The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires federal grantees to use their funds on evidence-based strategies. The law includes definitions of research quality, which are also featured prominently in the administration's strategic plan and in draft language for the re-authorization of the U.S. Office of Educational Research and Improvement. These initiatives pose a rare opportunity and formidable challenge to the field: What are the most effective means of stimulating more and better scientific educational research? In this article, which draws on a recently released National Research Council report, the authors argue that the primary emphasis should be on nurturing and reinforcing a scientific culture of educational research. Although the article focuses on scientific research as an important form of educational scholarship, the call for building a stronger sense of research community applies broadly. Specifically, the authors argue that the development of a scientific culture rests with individual researchers, supported by leadership in their professional associations and a federal educational research agency.


The machining of aluminium 2618 particulate reinforced Metal Matrix Composite
(MMC) with 18 vol. % silicon carbide (SiC) using cemented carbide cutting tools
has been undertaken. Two grades of cemented carbide inserts, uncoated K68 grade
and coated KC910 grade (coated with TiC and A1203) having negative and positive
rake angles (with and without chip breaker) have been used to machine this material
in order to understand the machining process, tool failure modes and wear
mechanisms. Turning tests in the speed range 15 - 10 m/min have been carried out at
0.2,0.4 and 0.6 mm/rev feed rates and 2 mm and 4 mm depths of cut.
Both cemented carbide tools have been shown to be capable of machining the MMC
and give reasonable tool lives. Low speed and high feed rate are found to be a good
combination in order to machine this material effectively. Coated KC910 grade
inserts with negative rake angle gave the best performance. The use of a chip breaker
has no significant effect on the machining process of the NMC because the material
is one which inherently short chips due to ductility limitations caused by the
particles.
Tool failure mode studies showed that the tools failed by flank wear. Tool wear
mechanism analysis indicated that abrasion wear was the tool life controlling factor
under all cutting conditions. The tool wear is related to the direct contact between
the abrasive hard SiC particles and the cutting edge and their relative motion to the
rake and clearance face. Hence, the hardness of the SiC particles is a dominant factor
for the tool wear. Two separatem odels of abrasio. n haye.b een suggested.B uilt-up
edge (BUE) which has a distinct shape was more pro i1ounced at lower cutting
speeds, high feed rates and greater depth of cut. The presence of BUE has been
found to increase tool life and reduce tool wear but at the expense of surface finish.
The increase in tool life or reduction in tool wear is likely due to the protective layer
that the BUE formed on the tool surface preventing a direct contact between the tool
and chip. Linear regression analysis showed that the value of Taylor exponent n is
high (0.8-1.0) compared to the values of n (0.2-0.3) obtained when machining steel.
This indicates that the tool life is less sensitive to cutting speed for MMC than it is
for steel.


Horizontal severance deeds separate property above and below the surface of land. In such deeds, typically the property rights below belong to mineral owners while property rights above belong to farmers. In most states, common law trespass utilizes what is generally known as the reasonable necessity doctrine to account for the rights that each owner has to enjoy in connection with his respective property. This doctrine has evolved over time and establishes the degree of surface damage that mineral owners can cause in accessing minerals below without becoming liable to the surface owner for damages. Recently, West Virginia made its standard more rigorous by prohibiting mineral owners from substantially burdening the surface estate. If other mining states like Texas and Pennsylvania were to incorporate West Virginia's heightened standard into their respective doctrines, then the farming industry may receive greater national protection. And, since farming is currently thriving, heightened protection may even lead to greater national economic growth.


Interference fringes arising from multiple reflections can significantly alter the diffraction patterns of diffractive optical elements. One way to reduce interference effects is by time-integrating the diffraction pattern while frequency sweeping the laser source. This method is especially useful when it is not possible to remove the cover glass from the observation camera.


Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) is one of the most prevalent viruses of canola fields in Iran. Use of resistant varieties is the best recommended manner to control losses caused by TuMV. In this research, the reaction of 11 commercial varieties and two lines of canola (Brassica napus L.) was investigated against a Netherland TuMV isolate under greenhouse condition. The seedlings were inoculated using TuMV-infected tobacco (Nicotiana benthamiana ) sap at 3-5 leaf stage and their reaction was evaluated based on symptom severity index and ELISA OD405 values at four and the mean values of fresh and dry weights of plants at seven weeks after inoculation. This study was performed in a factorial experiment and randomized complete block design with three replications and each repeat involved four experimental units for each group of inoculated and uninoculated plants. Virus-infection was confirmed by RT-PCR. In accordance with evaluated parameters, reaction of varieties to the virus was significantly different. At probability level of 5%, Karaj3 was tolerant while Karaj2 was the most susceptible, RGS003 and Karaj1 were susceptible and the rest of canola varieties/lines were moderately susceptible to TuMV. Difference of OD405 values in ELISA was meaningless among inoculated plants of canola varieties/lines. Among canola varieties/lines, only fresh and dry weights of Karaj2 line was reduced significantly in virus-infecte d plants. The scoring system (0 to 8) for the symptoms severity of TuMV in canola was introduced for the first time in this research.


Pectinolytic enzymes are an important tool for sustainable food production, with a wide range of applications in food processing technologies as well as the extraction of bioactive compounds from pectin-rich raw materials. In the present study, we immobilized commercial pectinase preparation onto pellet and thread shaped nylon 6/6 carriers and assessed its stability and reusability. Five commercial pectinase preparations were tested for different pectin de-polymerizing activities (pectinase, polygalacturonase, and pectin lyase activities). Thereafter, Pectinex® Ultra Tropical preparation, exhibiting the highest catalytic activities among the studied preparations (p < 0.0001), was immobilized on nylon 6/6 using dimethyl sulfate and glutaraldehyde. The immobilization yield was in accordance with the carrier surface area available for enzyme attachment, and it was 1.25 ± 0.10 U/g on threads, which was over 40 times higher than that on pellets. However, the inactivation of immobilized enzymes was not dependent on the shape of the carrier, indicating that the attachment of the enzymes on the surface of nylon 6/6 carriers was similar. The half-life of enzyme inactivation fast phase at 4 °C was 12.8 days. After 5 weeks, the unused threads retained 63% of their initial activity. Reusability study showed that after 20 successive cycles the remaining activity of the immobilized pectinase was 22%, indicating the good prospects of reusability of the immobilized enzyme preparations for industrial application.


Chemotaxis, the directed movement of cells towards or away from a chemical, is both an exciting and complicated behavior observed in many bacterial species. Attempting to adequately visualize or demonstrate the chemotaxic response of bacteria in the classroom is difficult at best, with good models to illustrate the concept lacking. The BSL-1 marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri (a.k.a. Aliivibrio fischeri) is easy to culture, making it an ideal candidate for experiments in an undergraduate microbiology course. A number of chemoattractants for V. fischeri have been identified, including a variety of sugars, nucleosides, and amino acids (1, 2). Below presents how the soft agar-based chemotaxis assay can be implemented in the undergraduate laboratory. As bacterial cells migrate towards one or more attractants in soft agar, students can directly observe the chemotaxic behavior of V. fischeri without the need to learn complicated techniques or use specialized equipment. Once the bands of bacterial cells are observed, the migration can then be disrupted by the addition of excess attractant to the soft agar, thereby visualizing what happens once cells are no longer in a gradient of attractant. In addition, soft agar plates lacking attractants can be used to visualize the random movements of bacterial cells that are non-chemotaxing. These exercises can be used in the microbiology laboratory to help students understand the complex behavior of bacterial chemotaxis.


The book explores the significance and dissemination of 'monstrous anatomies' in British and German culture by investigating how and why scientific and literary representations and descriptions of abnormal bodies were proposed in the late Enlightenment, during the Romantic and the Victorian Age. Since the investigations of late eighteenth century natural sciences, the fascination with monstrous anatomies has proved crucial to the study of human physiology and pathology. Featuring essays by a number of scholars focusing on a wide range of literary texts from the long nineteenth century and foregrounding the most important monstrous anatomies of the time, this book intends to offer a significant contribution to the study of the representations of the abnormal body in modern culture.


Pollen analytical investigations of glacier ice from the Kesselwandferner in the Otztal Alps, Tyrol, generally confirmed the palynologycal findings of Vareschi (1942) and brought new results. Annual layers were found which distinguish themselves by an increased content of Picea pollen according to extreme Picea-blooming years. These can be used as "guiding horizons" in the firn-area of the glaciers. Long distance transport of African pollen (Ephedra)
was proved. The absolute average pollen rain in 3300 m was determined by 28.000 pollen grains per year and dm**2. The investigation of fens near glaciers made it possible to determine the oscillations of the tree-line and the forest-line and to date them by C-14. These oscillations could be connected with moraines also dated by C-14. Oscillations of the forest-line and thus probably glacier oscillations, too, could be determined for the period from 6700 to 6000 B.C. and the periods about 4500, 2600 and 1600 B.C.


The relationships among personality and socialization factors that may contribute to mathematics performance were investigated using structural equation modeling . Five nested models were examined: a full model, a mediational model, a model eliminating the mediator , a regression model, and a model combining the significant paths from other models. Preliminary analyses (i.e., MANOVAS , follow-up univariate ANOVAS) revealed that men reported significantly higher math self-efficacy than women . Evaluation of the structural models identified the full model as the best representation of the data . This model examined the relationships among gender , gender schema, math anxiety, math selfefficacy, math attitude, math experience, math socialization, cognitive mediation, and math performance . Its hypothesis that direct paths from independent constructs to math performance would not be significant and that the direct paths to and from general ability would be crucial was supported. The full model accounted for 57% of the variance in math performance and 30% of the variance in general ability. These results suggest that the relationships among these variables function through the mediation of general ability. Interviews conducted with a small sub-set of the college-aged participants emphasized the role of elementary through high school teachers . This research clarifies conflicting findings concerning the predictors of math performance ; specifically refuting the often made claim that men are inherently better at math; suggesting that teachers ' and parents ' attitudes about children's math abilities may contribute to the development of strong math self-efficacy and a lessening of math anxiety, particularly pointing to the need for teachers to express equal math expectations for both boys and girls.


Syren, Susanne (2010). Det outsagda och ohorsammade lidandet. Tillvaron for personer med langvarig psykossjukdom och deras narstaende (Being in the world with long term psychotic illness – the unspoken and unheard suffering), Linnaeus University Dissertations No 6/2010. ISBN: 978-91-86491-07-9. Written in Swedish with a summary in English.Aim: The overall aim of the thesis was to describe the lived experience of being in the world with long term psychotic illness. This is described from three perspectives; the perspective of persons diagnosed with long term psychotic disorder; the perspective of their relatives; and a family perspective. Method: Three studies were conducted guided by a reflective lifeworld approach grounded in phenomenology. The data were generated through individual, group, and family interviews. Data were analyzed for essential meanings of being in the world. Results: Persons with long term psychotic illness live in a borderland of paradoxes between the usual and unusual. For the ill persons the existence is incomprehensible and defenceless with feelings of not being at home in the body and in the world. They search for themselves in a care context that is contradictory, simultaneously good and hostile. These experiences are mostly unspoken, a struggle with doubts about having health or illness, what is good or evil, and about being usual or unusual. The relatives exist in a dilemma of the possible and impossible, a continual infinite struggle. Co-existing with their ill family member is a communion and a longing for togetherness is prominent. Relatives struggle with responsibilities for themselves and for their ill family member. In these unheard struggles the relatives yearn for participation in the formal care context. Family interviews with persons with long term psychotic illness and their relatives revealed a co-existence hovering between chaos and boredom while striving for a peaceful and quiet life. Thefamilies search for constancy and predictability in the presence of incomprehensible and threatening dangers. The experience of being a We balances the unshared meanings of being in the world and the loss of being able to experience and do things together. The experience of being a We keeps their individual existence and co- existence from falling apart.Conclusion: Persons with long term psychotic illness and their relatives have to withstand extensive existential suffering, which is unspoken and unheard. Formal caring should be existential caring, supporting the ill person's comprehensibility and understanding of life, and feelings and experiences of being at home. Further, relatives should be acknowledged both as persons and carers and invited to participate in formal care. These results also point to the importance of strengthening feelings of togetherness and of being a We through systemic oriented existential conversations, where the ill person, their relative and a formal carer converse together.


Marketing and distribution expenses are responsible for about a third of the cost of active management in the mutual fund industry. We develop and estimate a structural model of mutual fund marketing with learning about unobserved skill and costly investor search. Our estimates suggest that marketing is nearly as important as performance and fees for determining fund size. Eliminating marketing substantially improves welfare, as capital shifts towards cheaper funds and competition decreases fees. Average alpha increases as active funds shrink, and capital allocation becomes more closely aligned with manager skill net of fees. Declining investor search costs over time imply a reduction in marketing expenses and management fees as well as a shift towards passive investing, as observed empirically.


The disappointing level of unemployment among people with disabilities is a well known fact among vocational rehabilitation (VR) professionals. The National Health Interview Survey conducted from 1994 to 1995 revealed that 63% of people with disabilities were unemployed. When asked why, over half of the respondents stated that there were no appropriate jobs available (Loprest & Maag, 2001). One thing that has helped to spur the employment of people with disabilities is the use of computer based technology in the workplace (Anon, 1990; Lazzaro, 1986; Warren, 1984; Whitehouse, 1994). Today there are scores of assistive technology (AT) devices to help accommodate a variety of functional limitations related to computer access. As more and more companies find themselves with a computer on every desk, opportunities for employment of people with disabilities begin to increase. Recent decades have witnessed a similar trend toward the use of computer-based equipment in manufacturing. Automated manufacturing technology (AMT), such as computer numeric controlled (CNC) machine systems, use computer-generated parameters to control the motion of tools in machining or assembly processes (Spear, 2001; Sun, 2000). Many AMT machines, such as the MasterCAM[R] compatible systems by CNC Software, Inc. (l) operate using a standard Windows[R] PC-based operating system (MacDonald, 2004). This move towards automation allows more opportunities for people with disabilities to seek employment in manufacturing because of the potential for reducing the physical requirements of machining and assembly operations. People employed in the manufacturing field are now required to have a different set of skills than they once were; technical and computer skills are becoming more important (Barnet, 1993). Furthermore, the National Association of Manufacturers is predicting a manufacturing labor shortage of as many as 10 million skilled workers by the year 2010, due to the aging population coupled with limited success in demonstrating the benefits of a manufacturing vocation to the next generation of workers (Eisen, 2003). Even though computer based technologies used with AMT may be similar in nature to those used in office environments, the tasks performed by the equipment operators and the environments in which they work are very different from the office environment. The potential for injury among production workers is significantly higher than the potential for injury among office or clerical workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that in 2003 the incidence rate (2) for non-fatal injuries and illnesses was more than five times greater for manufacturing employees (6.8) than for employees of professional, scientific, and technical services (1.3) (USDoL-Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2004b). The total number of fatalities for manufacturing employees (420) was more than four times that of employees of professional, scientific, and technical services (97) (USDoL-Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2004a). Risks in manufacturing environments exist in spite of the federal government's efforts to make workplaces safer through the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) of 1970. This act states that it is the responsibility of the employer to ensure a safe working environment for their employees. Gaining employment in a manufacturing environment therefore, provides challenges to people with disabilities over and above just having the ability to operate the necessary equipment or perform the necessary production tasks. The worker must be able to perform his or her job while protecting the safety of co-workers, as well as their own safety. Furthermore, studies have shown that there is potential for discrimination against applicants with disabilities due to barriers in the employer's selection processes and due to negative stereotypes and myths about the abilities of people with functional limitations (Stone & Williams, 1997). …


A multi-device database of disruption characteristics has been developed under the auspices of the International Tokamak Physics Activity magneto-hydrodynamics topical group. The purpose of this ITPA Disruption Database (IDDB) is to find the commonalities between the disruption and disruption mitigation characteristics in a wide variety of tokamaks in order to elucidate the physics underlying tokamak disruptions and to extrapolate toward much larger devices, such as ITER and future burning plasma devices. In contrast to previous smaller disruption data collation efforts, the IDDB aims 2 to provide significant context for each shot provided, allowing exploration of a wide array of relationships between pre-disruption and disruption parameters. The IDDB presently includes contributions from nine tokamaks, including both conventional aspect ratio and spherical tokamaks. An initial parametric analysis of the available data is presented. This analysis includes current quench rates, halo current fraction and peaking, and the effectiveness of massive impurity injection. The IDDB is publicly available, with instruction for access provided herein.


According to the World Health Organization, breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women worldwide. The steady increase in the prevalence of breast cancer, followed by an increase in the state budget expenditures on drug supply for this category of patients, determines the relevance of pharmacoeconomic evaluation of treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer using a combination of lapatinib and capecitabine and trastuzumab emtansine monotherapy. A subgroup analysis of the therapeutic outcomes in patients with HER2+ breast cancer conducted by the EMILIA study failed to find a statistically significant difference in median overall survival in patients receiving either trastuzumab emtansine or a combination of lapatinib and capecitabine as second-line treatment, or in patients with non-visceral metastases. Analysis of overall survival of the entire population of patients in the EMILIA study revealed that trastuzumab emtansine is more effective than a combination of lapatinib and capecitabine. Despite this, NICE does not recommend treatment with trastuzumab emtansine due to high cost of treatment. The EMILIA study results were used as a basis for pharmacoeconomic models for HER2+ breast cancer therapy, using such methods of pharmacoeconomic analysis as budget impact analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, and costminimization analysis for these subgroups of patients. Result of budget impact analysis revealed that the use of the lapatinib and capecitabine combination can reduce health system expenditures by 3,985,271 rubles per patient per year or by 5,851,484 rubles over three years per one patient, which allows treating 4 additional patients given the fixed budget. Cost-effectiveness ratio of lapatinib + capecitabine equals to 869,705 rubles and 3,461,960 rubles with LYG and QALY as efficacy endpoints, respectively, which identifies this therapy as cost-effective in pharmacoeconomic terms. Cost-minimization analysis of lapatinib+capecitabine patient groups in the second-line treatment, and a group of patients with non-visceral metastases showed that the use of this treatment may reduce costs by 78% in comparison with trastuzumab emtansine.


This focused ion beam-digital image correlation (FIB-DIC) Good Practice Guide (GPG) is one of the key outputs from the iSTRESS project, aimed at providing users with practical advice for making reliable residual stress measurements on their own systems and materials using this technique. It brings together the expertise and experience of the project partners in a single document, and is being used to promote the transfer and uptake of the newly developed methodologies to a wider industry.

Led by NPL and RomaTre and Oxford Universities, it is based largely on input and technical expertise of the project partners involved in Work Packages 2-5, and the results and findings from the various round robin exercises and studies carried out within the project.

The GPG covers all aspects of the measurement process and residual stress analyses for the range of materials and sample geometries examined within the iSTRESS project. It is designed to be a practical guide, with advice, supporting information to illustrate the various process steps, and data analysis required to make reliable and repeatable high resolution residual stress measurements. Examples from the iSTRESS project are included throughout the document to illustrate aspects of the measurement process and highlight good practice.

It forms an important document for pre-standardisation of the FIB-DIC technique and will continue to be promoted to the Standards community through CEN TC/352 and VAMAS TWA22 and is expected to form the basis of a future International Standard in this field.


Hepatosplenic T-cell lymphoma (HSTCL) was first described as a distinct clinicopathologic entity in 1990.1 HSTCL is a rare type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that was originally recognized by its characteristic clinical presentation, distinct histologic pattern, and expression of the γδ T-cell receptor (TCR).1 Recent scientific advances have allowed for better understanding of the histologic, immunophenotyping, and cytogenetic characteristics of HSTCL, including identification of HSTCL with αβ TCR expression. γδ HSTCL and αβ HSTCL are now considered immunophenotypic variants of the same disease. Despite these advances, HSTCL remains a very aggressive subset of T-cell lymphoma and confers a poor prognosis, with a reported median survival of 6–11 months.2,3 There has been no consensus to date regarding therapeutic modalities in these patients, and effective treatment of HSTCL is lacking. A review of the literature reveals the use of various treatment regimens in patients with HSTCL. The majority of these treatment modalities appear to be ineffective in most patients, although there are some case reports and case series that describe complete remissions with certain chemotherapy regimens with or without stem cell transplantation.2,4 In this case report, we describe the successful treatment of HSTCL in a 44-year-old woman with etoposide, methylprednisolone, high-dose cytarabine, and cisplatin (ESHAP) followed by autologous stem cell transplant (auto-SCT).


High-level specification of how the brain represents and categorizes the causes of its sensory input allows to link "what is to be done" (perceptual task) with "how to do it" (neural network calculation). More precisely, a general class of cortical map computations can be specified representing what is to be done as an optimization problem, in order to derive the related neural network parameters considering regularization mechanisms (implemented using so-called partial-differential-equations). The present contribution revisits this framework with three add-ons. It is generalized to a larger class of (non-linear) map computations, including winner-take-all mechanisms. The capability to represent standard "analog" neural network and guaranty their convergence, providing their weights are local and unbiased, is made explicit. The fact that not only one but several cortical maps can interact, with feed-backs, in a stable way is shown. Two experiments are provided as an illustration of this general framework.


The storage protein composition from the Glu-1, Glu-3 and Gli-1 loci encoding high and low molecular weight glutenin subunits (HMW-GS and LMW-GS) and gliadins, respectively, was determined on 30 wheat (T aestivum L) genotypes from three growing seasons. The gliadins and the LMW-GS were identified as gliadin/LMW-GS pairs. All samples were analysed by two one-dimensional electrophoretic techniques, and selected samples were also subjected to two-dimensional electrophoretic separation. Different statistical/data-analytical techniques were evaluated in the study of how the presence or absence of the protein alleles, the protein content and the growing seasons are related to flour quality. The year of growth had a large impact on mixograph peak time. When predicting mixograph peak time from the presence or absence of significant proteins and the year of growth, 70% of the variability in mixograph peak time could be explained, whereas only 49% of the variability could be explained when the year of growth was deleted from the model. Protein had no effect on mixograph peak time as expected, and the well-known positive effect of HMW-GS 5 + 10, and the negative effects of 2 + 12 and 6 + 8 was observed. Furthermore, some of the gliadin/LMW-GS combinations influenced mixograph peak time significantly. The gliadin/LMW-GS at the combined Gli-A1, Glu-A3 loci b; was positively related to mixograph peak time, whereas ; and a;a was negatively related. Although the LMW-GS component of the alleles b; and ; alleles appear similar on one-dimensional gels, two-dimensional separation of selected samples may suggest that the components in these alleles are different proteins. Cross-validated partial least squares regression combined with empirical uncertainty estimates (jack-knifing) of the parameters estimated in the model, gave similar results to ANOVA in identifying quality related protein alleles. The applicability of the multivariate approach in proteomics is, however, much wider. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry


Goats are important contributors to both food and financial security of the resource poor, particularly in marginal environments such as those in the Mediterranean region. To fully understand the feasibility and potential consequences of any intensification or husbandry changes that could contribute to higher outputs, it is important to have a thorough prior understanding of the functional dynamics of these systems. Here the current performance of ten goat holdings in the northern region of Morocco, classified as either commercial milk producers, commercial cheese producers or non-commercial dairy producers, was recorded, based on the Food and Agricultural Organisation and International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (FAO-CIHEAM) technical and economic indicators, to assess whether intensification of dairy production was financially viable. Fecundity and prolificacy rates were comparatively lower than those achieved by many European Mediterranean herds. Both kid and doe mortality were higher on commercial dairy holdings, where dairy sales provided an additional, rather than alternative, source of income to goat sales. Despite this, due to significantly higher expenditure on supplementary feed, gross margin per doe did not differ significantly between holding types. With the exception of indigenous Greek herds, all European Mediterranean herds outperform those of northern Morocco. The study suggests that a low level of supplementary feeding is constraining goat dairy production in northern Morocco, and that the current high cost and limited availability of additional supplementary feed restricts the financial viability of intensification. Alternative feeding strategies within a participatory approach that might ameliorate these problems, and value chain constraints, are discussed.


We estimate the effects of neighbors' deforestation actions on individuals' deforestation decisions in Costa Rica. To address simultaneity and the presence of spatially correlated unobservable factors, we instrument for neighboring deforestation using topographic and biological characteristics of neighboring parcels. We find evidence that neighboring deforestation significantly raises the probability that an individual clears a parcel. This finding is important for projecting the amount and the spatial pattern of forest. It implies that policies which promote agricultural development or forest conservation in a specific area also affect deforestation rates in non-targeted neighboring areas. Moreover, positive interactions create conditions in which multiple equilibria might arise. This could justify intervention to reach Pareto dominant outcomes.


This dissertation is about inequality in water access in former 'white' rural South Africa. It advances two major arguments. First, water inequality has largely been normalized and naturalized in the post-apartheid order. Second, instead of being only a legacy of colonialism and apartheid, water inequality is being continuously reproduced as a result of contemporary processes of neoliberal accumulation, both private and public. As a political ecology analysis, this thesis questions discourses of an imminent and 'natural' water scar-city crisis, by showing how scarcity is produced in a context of abundance of resources and causes racialized dispossession. Moreover, it rejects the narrative of a service delivery crisis, by demonstrating how water access is embedded in a system of power relations that transcend the working of local government and its supposed failures. Instead, the land-water nexus emerges as crucial, meaning that access to water ultimately depends upon access to land and is mediated through private property rights.
My arguments are based on a specific historico-geographical context, namely the Waterberg plateau in the northern province of Limpopo, where I have conducted one year of ethnographic fieldwork. The Waterberg used to be a 'white' farmland growing crops and livestock, whereas now it has mostly converted to wildlife-based production via private conservation activities, such as game farms and private nature reserves. Following this and other agrarian changes, farm workers and dwellers have been relocating forcibly or voluntarily from the farms to the small rural town of Vaalwater. Here, however, they lack continuous and secure access to water. This dissertation contends that this particular segment of the black rural poor has become surplus both to the needs of capital in the new conservationist mode of production and to the politics of place of white landowners. Thus, they have been abandoned by the state, which refuses to reallocate additional resources from productive uses to water service provision in town.
In developing my arguments, I start from the history of the Waterberg's waterscape, which shows a number of continuities among the colonial, apartheid, and post-apartheid periods. After that, I situate the local water problems within the broader context of the South African water reform. Although the reform aims to redress past racial discrimination in access to water, redistribution is fundamentally constrained by several structural elements. For in-stance, white commercial farmers maintain exclusive control over 'their' wa-ter resources. As a result, they continue to employ millions of litres of water every day, whereas town residents cannot satisfy their most basic water needs.
A central concern of this dissertation is to recognize water inequality, by unravelling the connections between the black town and white farms. And yet, an even more compelling question is how water inequality is being repro-duced in contemporary South Africa. I point out two main processes in this regard. First, the simultaneous commodification of both water resources and water services. This contributes to normalize uneven patterns of access to and use of water (along racial and class lines), in that everyone is free to and responsible for participating in the market for water. Second, neoliberal conservation and the tightening of private control over water implicit in that. Nature conservation has largely been absent from the South African water debate. However, not only are game farms and private nature reserves important water users, but also and especially they tend to naturalize water inequality by depicting the Waterberg as an empty wilderness and questioning the presence and water demands of the black poor.


Literature suggests that sport enjoyment is the greatest predictor of athletes' sport commitment (Scanlan et al., 1993a, 1993b; Carpenter et al., 1993). Research has also shown that satisfaction and involvement opportunities are the greatest predictors of "want to" commitment to exercising (Wilson et al., 2004). However, the majority of the research on sport commitment has examined youth athletes. The purpose of this study was to examine sport commitment among collegiate athletes. Based on Scanlan et al.'s (1993) Sport Commitment Model, the relationship among sport commitment, sport enjoyment, personal investments, social constraints, and involvement opportunities were obtained using a modified version of the Athletes' Opinion Survey. The notion of "have to" commitment and "want to" commitment was also examined in this sample by determining their relationship to factors presented in a modified version of the Exercise Commitment Scale (i.e., satisfaction, social constraints, involvement alternatives, personal investments, social support, and involvement opportunities). Surveys were administered to 101 collegiate soccer players (59 men, 42 women). Results of correlations and stepwise regressions revealed that involvement opportunities was the strongest predictor for sport commitment, whereas satisfaction was the strongest predictor for "want to" sport commitment. Findings from this study suggest that factors associated with sport commitment among collegiate athletes are different than prior research with you athletes. Future research should address these differences in sport commitment between youth and collegiate athletes.


ABSTRACT This paper is the outcome of a community initiative to identify major unsolved scientific problems in hydrology motivated by a need for stronger harmonisation of research efforts. The procedure involved a public consultation through online media, followed by two workshops through which a large number of potential science questions were collated, prioritised, and synthesised. In spite of the diversity of the participants (230 scientists in total), the process revealed much about community priorities and the state of our science: a preference for continuity in research questions rather than radical departures or redirections from past and current work. Questions remain focused on the process-based understanding of hydrological variability and causality at all space and time scales. Increased attention to environmental change drives a new emphasis on understanding how change propagates across interfaces within the hydrological system and across disciplinary boundaries. In particular, the expansion of the human footprint raises a new set of questions related to human interactions with nature and water cycle feedbacks in the context of complex water management problems. We hope that this reflection and synthesis of the 23 unsolved problems in hydrology will help guide research efforts for some years to come.


Standards-based performance assessments address the need for system accountability while offering a powerful way to affirm professional knowledge and to support teacher learning, according to Ms. Falk and Ms. Ort. As reforms based on standards sweep the country and educators grapple with ways to help an increasingly diverse student population realize its academic and social potential, the need for knowledgeable and highly skilled teachers becomes ever more important. The 1996 report of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future, emphasizes this need by pointing to teacher quality as the most critical determinant of student performance.(1) This being the case, to ensure that all students have richer learning experiences and are enabled to reach more challenging goals, school systems must invest in developing the capacity of teachers to teach in ways that are effective with a range of different learners. Without such support for teachers, standards and standards-based assessments could ultimately prove to have unintended harmful effects, particularly for those straggling students who are already served least well by the education system. What kinds of professional learning opportunities develop the capacities of teachers to support more ambitious teaching and learning for all students? Research and experience have helped us to understand the limitations of the short-term "training" model - the one-shot workshop or "expert" lecture that transmits information and skills to passive recipients.(2) Increasingly, that model is being replaced by a more long-range, capacity-building approach that offers "meaningful intellectual, social, and emotional engagement with ideas, with materials, and with colleagues both in and outside of teaching."(3) In this article we suggest that teacher involvement with performance-based assessment is an arena rich in potential for professional learning. Studies of new assessment initiatives indicate that looking at and deliberating on authentic student work - with other teachers, with students, and sometimes with students' families can help teachers better understand what their students know and can reveal students' learning styles, strengths, and needs. Engagement with new assessment strategies also stimulates teachers to think about their curricular vision and to consider how different instructional approaches can be used to support students' learning.(4) These and other ways in which teacher involvement in assessment offers possibilities for professional learning are our topics here. We focus specifically on a large-scale project in New York State that has, over the last three years, developed standards-based, performance-assessment prototypes for the state's student assessment system. We helped to develop the project and in 1996 conducted a study of 250 of the 500 teachers who piloted these new assessments. Although the assessments that are soon to become operational as the New York State assessment system differ substantially from our original work, our findings have implications that we believe are useful for designing and implementing any large-scale assessment system. They reveal how teachers' involvement in assessment - both use and scoring - has enhanced and supported their learning, strengthened their sense of professionalism, and built their support for change. New Forms of Assessment, New Ways to Learn In 1991 New York State launched a variety of initiatives to improve student learning. The agenda for change included articulating rigorous standards of achievement in a variety of disciplines, developing challenging curricula based on these standards, building the capacities of teachers to use a range of strategies to help students achieve the standards, and designing and using new forms of assessment that better support and reflect what is being taught.(5) As part of this initiative, the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching (NCREST) collaborated with the state education department and other partners on a project to develop prototypes for the redesign of the state's system of student assessment. …


This study aimed to identify and measure the contribution of support workers to the delivery and outcomes of older peoples' community rehabilitation and intermediate care services in England.

Several methodologies were employed including a literature review, cross sectional study, prospective longitudinal study and qualitative semi-structured interviews.

The cross sectional study generated data from 186 teams and 327 staff; the prospective study generated 1890 patient records, 680 patient satisfaction responses and 300 staff responses from 20 teams; and the qualitative study collected data from interviews with 150 staff from 10 teams.

Results demonstrate that over 80% of teams employ support workers and that support workers are more likely to be utilised in larger teams who cater for clients with 'medium' levels of care need and who provide care predominantly in the home. Support workers on average deliver between 30 to 40% of direct patient care and spend on average less time per patient contact than qualified professionals.

There was little evidence to conclusively demonstrate an association between the proportion of care delivered by support workers and the severity of health and social needs of patients. Equally although there was a trend to suggest greater proportions of support workers within a team is associated with greater proportions of care being undertaken by support workers, this was also statistically insignificant.

A greater proportion of care delivered by support workers and a greater proportion of support workers within a team were both significantly associated with improved patient outcomes (as measured by EQ-5D and TOMS) but had no impact on service outcomes (length of stay).

Support workers as a group were more likely to report an intention to leave their profession and significantly lower levels of autonomy than qualified staff. Support workers also identified issues around poor career progression and training opportunities and inadequate skill utilisation.

Support workers tend to carry out more 'hands on' care as opposed to the qualified practitioner role of assessment and care planning, develop more of a 'friendship' with clients and may be responsible for delivering more repetitive rehabilitative therapy. These qualities may partially explain why support worker input was found to enhance patient outcomes.

This research shows that there is potential for support workers and qualified professionals alike to be utilised more effectively within community rehabilitation and intermediate care services.


Responses to different information from the sensory organs of the brain can be analyzed by various brain imaging techniques. Among these techniques, electroencephalography (EEG) is widely used because it is performed at a low cost without additional equipment and because of noninvasive method. In recent years, EEG signals recorded during olfaction based studies have been tried, but the response of the human brain to different odors has not been fully proven due to differences in experimental outputs and lack of odor use. In this study, to improve the use of limited odor types, EEG data recorded during the smelling of 4 natural oils (mint, clove, thyme, rosemary) obtained by one %100 cold printing were used. After the EEG data set recorded from 3 subjects are preprocessed with unit change or minimum-maximum normalization, statistically based features were extracted from the signal. Then the dual combinations of these oils were classified with k-nearest neighborhood method and a 6 classification results were obtained for each subject. We calculated the average 72.66%, 72.27% and 70.40% SD for each subject. It shows that the proposed method will be used clinically to successfully determine the loss or lack of odor in subjects.


Taking Jiangsu Province for example and using the relevant data in Jiangsu Statistical Yearbook and Statistical Communique of Jiangsu Province on National Economic and Social Development during 2002-2009, the thesis selects eight indexes including per capita net income of farmers, the fixed asset investment level in rural areas, average educational level, agricultural scientific and technological level, urbanization level, industrialization level, average consumption level per rural residents and per capita GDP and adopts the theory of grey correlation to analyze the factors influencing the peasants' net income. As shown in the result, the effect on the peasants' net income gives the following subsequence from great to little: average consumption level per capita of rural residents, urbanization level, average educational level, industrialization level, per capita GDP, number of scientific and technical personnel and fixed asset investment level in rural areas, that is, > > > > > > . Then combining with the practical conditions, the thesis makes a detailed analysis of each factor influencing the peasant's income growth and proposes corresponding measures in order to improve the peasants' income.


In this journal theme introduction, first, I explain how comparative philosophy as explored in the journal Comparative Philosophy is understood and how it is intrinsically related to the constructive engagement strategy. Second, to characterize more clearly and accurately some related methodological points of the constructive-engagement strategy, and also to explain how constructive engagement is possible, I introduce some needed conceptual and explanatory resources and a meta-methodological framework and endeavor to identify adequacy conditions for methodological guiding principles in comparative studies. Third, as a case analysis, I show how the constructive-engagement reflective practice bears on recent studies of Chinese and comparative Chinese-Western philosophy, especially in the past decade, for two purposes: to illustrate the foregoing theoretic characterization of the constructive engagement strategy, and to identify and explain some constructive morals that might have general significance for comparative studies.


Domman et al. (2014) have explored factors behind the resilience of the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States, chlamydia, with an estimated 1 million infected. The research team sequenced four new strains of close genetic cousins of chlamydial pathogens and examined these with existing DNA data. They found that an extensive and robust shuffling of the genomic deck between chlamydia families has played a major role in the evolution of the pathogen, often serving to outwit and exploit its hosts. They also identified genomic hotspots that seem to play a key role in adaptation and survival, with many having an unknown function. Of note, these gene families were most commonly found to have specific protein features gained from their eukaryotic hosts. By combining their molecular analysis with cell-based assays, the authors demonstrated that these are thought to be secreted proteins that interfere with their hosts' defenses. The authors argue that the evolutionary forces at work behind the diversity of chlamydiae are the result of a unique confluence of birth and death gene evolutionary cycles. In this cycle, new gene copies often arise by gene duplication, with the copies persisting or adapting into new roles within the genome for varying lengths of time, or dying off and being lost randomly. "One of the most surprising findings is that a similar mode of evolution has so far only been observed in fungi, plants, and animals," said Matthias Horn, who led the research team. Such factors can provide the research community with new clues into how chlamydia has emerged as a human scourge, as well as novel targets for next-generation therapeutics. Lead author Domman concludes: "Our study highlights the importance of taking advantage of the tremendous diversity of environmental microbes to improve our knowledge about the evolution of microbial pathogens."


The enrichment of the family in pastoral ministry: The value of a system approach in a pastoral diagnosis Within the Reformed tradition, ministry to the family focused mainly on the personal faith of individual members. This was done by means of home visiting. This article proposes a model which attempts to assess the undergirding components and structures which influence intimacy within the family system. A systems model is developed within a hermeneutical understanding of family care. Such a model helps parents to gain insight in the underlying positions of family members. This influences personal identity and developmental issues. In the enrichment of the family, the model is geared towards helping members to shift their position in order to change the underlying dynamics. A theology for family ministry is developed which can be applied in the assessment of the quality of the interaction of members.


6 In the macaque monkey brain, posterior inferior temporal cortex (PIT) cells are responsible 7 for visual object recognition. They receive concurrent inputs from visual areas V4, V3 and V2. We 8 asked how these different anatomical pathways contribute to PIT response properties by 9 deactivating them while monitoring PIT activity. Using cortical cooling of areas V2/V3 or V4 and 10 a hierarchical model of visual recognition, we conclude that these distinct pathways do not 11 transmit different classes of visual features, but serve instead to maintain a balance of localand 12 global-feature selectivity in IT. 13


The flash-lag effect, a misperception of spatial relations between a moving object and a briefly flashed object, has been empirically well-established. However, it remains unknown whether high-level visual representations, such as biological motion, influence this illusion. To address this question, observers viewed a biological motion stimulus (a walker shown in a skeleton display). A stationary dot was briefly flashed (33ms) adjacent to a reference joint (either a hand or a foot joint) of the walker. Participants were asked to judge the relative spatial relation between the flashed dot and the reference limb. We found a strong flash-lag illusion for biological motion: observers perceived a lag between the reference limb and the flashed dot even when they were exactly aligned in space and time. Furthermore, when the actor walked in a natural direction (i.e., forward walking), the flash-lag effect was enhanced compared to the effect for a backward walker. This asymmetry suggests that updating future postures for familiar actions plays an important role in perceiving the relative spatial relation between a moving agent and other objects. When the walker was inverted, the flash-lag difference between the forward and backward walking directions was maintained for hand joints. However, when the flashed dot was adjacent to foot joints in an inverted walker, the flash-lag difference between the forward and backward walking directions was eliminated. This result suggests that action prediction may maintain different degrees of precision for different joints, depending on the functional importance of the joints for a particular action (e.g., feet are the most critical joints for a walking action, hence prediction of its future location may be more sensitive to the change of the body orientation). Overall, our findings indicate that the flash-lag effect can provide a powerful tool for studying action prediction. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


Turkey's proactive foreign policy directed at assuming a regional or even global "soft power" role has created heated debate. This development may be explained as the result of the Europeanisation of Turkish political culture and its impact on foreign policy behaviour, as a globalisation trend, as a bargaining card towards the West or even as an alternative foreign policy option. Arguably, the ideas of Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's new foreign minister, have contributed at the level of rhetoric; meanwhile, the emphasis of the country's foreign policy on its eastern neighbourhood seems to have less to do with the ruling party's religious premises, than with a rational choice towards the development of an independent foreign policy agenda. It remains to be seen whether this change in rhetoric in Turkish foreign policy will develop into a substantial shift in practice.


The mechanisms by which leptin influences energy homeostasis are not entirely understood. Several observations indicate that proopiomelanocortin (POMC) is involved in the regulation of food intake and may be a mediator of leptin action. To further study this interaction, a sensitive solution hybridization assay was used to compare the levels of POMC mRNA in the medial basal hypothalamus (MBH) of lean (+/+, +/faf) and obese leptin receptor-deficient (faf/faf) rats. POMC peptide products were also measured by RIA in the same animals. Cytoplasmic POMC RNA levels were significantly reduced by 53% in obese rats as compared with lean controls: 0.30 ± 0.04 vs. 0.64 ± 0.07 pg/µg total RNA (p < 0.02). Significant reductions in mean concentrations of hypothalamic POMC-derived peptides from the same dissections were detected in the obese rats vs. lean controls: α-MSH 1.77 ± 0.07 vs. 2.34 ± 0.10; β-EP 4.06 ± 0.24 vs. 5.86 ± 0.36; γ3-MSH 5.32 ± 0.20 vs. 6.52 ± 0.12 ng/mg protein (p < 0.001). To determine whether leptin stimulates POMC gene transcription, the acute effect of an intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection of leptin (5 µg) on POMC primary transcript was quantified in the MBH of lean rats after a 16-hour fast. There was a significant 167% increase in mean POMC hnRNA levels 3 h after i.c.v. leptin injection (1.15 ± 0.22 pg/MBH; p < 0.02), but not after 1 h (0.76 ± 0.08 pg/MBH), compared to saline controls (0.69 ± 0.08 pg/MBH). 4 h after the injection of leptin, POMC hnRNA was still increased, but to a lesser extent (140%), as compared with control animals (p = 0.006). These studies demonstrate for the first time in the leptin receptor-deficient rat that there is an associated decrease in POMC gene expression and peptide levels in the MBH. Furthermore, the acute increase in the levels of POMC primary transcript in non-obese rats after a single i.c.v. injection of leptin supports a role for leptin in the regulation of POMC gene transcription. Taken together, these studies provide further evidence that POMC is an important mediator of the effects of leptin on food intake and energy expenditure.


This paper tracks the rise in the percentage of employees who have never become union members ('never-members') since the early 1980s and shows that it is the reduced likelihood of ever becoming a member rather than the haemorrhaging of existing members which is behind the decline in overall union membership in Britain. We estimate the determinants of 'never-membership' and consider how much of the rise can be explained by structural change in the labour market and how much by change in preferences among employees. We find a similar trend in the unionised sector, indicating that the rise in never membership for the economy as a whole is not linked solely to a decline in the number of recognised workplaces.


The work described in this thesis may be divided into three parts. The first part is an investigation into the changes which occur in the pyridine spectrum when the molecule complexes with the halogens or ICN. It has been shown that intensity changes are due to charge transfer and other (electrostatic) interactions. Normal co-ordinate calculations show only minor changes in vibrational mixing on complexation (see below).The second part of this work is a detailed investigation of the changes in the IX acceptor spectra on complexation with pyridine, dioxan, and other donor solvents. Studies on the variations of temperature and concentration were carried out to determine the nature of the absorptions in the very far-infrared (<150 cm. (^-1)) for these complexes. It has been shown that for the 'weaker' interactions (e.g. dioxan-I (_2)) the bands arise from a 'collisional' mechanism. However, for the longer-lived pyridine-X^ complexes the band is composite. This is partly due to a well-defined v (D-I) mode broadened by vibrational relaxation in a polar medium of excess donor. There is also a contribution from the Poley-Hill 'libration' of the complex dipole in solution. Band shape studies show that the rotation of the pyridine donor in solution is considerably restricted by intermolecular forces. The acceptor band profile reflects only vibrational and/or translational effects. The third part describes normal co-ordinate calculations for the 'tri-atomic' (D-X-Y) and 'whole molecule' models of the pyridine-IX (X = Cl, Br) complexes. The pyridine-d (_5) – IX complexes were used to calculate the interaction constant for the D-X-Y system. This information was used with the pyridine force field to calculate the frequencies and normal co-ordinates for the 'whole complex' molecule. It is shown that the frequency shifts observed on complexation are caused largely by the G matrix changes when the X-Y molecule is complexed. It was found that some mixing between the essentially D-I-X vibrations and the 'ring' modes does occur. The pyridine normal co-ordinates, however, change little on going to the complex, and the massive intensity changes thus appear to be due to electronic redistribution during vibration.


A variety of models have recently emerged to explain how the molecular motor kinesin is able to maintain processive movement for over 100 steps. Although these models differ in significant features, they all predict that kinesin's catalytic domains intermittently separate from each other as the motor takes 8-nm steps along the microtubule. Furthermore, at some point in this process, one molecule of ATP is hydrolyzed per step. However, exactly when hydrolysis and product release occur in relation to this forward step have not been established. Furthermore, the rate at which this separation occurs as well as the speed of motor stepping onto and release from the microtubule have not been measured. In the absence of this information, it is difficult to critically evaluate competing models of kinesin function. We have addressed this issue by developing spectroscopic probes whose fluorescence is sensitive to motor-motor separation or microtubule binding. The kinetics of these fluorescence changes allow us to directly measure how fast kinesin steps onto and releases from the microtubule and provide insight into how processive movement is maintained by this motor.


Nestin, a class VI intermediate filament protein, was originally described as a neuronal stem cell marker during central nervous system development. Nestin is expressed in gliomas, and its expression levels are higher in gliomas with high WHO histopathological classification grades than in those with low grades. In the present study, we examined whether nestin regulates the biological activities of human glioma cells. Immunohistochemically, the nestin expression patterns in 10 human glioblastoma patients were examined. The expression levels of nestin in A172, a human high-grade glioma cell line, and KG-1-C, a human low-grade glioma cell line, were examined using real-time PCR, Western blot and immunofluorescence analyses. An expression vector carrying a short hairpin RNA targeting nestin was stably transfected into A172 (Sh) cells. The effects of decreased expression levels of nestin in Sh cells on cell growth, migration, invasion, adhesion to extracellular matrices and fibrillar actin expression on three-dimensional culture plates were examined. The nestin expression vector was transiently transfected into KG-1-C (Nes) cells, and the effects of the nestin overexpression on cell growth and migration were examined. Nestin was expressed in the cytoplasm of the glioblastoma cells in all cases examined. Sh cells showed marked decreases in the expression levels of nestin mRNA and protein, and the growth rate of Sh cells was lower than that of sham (Sc) cells. In contrast, the adhesion activity of Sh cells to types I and IV collagens, fibronectin and laminin was higher than that of Sc cells. Fibrillar actin was clearly detected at the periphery of colonies of Sh cells at the attachment sites on three-dimensional culture plates. The migration and invasion of Sh cells were markedly inhibited compared with those of Sc cells. In contrast, the levels of nestin expression markedly increased in the Nes cells, which were transiently transfected with the nestin expression vector. The growth rate and motility of Nes cells were higher than those of the mock cells. In conclusion, nestin plays important roles in cell growth, migration, invasion and adhesion to extra-cellular matrices in glioma cells. Nestin may serve as a novel candidate for molecular-targeted therapy for gliomas, including glioblastomas.


Most wireless ad hoc networks research assumes a common communication channel. Using multiple channels can increase network capacity by transmitting traffic on different channels in an interference area. Channel assignment is a critical issue for the multi-channel scheme. Proactive receiver-based channel assignment (RCA) which is a network layer multichannel solution has shown better performance compared to single common channel solutions. However, channel collision cannot be resolved in some scenarios and a large number of orthogonal channels are needed with the RCA scheme. This paper proposes an on-demand negotiation-based channel assignment (NCA) that determines the communicating channel using the network topology and the dynamic traffic. We extend the OLSR (optimized link state routing) protocol to support NCA. Simulation results with NS-2 indicate considerable performance improvement on throughput and end-to-end delay of NCA over RCA for most scenarios.


One prominent form of phenotypic diversity in nature is the dramatic difference between males and females within a single species. A central genetic obstacle which must be overcome is that two distinct phenotypes must be produced from a single, shared genome. One genetic mechanism that is of particular import that would allow sexes to overcome the limitation of a shared genome is sex-specific regulation of gene expression. Although sex-biased gene expression is generally predicted to increase over ontogeny as male and female phenotypes diverge, this pattern should be most pronounced in tissues that contribute to the most extreme aspects of sexual dimorphism. However, few studies have simultaneously examined multiple tissues throughout development to quantify sex-biased gene expression, which is crucial as sexual dimorphism occurs as a complex developmental process and sex-biased gene expression changes over time and differs among various tissues. We used the brown anole (Anolis sagrei), a lizard that exhibits extreme sexual size dimorphism, to examine sex-, age-, and tissue-specificity of gene expression. Using high-throughput RNA-Seq, we analyzed liver, muscle, and brain transcriptomes at one, four, eight, and twelve months of age. We predicted that (1) sex-biased gene expression would increase during ontogeny as phenotypes diverge between the sexes, (2) ontogenetic increases in sex-biased expression would differ among tissues because of different contributions to sexual dimorphism, and (3) growth-regulatory gene networks would be more sex-biased in liver and muscle than the brain as key contributors to extreme size dimorphism. We also predicted that sex-biased expression of upstream components of growth regulatory (e.g., hormones) networks in the liver would be higher compared to the muscle where there would be higher sex-biased expression of downstream components (e.g., hormone receptors and downstream effectors) in muscle. We determined that sex-biased gene expression increased during development, but that the trajectory of sex-biased expression varied between tissues. The liver had the greatest number of sex-biased growth genes, but the muscle had the greatest divergence of growth gene expression. We also found that while sex-biased expression of growth genes increased sharply during development in the liver and muscle, the brain showed no sexbias in any growth gene at any point. Our results confirm that sex-biased gene expression increases throughout ontogeny, but also demonstrate tissue-specific trajectories. Our results also suggest that different components of growth-regulatory networks are activated in different tissues. More broadly, our work implies that sex-biased gene expression across the whole transcriptome and within specific regulatory pathways produces sexually dimorphic phenotypes. INDEX WORDS: Sexual dimorphism, Ontogeny, Anolis, Differential gene expression, RNASeq, Transcriptomics TISSUE SPECIFICITY OF SEX-BIASED GENE EXPRESSION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF SEXUAL DIMORPHISM by ALBERT K. CHUNG B.S., University of Virginia, 2013 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF SCIENCE STATESBORO, GEORGIA


An exceptional male longevity has been observed in a region located in the mountainous area of Sardinia which has been defined by previous research as the Blue Zone (BZ). The identification of this area was based on completely validated documents. In this area the number of male centenarians was found to be similar to that of female centenarians, underlying an unusual balance between the two sexes in reaching older ages. Moreover, mortality rates for the older age groups also show to be similar for both males and females. These results appear unique. Accordingly, an in-depth analysis of the causes of death in the municipalities belonging to the BZ may help to explain and identify which specific causes of death are responsible for the exceptional longevity recorded in the BZ. Firstly, the contribution will present the results of the investigation of large age groups of causes of death by municipality in Sardinia for the period between 1982 and 2001. Therefore, the distribution of the causes of death and the level of mortality within the BZ will be compared to that of other Sardinian municipalities as well as of Italy as a whole. Trends in the last two decades will be identified and a prospective view will be also developed in order to estimate the future male survival in the BZ.


The sedimentary record of aeolian sand systems extends from the Archean to the Quaternary, yet current understanding of aeolian sedimentary processes and product remains limited. Most preserved aeolian successions represent inland sand-sea or dunefield (erg) deposits, whereas coastal systems are primarily known from the Cenozoic. The complexity of aeolian sedimentary processes and facies variability are under-represented and excessively simplified in current facies models, which are not sufficiently refined to reliably account for the complexity inherent in bedform morphology and migratory behaviour, and therefore cannot be used to consistently account for and predict the nature of the preserved sedimentary record in terms of formative processes. Archean and Neoproterozoic aeolian successions remain poorly constrained. Palaeozoic ergs developed and accumulated in relation to the palaeogeographical location of land masses and desert belts. During the Triassic, widespread desert conditions prevailed across much of Europe. During the Jurassic, extensive ergs developed in North America and gave rise to anomalously thick aeolian successions. Cretaceous aeolian successions are widespread in South America, Africa, Asia, and locally in Europe (Spain) and the USA. Several Eocene to Pliocene successions represent the direct precursors to the present-day systems. Quaternary systems include major sand seas (ergs) in low-lattitude and mid-latitude arid regions, Pleistocene carbonate and Holocene–Modern siliciclastic coastal systems. The sedimentary record of most modern aeolian systems remains largely unknown. The majority of palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of aeolian systems envisage transverse dunes, whereas successions representing linear and star dunes remain under-recognized. Research questions that remain to be answered include: (i) what factors control the preservation potential of different types of aeolian bedforms and what are the characteristics of the deposits of different bedform types that can be used for effective reconstruction of original bedform morphology; (ii) what specific set of controlling conditions allow for sustained bedform climb versus episodic sequence accumulation and preservation; (iii) can sophisticated four-dimensional models be developed for complex patterns of spatial and temporal transition between different mechanisms of accumulation and preservation; and (iv) is it reasonable to assume that the deposits of preserved aeolian successions necessarily represent an unbiased record of the conditions that prevailed during episodes of Earth history when large-scale aeolian systems were active, or has the evidence to support the existence of other major desert basins been lost for many periods throughout Earth history?


A kinetic model is developed for cell differentiation in the fern gametophyte to test hypotheses on the role of spatially patterned plasmodesmata networks in development. Of particular interest is the establishment and maintenance of apical cell type in a single cell, with concurrent suppression of this character in all other cells (apical dominance). Steps towards understanding apical cell localization in geometrically simple gametophytes may shed light on the establishment and maintenance of apical meristems in higher plants. The model, based on the plasmodesmata maps of Tilney and colleagues and involving kinetics for a requisite minimum of two morphogens. successfully produces the apical/non-apical cell differentiation patterns of normal development, and redifferentiation due to cell isolation, in six stages from 0-30 d of development. Our results indicate that increasing apical cell plasmodesmata number, as development progresses, is not required for effective transport across apical cell walls in maintaining apical dominance.


We introduce a novel personalized Gaussian Process Experts (pGPE) model for predicting per-subject ADAS-Cog13 cognitive scores -- a significant predictor of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) in the cognitive domain -- over the future 6, 12, 18, and 24 months. We start by training a population-level model using multi-modal data from previously seen subjects using a base Gaussian Process (GP) regression. Then, we personalize this model by adapting the base GP sequentially over time to a new (target) subject using domain adaptive GPs, and also by training subject-specific GP. While we show that these models achieve improved performance when selectively applied to the forecasting task (one performs better than the other on different subjects/visits), the average performance per model is suboptimal. To this end, we used the notion of meta learning in the proposed pGPE to design a regression-based weighting of these expert models, where the expert weights are optimized for each subject and his/her future visit. The results on a cohort of subjects from the ADNI dataset show that this newly introduced personalized weighting of the expert models leads to large improvements in accurately forecasting future ADAS-Cog13 scores and their fine-grained changes associated with the AD progression. This approach has potential to help identify at-risk patients early and improve the construction of clinical trials for AD.


Effectively modeling phenomena present in highly nonlinear dynamical systems whilst also accurately quantifying uncertainty is a challenging task, which often requires problem-specific techniques. We present a novel, domain-agnostic approach to tackling this problem, using compositions of physics-informed random features, derived from ordinary differential equations. The architecture of our model leverages recent advances in approximate inference for deep Gaussian processes, such as layer-wise weight-space approximations which allow us to incorporate random Fourier features, and stochastic variational inference for approximate Bayesian inference. We provide evidence that our model is capable of capturing highly nonlinear behaviour in real-world multivariate time series data. In addition, we find that our approach achieves comparable performance to a number of other probabilistic models on benchmark regression tasks.


In this short review, we give an account of the steps through which the protocols for operation with IPGs were set up in the early '80s. One of the main achievements by our group was the development of a computer program, pH GRADIENT, for the calculation of pH, buffering power and ionic strength of a mixture of monoprotic buffers titrated within any pH span and for the linearization of the desired pH gradient. Using this program, in 1984 we could devise formulations for IPGs covering up to six pH units, which was the subject of a publication in Electrophoresis (volume 5, pages 88–97). This was the starting point for the use of IPGs for the resolution of protein samples of any composition and for their application as first dimension of 2‐DE separations. Currently IPGs are in common use in proteomics investigations, not only along classical protocols but also for sample prefractionation and in shotgun approaches. Much less frequently are they used for 1‐DE analytical applications, a field for which in recent years much attention has instead more often focused on capillary electrophoresis/IEF procedures.


It has been shown that developing a supercavitating flow around under-water projectiles has a significant effect on their drag reduction. As such, it has been a subject of growing attention in the recent decades. In this paper, a numerical and experimental study of supercavitating flows around axisymmetric cavitators is presented. The experiments are conducted in a semi-open loop water tunnel. According to the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations and mass transfer model, a three-component cavitation model is proposed to simulate the cavitating flow. The corresponding governing equations are solved using the finite element method and the mixture Rayleigh-Plesset model. The main objective of this research is to study the effects of some important parameters of these flows such as the cavitation number, Reynolds number and conic angle of the cavitators on the drag coefficient as well as the dimensions of cavities developed around the submerged bodies. A comparison of the numerical and experimental results shows that the numerical method is able to predict accurately the shape parameters of the natural cavitation phenomena such as cavity length, cavity diameter and cavity shape. The results also indicate that the cavitation number declines from 0.32 to 0.25 leading to a 28 percent decrease in the drag coefficient for a 30 ◦ cone cavitator. By increasing the Reynolds number, the cavity length is extended up to 322% for a 60 ◦ cone cavitator.


Modern communication networks are reaching a high level of complexity. As their global dimensioning and performance evaluation are very hard tasks, a multi-layer approach is generally applied to divide them in smaller problems easier to tackle. Within this approach, tools only address one or two network layers. To perform an enhanced analysis encompassing more layers, several tools, not necessarily available in the same place when the problem arises, are often required. This paper shows how to allow a remote access to various existing tools using Web Services paradigm. In this way, software components modelling network elements, layers, or computing specific functions are turned into Web Services, which are available to remote users over the internet. Accessed through a simplified interface, they can be used sequentially or in parallel to solve a specific task. This dispenses the user to perform a local implementation, allows better code reuse, and offers an easy way to confront results from distinct models. A tool accessed via a web service can be beneficial for either research or educational purposes. Moreover, making tools available on the web increases credibility and visibility of their authors. Calls to Web Service require transmitting and retrieving all input and output data in a specific format. In our approach, the Multilayer Network Description (MND) format is used to describe both input data and computed results. It offers common basic structure while guaranteeing a large extensibility, and thus eases the interactions between related but different tools. The viability of this approach in the context of network planning is illustrated through two examples.


The practice based research SKIN STORIES:: CHARTING AND MAPPING THE SKIN deals with issues across the fields of art, design, technology, biology and material science. In an attempt to bridge the gap between aesthetics and technology by investigating the potential of new and industrial materials, the epidermis is used as a metaphor for creating innovative textile surfaces which behave, look or feel like skin.

As a result of theoretical enquiry and practical experiments, interactive design solutions have been developed to a prototype stage for possible application in domestic environments and public spaces as well as for integration into body related design concepts. The development of such functional and interactive textile membranes will hopefully enable individuals to experience a polysensual and responsive environment and it is this aspect which is considered to be an original contribution to knowledge in the textiles field.

The aim of this written thesis is not only to illustrate the journeys and investigations made along the way and to demonstrate the outcome of the research, but also to situate the practical work in its cultural, critical and technological context. This thesis is accompanied by an interactive CD-ROM which is a visual representation of
my 'research map' and holds a record of the practical work carried out during the research project.

The ideas of the project SKIN STORIES:: CHARTING AND MAPPING THE SKIN have been developed and tested during a 3-year research programme towards a Ph. D. at The London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London.


The world is getting older and no one knows exactly what life will be like in tomorrow's older societies. But we do know that age dependency ratios - the ratio of retirees to workers - will be much higher than we see today. The implications of this trend are plain. The combined effects of fewer workers, more retirees and longer retirement periods threaten not only the sustainability of pension systems but also the broader economic prospects of many developed countries. This book describes trends in birth rates, longevity and labor force participation and productivity, the cross-border flow of capital, the globalization of labor markets, the financial viability of social insurance programs, and the ways economic output is shared between working-age and retiree populations. Our most effective solution will likely be a multifaceted one: more workers, longer careers, higher productivity, and more global exchange and cooperation.


Similarity searching often reduces to finding the k nearest neighbors to a query object. Finding the k nearest neighbors is achieved by applying either a depth-first or a best-first algorithm to the search hierarchy containing the data. These algorithms are generally applicable to any index based on hierarchical clustering. The idea is that the data is partitioned into clusters that are aggregated to form other clusters, with the total aggregation being represented as a tree. These algorithms have traditionally used a lower bound corresponding to the minimum distance at which a nearest neighbor can be found (termed MlNDlST) to prune the search process by avoiding the processing of some of the clusters, as well as individual objects when they can be shown to be farther from the query object q than all of the current k nearest neighbors of q. An alternative pruning technique that uses an upper bound corresponding to the maximum possible distance at which a nearest neighbor is guaranteed to be found (termed MaxNearestDist) is described. The MaxNearestDist upper bound is adapted to enable its use for finding the k nearest neighbors instead of just the nearest neighbor (that is, k = 1) as in its previous uses. Both the depth-first and best-first fc-nearest neighbor algorithms are modified to use MaxNearestDist, which is shown to enhance both algorithms by overcoming their shortcomings. In particular, for the depth-first algorithm, the number of clusters in the search hierarchy that must be examined is not increased thereby potentially lowering its execution time, while for the best-first algorithm, the number of clusters in the search hierarchy that must be retained in the priority queue used to control the ordering of processing of the clusters is also not increased, thereby potentially lowering its storage requirements.


In this article I examine the practice of Bible translation and the underlying sets of Christian ideologies regarding the commensurability of linguistic forms. Based on ethnographic research conducted at a biannual Bible translation workshop in Mindoro, Philippines, in 2013, during which the Bible was translated into three Mangyan languages, I argue that the degree to which the actual linguistic forms in the scriptures are divinely inspired often exists as an irresolvable semiotic problem for Bible translators. To this end, I discuss the means through which the Holy Spirit is taken as an essential mediator between the fallible work of Christian translators and the Bible as a language-instantiated form of God's presence. I show how the employment of "generic" language by Christian translators enables them to mirror and circulate the divine universality of scriptural meaning in earthly form. I propose that generic language can be viewed as a site in which multiple and often conflicting claims of language universality and purity are present.


The present study takes into discussion the trade relationships between the Roman Empire and India, reflected both in literary contemporary sources and in archaeological finds. Among the different material categories (pottery, bronze objects, coins), there are many glass vessels. The majority seems to come from Alexandria or Levant, but the high number glass vessels manufactured in western or Italian style, found in the western side of the Indian Ocean, reflects the amplitude and in the meantime the specific features of these trade connexions.


One of the problems of determining whether and how seaweed floras are changing in response to climate change is the lack of historical data which can be compared with current observations. Detailed seaweed surveys from sites along the Bristol Channel, southwestern England, have been undertaken on the Isles of Scilly from 27 years ago, Lundy Island, Devon from c. 60 and 40 years ago, and from intertidal sites along the Severn Estuary in Somerset from c. 30 years ago. Recent studies surveying the seaweeds of Isles of Scilly (2010), Lundy (2008) and of Somerset (2008-20010), have provided data which can be used to compare with these earlier studies. Whilst the majority of species previously recorded have been re-found at all sites, the most noticeable change is the appearance of non-native algal species on the Isles of Scilly and Lundy which were not recorded 27 and 60 years ago. Changes in the Somerset seaweed flora are less obvious, and non-native species such
as Sargassum muticum have not been recorded. However, the presence of c. 100 species in the Severn Estuary makes the Somerset coast important for its seaweed flora in the UK context. The discovery of species not recorded previously and new species in the UK seaweed flora probably reflects a better taxonomic understanding of critical taxa. In this talk I will review the results of these UK studies and consider them in the broader context of change.


Assessment instruments can measure the effectiveness of health policy organizations. This research is a descriptive diagnostic study the Pharmaceutical Assistance structure in Maranhão State, Brazil. The methodology consisted of obtaining secondary data from institutions related to the Pharmaceutical Assistance in the State. Structure indicators were calculated using methodology adapted from the World Health Organization (WHO), and pharmacists perception about the structure of the Pharmaceutical Assistance was analysed through questionnaires. There are 3,003 pharmacists and 3,410 healthcare establishments registered in the Regional Pharmacy Council CRF-MA, particularly in the capital area. Two main problems were identified by pharmacists: the "ineffective management of the public health system" and the "amount of available medicine is insufficient to meet the rising demands of the population" (23.08%; 18 each). We concluded that the Pharmaceutical Assistance organization in Maranhão State is in a precarious situation that requires an investment of resources to improve the physical structures, expand the amount and improve the qualifications of human resources, and procure medicines in sufficient quantities to meet the population's needs.


Observations of inactive satellites in Earth orbit show that these objects are generally rotating, some with very fast rotation rates. In addition, observations indicate that the rotation rate at which defunct satellites spin tends to evolve over time. However, the cause for this behavior is unknown. The observed secular change in the spin rate and spin axis orientation of asteroids is known to be caused by the Yarkovsky-O'Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack (YORP) effect, which results in a torque that is created from reflected thermal energy and sunlight from the surface of an asteroid. This thesis explores the effect of YORP on defunct satellites in Earth orbit and offers this as a potential cause for the observed rotation states of inactive satellites. In this work, several different satellite models are developed to represent inactive satellites in Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO). The evolution of the spin rate and obliquity for each satellite is then explored using Euler's equations of motion as well as spin and year averaged dynamics. This results in the dynamics being analyzed to understand the secular changes that occur, as well as the variations that result from short period terms over the course of a year. Some of the model satellites have asymmetric geometries, leading to the classical YORP effect as originally formulated for asteroids. One model satellite is geometrically symmetric, but relies on mass distribution asymmetry to generate the YORP effect. Because the YORP effect is directly dependent on geometric, optical and thermal properties of the satellite, varying these parameters can lead to different long-term rotational behavior. A sensitivity study is done by varying these parameters and analyzing its effect on the long-term dynamics of a satellite. Additionally, available observation data of inactive GEO satellites are used to estimate the YORP torque acting on those bodies. A comparison between this torque and the expected torque on a defunct satellite shows that the two are of the same order of magnitude, demonstrating that YORP could be a cause for the observed behavior.


The contribution of muscle in-series compliance on maximum performance of the muscle tendon complex was investigated using a forward dynamic computer simulation. The model of the human body contains 8 Hill-type muscles of the lower extremities. Muscle activation is optimized as a function of time, so that maximum drop jump height is achieved by the model. It is shown that the muscle series elastic energy stored in the downward phase provides a considerable contribution (32%) to the total muscle energy in the push-off phase. Furthermore, by the return of stored elastic energy all muscle contractile elements can reduce their shortening velocity up to 63% during push-off to develop a higher force due to their force velocity properties. The additional stretch taken up by the muscle series elastic element allows only m. rectus femoris to work closer to its optimal length, due to its force length properties. Therefore the contribution of the series elastic element to muscle performance in maximum height drop jumping is to store and return energy, and at the same time to increase the force producing ability of the contractile elements during push-off.


Participation in Open Data initiatives require two semi-independent actions: the sharing of data produced by a researcher or group, and a consumer of shared data. Consumers of shared data range from people interested in validating the results of a given study to transformers of the data. These transformers can add value to the dataset by extracting new relationships and information. The relationship between producers and consumers can be modeled in a game-theoretic context, namely by using a Prisoners9 Dilemma (PD) model to better understand potential barriers and benefits of sharing. In this paper, we will introduce the problem of data sharing, consider assumptions about economic versus social payoffs, and provide a game-theoretic model of data sharing. Several variations on the payoff matrix are given for different institutional scenarios, ranging from the ubiquitous acceptance of Open Science principles to a context where the standard is entirely non-cooperative. Implications for building a CC-BY economy are then discussed in context.


Reactive oxygen species (ROS) played an important role in cancer. Although low levels of ROS can be beneficial in normal physiological functions, chronic exposure to ROS is associated with increased risk of cancers. Increased ROS levels can also induce apopto- sis and cell death in various types of cancer. Taken together, the role of ROS in cancer prevention, formation and therapy is extremely complex and very challenging to study. Although the antioxidant activity of phytochemicals is well recognized and generally used to prevent cancer, they can have pro-oxidant and ROS generating activities under certain conditions, especially at high doses or in the presence of metal ions. The basal redox levels of cancer cells are also different from those of normal cells. Therefore, higher levels of free form of metal ions and higher levels of endogenous ROS production in cancer cells sensitizes them to phytochemicals mediated pro-oxidant cytotoxicity. In con- clusion, people tend to intake of antioxidant phytochemicals for the detrimental effects of ROS. However, excessive intake of phytochemicals could have cancer development or therapeutic potential by generating ROS. In this section, the role of phytochemicals in the prevention, development and removal of cancer has been discussed.


The purpose of this thesis is to examine the impact of response to intervention (RTI) in a high school mathematics setting. A major concern in the literature related to the fact that majority of RTI research focused on students at the elementary level and in reading. Therefore in this study RTI was implemented in a high school mathematics classroom and the effects were analyzed. This study is focused on a sample of ninth and tenth grade students from two classes and taught by one teacher in the same high school in an action research setting. Quantitative and qualitative methods of data were collected using documents/artifacts, observations, surveys and interviews. The data was analyzed using both descriptive statistics and the constant comparative method. Validating the results of this study included member checking, pilot testing and triangulation. Over a six-week data collection period, themes were noted that included how Tier 2 interventions are implemented in a high school mathematics setting as well as students' perceptions of these Tier 2 interventions. The researcher found three limitations including limited access, measures used to collect data as well as a small sample size. Additionally, the research recommended three implications of practice. These implications included that the teacher of the interventions outside of the regular education classroom should be a different teacher then the teacher in the regular education classroom, interventions outside of the regular education classroom should be kept to a smaller group of students, and finally, there should be a high frequency of Tier 2 interventions made inside the regular education classroom. The Impact of Response to Intervention in a High School Mathematics Setting 2


The Vendian–Early Cambrian Puncoviscana Formation is a pelite-greywacke turbidite sequence affected by polyphase deformation cropping out extensively in the Cordillera Oriental of northwestern Argentina. Previous X-ray diffraction and analytical high-resolution TEM studies on southern locations found anchizonal grade and proposed medium–high pressure metamorphism followed by higher thermal conditions. We have determined the chemical composition of mica and chlorite with EDX on small uncontaminated areas selected using SEM in backscattered electron mode. The application of mica-chlorite geothermobarometry to mineral grains defining two different foliations has produced consistent pressure/temperature results based on the intersection of six reactions: 9 kbar/250 °C peak conditions were followed by an isothermal decompression to 3 kbar and a successive increase of temperature to nearly 350 °C at 1.5 kbar. The shales from the overlying Meson and Santa Victoria Cambro–Ordovician groups do not contain chlorite, thus chlorite-mica geothermobarometry could not be applied. According to the range of KICIS obtained (0.41–0.68Δ°2θ) and their mineralogical assemblage (illite ± kaolinite ± corrensite + Qtz + Pl ± Kfs), these rocks have not surpassed diagenetic conditions, which implies a minimum temperature difference with the Puncoviscana Formation of 100 °C, consistent with the sharp angular unconformity between the two units.