N-Substituted trans-4-aminocyclohex-2-en-1-ols undergo epoxidation upon treatment with Cl3CCO2H followed by meta-chloroperbenzoic acid (m-CPBA) via competitive pathways resulting from hydrogen-bonding delivery by both the hydroxy group and the in situ formed ammonium ion. The absence of epoxide ring-opening in these reactions renders these substrates a unique platform for analysing the effect of the two competing directing groups on the rate of the epoxidation reaction: the diastereoisomeric ratio of the epoxide products is also the ratio of the rate constants describing the competing epoxidation processes (the group with the higher directing ability dominating the stereochemical course of the reaction). Analysis of the diastereoisomeric epoxide mixtures obtained from these reactions allowed the following order of directing group ability to be defined: NHBn >> NMeBn > OH > NBn2. The large difference in rate between the secondary and tertiary amino groups is consistent with superior directing ability of the former due to the presence of two hydrogen-bond donor sites on the secondary ammonium ion and/or an increased conformational flexibility to adopt an optimum geometry. The rate of an ammonium-directed epoxidation proceeds ~10 times slower in the presence of an allylic hydroxy group than in its absence, consistent with the presence of the additional, inductively electron-withdrawing heteroatom abating the nucleophilicity of the olefin. The relative rate of the hydroxy-directed epoxidation process in the presence of a more sterically demanding ammonium substituent is greater than that in the presence of a less sterically demanding one: this effect is attributed to an increased bias for the half-chair conformer in which the bulky ammonium substituent and, hence, the hydroxy group occupy pseudo-equatorial sites, thus allowing the latter to direct the reaction more efficiently.


BACKGROUND
In vitro and observational epidemiological studies suggest that vitamin D may play a role in cancer prevention. However, the relationship between vitamin D and ovarian cancer is uncertain, with observational studies generating conflicting findings. A potential limitation of observational studies is inadequate control of confounding. To overcome this problem, we used Mendelian randomization (MR) to evaluate the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentration and risk of ovarian cancer.

METHODS
We employed SNPs with well-established associations with 25(OH)D concentration as instrumental variables for MR: rs7944926 (DHCR7), rs12794714 (CYP2R1) and rs2282679 (GC). We included 31 719 women of European ancestry (10 065 cases, 21 654 controls) from the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium, who were genotyped using customized Illumina Infinium iSelect (iCOGS) arrays. A two-sample (summary data) MR approach was used and analyses were performed separately for all ovarian cancer (10 065 cases) and for high-grade serous ovarian cancer (4121 cases).

RESULTS
The odds ratio for epithelial ovarian cancer risk (10 065 cases) estimated by combining the individual SNP associations using inverse variance weighting was 1.27 (95% confidence interval: 1.06 to 1.51) per 20 nmol/L decrease in 25(OH)D concentration. The estimated odds ratio for high-grade serous epithelial ovarian cancer (4121 cases) was 1.54 (1.19, 2.01).

CONCLUSIONS
Genetically lowered 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations were associated with higher ovarian cancer susceptibility in Europeans. These findings suggest that increasing plasma vitamin D levels may reduce risk of ovarian cancer.


This paper reports on an evaluation of three compelling theories of communication media, based on the evidence of an intensive longitudinal Action Research project. The three theories of Media Richness, comprising relationships to social influence and media choice theories, Media Genre, and a media theory posited by Marshall McLuhan, all find support of some sort in the research evidence. This paper then attempts, through dialogue, to find similarities and comparisons between these theories, using examples of data from the research project.


Reticulofenestra circus var. lata is described from the Early Oligocene of North Atlantic Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Site 558. The taxon is a large variety of Reticulofenestra circus , a medium-sized subcircular reticulofenestrid (8–10 micron in size). The outline of the new variety and the shape of the central area are identical to those of R. circus . Nonetheless it can be easily differentiated with the light microscope by the thicker collar and the considerable larger size (12–14μm) of the coccolith. The quantitative distribution pattern shows that the taxon has a shorter stratigraphic range compared to that of R. circus , ranging from the uppermost part of Zone NP22 to the lower part of Zone NP23, within Chron C12r. The ages of the FO and of the LO of Reticulofenestra circus var. lata at Site 558 have been estimated at 32.46 and 31.71 Ma respectively, based on the available magnetostratigraphy. The LO is located slightly below the LO of Sphenolithus akropodus , whose biochronological age has been here calculated at 31.31 Ma. Reticulofenestra circus var. lata may represent a new Early Oligocene biostratigraphic marker.


BACKGROUND
Psychiatric patients often have residual intractable insomnia as a serious problem.

METHOD
Forty-eight psychiatrically ill patients (DSM-IV diagnoses) who had failed to respond to medicinal treatment for chronic insomnia were referred for and completed behavioral therapy as an adjunct to the pharmacologic treatment of their insomnia. The behavioral treatments included structured sleep hygiene, progressive muscle relaxation, stimulus control, and sleep restriction. The treatment program was accomplished in 6 sessions over 2 months. Follow-up evaluations were completed at 2, 6, and 12 months from the beginning of the treatment program. The outcome of the treatment program was evaluated in terms of the change in (1) self-reported specific sleep parameters, (2) self-ratings of sleep-related day-time state, (3) self-rating of quality of sleep, (4) the use of sleep medication, and (5) the therapist's global rating of improvement.

RESULTS
There was a statistically significant change from the baseline in all self-reported specific sleep parameters after 2 months that was sustained after 6 and 12 months. Sleep-related characteristics of daytime state showed statistically significant changes after 2 and 6 months that were maintained after 12 months. Sleep quality had a statistically significant change after 2 months, continued to improve statistically after 6 months, and was maximum after 12 months. Over half the patients (52.7%; 20 of 38) either reduced their sleep medication by half or stopped it completely. The therapist's global rating showed an improvement in 29.2% (N = 14) of patients after 2 months, 56.2% (N = 27) after 6 months, and 68.7% (N = 33) after 12 months.

CONCLUSION
The use of concomitant behavioral and pharmacologic treatment of chronic insomnia in psychiatrically ill patients results in improving sleep and sleep-related state and reduces the risk of return of insomnia for 10 months after finishing active treatment.


Gatekeepers in social research constitute an interesting social phenomenon as powerful and normally unpaid agents of research access. Yet, questions relating to the recruitment of potential gatekeepers and to the nature of the rewards than they might seek are under-considered and locating key gatekeepers is often characterised as a matter of luck or happenstance.
This paper suggests that access to gatekeepers in the conduct of social research is critical when engaging with elite organisations and that it is something which cannot be left to chance but needs to be systematically pursued. Using the example of the shipping industry the paper explains how social researchers can make use of their understandings of the non-pecuniary motivations of gatekeepers in seeking research access. Negotiations with gatekeepers are more likely to succeed when researchers are able to mobilise non-financial resources which have some alternative form of 'exchange value'.
Every year executives come together at commercially organized conferences focussed upon human resource management in the shipping industry. At these events, major global players discuss a programme of issues related to the business of recruiting and training seafarers. However, these international conferences are both much more and much less than they seem. This paper explores their purpose and in doing so reveals the ways in which they can be useful to social researchers. It argues that unlike most conferences these can only be seen as 'field configuring events' to a very limited extent but that they nonetheless serve an important purpose in securing symbolic, and more significantly reputational, capital for both individual delegates and interested academics. The paper argues that researchers can mobilise such capital in their favour in negotiating research access.


Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a leading cause of blindness among working diabetic patients worldwide. The current therapeutic strategies are limited by several side effects. Thus, it is important to investigate novel approaches for therapeutic intervention. Early inflammatory response and late neovascularization (NV) are cardinal clinical signs of the DR. We have previously demonstrated the involvement of bioactive lipids especially the products of omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) such as arachidonic acids in the development of retinal hyperpermeability and NV during DR. Hyperglycemia is a major risk factor for endothelial cell activation and development of microvascular dysfunction during DR. Overwhelming evidences suggest that omega-3 PUFAs like DHA (C22:6n-3) are protective in proliferative DR. In the present study, we investigate the effect of exogenous supplementation of DHA on human retinal microvascular endothelial cells (HREC) under hyperglycemic conditions. Cells were treated with or without high glucose (HG, 25 mM) for 36 hrs in the presence or absence of the DHA (30 µM). To study the early inflammatory response, cells were analyzed for cell barrier function by measuring the changes in transcellular electrical resistance (TER) using the Electrical Cell-substrate Impedance Sensing (ECIS). Hyperglycemia resulted in a significant decline in TER while it was significantly improved by DHA. Furthermore, to investigate the effect of DHA on the proangiogenc properties of hyperglycemia in HREC a scratch-wound repair assay was carried out in cultured HREC cells treated with or without HG in the presence or absence of DHA. The migration and proliferation of cells induced by HG was reduced on supplementation of cells with DHA. Levels of apoptosis and oxidative stress were also monitored under the effect of hyperglycemia. While HG treatment did not result in any change in level of apoptosis, it resulted in sharp induction of oxidative stress in cells, which however was ameliorated under the effect of DHA treatment to hyperglycemic cells. Real-time PCR revealed significantly enhanced transcripts for the vascular endothelial growth factor (vegf) in hyperglycemic cells while reduced expression of the pigment epithelium derived factor (pedf) and the peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma (PPAR) was observed. These changes were prevented by DHA. Anti-inflammatory properties of DHA were further evinced by monitoring the levels of several inflammatory cytokines and angiogenic factors by multiplex enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Glucose treatment resulted in upregulation of various pro-angiogenic factors like angiogenin, angiopoietin, pdgf, pigf and this effect of HG was prevented by DHA treatment. Similarly, inflammatory cytokines like TNF-alpha and MCP1, which are involved in promotion of angiogenesis and inflammation were induced by HG and was attenuated in the presence of DHA. Interestingly, anti-inflammatory cytokines like IL-1 beta and IL-6 were markedly increased by DHA as compared to HG alone. These results suggest that DHA protects HREC against the pro-angiogenic, -inflammatory and -oxidative effects of HG and thus it can be proposed as alternative or supplementary treatment to the current therapeutic strategies of DR.


This paper considers kernels invariant to translation, rotation and dilation. We show that no non-trivial positive definite (p.d.) kernels exist which are radial and dilation invariant, only conditionally positive definite (c.p.d.) ones. Accordingly, we discuss the c.p.d. case and provide some novel analysis, including an elementary derivation of a c.p.d. representer theorem. On the practical side, we give a support vector machine (s.v.m.) algorithm for arbitrary c.p.d. kernels. For the thin-plate kernel this leads to a classifier with only one parameter (the amount of regularisation), which we demonstrate to be as effective as an s.v.m. with the Gaussian kernel, even though the Gaussian involves a second parameter (the length scale).


Village tanks are put to a wide range of uses by the rural communities that depend on them for their survival. As the primacy of irrigation has decreased under these tanks due to a variety of climatic and economic reasons there is a need to reevaluate their use for other productive functions. The research presented in this paper is part of a programme investigating the potential to improve the management of living aquatic resources in order to bring benefits to the most marginal groups identified in upper watershed areas. Based on an improved typology of seasonal tanks, the seasonal changes and dynamics of various water quality parameters indicative of nutrient status and
fisheries carrying capacity are compared over a period of one year. Indicators of Net (Primary) Productivity (NP): Rates of Dissolved Oxygen (DO) change, Total Suspended Solids (TSS): Total Suspended Volatile solids (TVSS) ratios are the parameters of principle interest. Based on these results a comparative analysis is made on two classes of 'seasonal' and 'semi-seasonal' tanks. Results indicate a broad correlation in each of these parameters with seasonal
trends in tank hydrology. Highest productivity levels are associated with periods of declining water storage, whilst the lowest levels are associated with the periods of maximum water storage shortly after the NW monsoon. This variation is primarily attributed to dilution effects associated with depth and storage area. During the yala
period, encroachment of the surface layer by several species of aquatic macrophyte also has progressively negative impacts on productivity. The most seasonal tanks show wider extremes in seasonal nutrient dynamics, overall, with less favourable conditions than the 'semi-seasonal' tanks. Never the less all the tanks can be considered as being highly productive with NP levels comparable to fertilised pond systems for much of the year. This indicates that nutrient status is not likely to be amongst the most important constraints to enhancing fish production.
Other potential management improvements based on these results are discussed. [PDF contains 19 pages]


Adoption usually brings a lifetime of happiness to adopted children and their families. Some adoptions, however, can cause families significant problems. A recent conference on adoption research and public policy examined both the strengths and the weaknesses of adoption and provided a look at how the process might be strengthened. Adoption has long been a noble solution to a serious problem. Most adoptions, particularly those of infants, are quite successful. But behind the doors of some adoptive homes, things don't always go as smoothly as planned. Sometimes the arrival of an adopted child causes friction and disruption in the household. Adopted children are more likely than their nonadopted siblings to suffer psychological, behavioral, and academic problems. As they get older, the development of ambivalent feelings about adoption may cause additional emotional strife. Others pay an emotional price as well. Some children, usually older and with physical or emotional problems, are never adopted, instead spending childhood and adolescence moving from one foster home to another. And among the birth mothers of adopted children, a group that only recently has been studied, a significant number suffer emotional and sometimes even physical problems that can last throughout their lives. "Adoption raises a whole new set of issues within families that don't exist in nonadoptive families," says Jeffrey Haugaard, an assistant professor of human development and family studies and the organizer of a day-long conference on adoption research held on campus in October. The conference was sponsored by the college's Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center, and Family Life Development Center. The 100 or so attendees included social workers, policy makers, judges, academics, and a number of adoptive parents. Haugaard and five other speakers discussed their research on various aspects of adoption and the influence of adoption on the different players in the adoption process. They also shared ideas of how public policy might be adjusted to strengthen the process. Examining Adoption Outcomes Richard Barth of the University of California at Berkeley described preliminary results of his longitudinal study on how the size and structure of adoptive families affect the outcomes of adoption. Although the project is far from complete, Barth is already finding that factors such as the number of adopted children in the home, the number of birth children in the home, and the age of adoptees when brought into the home can be tied to the adjustment of the adopted children. David Brodzinsky of Rutgers University described his current research on how children adjust to adoption. Earlier studies have shown that adopted children are at higher risk than birth children for a variety of behavioral, emotional, and academic problems. They have also shown that these problems appear least frequently among children who are adopted during infancy or soon after but begin to increase significantly as the age at adoption increases. Brodzinski is looking at age as well as Children's attitudes, beliefs, and understanding of adoption to determine how these factors influence, their adjustment to adoption. Special needs children - older children, sibling groups, and children with emotional or physical disabilities - are a particular challenge to adoptive families; James Rosenthal of the University of Oklahoma discussed his current work on special needs adoptions. He pointed out that earlier studies have shown that special needs adoptions are generally quite positive. His project is trying to determine the factors that make them a success. When the projects are complete, their findings may prove useful in helping adoption professionals predict the success of adoptions based on family structure and the characteristics of the adoptive children. They also may help families be aware beforehand of the special problems they may face with their adopted children. …


This paper presents a method for audio context recognition, meaning classification between everyday environments. The method is based on representing each audio context using a histogram of audio events which are detected using a supervised classifier. In the training stage, each context is modeled with a histogram estimated from annotated training data. In the testing stage, individual sound events are detected in the unknown recording and a histogram of the sound event occurrences is built. Context recognition is performed by computing the cosine distance between this histogram and event histograms of each context from the training database. Term frequency-inverse document frequency weighting is studied for controlling the importance of different events in the histogram distance calculation. An average classification accuracy of 89% is obtained in the recognition between ten everyday contexts. Combining the event based context recognition system with more conventional audio based recognition increases the recognition rate to 92%.


This thesis focuses on expressively rich languages that can formalise talk about probability. These languages have sentences that say something about probabilities of probabilities, but also sentences that say something about the probability of themselves. For example:
(π): "The probability of the sentence labelled π is not greater than 1/2."

Such sentences lead to philosophical and technical challenges. For example seemingly harmless principles, such as an introspection principle, lead to inconsistencies with the axioms of probability in this framework.

This thesis aims to answer two questions relevant to such frameworks, which correspond to the two parts of the thesis: "How can one develop a formal semantics for this framework?" and "What rational constraints are there on an agent once such expressive frameworks are considered?". In this second part we are considering probability as measuring an agent's degrees of belief. In fact that concept of probability will be the motivating one throughout the thesis.

The first chapter of the thesis provides an introduction to the framework. The following four chapters, which make up Part I, focus on the question of how to provide a semantics for this expressively rich framework. In Chapter 2, we discuss some preliminaries and why developing semantics for such a framework is challenging. We will generally base our semantics on certain possible world structures that we call probabilistic modal structures. These immediately allow for a definition of a natural semantics in restrictive languages but not in the expressively rich languages that this thesis focuses on. The chapter also presents an overview of the strategy that will be used throughout this part of the thesis: we will generalise theories and semantics developed for the liar paradox, which is the sentence:
(λ): "The sentence labelled λ is not true".

In Chapter 3, we will present a semantics that generalises a very influential theory of truth: a Kripke-style theory (Kripke, 1975) using a strong Kleene evaluation scheme. A feature of this semantics is that we can understand it as assigning sentences intervals as probability values instead of single numbers. Certain axioms of probability have to be dropped, for example "P 'λ ∨ ¬λ' = 1" is not satisfied in the construction, but the semantics can be seen as assigning non-classical probabilities. This semantics allows one to further understand the languages, for example the conflict with introspection, where one can see that the appropriate way to express the principle of introspection in this case is in fact to use a truth predicate in its formulation. We also develop an axiomatic system and show that it is complete in the presence of the ω-rule which allows one to fix the standard model of arithmetic.

In Chapter 4, we will consider another Kripke-style semantics but now based on a supervaluational evaluation scheme. This variation is particularly interesting because it bears a close relationship to imprecise probabilities where agents' credal states are taken to be sets of probability functions. In this chapter, we will also consider how to use this language to describe imprecise agents reasoning about one another. These considerations provide us with an argument for using imprecise probabilities that is very different from traditional justifications: by allowing agents to have imprecise probabilities one can easily extend a semantics to languages with sentences that talk about their own probability, whereas the traditional precise probabilist cannot directly apply his semantics to such languages.

In Chapter 5, a revision theory of probability will be developed. In this one retains classical logic and traditional probability theory but the price to pay is that one obtains a transfinite sequence of interpretations of the language and identifying any particular interpretation as "correct" is problematic. In developing this we are particularly interested in finding limit stage interpretations that can themselves be used as good models for probability and truth. We will require that the limit stages "sum up" the previous stages, understood in a strong way. In this chapter two strategies for defining the successor stages are discussed. We first discuss defining (successor) probabilities by considering relative frequencies in the revision sequence up to that stage, extending ideas from Leitgeb (2012). The second strategy is to base the construction on a probabilistic modal structure and use the accessibility measure from that to determine the interpretation of probability. That concludes Part I and the development of semantics.

In Part II, we consider rationality requirements on agents who have beliefs about self-referential probability sentences like π. For such sentences, a choice of the agent's credences will affect which worlds are possible. Caie (2013) has argued that the accuracy and Dutch book arguments should be modified because the agent should only care about her inaccuracy or payoffs in the world(s) that could be actual if she adopted the considered credences. We consider this suggestion for the accuracy argument in Chapter 7 and the Dutch book argument in Chapter 8. Chapter 6 acts as an introduction to these considerations. We will show that these modified accuracy and Dutch book criteria lead to an agent being rationally required to be probabilistically incoherent, have negative credences, fail to be introspective and fail to assign the same credence to logically equivalent sentences. We will also show that this accuracy criterion depends on how inaccuracy is measured and that the accuracy criterion differs from the Dutch book criterion. We will in fact suggest rejecting Caie's suggested modifications. For the accuracy argument, we suggest in Section 7.3 that the agent should consider how accurate the considered credences are from the perspective of her current credences. We will also consider how to generalise this version of the accuracy criterion and present ideas suggesting that it connects to the vi semantics developed in Part I. For the Dutch book argument, in Section 8.6 we suggest that this is a case where an agent should not bet with his credences.


Measurements of longitudinal flow correlations are presented for charged particles in the pseudorapidity range |η| < 2.4 using 7 μb−1 and 470 μb−1 of Pb+Pb collisions at √ sNN = 2.76 and 5.02 TeV, respectively, recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. It is found that the correlation between the harmonic flow coefficients vn measured in two separated η intervals does not factorise into the product of single-particle coefficients, and this breaking of factorisation, or flow decorrelation, increases linearly with the η separation between the intervals. The flow decorrelation is stronger at 2.76 TeV than at 5.02 TeV. Higher-order moments of the correlations are also measured, and the corresponding linear coefficients for the kth-moment of the vn are found to be proportional to k for v3, but not for v2. The decorrelation effect is separated into contributions from the magnitude of vn and the event-plane orientation, each as a function of η. These two contributions are found to be comparable. The longitudinal flow correlations are also measured between vn of different order in n. The decorrelations of v2 and v3 are found to be independent of each other, while the decorrelations of v4 and v5 are found to be driven by the nonlinear contribution from v2 2 and v2v3, respectively.


Value assessment of exotic and native tree plantations based upon short-term gains from wood has suggested that exotic plantations are more profitable than native tree plantations. Such estimations have largely ignored the value of ecological services. This study estimates the ecological-economic value of forest floor vegetation, soil nutrients and return of nutrients from litter in exotic Eucalyptus tereticornis and native Dalbergia sissoo plantations in northwestern India. Two age groups of plantations, i.e. 6-8 years (young) and 19-21 years (old) were selected to compare net benefits as exotics deliver most of their benefits (especially wood) by eight years of age, while natives deliver benefits after 12-15 years of age. The diversity of plant species, nutrient content in soil and nutrient return through litter were greater in Dalbergia than in Eucalyptus plantations. A comparison of plantations at eight years suggested that the total monetary value of tangible (timber, fuel, fodder, eucalypt oil and ash) and ecological services (phytodiversity, soil nutrient content and nutrient return through litter) was 1.6 times greater in Eucalyptus than in Dalbergia plantations, chiefly because of timber. However, ecological benefits were 1.8 times greater in Dalbergia than in Eucalyptus plantations. At 19-21 years of age, Dalbergia supported 2.7 times more total benefits than Eucalyptus. Thus there seems to be a need to consider both tangible and intangible services over the long term and to carry out total value assessment of exotic and native tree plantations to design appropriate policy.


Paratuberculosis vaccination in cattle has been restricted due to its possible interference with the official diagnostic methods used in tuberculosis eradication programs. To overcome this drawback, new possibilities to detect Mycobacterium bovis infected cattle in paratuberculosis vaccinated animals were studied under experimental conditions. Three groups of 5 calves each were included in the experiment: one paratuberculosis vaccinated group, one paratuberculosis vaccinated and M. bovis infected group and one M. bovis infected group. The performance of the IFN-gamma release assay (IGRA) and the skin test using conventional avian and bovine tuberculins (A- and B-PPD) but also other more specific antigens (ESAT-6/CFP10 and Rv3615c) was studied under official and new diagnostic criteria. Regarding the IGRA of vaccinated groups, when A- and B-PPD were used the sensitivity reached 100% at the first post-challenge sampling, dropping down to 40–80% in subsequent samplings. The sensitivity for the specific antigens was 80–100% and the specificity was also improved. After adapting the diagnostic criteria for the conventional antigens in the skin test, the ability to differentiate between M. bovis infected and non-infected animals included in paratuberculosis vaccinated groups was enhanced. Taking for positive a relative skin thickness increase of at least 100%, the single intradermal test specificity and sensitivity yielded 100%. The comparative intradermal test was equally accurate considering a B-PPD relative skin increase of at least 100% and greater than or equal to that produced by A-PPD. Using the specific antigens as a proteic cocktail, the specificity and sensitivity reached 100% considering the new relative and absolute cut-offs in all experimental groups (Δ≥30% and Δmm ≥ 2, respectively). Results suggest that the interference caused by paratuberculosis vaccination in cattle could be completely overcome by applying new approaches to the official tuberculosis diagnostic tests.


Three studies examined the role of habit on information acquisition concerning travel mode choices. On the basis of Triandis' (1980) model of attitude‐behaviour relations it was expected that habit strength attenuates the elaborateness of choice processes. The studies focused on different phases in the choice process, namely the appreciation of situational cues and appreciation of choice option information. In line with expectations, it was found that, compared to weak habit participants, those who had a strong habit towards choosing a particular travel mode acquired less information and gave evidence of less elaborate choice strategies. It was attempted to break effects of habit by manipulating either accountability demands or level of attention. Although accountability demands raised the level of information acquisition, no interactions with habit were found. Enhanced attention to the choice process initially did override habit effects in a series of choice trials. However, in spite of this manipulation, chronic habit effects emerged during later trials. The results demonstrate the profound effects that habit may have on the appreciation of information about choice situations and choice options. #1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Flowers of the Orchidaceae family are highly variable in shape, color and smell, which make orchids the most important cut flowers in the market. Among the orchid varieties, Dendrobium hybrids have high regards in the cut flower industry. This study was aimed at establishing a plant regeneration system of Dendrobium Serdang Beauty and the characterization of colchicine-induced mutation by RAPD.
The first part of the study was to develop a plantlet regeneration system for D. Serdang Beauty. Callus was induced from protocorm- like bodies (plbs), and cultured on media supplemented with different auxins of various concentrations for plantlet regeneration. Highest fresh weight in callus induction and proliferation was obtained on MS medium containing 1.5 mg/L IBA.
Calli proliferated on medium supplemented with 1.5 mg/L IBA were used as explants for plantlet regeneration. The highest percentage of plantlet regeneration was obtained in treatments with 1 mg/L KIN and 1.5 mg/L NAA (90%).
In the acclimatization study, plants were cultured in vivo in different media under the same environment. All media gave high percentage of plant survival. Medium M1 (charcoal), M2 (charcoal mixed with broken rock) and M5 (sawdust mixed with charcoal) produced the highest percentage of plant survival (100%).
Following the callus induction study, calli obtained were cultured on media containing different concentrations of colchicine (0, 5, 10, 20 and 25 mg/L). Colchicine treatment at 5 mg/L significantly gave the highest fresh weight of regenerated plantlets (3.43 g).
Subsequently, the resulting calli from colchicine treatments were analyzed for somaclonal variation and characterized using RAPD. The study indicated that somaclonal variation existed and was polymorphic in nature. Based on the analysis, D. Serdang Beauty V showed 25% differentiation with the mother plant. In a further analysis, D. Serdang Beauty V was also characterized with other Dendrobium species. D. Serdang Beauty V showed high dissimilarity with other Dendrobium varieties.In conclusion, the result showed that IBA in low concentration was effective to induce and proliferate more callus. In the regeneration study, KIN alone or in combination with other auxin was useful to regenerate more plantlets. Meanwhile in the acclimatization study, charcoal was useful to growth of Dendrobium. Also colchicine induced mutation method was useful for the production of mutated Dendrobium and the RAPD technique appeared to be useful for the detection of variation between species and varieties


Using a new tax database for 28 countries and a variety of econometric methods, this paper contributes to the debate on the effects of fiscal policy on economic activity in a number of ways. The analysis finds that tax cuts have a stimulative effect on economic growth in developing countries. Lowering the personal income tax rate by 1 percentage point, or cutting revenues by 1 percent of gross domestic product increases gross domestic product by 0.3-0.4 percent on impact and 0.8 percent in the long run. The author finds that cuts in personal income taxes are more effective in stimulating growth than cuts in corporate or valued added tax rates. The author incorporates debt dynamics into a fiscal vector autoregression model for a number of developing countries. Existing estimates of the effects of fiscal policy on growth use linear time-series methods, which may assess the effects of fiscal policy along a debt-path that is unsustainable. Incorporating the non-linear relationship between government expenditure, taxes, and debt alters estimates of the impact of fiscal policy on gross domestic product in several countries. In Brazil, for example, conventional time-series methods may overstate the effects of fiscal policy on gross domestic product, by ignoring the detrimental effects of debt accumulation.


The goal of this Master Thesis is to study shared radio resources among users with different services requirements. The analyzed properties of the wireless connection are fairness, throughput and delay for users demanding different services and QoS requirements. Four scheduling algorithms are used for allocating system resources. Two of them, Max Rate and Round Robin, are used as references to analyze throughput and fairness respectively. The other two algorithms, Proportional Fair Scheduling and Rate Craving Greedy, exploit the idea of multiuser diversity improving the throughput without comprising fairness. Different fading radio channel models are investigated, but only urban environments and pedestrian users are simulated in this report. OFDM has been the technique used to transmit signals over the wireless channel. The performance of these algorithms is analyzed and compared through MATLAB computer simulations.


We review recent NMR studies of the layered organic superconductors of the (BEDT)2X family. First the normal state properties are discussed. The central issue is the importance of the interplay between antiferromagnetism and superconductivity in these materiais demonstrated by the observation of a pseudogap developing prior to the superconducting transition. An extended analysis of the Knight shift and the nuclear relaxation rate gives an evidence for strong antiferromagnetic fluctuations enhanced by Coulomb repulsion and the nesting of the Fermi surface. The NMR data show some analogy with High Tc superconductors however the comparison is not straightforward as there is no clear evidence for spin-charge decouphng. The use of high pressure to tune the amplitude of AF fluctuations enables us to draw a general phase diagram of the family. In the second part the NMR experiments in the superconducting state are presented. Une of the fundamental questions addressed by these experiments is the symmetry of the order parameter related to the painng mechanism. The most spectacular NMR measurements are those performed in the lock-in state, which grue access to the density of superconducting excitations at low energy. These expenments suggest that the pairing state may be unconventional featunng an anisotropic superconducting gap, possibly with nodes. Finally, the NMR contribution to the understanding of the nature of the vortex state is discussed in the context of recent results on ~-(ET)2Cu[N(CN)2]Br where the ~H relaxation was used as a probe of the vortex density fluctuations.


Differential phase-contrast imaging in the x-ray domain provides three physically complementary signals:1, 2 the attenuation, the differential phase-contrast, related to the refractive index, and the dark-field signal, strongly influenced by the total amount of radiation scattered into very small angles. In medical applications, it is of the utmost importance to present to the radiologist all clinically relevant information in as compact a way as possible. Hence, the need arises for a method to combine two or more of the above mentioned signals into one image containing all information relevant for diagnosis. We present an image composition algorithm that fuses the attenuation image and the differential phase contrast image into a composite, final image based on the assumption that the real and imaginary part of the complex refractive index of the sample can be related by a constant scaling factor. The merging is performed in such a way that the composite image is characterized by minimal noise-power at each frequency component.


The replicative lifespan (RLS) of a cell—defined as the number of generations a cell divides before death—has informed our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of cellular aging. Nearly all RLS studies have been performed on budding yeast and little is known about the mechanisms of aging and longevity in symmetrically dividing eukaryotic cells. Here, we describe a multiplexed fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe) lifespan micro-dissector (FYLM); a microfluidic platform for performing automated micro-dissection and high-content single-cell analysis in well-defined culture conditions. Using the FYLM, we directly observe continuous and robust replication of hundreds of individual fission yeast cells for over seventy-five cell divisions. Surprisingly, cells die without any classic hallmarks of cellular aging such as changes in cell morphology, increased doubling time, or reduced sibling health. Genetic perturbations and longevity-enhancing drugs can further extend the replicative lifespan (RLS) via an aging-independent mechanism. We conclude that despite occasional sudden death of individual cells, fission yeast does not age. These results highlight that cellular aging and replicative lifespan can be uncoupled in a eukaryotic cell.


Written by a wide range of highly regarded scholars and exciting junior ones, this book critiques and operationalizes contemporary thinking in the rapidly expanding field of linguistic anthropology. It does so using case studies of actual everyday language practices from an extremely understudied yet incredibly important area of the Global South: Indonesia. In doing so, it provides a rich set of studies that model and explain complex linguistic anthropological analysis in engaging and easily understood ways.

As a book that is both accessible for undergraduate students and enlightening for graduate students through to senior professors, this book problematizes a wide range of assumptions. The diversity of settings and methodologies used in this book surpass many recent collections that attempt to address issues surrounding contemporary processes of diversification given rapid ongoing social change. In focusing on the trees, so to speak, the collection as a whole also enables readers to see the forest. This approach provides a rare insight into relationships between everyday language practices, social change, and the ever-present and ongoing processes of nation-building.


We present a method for recovering both incident lighting and surface materials from casually scanned geometry. By casual, we mean a rapid and potentially noisy scanning procedure of unmodified and uninstrumented scenes with a commodity RGB-D sensor. In other words, unlike reconstruction procedures which require careful preparations in a laboratory environment, our method works with input that can be obtained by consumer users. To ensure a robust procedure, we segment the reconstructed geometry into surfaces with homogeneous material properties and compute the radiance transfer on these segments. With this input, we solve the inverse rendering problem of factorization into lighting and material properties using an iterative optimization in spherical harmonics form. This allows us to account for self-shadowing and recover specular properties. The resulting data can be used to generate a wide range of mixed reality applications, including the rendering of synthetic objects with matching lighting into a given scene, but also re-rendering the scene (or a part of it) with new lighting. We show the robustness of our approach with real and synthetic examples under a variety of lighting conditions and compare them with ground truth data.


There exists a substantial literature on the status of women in legal education, including studies on women students' experiences in law schools and gender bias on law school faculties. However, no recent study examines the family leave policies and practices in American law schools. This pilot study of thirty-three law schools represents an initial step toward filling that gap. Its findings are threefold. First, almost three-quarters of the law schools surveyed provide some form of wage replacement during a family leave that is more generous than required by federal law. Second, among the law schools surveyed, there is a positive relationship between teaching at top-tier and private law schools and receiving a paid family leave. Third, although many of the surveyed law schools provide paid family leave, most leaves were granted on a case-by-case basis. This study stands to benefit a number of constituencies within the legal academy, including individual faculty members, faculties developing leave policies, appointments committees, and job candidates. While preliminary in nature, it raises a number of open empirical and theoretical questions for future


From the 1910s to the mid-1930s, the flamboyant and gifted spiritualist Deguchi Onisaburo (1871-1948) transformed his mother-in-law's small, rural religious following into a massive movement, eclectic in content and international in scope. Through a potent blend of traditional folk beliefs and practices like divination, exorcism, and millenarianism, an ambitious political agenda, and skillful use of new forms of visual and mass media, he attracted millions to Oomoto, his Shintoist new religion. Despite its condemnation as a heterodox sect by state authorities and the mainstream media, Oomoto quickly became the fastest-growing religion in Japan of the time. In telling the story of Onisaburo and Oomoto, Nancy Stalker not only gives us the first full account in English of the rise of a heterodox movement in imperial Japan, but also provides new perspectives on the importance of "charismatic entrepreneurship" in the success of new religions around the world. She makes the case that these religions often respond to global developments and tensions (imperialism, urbanization, consumerism, the diffusion of mass media) in similar ways. They require entrepreneurial marketing and management skills alongside their spiritual authority if their groups are to survive encroachments by the state and achieve national/international stature. Their drive to realize and extend their religious view of the world ideally stems from a "prophet" rather than "profit" motive, but their activity nevertheless relies on success in the modern capitalist, commercial world. Unlike many studies of Japanese religion during this period, "Prophet Motive" works to dispel the notion that prewar Shinto was monolithically supportive of state initiatives and ideology.


Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), considered a safe insecticide, produces insecticidal proteins named Cry during sporulation, which possess exceptional immunological properties. In this work using an immunohistochemical test we demonstrated that Cry1Ac protoxin (pCry1Ac) binds to the mucosal surface of the mouse small intestine. Ligand blot assay allowed us to detect, under denaturing conditions, six pCry1Ac-binding polypeptides present in brush border membrane vesicles isolated from the small intestine. Moreover, this protein induced in situ temporal changes in the electrophysiological properties of the mouse jejunum. The data obtained indicate a possible interaction in vivo of Cry proteins with the animal bowel which could induce changes in the physiological status of the intestine.


In today's world the life is very fast we want to do everything so quickly and easily without putting much physical and mental effort. With the advancement of technology we are provided with higher level of knowledge through the invention of different devices. However each technological innovation has its pros and cons. One of the emerging devise for biometric security system is Smartphone's we are using today. Today we cannot think of living without smart phones as they have become the part of our life. We depend on our phone for our so man day to day activities like paying bills connecting with friends and office, making money transaction. But using the traditional security features we cannot get appropriate security as anyone who knows the password to unlock my phone can get access to my phone. Using biometrics traits like fingerprint, voice, face, and iris one cannot get access to the device. In this paper we focus on how biometrics help in making the device more secure and fool proof and what were the lacking in the traditional methods of security system which give birth to the implementation of biometric security system.


Immunohistochemical stains are routinely used to detect abnormal DNA mismatch repair (MMR) protein expression in colorectal carcinomas, particularly when Lynch syndrome is suspected. Complete loss of MMR protein expression is often associated with underlying microsatellite instability (MSI), and the combined results of mutL homolog 1 (MLH1), postmeiotic segregation increased 2 (PMS2), mutS homolog 2 (MSH2), or mutS homolog 6 (MSH6) immunostains may point to the defective MMR protein in tumors with MSI. We have noted that some neoadjuvantly treated colorectal carcinomas display loss of MMR protein immunoexpression, despite a lack of underlying MSI and preserved staining in pretreatment tumor samples. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of this finding. We identified 51 neoadjuvantly treated resected colorectal cancers. Posttreatment tumor samples were immunohistochemically stained with MLH1, PMS2, MSH2, and MSH6 antibodies. Loss of staining for any marker was followed by analysis for MSI and assessment of MMR protein expression in pretreatment tumor samples. All of the 51 posttreatment tumor samples showed preserved MLH1, PMS2, and MSH2, but 10 posttreatment tumor samples (20%) showed decreased MSH6 staining. Of these, 9 posttreatment tumor samples displayed loss of staining in less than 100% of tumor cells, but preserved MSH6 expression in pretreatment tumor samples. One case showed a complete absence of MSH6 staining in both pretreatment and posttreatment tumor samples. All 10 cases were microsatellite stable. We conclude that extensive loss of MSH6 immunoexpression is common among neoadjuvantly treated colorectal carcinomas, but generally does not reflect underlying MSI. Therefore, diminished MSH6 staining in treated tumors should prompt immunohistochemical evaluation of pretreatment biopsy samples before genetic testing for Lynch syndrome.


Alongside the trans-Atlantic slave trade, plant species travelled from Africa to the Americas and back. This article examines the emerging rice gene pool in Suriname due to the global circulation of people, plants and goods. We distinguish three phases of circulation, marked by two major transitions. Rice was brought to the Americas by European colonizers, mostly as food on board of slave ships. In Suriname rice started off as a crop grown only by Maroon communities in the forests of the Suriname interior. For these runaway slaves cultivating several types of rice for diverse purposes played an important role in restoring some of their African culture. Rice was an anti-commodity that acted as a signal of protest against the slave-based plantation economy. After the end of slavery, contract labourers recruited from British India and the Dutch Indies also brought rice to Suriname. These groups grew rice as a commodity for internal and global markets. This formed the basis of a second transition, turning rice into an object of scientific research. The last phase of science-driven circulation of rice connected the late-colonial period with the global Green Revolution.


This paper reveals that logistics may conservatively amount to 18% of the levelized cost of energy for offshore wind farms. This is the key finding from an extensive case study carried out within the organization of the world's leading offshore wind farm developer and operator. The case study aimed to, and produced, a number of possible opportunities for offshore wind cost reductions through logistics innovation; however, within the case study company, no company-wide logistics organization existed to focus horizontally on reducing logistics costs in general. Logistics was not well defined within the case study company, and a logistics strategy did not exist. With full life-cycle costs of offshore wind farms still high enough to present a political challenge within the European Union in terms of legislation to ensure offshore wind diffusion beyond 2020, our research presents logistics as a next frontier for offshore wind constituencies. This important area of the supply chain is ripe to academically and professionally cultivate and harvest in terms of offshore wind energy cost reductions. Our paper suggests that a focused organizational approach for logistics both horizontally and vertically within the company organizations could be the way forward, coupled with a long-term legislative environment to enable the necessary investments in logistics assets and transport equipment.


The report was commissioned by senior personnel in the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE), who wanted to learn how enhancements in information flows might continue to be improved.

The report contains a review of the international literature to identify lessons that can be learned for Victoria. It contains findings of 40 interviews with personnel who were directly involved in the previous fire season in working in either the control agency or emergency partner organisations. Emergency management partner organisations are those agencies with key roles to play, either in providing support to the control agencies or in the provision of services to communities for which those emergency partner agencies are responsible.

The report reviews major domestic and international incidents and concludes that breakdowns of information flow typically occur at the boundaries of differing agencies or groups. The consequences of these breakdowns increase in severity with increasing dependency and interdependency between agencies/interests.
The interviews revealed that personnel involved in a fire-related emergency event had a good knowledge of their own role and the immediate context of their own responsibility within the emergency management framework and of the information needs of those with whom they directly inter-related. However, respondents indicated a limited understanding of the need and purpose of information flow two steps beyond their own position. From the research reported and discussed, 33 strategies are identified to improve information flow between agencies responsible for controlling fire-related emergency events and emergency management partner organisations. The report is of significance to both the state of Victoria and nationally. We believe that addressing the strategies for improving information flow will result in considerable enhancements to information flow between the DSE as the control agency and emergency management partner organisations.


The work's goal is to contribute to the discussion on cartelisation in the party systems of East Central Europe. Its contribution to the research field is to be found in a thorough analysis of the budgets of political parties in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, to a smaller degree also of the budgets of political parties in Austria, Germany and Slovenia. In total thirty arguments found in the existing scholarly literature are discussed, with a focus on their relation to budgets and election strategies of political parties. These arguments are analysed with the help of basic tools of quantivative statistical analysis and the qualitative method of comparison of selected features of the analysed cases. The work's analytical part is based on two new original datasets. The first one, where data on budgets of political parties are collected, uses publicly available sources found in both the off-line as well as the on-line world of today. The second one uses original data collected by the means of an electronic questionnaire send to representatives of political parties in the six researched countries. The work defines two new concepts that serve as the theoretical basis of the analysis: the rule drive and the strategy drive. The rule drive is the part of a party's budget that is predominantly formed by legal regulations on political parties, their funding and activities. On the income side, the rule drive is mostly visible in the share of party budget comprised by state subsidies. On the expenditure side, the rule drive is most apparent in the legal limits of expenses parties may allocate to election campaigning. In addition, the rule drive encompasses also the various limits on donations permittable to be accepted by political parties, limits on parties' business activities, or the legal fees that parties are obliged to pay to enter certain types of elections. The strategy drive is the causal agent that is predominantly formed by parties' free decisions on how they wish to conduct their day-to-day activities and their election campaigning. On the income side, the strategy drive is represented by the amount of membership fees collected, donations accepted or loans taken out. On the expenditure side, the strategy drive is the formula by which political parties allocate their financial assets to the various activities each political party carries out: office operations, administrative work for their elected representatives and officials, education of party members and promotion towards the public in general, election campaigning. Both concepts are of interest for the analysis and all their segments are used to assess the various structural features of party budgets. Original data collected for the work show that parties in their lifetime go through an evolution of their budgets, from one relying mostly on private donations and spending the majority of assets on elections to one relying on membership fees, state subsidies in the case of an electoral sucess, and spending a larger part of assets on activities not related to election campaigning. The specific shape of budget evolution depends largely on the size of their budget – parties with smaller budgets feature also a different budget structure than parties with budgets larger. This rule applies across the spectrum, from the largest parties in the dataset to the smallest one. The quantitative data on budget sizes are in the work translated into meaningful, categories based on budget sizes. , The categories are labeled weight classes, mimicking the weight classes found in the boxing world, from bantamweight parties, with annual budgets up to €10 thousand, to super heavyweight parties, with annual budgets over €10 million. All parties in the researched countries are thus be classified. Based on these categories, is it shown that the largest, super heavy parties in East Central Europe receive the bulk of all public funding. The model of subsidies distribution differs in the researched countries and the numbers show that it is difficult to assess whether one system is more cartelised than the other on the basis of distributed state subsidies. Easier and less arguable is to assess the relative transparency of the models of party regulations and regulations of party funding in each of the researched country. Austria, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia and Poland are in the recent time undergoing a turn towards more transparency, with new laws already in place or currently being adopted. The Czech Republic is noticeably lagging behind. The last phenomenon discussed in the work is that certain features of budgets, including its size and structure, correlate with certain party strategies. Parties of certain budget size and structure have different campaigning strategies, different policies and different opinions than parties of different budget size and structure. The collected data shows links between several variables, such as parties with large subsidies share in their budgets see as legitimate larger subsidies share than parties without subsidies, or heavyweight and middleweight parties spend a significantly larger share of their election expenses on the Internet than super heavyweight parties. Finally is discussed the behaviour of a specific set of parties that are in the researched dataset mostly found in the heavyweight and middleweight class. These parties have different campaign strategies, keep their election campaign spending higher than the rest and their budgets do not go through the same evolutionary shift as do the budgets of other parties. They do not increase their fee-paying membership and do not sustain significant day-to-day activities not directly related to election campaigning. These parties are since 2007 at the latest most successful in challenging the 'cartel' established by larger parties in national parliaments. The set of these parties overlaps in a large part with the set of 'populist' parties as discussed in other, ideology and party programme-oriented literature. Or, if restated, the populist parties are in their majority distinguished not only by their programmatic profile, but also by the structure of their budgets and related party strategy features. Ultimately, the work provides a lot of empirical evidence for the discussion of the concept of 'cartel' in the region of East Central Europe. It supports with hard data some of the old folk theorems and creates a firm data and conceptual basis for further research of party funding in East Central Europe.


Since the release in August 1968 of the APL/ 360 interpretive time-sharing system, the algebraic language called APL has gained many enthusiastic users. Users of APL consist of those who use it as a desk calculator, as a tool for programming and calculating complex mathematical functions, to define and simulate computer systems, to teach elementary and secondary school children, to teach engineering, to edit technical papers, and to carry out many other tasks with varying degrees of complexity. A novice in the use of the APL will find the book very helpful as a guide to concepts and use of an APL terminal system for solving simple and complex problems.


Rapid increases in oil prices in 2008 led some to call for special taxes on the oil industry. Because oil is an exhaustible resource, however, the effects of excise taxes on production or on reported producer profits may be more complex than in many other markets. This paper uses well-level production data on California oil wells for the period 1977-2008, along with the rich variation in producer prices induced by federal oil taxes and pre-1980 price controls, to estimate how temporary taxes affect oil production decisions. Theory suggests that temporary taxes could lead producers to shut wells, and more generally that they create strong incentives for retiming production to minimize tax burdens. The empirical estimates suggest small estimates of extensive responses to after-tax prices, meaning that wells are rarely shut, but they also suggest substantial retiming of production for operating wells. While the estimates vary with specifications, the elasticity of oil production with respect to the after-tax price is estimated to fall between 0.208 and 0.261. The estimates are used to calibrate a simple model of the efficiency cost of tax-induced distortions relative to the no-tax optimal extraction path. These calculations suggest that a 15 percent temporary excise tax on California oil producers reduces the present value of producer surplus by between one and five percent of the no-tax surplus or between 113 and 166 percent of the government revenue raised, depending on the original life of the well and the duration of the temporary tax.


Significant edema manifests as soft tissue swelling that can delay surgery in patients with ankle fractures. Interventions that expedite swelling reduction may yield clinical and economic benefits. This case-control pilot study aimed to assess the ability to recruit ankle fracture patients to a prospective study using a neuromuscular electrostimulation (NMES) device. Device effectiveness, safety, and patient acceptability were also assessed. Prospective evaluation of 20 patients admitted for ankle fracture fixation with the application of NMES device to the skin just below the knee (intervention arm). Participants were matched for baseline demographics and injury descriptors to a historical operative cohort (control arm). The time until the swelling had settled to a level permitting surgery ("readiness for surgery") was recorded alongside patient tolerability and device acceptance. The mean time until swelling reduced to a level permitting surgery was 1.66 days (NMES) versus 3.66 days (control) (P=0.001). Overall 60% of participants were ready for theater after 2 days of treatment with the NMES device compared with 27% in the control group (P<0.01). Independent health economic modeling of this scenario suggests that the savings associated with this accelerated readiness for theater is £569 per patient. The NMES device is safe and well tolerated by patients with ankle fractures. It is easy to apply, can be worn continuously, and does not restrict patients to their bed space. This study suggests that it is effective in reducing ankle edema and accelerating readiness for theater and may therefore allow earlier surgery and reduced length of stay in this patient group. Level of Evidence: Diagnostic Level 3. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.


Can monetary policy be used to promote financial stability? We answer this question by estimating the impact of a monetary policy shock on private-sector leverage and the likelihood of a financial crisis. Impulse responses obtained from a panel VAR model of 18 advanced countries suggest that the debt-to-GDP ratio rises in the short run following an unexpected tightening in monetary policy. As a consequence, the likelihood of a financial crisis increases, as estimated from a panel logit regression. However, in the long run, output recovers and higher borrowing costs discourage new lending, leading to a deleveraging of the private sector. A lower debt-to-GDP ratio in turn reduces the likelihood of a financial crisis. These results suggest that monetary policy can achieve a less risky financial system in the long run but could fuel financial instability in the short run. We also find that the ultimate effects of a monetary policy tightening on the probability of a financial crisis depend on the leverage of the private sector: the higher the initial value of the debt-to-GDP ratio, the more beneficial the monetary policy intervention in the long run, but the more destabilizing in the short run.


This paper develops evidence that, in a declining market, appraisal values may lag notably behind analytical measures of the discounted present value of commercial property cash flows. For the period 1982-92, alternative measures of the economic value of constant-quality office buildings are constructed using two benchmark projections designed to bracket expected future vacancy rates and real rents. Until 1992, the time path for both benchmark series lie consistently below that developed from the appraisal-based Russell/NCREIF office market index. This divergence implies that the rate of price appreciation reported by the Russell/NCREIF index is distorted: being slow to register price declines when markets first weaken and then having to overstate the rate of decline once the market begins to bottom out. The distortion may reflect incentives for investment managers and appraisers to smooth potentially temporary price volatility, as well as systematic differences in the character and condition of the properties that tend to trade at different stages of the real estate cycle.


This research-in-progress presents a difficult healthcare problem, namely how to reduce the costs associated with chronic diseases. A comprehensive Web-based disease management system is proposed as a potential solution to help patients with chronic disease more effectively self-manage their disorders. A proposed research agenda is presented using a design science research approach. Theories capable of informing the design of the proposed solution are discussed including social learning theory and the theory of planned behavior. Design parameters are described and potential design ideas are presented.


Abstract. The reversal of freshwater acidification in the low mountain ranges of Germany is of public, political and scientific concern, because these regions are near natural ecosystems and function as an important drinking water supply. The aim of this study was to evaluate the status and trends of acidification reversal after two decades of reduced anthropogenic deposition in selected freshwaters of the low mountain ranges in the Harz, the Fichtelgebirge, the Bavarian Forest, the Spessart and the Black Forest. In response to decreased sulphate deposition, seven out of nine streams investigated had significantly decreasing sulphate concentrations (all trends were calculated with the Seasonal Kendall Test). The decrease in sulphate concentration was only minor, however, due to the release of previously stored soil sulphur. No increase was found in pH and acid neutralising capacity (defined by Reuss and Johnson, 1986). Aluminum concentrations in the streams did not decrease. Thus, no major acidification reversal can currently be noted in spite of two decades of decreased acid deposition. Nevertheless, the first signs of improvement in water quality were detected as there was a decrease in the level and frequency of extreme values of pH, acid neutralising capacity and aluminium concentrations in streams. With respect to nitrogen, no change was determined for either nitrate or ammonium concentrations in precipitation or stream water. Base cation fluxes indicate increasing net loss of base cations from all ecosystems investigated, which could be interpreted as an increase in soil acidification. The latter was due to a combination of continued high anion leaching and significant reduction of base cation deposition. No major improvement was noted in biological recovery, however, initial signs of recovery were detectable as there was re-occurrence of some single macroinvertebrate species which were formerly extinct. The results of this study have important implications for water authorities, forest managers and policy makers: the delay in acidification reversal suggests a need for ongoing intensive amelioration of waters, a careful selection of management tools to guarantee sustainable management of forests and the reduction of nitrogen deposition to prevent further acidification of soils and waters. Keywords: freshwater, acidification reversal, drinking water supply, forested catchments, Germany


ABSTRACT Subtractive hybridization was carried out to identify differences between the sequenced genome of Bordetella pertussis Tohama I and those of two recently collected isolates. We identified genetic regions specific to recent isolates, old isolates, and isolates of B. parapertussis and B. bronchiseptica species. We conclude that Tohama I strain is not representative of the B. pertussis species.


The tastes of a user can be represented in a natural way by using qualitative preferences. In this paper, we explore how ontological knowledge expressed via existential rules can be combined with CP-theories to (i) represent qualitative preferences along with domain knowledge, and (ii) perform preference-based answering of conjunctive queries (CQs). We call these combinations ontological CP-theories (OCP-theories). We define skyline and k-rank answers to CQs based on the user's preferences encoded in an OCP-theory, and provide an algorithm for computing them. We also provide precise complexity (including data tractability) results for deciding consistency, dominance, and CQ skyline membership for OCP-theories.


Introduction Cystic fibrosis (CF) newborn screening (NBS) allows early introduction of treatment, often before any symptoms arise with the aim of reducing airway infection and inflammation. UK nationwide screening began in 2007. Aims It is usual clinical practise at our centre to perform fibreoptic bronchoscopy (FOB) at the age of 3 months for all children with CF. The aim of this study was to establish the presence of infection and degree of inflammation in airways in the NBS cohort. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) was cultured and examined for cellular inflammation. Results Infants diagnosed by NBS undergoing routine FOB who had either BALF absolute cell count or differential cell count assessed were included in the study. 44 infants (48% female), median age (range) 15 (7–28) weeks met these criteria. The majority of these infants were symptom free however 13 (29%) had bacterial isolates from their BALF. Comparable data are also available for 71 children with established CF (median age 9.5 years; range 1.9–16.7 years) of whom 46 (65%) were BALF culture positive and for 6 healthy controls (median age 12.3 years, range 10.5–15.4 years). Cellular inflammation was present in the airways in infants diagnosed by NBS, both in those who were culture positive and negative in their BALF. Absolute BALF cell count and neutrophil differential were significantly higher in both NBS and established CF patients compared with healthy controls (p<0.02). Median absolute cell counts and neutrophil differentials can be seen in table 1. For both NBS and established CF, in those who had bacteria isolated from their BALF, an increase in neutrophil differential was seen compared with those culture negative at the time of FOB although this did not reach significance in the NBS group. (NBS CF p= 0.05, established CF p<0.01). Abstract S82 Table 1 Conclusion Our results demonstrate that inflammation is already present by 4 months of age in asymptomatic infants diagnosed through NBS, although at a lower level than seen in established CF. The results underscore the importance of early surveillance and lend support to the evolving focus on this age group for interventional trials.


Telephones can carry potential bacterial pathogens, posing a risk for transfer of pathogens to users' hands. This study examined 25 mouthpieces of public telephones at a large urban U.S. university located in an area of rising incidence of community-acquired staphylococcal infections. Coagaulase-negative staphylococci were most commonly isolated (64% of mouthpieces). Potential pathogens isolated included Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-susceptible Enterococcus, and Klebsiella ozaenae. The efficacy of disinfectants on reducing bacterial counts on telephone mouthpieces was also investigated. Staphyloccocus aurens, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterococcusfaecalis were inoculated onto mouthpieces and challenged with disinfectant wipes. Bacterial counts were reduced substantially for all three organisms by wipes containing either 70% isopropyl alcohol, 1.84% sodium hypochlorite, or quaternary ammonium compounds. The sodium hypochlorite-based cleaner demonstrated 100% efficacy at removing or killing test organisms from telephone mouthpieces. These data suggest that tested cleaners may be appropriate and needed for public telephone disinfection.


Flow is an intrinsically motivating state of consciousness characterized by simultaneous perception of high challenge and skill. The position that challenge–skill balance is the primary antecedent for achieving a flow state is unclear, and more research is needed to examine its impact on flow within multiple domains. Therefore, a meta-analysis was conducted on 28 studies examining the challenge–skill balance related to flow and intrinsic motivation in a variety of contexts. The results indicated that the relationship between challenge–skill balance and flow was moderate, and smaller with intrinsic motivation. Moderator analyses revealed weaker correlations when individuals were from an individualistic culture, in work or education contexts, using experience sampling method, and self-reporting state flow vs. trait. Compared to other theorized antecedents, challenge–skill balance was a robust contributor to flow along with clear goals and sense of control.


A good understanding of the soil water content (SWC) distribution at the field scale is essential to improve the management of water, soil and crops. Recent studies proved that Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) opens interesting perspectives in the determination of the SWC distribution in 3 dimensions (3-D). This study was conducted (i) to check and validate how ERT is able to monitor SWC distribution in a maize field during the late growing season; and (ii) to investigate how maize plants and rainfall affect the dynamics of SWC distribution. Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) measurements were used to validate ERT-inverted SWC values. Evolution of water mass balance was also calculated to check whether ERT was capable of giving a reliable estimate of soil water stock evolution. It is observed that ERT was able to give the same average SWC as TDR (R2 = 0.98). In addition, ERT gives better estimates of the water stock than TDR thanks to its higher spatial resolution. The high resolution of ERT measurements also allows for the discrimination of SWC heterogeneities. The SWC distribution showed that alternation of maize rows and inter-rows was the main influencing factor of the SWC distribution. The drying patterns were linked to the root profiles, with drier zones under the maize rows. During short periods, with negligible rainfall, the SWC decrease took place mainly in the two upper soil horizons and in the inter-row area. In contrast, rainfall increased the SWC mostly under the maize rows and in the upper soil layer. Nevertheless, the total amount of rainfall during the growing season was not sufficient to modify the SWC patterns induced by the maize rows. During the experimental time, there was hardly any SWC redistribution from maize rows to inter-rows. Yet, lateral redistribution from inter-rows to maize rows induced by potential gradient generates SWC decrease in the inter-row area and in the deeper soil horizons.


Inter-Organizational Information Systems (IOIS) are computer-based systems shared by, or connecting, several organizations. The on-going use and evolution on long timescales of these large-scale socio-technical systems so far cannot be satisfactorily explained on the basis of existing theories of IS adoption, implementation, and use. In this chapter, we present a theory of IOIS in which the on-going use and evolution of IOIS is treated as a practical and socio-material accomplishment of communities through boundary practices and structures. We draw on the structure/action reproduction paradigm of Structuration Theory to account for the persistence of these systems, and thus explain their structure, while using the embodiment of action from Practice Theory to treat the material nature of these systems. We distinguish three dimensions of structure—material, normative, and ideational—and we also distinguish patterns of actions (along these three dimensions) from constraining and enabling structures. However, we attempt to treat these three structural dimensions and their reproduction processes symmetrically throughout. This symmetrical treatment leads us to propose that these action/structure dimensions are not reproduced in isolation but rather undergo an intimate mixing, or mangling, in the process, which in turn suggests a new kind of two-way causal accommodation between the various aspects of structure that we term "resonance."


The influence of the stimulated Raman scattering in the four-wave mixing process in high birefringent fibers is theoretically analyzed. We consider the dual pump configuration in both co-polarized and orthogonal polarization schemes and treat simultaneously the stimulated Raman scattering and the four-wave mixing processes. The obtained results are valid even when the shift between the pumps and signal lies inside the Raman band. Results show that when the phase-matching condition is achieved the generation of the idler wave is mostly dependent on the real part of the fiber nonlinear response function, whereas the amplification of the signal wave is mostly dependent on the imaginary part. Results also show that when the phase-matching condition is satisfied the optical power evolution of the signal and idler waves for small frequency detunings are mostly described by the anisotropic Raman response of the fiber, whereas for high frequency detunings the isotropic response dominates. Our analysis also shows that the stimulated Raman scattering can increase the efficiency of the four-wave mixing process, for certain frequency detunings.


Transformative technological, environmental, and political events in recent years have converged to emphasize a turn to spatialization within the study of media and communication, in particular within studies of the political economy of media. The Arctic, as a global region denoted by economic growth, ecological transformation, and increasingly dynamic international politics, presents a natural focal point for the impact of spatial media. This study examines both History Channel's reality television program Ice Road Truckers and its Discovery Channel counterpart Deadliest Catch, including the programs' histories and their implicit or direct roles in influencing discourse about the Arctic and sub-Arctic's economy and ecology. How do these programs articulate a discourse about the North American Arctic for a mass audience, and how does this discourse relate to real-world ecological and economic conditions of the region?


The project aims at finding a biological control of salinity by the introduction of appropriate mycorrhiza in plants under saline conditions. A umber of assays in pursuance of this goal were designed and performed:

During the rhizospheric studies of native halophytic vegetation, 32 different non-mycorrhizal fungal species were isolated, whereas a total of 8 mycorrhizal species were identified among which Glomus fasciculatum , G. macrocarpum and G. mosseae were more prevalent,

Salt tolerance assays of mycorrhizal isolates revealed maximum spore germination in basic culture medium. In comparative salt tolerance studies maximum spore germination was obtained in G. fasciculatum, minimum in G. mosseae and intermediate in G. macrocarpum,

alt tolerance assays of non-mycorrhizal fungal species showed that the species of Aspergillus and Mucor were highly; Alternaria-alternata and Penicillium sp., were moderately; and Curvularia clavata and Fusarium solani were the least salt tolerant species,

Interactions between mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal fungi under various salinity levels in pots indicated that the general response of the Glomus spp., was almost similar ;i.e there was a decrease in extent of VA mycorrhizal infection with an increase in salinity level. The plants inoculated with G. fasciculatum showed maximum, with G. macrocarpum intermediate and with G. mosseae least extent of VA mycorrhizal infection. Results of shoot dry weight and phosphorus content were also parallel to the results of extent of mycorrhizal infection. Sodium and chloride content of plants inoculated with G. fasciculatum and maximum number of non-mycorrhizal fungi was significantly lower as compared to rest of the treatments,

Evaluation of the performance of selected mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal fungi, under saline field conditions indicated that the mycorrhizal status and shoot dry weight was significantly greater in plants inoculated with saline VA mycorrhizal inoculum as compared to the plants inoculated with normal field spores or non-inoculated controls. Moreover, the sporulation of saline mycorrhiza was much higher as compared to normal field mycorrhiza.

Probable mechanisms involved in mycorrhiza induced salt tolerance and its economic feasibility are discussed.


This report discusses the federal minimum wage in American Samoa. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the minimum wage for the islands is fixed by a commission established by the Secretary of Labor. The minimum wage for fish processing is currently $3.26 an hour. Were Congress to extend the general (federal) minimum wage to American Samoa (and raise it to $7.25 an hour, as is currently proposed), the fish processing industry might absorb the increase, change the way it processes tuna, or migrate to other low-wage countries.


Three studies examined whether younger and older adults better recall information associated with their own than information related to another age group. All studies compared young and older adults with respect to incidental memory for previously presented stimuli (Studies 1 and 2: everyday objects; Study 3: vacation advertisements) that had been randomly paired with an age-related cue (e.g., photo of a young or an old person; the word "young" or "old"). All three studies found the expected interaction of participants' age and age-associated information. Studies 1 and 2 showed that the memory bias for information arbitrarily associated with one's own as compared to another age group was significant for older adults only. However, when age-relevance was introduced in a context of equal importance to younger and older adults (information about vacations paired either with pictures of young or older adults), the memory bias for one's own age group was clearly present for both younger and older adults (Study 3).


Abstract. The recent developments of passive sensors techniques, that have been able to take advantage of the technological innovations related to sensors technical features, sensor calibration, the use of UAV systems (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), the integration of image matching techniques and SfM (Structure from Motion) algorithms, enable to exploit both thermal and optical data in multi-disciplinary projects. This synergy boost the application of Infrared Thermography (IRT) to new application domains, since the capability to provide thematic information of the analysed objects benefits from the typical advantages of data georeferencing and metric accuracy, being able to compare results investigating different phenomena. This paper presents a research activity in terrestrial and aerial (UAV) applications, aimed at generating photogrammetric products with certified and controlled geometric and thematic accuracy even when the acquisitions of thermal data were not initially designed for the photogrammetric process. The basic principle investigated and pursued is the processing of a photogrammetric block of images, including thermal IR and optical imagery, using the same reference system, which allows the use of co-registration algorithms. Such approach enabled the generation of radiance maps, orthoimagery and 3D models embedding the thermal information of the investigated surfaces, also known as texture mapping; these geospatial dataset are particularly useful in the context of the built Heritage documentation, characterised by complex analyses challenges that a perfect fit for investigations based on interdisciplinary approaches.


Objective - To present the most efficatious management of raised intracranial pressure after severe trauma brain injury in a pediatric patient. Case report - A 5-year-old Caucasian presented to the emergency room due to head injury caused by falling down stairs. At the time of admission the patient was comatose with pediatric Glasgow Coma Score 6 (V-1, E-1, M-4) and signs of recent posterior head trauma. Computed tomography (CT) scan showed a multifragmented fracture of the occipital bone above the "sinus lake" causing an epidural mass, contusion in the right cerebellar hemisphere, a skull base fracture without signs of midline shifting. Six hours later, during monitoring in the intensive care unit, the patient became cardiorespiratory unstable with signs of uncal brain herniation and Cushing's triad. Control CT revealed previously verified posttraumatic changes with new signs of decompensating internal hydrocephalus. Considering that evacuation of the epidural collection and decompression of impaired bone fragments in the area of the "sinus lake" would be too risky, extraventricular drainage as the first tier management was properly selected as the option of treatment. Taking into account the hazard / benefit ratio it was shown to be the most effective form of treatment, which was confirmed after six-month follow-up without any form of neurocognitive impairment. Conclusion – Treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the pediatric population requires a multidisciplinary approach. Different mechanisms of pediatric TBI injury vary widely by age groups and its impact on the development of primary and secondary brain lesions differs. Although many general principles of managing pediatric TBI are similar to adults, cerebral plasticity is one of the features which ultimately always leaves space for a better final outcome of treatment.


The study tracked development along university levels in writing in English as a foreign language of students of two disciplines: English Language and Literature, and Computer Science. Informed by the cognitive process theory of writing, other theoretical accounts of development in writing and findings of relevant literature, the study set out to test hypothesized development in fluency, revision behaviour, writers? awareness and concerns and text quality in the writing of university students. Moreover, the study aimed to find out if students from the two majors demonstrate different developmental patterns in terms of these variables; and if variation in text quality can be related to writing process and awareness. The study utilized a computer logging program (ScriptLog) as the main recording, observing and playback research tool; elicited responses to immediate recall questions; and obtained independent text assessment. It also employed stimulated recall procedure to get a closer look at a small proportion of individual writing sessions. Quantitative data analysis revealed that along the university levels English majors demonstrated systematic development in their writing process and product, with progressively increased fluency, higher-level and more global revision orientation, and better awareness of the demands of task and audience. They also exhibited considerable and consistent improvement in text quality. Computer Science students, on the other hand, displayed a different pattern. In their fourth level there was a notable increase in the rate of production and the proportion of conceptual revisions, but a significant decrease in text quality compared with their three-semester juniors. In their eighth semester, they demonstrated improvement but remained in a lesser position than their English-major peers in fluency measures and text quality. These findings assert the significance of formal L2 knowledge in assisting automatic access to the mental linguistic repertoire and reducing concerns over local and surface-level linguistic details; and they stress the importance of continued formal facilitation of L2. In addition, a number of participants attended individual writing sessions wherein their writing activity was followed by stimulated recall interviews. A close investigation of participants? reports of their writing strategies and concerns asserts the trends found in the quantitative analysis. However the qualitative inquiry offers more insight into the development of university students. It appears that the tertiary academic experience has in the long run benefited both groups of writers. Senior participants of both majors were able to take authority of their texts. They acted less at surface and local levels and more at conceptual and global levels, moving information around and changing larger chunks of text in order to minimize ambiguity and respond to the demands of audience. They showed consideration and utilization of content knowledge they had acquired in their subject area.


The purpose of this annotated bibliography is to survey the recent literature on administrative adjudication in antitrust and the rule of law in the United States, European Union, and from a comparative or global vision.The bibliography is organized into three sections: (1) United States, focusing on issues of agency design and due process (mostly in merger control) in the US; (2) European Union, addressing the current debate on the rule of law issues affecting competition proceedings in the EU; and (3) Comparative/Global, covering antitrust and rule of law topics addressed from comparative, convergent or global perspectives. Included are articles, policy statements, conference papers, essays, books and book reviews addressing one of the main categories into which the bibliography is organized.


The Vulnerable (IUCN) whale shark spans warm and temperate waters around the globe. However, their present‐day and possible future global distribution has never been predicted. Using 30 years (1980–2010) of whale shark observations recorded by tuna purse‐seiners fishing in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, we applied generalized linear mixed‐effects models to test the hypothesis that similar environmental covariates predict whale shark occurrence in all major ocean basins. We derived global predictors from satellite images for chlorophyll a and sea surface temperature, and bathymetric charts for depth, bottom slope and distance to shore. We randomly generated pseudo‐absences within the area covered by the fisheries, and included fishing effort as an offset to account for potential sampling bias. We predicted sea surface temperatures for 2070 using an ensemble of five global circulation models under a no climate‐policy reference scenario, and used these to predict changes in distribution. The full model (excluding standard deviation of sea surface temperature) had the highest relative statistical support (wAICc = 0.99) and explained ca. 60% of the deviance. Habitat suitability was mainly driven by spatial variation in bathymetry and sea surface temperature among oceans, although these effects differed slightly among oceans. Predicted changes in sea surface temperature resulted in a slight shift of suitable habitat towards the poles in both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans (ca. 5°N and 3–8°S, respectively) accompanied by an overall range contraction (2.5–7.4% and 1.1–6.3%, respectively). Predicted changes in the Pacific Ocean were small. Assuming that whale shark environmental requirements and human disturbances (i.e. no stabilization of greenhouse gas emissions) remain similar, we show that warming sea surface temperatures might promote a net retreat from current aggregation areas and an overall redistribution of the species.


Nine Articles in the special issue of Restoration Ecology addrssing the subject of site selection for riparian restoration activities were critically examined for this review. The approaches described make significant and original contributions to the field of riparian restoration. All are interdisciplinary to some extent, often combining the fields of hydrology, geomorphology, and biology in the design of restorationss. A common component among the articles is that they take a broad view, if not a watershed view, of restoration site selection. The approaches can be generally descrobed as top‐down strategic approaches to siting restorations, as opposed to the more methods‐ and site‐driven bottom‐up, or tactical, approach. All the articles recognize the importance of developing endpoints related to the ecological function of riparian ecosystems. they succeed in their quest for these indicators of ecological function to varying degrees. The most common indica‐for used in these papers is riparian vegetation. Several additional elements of scientific investigation, if successfully pursued, could provide vital information and advance our understanding of riparian restoration: developing interdisciplinary approaches more fully; defining endpoints and reference conditions; implementing multiple scale approaches; viewing restorations as experimental ecosystem manipulations; developing a philosophy regarding exotic species; incorporating geographic information systems more often; and integrating science, society, and politics. the foundation provided by the contributions in this issue should provide a strong basis for the rapid advancement of future research in the area of riparian restoration.


The Revenue Statistics in Latin America and the Caribbean publication compiles comparable tax revenue statistics for a number of Latin American and Caribbean economies, the majority of which are not OECD member countries. The model is the OECD Revenue Statistics database which is a fundamental reference, backed by a well-established methodology, for OECD member countries. Extending the OECD methodology to Latin American and Caribbean countries enables comparisons about tax levels and tax structures on a consistent basis, both among Latin American and Caribbean economies and between OECD and Latin American and Caribbean economies. This publication is jointly undertaken by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Inter-American Development bank (IDB).


A KEY EDUCATIONAL REFORM PROPOSAL made in 2000 is to build a new culture for quality early childhood education through upgrading professional competence. Teachers are an important element of high-quality, developmentally appropriate early childhood programs. The Teacher Beliefs and Practices Survey (TBS) based on 2009 NAEYC Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) guidelines was used to measure kindergarten teachers' beliefs and practices in Hong Kong. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) is used to validate the survey for the Hong Kong sample. Findings indicated that the three-factor model of TBS and four-factor model of Instructional Activities Scale (IAS) were fitted to measure Hong Kong samples. Quality of early childhood education has been enhanced with the strong agreement of appropriate teaching beliefs and practices among kindergartens teachers in Hong Kong.