In a series of cases decided over the last two decades, the Supreme Court has used the Due Process Clause to establish a procedural and substantive framework for awarding punitive damages. Initially, the substantive aspects of this framework were sufficiently clear and flexible that they required little change in the system and probably generated a helpful level of debate and uniformity as to some basic requirements for awards. However, in BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore, the Court adopted an approach characterized by a lack of clarity and consistency, an inadequate basis in theory and policy, and ad hoc decisions. The harmful results of this approach are evident in the Court's recent decision, Philip Morris USA v. Williams, which requires states to instruct juries in terms of a distinction that the four dissenting judges refer to as elusive, unclear, and confusing. Even if one accepts the view that there should be, at some point, substantive due process limits on the amount of punitive damages, decisions like Williams are likely to make the process less fair and reliable. Therefore, the Court should abandon its current approach, which is both unnecessary and likely to do more harm than good, and should, instead, be more deferential to the state courts and legislatures, and be more concerned with developing a coherent framework.


OF THE DISSERTATION OF Mark Alan Meleason for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Fisheries Science presented on April 30. 2001. Title: A Simulation Model of Wood Dynamics in Pacific Northwest Streams. Abstract Approved: Stanley V.Approved: Stanley V. Conceptually, the dynamics of wood in streams can be viewed in terms of input and in-channel processes. Input processes are associated with both the riparian (tree fall, bank cutting, windthrow) and upsiope forests (mass failures). In-channel processes include log breakage, movement, and decomposition. A mechanistic view of these processes is presented and served as the basis for the development of a simulation model. STREAMWOOD is an individual based stochastic model that operates on an annual time step at the reach scale. Stream systems that can be simulated range from a single reach to a small basin. Stream wood dynamics considered are tree entry, breakage, movement, and decomposition. Riparian forest inputs are either from a simplified forest gap model built within STREAM WOOD or from a user-specified input file. The model is run under a Monte Carlo procedure and the results are reported as average conditions per reach. STREAM WOOD was developed for coniferous-forested streams of the Pacific Northwest fifth-order and smaller. Species considered include Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco), western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sarg.), western red cedar (Thuja plicata D. Don ex Lambert), and red alder (Alnus rubra Bong.). Single parameter sensitivity analysis of STREAM WOOD concluded that parameters affecting Redacted for privacy tree growth were the most important in the forest model and decomposition was found to be the most important of the processes tested in the wood model. STRBAMWOOD was used to assess long-term implications of selected riparian management regimes on the standing crop of wood in channels. Total wood volume (volume of all pieces intersecting the channel) strongly related to the width of the non-harvested riparian forest. A riparian forest width of 30 m was associated with 90% of the maximum site potential, which was the standing crop associated with a 75-rn non-harvested forest. Plantation forests (clearcut at time intervals up to 120 years) had very little effect on total wood volume in rip arian forests with non-harvested forests at least 10 m wide. These results suggest that forest age and width of the non-harvested buffer was more important than the rotation age of plantation forests in providing long-term supplies of wood to the streams. ©Copyright by Mark A. Meleason April 30, 2001 All Rights Reserved A SIMULATION MODEL OF WOOD DYNAMICS IN PACIFIC NORTHWEST STREAMS


Known for - and even overshadowed by - his brutal and spectacular building cuts, Gordon Matta-Clark's oeuvre is unique in the history of American art. He worked in the 1970s on the boarders between art and architecture and his diverse practice is often understood as an outright rejection of the tenets of high modernism. Stephen Walker argues instead for the artist's ambivalent relationship with the architectural heritage he is often claimed to disavow, thus making this the first book to extrapolate Matta-Clark's thinking beyond its immediate context.Walker considers the broad range of Matta-Clark's ephemeral practice, from montage to actual interventions and from performance art and installation to drawing, film and video. Bringing to the fore the consistent themes and issues explored through this broad range of media, and in particular the complex notion of the 'discreet violation', he reveals the continued relevance of Matta-Clark's artistic and theoretical oeuvre to the reception of artistic and architectural work today.


The problem of a shallow donor impurity located at the centre of a symmetrical paraboloidal quantum dot (SPQD) is solved exactly. The Schrödinger equation is separated in the paraboloidal coordinate system. Three different cases are discussed for the radial-like equations. For a bound donor, the energy is negative and the solutions are described by Whittaker functions. For a non-bound donor, the energy is positive and the solutions become coulomb wave functions. In the last case, the energy is equal to zero and the solutions reduce to Bessel functions. Using the boundary conditions at the dot surfaces, the variations of the donor kinetic and potential energies versus the size of the dot are obtained. The problem of a shallow donor impurity in a Hemiparaboloidal Quantum dot (HPQD) is also studied. It is shown that the wave functions of a HPQD are specific linear combinations of those of a SPQD.


The last thirty years saw dramatic increases in the employment rates of married/co-habiting mothers in the UK. Yet the employment rates of lone mothers were lower in the early 1990s than in the late 1970s, at just under 40 percent; and 25 percentage points lower than those of married mothers. In 1997 the incoming Labour government initiated a series of policy reforms aimed at reducing child poverty. A key element of their strategy was a move towards increasing employment rates among families with children. This paper evaluates how this package of policy reform impacted on lone parents employment. We use propensity score matching to construct a benchmark sample and then apply difference-in-difference estimation techniques to assess what would have happened to lone parents employment in the absence of policy reform. Our results show that, of the 11-percentage point rise in the rate of employment of lone parents between 1992 and 2002, 5-percentage points can be attribute to policy reform. This increase in employment occurred in-spite of significant rises in the level of support for non-working lone parents claiming Income Support. This is in sharp contrast to the experience of the USA, where welfare generosity did not increase and time limits and mandatory job search were employed alongside tax credits to get lone parents back to work. In the UK, further substantive policy changes are currently being phased in and so it is probable that there will be further employment gains for lone parents over the next few years. Even so, the pace of response to these reforms does not yet look sufficient to meet the Government's target of getting 70 percent of lone parents into work by 2010.


Popular Culture is the voice of this world, spoken in a thousand languages. Popular Culture Studies are therefore the New Humanities, intended to take up all the subjects singly and collectively and bring some order and understanding to the seeming chaos . . . we must of course study the Humanities internationally and comparatively. No longer is American scholarship defensibly a continent mentality. It is a world mentality. (Ray B. Browne, "The Theory-Methodology Complex" 149) We are global. We are digital. These forces feed and grow off one another. In the twenty-first century it seems almost old-fashioned to think anything less. The statistical evidence supporting the ubiquity of digital technology is staggering. One group calculates that total worldwide Internet growth has increased some 445 percent from 2000 to 2010, encompassing nearly two billion users globally (Miniwatts). Another popular indicator of the digital present and future is the seemingly ever-increasing size of Facebook's population, which reportedly exceeds five hundred million active users, who spend seven hundred billion minutes per month on the site ("Statistics"). There is no doubt that digital technology is a critical component of popular culture, weaving its way through virtually every aspect of society. Indeed, no aspect of mass communications is left unaffected by the rush toward digitalization. What is less clear, however, is the cumulative outcome that all-pervasive digital culture is having on teaching American culture studies. Much of the evidence is anecdotal, whether one stands for or against the Web and electronic technology as it pertains to how people think and learn (Johnson 9-14). This essay combines a broad array of electronic threads to reveal a new way of looking at teaching American culture in the digital age. What quickly becomes apparent is that the US role as the world's innovation hub fuels much of its continuing leadership in digital technology, thus propelling a vision of America worldwide. In other words, the nation's culture (both real and imagined) seeps into the products of its technology exporters, such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google. In addition, America serves as the epicenter of mass media globally, whether streaming from the film and television studios in Hollywood or the countless journalists who dominate the multitude of channels that feed the nation's seemingly insatiable appetite for news and entertainment. In this instance, one could point to Disney's ability to export both its traditional animated characters and teen stars globally (such as Miley Cyrus) as a model for how a particular view of America is presented overseas. From a historic viewpoint, American culture has dominated global popular culture based on its technological leadership of Web-based and consumer technology (Ashby 512-17). As these innovations are adopted outside the United States, they actually become less American and more global. Technologist James W. Cortada explains, "Collaborative behavior, rather than just adversarial actions, has been increasing thanks to the nature of IT; indeed, the technology itself has conversely been molded in service to make collaboration more possible than in any time in human history, to the extent that today it involves billions of people" (252). In other words, as American Web sites, applications, high-tech gadgets, and consumer goods disperse globally and gain market share, they simultaneously become less US-centric, even as they remain influenced by American culture. Specifically analyzing Facebook and Apple (in terms of iPod, iPhone, and iPad ubiquity), for example, one sees these technologies as distinctly part of American culture, but worldwide adoption causes them to be simultaneously less American. In one sense, then, they are casting a wider net for American culture, while also watering down their "Americanness." Scholar Joachim K. Rennstich finds the global environment increasingly complex, explaining "individuals and organizations [are] sponsoring and advancing innovation that results in the strengthening of the global layers of interactions" (199). …


Enterprise Architecture (EA) is gaining additional visibility and importance, and it is attaining higher levels of influence within many organizations today (Brownet al. 2010). As the importance and stature of EA grows, so too does the number of frameworks proposed to support the work of EA. This proliferation has led to an increasing challenge within organizations to develop a process for selecting the correct framework that best fits their unique needs, culture, and goals. Traditionally, EA frameworks have been used to facilitate alignment (Kaplan & Norton 2006) between the strategic goals and direction of the organization and the IT that supports the business units within the organization. This alignment process is a critical component to support the continued growth and success of a firm (Cuenca et al. 2010; Pombinho et al. 2012; Singh & Woo 2009). Despite several research studies that focused on a direct comparison of EA frameworks (Alghamdi 2009; McCarthy 2006; Tang et al. 2004; Urbaczewski & Mrdalj 2006a), there have been few studies aimed at capturing the information needed to support organizations in their decision-making process when selecting an EA framework (Armour et al. 1999). Also, as the usage of frameworks continues to mature within organizations, there has been little research conducted that documents the trends of both the usage and maturity of using frameworks within organizations. This research compares the attributes of various EA frameworks and provides a method to assist organizations in their efforts to choose an EA framework for their organization. The basis of this research is a survey that contains the responses from 276 participants whose job roles and responsibilities directly reflected working in EA within their organizations. This research was conducted in collaboration with leading EA industry associations, and the survey results provide a view of the current landscape of EA framework usage by a wide range of respondents worldwide and throughout many different organizations. The aim is that the inferences drawn from this survey will help support recommendations on a process that can be used to assist with the selection of an EA framework by organizations.


The euro area faces a double challenge: debt overhang and the need for price adjustment. This paper reviews the debt challenges in the household and corporate sectors and maps out some policy options. In particular, we document the increase in private debt prior to the crisis and consider how the corporate and household sectors have adjusted their balance sheets during the crisis.

We examine previous experiences with corporate and household deleveraging and draw lessons for policymakers. We show how the macroeconomic effects of balance-sheet adjustments have been in part offset by the use of fiscal deficits, and we discuss the resulting challenges. A key lesson is the importance of maintaining economic growth and avoiding a prolonged doubledip recession in the euro area while facilitating necessary deleveraging in some over-indebted sectors and countries. We also emphasise the need for a growth strategy tailored to southern Europe.


Since the psalms are religious, poetic, existential expressions of life, entailing both extreme joy and intense suffering, it stands to reason that poverty (in its literal sense and otherwise) would receive considerable attention. Focussing on material poverty and challenging the idea of a homogeneous view on poverty (e.g. Armenfrommigkeit ) in the psalms, the diversity of views on poverty in the psalms is explored. Attention is paid to YHWH or God caring for the poor, the (Israelite) king as champion for the poor, the gods (heavenly assembly) (non)caring for the poor, caring for the poor in Zion theology, God as crusher of the poor and mutual human charity. The article concludes with some remarks regarding the possible present-day appropriation of the views in the psalms. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article challenges the traditional notion on Armenfrommigkeit in the psalms. This is important for contexts where identifying with the poor are fed by selfish interest and actually feeds exploitation. It also propounds that various views on poverty exist, demanding creative and contextual applicable measures to combat poverty in the present-day world.


Anticipatory cognitive stress appraisal (ACSA) can affect the stress-induced release of stress hormones, which, in turn, can modulate microbicidal potential of macrophages. This study examines whether ACSA modulates wound-induced activation of macrophage microbicidal potential in 22 acutely stressed compared to 17 nonstressed healthy men. After catheter-induced wound infliction and completing the ACSA questionnaire, the stress group underwent an acute mental stress task, while the nonstressed group did not. Macrophage microbicidal potential and stress hormones were repeatedly measured. In acutely stressed men, but not in nonstressed men, higher scores in ACSA related to lower macrophage microbicidal potential. This association was statistically mediated by the norepinephrine (NE) stress response. Our data suggest that ACSA modulates stress-induced suppression of wound-induced macrophage activation and that the NE stress response underlies this effect.


Changes to levels of earnings in the public and private sectors have a critical role in the adjustment process. Case studies of Singapore, Korea, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Argentina show that in those countries which adjusted unsuccessfully real earnings declined sharply, often with a further negative impact on output. The governments of the more successful East Asian adjusters influenced wage levels so as to help achieve their broader development goals. These case studies show that purely market-determined approaches to the labour market often failed.


The Social Origins of the Welfare State traces the evolution of the first universal laws for Quebec families, passed during the Second World War. In this translation of her award-winning Aux origines sociales de l'etat-providence, Dominique Marshall examines the connections between political initiatives and Quebecois families, in particular the way family allowances and compulsory schooling primarily benefited teenage boys who worked on family farms and girls who stayed home to help with domestic labour. She demonstrates that, while the promises of a minimum of welfare and education for all were by no means completely fulfilled, the laws helped to uncover the existence of deep family poverty. Further, by exposing the problem of unequal access of children of different classes to schooling, these programs paved the way for education and funding reforms of the next generation. Another consequence was that in their equal treatment of both genders, the laws fostered the more egalitarian language of the war, which faded from other sectors of society, possibly laying groundwork for feminist claims of future decades. The way in which the poorest families influenced the creation of public, educational, and welfare institutions is a dimension of the welfare state unexamined until this book. At a time when the very idea of a universal welfare state is questioned, The Social Origins of the Welfare State considers the fundamental reasons behind its creation and brings to light new perspectives on its future.


AbstractThe purpose of this study was to compare the effect of two different methods of organizing endurance training in trained male and female cross-country skiers and biathletes during a 5-week preparation period.MethodOne group of athletes performed block periodization (BP; n=10), wherein week 1 and 3 constituted of respectively five and three sessions of high intensity aerobic training (HIT), followed by respectively one and two weeks of one weekly HIT session. Another group performed a more traditional organization (TRAD; n=9), with four weeks of two HIT sessions and one week of three HIT sessions. The HIT was interspersed with low intensity training (LIT) so that similar total volumes of both HIT and LIT were performed in the two groups. The majority of the both HIT and LIT were performed on roller skis. All tests were conducted skating on roller ski treadmill.ResultsBP achieved an improvement in maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max), while TRAD did not improve (BP; 2.0 ± 2.5% (p = 0.05), TRAD; –0.1 ± 3.0% (p = 0.75). Also in maximal power output (Wmax) BP achieved an improvement, while TRAD did not improve (BP; 3.8 ± 4.3% (p = 0.016), TRAD; –2.5 ± 6.6% (p = 0.241). Mean effect size (ES) of the relative improvement in VO 2max (ES: 0.76) and Wmax (ES: 1.11) revealed moderate superior effects of BP compared to TRAD.ConclusionThe present study suggests that block periodization of endurance training have superior effects on VO 2max and Wmax compared to traditional organization.


Aloe ( Aloe vera L.) representing crop having content of gizi needed by is body. In flesh of Aloe vera L. consist in all kinds of mineral, sour of amino, enzymes, vitamins, and also various vitamin of bioaktif worthwhile to health. Aloe vera L. do not simply to clean hair and fertilize hair, but also can be exploited as health refreshments.
One of the interval food materials alternative of Aloe vera L. which liked many is jam, representing wet semi food product have rate to irrigate about/around 15-40%, owning soft tekstur and plastis felt sweet rather sour and there is crispy sweet which is enough recognized and taken a fancy to by society.
One of the materials weared to make jam is inhibitory citrate acid of growth of microbe. While other materials which used to make jam is pectin. Usage of pectin at making of jam will influence rate irrigate and discount sugar rate Intention of this research is 1). To know influence
of pectin and cittrate acid to quality of aloe jam (Aloe vera L.). 2). To know citrate acid combination and correct pectin to get aloe jam (Aloe vera L.) with quality of goodness.
Population in this research [is] the overall of flesh of Aloe vera L. Sampel in this research is Aloe vera L. counted 2700 gram to 9 treatment by 3 restating times;rill. Used Research type represent True Experiment by using Complete Random Device have Factorial Pattern to.
Technique analyse data which is used in this research is test of normalitas, homogeneity test, test anova 2 test and direction of duncan's.
From result of research can be concluded by 1). Addition of pectin and cittrate influence durabelly, tekstur, discount sugar rate, colour organoleptik and of organoleptik aroma, but do not influence organoleptik feel and jam tekstur organoleptik of Aloe vera L. 2). Amount of optimum
cittrate to get aloe jam (Aloe vera L.) with quality of goodness is 0,3% from materials weight, and optimum pectin amount to get aloe jam (Aloe vera L.) what with quality goodness is 0,75% from materials weight.
Of this research can be suggested by 1). Needing the existence of research of continuation to standard of is quality of jam of Aloe vera L. with durabel parameter seen from is microbiological of them. 2). Needing the existence of research continue about quality of jam of Aloe vera L. with pectin rate parameter and preservative rate.


Background: User satisfaction from a device is an especially term in the design world that covers
broad concept of the design content.
Objective: The aim of the present study was to design satisfaction questionnaire and survey of
satisfaction of student's from the laptop desks.
Methods: This analytical - descriptive study has conducted for survey student's satisfaction from
the laptop desks in the male dormitories of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences in 2017. Fifty
students (17 boys and 33 girls) were recruited by simple stratified random sampling. Based on
scientific literature and point of view faculty member and student, 43 items of questionnaire were
drafted and reliability and validity were evaluated and only 23 question confirmed.
Data analyzed using Pearson correlation and Cronbach's alpha. The percentage of students'
satisfaction was determined using cut-off point of questionnaire in receiver operating characteristic
(ROC) curve.
Findings: The results of Cronbach's alpha and correlation of questionnaire obtained 0.95 and 0.83
respectively. According to the ROC curve, cut-point of satisfaction questionnaire of the students
from laptop desks obtained 64.5. Then, the percent of student satisfaction (boys and girls) from desk
1 and 2 were 47.1%, 66.7% and 11.8%, 42.4% respectively.
Conclusion: One-third of students from desks were dissatisfied. So, the use of opinion ergonomics
specialists and particularly users when designing is necessary for increase user's satisfaction from
design of laptop desks.


Scientific research to date has shown speakers' imitation in both laboratory and non-laboratory conditions. Still, the possibility of students being attracted by the accent of one speaker, physically present in international College campuses, had not been addressed before. Thus, the aims of this study were to investigate: 1) the likelihood of College students being attracted by the English accent of a single speaker within the same College, and 2) the extent to which the former might have accommodated their English accents towards that of the speaker's. Students in two international College campuses where English is the lingua franca were chosen, because there speakers interact daily and for more time than in the experimental conditions reported so far. One campus was in the Netherlands and one in Greece. In the Netherlands a survey asked 59 students to name a College person with whom they mostly interacted in English, one whose accent they mostly liked, one whose accent they mostly admired, one whose accent they mostly regarded as similar to theirs, and one whose accent they mostly wished they had had. Participants could name the same College person in all items. Results revealed an agent, very likely to be a student, whose accent was named most times as being liked, admired, regarded as similar, and wished to have. Because that agent was not included in the sample and the aim was to examine potential accent accommodation, an audible feature, a second cohort of subjects was recruited. Thus, a questionnaire asked 16 speakers, students of an international campus in Greece, to name one College person with whom they mostly interacted in English, one whose accent they mostly liked, one whose accent they mostly admired, and one whose accent they mostly wished they had had among other questions. Again the same College person could be named more than once. Speakers were additionally recorded in a controlled reading environment and in a spontaneous speech. Their 28 recordings were judged by 21 listeners, non-related to the speakers, for accent similarity between a speaker's recording (stimuli X) and either the agent who was named most times in the questionnaire (stimuli A) or a speaker who was named zero times (stimuli B). Results revealed that three agents were named most times, yet only one was included in the sample. That agent was a native Greek speaker and studied abroad, and her recordings were used as stimuli A in the listening test. Thus, the question about the existence of a single speaker whose accent was liked, admired and wished to have was answered positively. Also, four two-tailed chi-square tests of independence showed that the different stimuli X had a statistically significant effect on choosing A's or B's recordings. Regarding the possibility of speakers converging their accents to that of a single speaker's, and given that four speakers named the same agent most times, it was expected that listeners would perceive accent similarity between her and the four speakers who named her. Still, most listeners did not perceive it, and this result could be attributed to the four speakers' profound Greek accent while speaking English, as well as to the small number of both speakers and listeners.


Introduction. Part I: The Knights Templar and the Crusades. Chapter 1. Defining the Templar Code. Chapter 2. A Crash Course in Crusading. Chapter 3. The Rise of the Knights Templar. Part II: A Different Kind of Knighthood. Chapter 4. Living in a Templar World. Chapter 5. The Poor Knights Crash and Burn: The Fall of the Templars. Chapter 6. Cold Case Files: The Evidence against the Templars. Part III: After the Fall of the Templars. Chapter 7. Templars Survive in Legend and in Fact. Chapter 8. "Born in Blood": Freemasonry and the templars. Chapter 9. Modern-Day Templars. Part IV: Templars and the Grail. Chapter 10. The Templars and the Quest for the Holy Grail. Chapter 11. The 21st Century Dawns with a New Grail Myth. Part V: Squaring Off: The Church versus the Gospel According to Dan Brown. Chapter 12. Templars and The Da Vinci Code. Chapter 13. The Suppression of the "Feminine Divine": Truth or Feminist Fiction? Chapter 14. Getting Our Acts Together: Constantine and the Council of Nicaea. Part VI: The Part of Tens. Chapter 15. Ten Candidates for the Site of the Holy Grail. Chapter 16. Ten Absolutely Must-See Templar Sites. Chapter 17. Ten Places That May Be Hiding the Templar Treasure. Index.


Following corneal infection, herpes simplex virus (HSV)-1 establishes latency in sensory neurons of the trigeminal ganglia (TG). In humans, spontaneous and recurrent reactivation of HSV-1 from latency has the potential to cause lesions on the gums (stomatitis), lips (cold sores, fever blisters), cornea (stromal keratitis), and brain (encephalitis). Latently infected neurons were once thought be largely ignored by the host immune system. Existing evidence shows that not only do HSV-specific CD8 T cells recognize latently infected neurons; they actively maintain viral latency using proinflammatory cytokines and lytic granules containing granzymes. The premise of this study further characterized the nature of the CD8 T cell response. Previous studies displayed that in the C57BL/6 mouse; CD8 T cells infiltrate the TG and become situated in direct apposition to infected neurons. It was known that 50 % of the CD8 T cells recognized the immunodominant epitope on glycoprotein B (gB) while the specificities of the remaining CD8 T cells were undefined. In this study, we observed that the non-gB CD8 T cell repertoire was confined to 18 epitopes on 11 viral proteins. During acute infection, these cells, similar to gB498-505-specific CD8 T cells, readily produce cytokines and release lytic granules upon stimulation. Conversely, during latency, even though these cells remain in the TG, they lose the ability to produce cytokines and release lytic granules upon stimulation suggesting functional compromise, unlike gB498-505-specific CD8 T cells. We show that the immunosuppressive cytokine, IL-10, preferentially suppresses the non-gB498-505-specific CD8 T cell population. Upon administration of an antibody against the IL-10 receptor, we see a dramatic increase in functional non-gB498-505-specific CD8 T cells without apparent effect in the gB498-505-specific CD8 T cell population. This increase in functional CD8 T cells leads to a 50% reduction in viral reactivation from latency suggesting the possibility of anti-IL10R as a treatment of recurrent reactivation of HSV-1 from latency.


A cytoplasmically inherited element, [URE3], allows yeast to use ureidosuccinate in the presence of ammonium ion. Chromosomal mutations in the URE2 gene produce the same phenotype. [URE3] depends for its propagation on the URE2 product (Ure2p), a negative regulator of enzymes of nitrogen metabolism. Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains cured of [URE3] with guanidium chloride were shown to return to the [URE3]-carrying state without its introduction from other cells. Overproduction of Ure2p increased the frequency with which a strain became [URE3] by 100-fold. In analogy to mammalian prions, [URE3] may be an altered form of Ure2p that is inactive for its normal function but can convert normal Ure2p to the altered form. The genetic evidence presented here suggests that protein-based inheritance, involving a protein unrelated to the mammalian prion protein, can occur in a microorganism.


A transformerless hybrid series active filter is proposed to enhance the power quality in single-phase systems with critical loads. This paper assists the energy management and power quality issues related to electric transportation and focuses on improving electric vehicle load connection to the grid. The control strategy is designed to prevent current harmonic distortions of nonlinear loads to flow into the utility and corrects the power factor of this later. While protecting sensitive loads from voltage disturbances, sags, and swells initiated by the power system, ridded of the series transformer, the configuration is advantageous for an industrial implementation. This polyvalent hybrid topology allowing the harmonic isolation and compensation of voltage distortions could absorb or inject the auxiliary power to the grid. Aside from practical analysis, this paper also investigates on the influence of gains and delays in the real-time controller stability. The simulations and experimental results presented in this paper were carried out on a 2-kVA laboratory prototype demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed topology.


The aim of this prospective study was to assess the prevalence and distribution
of hypodontia in the permanent dentition in a sample of Azerbaijan population (Iran) conferring to
private and public clinics for orthodontic and dental treatment and to investigate the relationship of
hypodontia with class I, II and III malocclusions in 2014.
Materials & Methods: Panoramic radiographs with clinical examination of 2480 patients (934 males
(37.6%) and 1596 females (62.4%)) with chronological age between (10-20) years were used, and the
patients were divided into three groups of malocclusions class I, II and III according to the profile,
amount of overjet and molar relationship.
Results: The prevalence of hypodontia in the inspected population was 5.4% (5.2% for males and 5.3%
for females). The average number of the congenitally missing teeth per patient was 2.02 (2.06 females
and 1.96 for males). The most common congenitally missing teeth were upper lateral incisors (36.6%),
mandibular second premolars (25%), central incisors (14.3%) and maxillary second premolars (11.8%)
respectively. Hypodontia was more common in class I malocclusion than the other groups.
Conclusion: The prevalence of hypodontia in girls was higher than boys and in class I malocclusion
was more prevalent than class II and III groups that these differences were not significant (p>0.05). The
chance of symmetrical hypodontia was higher in class I malocclusion than other groups that was
significant (p=0)


Stent thrombosis is a rare complication following stent implantation; if it occurs, however, it is associated with a high morbidity and mortality. Despite reduced rates of restenosis, drug-eluting stents (DES) have not reduced the incidence of stent thrombosis as compared with bare-metal stents (BMS). Patient-, lesion-, and procedure-related factors as well as thrombogenicity of the stent itself are involved in the pathogenesis of stent thrombosis. Furthermore, early cessation of dual antiplatelet therapy correlates with an increased risk of stent thrombosis. This review focuses on clinical evidence and pathophysiological mechanisms of stent thrombosis with DES, particularly highlighting prothrombotic effects of the stent itself.


Seed germination and early seedling growth, photosynthesis and protein activity of mustard were investigated under salt stress in two experiments. The NaCl concentrations in Hoagland solution were 0 (control), 50, 100 and 150 mM. Percentage of seed germination, germination rate, length, and fresh weight of the seedlings decreased significantly under salinity. Salt concentrations significantly reduced leaf area and number of leaves while salinity showed a non significant effect on leaf water content. Chlorophyll content enhanced considerably with the increasing NaCl concentration. Furthermore, Fv/Fm ratio and electron transport rate were also appreciably reduced by salt stress. In contrast, non- photochemical quenching coefficient increased significantly with increasing NaCl concentration. Net CO2 assimilation, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, and intrinsic water-use efficiency decreased remarkably with increasing NaCl concentration while water use efficiency increased at 50 mM NaCl but then reduced. Correlation shows that gas exchange attributes had a significant positive relationship with chlorophyll fluorescence. There was an increase in the concentration of total protein content with the corresponding increase in NaCl level up to 100 mM. SDS-PAGE analysis showed that the intensity of band expression increased significantly as with increasing salt stress up to 100 mM but diminished at 150 mM NaCl.


We combined high resolution aircraft flight data from the EU Fifth Framework Programme project AERO2k with analysis data from the ECMWF's integrated forecast system to calculate diurnally resolved 3-D contrail cover. We scaled the contrail cover in order to match observational data for the Bakan area (eastern-Atlantic/western-Europe). We found that less than 40% of the global distance travelled by aircraft is due to flights during local night time. Yet, due to the cancellation of shortwave and longwave effects during daytime, night time flights contribute a disproportional 60% to the global annual mean forcing. Under clear sky conditions the night flights contribute even more disproportionally at 76%. There are pronounced regional variations in night flying and the associated radiative forcing. Over parts of the North Atlantic flight corridor 75% of air traffic and 84% of the forcing occurs during local night, whereas only 35% of flights are during local night in South-East Asia, yet these contribute 68% of the radiative forcing. In general, regions with a significant local contrail radiative forcing are also regions for which night time flights amount to less than half of the daily total of flights. Therefore, neglecting diurnal variations in air traffic/contrail cover by assuming a diurnal mean contrail cover can over-estimate the global mean radiative forcing by up to 30%.


Crisis and disaster management organizations in developing countries are facing a challenging problem: the processes of urbanization vis a vis traditional societal organizations call for different approaches to communicate with the population. In countries where vulnerabilities, threats, and risks are high, the establishment of channels of communication that address all strata of population, generating trust is important to enhance participation and compliance.Departing from a two-step flow of communication model and combined with theoretical approaches of trust in crisis communication, this paper aims to analyze the channels of communication during crisis situations in Ghana and how the processes of generating trust in traditional communities is negotiated by crisis managers. To address this call, this study examines the role of citizens' trust in different structures of Ghanaian society and the strategies used to address lack of compliance in the rural/urban dichotomy.This study is largely informed by a series of interviews with nine top crisis managers and officials ascribed to the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) in Ghana. The results show that while government officials convey information to the public through all means possible, a large amount of the population decides to overlook or ignore the recommendations, and points to the importance of reaching communities through their chiefs, rather than approaching them directly. Since there is reluctance to follow a distant governmental agency, the trust in the community chief is of utmost importance, as chiefs become the sole channel of communication, especially in rural areas in developing countries. Thus, in order to reach rural communities, NADMO officials need to approach the elders who will communicate the message to their people. Trust, and more importantly tradition emerge as the main determining factors for successful dissemination of the message.The results can be applied to other parts of Ghana and other similar societies especially in countries that still follow a two-step model when it comes to flow of communication and information in crisis environments.


Reaction of human neutrophils with aggregated immunoglobulin on nonphagocytosable surfaces results in secretion of granule enzymes (exocytosis of granules) and stimulation of glucose oxidation by the nexose monophosphate pathway (HMP). The role of HMP stimulation in the enzyme secretion and some requirements for the two neutrophil activities have been examined. It was found that (a) HMP stimulation could be selectively inhibited under conditions where release of granule enzymes remained unchanged or was enhanced, for example, by reduced glucose concentration or by 2-deoxyglucose. (b) Removal of Ca++ and addition of agents which increased the intracellular levels of cyclic AMP (cAMP), however, prevented both activities, while colchicine had greater inhibitory activity on HMP stimulation than upon secretion. (c) Neutrophils incubated in suspension with particulate aggregated gamma-globulin phagocytosed the particles and exhibited a stimulated HMP and released granule enzymes. In contrast, incubation in suspension with soluble aggregated gamma-globulin resulted in the stimulated HMP only. Granule evzymes were not liberated. 300-fold less soluble aggregates bound to a surface, however readily induced exocytosis of granules from adherent neutrophils. This demonstrates the importance of surface effects in the induction of secretion from neutrophils. Aggregated immunoglobulin reacting with neutrophil Fc receptors thus induces both degranulation (exocytosis) and increased HMP activity. The pathways leading to these events are separable although apparently sharing some common steps, including the initiating events.


This paper uses a linear approximation of Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) and extended AIDS models to investigate food consumption in Vietnam using the Vietnam Living Standard Survey (VLSS) in 2004. In particular, AIDS models are estimated to calculate income and price elasticities for three different components of food categories. Our results suggest that rice food and meat/fish are normal goods, while non-rice food is luxury. Household characteristics such as age, gender, and education do not appear to affect food consumption significantly, while urban/rural location is important. These results may give empirical evidence for policy-makers to design food policy in Vietnam.


Face detection allows to recognize and detect human faces and provides information about their location in a given image. Many applications such as biometrics, face recognition, and video surveillance employ face detection as one of their main modules. Therefore, improvement in the performance of existing face detection systems and new achievements in this field of research are of significant importance. In this paper a hierarchical classification approach for face detection is presented. In the first step, discrete Gabor jets (DGJ) are used for extracting features related to the brightness information of images and a preliminary classification is made. Afterwards, a skin detection algorithm, based on modeling of colored image patches, is employed as a post- processing of the results of DGJ- based classification. It is shown that the use of color efficiently reduces the number of false positives while maintaining a high true positive rate. Finally, a comparison is made with the OpenCV implementation of the Viola and Jones face detector and it is concluded that higher correct classification rates can be attained using the proposed face detector.


Objectives. To understand obstacles to and opportunities for improving prostate cancer communication to and within African American communities. Design. Researchers conducted interviews with 19 community leaders and five focus groups with healthy men and survivors. The team also conducted process evaluations of two outreach projects in which survivors spoke to African American men about prostate cancer and screening. Results. Three levels of obstacles to prostate cancer screening and treatment were identified. Individual-level obstacles included limited knowledge about the condition, about prevention and treatment, and fear of cancer. Socio-cultural barriers included distrust of the medical system, lack of a provider for routine and preventive care, reluctance to talk about cancer, and aversion to aspects of screening. Institutional deficits included the scarcity of educational efforts targeting prostate cancer. Outreach project evaluations suggested that survivors can be effective in building prostate cancer knowledge, promoting positive attitudes toward screening, and fostering conversations about prostate cancer. Educational efforts included little information about screening risks and decision-making however. Conclusions. The findings suggest that most potent interventions may combine survivor-led education with mass media and institution-based outreach. Such comprehensive programs could shift social norms that inhibit conversation and foster fear, leading in turn to more informed decisions and better treatment outcomes.


Among the most significant complications a neutropenic patient can experience is an invasive fungal infection. In this issue of Oncology, Drs. Wingard and Leather thoroughly review the epidemiology, clinical presentation, and empiric treatment of these infections, particularly those associated with Candida and Aspergillus. They emphasize the need for better methods of identifying individuals at high-risk for invasive fungal infections because those individuals are more likely to benefit from antifungal prophylaxis or empiric therapy. The goal of such a targeted approach is to limit the amount of antifungal agents given, thereby decreasing the number of adverse effects and diminishing the selection of antifungal-resistant species.[1]


Computing Handbook, Third Edition: Information Systems and Information Technology demonstrates the richness and breadth of the IS and IT disciplines. The second volume of this popular handbook explores their close links to the practice of using, managing, and developing IT-based solutions to advance the goals of modern organizational environments. Established leading experts and influential young researchers present introductions to the current status and future directions of research and give in-depth perspectives on the contributions of academic research to the practice of IS and IT development, use, and management Like the first volume, this second volume describes what occurs in research laboratories, educational institutions, and public and private organizations to advance the effective development and use of computers and computing in todays world. Research-level survey articles provide deep insights into the computing discipline, enabling readers to understand the principles and practices that drive computing education, research, and development in the twenty-first century.


In 1953, Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" premiered at a tiny avant-garde theatre in Paris; within five years, it had been translated into more than twenty languages and seen by more than a million spectators. Its startling popularity marked the emergence of a new type of theatre whose proponents--Beckett, Ionesco, Genet, Pinter, and others--shattered dramatic conventions and paid scant attention to psychological realism, while highlighting their characters' inability to understand one another. In 1961, Martin Esslin gave a name to the phenomenon in his groundbreaking study of these playwrights who dramatized the absurdity at the core of the human condition. Over four decades after its initial publication, Esslin's landmark book has lost none of its freshness. The questions these dramatists raise about the struggle for meaning in a purposeless world are still as incisive and necessary today as they were when Beckett's tramps first waited beneath a dying tree on a lonely country road for a mysterious benefactor who would never show. Authoritative, engaging, and eminently readable, The Theatre of the Absurd is nothing short of a classic: vital reading for anyone with an interest in the theatre.


Fee based library services give an increased ability to serve larger clienteles satisfactorily with the services they render and this is made possible with resource sharing. Fee based services enables libraries to offer services to library users and others that would not otherwise have been able to provide and brings in a useful amount of extra income that is ploughed back into library service aimed at satisfying users better. However, it is believed that there have been factors militating against these important fee based library services such as lack of professional and non-professional staff. The paper therefore looks at the impact of fee based library services on university libraries in Makurdi Metropolis. The study adopted a descriptive survey design and simple random sampling technique was used in drawing a sample size of 384 library staff and users. Mean and standard deviation statistics were used to answer research questions while Chi-Square was used for testing the hypotheses formulated at 0. 05 level of significance. It was discovered that fee based library services have positively impact on university libraries in Makurdi Metropolis. The study recommended that it is no more ample to justify the existence of university libraries just on the basis that they provide for the community of users' information needs and are guardians of culture and research findings, these libraries have to survive and it will be proper to introduce more fee based library services to generate extra funds for the upkeep and survival of the university libraries.


This bimonthly roundup features highlights of the hottest news stories of recent months as reported in Waterweek, AWWA's weekly newsletter to member utilities.


The short black comic film Asylum (2011, Directed by Joern Utkilen) depicts the lives of two migrants Alfred Islami (Mihai Arsene) and Wan Yun Ji (Andy Cheung) living through the interminable time of an immigration detention centre in Scotland. Immigration detention, Asylum reveals, is characterised by an excess of time. In the absurdist tradition of Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot' (1953) the detainees 'can only kill time, as they are slowly killed by it' (Bauman 1998: p. 88). Alfred Islami dreams of running a biodynamic farm, he spends time reading about bio-dynamic farming methods, acting out his farming fantasies with the few props, chairs, pot-plants, rubber gloves, at his disposal and attempting to procure potatoes and cows from detention officials. Alfred shares a shabby room in the detention centre with Wan Yun Ji (Andy Cheung). While Alfred spends his time playing farmer in order to 'kill time', Wan Yun Ji engages in repeated acts of self-harm, including cutting his wrists in a failed suicide attempt and throwing himself through the glass window of his detention centre room. These different strategies of survival represent attempts not only to pass time but to sustain some semblance of agency and self-determination. These are activities which stave off (the seemingly inevitable) psychological deterioration into zombie-like "dead but undead" states of being, which overwhelm detainees around them


Objective: To utilize neuroimaging procedures to assess the extent of cerebral involvement in female subjects heterozygous for X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD). Methods: Brain MRI studies were performed in 76 female subjects heterozygous for X-ALD (mean age 43 years, range 8 to 75 years). Sixty-five had clinical evidence of spinal cord involvement resembling that in males with adrenomyeloneuropathy (AMN), two had clinical evidence of cerebral involvement, and nine showed no neurologic abnormality. Readers blinded to clinical findings further analyzed abnormal MRI studies. In eight women whose MRI results were normal, four-slice long echo time MRS imaging (MRSI) studies were performed and compared to those of eight age-matched controls. Results: MRI results were normal in 65 subjects and abnormal in 11. In eight of the latter group, the MRI changes were judged to be due to causes other than X-ALD. Lesions were attributed to X-ALD in the remaining three. Two of these patients had lesions that resembled those in male patients with cerebral X-ALD. In one patient with a mild AMN-like syndrome, brain MRI abnormalities were confined to the corticospinal tract. When compared to those of controls, MRSI studies in eight female patients with normal results on brain MRI showed a significant reduction of N-acetylaspartate/creatine and N-acetylaspartate/choline ratios in the internal capsule and corticospinal projection fibers. The N-acetylaspartate/choline ratio was significantly reduced in the parieto-occipital white matter and the choline/creatine ratio was significantly increased in the frontal white matter. Conclusion: Brain involvement demonstrable by MRI is rare in female subjects heterozygous for X-ALD, including those who have clinical evidence of spinal cord involvement. Nevertheless, N-acetylaspartate levels are reduced in the corticospinal projection fibers in female subjects with normal results on MRI, suggesting axonal dysfunction.


While many governments, non governmental organisations (NGOs) and United Nations (UN) agencies have focused in the past on the health of mothers, infants and young children, there is now growing evidence that the healthcare system should also address the well-being and problems of adolescents , defined by WHO as individuals aged 10–19 years. They represent 1.2 billion individuals in the global population and between 10% and 25% of the population in European countries.1 In September 2015, the UN Secretary-General announced that the 'Every Woman, Every Child' agenda would move forward to 2030 as a Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health. In 2017, WHO responded to the large number of health problems affecting adolescents by launching a state-of-the-art review of programmes and interventions targeting the health burden of adolescents around the world, the AA-HA initiative ('Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents'). Adolescents' morbidities such as sexually transmitted infections or unplanned pregnancies, intentional and unintentional injuries, substance abuse and chronic disorders, especially mental disorders and metabolic diseases, constitute major causes of adolescent ill-health and have both short-term and long-term consequences.2 Among the many stakeholders who need to address the issues of adolescent health (eg, policy makers, professionals in charge of environmental measures or preventive interventions in the school and the community), healthcare professionals have an important role to play. For several decades, countries such as the USA, Canada and Australia have recognised the specific needs of adolescents and have thus developed dedicated healthcare structures and a specific area of training in the field,3–5 while Europe is still lagging behind.6 7 From the viewpoint of international standards, the quality of healthcare currently delivered to adolescents in Europe is less than optimal. The objective of this paper is to examine options for improving the quality of care delivered to adolescents, …


Beginning in 1992, with the landmark decision in Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court has decided a burgeoning number of preemption cases, squarely challenging the continuing vitality of tort in many domains of accident law. Cipollone addressed the preemption question in an atypical context. The case did not involve competing claims to territorial authority between a regulatory regime and state tort law. Rather, Cipollone involved a challenge to the continuing viability of tort in the face of statutory directives mandating explicit industry conduct; more specifically, the explicit warnings required in the 1969 version of the cigarette labeling act.In this article, I begin by revisiting Cipollone to reassess what it has to offer as a foundation for setting the boundaries of regulatory containment of the tort system. Next, I discuss three leading cases from the series of efforts by the Supreme Court to grapple with express preemption clauses in a variety of regulatory schemes. Against this backdrop, I then explore the circumstances under which it might be justified to imply preemption despite the absence of an express provision, with particular reference to the recent Supreme Court decision in Wyeth v. Levine, addressing preemption in the context of FDA regulation of prescription drugs. A concluding note ties the strands together.


Substance use and trauma typically manifests metaphorically through to use or to be used. For in once moment, a substance is used to feel happy, numb while in the next a person is used for another to feel happy, numb. In this instance, both the substance and that person become an object. When occurring together they are often mutually reinforcing one another and feed off the reward of instant gratification. This object is simply to use and it became ingrained into the identity, self. Thus, facilitating the illogical disconnect of use and being used to believe that the ones needs are truly fulfilled or perhaps not caring if one it is used. For an example a young woman who works as a prostitute to pay for her substances. She will often share that it does not feel real to her, she had to do what she had to do to get her fix. However, due to this cyclic relationship, the pain gets buried and forms scars.


In the ninth century AD, settlers from the heartland of the Wari Empire founded Quilcapampa, a short-lived site overlooking the Sihuas River in southern Peru. The contributors to this volume present excavation and survey data from in and around Quilcapampa that challenge long-held models of both Wari statecraft and the mechanisms that engendered the widespread societal changes of the era. Quilcapampa and other peripheral Wari settlements have generally been seen as local administrative centers that siphoned resources from conquered regions to the Wari capital. This volume demonstrates that Quilcapampa was likely founded not by Wari officials but by families looking for a new home amid the turmoil caused by increasing Wari political centralization. Botanical, faunal, ceramic, lithic, and other data sets are used to reconstruct lifeways at the site and show how the settlers interacted with others locally and across greater distances. Featuring extensive illustrations in the print edition and multimedia components in the digital edition, this book offers an abundance of archaeological data on the site as well as new theoretical considerations of Wari expansion, laying the foundation for a better understanding of how Andean political economy and social complexity changed over time.


Transport is one of the most critical areas of urban life and an essential base for developing and developing societies. It is a crucial indicator of the progress and development of cities and their great benefits. It saves from the movement of people and goods and the prosperity of the economy-social, economic and environmental issues globally and what we are witnessing in recent times. However, despite the tremendous advancement in technology, it continues to face numerous challenges in developed and developing nations, including our own. The absorption of the irrigated volume and any defect in the gradient causes many problems such as congestion, delays, traffic jams and the accompanying psychological, economic, social and environmental effects, energy consumption, depletion of natural resources and lifestyle. So transportation has become a concern. And it became a topic of concern that imposes the need to think about the preparation and development of the transportation system towards sustainability based on meeting transportation needs. In light of the negative impacts of the sustainable planning engineering dimension on the urban road network in Ramadi and for the Iraqi cities, we have thus attempted to study the effect of this project, given the critical impact on sustainable development and the approach used by thinking people and scholars in their studies and documents in Agenda 2030. Through evaluating the data from the research region, which comprised 27 Ramadi neighbourhoods, and applying them to the statistical analysis software (SPSS), it discovers that the schematic engineering dimension indicator represented by the hierarchy has direct and decisive connection significance. The local road area index achieved the most substantial linear relationship, followed by the collective, secondary and major roads indicators. They reached a medium relationship to formulate a sustainable development system based on Ramadi and other Iraqi cities. A decision is making about sustainable urban engineering transportation. And take an approach with whatever is good for the state.


Navigating safely in outdoor environments is a challenging activity for vision-impaired people. This paper is a step towards developing an assistive navigation system for the blind. We propose a robust method for detecting the pedestrian marked lanes at traffic junctions. The proposed method includes two stages: regions of interest (ROI) extraction and lane marker verification. The ROI extraction is performed by using colour and intensity information. A probabilistic framework employing multiple geometric cues is then used to verify the extracted ROI. The experimental results have shown that the proposed method is robust under challenging illumination conditions and obtains superior performance compared to the existing methods.


We present the results of a study of volcanic gases at Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat, which includes the first spectroscopic measurements of the major gas species CO2 and H2S at this volcano using a Multisensor Gas Analyzer System (MultiGAS) sensor. The fluxes of CO2 and H2S were 640–2750 t/d and 84–266 t/d, respectively, during July 2008, during a prolonged eruptive pause. The flux of CO2 is similar to estimates for the entire arc from previous geochemical studies, while the measured H2S flux significantly alters our interpretation of the sulphur budget for this volcano. The fluxes of both sulphur and carbon show considerable excesses over that which can be supplied by degassing of erupted magma. We demonstrate, using thermodynamic models and published constraints on preeruptive volatile concentrations, that the gas composition and fluxes are best modeled by mixing between (1) gases derived from isobaric quenching of mafic magma against cooler andesite magma at depth and (2) gases derived from shallower rhyolitic interstitial melt within the porpyritic andesite. The escape of deep‐derived gases requires pervasive permeability or vapor advection extending to several kilometers depth in the conduit and magma storage system. These results provide more compelling evidence for both the contribution of unerupted mafic magma to the volatile budget of this andesitic arc volcano and the importance of the intruding mafic magma in sustaining the eruption. From a broader perspective, this study illustrates the importance and role of underplating mafic magmas in arc settings. These magmas play an important role in triggering and sustaining eruptions and contribute in a highly significant way to the volatile budget of arc volcanoes.


Embedding-based entity alignment represents different knowledge graphs (KGs) as low-dimensional embeddings and finds entity alignment by measuring the similarities between entity embeddings. Existing approaches have achieved promising results, however, they are still challenged by the lack of enough prior alignment as labeled training data. In this paper, we propose a bootstrapping approach to embedding-based entity alignment. It iteratively labels likely entity alignment as training data for learning alignment-oriented KG embeddings. Furthermore, it employs an alignment editing method to reduce error accumulation during iterations. Our experiments on real-world datasets showed that the proposed approach significantly outperformed the state-of-the-art embedding-based ones for entity alignment. The proposed alignment-oriented KG embedding, bootstrapping process and alignment editing method all contributed to the performance improvement.


In most countries, the regulation of gaming is based on whether the predominance for the outcome of the game lies in skill or chance. As poker has become extremely popular in recent years, a heated discussion has evolved about the amount of skill involved in poker. Recent contributions to this question fail to convince, mostly because they do not imitate reality sufficiently. In one of the major works in this field Cabot & Hannum simulated poker games for various player profiles and interpreted the differences in the results as skill. But they only distinguish between skilled and unskilled players without defining these profiles or covering nuances in skill differences. In probably their most influential paper Dreef et al. made the important point that skill in poker is always relative - relative to the skill of other players and to the magnitude of the chance elements. Using these two works as a base point for this paper we derive the critical repetition frequency (CRF) of games. The CRF is defined as the threshold between a game that is predominantly influenced by chance or skill and is valid for all games. In the second part, we compute the CRF for poker with data from an empirical survey of 51,761 poker players and conclude that poker is a game of skill - but only for this sample. However, we also use the CRF to point out the shortcomings of the predominance test and question the current gaming-regulation based on the classification of a skill or a chance game.


How have authors of widely used U.S. introductory economics textbooks responded to the traumatizing financial crisis? The answer interests textbook authors as well as the users. An encompassing quantitative and qualitative text analysis that applies new methods demonstrates that in general, the financial crisis is described in a few sporadically added lines or is dealt with in boxes, separate sections, or specific isolated chapters. This is no great surprise, as it would be a monumental task to change textbooks significantly in the short run. Yet the analysis also indicates small, innovative changes already being made that could inspire future editions. Against this background, the author discusses how any introductory textbook could integrate the financial crisis more adequately into the general presentation, thereby enhancing students' interest.


This Article proposes some conventions for law professors who render opinions in the course of public debate, arguing that when academics offer public opinions in their professional capacities they should use the same care and have the same expertise called for in their published work, or else should disclose that they are adhering to a lesser standard. Equivalently, they should not sign documents unless they would be ready to defend them orally in the tribunals to which the documents are being presented. Part I sketches the nature of the collective action problem created by academics who sign opinion letters and petitions indistinguishably on the basis of different levels of expertise, analogizing this practice to abuse of a trademark (here the "law professor" mark) that is likely to lead either to consumer confusion or dilution of the mark. Part II demonstrates that some contributions of academic opinion to a tribunal are more valuable than others, even if the academics making the contributions are equally confident that what they are saying is correct; there are important differences in value between contributions made by generalists and specialists, and contributions made on the basis of "hard" expertise (involving factual representations) and "soft" expertise (involving normative judgments). Part III applies these distinctions to the law professors' letter to Congress opposing the impeachment of President Clinton. Part IV discusses the proposed convention for legal academics to follow in deciding whether to sign an opinion addressed to a court or legislature. It also adds a few notes on the problem of partisanship, arguing that academics should not take public positions on questions unless they would be equally ready to make the same arguments publicly when they are helpful to their political enemies - unless, again, they disclose that they are serving as advocates for one side or the other.


Objectives To evaluate the interobserver reliability of ultrasonography (US) in the assessment of cartilage damage at metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joint level in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods US examinations were performed on 80 MCP joints of 20 patients with RA using a MyLab70 XVG (Esaote Biomedica, Genoa, Italy), equipped with a broadband linear probe (6–18 MHz). For each patient, second and third MCP joints of both hands were examined independently on the same day by two rheumatologists (an experienced musculoskeletal sonographer and an investigator with limited US training). A multiplanar scanning technique on dorsal, lateral and volar aspects of the MCP joints was adopted. All US pathological findings were documented on at least two perpendicular scanning planes. Each joint was assessed by quadrant for the presence or absence of cartilage damage. Cartilage damage was also scored per quadrant on a five-grade semiquantitative scoring system on which investigators reached a consensus prior to the study. Results Exact agreement between investigators was found in 173 out of 200 quadrants (86.5%) with regard to presence or absence of cartilage damage. Percentages of exact agreement for cartilage damage semiquantitative assessment at dorsal, lateral and volar quadrants were 72.5%, 52.5% and 85%, respectively, while unweighted κ values were 0.561, 0.366 and 0.766, respectively. Conclusions The present study demonstrated moderate to good interobserver reproducibility of a semiquantitative scoring system based on qualitative morphological changes for cartilage damage at MCP joint level in patients with RA.


Attendance of local television will add variation of or choice to society to get information, entertainment amusement and education. Local television become tribune debate of local society regarding local problems or issues which is facing. Besides local television can become medium development of area potency. This matter is not quit of role of local television which also start to make news alone. Other side of attendance of television station which big so do not accompany with availibility of adequate human resource. This matter because during the time founding of television shall only nationally limited itupun in character so that human resource had limited also. So that them which sometimes do not have pengalamanpun recruited as employees or even owned education it do not correlate is at all with television.
Things above causing local television media tend to to become less professional. Condition of local television as new comer, previous of founding of television only at]just national scale, causing local television media have limitation, good at human resource (SDM) and also resource of finansial. Its minim of this resource finally cause employees (journalist of TV local) becoming not professional, because ill assorted system reward with amount of job and also demand company of local television either from facet of[is quality of and also news amount. On the basis of problem background, writer interest to lifting it]in erudite writing of skripsi.
Problems which is writer raise in writing of this skripsi shall be as follows: How journalist professionalism at local television station of Agropolitan Television (ATV) Stone in working to make and display news. Research of this skripsi use descriptive approach qualitative. Descriptive research aim to portray systematicly certain characteristic or fact or certain area by aktual and is careful. For acquirement of writer data specify informan that is by taking entire/all journalist of Agropilitan Television amounting to 8 people with reason of entire/all the journalist very is assisting of researcher in obtaining more complete data about journalist professionalism at station of Agropolitan Teleisi. Technique the used is technique of purposive sampling namely sapel aim to. Research location is place catch real situation of accurate obyek. In this research of research location specified by in Agropilitan Television.
To obtain;get needed data, researcher use the following data collecting technique: (1) Interview (2) Observation (3) and documentation. Researcher use data analysis qualitative, that is conducted effort by way of working with data, organizational of data, memilah-milahnya become set of able to be managed, its, searching and finding pattern, finding what is necessary and what studied and decide what can be told others.
Pursuant to solution and boldness can be concluded: All journalist of ATV Stone not yet fulfilled professional standard. That Ketidakprofesionalan is caused by karna: (1) Background and of kualifikasi education all journalist of ATV Stone disagree with its profession. (2) Company still not yet given competent appreciation and salary to employees. Most education kualifikasi all employees do not journalistic berbasic, only passing trainings of just kerjurnalisan. (3) journalist of ATV not yet can be told the expert in pekekerjaan, this matter is proved by still is often found by news which lose looks. (4). All frequent journalist impinge code of etik journalistic.


Many artworks defy determinacy of meaning by inducing a variety of potential meanings. We aim to describe different kinds of such semantic instability (which we call ' SeIns ') by comparing related concepts as well as specific phenomena in order to arrive at concise definitions. These analyses will be positioned in the framework of Predictive Coding. Furthermore, this article fathoms the specifics of semantic instability in art and presents a psycho-aesthetic account on the appeal of semantic instability in art. We propose that one factor for the appeal of semantic instability might be that it offers the opportunity of rewarding insight. Furthermore, we suggest that positive affect can be gained not only by arriving at an insight but also by anticipating it — a crucial point with regard to those kinds of semantic instability that are not 'resolvable' into semantic stability. Current challenges within this field of research include the necessity of an empirical approach to classes of semantic instability, the lack of a specification of psycho-aesthetic theories on the appeal of each class, as well as the need for an integration of context- and person-related facets of the experience of art.


A more direct attempt to bridge the gap between feminist academics and feminist activism can be found in Women and Social Change, edited by Wine and Ristock. This collection's range of case studies of feminist organizing is framed by a useful introductory section that contextualizes the contemporary women's movement within Canada's changing political and social climate, recognizes the diversity of women, and explores the uneasy relationship between feminism and the state.A key theme throughout is the tension between grassroots and institutionalized feminism or, as Linda Briskin terms it in her essay, the poles of "disengagement" and "mainstreaming" as feminist organizing strategies. While the former "...operates from a critique of the system and a standpoint outside of it" (30), seeking to create alternative, distinctly feminist structures, mainstreaming aims at "...reaching out to the majority of the population with popular and practical feminist solutions to particular issues" (30), and as such requires engagement with (and not just critique of) mainstream institutions. Briskin argues that to choose either of these poles as the basis for feminist practice is akin to choosing between marginalization and "co - optation," obscuring the political dynamic of feminism. Drawing on examples from socialist - feminist politics in labour and pro - choice organizations, she illustrates how the tension between mainstreaming and disengagement is played out, demonstrating that "...the map of feminist practice is not shaped within the same parameters as the map of abstract theoretical principle" (39).Janice Ristock examines the relationship between feminist ideologies and feminist practice from another perspective -- that of the internal organizational structures of feminist collectives. She examines feminist social service collectives engaged in providing services in response to violence against women as an example of the "mainstreaming - disengagement" tension that Briskin outlines. On the one hand, they are mainstreamed by their financial ties to the state and their relationship with the social service system; on the other hand, they seek to maintain a distinctively feminist organizational structure which is consistent with feminist ideologies of equality, consensus - building and personal empowerment. Ristock's research finds that despite such ideological commitments, power struggles and contradictions are frequent, and new mechanisms for dealing with them are constantly being developed. This suggests not the failure of collectives, but rather the importance of ongoing attempts to develop alternative organizational forms as integral to the feminist process.Angela Miles reflects on her experience of feminist politics in rural Nova Scotia to illustrate the concept of "integrative feminism" that she has developed in some of her previous, more theoretical work.(f.1) Integrative feminism is, for Miles, a "full politics" which "speaks to the whole of society," not just to the relative position of women in that society. This is a radical vision of transformation, not assimilation, grounded in the specificity of women's social, cultural and political experience. Miles argues that the subordinated values of that experience - integrative values such as nurturance and cooperation -- can provide the basis for a feminization of humanity and thus anchor a politics of liberation that embraces both specificity and equality. She finds integrative feminism in practice in rural women's culture: "Rural and traditional women do not need feminism to tell them that women are strong and that work is important, that men have the power, that women's lives and work and concerns and characteristics and values are different from men's . …


Abstract Computed values of equilibrium sizes and composition of uncharged and charged aqueous solution droplets of HNO3 and HCl at 25°C, relative humidifies from 5 to 101%, and solute vapor activities from 10− to 107 are presented. Threshold concentrations for heteromolecular nucleation of HNO3 and HCl at 40, 30, 20, 10, 0, and −10°C are also given as a function of the relative humidity. It is shown that atmospheric concentrations of HNO3 and HCl can participate in nucleation at temperatures below 20°C and relative humidifies above 98%. The nature of the nucleation of HNO3 and HCl in the atmosphere including ion-induced nucleation for which there is no threshold and some of the available experimental results are discussed.


Computational fluid dynamics simulations can provide important hemodynamic insights for investigating the effectiveness of carotid artery stenting, but its accuracy is dependent on the boundary conditions such as the outflow pressure, which is difficult to obtain by measurements. Many computational fluid dynamics simulations assume that the outflow pressure is constant (P = 0), but this method is likely to produce different results compared to clinical measurements. We have developed an alternative estimation method called the minimum energy loss method based on the concept of energy loss minimization at flow bifurcation. This new method has been tested on computational fluid dynamics simulation of two patients treated with carotid artery stenting, and its flow ratio at internal carotid artery and wall shear stress distribution was compared with the constant zero outlet pressure method. Three different procedure stages (prestent, poststent, and follow-up) were analyzed. The internal carotid artery flow ratio using the minimum energy loss method generally matched well with ultrasound measurements, but the internal carotid artery flow ratio based on zero outlet pressure method showed a large difference. Wall shear stress distributions varied between methods in response to the change in internal carotid artery flow rate. This study demonstrates the importance of accurate outlet boundary condition for assessing the long-term efficacy of carotid artery stenting and the risk of restenosis in treated patients.


The aim of this study was to determine any differences in the collagen molecular and fibrillar packing, or the arrangement of the proteoglycans along the fibril axis, in the stroma of keratoconus and control corneas. High and low-angle x-ray diffraction patterns from the fibrillar and molecular packing of collagen in keratoconus and control corneas were obtained using a synchrotron radiation source. The results indicate no difference in interfibrillar spacing between keratoconus and control corneas at normal physiological hydration, or over a range of hydrations (H = 1-11). This unambiguously demonstrates that the thinning of the stroma that occurs in keratoconus is not a result of closer packing of the collagen fibrils in the stroma. Intermolecular spacings were shown to be significantly (P less than 0.001) lower in keratoconus corneas at normal physiological hydration and over a range of hydrations (H = 1-11). Meridional patterns from the axial distribution of electron density along the collagen fibrils were obtained from untreated control and keratoconus corneas and from the corneas after their proteoglycans were stained with cupromeronic blue. Analysis of the integrated intensities of the first nine orders of these reflections show there is a difference in the staining behavior of collagen-associated proteoglycans in control and keratoconus corneas. Determination of the electron density vectors along the collagen fibrils of cupromeronic blue-stained corneas by the use of Patterson functions indicates that the keratoconus corneal stroma has a specific, ordered proteoglycan that is present in lower numbers along the collagen fibrils, and that it stains less with cupromeronic blue or is in a more disordered arrangement than in the controls.


Evolutionary theory and empirical studies suggest that many animals, including humans, have a genetic predisposition to acquire and retain property. This is hardly surprising because survival is closely bound up with the acquisition of things: food, shelter, tools and territory. But the root of these general urges may also run to quite specific and detailed rules about property acquisition, retention and disposition. The great variation in property-related behaviours across species may mask some important commonalities grounded in adaptive utility. Experiments and observations in the field and laboratory suggest that the legal rules of temporal priority and possession are grounded in what were evolutionarily stable strategies in the ancestral environment. Moreover, the preferences that humans exhibit in disposing of their property on their deaths, both by dispositions made in wills and by the laws of intestacy, tend to advance reproductive success as a result of inclusive fitness pay-offs.


Introduction Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure causes disease and death among nonsmokers. With a plethora of smoke-free legislation implemented and a steady decrease in cigarette consumption noted over the past decade in the U.S., this study assessed trends in indoor SHS exposure among U.S. adolescents in grades 6–12 during 2000–2009. Methods Data were obtained from the 2000–2009 National Youth Tobacco Survey – a national survey of U.S. middle and high school students. SHS exposure within an indoor area within the past seven days was self-reported. Trends in indoor SHS exposure during 2000–2009 were assessed overall and by socio-demographic characteristics, using the Wald's test in a binary logistic regression. Within-group comparisons were performed using chi-squared statistics (p<0.05). Results The proportion of U.S. middle and high school students who were exposed to indoor SHS declined from 65.5% in 2000 to 40.5% in 2009 (p<0.05 for linear trend). Significant declines were also observed across all population subgroups. Between 2000 and 2009, prevalence of indoor SHS exposure declined significantly among both middle (58.5% to 34.3%) and high school (71.5% to 45.4%) students. Prevalence of indoor SHS exposure was significantly higher among girls (44.0% in 2009) compared to boys (37.2% in 2009) during each survey year. Similarly, prevalence of indoor SHS exposure during 2000–2009 was highest among non-Hispanic whites (44.2% in 2009) and lowest among non-Hispanic Asians (30.2% in 2009). During each survey year, prevalence was highest among the oldest age group (≥18 years) and lowest among the youngest (9–11 years). Also, prevalence was significantly higher among current cigarette smokers (83.8% in 2009) compared to nonsmokers (34.0% in 2009). Conclusion Significant declines in indoor SHS exposure among U.S. middle and high school students occurred during 2000–2009. While the results are encouraging, additional efforts are needed to further reduce youth indoor SHS exposure.


This thesis addresses different questions regarding the rate, efficiency, and accuracy of peptide bond formation with natural as well as unnatural amino acids: Which step is rate-limiting during peptide bond formation? How does the accuracy vary with different transfer RNAs (tRNAs) and codons and how is it relevant to the living cells? Does proofreading selection of codon reading occur in a single- or multi-step manner as theoretically suggested? How does the E. coli translation system discriminate unnatural amino acids? Based on that, how to improve the incorporation efficiencies of unnatural amino acids?Based on the study on pH dependence of peptide bond formation, we show that the rate of the chemistry of peptidyl transfer to aminoacyl-tRNA (AA-tRNA) Gly-tRNAGly or Pro-tRNAPro limits the rate of peptide bond formation at physiological pH 7.5, and this could possibly be true for peptidyl transfer to all natural AA-tRNAs at physiological condition.By studying the efficiency-accuracy trade-off for codon reading by seven AA-tRNA containing ternary complexes, we observe a large variation on the accuracy of initial codon selection and identify several error hot-spots. The maximal accuracy varied 400-fold from 200 to 84000 depending on the tRNA identity, the type and position of the mismatches.We also propose a proofreading mechanism that contains two irreversible steps in sequence. This could be highly relevant to the living cells in relation to maintaining both high accuracy and high efficiency in protein synthesis.Finally, we show that peptide bond formation with small and large non-N-alkylated L- unnatural amino acids proceed at rates similar to those with natural amino acids Phe and Ala on the ribosome. Interestingly, the large side chain of the bulky unnatural amino acid only weakens its binding for elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) but not slows down peptidyl transfer on the ribosome. Our results also suggest that the efficiency of unnatural amino acid incorporation could be improved in general by increasing EF-Tu concentration, lowering the reaction temperature and / or using tRNA bodies with optimal affinities for EF-Tu in the translation system.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the mechanical properties and biologic response of single-phase Ti-Zr alloys cast in higher-purity casting conditions, with comprehensive compositions (from 10 to 90 mol% of Zr).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The mechanical properties and in vitro biologic response with proportional increase of Zr to Ti-Zr alloy composition were assessed. Tensile strength, surface hardness, and Young's modulus were examined. The in vitro cell response of the alloys was also tested with mouse osteoblast cells.

RESULTS
Analyses of mechanical tests demonstrated improved strength and reduced Young's modulus on this binary alloy system. In vitro cell culture studies with osteogenic MCT3T-E1 cells exhibited the highest attachment rate with the largest and more mature cells on Ti10Zr, instead of commercially pure Ti, whereas a significantly lower cell attachment rate and delayed alkaline phosphatase-specific activity (ALP) differentiation were detected on Ti50Zr.

CONCLUSION
The results revealed that the composition did have an impact on the in vitro biologic response. Ti-Zr alloys with 50-50 mol% composition had a decreased biologic response, although the mechanical properties improved. The overall highest strength was Ti with 30 mol% Zr without significant decrease of biologic response.


Repetitive and violent Vulcanian explosion sequences are common hazards at many volcanoes. Statistical analyses of such sequences form the basis of forecasting models and reveal underlying explosive processes. However, no single statistical model describes interexplosion repose intervals in Vulcanian systems. Soufriere Hills, Montserrat, is best described by a log-logistic model, while Sakurajima, Japan, shows a transition from a log-logistic to a Weibull model as activity intensifies. Anak Krakatau, Indonesia, displays two failure modes on different time scales, both described by Weibull distributions. At the Kameni Islands, Santorini, Greece, model-fitting parameters vary between eruption cycles. Rates of magma rise and pressurization may be the most important controls in determining the statistical distribution of repose intervals in Vulcanian systems.


We present updated analytical solutions of continuity equations for power-law beam electrons precipitating in (a) purely collisional losses and (b) purely ohmic losses. The solutions of continuity equation (CE) normalized on electron density presented in Dobranskis & Zharkova are found by method of characteristics eliminating a mistake in the density characteristic pointed out by Emslie et al. The corrected electron beam differential densities (DD) for collisions are shown to have energy spectra with the index of −(γ + 1)/2, coinciding with the one derived from the inverse problem solution by Brown, while being lower by 1/2 than the index of −γ/2 obtained from CE for electron flux. This leads to a decrease of the index of mean electron spectra from −(γ − 2.5) (CE for flux) to −(γ − 2.0) (CE for electron density). The similar method is applied to CE for electrons precipitating in electric field induced by the beam itself. For the first time, the electron energy spectra are calculated for both constant and variable electric fields by using CE for electron density. We derive electron DD for precipitating electrons (moving towards the photosphere, μ = +1) and 'returning' electrons (moving towards the corona, μ = −1). The indices of DD energy spectra are reduced from −γ − 1 (CE for flux) to −γ (CE for electron density). While the index of mean electron spectra is increased by 0.5, from −γ + 0.5 (CE for flux) to −γ + 1(CE for electron density). Hard X-ray intensities are also calculated for relativistic cross-section for the updated differential spectra revealing closer resemblance to numerical Fokker–Planck (FP) solutions.


The simple, elegant approach of training convolutional neural networks (CNNs) directly from RGB pixels has enjoyed overwhelming empirical success. But can more performance be squeezed out of networks by using different input representations? In this paper we propose and explore a simple idea: train CNNs directly on the blockwise discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients computed and available in the middle of the JPEG codec. Intuitively, when processing JPEG images using CNNs, it seems unnecessary to decompress a blockwise frequency representation to an expanded pixel representation, shuffle it from CPU to GPU, and then process it with a CNN that will learn something similar to a transform back to frequency representation in its first layers. Why not skip both steps and feed the frequency domain into the network directly? In this paper we modify \libjpeg to produce DCT coefficients directly, modify a ResNet-50 network to accommodate the differently sized and strided input, and evaluate performance on ImageNet. We find networks that are both faster and more accurate, as well as networks with about the same accuracy but 1.77x faster than ResNet-50.


We use survey data to study American households' propensity to default when the value of their mortgage exceeds the value of their house even if they can afford to pay their mortgage (strategic default). We find that 26% of the existing defaults are strategic. We also find that no household would default if the equity shortfall is less than 10% of the value of the house. Yet, 17% of households would default, even if they can afford to pay their mortgage, when the equity shortfall reaches 50% of the value of their house. Besides relocation costs, the most important variables in predicting strategic default are moral and social considerations. Ceteris paribus, people who consider it immoral to default are 77% less likely to declare their intention to do so, while people who know someone who defaulted are 82% more likely to declare their intention to do so. The willingness to default increases nonlinearly with the proportion of foreclosures in the same ZIP code. That moral attitudes toward default do not change with the percentage of foreclosures in the area suggests that the correlation between willingness to default and percentage of foreclosures is likely to derive from a contagion effect that reduces the social stigma associated with default as defaults become more common.


Finite difference schemes used in the field of computational fluid dynamics is
generally only of second-order accurate in representing the spatial derivatives.
Numerical algorithms based on higher order finite difference schemes that can
achieve fourth-order accuracy in space have been developed. Higher order schemes
will enable a larger grid size with fewer grid points to sufficiently give fine results. A
compact scheme, which preserves the smaller stencil size, is preferred due to its
simplicity and computational efficiency, as opposed to the normal approach to
expand the stencil to achieve higher accuracy. Two approaches are used to obtain the
fourth-order accurate compact scheme. In Lax-Wendroff approach, the governing
differential equations are used to approximate the leading truncation error in the
second-order central difference of the governing equations. In Hermitian scheme, the
fourth-order approximations to the derivatives are treated as unknowns. These
unknowns are solved explicitly with Hermitian relations that relate the variables and
its spatial derivatives. The numerical algorithms are first developed for viscous
Burgers' equation on uniform and clustered grids. The fourth-order accuracy and convergence rate is demonstrated. The performance of the two different approaches
are compared and found on par with each other. Second, the numerical algorithms
are used to solve the quasi-one-dimensional subsonic-supersonic nozzle flow. The
Hermitian scheme shows excellent agreement with the analytical result but the Lax-Wendroff
approach failed to do so due to instability problem. Third, only the
numerical algorithm based on Hermitian scheme is used to solve the flow past a
backward-facing step. The reattachment lengths of the first separation bubble
compare favourably with previously published results in the literature. The success
of the fourth-order compact finite difference schemes in solving the viscous Burgers'
equation is not repeated in the isentropic nozzle flow and the flow past a backward-facing
step. Further efforts have to be made to improve the convergence rate of the
numerical solution of the isentropic nozzle flow using the Hermitian scheme and to
overcome the instability in the numerical solution of the same problem using the
Lax-Wendroff approach.


Isostatic uplift of tectonically stable, passive margin lithosphere can preserve a record of paleo-shoreline position by elevating coastal geomorphic features above the influence of nearshore wave activity. Conversely, depositional ages and modern elevations of these features can provide valuable information about the uplift history of a region. We present a numerical model that combines sea-level oscillation, subaerial exposure, a precipitation-karstification function, and isostatic uplift to explore the dynamic geomorphic behavior of coastal carbonate landscapes over multiple sea-level cycles. The model is used to estimate ages of coastal highstand depositional features along the Atlantic coast of north Florida. Numerical simulations using current best estimates for Pleistocene sea-level and precipitation histories suggest ages for Trail Ridge (1.44 Ma), the Penholoway Terrace (408 ka), and the Talbot terrace (120 ka) that are in agreement with fossil evidence. In addition, model results indicate that the rate of karstification (void space creation or equivalent surface lowering rate) within the north Florida platform is ∼3.5 times that of previous estimates (1 m/11.2 k.y. vs. 1 m/38 k.y.), and uplift rate is ∼2 times as high as previously thought (0.047 mm/yr vs. 0.024 mm/yr). This process has implications for landscape evolution in other carbonate settings and may play an underappreciated role within the global carbon cycle.


A module system ought to enable assembly-line programming using separate compilation and an expressive linking language. Separate compilation allows programmers to develop parts of a program independently. A linking language gives programmers precise control over the assembly of parts into a whole. This paper presents models of program units, MzScheme's module language for assembly-line programming. Units support separate compilation, independent module reuse, cyclic dependencies, hierarchical structuring, and dynamic linking. The models explain how to integrate units with untyped and typed languages such as Scheme and ML.