Adult learners undertaking a coursework masters are understandably nervous about undertaking research projects. However if done well, such projects represent a way to encourage the quantity and quality of practitioner research, which is important in all management disciplines, not only the emerging discipline of coaching. This paper offers an alternative to the individual master-apprentice model to which many research students are still exposed. Addressing the motivational needs identified in self-determination theory (autonomy, competence and relatedness) as well as self-efficacy and incorporating good practices in feedback, it outlines a way to make the process of learning how to do research more engaging than sitting listening to lectures. The paper reports the findings of a survey of the participants in the 2012 cohort who were asked if their competence and confidence in undertaking a research project had changed before and after undertaking the class, and if so, to list what they, their peers or staff had done to contribute to this change. The paper concludes that the approach offers a useful way to help adult learners develop research skills.


: This article describes some aspects of funeral rites among indigenous people of the Badakhshan autonomous region in Tajikistan, for most of whom the religious denomination is Ismailism. The ceremonies focus on ritual purification and seeing off the soul of the deceased person into another world. A set of obliga-tory rituals and rites are described, including lamp lighting, mourning rules, and memorial foods and celebrations. After analysing a wide range of data, the authors conclude that Western Pamir Ismailites believe that a dead body is inhabited by a corpse demon that brings harm to people. Although the described customs and rituals are generally Muslim and reflect features of the traditional Pamir world view, they are most probably part of the region's pre-Islamic heritage.


This article identifies potential barriers to substance use recovery associated with rural residence. The evidence is discussed and illustrated with examples. Fourteen specific barriers to substance abuse recovery are identified within 4 broad categories: access to treatment services, access to other professionals, access to peer support groups, and barriers to confidentiality. Although telehealth, expansion of mental health care, intensive referral, and other efforts might enhance access to care, the evidence suggests practitioners and researchers should remain aware of community-level barriers to recovery from substance use disorder and work with clients to overcome them.


The earned income tax credit provides substantial assistance to low- and moderate-income workers. Benefits tilt heavily to families with children. Prompted in part by the success of the credit and in part by shortcomings in the credit, policymakers, advocates, and analysts have offered up reform proposals. In this report, we describe the credit's current effects and then analyze the credit's basic elements (its eligibility requirements, design, timing, administration, and effects on other programs including State EITCs and transfer programs) to help guide thinking on these potential reforms.


Large-scale sedimentary cycles, or Grand Cycles, are the most obvious features of the Port au Port Group in southwestern Newfoundland. Each cycle is interpreted to represent deposition in outer-platform, muddy tidal flats (lower shaly half-cycle) and ooid shoal complexes (upper carbonate half-cycle). Unpredictable metre-scale assemblages of oolite and carbonate laminite, constituting the carbonate half-cycles, are attributed to frequent migration of the shoal complexes in response to hydrographic factors such as tidal fluctuations and storms. Predictable metre-scale, shallowing-upward cycles of parted limestone and shale in the shaly half-cycles were probably controlled mainly by variable rates of carbonate sedimentation; a eustatic mechanism, however, cannot be discounted. Comparison with other North American Grand Cycles suggests a eustatic mechanism for Grand Cycle formation, possibly involving variations in the rate of sea-level rise. The interpreted sequence of formation, established on the basis of the Port au Port Group, involves (1) a rapid sea-level rise, which flooded the platform with shoreward-derived siliciclastic muds and resulted in the development of muddy tidal flats, and (2) the gradual development of ooid shoal complexes, which encroached onto the tidal flats, with decreasing rates of sea-level rise. In contrast to western North American examples, Newfoundland Grand Cycles are composed almost entirely of peritidal sediments; they are also thinner and have a smaller areal extent than do those in the west. These differences may be due to such factors as narrower shelves, slower rates of sedimentation, and lower amplitudes of sea-level rise on the present northeastern margin of the North American craton than on the western margin.


This article proposes the political organisation of interstate integration – characterised by functional differentiation and unbundled multi-level territoriality – as a political ideal type. The theoretical foundations and empirical conditions of this new form of political organisation are explored focussing on basic security threats, such as nuclear armament, transnational terrorism, and organised crime. The empirical conditions of multilateral democratic integration are not essentially different from the conditions of democratic state-building and not limited to Europe. The political reality of multilateral integration is often misperceived in political theory. This is due, either to the uncritical presupposition of a traditional political ontology, defined by an essentialist understanding of the unitary state; or by an apolitical discourse on flows and scapes that loses sight of the specific features of political authority in the postnational realm.


Ocean velocity defines ocean circulation, yet the available observations of subsurface velocity are under-utilized by society. The first step to address these concerns is to improve visibility of and access to existing measurements, which include acoustic sampling from ships, subsurface float drifts, and measurements from autonomous vehicles. While multiple programs provide data publicly, the present difficulty in finding, understanding, and using these data hinder broader use by managers, the public, and other scientists. Creating links from centralized national archives to project specific websites is an easy but important way to improve data discoverability and access. A further step is to archive data in centralized databases, which increases usage by providing a common framework for disparate measurements. This requires consistent data standards and processing protocols for all types of velocity measurements. Central dissemination will also simplify the creation of derived products tailored to end user goals. Eventually, this common framework will aid managers and scientists in identifying regions that need more sampling and in identifying methods to fulfill those demands. Existing technologies are capable of improving spatial and temporal sampling, such as using ships of opportunity or from autonomous platforms like gliders, profiling floats, or Lagrangian floats. Future technological advances are needed to fill sampling gaps and increase data coverage.


Recent molecular biology has seen the development of genomics as a successor to traditional genetics. This paper offers an overview of the structure, epistemology, and (very briefly) history of contemporary genomics. A particular focus is on the question to what extent the genome contains, or is composed of anything that corresponds to traditional conceptions of genes. It is concluded that the only interpretation of genes that has much contemporary scientific relevance is what is described as the developmental defect gene concept. However, developmental defect genes typically only correspond to general areas of the genome and not to precise chemical structures (nucleotide sequences). The parts of the genome to be identified for an account of the processes of normal development are highly diverse, little correlated with traditional genes, and act in ways that are highly dependent on the cellular and higher level environment. Despite its historical development out of genetics, genomics represents a radically different kind of scientific project.


This article studies the development of innovative component for the region's economic security. The hypothesis of the study is that in the context of globalization and development of network society, innovation is becoming one of the key elements ensuring the economic security of a region. We considered the relationship between the concepts of sustainable development and economic security. The authors show that currently, the economic security of the country directly depends on its place within the innovation chain. We substantiate that Russian Federation and its regions need to shift to the innovation development based on strengthening its own sources for long-term growth. The paper considers the basic theoretical and methodological problems in the formation of innovation component of the Russian regions' economic security. We reveal the major essence and elements of the innovative component of the sustainable economic development of the region. The authors show that the formation of the innovative component of the region's economic security demands the correlation of the strategy of regional innovation development and the production and technological type of territory. Additionally, this strategy should correlate with the desirable ways of production type transformation in the future, considering the trends of the world economy. We have highlighted the production and technological types of Russian regions as well as identified the features of relevant regional components for the innovation system of the Russian Federation to ensure sustainable development. The study defines the priority directions and goals for the development of economic security innovative component in the Russian regions. The authors' calculations allowed to select a group of territorial subjects of the Russian Federation, which appear to be the most promising for the development of innovative activities for the elaboration of export-oriented high-tech industries. The results of this research can be used to improve the management of innovation activity and ensure the economic security of the Russian regions.


INTRODUCTION
Anxiety and sleep disorders are often the result of posttraumatic stress disorder and can contribute to an impaired ability to focus and to demonstration of oppositional behaviors.

CASE PRESENTATION
These symptoms were present in our patient, a ten-year-old girl who was sexually abused and had minimal parental supervision as a young child under the age of five. Pharmaceutical medications provided partial relief, but results were not long-lasting, and there were major side effects. A trial of cannabidiol oil resulted in a maintained decrease in anxiety and a steady improvement in the quality and quantity of the patient's sleep.

DISCUSSION
Cannabidiol oil, an increasingly popular treatment of anxiety and sleep issues, has been documented as being an effective alternative to pharmaceutical medications. This case study provides clinical data that support the use of cannabidiol oil as a safe treatment for reducing anxiety and improving sleep in a young girl with posttraumatic stress disorder.


Unintended pregnancy is a worldwide problem. Unintended or unplanned pregnancy refers to the sum of mistimed and unwanted pregnancies. A woman is assumed to have a mistimed pregnancy if she became pregnant at a time when she did not want to. A woman is assumed to have an unwanted pregnancy if she did not intend to ever become pregnant or if the pregnancy occurred when she wanted to no more children. This study used data from the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) to identify individual-level and household-level factors associated with unintended pregnancy among ever-married women in Nigeria. Unintended pregnancy was measured using Lightbourne method. Among the factors associated with higher rates of unintended pregnancies were female-headed households, households headed by older adults, family size, and poverty. Women from rich households were 21% less likely to have unintended pregnancies compared to women from poor house-holds. When all variables were controlled for simultaneously, age and sex of household head, house-hold size, and wealth index were significantly associated with unintended pregnancy. Findings suggest that tackling unintended pregnancy may require household-focused interventions.


Abstract From the viewpoints of plasma control and radiation safety, tritium retention in deposition layers is an important problem. In this study, deposition layers from type 316 stainless steel were formed by a sputtering method using hydrogen RF plasma at three different temperatures. The behavior of hydrogen release from the deposition layers was observed by a thermal desorption method at argon atmosphere. It was found that hydrogen retention and release behavior greatly change depending on the temperature of a substrate where the layer is formed. The surface structure of the layer also changed depending on the temperature. However, the ratios of metallic atoms such as Fe, Cr and Ni in deposition layers were almost the same as that in type 316 stainless steel


BACKGROUND: In 2013–2014, an outbreak of serogroup B meningococcal disease occurred among persons linked to a New Jersey university (University A). In the absence of a licensed serogroup B meningococcal (MenB) vaccine in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration authorized use of an investigational MenB vaccine to control the outbreak. An investigation of the outbreak and response was undertaken to determine the population at risk and assess vaccination coverage. METHODS: The epidemiologic investigation relied on compilation and review of case and population data, laboratory typing of meningococcal isolates, and unstructured interviews with university staff. Vaccination coverage data were collected during the vaccination campaign held under an expanded-access Investigational New Drug protocol. RESULTS: Between March 25, 2013, and March 10, 2014, 9 cases of serogroup B meningococcal disease occurred in persons linked to University A. Laboratory typing results were identical for all 8 isolates available. Through May 14, 2014, 89.1% coverage with the 2-dose vaccination series was achieved in the target population. From the initiation of MenB vaccination through February 1, 2015, no additional cases of serogroup B meningococcal disease occurred in University A students. However, the ninth case occurred in March 2014 in an unvaccinated close contact of University A students. CONCLUSIONS: No serogroup B meningococcal disease cases occurred in persons who received 1 or more doses of 4CMenB vaccine, suggesting 4CMenB may have protected vaccinated individuals from disease. However, the ninth case demonstrates that carriage of serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis among vaccinated persons was not eliminated.


Social identity theory encourages the importance of maintaining a positive self-image, and positive view of one's own group (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). A person's sense of possible-selves (the imaginations of who they are and who they could be in any given interaction) can become damaged when interacting with an individual who encourages threatening stereotypes (Brown, 1998). The present study aims to extend the understandings of how one's image can be threatened, via "social identity-threat," using sexist humor. In this study, participants' ideations of their "possible-selves" will be measured by how they respond to self-survey questionnaires. Participants will imagine interactions with a graduate Teaching Assistant who engages in humor by telling jokes. The humor will be sexist or neutral in manner. The imagined interaction will contain either a confederate (TA) who offers the jokes, or a different confederate whose behaviors are ambiguous and does not participate in the jokes. I hypothesize that by degrading and diminishing women, sexist humor will derogate and threaten women's social identities, and break their sense of self-worth, in a way that isn't limited to contextual factors.


Chemical stabilization of microbial-derived products such as extracellular enzymes (EE) onto mineral surfaces has gained attention as a possibly important mechanism leading to the persistence of soil organic carbon (SOC). While the controls on EE activities and their stabilization in the surface soil are reasonably well-understood, how these activities change with soil depth and possibly diverge from those at the soil surface due to distinct physical, chemical, and biotic conditions remains unclear. We assessed EE activity to a depth of 1 m (10 cm increments) in 19 soil profiles across the Critical Zone Observatory Network, which represents a wide range of climates, soil orders, and vegetation types. For all EEs, activities per mass of soil correlated positively with microbial biomass (MB) and SOC, and all three of these variables decreased logarithmically with depth (p < 0.05). Across all sites, over half of the potential EE activities per mass soil consistently occurred below 20 cm for all measured EEs. Activities per unit MB or SOC were substantially higher at depth (soils below 20 cm accounted for 80% of whole-profile EE activity), suggesting an accumulation of stabilized (i.e. mineral sorbed) EEs in subsoil horizons. The pronounced enzyme stabilization in subsurface horizons was corroborated by mixed-effects models that showed a significant, positive relationship between clay concentration and MB-normalized EE activities in the subsoil. Furthermore, the negative relationships between soil C, N, and P and C-, N-, and P-acquiring EEs found in the surface soil decoupled below 20 cm, which could have also been caused by EE stabilization. This finding suggests that EEs may not reflect soil nutrient availabilities deeper in the soil profile. Taken together, our results suggest that deeper soil horizons hold a significant reservoir of EEs, and that the controls of subsoil EEs differ from their surface soil counterparts.


The copepod Calanus finmarchicus is the dominant species of the mesozooplankton in the Norwegian Sea, and constitutes an important link between the phytoplankton to the higher trophic levels in the Norwegiana Sea food chain. An individual-based model (IBM) for C. finmarchicus, based on super individuals and evolving traits for behaviour, stages etc., is coupled two ways to a physical–biological model system. One year of modelled C. finmarchicus spatial distribution, production, and biomass values are compared with point-wise and integrated observations, and found to represent these satisfactory. Sensitivity tests of model setup (i.e. number of super individuals, initial values of traits for behaviour and food preferences) show that the modelling system is robust and provides a valuable tool for studies of ecosystem responses to causative forces sch as fish predation or climate change. From a longer simulation, interannual variability and regional differences in biomass and production are studied.


Models based on the breakage equation for roller milling have been developed to predict the output particle size distribution delivered by First Break roller milling of wheat from distributions of single kernel characteristics. These models allow prediction of the breakage of mixtures of kernels of unknown origin or varieties and varying in size and hardness, based solely on Perten Single Kernel Characterisation System (SKCS) characteristics. Predictions have been developed for both Sharp-to-Sharp and Dull-to-Dull roll dispositions, and show good agreement with independent data. Milling under a Dull-to-Dull disposition is more sensitive to kernel hardness and gives a more pronounced U-shaped distribution of output particle sizes (i.e., large proportions of both small and large particles, with few in the mid-size range) than Sharp-to-Sharp milling. Similarly, softer wheats break to give a more U-shaped distribution than harder wheats. These findings also demonstrate that kernel hardness as reported by the SKCS is meaningful in relation to wheat breakage during roller milling. Previous work has shown that single kernel moisture measurements can be included in predictive equations; further work reported here demonstrates the potential to add the fourth SKCS parameter, kernel mass, to predictions in order to allow for the effect of kernel shape on breakage.


Abstract Education and instruction in the care of the patient with peripheral vascular diseases is, at best, fragmented during the first years of medical training. Attention to the issues of peripheral arterial, venous, and lymphatic disorders deserves a more formal approach with respect to physician education, patient evaluation and treatment, knowledge and application of various diagnostic modalities, and involvement of our physician colleagues in complementary disciplines. The vascular medicine internist is an invaluable resource in these areas. The aging of our general population will lead to an increase in manifest peripheral vascular disease within our patient population. Having received additional comprehensive training in the management of the complex patient with peripheral vascular disease, the vascular medicine internist may serve as a complete resource for their care.


The aim of onion bulb storage is to meet consumer demand for extended availability of onions whilst maintaining product quality. The principal biological factors leading to onion bulb deterioration are respiration, resumption of growth and pathogen attack. In onion bulbs a dormant period, when sprouting and rooting cannot be induced, is followed by a period of internal changes that prepare the bulb for breaking of dormancy and subsequent growth. Out of storage, the bulb then proceeds towards flowering and seed production. Two successive winter seasons of 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 were conducted under sandy soil conditions to study the effect of spraying with 12 commercial compounds on yield and yield components of onion seeds and storage The seed yield of each commercial compounds plot from previous experiment was divided into two groups, storage under room temperature and 5°C. Seeds transferred immediately after drying to Increasing Export Competition of Some Vegetable Crops Project Laboratory located in Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University. The effects of storage temperature, storage period and foliar with some commercial compounds on onion seed quality were considered. Storage in 5°C had the higher germination percentage than storage in room temperature. Results indicated that as storage period increased the germination percent decreased. The treatment with boron or amica in the first season had the highest germination percentage. While, the treatment with union Zn, union feer, union Mn, boron, elga 600, caboron, amica, hummer or amino X had the highest germination percentage in the second season. Storage in 5°C resulted in higher moisture content than storage in room temperature. Regarding the effect of storage period on moisture content, the water content was significantly increased with prolongation of storage period. The lowest values of water content were recorded for treatments with union feer, shams K or boron in the first season, and union feer, shams K, boron, magnesium, shetocare or hummer in the second one. Catalase activity was significantly decreased as storage period increased. The treatment with shams K, boron, shetocare or amino X had the highest catalase activity in both seasons. Peroxidase activity was significantly decreased as storage period increased. Foliar application with boron had the highest peroxidase activity in both seasons. Seed stored in room temperature had the higher malondialdehyde content than those stored in 5°C in the second season. The malondialdehyde content increased as storage period increased. The treatment with magnesium, caboron and the control in the first season, and the treatment with magnesium and the control in the second season had the highest malondialdehyde content.


Monocytes participate in inflammatory responses in the immune system, wound repair, and other processes. They interact with activated platelets and endothelial cells through a protein in the monocyte cell membrane called P-selectin glycoprotein-1 (PSGL-1). But emerging evidence indicates that this is just one step in a complex network of interactions that regulate monocyte adhesion and migration. Mahoney et al. show that binding of PSGL-1 to P-selectin causes increased activity of mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin; a protein kinase implicated in control of cell growth and proliferation) and consequent enhanced translation of messenger RNA encoding the urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (UPAR). As the name betrays, UPAR binds and thus localizes the protease UPA, which influences adhesion and migration through its protease activity and through activation of UPAR signaling. UPAR is also regulated at the level of transcription, and has multiple actions, including formation of regulatory complexes with integrins and interaction with the matrix molecule vitronectin. Indeed, the increased synthesis of UPAR identified by Mahoney et al. in response to PSGL-1 caused enhanced adhesion of monocytes to vitronectin. Thus, an "outside-in" signal from interaction of a cell with P-selectin triggers an intracellular signaling pathway that ultimately signals back to the outside through increased expression of UPAR, which then enhances binding to vitronectin. The authors note that such changes in interactions at the cell surface could mediate some of the therapeutic effects of rapamycin. T. S. Mahoney, A. S. Weyrich, D. A. Dixon, T. McIntyre, S. M. Prescott, G. A. Zimmerman, Cell adhesion regulates gene expression at translational checkpoints in human myeloid leukocytes. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 98, 10284-10289 (2001). [Abstract] [Full Text]


This study of sociology faculty in twelve private colleges and universities compares teaching with textbooks and alternative texts in undergraduate classes. Faculty explain that textbooks provide a breadth of material that is organized and streamlined in a way that promotes consistency across instructors, facilitates content delivery to students with a range of abilities, and reduces course preparation time. Despite these benefits, faculty have a strong preference for alternative texts. Faculty argue that readings, like monographs and journal articles, develop students' critical reading and thinking skills. Additionally, when instructors design courses with alternative readings they use their own critical reading and critical thinking, as they critique and synthesize the literature in their discipline in order to curate texts for the syllabus and work with them in the classroom. We argue that teaching courses with alternative readings creates course experiences where students and faculty engage with a discipline together.


We confirmed that murine hematopoietic stem cells express the c-kit molecule but not lymphohematopoietic lineage markers. These lineage marker-negative c-kit-positive (Lin- c-kit+) cells were further divided according to the uptake of rhodamine-123 (Rh-123). Approximately 1,000 Lin- c-kit+ rhodamine-123dull cells, which contained 4.0 +/- 1.3 and 12.5 +/- 1.9 day 8 and day 12 spleen colony-forming units (CFU-S), respectively, rescued the 100% of lethally irradiated mice. One third of these cells formed colonies in the presence of interleukin-3 plus erythropoietin. The time course of the hematopoietic reconstitution of this primitive hematopoietic stem cell fraction was investigated by using Ly-5 congenic mice. Although myeloid cells and B lymphocytes were detected in the peripheral blood 2 to 3 weeks after transplantation, T lymphocytes were not detected until 4 weeks after transplantation. It is generally assumed that myeloid cells and B lymphocytes grow in the bone marrow and that T lymphocytes must pass through the thymus. For the first 2 to 3 weeks after transplantation, donor-type T lymphocytes were not dominant in the thymus, and most donor type cells were CD4/CD8 double-negative or double-positive (including CD4low and CD8low). Four weeks after transplantation, donor-type T lymphocytes were dominant and the ratio of CD4/CD8 cells had recovered to the normal pattern. However, significant numbers of T lymphocytes were detected in the peripheral blood at this stage. Sequential analysis of hematopoietic reconstitution from primitive stem cells demonstrates that myeloid and B-lymphoid lineages occurred earlier than that of the T-lymphoid lineages.


A 65-year-old female diabetic patient with wet gangrene on left great toe developed skin eruptions and blebs over her limbs and lower abdomen after receiving three doses of tablet linezolid + cefuroxime (600mg+500 mg). The skin eruptions and blebs completely resolved fourteen days after discontinuation of tablet Linezolid + Cefuroxime. Based on her presentation (Skin eruptions and blebs), we consider that the condition was a result of linezolid+ cefuroxime administration. While the pathophysiology of these cutaneous reactions is not completely understood, clinicians should be vigilant to allow early detection of these problems. The causality of this adverse reaction was determined by using Naranjo's criteria and World Health Organization Probability scale and was found to be possible and the severity of this reaction was determined by using the Modified Hartwig and Siegel scale and was found to be moderate (Level 3b) reaction. Although, Linezolid is known to cause dermatological reactions like rashes but the reports of leucocytoclastic vasculitis are rare. Thus, our case report of linezolid + cefuroxime induced leucocytoclastic vasculitis add newer information. Physician should be vigilant for the potential of drug to cause some rare side-effect like leucocytoclastic vasculitis on similar age groups, so that a safer alternative treatment can be started. Key words: Linezolid, Cefuroxime, Cutaneous reaction, Diabetes, Wet gangrene.


Raman microprobe, ICP, and XRF techniques have been applied to characterize the solids precipitated from HNO3 solutions containing Zr and Mo under different solution conditions. The saturation yields of precipitation decrease linearly—in almost all cases—with increasing acid strength, and nearly complete precipitation of Mo occurs in 3-M HNO3 solutions; ionic strength does not seem to affect the yields. Raman spectra of the microparticles indicate that hydrated zirconium molybdate is the main product, except in solutions with large excess of Mo relative to Zr. Identification of the species formed in these solutions is made by comparison of the Raman spectra with the spectra of known compounds. X-ray diffraction patterns of hydrated and thermally treated zirconium molybdate are in accord with the reported crystallographic data.


Although medication is acknowledged as a key element in treating health problems, there is little information available on the use of medication by hospital workers. To estimate the prevalence and describe the patterns of medication consumption by hospital workers and to identify the factors associated with such consumption in this population, data from the "PROSEC" baseline cohort were analyzed (n=417). The prevalence of overall medication consumption was 72.4%, most of which was for nervous complaints (25.4%), especially analgesics (17.8%). Use of any amount of medication was independently associated with gender, number of medically diagnosed conditions and health problem in the two weeks prior to the interview. Use of a drug was significantly associated with income whereas self-diagnosed health problems were independently related with the use of two or more pharmaceutical products. The high prevalence of medication usage in this population, with analgesics being the most consumed medication, should be seen as a cause for concern, since many consumers are unaware that these products are not exempt from risk. Women and individuals in poor health are the main candidates for intervention programs in order to promote adequate and proper use of these pharmaceutical products.


Most real-world negotiation involves multiple interdependent issues, which makes an agent's utility functions complex. Traditional negotiation mechanisms, which were designed for linear utilities, do not fare well in nonlinear contexts. One of the main challenges in developing effective nonlinear negotiation protocols is scalability, it can be extremely difficult to find high-quality solutions when there are many issues, due to computational intractability. One reasonable approach to reducing computational cost, while maintaining good quality outcomes, is to decompose the contract space into several largely independent sub-spaces. In this paper, we propose a method for decomposing a contract space into sub-spaces based on the agent's utility functions. A mediator finds sub-contracts in each sub-space based on votes from the agents, and combines the sub-contracts to produce the final agreement. We demonstrate, experimentally, that our protocol allows high-optimality outcomes with greater scalability than previous efforts. We also address incentive compatibility issues. Any voting scheme introduces the potential for strategic non-truthful voting by the agents, and our method is no exception. For example, one of the agents may always vote truthfully, while the other exaggerates so that its votes are always "strong." It has been shown that this biases the negotiation outcomes to favor the exaggerator, at the cost of reduced social welfare. We employ the limitation of strong votes to the method of decomposing the contract space into several largely independent sub-spaces. We investigate whether and how this approach can be applied to the method of decomposing a contract space.


Standard migration images can suffer from migration artifacts due to 1) poor source-receiver sampling, 2) weak amplitudes caused by geometric spreading, 3) attenuation, 4) defocusing, 5) poor resolution due to limited source-receiver aperture, and 6) ringiness caused by a ringy source wavelet. To partly remedy these problems, least-squares migration (LSM), also known as linearized seismic inversion or migration deconvolution (MD), proposes to linearly invert seismic data for the reflectivity distribution. If the migration velocity model is sufficiently accurate, then LSM can mitigate many of the above problems and lead to a more resolved migration image, sometimes with twice the spatial resolution. However, there are two problems with LSM: the cost can be an order of magnitude more than standard migration and the quality of the LSM image is no better than the standard image for velocity errors of 5% or more. We now show how to get the most from leastsquares migration by reducing the cost and velocity sensitivity of LSM.


Problem Statement: Located in each discipline, communication also bears a huge importance in the health sector. Communication with patients and relatives require more moderate and friendly because of their sensitive situation. Developing communication skills of students in health sciences will be able to communicate effectively with patients. In addition, this study is believed to students' relations will be strengthened with both team members in business life and other individuals in social life. For this reason, it has been considered that an andragogy-based communication skills education that will be organized for young adults would be useful as a guide for further studies. Purpose of the Study: In this research, it has been examined if the communication skills education to be given to university students will have effect on the level of their ability of expressing their emotions and empathetic tendencies that have important role in communication skills of young adults. Method: Experimental method has been utilized in this research. Pretestposttest single-group pattern of this method constitutes of the model of research. The research has been carried out with 199 first-grader students from a university in autumn semester of 2012-2013 educational year. Empathetic tendency and emotional expression scales have been applied to the students, then an andragogy-based planned communication skills education constituting of 12 sessions has been given to them after a week,  and then the same scales have been re-applied to them after 15 days from the completion of those sessions. Findings: Both of empathetic tendencies and the levels of expressing the emotions of women and ones being able to establish efficient communication within the family have been found to be higher. A positive, medium-level and significant relationship has been observed between students' empathetic tendencies and levels of expressing their emotions. After the educations, both of the students' mean empathetic tendency scale scores and mean scores of emotional expression scale have shown statistically significant increase. Conclusion and Recommendations: In this research, it has been concluded that the communication skill educations given to the students in order for them to be able to successfully adapt to the necessities and obligations of the life and to cope up with them efficiently have improved the functional communicational skills of young adults. In parallel with this result, in order to ensure healthier and stronger beginnings of work life after university, communication skills educations can be prepared for students in universities for personal development. Keywords: Adult education, communication, empathetic tendency, emotional expression, university students


A computationally efficient approach to local learning with kernel methods is presented. The Fast Local Kernel Support Vector Machine (FaLK-SVM) trains a set of local SVMs on redundant neighbourhoods in the training set and an appropriate model for each query point is selected at testing time according to a proximity strategy. Supported by a recent result by Zakai and Ritov (2009) relating consistency and localizability, our approach achieves high classification accuracies by dividing the separation function in local optimisation problems that can be handled very efficiently from the computational viewpoint. The introduction of a fast local model selection further speeds-up the learning process. Learning and complexity bounds are derived for FaLK-SVM, and the empirical evaluation of the approach (with data sets up to 3 million points) showed that it is much faster and more accurate and scalable than state-of-the-art accurate and approximated SVM solvers at least for non high-dimensional data sets. More generally, we show that locality can be an important factor to sensibly speed-up learning approaches and kernel methods, differently from other recent techniques that tend to dismiss local information in order to improve scalability.


BACKGROUND
Taurine is an osmolyte found in high concentration in the kidney. Both the modulation of tissue taurine stores and the exogenous administration of taurine are known to affect renal function. Therefore, it is likely that taurine therapy could benefit the dysfunctional kidney.

METHODS
To test this idea, the present study examined the effect of chronic taurine administration on the excretory responses to acute saline volume loading by the unilaterally nephrectomized (UNX) control and the UNX glucose-intolerant rat (ages 3 to 9 months).

RESULTS
Sham-operated animals excreted similar amounts of the administered fluid and sodium loads with age. However, unilateral nephrectomy was associated with a significant reduction in the response to saline volume loading. This defect was prominent at a younger age (that is, 3 months) in the UNX glucose intolerant than the UNX control (6 months old) rat. Chronic taurine treatment ameliorated the reduction in saline-induced diuresis and natriuresis by both the UNX control and the UNX glucose intolerant rat. Both an increase in glomerular filtration and a reduction in tubular reabsorption of fluid and sodium caused this taurine-mediated improvement in renal excretory function.

CONCLUSION
Taurine treatment protects the kidney of the UNX rat against an age-dependent decline in excretory efficiency.


Abstract. ZY-3 is the first Chinese civilian high-resolution stereo mapping satellite. ZY-3 is equipped with three-line scanners (nadir, backward and forward views with 2.5 m and 4.0 m resolutions, respectively) and an additional multispectral scanner. In order to improve the mapping and positioning accuracy, sensor in-orbit calibration is a crucial procedure especially for high-resolution mapping-enabled satellites. The main focus of this paper is to describe the sensor calibration for ZY-3 sensors. Based on the experiences for other satellite sensor calibration, the following approach is proposed for ZY-3 sensor calibration in orbit: i) the initial internal geometric relationships of ZY-3 imaging sensors are established using the laboratory measurement and validation results; ii) assuming noise and errors are introduced once ZY-3 is launched, a further investigation is conducted to detect those changed geometric relationships and their associated parameters, and detect and reduce highly correlated parameters. A self-calibration method is applied to identify and correct those parameters. Geometric calibration field data is used together with simulated ZY-3 data to perform the self-calibration; iii) the newly obtained parameters are used to establish the final geometric relationships model of ZY-3 imaging sensors, and with the aid of ground control points and check points from the geometric calibration field, those parameters are to be validated, and the position accuracy is also assessed by applying ZY-3 image data. Although promising results were obtained using ZY-3 simulated data, the proposed approach for ZY-3 imaging sensor calibration is an ongoing research work and needs to be fine tuned in the coming months.


We present a study of pulse generation and propagation in erbium-doped fiber lasers with cavity length varying from 8 m to 3.5 km. We demonstrate that soliton effect determines the pulse stabilization in ultralong cavities, measuring pulses with an average 7.0 ps pulsewidth for cavity lengths between 2.25 and 3.5 km. We also demonstrate that, by filling fundamental soliton requirements, pulsewidth can be determined by length and total dispersion cavity parameters.


In this study, morphological development and allometric growth were investigated in the sharpsnout seabream, Diplodus puntazzo, during larval development until the end of the weaning on day 42. Average total length (TL) of newly hatched larvae was 2.91±0.11 mm and it was 3.35±0.13 mm TL at the onset of feeding at 4 days after hatching (DAH). Initial swimbladder inflation occurred at 10 DAH (5.11±0.45 mm TL) and post-inflation became more elongate at 15 DAH (5.95±0.43 mm TL). The notochord flexion occurred between 5.95±0.43 mm TL at 15 DAH and 7.98±0.72 mm TL on 24 DAH. At the end of weaning, larvae were 16.03±1.74 mm TL at 42 DAH. The majority of all allometric changes from inflection point were integrated with the larval and the metamorphosis stage. Inflections in body proportion changes occurred mainly at 5.12, 5.95 and 7.98 mm TL, corresponding to initial swimbladder inflation and flexion period of notochord, respectively.


This research addresses the problem of automatic keyphrase extraction from large documents and back of the book indexing. The potential benefits of automating this process are far reaching, from improving information retrieval in digital libraries, to saving countless man-hours by helping professional indexers creating back of the book indexes.
The dissertation introduces a new methodology to evaluate automated systems, which allows for a detailed, comparative analysis of several techniques for keyphrase extraction. We introduce and evaluate both supervised and unsupervised techniques, designed to balance the resource requirements of an automated system and the best achievable performance.
Additionally, a number of novel features are proposed, including a statistical informativeness measure based on chi statistics; an encyclopedic feature that taps into the vast knowledge base of Wikipedia to establish the likelihood of a phrase referring to an informative concept; and a linguistic feature based on sophisticated semantic analysis of the text using current theories of discourse comprehension.
The resulting keyphrase extraction system is shown to outperform the current state of the art in supervised keyphrase extraction by a large margin. Moreover, a fully automated back of the book indexing system based on the keyphrase extraction system was shown to lead to back of the book indexes closely resembling those created by human experts.


While other jurisdictions use guilty but mentally ill as a compromise verdict to fill the gap between guilty by reason of insanity and a guilty verdict after an unsuccessful insanity defense, Alaska has transformed the status into a prosecutorial tool to keep mentally ill defendants incarcerated for longer than their mentally sane counterparts through denial of "good time" credit. Although Blakely was used—correctly—to prevent the denial of the mentally ill their Sixth Amendment right to a trial by jury and proof beyond a reasonable doubt in December 2013's State v. Clifton, the court of appeals eliminated any utility from this middle ground, rendering serious mental illness short of M'Naghten insanity a per se aggravating circumstance.


Executive Summary The project's aims were to identify areas and structures of special heritage character on the North Shore of Auckland City, research and document the history of the site(s) identified and establish contacts with the local community, especially the community groups that are involved in the preservation or heritage architecture and landscapes. The approach taken was one of gathering information and photographic images, both archival and commissioned, making contact with stakeholders and producing artworks based on these resources. The most important findings can be grouped into two categories; the first is the discovery that three heritage sites and four heritage buildings can be linked to create a heritage walking trail, that if created would protect the sites and lead to a restoration and design project of regional significance. The second is that any project that is based on an inclusive and consultative program with the local community has to be given a reasonably long timetable, and has to be designed to fit in with local meetings and events. This project is achieving something rather than has achieved something, as it is through necessity ongoing into 2011, but it is successfully establishing a methodology for collaborative inter-disciplinary projects designed to work within communities regarding disputed and neglected sites. It has proven the importance of using a mixture of advocacy and consultation as a pre-cursor to design when working within communities on sensitive sites. The conclusion of this project required two stages, to complete it to the stage a final design project that demonstrated complete engagement with the local community, Iwi and stakeholders could take place. The first stage was a public exhibition of the research findings and the artwork based on it. The exhibition allowed the community to see the findings as a celebration of their environment and as a document of work they can contribute to. This document is being used to lobby for political will to protect, restore and design a solution to create the walkway through presentations to Local Boards and finally the Auckland Council. There is now a body of work advocating for the sites that is being to be placed into cyberspace as living resource for future researchers.


When Strategies of Containment was first published, the Soviet Union was still a superpower, Ronald Reagan was president of the United States, and the Berlin Wall was still standing. This updated edition of Gaddis' classic carries the history of containment through the end of the Cold War. Beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt's postwar plans, Gaddis provides a thorough critical analysis of George F. Kennan's original strategy of containment, NSC-68, The Eisenhower-Dulles "New Look," the Kennedy-Johnson "flexible response" strategy, the Nixon-Kissinger strategy of detente, and now a comprehensive assessment of how Reagan-- and Gorbachev-- completed the process of containment, thereby bringing the Cold War to an end. He concludes, provocatively, that Reagan more effectively than any other Cold War president drew upon the strengths of both approaches while avoiding their weaknesses. A must-read for anyone interested in Cold War history, grand strategy, and the origins of the post-Cold War world."


Chemical probes that covalently modify the active sites of enzymes in complex proteomes are useful tools for identifying enzyme activities associated with discrete (patho) physiological states. Researchers in proteomics typically use two types of activity-based probes to fulfill complementary objectives: fluorescent probes for rapid and sensitive target detection and biotinylated probes for target purification and identification. Accordingly we hypothesized that a strategy in which the target detection and target isolation steps of activity-based proteomic experiments were merged might accelerate the characterization of differentially expressed protein activities. Here we report the synthesis and application of trifunctional chemical proteomic probes in which elements for both target detection (e.g. rhodamine) and isolation (e.g. biotin) are appended to a sulfonate ester reactive group, permitting the consolidated visualization and affinity purification of labeled proteins by a combination of in-gel fluorescence and avidin chromatography procedures. A trifunctional phenyl sulfonate probe was used to identify several technically challenging protein targets, including the integral membrane enzyme 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/Δ5-isomerase and the cofactor-dependent enzymes platelet-type phosphofructokinase and type II tissue transglutaminase. The latter two enzyme activities were significantly up-regulated in the invasive estrogen receptor-negative (ER(−)) human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 relative to the non-invasive ER(+) breast cancer lines MCF7 and T-47D. Collectively these studies demonstrate that chemical proteomic probes incorporating elements for both target detection and target isolation fortify the important link between the visualization of differentially expressed enzyme activities and their subsequent molecular identification, thereby augmenting the information content achieved in activity-based profiling experiments.


In "Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Architecture after Images", Edward Dimendberg offers the first comprehensive treatment of one of the most imaginative contemporary design studios. Since founding their practice in 1979, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio have integrated architecture, urban design, media art, and the performing arts in a dazzling array of projects, which include performances, art installations, and books, in addition to buildings and public spaces. At the center of this work is a fascination with vision and a commitment to questioning the certainty and security long associated with architecture. Dimendberg provides an extensive overview of these concerns and the history of the studio, revealing how principals Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio, and Charles Renfro continue to expand the definition of architecture, question the nature of space and vision in contemporary culture, and produce work that is endlessly surprising and rewarding, from New York's High Line to Blur, an artificial cloud, and Facsimile, a video screen that moves around a building facade. Dimendberg also explores the relation of work by DS+R to that of earlier modernists such as Marcel Duchamp and John Hejduk. He reveals how the architects' fascination with evolving forms of media, technology, and building materials has produced works that unsettle distinctions among architecture and other media. Based on interviews with the architects, their clients, and collaborators as well as unprecedented access to unpublished documents, sketchbook entries, and archival records, "Diller Scofidio + Renfro" is the most thorough consideration of DS+R in any language. Illustrated with many previously unpublished renderings in addition to photos from contemporary photographers, this book is an essential study of one of the most significant and creative architecture and design studios working today.


William Tobey is a senior fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. From 2006-2009, he was Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation at the National Nuclear Security Administration. There, he managed the US government's largest program to prevent nuclear proliferation and terrorism by detecting, securing, and disposing of dangerous nuclear material. Mr. Tobey also served on the National Security Council staff under three presidents, in defense policy, arms control, and counterproliferation positions. He has participated in international negotiations ranging from the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) talks with the Soviet Union, to the six-party talks with North Korea.


In recent years one of the most important trends in the development of history exhibitions in major museums has been the use of interdisciplinary project teams for content development. This approach, often referred to as the team based model of content development, has, in many institutions, replaced older models of exhibition production built around the expertise of the curator. The implementation of team based models has had a profound impact on the way exhibitions are produced. When done well it has helped deliver exhibitions combining a strong focus on audience needs with in-depth scholarship and collections research. In some contexts, however, the tyranny of the team has given rise to a form of museological trench warfare in which different stakeholders struggle for creative control of an exhibition. In this article I will explore some aspects of the team based approach with reference to the development of the opening suite of exhibitions for the National Museum of Australia (NMA) in 2001. My observations are drawn from my experience as the lead curator of the Nation Gallery, one of the NMA's opening exhibitions.


We address the problem of choosing a portfolio of policies under "deep uncertainty." We introduce the idea of belief dominance as a way to derive a set of non-dominated portfolios and robust individual alternatives. Our approach departs from the tradition of providing a single recommended portfolio; rather, it derives a group of good portfolios. The belief dominance concept allows us to synthesize multiple expert- or model-based beliefs by uncovering the range of alternatives that are intelligent responses to the range of beliefs. This goes beyond solutions that are optimal for any specific set of beliefs to uncover other defensible solutions that may not otherwise be revealed. We illustrate our approach using an important problem in the climate change and energy policy context: choosing among clean energy technology R&D portfolios. We demonstrate how the belief dominance concept can reveal portfolios and alternatives that would otherwise remain uncovered.


The surfaces of most pelagic diatoms are sticky at times and may therefore form rapidly settling aggregates by physical coagulation. Stickiness and aggregate formation may be particularly adaptive in upwelling systems by allowing the retention of diatom populations in the vicinity of the upwelling center. We therefore hypothesized that upwelling diatom blooms are terminated by aggregate formation and rapid sedimentation. We monitored the development of a maturing diatom (mainly Chaetoceros spp.) bloom in the Benguela upwelling current during 7 d in February. Chlorophyll concentrations remained consistently high during the observation period (~500 mg Chl m−2) and phytoplankton grew at an average specific rate of 0.25 d−1. The diatoms were extraordinarily sticky, with stickiness coefficients of up to 0.40, which is the highest ever recorded for field populations. Combined with estimates of turbulent shear in the ocean such stickiness coefficients predict very high specific coagulation rates (0.3 d−1). In situ video observation demonstrated the occurrence of abundant diatom aggregates with surface water concentrations between 1,000 and 3,000 ppm. Despite the very high concentration of aggregates, vertical fluxes of phytoplankton were very low, with fractional losses <0.005 d−1, and the aggregates thus seemed to be near neutrally buoyant. Losses due to copepod grazing were also low (~0.025 d−1). Most of the aggregates were colonized by the heterotrophic dinoflagellate Noctiluca scintillans that feed upon diatoms in the aggregates. The system appeared to be in near steady state; specific diatom growth rate, coagulation rate, and loss rate due to N. scintillans feeding were all of the same magnitude (0.25–0.3 d−1) and the latter two varied in concert. Our observations provide only partial support for the population retention hypothesis because aggregate buoyancy and N. scintillans grazing efficiently reduced the vertical flux of aggregates in this system.


In copyright law, the marriage of beauty and utility often proves fraught. Domestic and international law makers have struggled to determine whether, and to what extent, copyright should cover works that are both artistic and functional. The U.S. Copyright Act protects a work of applied art "only if, and only to the extent that, its design incorporates pictorial, graphic, or sculptural features that can be identified separately from, and are capable of existing independently of, the utilitarian aspects of the article." While the policy goal to separate the aesthetic from the functional is clear, courts' application of the statutory "separability" standard has become so complex and incoherent that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from a case in which the appellate court, echoing sister Circuits, expressed the lament quoted in the title of this article. The article will review the genesis and application of the statutory standard, with illustrations from several of the cases, and will offer two conclusions and a legislative proposal. First, the controversy before the Court does not concern the "design of a useful article," and therefore does not require the Court to resolve the meaning of "separability." The controversy nonetheless reveals the importance of ascertaining whether the contested design is in fact the design of a "useful article." A pre-existing pictorial, graphic or sculptural work applied to a useful article is not itself a useful article, and courts need not "twist themselves into knots" endeavoring to parse the meaning of the statutory separability standard. Were the Supreme Court to decline to reach separability on the ground that resolution of the Varsity Brands dispute does not in fact require it, some might be disappointed that the Court would fail to tidy the disarray in the lower courts. But the predicate issue – what is the design of a "useful article" – also warrants more attention than lower courts have given it. Thus, were the Court to leave separability to a case that in fact poses that issue, the Court would still contribute to clarifying this area of copyright law.Second, the statutory requirements of separate identifiability and independent existence apply to "features" of the design, not to the entire shape of a useful article; attempts (including those ventured by this article) to extend separability analysis to the useful article's form as a whole prove unworkable. Accordingly, rather than continuing to struggle with an intractable statutory copyrightability standard, this article proposes the enlargement of Title 17's sui generis design protection regime to cover original designs of most useful articles.


Almost 20 years after Gordon Smith's critique of Kirchheimer's formulation, this article re-examines the concept of the catch-all party and the performance of the parties in the German context. The failure of Kirchheimer's prediction of increasing catch-all party dominance is attributed to three factors. First, the model underestimated the difficulty that catch-all parties face in controlling the electorate without socially structured partisanship. Second, in equating affluence with consensus it reckoned without the cultural cleavages and conflicts of economic interest that characterise post-industrial society. Finally, it exaggerated the autonomy of party elites, and their capacity to pursue 'rational' vote seeking strategies in the face of countervailing intra-party tendencies. These three factors, it is argued, explain the fluctuating fortunes of catch-all parties in the German context.


Nanocomposites of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and carbon nanotubes (CNT) of different geometries (single wall, double wall, and multiwall; SWNT, DWNT, and MWNT) were prepared by in situ polymerization of ethylene on CNT whose surface had been previously treated with a metallocene catalytic system. In this work, we have studied the effects of applying the successive self-nucleation and annealing thermal fractionation technique (SSA) to the nanocomposites and have also determined the influence of composition and type of CNT on the isothermal crystallization behavior of the HDPE. SSA results indicate that all types of CNT induce the formation of a population of thicker lamellar crystals that melt at higher temperatures as compared to the crystals formed in neat HDPE prepared under the same catalytic and polymerization conditions and subjected to the same SSA treatment. Furthermore, the peculiar morphology induced by the CNT on the HDPE matrix allows the resolution of thermal fractionation to be much better. The isothermal crystallization results indicated that the strong nucleation effect caused by CNT reduced the supercooling needed for crystallization. The interaction between the HDPE chains and the surface of the CNT is probably very strong as judged by the results obtained, even though it is only physical in nature. When the total crystallinity achieved during isothermal crystallization is considered as a function of CNT content, it was found that a competition between nucleation and topological confinement could account for the results. At low CNT content the crystallinity increases (because of the nucleating effect of CNT on HDPE), however, at higher CNT content there is a dramatic reduction in crystallinity reflecting the increased confinement experienced by the HDPE chains at the interfaces which are extremely large in these nanocomposites. Another consequence of these strong interactions is the remarkable decrease in Avrami index as CNT content increases. When the Avrami index reduces to 1 or lower, nucleation dominates the overall kinetics as a consequence of confinement effects. Wide-angle X-ray experiments were performed at a high-energy synchrotron source and demonstrated that no change in the orthorhombic unit cell of HDPE occurred during crystallization with or without CNT.


Over the last years, international sea-freight container transportation has grown dramatically and container terminals play nowadays a key-role in the global shipping network. The increased competitiveness among terminals requires more and more efficiency in container operations, in order to minimize ships turnaround time. In this work, we focus on the optimization of yard operations, which are critical for the terminal efficiency, because of their impact on all the other operations (most operations originate or end in the yard). Firstly, we give an overview of problems which arise in the management of a container yard (e.g.stacking policies for import and export containers, re-marshalling strategies, yard crane deployment and scheduling) and we briefly describe models and methods presented in the literature. Then, starting from a collaboration with some of the busiest ports in Europe, we describe more in depth a new yard-related problem, which represents -in our opinion- the current new challenge: the management of transshipment operations. In particular, we present a model for their optimization. Finally, we suggest further steps and possible research directions.


The judicial branch has long been the least seen, and consequently the least understood, of the three branches of government. Outside of television, movies, and novels, most people have no idea what really goes on in a trial court, let alone an appellate court. The Wisconsin Supreme Court is trying to change that by taking its "show" on the road and providing those outside of Madison, the state's capital, an opportunity to learn what goes on in the state's highest court. The "Justice on Wheels" program brings Supreme Court oral arguments to various counties around the state. For several days each year, the Court leaves its heating room at the state capitol and hears arguments in a distant locale before an audience of local residents who otherwise might never have the opportunity to observe the Court in action. "Public outreach is very important to me," says Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson. "I've always advocated for judges doing things outside the courtroom." (1) Indeed, when she was appointed to the Court in 1976, her investiture ceremony was held not in the Supreme Court Hearing Room, as was then customary, but in the Wisconsin Assembly chambers, which can hold a larger audience. Since then, other justices have followed suit, and Chief Justice Abrahamson was sworn in as chief in the state capitol rotunda, which can accommodate a much larger crowd than either the hearing room or the Assembly chambers. Chief Justice Abrahamson floated the idea of a road trip a few times over the years without success. It wasn't until 1993 that the idea was finally put to a vote. With three of the seven justices dissenting, the Court determined that it would hear arguments outside of Madison for the first time in its history. The chief justice chose the first destination: the city of Green Bay, with a population of 100,000. The hearings were conducted in an elegant courtroom in the local courthouse and were attended by over 300 people. Both the community and the justices considered the experiment a great success. (2) Since then, the Court has heard arguments in Eau Claire, Wausau, Milwaukee, La Crosse, Superior, Janesville, Kenosha, Baraboo, Juneau, Rhinelander, Appleton, Stevens Point, Racine, and Fond du Lac. (3) In choosing a location for a Justice on Wheels visit, the Court looks for a city with a courtroom that can accommodate seven justices and a large audience. The Court also considers the availability of media outlets to publicize the visit, and the proximity of schools and colleges whose students might take the opportunity to see an appellate court's proceedings. Planning for a trip typically takes five months and involves figuring out how to stretch a one-judge courtroom to accommodate seven judges, meeting with the local sheriff about parking and security issues, and working with the trial court to ensure a minimum of disruption in the courthouse. The cases to be heard during a Justice on Wheels visit are chosen with several considerations in mind. If possible, cases that originated in the host county or surrounding counties are placed on the docket. The Court also considers what types of cases would be most interesting for the audience, choosing, for example, a search-and-seizure case over a case involving an issue of appellate procedure. Teachers planning to bring students to observe the arguments receive synopses of the cases and information about the Court ahead of time, and the cases are described in press releases sent to local media. Local attorneys are recruited to study the cases. They make themselves available for in-depth presentations in the schools and provide ten-minute "warm-up" presentations to the audience immediately before the arguments. …


The basement of the Tasman orogenic system can be subdivided using gravity and magnetic anomalies into 11 (geophysical) domains. The unity of each domain is given by subparallel trends, which show the direction of the dominant tectonic structure in the nonsedimentary part of the upper crust (basement). Crosscutting trends at domain boundaries indicate the relative ages of the domain cratonization. These relative ages are consistent with the dated ages of first deformation, and they show that cratonization occurred in numerous episodes and resulted in an apparent growth of the Tasman orogenic system from west to east between the Cambrian and the Carboniferous. Each domain can be subdivided into bands of different character. In the main area of basement outcrop, the southern part of the Lachlan orogen, the position of the boundaries of these domains and bands agree with boundaries based on the composition of granites, structure, and strontium isotope ratios. Over the larger part of the Tasman orogenic system, where basement is under cover, these geophysically defined domains and bands are our best estimate of basement subdivision and history. Near domain boundaries there are characteristic associations of gravity and magnetic anomalies due to reworking of the margin of the older crust by deformation, intrusion, and metamorphism; differences between domains in mean upper crustal density and magnetization; and the common occurrence of volcanic bands, ophiolite-serpentinite, and deep elongate sedimentary troughs caused by crustal extension. The domains can be divided into a sedimentary basement type formed by crustal extension and sedimentation or by the addition of an accretionary wedge, and a volcanic-arc basement type added by the accretion.


We report the emergent optical near field profiles from standard single mode optical fibers on the cleaved end of which were deposited particle-layers of SnO2. The layers, composed of micron and sub-micron sized particles, were deposited by means of the simple and low cost Electrostatic Spray Pyrolysis (ESP) technique. Powerful analytical tools such as Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Scanning Near-field Optical Microscopy (SNOM) were used to obtain simultaneously the topography of the SnO2 layers and the related distribution of the intensity of the optical near field when the fiber-substrate is illuminated by a light radiation in the NIR range. We show that isolated microstructures, positioned in correspondence of the fiber core, reveal highly unusual capability of locally enhancing the optical near field. The observed phenomenon could lead to new concepts of fiber optic chemical sensors and in fiber microsystems as well.


Holographic optical coherence imaging is an en face form of optical coherence tomography that uses low-coherence digital holography as a coherence gate to select light from a chosen depth inside scattering tissue. By acquiring successive holograms at a high camera frame rate at a fixed depth, dynamic speckle provides information concerning dynamic light scattering from intracellular motility. Motility contrast imaging (MCI) uses living motion as a label-free and functional biomarker. MCI provides a new form of viability assay and also is applicable for proliferation and cytotoxicity assays. The results presented here demonstrate that low-coherence digital holography can extract viability information from biologically relevant three-dimensional (3D) tissue based on multicellular tumor spheroids by moving beyond the format of two-dimensional cell culture used for conventional high-content analysis. This paper also demonstrates the use of MCI for chemosensitivity assays on tumor exgrafts of excised ovarian cancer tumors responding to standard-of-care cisplatin chemotherapy. This ex vivo application extends the applicability of MCI beyond 3D tissue culture grown in vitro.


A significant technology gap exists between developed and developing countries. Though developing countries have started to self-innovate, they do not possess adequate means to fulfill their right to develop, which the UN recognizes as an essential human right. For developing countries to exercise this right, developed countries must transfer technology. Humanitarian engineers have confronted this challenge without any international guidance or regulation, as no uniform system for international technology transfer agreements exists. To remedy this inadequacy, scholars have proposed the characteristic approach, which suggests that the contents of the contract, rather than the parties' locations, should control the choice of law. This proposal, however, fails to consider unintended, harmful consequences on developing countries. This Note analyzes the characteristic approach through a case study of humanitarian engineers in Kenya, a country held back by a lack of infrastructure while standing on the cusp of innovation. The characteristic approach does not present a viable solution for Kenya because it favors the law of developed countries too often. Instead, technology transfer agreements should stipulate that the developing country's law should govern the agreement. Further, when this results in an insurmountable burden on the transferor, a developed country's law should only control if the contract adheres to the policies of Africa's regional economic communities. In the case of humanitarian engineers, academic institutions and international organizations focused on humanitarian engineering have an ethical burden to enforce this standard.


In this article, we offer some philosophical notes on the so-called Plotinus sarcophagus, currently exhibited in the 'Vatican Museums' (inv. 9504), which has been dated to the end of the third quarter of the 3rd century. Since the sarcophagus in question has been the subject of discussion among experts since the 1920s, our aim is to contribute to the scientific debate with a number of philosophical remarks to assist in the interpretation of the iconographic representation of the teacher teaching, accompanied by two Muses, but also to make particular reference to certain passages taken from the On the Life of Plotinus, written by his disciple, Porphyry, three decades after the death of his teacher.


Common applications of Condition-Based Maintenance utilize sensors mounted on mechanical components to diagnose failure conditions and incipient faults. The algorithms which process the raw data into diagnostic and prognostic indicators are typically derived from theoretical models, traditional signal processing metrics, or through trial-and-error observations. Condition monitoring devices are becoming increasingly common and are producing large volumes of data, yet relatively few studies have examined this real-world field dataset. Utilizing common data mining algorithms, an inferential study was performed to create diagnostic indicators which can distinguish healthy and faulted drive train components. Data was collected from multiple rotating components from several hundred rotorcraft and from a laboratory setup of the same components. Preconditioning filters for noise reduction and dimensionality reduction were performed, and it was found that for all components in the study, it was possible to represent complex vibration spectra with a relatively few number of attributes. Uniqueness among the individual articles within the sample population was also observed, and the implications of these findings are discussed. From the results of the preliminary investigation, classifier models were built on laboratory and field data to identify components which were normal, nearing failure, or failed. Multiple evaluations of the classifiers were performed, and a general approach to achieve data-mining derived condition monitoring is proposed.


Scholars have studied emotions and affect in organizational settings for over twenty years, providing numerous insights into understanding how organizations and the people who work in them behave. With such a rich accumulation of knowledge, the time seemed right to call for today's scholars of management to propose new and exciting theory. The eight articles in this Special Topic Forum address topics that cross multiple levels of analysis and include a range of different theories, explicating: how anger and fear can spark productivity, how employees respond to abusive supervision over time, how leader-member exchanges are shaped by affective events, the social functions of emotional complexity for leaders, team entrepreneurial passion, the effects of institutional beliefs on emotional displays, the nexus of affective climate and organizational effectiveness, and the role of gratitude in organizations. In this introduction, we briefly summarize the main points from each article, and discuss new research directions arising from the articles. To spur even deeper research into this important and still unfolding field of discovery, and stimulated by the articles in this STF, we conclude with additional thoughts and ideas on the role of emotions and affect in organizations.


A 68 000-Mr protein is a major component of a Nonidet P-40-insoluble fraction of lymphocyte plasma membrane prepared from human B lymphoblastoid cells ( BRI 8) and pig mesenteric lymph nodes. The association of the protein with the detergent-insoluble complex depends on free Ca2+ concentrations of greater than 10 microM. The human and pig 68 000-Mr proteins were purified and appear to be homologous on the basis of amino acid composition and peptide mapping. The protein is monomeric, has pI 5.8 and a single high-affinity Ca2+-binding site (KD 1.2 microM). The results are discussed in terms of the possible role of the 68 000-Mr protein as an intracellular Ca2+ receptor in lymphocytes.


European beech forests growing on marginal calcareous soils have been proposed to be vulnerable to decreased soil water availability. This could result in a large-scale loss of ecological services and economical value in a changing climate. In order to evaluate the potential consequences of this drought-sensitivity, we investigated potential species range shifts for European beech forests on calcareous soil in the 21st century by statistical species range distribution modelling for present day and projected future climate conditions. We found a dramatic decline by 78% until 2080. Still the physiological or biogeochemical mechanisms underlying the drought sensitivity of European beech are largely unknown. Drought sensitivity of beech is commonly attributed to plant physiological constraints. Furthermore, it has also been proposed that reduced soil water availability could promote nitrogen (N) limitation of European beech due to impaired microbial N cycling in soil, but this hypothesis has not yet been tested. Hence we investigated the influence of simulated climate change (increased temperatures, reduced soil water availability) on soil gross microbial N turnover and plant N uptake in the beech-soil interface of a typical mountainous beech forest stocking on calcareous soil in SW Germany. For this purpose, triple 15N isotope labelling of intact beech seedling-soil-microbe systems was combined with a space-for-time climate change experiment. We found that nitrate was the dominant N source for beech natural regeneration. Reduced soil water content caused a persistent decline of ammonia oxidizing bacteria and therefore, a massive attenuation of gross nitrification rates and nitrate availability in the soil. Consequently, nitrate and total N uptake of beech seedlings were strongly reduced so that impaired growth of beech seedlings was observed already after one year of exposure to simulated climatic change. We conclude that the N cycle in this ecosystem and here specifically nitrification is vulnerable to reduced water availability, which can directly lead to nutritional limitations of beech seedlings. This tight link between reduced water availability, drought stress for nitrifiers, decreased gross nitrification rates and nitrate availability and finally nitrate uptake by beech seedlings could represent the Achilles' heel for beech under climate change stresses.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to assess the associations of gingival bleeding with individual and community social variables among schoolchildren.

METHODS
This cross-sectional study evaluated a representative, multistage, random sample of 1,134 12-year-old schoolchildren from Santa Maria, a city in southern Brazil. The participants were examined clinically, and full-mouth gingival bleeding was recorded according to the Community Periodontal Index criteria (scored as healthy or bleeding). The children's parents or guardians answered questions regarding their socioeconomic status and social capital, and an assessment of the associations was performed using multilevel Poisson regression models.

RESULTS
The prevalence of gingival bleeding was 96.21 percent. The multilevel adjusted assessment revealed that socioeconomic, clinical, and social capital variables at the individual level were associated with higher levels of gingival bleeding. Children whose fathers had a low educational level, children who had dental plaque and dental crowding, and children who never/almost never attended religious meetings exhibited significantly higher levels of gingival bleeding than their counterparts. This social gradient remained significant even after adjusting for contextual-level covariates.

CONCLUSION
The results indicate that the socioeconomic status and features of social capital are associated with the levels of gingival bleeding among schoolchildren.


In order to limiting the number of rebroadcasts can effectively optimize the broadcasting, a neighbor coverage-based probabilistic rebroadcast (NCPR) protocol, in order to effectively exploit the neighbor coverage knowledge. A novel rebroadcast delay to determine the rebroadcast order, and then obtain a more accurate additional coverage ratio and by keeping the network connectivity and reduce the redundant retransmissions, a metric named connectivity factor to determine how many neighbors should receive the route request (RREQ) packet. By combining the additional coverage ratio and the connectivity factor, introduce a rebroadcast probability, which can be used to reduce the number of rebroadcasts of the RREQ packet to improve the routing performance. It also improve crosstalk avoidance by either rerouting the communication or by terminating it with the help of packet transmissions and overhead.


This thesis develops statistical methods and models and applies them to problems related to forest fires. The unifying goal of the work is to provide a data analytic basis for quantifying the uncertainty surrounding fire ignition and fire growth which builds on existing theory where possible. The main body of the thesis is comprised of three research papers. The Fire Weather Index (FWI) plays an important role in fire management and is central to the first two papers. In the first instance, the block bootstrap confidence interval method is used to deal nonparametrically with the dependence in the FWI data. Because the actual and nominal confidence levels differ substantially, a double bootstrap is applied and used to calibrate the confidence intervals. The calibration technique focuses on interval length-adjustment instead of level-adjustment. The second paper systematically develops a sequence of parametric time series models for the FWI, starting from some basic physical observations. The final model developed is a seasonal random effect mixture tailed minification model. Numerical approximations using the model allows for calculation of the survival function for the minimum FWI in one or more consecutive days. Tentative results presented here suggest that fire danger prediction may be more effectively accomplished using information on runs of moderately large FWI values, instead of simply using a singleday cut-off. The third paper studies the fire growth model, Prometheus and re-analyzes the data underlying the associated rate of spread formulas. The main goal of the paper is to incorporate randomness into the deterministic Prometheus model giving rise to a new simulator called Dionysus. The essential idea is a parametric bootstrap. Burn probability contours can be created quickly by Dionysus. These can help fire managers make suppression resource allocation decisions for fires which are currently burning.


The interaction of sediment-laden flows with obstacles is a growing area of research. Sediment-laden flows are also commonly known as turbidity currents, Due to practical limitations, there are minimal experimental data available on the spatio-temporal distribution of velocity and sediment concentration fields of currents passing an obstacle. For this study, an instrumental rack consisting of an array of UVP transducers and siphons is used to measure velocity and density characteristics of turbidity currents and their interaction with a rectangular obstacle. Tests are conducted for a range of different transducer rack arrangements to determine whether their intrusive components have a significant influence on fluid flow. Lock-exchange initiated gravity currents comprised of kaolinite and glass microspheres are released in a 400 mm wide, 5000 mm long Perspex flume, filled with ambient water to an upstream depth of 300 mm. Detailed velocity contours plots surrounding the obstacle and instrument racks are obtained for each testing condition. Results show that immediately after colliding with the obstacle, the current varied in velocity distribution for all tests. It was concluded that this was likely due to the locally unpredictable nature of unsteady structures formed, rather than rack instrumental influence. Differences in velocity distributions converged to a point where all tests showed nearly identical distributions once the current head had passed the obstacle. It is therefore recommended that in future tests a recording time window of at least 20 s from collision of the current with the obstacle should be implemented. The proposed instrument arrangement is suitable for studying the effect of obstacles for passing currents, and ensures the obstacle effect dominates the signal.


This work presents a hybrid finite element boundary integral algorithm to solve the problem of scattering from finite and infinite arrays of two-dimensional overfilled cavities engraved in a perfectly electric conducting flat screen. The solution region is divided into interior regions containing the cavities and their protruding portions, and the region exterior to the overfilled cavities. The finite element formulation is applied only inside the interior regions to derive a linear system of equations associated with field unknowns. Using two-boundary formulation, the surface integral equation employing the half-space Green's function is applied on the boundary located at the interface of protruding portions of the cavities and the half-space as a boundary constraint to truncate the solution region. Placing the truncation boundary on the protruding portions of the cavities results in highly efficient solution in terms of computational resources, which makes the algorithm well suited for the optimization problems involving scattering from grating surfaces. The near fields are generated for finite and infinite arrays of overfilled cavities with different dimensions.


Many efforts have been made for revealing the decision-making process of black-box learning machines such as deep neural networks, resulting in useful local and global explanation methods. For local explanation, stochasticity is known to help: a simple method, called SmoothGrad, has improved the visual quality of gradient-based attribution by adding noise to the input space and averaging the explanations of the noisy inputs. In this paper, we extend this idea and propose NoiseGrad that enhances both local and global explanation methods. Specifically, NoiseGrad introduces stochasticity in the weight parameter space, such that the decision boundary is perturbed. NoiseGrad is expected to enhance the local explanation, similarly to SmoothGrad, due to the dual relationship between the input perturbation and the decision boundary perturbation. We evaluate NoiseGrad and its fusion with SmoothGrad - FusionGrad - qualitatively and quantitatively with several evaluation criteria, and show that our novel approach significantly outperforms the baseline methods. Both NoiseGrad and FusionGrad are method-agnostic and as handy as SmoothGrad using a simple heuristic for the choice of the hyperparameter setting without the need of fine-tuning.


The booming of technology has raised the popularity of the internet as a delivery
channel in the banking sector. In Malaysia, online banking becomes the current
trend of electronic revolution, yet, the growth rate of online banking is not parallel
with the general usage of online investment platform and it has remained
unfavourable among the online banking users. These researches have revealed the
most influencing factors for the usage of online investment platform. Using the
technology acceptance model (TAM) as a theoretical framework, this study
extended the TAM into four other variables, namely, perceived security, perceived
financial return, perceived religiosity and Islamic worldview. A survey of 246
Muslims of online banking users in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor has revealed that
three of six factor usage dimension in the research were contributing to the usage
of online investment platform from the potential investor's point of view. The
findings show that perceived usefulness, perceived security and perceived financial
return are predicting the usage of online investment platform, among the online
banking users. Perceived security was found to be the most influencing factors for
the usage of online investment platform followed by perceived usefulness and
perceived financial return. This research provides fruitful results with regard to the
usage of the online investment platform. Revealing the variables that determine
the usage of online investment platform usage will shed some lights to the service
providers in developing and promoting their system that focusing on the
consumers' prerequisite. It is important for the service providers to understand the
features in order to develop online investment platform and positioning strategies
for future users.


SIFT as the representative of the same feature point extraction and matching algorithm has been widely applied in the field of multisource remote sensing image matching. However, it eliminates noise and detects features at different scale levels by building or approximating the Gaussian scale space based on linear. Gaussian blurring does not respect the natural boundaries of objects and smoothes to the same degree details and noise, reducing localization accuracy. To solve this problem, we proposed an improved KAZE algorithm which can build stable nonlinear scale space. Firstly, the extreme points are detected through building stable nonlinear scale space. Secondly, The match result by optimizing the feature points and strictly limiting matching threshold is used to calculate geometric transformation model parameters between two image. Finally, we can use this geometric transformation model to restrict the search space for feature points matching. Experimental results show that the improved KAZE algorithm is significantly better than the before KAZE. Moreover, for detail and texture blurred images, KAZE and its improved algorithm have unique advantages compared to the SIFT.


This article examines the uneasy truce that exists between Western property law and the original Hawaiian native gathering practices that existed before the arrival of Europeans. The author traces the development of Hawaiian law from early cases that severely restricted gathering rights to more permissive results. The article demonstrates both the strengths and weaknesses of the present system of land tenure in Hawaii and argues for the continued expansion of native Hawaiian gather rights providing such expansion takes place within, not outside of, the dominant fee simple land tenure system now in place in Hawaii.


Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington's disease and prion disease are not timely and effectively treated using conventional therapies. This emphasizes the need for alternative therapeutic approaches. In this respect, gene-based therapies have been adopted as potentially feasible alternative therapies, where the microRNA (miRNA) approach has experienced a great explosion in recent years. Because miRNAs have been shown to be implicated in the pathogenesis of several diseases including neurodegenerative diseases, they are intensely studied as candidates for diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, as predictors of drug response and as therapeutic agents. In this review, we evaluate the feasibility of both direct and indirect miRNA mimics and inhibitors toward the regulation of neurodegenerative-related genes both in vivo and in vitro models, highlight the advantages and drawbacks associated with miRNA-based therapy, and summarize the relevant techniques and approaches attempted to deliver miRNAs to the central nervous system for therapeutic purposes, with particular regard to the exosomes. Additionally, we describe a new approach that holds great promise for the treatment of a wide range of diseases including neurodegenerative disorders. This approach is based on addressing the incorporation of miRNAs into exosomes to increase the quantity and quality of miRNA packed and delivered to the central nervous system and other sites of action.


This paper provides an overview of developments in food safety policy in major industrial countries and of economic analysis of this policy. It describes the elements of a risk-based, farm-to-fork food safety system as it is emerging in OECD countries guided by discussions through Codex Alimentarius and traces its roots in the development of risk management policy in the United States. The goal of this paper is to provide a nontechnical introduction to food safety policy and economics for students, economists and others interested in food safety policy, but new to the field.


In this thesis the evolution of the techno-social systems analysis methods will be reported, through the explanation of the various research experience directly faced. The first case presented is a research based on data mining of a dataset of words association named Human Brain Cloud: validation will be faced and, also through a non-trivial modeling, a better understanding of language properties will be presented. Then, a real complex system experiment will be introduced: the WideNoise experiment in the context of the EveryAware european project. The project and the experiment course will be illustrated and data analysis will be displayed. Then the Experimental Tribe platform for social computation will be introduced . It has been conceived to help researchers in the implementation of web experiments, and aims also to catalyze the cumulative growth of experimental methodologies and the standardization of tools cited above. In the last part, three other research experience which already took place on the Experimental Tribe platform will be discussed in detail, from the design of the experiment to the analysis of the results and, eventually, to the modeling of the systems involved. The experiments are: CityRace, about the measurement of human traffic-facing strategies; laPENSOcosi, aiming to unveil the political opinion structure; AirProbe, implemented again in the EveryAware project framework, which consisted in monitoring air quality opinion shift of a community informed about local air pollution.
At the end, the evolution of the technosocial systems investigation methods shall emerge together with the opportunities and the threats offered by this new scientific path.


Introduction: Despite high level of vaccination against pertussis' whooping cough has re-emerged as a health threat, especially in infants. This could be related to expansion of Bordetella pertussis with novel alleles for virulence factors including the pertussis toxin promoter, ptxP3. Compared to ptxp1 strains' ptxp3 strains produce more pertussis toxin which results in immune suppression and virulence. The main aim of this study was the determination of dominant alleles of the promoter region of the gene coding for pertussis toxin in B. pertussis isolates in Iran. Methods: In this project, we studied the allelic variations in ptxP3 .This factor was sequenced and analyzed in 35 B. pertussis isolates from Iranian patients in 2011. Biochemical tests were performed to confirm the B. pertussis isolates. Ultimately, polymerase chain reactions and sequencing were done. Results: Our results showed that the predominant allele among the strains was ptxP3. One isolated strain (i.e. ptxP1) showed different results from the other strains. Also, B. pertussis 134 and 509 as common vaccine strains used in Iran were analyzed and they were identified to be ptxP1. Conclusion: Based on our results in recent years' the vaccine strains and the circulating strains do not share the same alleles which could be one of the causes of pertussis resurgence in the world. ptxP is a well-known toxin of B. pertussis which is responsible for binding to the host cell and the disruption of the cellular function. In particular' allelic variation in ptxP may play a role in adaption of B. pertussis.