St. Leger 2001), but there is an uncertainty about the efficacy, survivability, and environmental risk posed by any introduced or engineered fungus because of our lack of knowledge about the fate of fungal genotypes at the population and ecosystem levels (Bidochka 2001, Hajek et al. 1997). So a planned release (approved by EPA) was conducted in a field of cabbage plants. The release established the technology required to monitor the fate of genetically enhanced M. anisopliae. This technology was used to determine the potential of engineered strains to establish and disperse over 1-year test period. ii Dedication To my parents, Zhaohui Hu and Huaiwen Yang and my wife Bo Liu. It is they who took me on this route; And now I hope, they'll enjoy the fruit. iii Acknowledgements


Congenital Toxoplasmosis in Humans and Domestic Animals presents information about Toxoplasma gondii and its infection in neonates and different animals (cats, cattle, dogs, goats, pigs and sheep). Readers will have quick access to the pathophysiology, diagnosis, reproductive disorders (such as abortion, neonatal mortality and prematurity) and treatment of both human and veterinary toxoplasmosis. In addition, important aspects for control programs of congenital toxoplasmosis and for maternal and neonatal screening in such control programs are discussed. Thus readers will be better equipped to conduct prevention programmes and routine diagnosis of zoonotic infections related to T. gondii. This handbook is of interest to epidemiologists, doctors, veterinarians and public health specialists. Human Congenital Toxoplasmosis Congenital Toxoplasmosis in Dogs Congenital Toxoplasmosis in Cats Congenital Toxoplasmosis in Ewes Congenital Toxoplasmosis in Pigs Congenital Toxoplasmosis in Goats Congenital Toxoplasmosis in Cattle


The electronic patient record is primarily used as a way for clinicians to remember what has happened during the care of a patient. The electronic record also introduces an additional possibility, namely the use of computer based methods for searching, extracting and interpreting data patterns from the patient data. Potentially, such methods can help to reveal undiscovered medical knowledge from the patient record. This project aims to evaluate the usefulness of applying clustering methods to the patient record. Two clustering tasks are designed and accomplished, one that considers clustering of ICPC codes and one that considers medical certificates. The clusterings are performed by use of hierarchical clustering and k-means clustering. Distance measures used for the experiments are Lift correlation, the Jaccard coefficient and the Euclidian distance. Three indices for clustering validation are implemented and tested, namely the Dunn index, the modified Hubert $Gamma$ index and the Davies-Bouldin index. The work also points to the importance of dimensionality reduction for high dimensional data, for which PCA is utilised. The strategies are evaluated according to what degree they retrieve well-known medical knowledge owing to the fact that a strategy that retrieves a high degree of well-known knowledge are more likely to identify unknown medical information compared to a strategy that retrieves a lower degree of known information. The experiments show that, for some of the methods, clusters are formed that represent interesting medical knowledge, which indicates that clustering of a general practitioner's record can potentially constitute a contribution to further medical research.


Understanding the different igneous processes that magmas undergo is important for a variety of reasons including potential hazards associated with volcanoes in populated regions, magmatic hydrothermal ore deposition, and tectonic processes. One method of obtaining geochemical data that can help constrain petrogenetic processes is through the study of melt and fluid inclusions. The research presented here examines melt inclusions through experimental, analytical and field studies to better understand igneous petrogenesis. One potential problem associated with melt inclusions is water-loss during laboratory heating. A Raman spectroscopic technique was developed to determine water contents of silicate glasses, and this technique was applied to monitor water loss from natural melt inclusions that were heated for varying lengths of time. The results suggest that water loss is insignificant when heated for less than 12 hours but significant water loss can occur with longer duration heating. The distribution of trace elements between silicate melts and phenocrysts growing from that melt can constrain igneous processes such as fractional crystallization, assimilation, and partial melting. Partition coefficients were determined for syngenetic clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene, and plagioclase in equilibrium with a dacitic melt using the Melt Inclusion-Mineral (MIM) technique. Melt inclusion chemistry is the same regardless of mineral host phase, suggesting that the melt inclusions have not been subjected to re-equilibration processes or boundary layer development. Partition coefficients from this study are similar but typically lower than published values. Three closely-spaced monogenetic eruptive units from the active Campi Flegrei volcanic system (Italy) with similar eruptive styles were examined to better understand the evolution of the magmatic system. Results suggest fractional crystallization as the dominant process taking place over time but that magma mixing was significant for one of the eruptions. Trace element geochemical data suggest a mixed magma source of within-plate and volcanic arc components, and still retain a T-MORB signature from the subducting slab.


BACKGROUND
Cognitive decline is a major risk factor for disability, dementia, and death. The use of Internet/E-mail, also known as digital literacy, might decrease dementia incidence among the older population. The aim was to investigate whether digital literacy might be associated with decreased cognitive decline in older adulthood.

METHODS
Data from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging cohort with 6,442 participants aged 50-89 years, followed for 8 years, with baseline cognitive testing and four additional time points. The main outcome variable was the relative percentage change in delayed recall from a 10-word-list learning task across five separate measurement points. In addition to digital literacy, socioeconomic variables, including wealth and education, comorbidities, and baseline cognitive function were included in predictive models. The analysis used Generalized Estimating Equations.

RESULTS
Higher education, no functional impairment, fewer depressive symptoms, no diabetes, and Internet/E-mail use predicted better performance in delayed recall.

CONCLUSIONS
Digital literacy may help reduce cognitive decline among persons aged between 50 and 89 years.


This paper presents the results of pretest calculations of the Phebus fission product release experiment FPT3. The test scenario with the appropriate initial and boundary conditions was provided by the Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire. For the analyses, three severe accident codes were used: ATHLET-CD, ICARE2, and MELCOR. The calculations were focused on the main phenomena occurring in the bundle, such as the thermal behavior, the hydrogen production mainly due to cladding oxidation, the massive degradation of spent fuel and the release of fission products and control rod and structure materials. Using the predefined boundary and initial conditions, relatively small deviations between the code results were obtained, which demonstrates that the dominant processes occurring during a severe accident in the core of pressurized water reactors can be adequately simulated. By applying these codes to a large spectrum of integral tests as well as to plant analyses, one will obtain reliable results on the fuel bundle behavior. However, the spread in the calculated oxidized boron carbide masses indicates that modeling efforts are still necessary in all the codes in this respect.


Traditionally, most developer prefers not to use formal specification (FS) approach in designing an application system. In recent years, these approach have been seen as rivals, a new consensus has developed in which software developers are agreed it as complementary. Theoretically this approach can reduce the overall development time. FS can be use to provide an unambiguous and precise supplement to natural language descriptions. Focus to this point, it can be rigorously validated and verified leading to the early detection of specification errors or debugs during software development process. Correcting errors at the early development stage is cheaper than modifying a delivered system. FS could be verified and validated in order to explore the consequences of this specification and potentially find mistakes. After it was done, we have greater confidence that the testing of such system against the actual user requirement specification. This paper discusses the FS of Spatial Information Databases Integration Model as a case study


The French Riviera is one of the Mediterranean areas that has been longest and most thoroughly impacted by human activities. Fucales are long-lived, large-sized brown algae that constitute a good model for studying human impact on species diversity. We gathered all historical data (literature and herbarium vouchers), since the early 19 th century, to reconstruct their distribution. The current distribution was established from a 7-year (2007-2013) survey of the 212-km shoreline (1/2 500 map), by means of boating, snorkelling and scuba diving. Overall, 18 taxa of Cystoseira and Sargassum have been reported. Upon comparison with historical data, 5 taxa were no longer observed ( C. elegans , C. foeniculacea f. latiramosa , C. squarrosa, C. spinosa var. spinosa and S. hornschuchii ) while C. jabukae , previously unrecorded, was observed. In addition to these  taxa, probably extinct at a local scale, some taxa had suffered a dramatic decline ( C. barbata f. barbata , C. crinita , C. spinosa var. compressa and S. acinarium ) or become nearly extinct ( C. foeniculacea f. tenuiramosa ). Three of them, which played in the past significant functional roles in coastal communities, can be considered as functionally extinct. Possible causes of decline and local extinction are discussed. A similar situation has already been reported, although at a much more local scale, in a variety of Mediterranean localities. The question therefore arises about the status of Fucales species in the Mediterranean: are some species on the brink of extinction? Is their extinction at the scale of the French Riviera the harbinger of their extinction Mediterranean–wide?


Wireless communication is undoubtedly one of the most significant advancements by the mankind for improving quality of life. Information is transmitted from one point to another via electromagnetic waves. After Shannon's landmark paper "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" in 1948, significant advancements have occurred in providing reliable point to point wireless communication. With ever growing need for reliable high speed links, Cooperative communication and Network coding have emerged as viable technologies to bridge the gap. In today's wireless network, different users have different demands for reliability based on their respective application. In this context, we propose flexible network coding scheme to adapt to user needs. We develop coding rules which achieve maximal diversity of the system, yet provide differentiated class of service to the users. The proposed scheme can be adjusted to accommodate the dynamic changes in quality of service(QoS) demand of users. Second we consider the issue of security in multiple access relay network. Security has always been a primary concern in wireless networks due to it broadcast nature of transmission. The intermediate relay nodes in a wireless network could be modified by adversary to transmit corrupted information. We propose a novel iterative packet recycling methodology which gives performance improvement over traditional approach of discarding received corrupted packets at the destination. Finally, we consider the problem of choosing relay for transmission. We propose a novel selection scheme which provides balanced relay utilization and reduces relay switching rate compared to the traditional selection algorithms. This cuts down energy wastage at the relay and improves the overall network lifetime.


The principal results of this study of remotely triggered seismicity in The Geysers geothermal field are the demonstration that triggering (initiation of earthquake failure) depends on a critical strain threshold and that the threshold level increases with decreasing frequency, or, equivalently, depends on strain rate. This threshold function derives from (1) analyses of dynamic strains associated with surface waves of the triggering earthquakes, (2) statistically measured aftershock zone dimensions, and (3) analytic functional representations of strains associated with power production and tides. The threshold is also consistent with triggering by static strain changes and implies that both static and dynamic strains may cause aftershocks. The observation that triggered seismicity probably occurs in addition to background activity also provides an important constraint on the triggering process. Assuming the physical processes underlying earthquake nucleation to be the same, Gomberg [this issue] discusses seismicity triggered by the MW 7.3 Landers earthquake, its constraints on the variability of triggering thresholds with site, and the implications of time delays between triggering and triggered earthquakes. Our results enable us to reject the hypothesis that dynamic strains simply nudge prestressed faults over a Coulomb failure threshold sooner than they would have otherwise. We interpret the rate-dependent triggering threshold as evidence of several competing processes with different time constants, the faster one(s) facilitating failure and the other(s) inhibiting it. Such competition is a common feature of theories of slip instability. All these results, not surprisingly, imply that to understand earthquake triggering one must consider not only simple failure criteria requiring exceedence of some constant threshold but also the requirements for generating instabilities.


Pyruvate kinase (PK) is critical for the regulation of the glycolytic pathway. The regulatory properties ofEscherichia coli were investigated by mutating six charged residues involved in interdomain salt bridges (Arg271, Arg292, Asp297, and Lys413) and in the binding of the allosteric activator (Lys382 and Arg431). Arg271 and Lys413 are located at the interface between A and C domains within one subunit. The R271L and K413Q mutant enzymes exhibit altered kinetic properties. In K413Q, there is partial enzyme activation, whereas R271L is characterized by a bias toward the T-state in the allosteric equilibrium. In the T-state, Arg292 and Asp297form an intersubunit salt bridge. The mutants R292D and D297R are totally inactive. The crystal structure of R292D reveals that the mutant enzyme retains the T-state quaternary structure. However, the mutation induces a reorganization of the interface with the creation of a network of interactions similar to that observed in the crystal structures of R-state yeast and M1 PK proteins. Furthermore, in the R292D structure, two loops that are part of the active site are disordered. The K382Q and R431E mutations were designed to probe the binding site for fructose 1,6-bisphosphate, the allosteric activator. R431E exhibits only slight changes in the regulatory properties. Conversely, K382Q displays a highly altered responsiveness to the activator, suggesting that Lys382 is involved in both activator binding and allosteric transition mechanism. Taken together, these results support the notion that domain interfaces are critical for the allosteric transition. They couple changes in the tertiary and quaternary structures to alterations in the geometry of the fructose 1,6-bisphosphate and substrate binding sites. These site-directed mutagenesis data are discussed in the light of the molecular basis for the hereditary nonspherocytic hemolytic anemia, which is caused by mutations in human erythrocyte PK gene.


Non-deductive reasoning systems are often representation dependent: representing the same situation in two different ways may cause such a system to return two different answers. Some have viewed this as a significant problem. For example, the principle of maximum entropy has been subjected to much criticism due to its representation dependence. There has, however, been almost no work investigating representation dependence. In this paper, we formalize this notion and show that it is not a problem specific to maximum entropy. In fact, we show that any representation-independent probabilistic inference procedure that ignores irrelevant information is essentially entailment, in a precise sense. Moreover, we show that representation independence is incompatible with even a weak default assumption of independence. We then show that invariance under a restricted class of representation changes can form a reasonable compromise between representation independence and other desiderata, and provide a construction of a family of inference procedures that provides such restricted representation independence, using relative entropy.


This book brings order to the chaotic and rapidly evolving world of influencer marketing by providing readers with much needed context, frameworks, and best practices. Written for busy marketing professionals working in both domestic and international markets, it addresses these topics in a highly actionable and engaging manner. Digital Influence covers everything from how to identify the right influencers and determine "level of influence" to collaborating with influencers and measuring ROI. It turns out, it's not all about paying online celebrities outrageous sums to post sponsored content. Backaler also provides much-needed context for why influencer marketing is flourishing today, and perspective into what a more technologicallyenabled, globally-connected future will look like. Ultimately, people want to learn from trusted peers, not faceless companies. Better than any corporate marketing function, influencers understand how to make best use of social media platforms and tailor content for their respective cultures to engage consumers in their home markets. Business leaders should arm themselves with Backaler's book to ensure they're not left behind.... Download ebook, read file pdf Unleash the Power of Influencer Marketing to Accelerate Your Global Business


ASET Workshop Proposal

a) Title: The flipped student – education from the other side.
b) Presenters
Lisa Ward – Head of Teaching and Learning Institute, University of Huddersfield
Mark Potter – Yr 3 Accountancy and Finance Placement Student and TALI Project Assistant
Daniel Yip - Yr 3 Chemistry with Forensic Science Placement Student and TALI Project Assistant

c) Keywords: Soft skills, challenges, team working, adapting, politics, event management
d) Abstract:
Aims and Objectives
The workshop will focus on the learning journey of two placement students who will present their experience of working within a department in the university. It aims to give greater understanding about the placement and skills developed from a student's perspective.
Experiences Covered and Issues to be addressed:
• What the student's expected to learn?
• What did students learn?
• Challenges and Opportunities
o University processes
o Adapting to changing environment
o Building consensus
o Working with a wide range of 'characters'
o Understanding Teaching and Learning
o Quality control of work
o Event management
o Personal development opportunities

Plus the Employer's Perspective:
• What sort of students apply for this experience?
• The interview process

This session aims to be interactive. There will be plenty of opportunity to ask questions and discuss issues involved.


ABSTRACT This study aims to explore the influence of using e-portfolio for learning goal setting on self-regulated learning. The subjects were 40 second-year students (18 males and 22 females) taking the 'Webpage Design' course of the Department of Information Technology in a vocational high school. The experimental teaching lasted for ten weeks, and the students used e-portfolio for learning goal setting. The t-test result showed that the students' self-regulated learning after using e-portfolio for learning goal setting is better than that before goal setting. The regression result showed that goal setting performance significantly and positively influences self-regulated learning. In other words, having goal setting or better goal setting leads to better self-regulated learning. Finally, limitation and recommendations for future work are proposed.


This study aims to investigate the mediating role of religiosity on the relationship between individual cultural values and negative opinions on interest. In this way, we aim to obtain an empirical basis for theoretical knowledge and to provide a statistically greater explanation about negative opinions on interest and culture relations based on religiosity. In this context, data were collected between May 14 and June 1, 2020, in Turkey, a country where the majority of individuals are Muslim but Western values and synthesis of Eastern and Western cultures have been adopted. A total of 1.934 people participated in the survey. Exploratory factor analysis was performed on a newly developed scale measuring negative opinion on interest. Next, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the research models and analyze the results from the confirmatory factor analysis. The analyses have determined individuals' cultural values to be a determinant of their religiosity levels and these religiosity levels to increase alongside increases in collectivism, power distance, masculinity, and long-term orientation. In addition, positive and statistically significant relationships have been determined for collectivism, power distance, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance orientations with negative opinions on interest. Findings have been obtained showing a negative and statistically significant relationship to exist between being long-term orientated and negative opinion on interest. As expected, the greater the religiosity level, the higher the negative opinion on interest. In addition, religiosity has also been reported to have a mediating effect on the relationship collectivism, power distance, masculinity, and negative opinion on interest have with interest.


Early identification of vulnerable, rupture-prone atherosclerotic plaques with the optimal goal of cardiovascular event prevention is a field of vigorous research. Despite the advances in imaging modalities and the in vivo identification of many characteristics of vulnerability, few of these plaques actually rupture and even fewer lead to clinical events, questioning the predictive value of the above techniques in clinical practice. Factors causing the higher local vulnerability of the culprit plaque within a prothrombotic environment of widespread inflammation are generally unknown. Newly recognized local features, including microcalcifications and biomechanical factors, seem to contribute. In this review article, we target on new mechanisms, implicated in vulnerable plaque formation and rupture, analysing their potential clinical value.


Objectives Industrial solvent exposure has been suggested to elevate blood pressure and to be associated with fatty liver disease. The mechanism of action is poorly known, as is the contribution of individual solvents.

Methods Twenty-six workers with long-term solvent exposure and 19 unexposed volunteers were recruited. A detailed exposure assessment was performed, blood pressure was measured, and liver ultrasound echogenicity was scored as a proxy for its fatty degeneration.

Results The mean values of systolic blood pressure of the study groups were within the normal range. Lifetime exposure was the decisive factor for blood pressure elevation when age, alcohol consumption, body mass index, gender, and smoking were controlled. The higher the alcohol consumption, the weaker the elevating effect of exposure on systolic blood pressure. Out of the solvent groups, exposure to white spirit and alcohols elevated systolic blood pressure significantly (P = 0.004 and P = 0.014, respectively) when exposed workers were compared with the unexposed workers and referents. The elevating effect remained, although it was not as significant, when analyses were restricted to the worker group (P=0.088 and P=0.104). Echogenicity was not an intermediate variable between exposure and blood pressure.

Conclusions Long-term exposure to solvents may have an elevating effect on blood pressure, mainly unrelated to liver fatty change, but weakened by alcohol use. These results are tentative and should be studied further.


Many applications in biomedical natural language processing rely on sequence tagging as an initial step to perform more complex analysis. To support text analysis in the biomedical domain, we introduce Yet Another SEquence Tagger (YASET), an open-source multi purpose sequence tagger that implements state-of-the-art deep learning algorithms for sequence tagging. Herein, we evaluate YASET on part-of-speech tagging and named entity recognition in a variety of text genres including articles from the biomedical literature in English and clinical narratives in French. To further characterize performance, we report distributions over 30 runs and different sizes of training datasets. YASET provides state-of-the-art performance on the CoNLL 2003 NER dataset (F1=0.87), MEDPOST corpus (F1=0.97), MERLoT corpus (F1=0.99) and NCBI disease corpus (F1=0.81). We believe that YASET is a versatile and efficient tool that can be used for sequence tagging in biomedical and clinical texts.


This study deals with the concept of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), with a focus on Public Engagement as one of its main dimensions and the roles identified within. By undertaking a broad review of the related literature as well as an empirical study, this work investigates problems of practical implementation. It describes origins and developments of Public Engagement in research and innovation and closes with options for future direction. The work presents the central role of practitioners identified within the discourse and encompasses suggestions and recommendations for Public Engagement processes as revealed by the empirical work with practitioners in the field. Finally, it describes consequences that could be obtained from the results presented. It raises issues and open questions on Public Engagement in Responsible Research and Innovation which would need extra attention.


While the shape equations describing the equilibrium of an unstretchable thin sheet that is free to bend are known, the boundary conditions that supplement these equations on free edges have remained elusive. Intuitively, unstretchability is captured by a constraint on the metric within the bulk. Naively one would then guess that this constraint is enough to ensure that the deformations determining the boundary conditions on these edges respect the isometry constraint. If matters were this simple, unfortunately, it would imply unbalanced torques (as well as forces) along the edge unless manifestly unphysical constraints are met by the boundary geometry. In this paper we identify the source of the problem: not only the local arc-length but also the geodesic curvature need to be constrained explicitly on all free edges. We derive the boundary conditions which follow. Contrary to conventional wisdom, there is no need to introduce boundary layers. This framework is applied to isolated conical defects, both with deficit as well, but more briefly, as surplus angles. Using these boundary conditions, we show that the lateral tension within a circular cone is equal but opposite to the radial compression, and independent of the deficit angle itself. We proceed to examine this cone with an oblique outer edge perturbatively in the eccentricity of the edge demonstrating that both the correction to the geometry as well as the stress distribution in the cone kicks in at second order.


Consciousness and quantum mechanics both involve phenomena suggestive of nonlocal, or faster-than-light information transmission. This is a contradiction with relativity, which states that no information can travel faster than the speed of light. A nonmaterial message need not be subject to such constraints. It is proposed that, when approaching nonlocal phenomena, we should consider the possible role of dark energy, a nonmaterial substance that appears to occupy all space. Through an analysis of the Big Bang, a model of dark energy is developed in which two energies exist with opposing dimensional effects. The most important of these is a bivalent constructive-destructive effect. The predicted features of these dark energies correlate well with positive and negative affect. A new model of the mind, and of mental illness, is proposed in which the mind is comprised of two nonmaterial energies.


Since 1981, the U.S. federal government has operated a price support program to help sugar beet and sugar cane producers and processors. This complex program works through a combination of loans, import quotas, and duties. As a result, sugar prices in the United States are significantly higher than world prices. For example, in December 2001, U.S. consumers paid 22.9 cents per pound, while the world price was just 9 cents per pound. The General Accounting Office estimates that the total cost to consumers is $1.9 billion a year. Uses a simple demand-and-supply framework with real-world data to assess the economic and political consequences of the U.S. sugar program.

To illustrate welfare concepts such as consumer surplus, producer surplus, and dead-weight loss in a concrete, real-world market context.


This study leverages six years of public prekindergarten (pre-K) and kindergarten data (N = 22,469) from the Boston Public Schools (BPS) to examine enrollment in BPS pre-K from 2012–2017 for students from different racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and linguistic groups. The largest differences in enrollment emerged with respect to race and ethnicity—and for enrollment in programs in higher-quality schools (defined as schools scoring in the top quartile on third-grade standardized tests)—with disparities increasing over time. Although there were no differences across groups in proximity to BPS pre-K programs in general, Black students lived about a quarter of a mile farther than their White peers from the nearest program in a higher-quality school, with gaps widening over time. Closer proximity was associated with a higher likelihood of enrollment in a program in a higher-quality school. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.


A two-level analysis method for certain separable problems is introduced. Unlike standard two-level analysis methods, based on Fourier analysis, it is based on spectral analysis, hence applicable to non-normal problems and to certain problems with variable coeecients. It motivates the deenition of improved versions of Black Box Multigrid for diiusion problems with discontinuous coeecients and indeenite Helmholtz equations. For anisotropic problems, it helps in choosing suitable implementations for frequency decomposition multigrid methods. For highly indeenite problems, it provides a way to choose a suitable mesh size for the coarsest grid used. Numerical experiments connrm the analysis and show the advantage of the present methods.


In Kenya, most of the construction sand is derived from dry riverbeds. Due to rampant nature in which sand mining is carried out in these rivers, adverse environmental and social effects have been reported. In order to ensure sustainable sand mining activities, this study assessed active morphological factors determining sand abundance in the seasonal river Tyaa in Kitui, Kenya. The study adopted quantitative research design. Purposive sampling was used to select river Tyaa due to uncontrolled sand mining that was taking place there. Systematic sampling at 20 meter intervals was used while collecting data at the stretches of the river channel, thus constituting 2,000 meters in total. Data on independent variables, namely the river channel's width, depth, slope angles, bank position, weathering status, vegetation status, and erosion status was collected using physical measurements and logic guided observation. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the data, giving marginal effects and respective p-values. The study established four statistically significant factors responsible for sand abundance in the dry river channel's namely depth (p=0.001), width (p=0.001), slope angles (p=0.001) and bank position (p=0.001). The study concluded that these factors should be observed while siting sand mines along dry river channels to mitigate adverse environmental effects. The study recommended that National Environmental Management Authority of Kenya should apply the findings of this study in the establishment of the locations of sand mines and monitoring of the mining process in line with the existing guidelines and regulations.


This paper reports results of a detailed geochemical analysis carried out on representative oil shale samples obtained from the Attarat Um Ghudrandeposit, in Jordan. The conducted tests aimed to determine main features of the studied samples, such as oil yield, calorific value, organic and inorganic composition and moisture content. Based on obtained results of a large number of oil shale samples, as received without any treatment, it was found that as other types of oil shale, elsewhere, Attarat Um Ghudran oil shale consists of several major constituents. These are organic matter, biogenic calcite and apatite, detrital clay minerals, and quartz. The effect of borehole depth, total carbon (TC), organic carbon (OC), and total sulphur content (TS) on the calorific value and oil yield were studied and analysed. Results were well correlated (with relatively acceptable correlation coefficients of about 0.9) according to the following equations for the calorific value and oil yield, respectively. Gross calorific value (kcal/kg) = - (478) + (106) OC + (59.2) TS + (21.8) TC Oil yield (% wt) = - (1.12) + (0.597) OC + (0.471) TS + (0.115) TC (Received: Feb 21, 2011; Accepted: March 29, 2011)


The Helgeland Nappe Complex forms part of the Uppermost Allochthon in the central Scandinavian Caledonides. It consists of metasupracrustal rocks of assumed Precambrian age which are juxtaposed with metasupracrustal rocks present as non-conformable cover sequences to subjacent fragments of Early Ordovician ophiolitic rocks. All of these rock units have been intruded by the Bindal Batholith, which ranges in composition from mafic gabbro to leucogranite. In this paper, U-Pb zircon ages from five plutons in the southern part of the batholith are presented. These are a porphyritic granite of the Andalshatten pluton (447 ± 7 Ma), a tonalite from the Kråkfjellet pluton (443 ± 7 Ma), a granodiorite west of Gåsvassfjellet (437 ± 4 Ma), the Kalvvatnet monzonite (435 ± 10 Ma), and a monzodiorite near Tosbotn (430 ± 7 Ma). The dates are essentially concordant and are considered to reflect the crystallization ages of the intrusions. Based on regional correlations and the age of the oldest of the dated plutons, it is concluded that internal accretion and polyphase tectonometamorphism of the Helgeland Nappe Complex took place in Ordovician times. The final Silurian (Scandian) thrusting of the nappe stack across the continent of Baltica appears to post-date emplacement of the Bindal Batholith.


The drive for ever smaller and faster computers has, in recent years, caused much research interest to be focussed on the development of new materials in which individual molecules or assemblies of molecules can be used for information processing. Materials which show spin crossover behaviour have great potential for use not only in molecular computing but also in applications such as optical switches and display devices and are of fundamental interest due to their importance in biological and geological systems. The results of comprehensive variable temperature and excited state crystallographic studies into the spin crossover behaviour of a family of iron (II) spin crossover complexes based on the 2,6-di(pyrazol-l-yl)pyridine ligand are presented herein. A fascinating aspect of spin crossover materials is their ability to undergo a transition from the low spin state to a metastable high spin state, with a very long lifetime, on irradiation. Crystallographic information on the structure of the metastable high spin state formed as a result of irradiation is very rare. Full structural analyses of the metastable state are reported for [FeLl(_2)](BF(_4))(_2), [Fe(L3)(_2)](BF(_4))(_2), [Fe(L3)(_2)](C1O(_4))(_2) and [Fe(L4)(_2)](BF(_4))(_2) (LI = 2,6- di(pyrazol-l-yl)pyridine, L3 = 2,6-(dipyrazol-l-yl)-4-hydroxymethylpyridine, L4 = 2,6-di(3-methylpyrazol-1 -yl)pyridine). These studies have shown that, unlike other reported materials, the metastable high spin state is structurally identical to that reached as a result of the thermal spin transition. [Fe(L4)(_2)](BF(_4)) (_2)1/3H(_2)O is shown to have a fascinating complexity of spin crossover behaviour including the existence of a number of metastable states. The effect of dehydration on the spin crossover behaviour has been determined. Spin crossover compounds are extremely sensitive to changes in pressure; nonetheless there have been very few studies of the effect of pressure on the structure of these materials. The structure of the pressure induced low spin state at ambient temperature and 4.5 kbar is reported for [FeLl2](BF4)2. The crystallographic results are supported throughout by SQUID magnetometry studies.


Never before has the legitimacy of a dominant American culture been so hotly contested as over the past two decades. Familiar terms such as culture wars, multiculturalism, moral majority, and family values all suggest a society fragmented by the issue of cultural diversity. So does any social solidarity exist among Americans? In Diversity and Its Discontents, a group of leading sociologists, political theorists, and social historians seek to answer this question empirically by exploring ideological differences, theoretical disputes, social processes, and institutional change. Together they present a broad yet penetrating look at American life in which cultural conflict has always played a part. Many of the findings reveal that this conflict is no more or less rampant now than in the past, and that the terms of social solidarity in the United States have changed as the society itself has changed. The volume begins with reflections on the sources of the current "culture wars" and goes on to show a number of parallel situations throughout American history--some more profound than today's conflicts. The contributors identify political vicissitudes and social changes in the late twentieth century that have formed the backdrop to the "wars," including changes in immigration, marriage, family structure, urban and residential life, and expression of sexuality. Points of agreement are revealed between the left and the right in their diagnoses of American culture and society, but the essays also show how the claims of both sides have been overdrawn and polarized. The volume concludes that above all, the antagonists of the culture wars have failed to appreciate the powerful cohesive forces in Americans' outlooks and institutions, forces that have, in fact, institutionalized many of the "radical" changes proposed in the 1960s. Diversity and Its Discontents brings sound empirical evidence, theoretical sophistication, and tempered judgment to a cultural episode in American history that has for too long been clouded by ideological rhetoric. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Seyla Benhabib, Jean L. Cohen, Reynolds Farley, Claude S. Fischer, Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr., John Higham, David A. Hollinger, Steven Seidman, Marta Tienda, David Tyack, R. Stephen Warner, Robert Wuthnow, and Viviana A. Zelizer.


We analyse thePlanckfull-mission cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature andE-mode polarization maps to obtain constraints on primordial non-Gaussianity (NG). We compare estimates obtained from separable template-fitting, binned, and optimal modal bispectrum estimators, finding consistent values for the local, equilateral, and orthogonal bispectrum amplitudes. Our combined temperature and polarization analysis produces the following final results:fNLlocal= −0.9 ± 5.1;fNLequil= −26 ± 47; andfNLortho= −38 ± 24 (68% CL, statistical). These results include low-multipole (4 ≤ ℓ <  40) polarization data that are not included in our previous analysis. The results also pass an extensive battery of tests (with additional tests regarding foreground residuals compared to 2015), and they are stable with respect to our 2015 measurements (with small fluctuations, at the level of a fraction of a standard deviation, which is consistent with changes in data processing). Polarization-only bispectra display a significant improvement in robustness; they can now be used independently to set primordial NG constraints with a sensitivity comparable to WMAP temperature-based results and they give excellent agreement. In addition to the analysis of the standard local, equilateral, and orthogonal bispectrum shapes, we consider a large number of additional cases, such as scale-dependent feature and resonance bispectra, isocurvature primordial NG, and parity-breaking models, where we also place tight constraints but do not detect any signal. The non-primordial lensing bispectrum is, however, detected with an improved significance compared to 2015, excluding the null hypothesis at 3.5σ. Beyond estimates of individual shape amplitudes, we also present model-independent reconstructions and analyses of thePlanckCMB bispectrum. Our final constraint on the local primordial trispectrum shape isgNLlocal= (−5.8 ± 6.5) × 104(68% CL, statistical), while constraints for other trispectrum shapes are also determined. Exploiting the tight limits on various bispectrum and trispectrum shapes, we constrain the parameter space of different early-Universe scenarios that generate primordial NG, including general single-field models of inflation, multi-field models (e.g. curvaton models), models of inflation with axion fields producing parity-violation bispectra in the tensor sector, and inflationary models involving vector-like fields with directionally-dependent bispectra. Our results provide a high-precision test for structure-formation scenarios, showing complete agreement with the basic picture of the ΛCDM cosmology regarding the statistics of the initial conditions, with cosmic structures arising from adiabatic, passive, Gaussian, and primordial seed perturbations.


On September 25, 2006 the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Office of Thrift Supervision issued a notice of proposed rulemaking with respect to risk-based capital standards for large and internationally active United States banks. These proposed standards are based on the revised capital adequacy framework that was recently adopted by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and that is in the course of being implemented in all of the world's developed economies. A bank would be required to use the securitization framework of the proposed rule for any on-balance sheet or off-balance sheet credit exposure that arises from a traditional or synthetic securitization, as well as for mortgage-backed pass-through securities guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The proposed securitization framework contains three general approaches for determining the risk-based capital requirement for a securitization exposure: a ratings-based approach, an internal assessment approach, and a supervisory formula approach. Generally speaking, a given securitization exposure must be risk-weighted (or deducted from capital) under one of these approaches according to a specific hierarchy defined in the proposed rule. This article describes the basic approaches being considered, together with some of the exceptions and particular applications provided for in the proposed rules. It highlights some areas where the proposed rules may benefit from modifications to bring them closer to line with practices in the structured finance market.


Breast density is more and more considered as an important risk factor for breast cancer and several quantitative breast density evaluation methods have been proposed. The reference material for simulation of the breast attenuation properties of glandular and adipose breast tissues is manufactured by a single provider. In order to characterize the attenuation properties of these materials, measurements in Hounsfield Units (HU) have been performed using a CT-scanner. Breastequivalent plates have been imaged in different configurations (plates in and orthogonal to image planes), providing consistent results (± 1.3 HU). Breast density equivalent plates of different nominal breast density equivalences and sizes were measured, demonstrating both a good homogeneity within the plates (± 1.8 HU) and a good consistency between plates of the same nominal breast density equivalence (± 1.5 HU). In addition, dual energy CT provided mono-energetic HU from which mono-energetic linear attenuation coefficients of water and glandular and adipose equivalent materials were computed. The values for these coefficients were found in good agreement with results from literature, respectively direct mono-energetic measurements of breast samples, and computation by combining published breast tissue atomic compositions and linear attenuation coefficient tables. In conclusion, CT was found effective for the verification of the breast equivalent material, and the homogeneity and consistency of the plates were found satisfactory. Furthermore, the most recent spectral CT technology allowed demonstrating a good agreement of the attenuation properties of breastequivalent material plates with state-of-the-art knowledge of real breast tissue attenuation.


The study on access and quality challenges facing community secondary schools was conducted in Kilolo District, Iringa region. Eight (8) secondary schools were selected and involved eight (8) heads of secondary schools, thirty two (32) teachers and sixty four (64) students. Structured Questionnaire was used in collecting both qualitative and quantitative data which was later analyzed basing on the objectives of the study. The study found that the main challenges that limit access to quality education are shortage of teachers, inadequate teaching and learning materials as well as school infrastructures. Other factors were associated with institution arrangement and education system.
The study recommended the following for the current status of community secondary schools: - heads of schools should ensure that they use qualified teachers and enroll students according to the resources available. For the factors that influence access to quality education the researcher recommends the following: - The government should employ more teachers, teachers should be provided with training and seminars, the government in collaboration with heads of schools should ensure that quality teaching and learning materials and supporting learning infrastructures are made available, school inspections should be done regularly to monitor smooth delivery of quality education, there should be no differences between the policy objectives and politicians' interest. Finally, school managers, heads of schools together with their teaching staff should be motivated for extra workload they are undertaking in managing their schools.


i Abstract: In response to climate change projections, scientists and concerned citizens are increasingly calling for changes in personal consumption. However, these calls ignore the true relationship between production and consumption and the ongoing propagation of the ideology of overconsumption. In this article, we draw from Western Marxist theorists to explain the ideology of overconsumption and its implications for addressing global climate change. Drawing from Herbert Marcuse and Guy Debord, we illustrate how production drives consumption, how advertising promotes false needs and excess, how these power relations are concealed, and how they undermine social and ecological well-being. Specific to climate change, continued widespread support for increasing levels of production and economic growth will undermine efforts to reduce carbon emissions and limit global warming. Given the relationships between production and carbon emissions, effective mitigation efforts will require significant systemic changes in work, production, consumption, advertising, and social norms.


Tangibles on interactive tabletops are tracked by the surface they are placed on and have been shown to benefit the interaction. However, they are tied to the surface. When picked up, they are no longer recognized and lose any connection to virtual objects shown by the table. We introduce the interaction concept of Off-Surface Tangibles that are tracked by the surface but continue to support meaningful interactions when lifted off the surface. We present a design space for Off-Surface Tangibles, and design considerations when employing them. We populate the design space with prior work and introduce possible interaction designs for further research.


During my career, I have regularly taught a survey course on the history of Jews and Judaism in the Persian, Greek, and early Roman periods (ca. 520 BCE – 70 CE). Student performance in the course has long concerned and puzzled me. By the end of the course students demonstrated familiarity with the narratives and concepts we covered, but most did not really "think historically." They had great difficulties using and applying the historical tools they learned to new situations and evidence. In 2006 and again in 2010 I overhauled the course not only to improve it, but also to figure out how my students learned history. Using a wiki exercise, I traced how students learned and then applied these insights the next time I taught the course. In this essay I report on what I learned.


After the deindustrialization process of Europe many buildings and complexes were abandoned and their activities were moved out of the cities due to the growth of urban centres. One of those locations is Bovisa in the North of Milan, where old structures of former factories are standing near contemporary buildings. Furthermore, as a common characteristic of old industrial urban areas, the price of land is one of the factors that affect industrial archaeology preservation and its future development. The main goal of this research is to develop a gentrification strategy that can be sustainable for the urban growth and social development of the area. Based on this, the analysis will be presented within two considerations: 1) the adaptive re-use of these buildings has been considered as a motor for sustainability and culture in Bovisa. 2) There has been developed a mathematical model based on a multivariate analysis of the global quantification of factors that take part in the process. This approach has led to the planning and classification of the area followed by a multivariate analysis and a regression model generation. This methodology classifies the area according to the cultural planning development and the recoverability of green areas. A multivariate analysis of the 27 sectors in which Bovisa can be divided has been undertaken. The generation of regression models will help us define the factors that contribute the most to the cultural and greenery recovery. However, a factorial analysis has been made on the data matrix obtained through the quantification of the variables that affect a possible gentrification. This will define the "cultural recovery" and "greenery recovery" indexes and the classification of the sectors in homogeneous zones according to a sustainable gentrification process.


Existing federated learning models that follow the standard risk minimization paradigm of machine learning often fail to generalize in the presence of spurious correlations in the training data. In many real-world distributed settings, spurious correlations exist due to biases and data sampling issues on distributed devices or clients that can erroneously influence models. Current generalization approaches are designed for centralized training and attempt to identify features that have an invariant causal relationship with the target, thereby reducing the effect of spurious features. However, such invariant risk minimization approaches rely on apriori knowledge of training data distributions which is hard to obtain in many applications. In this work, we present a generalizable federated learning framework called FedGen, which allows clients to identify and distinguish between spurious and invariant features in a collaborative manner without prior knowledge of training distributions. We evaluate our approach on real-world datasets from different domains and show that FedGen results in models that achieve significantly better generalization and can outperform the accuracy of current federated learning approaches by over 24%.


A broad review of bat ecology is timely because of advances over the past two decades in the technical approaches to the study of bats in an ecological and evolutionary framework. These advances include, but are not limited to, a range of ultrasonic detection methods, radio-telemetry, transponders, stable isotopes, bio-informatics, and molecular markers. Not surprisingly, since the publication of the Ecology of Bats (Kunz, 1982), our knowledge about the field of bat ecology has advanced. Bat Ecology attempts to summarize this advance through a mix of review and analytical chapters. Each chapter provides some historical perspective as well as highlights recent advances and suggests future directions. The editors divide the book into three main sections: Life History and Social Biology, Functional Ecology, and Macroecology. Within each of these sections are chapters written by authorities in the field.


Objectives To provide an accurate, web-based tool for stratifying patients with atrial fibrillation to facilitate decisions on the potential benefits/risks of anticoagulation, based on mortality, stroke and bleeding risks. Design The new tool was developed, using stepwise regression, for all and then applied to lower risk patients. C-statistics were compared with CHA2DS2-VASc using 30-fold cross-validation to control for overfitting. External validation was undertaken in an independent dataset, Outcome Registry for Better Informed Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation (ORBIT-AF). Participants Data from 39 898 patients enrolled in the prospective GARFIELD-AF registry provided the basis for deriving and validating an integrated risk tool to predict stroke risk, mortality and bleeding risk. Results The discriminatory value of the GARFIELD-AF risk model was superior to CHA2DS2-VASc for patients with or without anticoagulation. C-statistics (95% CI) for all-cause mortality, ischaemic stroke/systemic embolism and haemorrhagic stroke/major bleeding (treated patients) were: 0.77 (0.76 to 0.78), 0.69 (0.67 to 0.71) and 0.66 (0.62 to 0.69), respectively, for the GARFIELD-AF risk models, and 0.66 (0.64–0.67), 0.64 (0.61–0.66) and 0.64 (0.61–0.68), respectively, for CHA2DS2-VASc (or HAS-BLED for bleeding). In very low to low risk patients (CHA2DS2-VASc 0 or 1 (men) and 1 or 2 (women)), the CHA2DS2-VASc and HAS-BLED (for bleeding) scores offered weak discriminatory value for mortality, stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding. C-statistics for the GARFIELD-AF risk tool were 0.69 (0.64 to 0.75), 0.65 (0.56 to 0.73) and 0.60 (0.47 to 0.73) for each end point, respectively, versus 0.50 (0.45 to 0.55), 0.59 (0.50 to 0.67) and 0.55 (0.53 to 0.56) for CHA2DS2-VASc (or HAS-BLED for bleeding). Upon validation in the ORBIT-AF population, C-statistics showed that the GARFIELD-AF risk tool was effective for predicting 1-year all-cause mortality using the full and simplified model for all-cause mortality: C-statistics 0.75 (0.73 to 0.77) and 0.75 (0.73 to 0.77), respectively, and for predicting for any stroke or systemic embolism over 1 year, C-statistics 0.68 (0.62 to 0.74). Conclusions Performance of the GARFIELD-AF risk tool was superior to CHA2DS2-VASc in predicting stroke and mortality and superior to HAS-BLED for bleeding, overall and in lower risk patients. The GARFIELD-AF tool has the potential for incorporation in routine electronic systems, and for the first time, permits simultaneous evaluation of ischaemic stroke, mortality and bleeding risks. Clinical Trial Registration URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier for GARFIELD-AF (NCT01090362) and for ORBIT-AF (NCT01165710).


Sarcopenia is an emerging risk factor for metabolic disorders. No study of the association of sarcopenia with insulin resistance, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome (MS) according to age group and obesity status in the general population has been reported. We investigated these associations in the Korean population. Participants included 4558 males and 5874 females, who were ≥20 years of age or older from the fourth and fifth Korea National Health and Nutritional Examination Surveys of the Korean population (2009 and 2010). Age was categorized according to three groups (20-39, 40-59, and ≥ 60 years). Obesity was defined according to body mass index. Sarcopenia was defined as the appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM) divided by weight (Wt) (%) of > 2SD below the sex-specific mean for young adults. Homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was calculated. After adjustment for confounding variables, sarcopenia showed a significant association with HOMA-IR in the non-obese group (P<0.001). Sarcopenia was found to be a risk factor for diabetes in the non-obese group (OR, 2.140; 95% CI, 1.549-2.956; P<0.001). Sarcopenia also showed an association with MS in the non-obese group (OR, 2.209; 95% CI, 1.679-2.906; P<0.001), but not in the obese-group. However, these results were not relevant to young age group. In conclusion, sarcopenia showed an association with insulin resistance, diabetes, and MS, in the non-obese population. Sarcopenia may be an early predictor for diabetes and MS susceptibility in the non-obese population, particularly in elderly people.


This study examined the influence of short-term stretching and improved flexibility on functional reach (FR) performances (reach distance and rotation angle of various joints during reaching). 17 healthy male university students were assigned to either experimental and control groups based on the random assignment. A pre-test/Post-test design was used in this study. The variable factor for the experimental group was stretching (jogging for warming up and stretching). Main outcome measures were flexibility (static maximum range of motion of shoulder, hip, and ankle joints) and FR of participants. FR test performances were assessed by the reach distance and rotation angles of each joint during reaching. No significant differences between the groups were found in the participants' characteristics, and no skeletal muscle fatigue was found in the lower limb. In the experimental group, shoulder and hip-joint flexibility increased significantly by stretching, and showed higher values than that of the control group. In contrast, FR test performance did not reveal any changes. Slight intraindividual ROM improvements by short-term stretching may be less important for FR postural strategies. FR test performances are little influenced by light static stretching in young healthy adults.


We study a simple learning algorithm for binary classification. Instead of predicting with the best hypothesis in the hypothesis class, that is, the hypothesis that minimizes the training error, our algorithm predicts with a weighted average of all hypotheses, weighted exponentially with respect to their training error. We show that the prediction of this algorithm is much more stable than the prediction of an algorithm that predicts with the best hypothesis. By allowing the algorithm to abstain from predicting on some examples, we show that the predictions it makes when it does not abstain are very reliable. Finally, we show that the probability that the algorithm abstains is comparable to the generalization error of the best hypothesis in the class.