Several studies on farmers' perceptions on climate variability tend to provide bulked information at either regional or national level. Assessing the disparities of skills and the strategies of adaptations among farmers across locations could be the first step towards solutions in adaption to the climate variability and change. The objective of this paper was to assess and compare local farmers' perceptions on meteorological events, adaptations and access to agricultural extension services in two agro-ecological zones, Diffa and Aguie, in Niger Republic. The results revealed that climate challenges are well distributed in both areas but, there are significant discrepancies in the perceived climate variabilities compared to meteorological observations. Respondents noted an increase in temperature which is in agreement with climatic data evidence. It was found that majority of respondents adopt crop diversification in the sense of mixed cropping as their major adaptation strategy to climate variability. However, the extent to which farmers perceived crop diversification as a climate change adaptation strategy is not a response to the subjectively perceived changes in weather patterns, but rather a traditional strategy to reduce risk and to adapt to the long-standing inter-annual and intra-annual rainfall variability in the area. The lack of sufficient educational knowledge, external support and access to information are the constraints that hindered farmers to adapt effectively and, this leads to low agricultural productivity. It is recommended to empower farmers with information, technological skills, access to heat resistant crop varieties that enable them to adapt to increasing maximum temperatures.


A large building in Denver, Colorado was constructed in 1999 with exterior insulation and finish system (EIFS) cladding. About a year after completion, the lamina started to debond from the foam on the darker-colored EIFS panels. Tests were conducted to determine the cause of the delamination. The influence of solar radiation was studied. Although elevated temperatures were measured in these areas, they were not above the "melting point" of the foam insulation. During the investigation it was discovered that the pattern of the fiberglass mesh appeared to be "embossed" in the foam surface. Microscopic examination confirmed that the surface of the foam had been locally dissolved in the pattern of the mesh. Chemical analysis and exposure tests performed on the fiberglass mesh used in the lamina revealed that plasticizers migrating from the mesh would attack the interface surface of the foam insulation at elevated temperatures that are below the typical melting point of the foam. The elevated surface temperatures of the darker-colored panels appeared to accelerate the effect of the plasticizers. The scope of repairs at the darker-colored EIFS included removal of the original lamina, preparation of the foam, and installation of new lamina. The mesh used in the new lamina was analyzed to ensure that it did not contain plasticizers capable of dissolving the foam. The lighter-colored EIFS had not exhibited widespread delamination of the lamina. However, the risk of migration of the plasticizers and the potential for future delamination still existed. Mechanical-fastening was used to secure the original lamina to the framing, then a new lamina was applied over the original lamina. This repair concept was dependent on proper bond between the new and original laminas. The bond was tested using techniques similar to those used for measuring adhesion for both new synthetic and cementitious base coat materials.


This important monograph summarizes, rethinks, and extends a decade of the author's work on therole assignments -- the ways in which the roles implied by verbs of a given type play out in terms of position and other syntactic functions. The study of theta roles and the locality of theta-role assignment leads into many interesting areas of linguistic theory, such as scope, the ECP, X-bar theory, binding theory, and the weak crossover condition; Williams's reconstruction thus offers a systematic integration of a remarkably wide range of syntactic phenomena. Williams starts by outlining a theory of the clause,specifically, of the distribution of Nominative Case and Tense. He then develops a formalism for the notion of"external argument" that is used throughout the rest of the book. Subsequent chapters review the issues surrounding the syntactic expression of the subject-predicate relationship, extend the notion of external argument to include NP movement, and reanalyze the verb movement constructions as deriving from the calculus of theta roles rather than movement. The last chapter distinguishes referential dependence and coreference, showing that a general Leftness condition governs the former, while the binding theory restated in terms of theta relations governs the latter.


Remanufacturing is one of the main recovery operations in Closed-Loop Supply Chains (CLSCs) that not only can contribute to a more sustainable environment, but also has significant economic and social benefits. A key factor for having an efficient remanufacturing operation is to control the heterogeneous characteristics of product returns in terms of quantity, quality and timing. Product Acquisition Management is an essential process in CLSCs, which aims to deal with these characteristics of product returns. The present study extends knowledge in Product Acquisition Management, by developing quantitative models that generate meaningful insights into the economics of proactive product acquisitioning. In addition, case studies inform the present study with the current status of product acquisition management in practice and the relevant challenges. The economic-oriented decision about operating a proactive or passive strategy is explored under quantity and quality-based incentive approaches. Closed-form solutions and quality thresholds are derived for the optimal return rate and optimal quality rate that minimises the total cost of the proactive strategy. The analysis of the infinite planning horizon models show that, the optimal acquisition strategy depends on a trade-off between the relevant remanufacturing cost advantage and the acquisition cost structure. A diseconomy of scale in the acquisition of returns leads to a decrease of the remanufacturing amount. Sensitivity analysis further highlights the differences between the quantity and the quality-based incentive approaches. This study extends its investigation on the economic viability of the proactive acquisition strategy under the finite planning horizon. Using the product life cycle as a basis for matching demand and supply, the analysis shows that delays in the processing of returns will reduce the cost advantages of a proactive acquisition strategy and that applying a dynamic acquisition policy will increase the cost improvement of the proactive strategy. Finally, the study investigates a dynamic manufacturing-remanufacturing system with a responsive buy-back policy by considering multiple quality levels and decay rates. The model is formulated using optimal control theory, and shows that the optimal acquisition strategy depends on the manufacturing-remanufacturing cost difference and price sensitivity of the return response function for high and low quality used products. The sensitivity analysis indicates that in general it is beneficial to obtain a higher rate of high quality returns in the beginning of the planning horizon, and a higher rate of low quality returns towards the end. The fluctuation in demand is mainly absorbed by manufacturing new products and much less by remanufacturing returns. Within the optimal buy-back policy, the result has indicated that it is the acquisition of high quality of returns that mirror the fluctuation in the demand, while the acquisition of low quality of returns show a relatively stable trend.


We present an entanglement concentration protocol (ECP) for the less-entangled W-state with quantum-dot and microcavity coupled systems. The present protocol uses quantum nondemolition measurement on the spin parity to construct the hybrid parity check gate. Different from other ECPs, the less-entangled W-state with quantum-dot and microcavity coupled systems can be concentrated with the help of some single photons. The most significant advantage is that during the whole ECP, we do not destroy the W-state and only consume some local single photons. The whole protocol can be repeated to obtain a higher success probability. It may be useful in current quantum information processing.


AIMS
To examine the geographic density of alcohol outlets and associations with drinking levels and related problems among university students.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional survey study using geospatial data, with campus-level and individual-level analyses.

PARTICIPANTS
A total of 2550 students (mean age 20.2, 60% women) at six university campuses in New Zealand (63% response).

MEASUREMENTS
Counts of alcohol outlets within 3 km of each campus were tested for their non-parametric correlation with aggregated campus drinking levels and related problems. Generalized estimating equations were used to model the relation between outlet counts within 1 km and 3 km of student residences and individual drinking levels/problems, with control for gender, age, ethnicity and high school binge drinking frequency, and adjustment for campus-level clustering.

FINDINGS
Correlations for campus-level data were 0.77 (P = 0.07) for drinking and personal problems, and 0.31 (P = 0.54) for second-hand effects. There were consistent significant associations of both on- and off-licence outlet densities with all outcomes in student-level adjusted models. Effects were largest for 1 km densities and off-licence outlets.

CONCLUSIONS
There are positive associations between alcohol outlet density and individual drinking and related problems. Associations remain after controlling for demographic variables and pre-university drinking, i.e. the associations are unlikely to be due to self-selection effects. Increasing alcohol outlet density, and particularly off-licences, may increase alcohol-related harm among university students.


RB975952 is an early maturing sugarcane cultivar released for the South-Central region of Brazil. It should be harvested between April and May, and it is recommended for planting in environments with medium to high production potential. RB975952 has high resistance levels to the main diseases of the crop, it also has a good shoot development after mechanical harvesting, and high sucrose yields.


This article deals with the training of interpreters and the effects of such training in the workplace. It is my intention, on the one hand, to analyse the interpreter's intervention after some specific training, and on the other hand, to check the effectiveness of the interpreters' training in the workplace when these students are acting as interpreters in real situations. In other words, to investigate how theory can be integrated into practice through research. The data come from two main sources: the analysis of simulated role plays in health care setting as part of the training program for interpreters and translators in public services at the University of Alcala, Madrid (UAH), and comments by the students in the workplace when acting as interpreters in hospitals and healthcare centres as part of their internship.


Pellino1 was identified as an IRAK binding partner and is involved in Lysine-63 polyubiquitination of IRAK 1/4 and RIP1, which are key mediators of the TLR and IL-1R signalling pathways. As such, these pathways are implicated in responses to bacterial and viral infections and common respiratory viruses, such as rhinovirus, are a major cause of asthma exacerbations.
The functional importance of Pellino proteins in regulating immune responses and their role in airway inflammatory diseases is yet to be elucidated. We hypothesised that Pellino1 would play a critical role in regulating the inflammatory response in the lung airway epithelium.
Expression and regulation of the Pellino family was investigated at the transcriptional level. Pellino1 was knocked down in the human bronchial airway epithelial cell line BEAS-2B and PBECs using targeted siRNA.
Pellino1 is expressed in BEAS-2B and PBECs. Pellino1 knockdown led to reduced IL-8 generation in response to IL-1β and a viral mimic poly(I:C) stimulation in BEAS-2B, however RANTES production was unchanged. In contrast to the BEAS-2B, the PBECs exhibited preserved IL-1 signalling. However, these cells also showed a reduction in IL-8 production in response to both poly(I:C) stimulation and RV1B infection. Pellino1 knockdown had no effect on RANTES production. Knockdown of a putative Pellino1 target, RIP1, in PBECs leads to the significant increase in IL-8 generation in response to poly(I:C), suggesting that it may act as a negative regulator of the TLR3 signalling pathway in these cells. PBECs may utilise the non-canonical NF-κB signalling pathway in response to poly(I:C) stimulation.
Pellino1 knockdown leads to reduced IL-8 production in response to a viral mimic poly(I:C) in lung airway epithelial cells and the natural pathogen RV1B in PBECs. These data indicate that Pellino1 regulates proinflammatory responses in airway epithelium and may be a feasible target to downregulate neutrophilic airway inflammation whilst retaining antiviral immunity, which would be highly beneficial in the treatment of chronic airway inflammatory disorders such as asthma and COPD.


Multiple glaciations took place near the beginning and end of the Proterozoic Eon. Neoproterozoic (Cryogenian) glacial deposits are more widespread than those of older (Paleoproterozoic) glacial episodes. Paleomagnetic results suggest that most Proterozoic glaciogenic rocks were deposited at low paleolatitudes. Some contain enigmatic evidence of strong seasonal temperature variations, and many formed at sea level. These attributes inspired both the snowball Earth hypothesis and the high obliquity theory, but only the latter explains strong seasonality at low latitudes. The Proterozoic glaciations may have been triggered by drawdown of atmospheric CO 2 during enhanced weathering of elevated supercontinents. Multiple glaciations resulted from a negative feedback loop in the weathering system that ended when the supercontinent broke apart. A radical reorganization of the climatic system GSA Today, v. 23, no. 10, doi: 10.1130/GSATG183A.1. Evolution of Earth's climatic system: Evidence from ice ages, isotopes, and impacts took place in the Ediacaran Period. In contrast to previous glaciations, these ice sheets developed in high latitudes and many follow mountain building episodes. During the Ediacaran Period, Earth's climatic zonation and controls appear to have undergone a radical change that persisted throughout the Phanerozoic Eon. The change may coincide with the world's greatest negative dC excursion, the Shuram event, here interpreted as the result of a very large marine impact that decreased the obliquity of the ecliptic, causing the Earth's climatic system to adopt its present configuration. Attendant unprecedented environmental reorganization may have played a crucial role in the emergence of complex life forms.


Focuses on the introduction of strategic management into a UK local authority, based on several years of empirical research. Aims primarily to explore conceptual and practical links between strategic management and scientific management. Demonstrates that clear parallels exist between the two models and thereby lends support to those who argue that scientific management remains an important influence on modern management thinking and practice. However, despite their shared origins, strategic management has developed into a more sophisticated and potentially more powerful management tool. In particular, through the distinction drawn between strategic and operational decision making it appears to extend the principle of separating conception from execution into the heart of senior management. A realistic account of the political process of change within the local authority is also provided and subsequent performance following the introduction of strategic management is assessed.


Hypoxia-ischemia (HI) is low oxygenation to the brain paired with low blood supply that can disrupt normal patterns of brain development. HI injury is characterized by many long-term cognitive and behavioral deficits including working memory. Neuronal plasticity due to early sensory or learning experience has been suggested to facilitate recovery of function after neonatal brain injury. Plasticity is the ability for the nervous system, more specifically neurons, and their synapses to modify their function and morphology due to experiences, which in turn correlate with changes in behavior. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of neonatal hypoxia-ischemia on the morphology of layer five pyramidal neurons within the prefrontal cortex (Cg3) of rats with or without early life working memory experience (postnatal day 36-61). We hypothesized that both HI and sham subjects exposed to 20 days of working memory training, using an 8-arm radial water maze, early in life would show distinct morphological changes in Cg3 pyramidal neurons. Findings suggest that early life working memory training regulates shifts in neuronal morphology following neonatal brain injury.


A model for the description of laser-induced damage in bulk potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) by nanosecond laser pulses is addressed. It is based on the heating of nanometric plasma balls whose absorption efficiency is described through the Mie theory. The plasma optical indices are then evaluated within the Drude model framework. This modeling provides an evaluation of the scaling law exponent x linking the damage threshold laser pulse energy density Fc to the pulse duration τ as Fc=ατx, where α is a constant. The inverse problem for which the knowledge of experimental data allows one to determine physical parameters of the model is considered. The results suggest that the critical plasma density is reached in a time much shorter than the pulse duration. Information about the nature of defects responsible for the damage initiation is also provided.


For over two decades the US has funded repressive forced coca eradication in Peru, Colombia and Bolivia to reduce the illegal cocaine trade. These policies have never met their stated goals and have generated violence and poverty. In 2006 Bolivia definitively broke with the US anti-narcotics model, replacing the militarized eradication of coca crops with a community-based coca control strategy. The program substantially reduced the coca crop while simultaneously respecting human rights and allowing farmers to diversify their livelihoods. This article outlines the elements of the Bolivian initiative that ensure its continued successful functioning. It explores to what extent this model can be translated to other Andean contexts.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether chronic heart failure (CHF) may induce changes in breathing pattern and ventilatory neural drive. We studied 45 male inpatients with CHF, (25 patients in NYHA class II, 20 in class III) and 22 sex-matched post myocardial infarction patients without left ventricular dysfunction who served as controls. CHF patients underwent right heart catheterization and assessment of cardiac output by thermodilution technique. Patients and controls underwent evaluation of left ventricular ejection fraction by 2D echocardiography, spirometry, diffusion capacity, blood gases, breathing pattern, mouth occlusion pressure and respiratory muscle strength determination. Results of CHF patients were compared to controls and evaluated for differences according to the degree in severity of functional impairment. CHF patients showed a slight reduction in lung volumes and in diffusion capacity. In CHF neural drive, as assessed by mouth occlusion pressure (P0.1), was significantly increased in comparison to controls (P0.1 = 1.86 (0.7) and 1.4 (0.6) cmH2O in CHF and controls respectively). Analysis of breathing pattern showed only a slight yet significant increase in respiratory frequency while respiratory muscle strength, as assessed by measurement of maximal inspiratory and expiratory pressures (MIP and MEP respectively) was slightly reduced (MIP = 79(27) and 104(28); MEP = 111(32) and 142(33) cmH2O respectively). Observed changes were more relevant in patients with advanced NYHA functional classes whereas no relationship among indices of cardiac and respiratory function was found. We conclude that chronic heart failure induces changes in neural ventilatory drive and respiratory muscle strength related to the severity of the disease.


Sichuan Basin in southwestern China is a region of great conservation concern, yet little is known about the influence of edaphic factors on plant community dynamics of disturbed areas. We used multivariate analyses to identify differences in vegetation structure (i.e., tree, shrub, forb, and graminoid) and species composition between sandstone and shale substrates across 13 successional forest plant communities that varied in soil depth and soil texture. Vegetation structure did not differ between substrates (P >0.05), but plant community composition varied significantly (P = 0.0017). In addition, six indicator species were identified, including two native perennial grasses; namely, Imperata cylindrica for intermediate soil depths (20-30 cm) on sandstone substrate (P = 0.016) and Miscanthus sinensis for greater soil depths ( > 30 cm) on sandstone (P = 0.012) as well as on intermediate soil depths (20-30 cm) on shale substrate (P = 0.0002). Imperata cylindrica and M. sinensis were also the most dominant perennial grass species on sandstone (15.6 ± 5.3% cover) and shale (12.3 ± 4.9% cover), respectively. These patterns provide insights into species interactions and successional dynamics of roadside slopes, and offer guidance when choosing suitable species for future restoration projects in the Sichuan Basin.


It is well known that decode and forward relaying protocols, in which the relays decode and re-encode the message, can achieve full diversity when combined with distributed space time coding or relay selection schemes. However, in wireless sensor networks, decoding and re-encoding the message at the relays can be costly due to severe energy limitations. A question arises: is it possible to achieve full diversity when the relays only detect (or demodulate) and forward the message? In this paper a distributed detection scheme is developed that achieves full diversity in wireless sensor network, with the relays only detecting and forwarding the message. It is seen that such a relaying scheme is SNR threshold-based, i.e., the relays will perform detection only if the receive SNR is above a certain threshold. The threshold that achieves full diversity is derived. Furthermore, a single bit feedback scheme is developed to make relaying more spectral efficient, such that the network can achieve the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff of a point-to-point multiple-input single-output (MISO) system in the high SNR regime.


This study began as a general inquiry into downsizing and then focused on two objectives which became the research question:

What strategies allow an organization to continue performing functions, once the decision to downsize has been made, and what combination of strategies will be optimal (or at least satisficing) for the organization at a given point in time?

While the study commenced with the aim of using a grounded theory methodology, difficulties experienced in obtaining a rich set of responses from interviewees, necessitated making modifications. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies were adopted. Data were collected during two rounds of semi-structured interviews, from organizations in the metropolitan area of Perth, Western Australia. During the first round of interviews, thirteen strategies that lead to downsizing were identified, along with nine associated properties. These were used to construct a questionnaire which was administered during the second round of interviews. Subsequently, two further strategies were identified, but not included in the questionnaire or quantitative analysis. The quantitative analysis of the questionnaire data lead to a three-level indicative model of the associations between the strategies, properties and organizations.

The qualitative analysis was conducted using fifty three examples extracted from the interviews. These examples were used to amplify the quantitative relationships, provide counter examples and show that a range of responses is possible, under various sets of conditions.

While the model developed is indicative and not predictive, it will provide management with a tool which will assist them to decide which downsizing strategies are appropriate in their particular circumstances.


The issue of intended audience in the first three books of Augustine's Confessions is investigated in light of the presence of terms and phrases that may have had special connotations for potential Manichaean readers. This is done against the background of definitions of protreptic and paraenetic, which typically revolve around audience location and communicative purpose. Although it has become commonplace to refer to the Confessions as a protreptic the work displays a number of characteristics more in line with current mainstream definitions of paraenetic, amongst other things, by assuming the stance of addressing insiders in agreement with the author's world view. It is argued that the type of reader most receptive to the insider stance and allusion to the Old Testament on the one hand and to the Manichaean material on the other, would be a Manichaean apostate recently converted to Catholic Christianity.


The threats to potable water are examined. An assessment of human ill effects of contaminated water requires a knowledge of the quality of water throughout the world and a corresponding record of disabilities from their use. Neither of these sets of data is at hand. In spite of these difficulties, disclosures of ill effects are clear with respect to microbiological or infectious diseases and inorganic chemicals, but less so with organic chemicals. Most inorganic constituents do not appear to present significant human health hazards. Modest continuing investigations are warranted to assure that suspected harmful ingredients do not travel through water. Another difficulty is the extrapolation of test findings on the health effects of toxics on animals to the effects on humans. No simple single test provides an answer. However, technology exists to treat wastewater to any level of quality appropriate for human consumption. It is concluded that organics must be eliminated at their source. Cumulative evidence in the U.S. and abroad demonstrates that such practices may be cost-effective and economical. Receiving bodies of water and drinking water should not be the repository of toxic chemicals.


BACKGROUND
Colonic mucosal neoplastic lesions can be classified morphologically into polypoid and nonpolypoid types. The nonpolypoid type has a greater malignancy potential than does the polypoid type. Removing these lesions and obtaining an integral specimen for histopathologic assessment during colonoscopy are very important. This study evaluates the safety and integrity of specimens obtained by endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) using the pure cut current and hemoclip method.

METHODS
Fourteen nonpolypoid colonic neoplasms, which were removed by EMR using the pure cut and hemoclip method between April 2001 and April 2002, were studied. There were 9 male and 4 female patients and the mean age was 57.8 +/- 15.5 (range, 32 - 80) years. EMR was conducted in cases where the lesions were diagnosed as neoplastic tumors by magnification colonoscopy and the indigo carmine dye spray method.

RESULTS
The study revealed 11 flat type neoplasms and 3 laterally spreading tumors. The mean size of the lesions was 10.7 +/- 5.6 (range, 6 - 25) mm. All lesions were completely removed. Histopathologically, there were 1 adenocarcinoma and 13 adenomas (3 with mild dysplasia, 7 with moderate dysplasia, and 3 with severe dysplasia). The mean number of hemoclips used was 2.14 +/- 0.66 (range, 1 - 3) pieces. No bleeding or perforation was noted following EMR.

CONCLUSION
EMR using the pure cut and hemoclip method is a useful means of obtaining an integral specimen for accurate pathologic assessment. This method provides a safe and minimally invasive technique for managing colonic non-polypoid lesions.


International criminal courts will be judged by their fairness to defendants as well as to victims. In a very practical way, such claims will hinge, inter alia, on the ability of prosecutors and defendants to have reasonable access to probative evidence. But international criminal courts depend on states to provide them with evidence or access to evidence. The obligation of states to cooperate with international criminal tribunals in the production of evidence was at issue in the recent decision of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Blaskic case (1997). That judgment and the provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998) that address judicial assistance deserve investigation. Do the rules propounded in Blaskic and in the Rome Statute create the right conditions for the institution of fair trials in international criminal courts in our world today? Are such rules possible? The author argues that the diplomats in Rome failed to establish a procedure for the production of evidence that will lead to the goal of a fair and effective trial. This is cause for concern if and when an International Criminal Court comes into being.


While research data indicate that Dutch education is problematic for Surinamese children, Dutch educational policy takes the view that the children can adapt to the curriculum quickly or even im-mediately, because they supposedly have a Dutch-speaking background. However, the language situation of Surinamese children is complex: a vast proportion of the children is bilingual and speaks a non-standard variety of Dutch: Surinamese Dutch (SN). Therefore, it is important to find out how the school fits the specific situa-tion of these children. The curriculum and the demands of the school, as well as the expectations of the teachers toward the children partly define the success of failure of the child. Language attitudes, too, can lead to a self fulfilling prophecy as regards to teacher expectations.This article deals with the perceptions of teachers with respect to language problems in the school and with teacher attitudes con-cerning the language use of Surinamese children. According to the majority of the teachers. Surinamese children have difficulties with a number of schoolsubjects as a consequence of their different home language. In particular the 'concentration schools', schools with a population of more than 15% Surinamese children, experience these problems most acutely. The majority of teachers indicate that they pursue command of the standard language as an objective. Most of the teachers locate the problems with the chil-dren, not with the school system itself.Investigating to what extent teachers-attitudes influence the educational results of the children is a complex task. First of all, the question needs to be answered wether teachers already have specific attitudes toward SN, since it is a rather new phenomenon to have Surinamese children in the classroom. The data suggest that, at this point, many teachers do not view SN as a seperate language variety, but as 'poor Dutch'. Nevertheless they are reasonably positive about the characteristics of SN, which may reflect their insecurity about this variety of Dutch. Comparing attitudes towards urban dialects and SN shows that teachers have a more pronounced and somewhat more negative attitude towards the urban dialects of their Dutch pupils. There is an important attitudinal difference between teachers from different cities. Teachers do not express stereotypes about the consequences of bilingualism for a child's intellectual development, but as regards the specific classroom situation, the majority of the teachers reports difficulties for children with a different home language. However, most teachers oppose special provisions in the school for use of the home language as a medium of instruction or as a subject.It seems that the views of teachers are linked to societal norms and educational policy, in which an ethnocentric point of view predominates. While information about sociolinguistic insights may not on its own change these norms, ignoring such information will certainly not bring about a change. Therefore, specific language curricula need to be developed.


The recovery in Euroland has started at the beginning of this year but it has remained rather moderate. Real GDP increased at an annual rate of less than 1½ percent during the first half of 2002. Capacity utilization has declined further and unemployment continued to go up. While exports have gained some strength, domestic demand has just about stabilized. Against the background of weak economic activity the increase in consumer prices has calmed down considerably. Several factors can be made responsible for the sluggish economic performance. Consumer sentiment was affected by the price increases at the beginning of this year and obviously also by the introduction of the new currency. Profit expectations of firms have not improved sufficiently as it is also reflected in the collapse of stock prices. In addition, export expectations have deteriorated recently because of the uncertainty about the US economy and the appreciation of the euro. In the light of the recent turbulences on stock markets and the increased uncertainty about the economic outlook in the euro area, the ECB will probably not raise interest rates this year as was expected a few months ago. In fact, there is a discussion whether the ECB would — or even should — lower interest rates. According to both pillars of its monetary policy strategy, an easing of monetary policy cannot be justified. Money growth still exceeds the reference value by a wide margin. Although our analysis indicates that money demand has become unstable recently, there is a risk that there is some excess liquidity in the euro area and that the high money growth cannot be explained by special factors alone. The perspectives for price level stability have also not improved considerably. The budget deficit in Portugal and also in Germany will probably exceed 3 percent of GDP this year; in Italy and France it is approaching this level. The European Commission has started the excessive deficit procedure for Portugal and may do the same for Germany soon. However, it is not certain there will be the necessary majority in the ECOFIN Council for the decision whether an excessive deficit exists. One cannot exclude that Italy and France have an interest to block such a decision because they also have problems of meeting the obligations of the Stability and Growth Pact. So it is possible that the finance ministers of these four countries which together have 35 votes in the Council will prevent the decision about the excessive deficit procedure. The coming months will show whether the Pact really has teeth. We are strongly in favor of a strict application of the Stability and Growth Pact. The recent deterioration of consumer and business sentiment does not, in our view, imply that a renewed downturn is imminent. After a relatively sluggish growth in the rest of this year, economic activity will pick up considerably in the course of 2003 and real GDP will rise faster than potential output. For the year as a whole, real GDP will increase by 2.3 percent, after 0.8 percent in 2002. The labor market situation will improve slowly in the course of next year. Inflation will remain moderate also because the ECB will tighten monetary policy gradually; in addition we expect that wages will rise only moderately. The consumer price index will increase by 1.6 in 2003, after 2.1 this year.


Traffic congestion, high gas price and inadequate public transportation are major challenges for any country, business or individual. The traditional approach to solving these problems has been to improve public transportation and use greener energy. These approaches require huge investment, research and time, and can only be carried out by governments or businesses. An alternative solution seeks to reduce the number of vehicles on the road based on ridesharing. Nevertheless, ridesharing is not a popular form of public transportation. A ridesharing application involves planning and collaboration in setting up rides. Some of the concerns of users of these applications are social discomfort that arises due to lack of trust amongst co-passengers and inconvenience in scheduling rides. In this work we are trying to understand the perceptions of trust in a software application that integrates collaboration and social networks. We conducted a rideshare needs assessment survey conducted within the Virginia Tech community. The purpose behind this survey was to understand commuters travel patterns, their needs and to identify their preferences for private vehicles and public transit for a variety of travel needs. The survey results indicate that users are willing to increase participation in ridesharing programs if three core issues are addressed trust, convenience and incentives. Based on the results and analysis of our survey results we present an iPhone based ridesharing application that would leverage social networks to embed trust. To overcome the complexity in scheduling rides, we have made our application available on mobile phones (iPhone) so that users are connected on the go and make use of GPS for location awareness to plan their rides instantaneously. Our social software application is easy and intuitive to use, helps users find trusted rideshares and reduces the carbon footprint of the individual.


Until now, all machines have moved according to the not-surprising laws of classical mechanics, which govern the motion of everyday objects. In contrast, a tiny machine unveiled this year jiggles in ways explicable only by the weird rules of quantum mechanics, which ordinarily govern molecules, atoms, and subatomic particles. The proto-quantum machine opens the way to myriad experimental devices and perhaps tests of our sense of reality. That potential and the ingenuity of the experiment make it the Breakthrough of the Year.


The wars on terror and drugs have been defined, largely, by what they lack: a readily identifiable opponent, a clear end goal, a timeline, and geographical boundaries. Based on that understanding, this Article discusses the increasingly expansive discretion of American authorities to prosecute individuals where the wars on terror and drugs intersect. Through laws such as the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act, the ban on providing material support to foreign terrorist organizations, and the narco-terrorism statute, the United States exercises a kind of universal jurisdiction to pursue anyone, anywhere it believes its laws are being violated. Wielding the power of federal criminal prosecution on a global scale is a natural result of characterizing the anti-drug and anti-terror campaigns as "wars," yet with such power comes essentially limitless police and prosecutorial discretion. However, such a broad jurisdictional scheme risks exporting several of the most unjust and ineffective practices of both the war on terror and the war on drugs, which threaten to impact disproportionately minority communities, based on impermissible factors like race and religion. Specifically, this Article compares the war on drugs to the war on terror, arguing that the paradigm of fighting terror has led to a war model that deeply informs the complexities and shortcomings of the war on drugs. The phenomenon is one we should not ignore or downplay, as the vast discretion enjoyed by law enforcement and prosecutors to charge individuals with no ties to the United States represents an expansion of the reach of American laws that needs to be understood and more thoroughly debated. As a matter of public policy and constitutional interpretation, courts should be wary of broad assertions of discretion to fight wars of dubious provenance. While the United States, as a sovereign nation, can pursue its interests in stopping trafficking in narcotics and political violence against its own citizens, those interests must be defined more narrowly, lest the country transform into a sort of world police force without an international mandate.


The Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) is widely used to simulate different types of flow, such as water, oil and gas in porous reservoirs. In the oil industry it is commonly used to estimate petrophysical properties of porous rocks, such as the permeability. To achieve the required accuracy it is necessary to use big simulation models requiring large amounts of memory. The method is highly data intensive making it suitable for offloading to the GPU. However, the limited amount of memory available on modern GPUs severely limits the size of the dataset possible to simulate. In this thesis, we increase the size of the datasets possible to simulate using techniques to lower the memory requirement while retaining numerical precision. These techniques improve the size possible to simulate on a single GPU by about 20 times for datasets with 15% porosity. We then develop multi-GPU simulations for different hardware configurations using OpenCL and MPI to investigate how LBM scales when simulating large datasets. The performance of the implementations are measured using three porous rock datasets provided by Numerical Rocks AS. By connecting two Tesla S2070s to a single host we are able to achieve a speedup of 1.95, compared to using a single GPU. For large datasets we are able to completely hide the host to host communication in a cluster configuration, showing that LBM scales well and is suitable for simulation on a cluster with GPUs. The correctness of the implementations is confirmed against an analytically known flow, and three datasets with known permeability also provided by Numerical Rocks AS.


The knowledge of how invasive species spread in a new environment might be important for their management control. Moreover, biochemical interaction underlies the novel weapon hypothesis thus presenting one of numerous explanations for species invasiveness. This study aimed to determine the total phenolics content in various parts of I. glandulifera and evaluate their phytotoxicity on the germination of monocot and dicot species. Phytotoxicity and allelopathic activity of worldwide invasive Impatiens species (Balsaminaceae) I. glandulifera (originated in the Himalayas) on wheat and rapeseed germination and seedling growth was assessed ex situ at Aleksandras Stulginskis University in 2016. The phenolic content ranged between 0.615 and 7.566 mg g–1 in Impatiens extracts, however, it significantly inhibited germination and seedling growth of the recipient species. Seed germination and seedling emergence are the outcomes of a sequence of biological events initiated by water imbibition followed by enzymatic metabolism of storage nutrients. The recorded germination rate was different for each recipient species. Inhibition of Impatiens extracts was recorded stronger for rapeseed germination (11.5– 81%) than that for wheat germination (71–86.5%), possibly due to different seed coat anatomy and thus its permeability. Therefore the strongest inhibition (86.5%) was recorded for rapeseed germination (11.5%) in 0.2% fruit + seed extract of I. glandulifera. Mean length of wheat hypocotyl (14.2 mm) and radicle (4.4 mm) exhibited a weaker response to the extract of I. glandulifera than rapeseed (4.4 mm and 1.4 mm, respectively). Consequently, recruitment and regeneration of native species might be negatively affected by the invasive Impatiens species in invaded habitats.


The benefits of potential electric power transfers between the Pacific Northwest (PNW) and California (CA) are evaluated using a linked set of hydrologic, reservoir, and power demand simulation models for the Columbia River and the Sacramento–San Joaquin reservoir systems. The models provide a framework for evaluating climate-related variations and long-range predictability of regional electric power demand, hydropower production, and the benefits of potential electric power transfers between the PNW and CA. The period of analysis is 1917–2002. The study results show that hydropower production and regional electric power demands in the PNW and CA are out of phase seasonally but that hydropower productions in the PNW and CA have strongly covaried on an annual basis in recent decades. Winter electric power demand and spring and annual hydropower production in the PNW are related to both El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) through variations in winter climate. Summer power demand in CA is related primarily to variations in the PDO in spring. Hydropower production in CA, despite recent covariation with the PNW, is not strongly related to ENSO variability overall. Primarily because of strong variations in supply in the PNW, potential hydropower transfers between the PNW and CA in spring and summer are shown to be correlated to ENSO and PDO, and the conditional probability distributions of these transfers are therefore predictable with long lead times. Such electric power transfers are estimated to have potential average annual benefits of $136 and $79 million for CA and the PNW, respectively, at the year-2000 regional demand level. These benefits are on average 11%–27% larger during cold ENSO/PDO events and are 16%–30% lower during warm ENSO/PDO events. Power transfers from the PNW to CA and hydropower production in CA are comparable in magnitude, on average.


Traditional Chinese Medicine is a millennia-old ethnic medical system used by an increasing number of adherents of both Asian and non-Asian descent throughout the world, which forms an integral part of the Chinese identity, philosophy and culture. The raw materials used in Traditional Chinese Medical treatments are obtained from naturally-occurring minerals, wild plants, and animals, a percentage of which are, unfortunately, dangerously rare species prohibited from international trade by CITES , (the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora ). CITES has been declared to be one of the most successful international environmental agreements of all time, yet this has done little to curb the demand for, and international trade in, Traditional Chinese Medicine products created from such endangered species components. This article explores some of the reasons for CITES ' lack of success, the implications for Canada (as both supplier and buyer) in the Traditional Chinese Medicine trade, and some possible solutions by which to remedy the situation, before irreversible harm is done to Canada's native wildlife and to those who depend upon it.


Introduction: Carica papaya Linn is used in a traditional medicine for hepatobiliary disorders. This study investigated the hepatomodulatory effects of aqueous extracts of C. papaya leaf (CPL) and unripe fruit (CPF) at doses of 100 and 300 mg/kg on carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) and acetaminophen (ACM)-induced liver toxicities in rats. Materials and Methods: Rats were administered CCl4 (3 ml/kg in olive oil, i.p.) followed by oral administration of CPL and CPF at 2, 6 and 10 h intervals. The ACM model proceeded with the same method but inclusive of animals treated with N-acetyl cysteine (3 ml/kg i.p). At the end of the study, serum levels of liver biomarkers and antioxidant enzymes were assessed and histology of the liver tissues determined. Results: There was a significant (P < 0.05) reduction in CCl4 and ACM-induced increases in serum levels of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase and direct bilirubin at 100 and 300 mg/kg, respectively. The levels of catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase and reduced GSH were decreased in both models with corresponding significantly (P < 0.05) elevated level of malondialdehyde. However, these antioxidant enzymes were significantly (P < 0.05) increased in CPL and CPF-treated rats. Histopathological assessment of the liver confirmed the protective effects of CPL and CPF on CCl4 and ACM-induced hepatic damage evidenced by the normal presentation of liver tissue architecture. Conclusion: These results indicate that aqueous extracts of C. papaya may be useful in preventing CCl4 and ACM-induced liver toxicities.


Kennametal Stellite 1 is a cobalt-chromium-tungsten-carbon hardfacing alloy that possesses excellent abrasion and corrosion resistance. It retains its hardness at temperatures in excess of 760 °C (1400 °F). This datasheet provides information on composition, physical properties, hardness, elasticity, and tensile properties. It also includes information on corrosion resistance as well as machining. Filing Code: Co-128. Producer or source: Kennametal Inc.


Natural water resources have become a global crisis, which most countries in the world try to overcome this problem in many ways. As the population of human is increasing, the development of industries and demand of water on agriculture sector have boosted up this water shortage problems to the critical zone. Over the decades, desalination technology has become the most effective alternative way to supply fresh water throughout the world. The multistage flash desalination and reverse osmosis processes are examples of desalination technology that is available in the market nowadays. [James E. Miller, 2003]

Desalination is basically a process of separation between salt and water. Water that has been desalinated must be salt free to be considered as a successful product for human consumption. This thesis is basically a report on the efficiency of the mathematical model of the multistage flash desalination with recirculating brine that was developed by Hisham T.El-Dessouky & Hisham M.Ettouney, (2002). The evaluation of the modelling equation is done by simulating the model inside the Aspen Custom Modeler. [James E. Miller, 2003]

The literature review of desalination has covered the importance of desalination and the available desalination technologies. Desalination is the most demanded technology in supplying fresh water. The desalination process is divided into two types, which are membrane technique and thermal technique. Every process that falls under those two techniques is explained in details. The process operations for each of the processes are provided so that the differences between processes can be seen and understood. [James E. Miller, 2003]

Then, the development of the mathematical equations of the system are introduced. The list of equation that have been used in this thesis is given and assumptions while developing those equations are discussed. Important operational variables have been highlighted to show that these variables play an important role in making the process more effective. Effectiveness of variables are been tested on the effect of value changes to the process.

The method that been used was by testing the model of the system in the Aspen Custom Modeler software. The evaluation of the system effectiveness was by study the effect of the number of stages against the performance ratio of the system. As the number of stages increases the performance ratio of the system also increased. Another important variable is top brine temperature, it gave same effect to the system performance as its value increasing. The information gained from the study is the existence of demister will affect the vapour velocity of the system.


Households in the rural areas of southwest coastal Bangladesh mainly depend on unreliable sources of drinking water. This study assessed the willingness to pay (WTP) for improved drinking water in a rural area of the southwest coastal Bangladesh, using contingent valuation survey data of 215 households. The samples for the face-to-face interview were selected by purposive random sampling from Chila union of Mongla sub-district under Bagerhat district. The mean WTP for improved drinking water was estimated to be BDT 193 (US$ 2.47) per month (3% of the monthly income of the households). Results also indicate that educated respondents and households with higher income are willing to pay more for improved water supply. Moreover, the expenditure of the households for buying water and for medicine for waterborne diseases has a significant positive impact on the WTP. The results of this study can be useful for decision-makers to promote improved drinking water supply in southwest coastal Bangladesh.


Despite talk of a "federalism revival," state law is quietly losing ground in the U.S. Supreme Court, and the arbitration area is no exception. For as currently interpreted by the lower courts, the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) is on course to preempt a vast array of legislation that serves important public interests but that is only tenuously related to arbitration. The Court has implicitly endorsed this trajectory in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion (decided as this Article went to press), leading many to abandon hope of a principled judicial response to this mounting problem of overpreemption. In this Article, I offer a new model for thinking about the extent to which the FAA should preempt state laws that do not target arbitration for special regulation but that are also not general enough to escape preemption under settled doctrine. I argue that the current predicament of overpreemption should be understood less as a symptom of the law's rabid favoritism toward arbitration (as is commonly supposed) and more as a symptom of a basic misapprehension of what I have elsewhere described to be the FAA's latent principle of nondiscrimination. Contrary to popular belief, that principle does not demand the impossible feat of placing arbitration agreements on the "same footing" as all other agreements. Instead, it seeks the more modest goal of leveling the playing field between arbitration and litigation - or, as I put it here, equal opportunity for arbitration. I illustrate how a more sophisticated engagement with the logic of equal opportunity can help lower courts fulfill the FAA's nondiscrimination mandate without inevitably displacing state law just because it adversely impacts arbitration agreements. Considering controversial examples from the recent past, I conclude with concrete guidance for how my proposed model might be implemented in practice.


Orofacial infections of odontogenic origin have long plagued mankind. The discovery of the miracle drug by fleming in the year 1928 and the routine use of penicillin after the landmark discovery of the powder form of the antibiotic by florey and chain leading to significant change in the management of odontogenic infection . The spread of infection is governed by factors such as impaired host defence, the virulence of microorganism, functional abnormalities of the host and a lack of or delayed treatment. the microbiology of odontogenic infections in diabetic and non-diabetic individuals has been found to be variable. Though the effects of diabetes can affect infection severity , length of hospital stay, susceptibility to antibiotics and outcome of treatment is unassured . Differentiation in antibiotics prescribed is also observed.The aim of the study was to analyse the prevalence of the use of antibiotics among diabetic and non-diabetic patients in a south indian dental university clinic . The list of all diabetics and non diabetics patients treated for pain, dental infections , swelling were retrieved by reviewing 86000 patient records who have visited the hospital during the study periods from june 2019 to march 2020 from the university database.Data tabulation was carried out in Excel. The data was imported and transcribed in Statistical Package for Social sciences version 16(SPSS,IBM corporation). Descriptive analysis was carried out.A total of 9128 patients were included in the study based on treatment done of which 580 patients(6.3%) had diabetes mellitus. Only 3.5 % of the male population and 2.8% of the female population has diabetes.Amoxicillin 93.2% was found to be the most frequently prescribed antibiotics among nondiabetic patients and diabetics patients 1.6% .A combination of metronidazole and amoxicillin was prescribed to 0.5% of the whole study population .A combination clavulanic acid and amoxicillin(augmentin )was prescribed to 4 % of the total diabetic study population and 0.4% of the nondiabetic study population that is about.The relation between the diabetic status of a patient and the antibiotic prescribed showed a significant statistical relationship in a Pearson's Chi square test with p value of 0.001(p<0.005).The prescribing practises in dental offices can be improved by increasing awareness among dental practitioners about the recommended guidelines for prescribing antibiotics . The most commonly prescribed antibiotics among diabetic patients was Augmentin (4.08%) and for non diabetics it was amoxicillin (93.25%). .


The focus of the present work is to develop stochastic reduced basis methods (SRBMs) for solving partial differential equations (PDEs) defined on random domains and nonlinear stochastic PDEs (SPDEs). SRBMs have been extended in the following directions: Firstly, an h-refinement strategy referred to as Multi-Element-SRBMs (ME-SRBMs) is developed for local refinement of the solution process. The random space is decomposed into subdomains where SRBMs are employed in each subdomain resulting in local response statistics. These local statistics are subsequently assimilated to compute the global statistics. Two types of preconditioning strategies namely global and local preconditioning strategies are discussed due to their merits such as degree of parallelizability and better convergence trends. The improved accuracy and convergence trends of ME-SRBMs are demonstrated by numerical investigation of stochastic steady state elasticity and stochastic heat transfer applications. The second extension involves the development of a computational approach employing SRBMs for solving linear elliptic PDEs defined on random domains. The key idea is to carry out spatial discretization of the governing equations using finite element (FE) methods and mesh deformation strategies. This results in a linear random algebraic system of equations whose coefficients of expansion can be computed nonintrusively either at the element or the global level. SRBMs are subsequently applied to the linear random algebraic system of equations to obtain the response statistics. We establish conditions that the input uncertainty model must satisfy to ensure the well-posedness of the problem. The proposed formulation is demonstrated on two and three dimensional model problems with uncertain boundaries undergoing steady state heat transfer. A large scale study involving a three-dimensional gas turbine model with uncertain boundary, has been presented in this context. Finally, a numerical scheme that combines SRBMs with the Picard iteration scheme is proposed for solving nonlinear SPDEs. The governing equations are linearized using the response process from the previous iteration and spatially discretized. The resulting linear random algebraic system of equations are solved to obtain the new response process which acts as a guess for the next iteration. These steps of linearization, spatial discretization, solving the system of equations and updating the current guess are repeated until the desired accuracy is achieved. The effectiveness and the limitations of the formulation are demonstrated employing numerical studies in nonlinear heat transfer and the one-dimensional Burger's equation.


Biography is one of the oldest, most popular and most tenacious of literary forms. Perhaps the best attested narrative form of the Middle Ages, it continues to draw modern historians of the medieval period to its peculiar challenge to explicate the general through the particular: the biographer's decisions to impose or to resist the imposition of order on biographical remnants raise issues which go to the heart of historical method. This collection, compiled in honour of a distinguished modern exponent of the art of biography, contains sixteen essays by leading scholars, which examine the limits and possibilities of the genre for the period between 750AD and 1250AD. Ranging from pivotal figures such as Charlemagne, William the Conqueror and St Bernard, to the anonymous female skeleton in an Anglo-Saxon grave, from kings and queens to clerks and saints, and from individual to the collective biographies, this collection investigates both medieval biographical writings, and the issues surrounding the writing of medieval lives. Professor David Bates is Director of the Institute of Historical Research; Dr. Julia Crick and Dr. Sarah Hamilton teach in the Department of History at the University of Exeter. The contributors include: Janet L. Nelson, Robin Fleming, Barbara Yorke, Richard Abels, Simon Keynes, Pauline Stafford, Elisabeth Van Houts, David Bates, Jane Martindale, Christopher Holdsworth, Lindy Grant, Marjorie Chibnall, Edmund King, John Gillingham, David Crouch, and, Nicholas Vincent.


Anatoli Vassiliev must be ranked with the most prominent of the internationally acclaimed directors of the late twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first; and history will surely place him among the great director-researcher-pedagogues of the Russian and world theatre, starting with Stanislavsky and including Meyerhold and Vakhtangov. In this conversation, Vassiliev discusses the unique situation of theatre activity in Russia in the early decades of the twentieth century, where the studio, or laboratory, was integral to the very life of the theatre as a specific, collaborative, and ensemble practice and a comprehensive artistic institution. He situates the School of Dramatic Art, which he founded in 1987, in this context, extending the latter's reach to Maria Knebel and Andrey Popov, who were his teachers on the directing course at GITIS in Moscow (State Institute of Theatre Art, now known as the Russian Academy of Theatre Art). He graduated from GITIS in 1973. Vassa Zheleznova, referred to in this interview, was the acme of Vassiliev's explorations of psychological realism, after which he developed forms of what he calls 'play structures' (or 'ludic structures'). Actors working in these structures project externally in clearly articulated ways rather than go inwards, towards and within emotional states of being, as is typical of psychological-realist performance in the Russian tradition. Vassiliev's reversal of established performance modes led to his current preoccupation with 'verbal structures', which are underpinned by his understanding of words as ideas oriented to symbolic and metaphysical sense rather than to psycho-emotional interpretation. The spatial and luminary dimensions of play, together with movement, music, and song that is formal, operatic, rather than in any other kind of vein, defines such later works as Mozart and Salieri (2000) and Onegin's Journey (2003). They have won him great acclaim in Russia and abroad for their innovative approach outside the parameters not only of realism but also of a range of other familiar aesthetic configurations. Vassiliev has directed productions in various countries in Europe, and has also conducted prolonged research workshops as well as working demonstrations there. In this conversation, which took place in June 2009, Vassiliev refers to several underlying principles of his work and reflects upon the importance to him of Grotowski, his last mentor.


Knowledge of complex relationships between soils, crops, and management practices is necessary to develop sustainable agricultural production systems. Objectives were to determine how maize (Zea mays L.) would respond to monoculture (C-C), 2-yr rotation (C-S) with soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.], or 4-yr rotation (C-S-W/A-A) with soybean, wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), and alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) under different N input levels. We evaluated N fertilizer input (8.5 or 5.3 Mg/ha yield goal, or no N) and crop rotation (C-C, C-S, or C-S-W/A-A) treatment effects on soil minerals (N, P, K, S, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, and Zn) and their subsequent effect on shoot dry weight and mineral concentrations, grain yield, and grain composition (oil, starch, and mineral concentrations) using univariate and multivariate statistical tests. Soil under C-S-W/A-A rotation had greater NO 3 ―N and less extractable P than other rotations. Significant input x rotation interactions revealed that shoot concentrations ofN, Ca, and Mg were less while P, K, and Zn were greater at no N input for the C-C rotation compared with other N input/rotation treatments. Increased soil NO 3 ―N, increased plant Ca concentration, and increased grain N and grain S concentrations were most important in differentiating C-S-W/A-A rotation from C-C and C-S rotation treatments. No N input resulted in less yield and kernel N concentration within the C-C and C-S rotations but not C-S-W/A-A. Thus, growing maize in extended rotations that include forage legumes may be a more sustainable practice than growing maize in either monoculture or 2-yr rotation with soybean.


To make meaningful inferences based on our regression models, we must ensure that we have met the necessary assumptions of these tests. In this commentary, we review these assumptions and those for the t-test and analysis of variance, and introduce a variety of methods, formal and informal, numeric and visual, for assessing conformity with the assumptions.


This paper takes its departure from an interactive study conducted in a Swedish secondary school during 2008-2011. The aim is to study the practice of teachers' continuing professional development (CPD) in a teacher team involving peer group mentoring (PGM) to find out how and what kind of teachers' pedagogical knowledge and expertise that is constructed. And to examine how the PGM-practice was constrained and enabled and what kind of CPD was made possible. The theoretical framework is based on practice theory. Practice architectures are used to uncover the relations between the PGM-practice and its historical, material-economic, social-political and cultural-discursive conditions. The methodological approach is action research. A main finding is that professional and personnel development may be imposed through PGM. Democratic process increased during the PGM-meetings and seemed to have an impact on classroom practice and the practice of parent-teacher meetings as well. Furthermore, the PGM-practice and its outcomes are deeply interconnected to global and local historical, material-economic, social-political and cultural-discursive arrangements which constrained and enabled it. When economic cut downs began to take effect in the local school, along with a neo-liberal discourse, democratic processes were challenged and threatened. The focus in the PGM-discussions shifted from the teachers' perceived need for pedagogical knowledge development to talk about students as costs. A collegial approach and the ability to carry out reflexive cooperation were both fostered by the model and articulated in the PGM-practice as important teacher skills.


The paper shows concretely and in detail a part of what can means the auditing of fixed assets, the challenges and threatening of this field. For showing the complexity of the issue analysed, it is starting from the too much general and sinthetic of the broached issues into specialized literature, but whithout to minimize their importance. For tangible fixed assets, selected as basis of our research, there are presented the co-ordinates of the methodological approaching: the nuances of the financial reporting background and identification of the adequate one, the profile and amplitude of the audited entity, the place of tangible fixed assets into relations system of the organization, the connection between the orientation towards processes and existences examination and so on. In order to answer of the question what means to audit from financial view aspects of such issue, there are revealed following elements: the understanding of the specific internal control, the estimating of the control risk, as well as the costs and advantages assessing of the internal control mechanisms testing. Identifying and explaining the content of the most important internal control mechanisms, regarding the assessment of this, as well as the substantial tests of the operations from a sequence, it is emphasized the amplitude, the difficulty and risks associated of the whole, respectively of the fixed asset auditing.


When teaching computer science it can be easy to focus on details and lose sight of the bigger picture. This is particularly concerning with new pretertiary curricula being adopted in many countries as teachers grapple with a bewildering array of topics to teach. This paper steps back and introduces a list of ten big ideas of computer science that have been distilled based on input from curriculum designers and computer science education experts around the world. The big ideas are presented in a way that a classroom teacher will be able to engage with, so that they can use them to relate topics that they teach to the context of a bigger picture.


This article uses a structural model to show that foreclosures played a crucial role in exacerbating the recent housing bust and to analyse foreclosure mitigation policy. We consider a dynamic search model in which foreclosures freeze the market for non-foreclosures and reduce price and sales volume by eroding lender equity, destroying the credit of potential buyers, and making buyers more selective. These effects cause price-default spirals that amplify an initial shock and help the model fit both national and cross-sectional moments better than a model without foreclosure. When calibrated to the recent bust, the model reveals that the amplification generated by foreclosures is significant: ruined credit and choosey buyers account for 25.4% of the total decline in non-distressed prices and lender losses account for an additional 22.6%. For policy, we find that principal reduction is less cost-effective than lender equity injections or introducing a single seller that holds foreclosures off the market until demand rebounds. We also show that policies that slow down the pace of foreclosures can be counterproductive.


The nymphal development of the citrus psylla, Trioza erytreae (Del Guercio) was followed on five different host plants in the family Rutaceae. Development was compared on Citrus limon (rough lemon) and four indigenous hosts, namely, Vepris undulata, Clausena anisata, Fagara capensis and Calodendrum capense. The suitability of these hosts for development of the psyllids was gauged (i) by the sizes attained by the nymphs, (ii) by the durations of the nymphal instars and (iii) by the mortalities of the nymphs on each host plant. It was concluded that V. undulata and Cl. anisata were most suitable for development of T. erytreae and that these plants are probably among the original indigenous hosts. Ci. limon and F. capensis were less suitable for development but still adequate. whereas Ca. capense was found to be entirely unsuitable.


As the practice shows, the effective management of social service organizations requires not only the knowledge of social work, but also the background of management, which enables to apply creatively the acquired necessary managerial knowledge and skills to the professional practice. The purpose of the research – to reveal the managerial skills which are necessary for the implementation of social service management functions. The object of the research – managerial skills required for social service managers. The qualitative analysis, which included 20 managers of social service organizations, has been carried out. Once the analysis of the interviews about their managerial practice has been done, it emerged that there is a necessity of skills involving the development of the human resources (search for the employees, their selection, motivation, reduction of interpersonal tension and conflict dealing). The research is significant to the organizers and implementers of university programs and social worker qualification improving programs, as well as to the specialists of the research field.


Using a partial market equilibrium framework, this study evaluated the US regional timber and wood products market impacts of a projected national level expansion in wood biomass consumption for energy. By restricting logging residue use, we focus on the impacts on timber harvests and paper production from increased pulpwood consumption and focus on the impacts on lumber production from increased mill residue consumption. Analyses showed that increased consumption of wood for energy led to diversion of about 37 million m3 of pulpwood away from pulpwood-using traditional products (e.g., panels and paper), reducing production and net exports of paper and paperboard by up to 3 million tonnes. Increased wood energy consumption also led to increased timber harvests (up to 40 million m3 or 8 percent), increased prices (up to 31 percent), and increased lumber production and net exports by up to 9 million m3. The South was projected to supply the majority of the energy feedstock (47 m3 or 77 percent) and to experience the resultant effects on forests and wood products sectors. The findings highlight the importance of market linkages at local, national, and global levels in evaluating the impacts of increased wood energy consumption and the importance of identifying feedstock sources.


The Marine Agency-Roads and Transport Authority (MA-RTA) of Dubai-UAE recently undertook a study to develop a new transport policy for service delivery. The goal of the new policy is to increase rider share and use of MA-RTA services. The existing service policy guidelines of the water transit services were barely supported by the loading patterns, existing market coverage, adequate intermodal planning tools, economic feasibility, and capital return of services. Based on user and operators surveys of the water transit services, aiming at assessing the baseline conditions,methodologies are suggested to estimate important service attributes, including service coverage, intermodal connectivity, and market demand estimation. The estimated service attributes were used as measures to develop the service policy standards to increase water transit ridership and enhance service efficiency. It is recommended to incorporate some of the service standard/guideline measures under a framework discussed in this study for developing service plans, monitoring performance, and providing short or long term alteration to the services.


Fluvial conservation and restoration measures' efficiency was evaluated in terms of ecological state enhancement, comparing future scenarios with historical or altered conditions. Ecohydraulics provides valuable scientific tools for the environmental diagnosis of lotic ecosystems, evaluating the combined effect of flow regime and channel structure on habitat quality for aquatic biota. This paper adopts an analytic-synthetic approach to the interdisciplinary challenge of fluvial ecohydraulics for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) within the framework of ecosystem water management. The procedure for multidimensional (2D/3D) evaluation of the physical aquatic habitat is described as well as its predictive ability and main applications. The 2D depth-averaged scheme is highlighted whose velocity simulation error (being normally lower than 10%) overcomes classic one-dimensional (1D) simplifications. The basic aspects of biological habitat modelling, abiotic variables and biological preference are summarised. Combining eco logical criteria with hydrodynamic flow patterns is illustrated for producing discrete habitat fields which were then spatially and temporarily integrated in ecohydraulic analysis.


Social interaction plays an essential role in acquiring knowledge and developing our own personalities in our daily life. Meanwhile, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)-, electroencephalograph (EEG)-, and functional near inferred spectroscopy (fNIRS)-hyperscanning, enables us to concurrently map brain activation from two or more participants who are engaged in social interaction simultaneously. In this review, we first highlight the recent technologies advances and the most significant findings towards social interaction by using the hyperscanning method. In addition, we also illustrate several well-designed hyperscanning tasks that have been extensively adopted for the study of social interaction. Basically, hyperscanning contains six categories of experimental paradigms that can track the interactive neural process of interest. Furthermore, it contains two main elucidated neural systems which are involved in social interaction, including the mirror neuron system (MNS) and mentalizing system (MS). Finally, future research directions and clinical implications that are associated with hyperscanning are also highlighted and discussed.


Following the 2008 global financial crisis, uncertainty is escalating in the world economy amid disruptions in the financial and foreign exchange markets of emerging economies, mounting geopolitical instabilities triggered by the spread of international terrorism, and rising protectionism in advanced countries. While the term "BRICs" signaled the emergence of new markets in the early 2000s it has since become associated with pessimistic views regarding the future of emerging markets as growth falters in Brazil and Russia.
However, emerging markets are vastly outpacing advanced economies in terms of their contribution to global economic growth. In response to protectionism and isolationism in the sluggish global economy, Korea should act as a mediator between the advanced and emerging countries, providing the momentum for sustainable development. Thus, comprehensive and in-depth research is needed for better understanding about emerging economies. Despite increasing demands for Area Studies, there is still a lack of systematic and insightful research on emerging markets.
In this regard, Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) launched the "Studies in Comprehensive Regional Strategies" project in 2009 with the aim of providing readily applicable international economic policy recommendations for policy makers, as well as the public, and to expand the promotion of Area Studies across the spheres of economics, politics, society, and culture.
KIEP carries out a mixed bag of projects as it strengthens networks with regional experts, publishes research papers, jointly holds the international conference "KIEP and Associations of Area Studies," and invites prominent scholars from around the world. In particular, we annually call for research papers from regional experts in Area Studies and publish these papers in a single volume. This year, for the first time, nine prominent scholars across the world have conducted their own research in the areas of Russia-Eurasia, South East Asia, India-South Asia, and Turkey-Eastern Europe. It is our hope that this informative body of research will prove useful to broadening readers' understanding and knowledge of Area Studies. We also hope these research papers will contribute to the lively overseas expansion of Korean enterprises and the establishment of trade policies by the Korean government, and suggest ways to overcome challenges that trouble emerging economies.
On behalf of KIEP, I would like to express our deepest gratitude and appreciation to the referees for their rigorous and helpful reviewing of the papers, as well as the authors for their endeavors to create considerable merit in the papers. The opinions expressed in the papers are the author's own and do not represent the official views of KIEP.
We sincerely look forward to your continued interest in and encouragement of "Studies in Comprehensive Regional Strategies" and KIEP.


Email: firstname.lastname@example.com Taisō Yoshitoshi (1839-1892) was the most popular woodblock artist of his day. Customers lined up on the day of publication for his prints of historical characters and beautiful women. His career, which introduced subtle psychological observation to the artistic and representational world of ukiyo-e, straddled the tumultuous late Edo and early Meiji periods. Yoshitoshi was fascinated by the supernatural, and some of his best work concerns ghosts, monsters, and charming animal transmutations. Yoshitoshi's strange tales presents two series that focus on his depictions of the weird and magical world of the transformed. The first series dates from the beginning and the second from the end of the artist's abbreviated career, encapsulating his artistic development. One Hundred Tales of Japan and China (Wakan hyaku monogatari) of 1865 is based on a game in which people told short scary ghost tales in a darkened room, extinguishing a candle as each tale ended. New Forms of Thirty-six Strange Things (Shinken sanjūrokkaisen) of 1889-92 illustrates stories from Japan's rich heritage of legends in more serene and objective ways. The book opens with a study of Japanese ghost prints and analysis of Yoshitoshi's changing treatments of the genre, and reproduces three rare paintings by the artist. This is Yoshitoshi at his most whimsical and imaginative.


Cascades are ubiquitous in various network environments. How to predict these cascades is highly nontrivial in several vital applications, such as viral marketing, epidemic prevention and traffic management. Most previous works mainly focus on predicting the final cascade sizes. As cascades are typical dynamic processes, it is always interesting and important to predict the cascade size at any time, or predict the time when a cascade will reach a certain size (e.g. an threshold for outbreak). In this paper, we unify all these tasks into a fundamental problem: cascading process prediction. That is, given the early stage of a cascade, how to predict its cumulative cascade size of any later time? For such a challenging problem, how to understand the micro mechanism that drives and generates the macro phenomena (i.e. cascading process) is essential. Here we introduce behavioral dynamics as the micro mechanism to describe the dynamic process of a node's neighbors getting infected by a cascade after this node getting infected (i.e. one-hop subcascades). Through data-driven analysis, we find out the common principles and patterns lying in behavioral dynamics and propose a novel Networked Weibull Regression model for behavioral dynamics modeling. After that we propose a novel method for predicting cascading processes by effectively aggregating behavioral dynamics, and present a scalable solution to approximate the cascading process with a theoretical guarantee. We extensively evaluate the proposed method on a large scale social network dataset. The results demonstrate that the proposed method can significantly outperform other state-of-the-art baselines in multiple tasks including cascade size prediction, outbreak time prediction and cascading process prediction.


The COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating effects on our social, economic and political lives. While the race to develop vaccines has yielded results in record time, ensuring widespread, affordable access to these vaccines remains a major challenge. Vaccines are now in a race against new, more virulent variants of COVID-19, and unless everyone can be vaccinated soon, these new variants may lead to many more deaths. Current vaccine supplies fall far short of what is needed, however, and in what has become known as "vaccine nationalism," wealthier countries have poured billions of dollars into advance purchasing agreements that guarantee themselves preferential access. The distribution inequities resulting from this nationalistic response undermines the interest all countries have in speedy and universal inoculation.

At the heart of the problem is the fact that the pharmaceutical industry has taken a market-driven rather than public-health driven approach to vaccine development and distribution. A market-driven approach makes sense to some extent, as the pharmaceutical companies must have some means of recovering their investments in the risky research and development required to create new vaccines. Patent protections and other exclusive rights are widely regarded as necessary incentivizes for investment in pharmaceutical innovation, as they allow supracompetitive pricing. In times of global public health crises, however, the ordinary principles of exclusivity must give way to the pressing need for immediate, affordable, and widely available access. We desperately need other manufacturers to be able to help boost vaccine supplies and lower vaccine prices.

Recognizing the need for flexibility in times of emergency and building upon knowledge gained from existing international and domestic compulsory licensing laws, we propose a global, centralized scheme to provide access to vaccines during pandemics. In many ways our proposal mirrors some of the WHO's COVID-19 vaccine initiatives but consolidates and expands them into a much more efficacious form. Under the proposed model, the World Health Organization's declaration of a pandemic would trigger a global procurement and distribution scheme for vaccines. The proposed scheme would be mandatory and would require that all countries operate as one buyer vis-a-vis vaccine developers. A single buyer scheme provides a buyer with significant economic leverage, allowing not only to negotiate vaccine pricing and distribution from a better bargaining position, but also to discourage defection. This procurement scheme would be supported by the power to issue global compulsory licenses of patent, trade secret, regulatory data, and other assets necessary for vaccine production, to become effective if and when consensual negotiations with vaccine developers fail. The success of such a global procurement initiative, especially at times of emergency where each country is tempted to defect and take a nationalistic approach, depends on mandatory global participation and a firm commitment to the scheme.


INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION ON RESEARCH INTO STRATEGIES FOR AREA TRAFFIC CONTROL HAS LED TO THE NEED FOR A COMMON STANDARD BY WHICH SCHEMES TESTED IN ONE COUNTRY COULD BE COMPARED WITH THOSE TESTED IN ANOTHER. REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION AND THE ROAD RESEARCH LABORATORY AGREED THAT A SUITABLE COMMON BASIS FOR RESEARCH IN THE UNITED STATES AND BRITAIN WOULD BE ESTABLISHED BY MAKING COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENTS BOTH IN GLASGOW AND IN A U.S. CITY, OF TRANSYT AND ITS AMERICAN COUNTERPART, SIGOP, SO THAT EITHER COULD BE USED AS A STANDARD. THIS REPORT DESCRIBES THE FIRST PART OF THE CO- OPERATIVE PROJECT, THE ASSESSMENT OF SIGOP AND TRANSYT IN GLASGOW. TWO FORMS OF TRANSYT WERE USED, DOUBLE-CYCLE TRANSYT WHERE MINOR INTERSECTIONS RUN ON HALF THE CYCLE-TIME OF MAJOR INTERSECTIONS AND SINGLE-CYCLE TRANSYT WHERE ALL SIGNALS IN THE AREA HAVE A COMMON CYCLE. DURING THE MID-DAY AND EVENING PEAK, WITH CYCLE TIMES BETWEEN 90 AND 120 SECONDS, AVERAGE JOURNEY-TIMES WERE THE SAME WITH SIGOP AND SINGLE-CYCLE TRANSYT. JOURNEY TIMES WITH DOUBLE-CYCLE TRANSYT, AS NORMALLY USED IN GREAT BRITAIN, WERE 4 TO 5 PER CENT QUICKER. MORNING PEAK RESULTS WERE DIFFICULT TO INTERPRET BUT IT WAS PROBABLE THAT THERE WAS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE THREE SCHEMES DURING THIS PERIOD. A SIMULATION BASED ON THE TRANSYT MODEL BEFORE THE TRIAL PREDICTED DIFFERENCES OF 5 TO 7 PER CENT BETWEEN SIGOP AND DOUBLE- CYCLE TRANSYT. /AUTHOR/


The inducible inflammatory enzyme cycloxigenase-2 is up-regulated in cancer, and favors tumor progression. Cycloxigenase-2 is encoded by the prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 (PTGS2) gene, which presents sequence variations in the promoter region (PR) and in the 3′-untranslated region (3′-UTR). Different PR (rs689465, rs689466, rs20417) and 3′-UTR (rs5275) variants were generated by site-directed mutagenesis, and combined in haplotypes to access expression levels using a reporter system (luciferase) in human cells (MCF-7 and HEK293FT). Luciferase activity did not differ significantly among PTGS2 PR constructs, except for pAAC (containing variant allele rs20417 C), with 40% less activity than pAAG (wild-type sequence) in MCF-7 cells (P<0.01). Despite the lack of individual significant differences, PTGS2 PR constructs enclosing rs689466 G (pAGG and pAGC) showed an approximate two-fold increase in luciferase activity when compared to those containing rs689466 A (pAAG, pGAC, pAAC and pGAG) in both cell lines (P<0.001 for MCF-7 and P=0.03 for HEK293FT). The effect of PTGS2 3′-UTR sequences varied between MCF-7 and HEK293FT: MCF-7 cells showed significant reduction (40–60%) in luciferase activity (at least P<0.01), whereas HEK293FT cells showed more diverse results, with an average 2-fold increase when combined constructs (PR and 3′-UTR) were compared to respective parental PR sequences. The contribution of 3′-UTR variant (rs5275) was not consistent in either cell line. Despite the modulation of the 3′-UTR, with variable effects of rs5275, the enhancing transcriptional effect of rs689466 G was still detectable (P<0.0001 in MCF-7 or P=0.03 in HEK293FT cells).


Miriam Lanskoy: In the introduction to the English-language edition of your book,' you draw a distinction between power and influence. You say that the oligarchs never had power. Can you elaborate on that thought?Yuri Felshtinsky: This is a very important point. What do the oligarchs have? They have money. You hear everywhere, "The oligarchs stole." From whom? Imagine [that] everything is nationalized and seventy-five years passes, and then privatization begins. Most people don't believe in it. Most people expect everything to be nationalized again. People are conservative. They reason, "I don't have very much. How can I risk my last crumb? The government will come and take it away." For this reason everything is undervalued.But there are others who take this chance and they reason differently. [They think], "There will be many of us and they can't take it away. We will win and we won't give it up." This is [Boris] Berezovsky. (There are others, he just happens to be the one I am acquainted with.)Because for seventy-five years there had been no market, all assets-let's say a factory-were undervalued. Oligarchs, like Berezovsky, got their factories and other substantial assets cheap. On the other hand, they were operating in an environment where there was no law. There was no tax law. No one knows what's legal. So you got your factory, now what? Now you have to invest in it. Renovate it, and manage it, and so on. You have to give bribes, all the time, for every piece of paper.Imagine how difficult it is for the businessman to survive. Who succeeds? The one who is smart? Ambitious? Connected? It's all of those. You have to have capital. You have to make the right decision about investing it. If you make a mistake, you're finished. And then you need the connections to keep it running. Very few can do all this-there's only a handful of them.In a more or less democratic system, politicians need money to run campaigns to win votes. Bloomberg spent six dollars per voter and one says that Bloomberg bought votes! The oligarch helps the politician win elections through the normal legal machinery of the mass media. But this is not the same as canceling elections! There is a qualitative difference between appealing to the voter through a journalist who had been bought and a journalist who has been strangled! It's one thing to use television to elect a politician; it's another thing to start a war in Chechnya to win an election. That there's a war going on [in] Chechnya, that does not bother anyone. But Berezovsky owns a television station-now there's a scandal!At the same time, the [Federal security Service] FSB uses the press, too. In 1988 you could see the ideological fight. For instance, in Moskovski Komsomolets, the head editor, [Sergey] Grachev, and [Alexander] Khinshtein published a story that Berezovsky is conducting surveillance of the Yeltsin family. But if you read the story, it's obvious that someone is listening to Berezovsky-that his conversations are being taped, not the Yeltsins'.Here's the critical difference between power and influence. Berezovsky can't persuade the prosecutor's office to start an investigation in Ryazan. This is the difference between the oligarchs and the FSB-all Berezovsky has is money. He can't persuade the procuracy to open or close a case. He has no sway over police or prosecutors. He can't protect himself or his closest associates. Nikolai Glushkov, one of his closest associates, has been in jail for two years, and no amount of money can get him out. This is the real difference between power and influence in Russia, and it's very clear by looking at Berezovsky. He has lots of money and no power. This is the difference between the real oligarchs and the people we are used to calling "oligarchs"-Berezovsky can be arrested and thrown in jail.ML: Why don't you cite the newspapers that you used in the book? You cite sources sometimes, but not every time you use them. …


The paper attempts to evaluate the potential and importance of agriculture in the two largest (post)industrial metropolitan areas of Europe. It has been demonstrated that urban agriculture constitutes an important spatial component of studied urban organisms, as almost 40% of these consist of agricultural land. Analysis of chosen characteristics of agriculture in the researched metropolitan areas explicitly shows that their agricultural potential is comparable to the overall regions where they are located. This mainly concerns the average size of farms, the employment ratio and the intensity of both animal and plant production. The studies also led to the conclusion that, in spite of very similar natural environments, agriculture in the Ruhr Metropolis is characterized by significantly higher production potential than agriculture in the Upper Silesian Metropolis.


In this thesis work, we extend digital holographic microscopy (DHM) capabilities and applications range by using from two to twenty different wavelength laser sources, either simultaneously or sequentially. As an overview, we present methods to increase the measurement range to more than three decades, from demonstrated sub-nanometer precision to several micro-meters, as well as an approach to access difficult high-roughness surface measurement with DHM. Finally a technique achieving multiple-wavelength volume tomography of cells, is exposed and backed by promising preliminary results on red blood cells (RBC). Indeed, a classical limitation of single-wavelength DHM is the restricted measurement range due to the so-called phase ambiguity for sample optical height above one multiple of the wavelength. Although software unwrapping algorithms can solve this issue up to a certain extend, they are sensitive to noise or roughness, time-consuming and cannot cope with high aspect-ratio structures. The presented solution relies on the well-known dual-wavelength optical unwrapping thanks to a generated micron-range beat-wavelength, but with a major real-time advantage by being able to acquire the two-wavelength information simultaneously in one single hologram acquisition, thus maintaining the DHM high-speed and robustness unique features. It is demonstrated that not only this single-shot measurement range extension does not compromise or degrade the nanometer-range axial resolution under reasonable noise and beat-wavelength magnitudes, but that true experimentally-demonstrated sub-nanometer accuracy can be achieved with the proposed configuration at the same time, achieving a DHM investigation range of more than three decades. v In addition to this, the problematic of rough samples investigation by DHM is addressed in this work, as the strong scattering, also known as speckle phenomenon, remains an obstacle for DHM even when working in a two-wavelength mode. A new auto-correlation dual-wavelength hologram reconstruction process is introduced, enabling to successfully measure in two dimensions metallic roughness surfaces with arithmetic rugosity of up to 1.6 µm. Despite losing the digital propagation DHM feature, as well as sensibly reducing the data quantity, the method is able to discard scattering contributions and permits to recover a correct two-dimensional phase map of the surface where previous phase-adjustment reconstruction algorithms would fail. The technique is assessed on a roughness test-target with different types of manufacturing machining processes. Finally, the last part of this work concerns multiple-wavelength DHM tomography in order to achieve a slice-by-slice volume reconstruction of a fixed biological specimen. As will be shown, superposition of about twenty DHM-reconstructed complex wavefronts at different wavelengths in the 485-670 nm range enables true tomography with a sub-micrometer resolution in the axial direction, realizing a slicing effect similar to confocal microscopy but with instantaneous full-field acquisitions. Although the basic principles of this approach are already established, we are presenting major improvements not only enhancing the image reconstruction quality, but more importantly permitting to adapt the method to single-cell investigation. Actually, we propose, for the first time to the extend of our knowledge, a configuration enabling direct on-cell DHM reflection phase measurement, noticeably detecting the ultra-low signal reflected by a cellular membrane. By this means, we present results obtained on fixed erythrocyte cells with enough precision to retrieve the membrane position in the three-dimensional space.