Wayne State College Spring Commencement 2014

Published: 4-30-2014 9:00 am

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Wayne State College will hold commencement for graduate students at 9:30 a.m. May 10 in Rice Auditorium and at 2 p.m. May 10 for undergraduate students in the Willow Bowl. A total of 480 degrees -- 385 undergraduates and 95 graduate degrees -- will be conferred at the ceremonies by Wayne State President Curt Frye. Dr. Sheila Stearns, president of Wayne State College from 1999 to 2003 and a member of the Wayne State Foundation Board of Trustees, will deliver the commencement address at the undergraduate ceremony.

Ceremony Times
9:30 a.m. - Graduate Students
2 p.m. - Undergraduate Students

View the Full List of Graduates!

Graduate Invocation Speaker
Kayla Varley will deliver the invocation at the graduate ceremony. She is the daughter of Randy and Pauline Hahn of Aurora, Neb., and wife of Mike Varley of Farmers and Merchants State Bank in Wayne.

Varley is graduating with her master of science in education curriculum and instruction-instructional leadership. She earned her bachelor of science in elementary education and special education from Wayne State in 2012.

Varley plans to continue working at Wayne Community Schools teaching life skills to high school students.
Kayla and Mike, both of Wayne, have a daughter, Kinzly.

Graduate Commencement Speaker
Dr. Julian A. Medina will deliver the commencement address at the graduate ceremony.

Medina, who is a physician in Miami, Fla., is graduating with a master of business administration degree after completing Wayne State's online MBA program.
Medina earned his bachelor of arts degree in psychology and bachelor of science degree in biological sciences, both Summa cum Laude, from Florida International University in 1999. He earned his medical degree from University of Florida College of Medicine in 2003.

Julian is married to Christina G. Medina, M.D., and has two daughters, Alicia and Andrea.

Undergraduate Invocation Speaker
Jill Stara will deliver the invocation at the undergraduate commencement ceremony. She is the daughter of Kevin and Betsy Stara of David City, Neb.

Stara is graduating Summa cum Laude and is a Neihardt Honor Scholar. She majored in K-12 instrumental and vocal music education, making the Dean's List all five years of her education at Wayne State. She was one of four WSC students selected to present in 2012 at the National Honors Council Conference in Boston.

Stara participated in the Wildcat Marching Band, serving as drum major in 2013 and as the trumpet section leader. She also performed for two years with the Nebraska Intercollegiate Band. She was a member of the Philomathean President's Honor Society, Kappa Kappa Psi honorary band fraternity, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, Cardinal Key, Alpha Lambda Delta Freshman Honor Society, National Association for Music Educators, Crazy 8 Faculty Jazz Combo, WSC Choir, and WSC Show Choir. She also played the lead role in the Wayne State musical Little Shop of Horrors and was named Freshman Music Person of the Year.

Stara will begin teaching grades 5-12 instrumental music at Lakeview Community Schools in Columbus, Neb., in the fall.

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Mike Beacom
Alumni Achievement Award
Mike Beacom is the recipient of this year's Alumni Achievement Award. Beacom graduated as an honors-honorable mention graduate from Wayne State College in 1990 with a bachelor of science degree in business administration with an accounting concentration.

Beacom, a Certified Public Accountant, has been with McGladrey LLP for 20 years, with the past 10 years as an assurance partner. McGladrey is considered one of the nation's largest assurance, tax and consulting firms, with more than 6,700 professionals and associates located in 75 cities across the United States and more than $1 billion in annual revenues.

Beacom started with McGladrey in its Cedar Rapids, Iowa, office, transferred to Las Vegas, Nev., in 1996, and has worked for McGladrey's Dallas office since 2001. After holding various leadership positions within the firm, Beacom was chosen to lead McGladrey's Central Region's Real Estate and Construction Industry Group in 2013. The Central Region's footprint encompasses the states of Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas.

In addition to being involved with numerous professional, fraternal and charitable organizations, Beacom is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and Texas State Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Upon graduating from Emerson-Hubbard High School in Emerson, Neb., Beacom received a Cooperating Schools Scholarship to attend Wayne State College. In appreciation of this scholarship and in the spirit of giving back to Wayne State College, he and his wife, Liz, have started The Beacom Demke Family Scholarship in honor of Mike's parents, James and Mary Ann (Demke) Beacom, who still reside in Hubbard, Neb.

Mike and Liz reside in Frisco, Texas.

State Nebraska Bank & Trust Teaching Excellence Award
Dr. Laura Dendinger, WSC professor of Business and Economics, will receive the State Nebraska Bank & Trust Teaching Excellence Award. Matt Ley, chief executive officer of State Nebraska Bank in Wayne, will present the award. David Ley, the bank's chairman of the board, established the award in 1998 as a way of recognizing and strengthening outstanding teaching at Wayne State. David Ley and State Nebraska Bank of Wayne support the college in many ways, including scholarships and as a trustee of the Wayne State Foundation Board of Trustees.

This prestigious honor is awarded on the basis of rigorous standards that require a superior level of effective teaching. Dendinger also was Wayne State's nominee for the Nebraska State College System Teaching Excellence Award.

Dendinger began teaching at Wayne State, serving as an adjunct family member from 1993 to 2000. She was hired as an assistant professor in 2000 and was granted tenure in 2006 as an associate professor and promoted to full professor in 2011. She earned a juris doctorate from University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1985 and a bachelor of arts degree in political science, speech and organizational communications from Creighton University in 1983. She has practiced law from 1985 to the present, most recently general practice and formerly as a prosecutor.

In addition to publishing and presenting in a variety of journals, textbooks and conferences, Dendinger has been active with many professional and community organizations throughout her career. She is a member of the Nebraska State Bar Association and is a certified mediator/facilitator. Her work with the community has included Haven House, Wakefield Community Foundation, Coleridge Community Educational Foundation, Northeast Nebraska Child Advocacy Center, and the Wayne United Way.

The nomination materials for the Teaching Excellence Award note that Dendinger "has an open and personable demeanor that makes her well-liked by students and faculty" and "her entire professional, academic, and personal life has been a record of service to students and to humanity in general as attorney, professor, counselor, advisor, friend and humanitarian."

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Dr. Sheila Stearns
Undergraduate Commencement Address
Dr. Sheila Stearns, who served as president of Wayne State College from 1999 to 2003, will deliver the commencement address at the baccalaureate ceremony. Stearns left Wayne State to serve as commissioner of higher education in Montana, CEO for the Board of Regents, with responsibility for overseeing six universities and eight community colleges, in 2003.

Since retiring in 2012, Stearns has served as a senior fellow and consultant for the Association of Governing Boards, providing advice to boards of trustees and governing boards of colleges and universities throughout the United States and the Pacific Islands. Currently, she has been appointed to serve as interim chancellor of Montana State University-Billings. She previously served from 1993 to 1999 as chancellor of the University of Montana-Western and as vice president of the University of Montana from 1987 to 1993.

A native of rural eastern Montana, Stearns received all of her degrees from the University of Montana, including a bachelor's degree in English and history, a master's degree in history and a doctorate in educational administration and supervision. She worked six years as a public school teacher and librarian, including three years in Wiesbaden, Germany, before becoming an administrator at UM.

She is married to Hal Stearns, a longtime public school teacher, adjunct professor, and currently a frequent speaker on 19th century exploration of the American West. Sheila and Hal serve as trustees of the Wayne State College Foundation and continue to be avid supporters of WSC and the Wildcats.

They have two children and six grandchildren, all of whom live within walking distance of their home in Missoula, Mont.


: Recent empirical research has provided compelling evidence that the proliferation of intellectual property rights (IP) and the fragmentation of patent rights among different patent holders have created barriers to innovation and impediments to the commercialization of scientific discoveries. Legal and economic scholars have suggested that due to the rising number of patent applications, the limited resources in patent offices around the world and the lack of sufficient time to prior art search, examiners have failed to conduct thorough patent examination processes. Moreover, researchers have linked the growing number of overlapping intellectual property rights to the tragedy of the anticommons and to the concept of patent thickets. Multiple studies have been performed in order to develop measures that could verify the existence of patent thickets and to better understand the social and economic impact of fragmentary patent owners. When it comes to the energy sector, the problem of patent thickets is now even more important. As the technological innovation in this sector increases and the energy-related patenting continues to grow, it has been argued that the issue of patent thickets may have a direct impact on investment decisions and the long-run development of this sector. This paper presents an overview of literature on the definition of a patent thicket and summarizes some of the possible factors causing thickets to arise. Additionally, it discusses the recent developments in patent thicket measures and patent thicket identification methods.


Abstract The capacity of the polar flora to adapt is of increasing concern given current and predicted environmental change in these regions. Previous genetic studies of Antarctic mosses have been of limited value due to a lack of variation in the markers or non-specificity of the methods used. We examined the power of five microsatellite loci developed for the cosmopolitan moss Ceratodon purpureus to detect genetically distinct clones and infer the distribution of clones within and among populations from the Windmill Islands, East Antarctica. Our microsatellite data suggest that the extraordinarily high levels of variation reported in RAPD studies were artificially elevated by the presence of contaminants. We found surprisingly little contribution of asexual reproduction to the genetic structure of the Windmill Islands populations, but more loci are required to determine the distribution of individual clones within and among populations. It is apparent that Antarctic populations of C. purpureus possess less genetic diversity than temperate populations, and thus have less capacity for adaptive change in response to environmental variation, but more markers are needed to resolve the total genetic diversity in Antarctic C. purpureus and other mosses.


After 169 days on left ventricular assist device (LVAD) support, a 62-year-old male patient suffering from idiopathic dilatative cardiomyopathy showed signs of left ventricular recovery. Off-pump trials were done, and our explantation criteria were met. The LVAD removal procedure was performed after 338 days on the device, using a left lateral thoracotomy in the sixth intercostal space. First, the outflow graft was transected and the distal end was sewed. Then, the pump was replaced by an individually manufactured titanium plug. Finally, the driveline was cut so that the device could be completely withdrawn. The rest of the driveline was accessed through a small abdominal incision and explanted through the percutaneous exit site.


Objective: The overall goal for this study was to conduct a segment analysis of the pharmacist workforce during 2009 based upon time spent in medication providing and in patient care services. Methods: Data for this study were obtained from the 2009 National Pharmacist Workforce Survey in which a random sample of 3,000 pharmacists was selected. Cluster analysis was used for identifying pharmacist segments and descriptive statistics were used for describing and comparing segments. Results: Of the 2,667 surveys that were presumed to be delivered to a pharmacist, 1,395 were returned yielding a 52.3% overall response rate. Of these, 1,200 responses were usable for cluster analysis. Findings from this study revealed five segments of pharmacists: (1) Medication Providers, (2) Medication Providers who also Provide Patient Care, (3) Other Activity Pharmacists, (4) Patient Care Providers Who also Provide Medication, and (5) Patient Care Providers. The results showed that, in 2009, 41% of U.S. pharmacists were devoted wholly to medication providing (Medication Providers). Forty-three percent of pharmacists contributed significantly to patient care service provision (Medication Providers who also Provide Patient Care, Patient Care Providers who also Provide Medication, and Patient Care Providers) and the remaining 16% (Other Activity Pharmacists) contributed most of their time to business / organization management, research, education, and other health-system improvement activities. Conclusions: Based on the findings, we propose that the pharmacy profession currently has, and will continue to build, capacity for contributing to the U.S. health care system in new roles for which they have been identified. However, as shifts in professional roles occur, a great deal of capacity is required related to new service provision. Resources are scarce, so an understanding of the most appropriate timing for making such changes can lead to cost-effective use of limited resources for improving patient care.


Sponsored by the Banking Law Committee (E) of the International Bar Association's Section of Business Law, this fourth edition is the result of extensive discussions at many IBA conferences of lawyers worldwide who provide commentary on a multitude of issues which may arise in the process of rendering legal opinions in international transactions. In most important international business transactions opinions of counsel are required as a condition precedent to the "closing" of the transaction. This book analyses and comments on the clauses of a typical legal opinion requested in an international transation. The book explains meaning given to such opinion clauses by US counsel, discusses under the law and practice of 25 countries whether such opinion can be given and whether or not modifications are advisable and addresses the investigation necessary to enable a lawyer to render a correct opinion. The book also contains a chapter discussing the opinion a non-US lawyer should request from a US lawyer. The fourth edition adds a discussion of the special issues involved in opinions rendered by in-house counsel. The principal purpose of the book is to improve the communications between the lawyer - frequently a US attorney - requesting the opinion and the lawyer rendering the opinion. Both must have a common understanding of the meaning of the terminology used in, and the scope of, the opinion. Another important purpose of the book is to analyse the interdependence of the opinions of counsel from several countries rendered in connection with one transaction. This frequently requires a conflict of laws analysis. Where the laws of several countries apply to a transaction, the various opinions must be put together like pieces of a puzzle before the recipient of the opinion can be certain that all relevant legal issues, under all relevant legal systems, have been fully addressed.


Background Outreaching coordinated multidisciplinary care for ambulatory Huntington's disease (HD) patients was developed since 2008 in the northern part of The Netherlands. The outpatient clinic team, embedded in a regular nursing home, performs problem analysis and composes a treatment, care and home implementation plan for each patient during a half day assessment as described before.1 Aims Description and evaluation of patient data on treatment and care coordinated through the clinic team. Methods Data collected from the patients from the out patient clinic. Results In 4 years 75 patients were included of which 29 were male and 46 female (age 20–79). Of these patients, 10 were already institutionalised before presentation. Another 10 patients were admitted to different nursing homes as part of the intervention. Eleven patients died over the last 4 years, (aspiration pneumonia 2, euthanasia 3, end stage HD with refractory symptoms 3, unknown 3). Of 44 patients living at home no one was working fulltime in their own job. 1/3 of the employable patients had financial problems due to unemployment. For each patient the care plan led to support for the system. The majority of the caregivers held the opinion that patients stayed at home longer due to the treatment, care and implementation plan. Conclusions HD Patients in the northern part of the country experience severe problems and can be adequately supported by a proactive coordinating multidisciplinary team. Reference 1. Veenhuizen RB, Tibben A. Coordinated multidisciplinary care for Huntington's disease. An outpatient department. Brain Res Bull 2009;80:192–5.


Advancements in technologies for assessing biomechanics at the cellular level have led to discoveries in mechanotransduction and the investigation of cell mechanics as a biomarker for disease. With the recent development of an integrated optical tweezer with micron resolution particle image velocimetry, the opportunity to apply controlled multiaxial stresses to suspended single cells is available (Neve, N., Lingwood, J. K., Zimmerman, J., Kohles, S. S., and Tretheway, D. C., 2008, "The muPIVOT: An Integrated Particle Image Velocimetry and Optical Tweezers Instrument for Microenvironment Investigations," Meas. Sci. Technol., 19(9), pp. 095403). A stress analysis was applied to experimental and theoretical flow velocity gradients of suspended cell-sized polystyrene microspheres demonstrating the relevant geometry of nonadhered spherical cells, as observed for osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and fibroblasts. Three flow conditions were assessed: a uniform flow field generated by moving the fluid sample with an automated translation stage, a gravity driven flow through a straight microchannel, and a gravity driven flow through a microchannel cross junction. The analysis showed that fluid-induced stresses on suspended cells (hydrodynamic shear, normal, and principal stresses in the range of 0.02-0.04 Pa) are generally at least an order of magnitude lower than adhered single cell studies for uniform and straight microchannel flows (0.5-1.0 Pa). In addition, hydrostatic pressures dominate (1-100 Pa) over hydrodynamic stresses. However, in a cross junction configuration, orders of magnitude larger hydrodynamic stresses are possible without the influence of physical contact and with minimal laser trapping power.


We introduce LEAF-QA, a comprehensive dataset of 250,000 densely annotated figures/charts, constructed from real-world open data sources, along with 2 million question-answer (QA) pairs querying the structure and semantics of these charts. LEAF-QA highlights the problem of multimodal QA, which is notably different from conventional visual QA (VQA), and has recently gained interest in the community. Furthermore, LEAF-QA is significantly more complex than previous attempts at chart QA, viz. FigureQA and DVQA, which present only limited variations in chart data. LEAF-QA being constructed from real-world sources, requires a novel architecture to enable question answering. To this end, LEAF-Net, a deep architecture involving chart element localization, question and answer encoding in terms of chart elements, and an attention network is proposed. Different experiments are conducted to demonstrate the challenges of QA on LEAF-QA. The proposed architecture, LEAF-Net also considerably advances the current state-of-the-art on FigureQA and DVQA.


Learn how to solve challenging machine learning problems with TensorFlow, Googles revolutionary new software library for deep learning. If you have some background in basic linear algebra and calculus, this practical book introduces machine-learning fundamentals by showing you how to design systems capable of detecting objects in images, understanding text, analyzing video, and predicting the properties of potential medicines. TensorFlow for Deep Learning teaches concepts through practical examples and helps you build knowledge of deep learning foundations from the ground up. Its ideal for practicing developers with experience designing software systems, and useful for scientists and other professionals familiar with scripting but not necessarily with designing learning algorithms. Learn TensorFlow fundamentals, including how to perform basic computation Build simple learning systems to understand their mathematical foundations Dive into fully connected deep networks used in thousands of applications Turn prototypes into high-quality models with hyperparameter optimization Process images with convolutional neural networks Handle natural language datasets with recurrent neural networks Use reinforcement learning to solve games such as tic-tac-toe Train deep networks with hardware including GPUs and tensor processing units


In academic circles, when one speaks of scholarship, one speaks of scholarly legal publications. While such writing is obviously important for reform as well as for professional self-preservation, I would take the term scholarship a step further. As true students of the law, we have a status in society that gives us a forum, and as Latinos and Latinas we have an obligation to use our status to affect our communities. I, therefore, strongly support becoming more active by getting our voices heard beyond traditional modes of legal discourse. There are scores of communication mediums, such as newspapers and non-legal journals, whose markets are largely, if not exclusively, focused on the Latino and Latina community. They range from El Diario in New York to El Nuevo Herald in Miami. We can promote change and encourage debate by addressing our views to a wider audience; we can let our communities know that there are people of color challenging and attempting to reform traditional American norms; we can let them know we are struggling with the issues we are addressing in this symposium. Both academia and the community at large can be enriched by this effort.


Despite a recent explosion of interest in G-quadruplex DNA, most fundamental questions regarding the possible presence and function of these intriguing structures in vivo remain unanswered. Cell-permeable G-quadruplex specific probes should provide researchers with new tools for studying these alternately folded DNA structures and their potential involvement in gene expression, chromosome stability, viral integration, and recombination. In this review, a survey of the binding affinity, specificity, and biological/pharmacological activities of some well-characterized G-quadruplex ligands is presented along with the potential importance of G-quadruplex DNA in vivo.


This paper reports work on an ongoing project on the representation of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK press. In recent years, the issue of refugees and asylum seekers entering the UK has has attracted intense media and political discussion. As the representation of these groups in the press can influence the way in which readers perceive them, the discourses surrounding these, and related, groups have been the focus of linguistic studies (e.g. Greenslade, 2005; ter Wal, 2002). Although the project combines approaches within critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics, the aim of this paper is to exemplify how corpus-based techniques can contribute to CDA (cf. Hardt-Mautner, 1995; Orpin, 2005; Sotillo & Wang-Gempp, 2004; Wilson, 1993). The study uses a corpus of 150 million words, comprising articles relevant to refugees and asylum seekers from 12 national and 3 local UK newspapers, spanning the last ten years. Following Baker & McEnery (2005), the paper analyses collocational networks surrounding the terms refugee(s) and asylum seeker(s), that is, the linguistic units which tend to co-occur statistically significantly with these terms in the corpus. The study also makes use of the notions of semantic prosody: the "consistent aura of meaning with which a form is imbued by its collocates" (Louw, 1993: 157), and, more significantly, Stubbs' expanded notion of discourse prosody: �a feature which extends over more than one unit in a linear string. � [P]rosodies often express the speaker�s reason for making the utterance, and therefore identify functional discourse units� (2001: 111-112). Through the examination of frequent collocates for patterns and systematic associations, elements of the underlying discourses related to, and, arguably, constructing the identities of, the two groups can be revealed. The paper will also compare the corresponding discourses in broadsheets and tabloids.


Carnot analyzed an engine operating between two reservoirs. Through a peculiar mode of reasoning, he found the correct optimum shaft work done during a cyclic change of state of the engine. Clausius justified Carnot's result by enunciating two laws of thermodynamics, and introducing the concept of entropy as a ratio of heat and temperature of a thermodynamic equilibrium state. In this paper, we accomplish five purposes: (i) We consider a Carnot engine. By appropriate algebraic manipulations we express Carnot's optimum shaft work in terms of available energies or exergies of the end states of one reservoir with respect to the other, and Clausius' entropy S in terms of the energies and available energies of the same end states. (ii) We consider the optimum shaft work done during a cyclic change of state of an engine operating between a reservoir, and a system with fixed amounts of constituents and fixed volume, but variable temperature. We express the optimum shaft work in terms of the available energies of the end states of the system, and Clausius' entropy in terms of the energies and available energies of the same end states. Formally, the entropy expression is identical to that found for the Carnot engine, except that here the change of state of the system is not isothermal. (iii) We consider the optimum shaft work done during a cyclic change of state of a general engine operating between a reservoir R and system A which initially is in any state A 1 , stable or thermodynamic equilibrium or not stable equilibrium, In state A 1 , the values of the amounts of constituents are n 1 , and the value of the volume is V 1 whereas, in the final state A 0 , no ¬= n 1 and V 0 ¬= V 1 . Using the laws of thermodynamics presented by Gyftopoulos and Beretta, we prove that such an optimum exists, call it generalized available energy with respect to R, and use it together with the energy to define a new property Σ 1 . We note that the expression for Σ is formally identical to and satisfies the same criteria as Clausius' entropy S. The only difference is that Σ applies to all states, whereas Clausius' S applies only to stable equilibrium states. So we call Σ entropy and denote it by S. (iv) We use the unified quantum theory of mechanics and thermodynamics developed by Hatsopoulos and Gyftopoulos, and find a quantum theoretic expression for S in terms of the density operator ρ that yields all the probabilities associated with measurement results. (v) We note that the quantum-theoretic expression for S can be interpreted as a measure of the shape of an atom, molecule, or other system because ρ can be thought of as such a shape, and provide pictorial illustrations of this interpretation. For given values of energy E, amounts of constituents n, and volume V, the value of the measure is zero for all shapes that correspond to projectors (wave functions), positive for density operators that are not projectors, and the largest for the ρ that corresponds to the unique stable equilibrium state determined by the given E, n, and V. Accordingly, spontaneous entropy generation occurs as a system adapts its shape to conform to the internal and external forces. Beginning with an arbitrary initial ρ, this adaptation continues only until no further spontaneous change of shape can occur, that is, only until a stable equilibrium state is reached.


Central to building and reorganizing cytoskeletal arrays is the creation of new polymers. While nucleation has been the major focus of study for new microtubule generation, severing has been proposed as an alternative mechanism to create new polymers, a mechanism recently shown to drive the reorientation of cortical arrays of higher plants in response to blue light perception. As severing produces new plus ends behind the stabilizing GTP-cap, an important and unanswered question is how these are stabilized in vivo to promote net microtubule generation. Here we identify the conserved protein CLASP as a potent stabilizer of new plus ends created by katanin severing and find that CLASP is required for rapid cortical array reorientation. In clasp mutants both rescue of shrinking plus ends and the regrowth of plus ends immediately after severing are reduced, computational modeling reveals that it is the specific stabilization of severed ends that explains CLASP`s function in promoting microtubule amplification by severing and cortical array reorientation.


The dates of crop developmental stages are important variables for many applications including assessment of the impact of abnormal weather on crop yield. Time-series 250-m vegetation-index (VI) data acquired from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) provide valuable information for monitoring the spatiotemporal changes of corn growth across large geographic areas. The goal of this study is to evaluate the performance of a new crop phenology detection method, namely, two-step filtering (TSF), for revealing the spatiotemporal pattern of specific corn developmental stages (early vegetative: V2.5; silking: R1; dent: R5; mature: R6) over an eight-year period (2001-2008) across Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana using MODIS derived Wide Dynamic Range VI data. Weekly crop progress reports produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) were used to assess the accuracy of TSF-based estimates of corn developmental stages. The results showed that the corn developmental stages could be estimated with high accuracy (the root mean squared error ranged from 4.1 to 5.5 days, the determination coefficient ranged from 0.66 to 0.84, and the coefficient of variation ranged from 2.1% to 3.7%) based on NASS-derived statistics on an agricultural statistics district level. In particular, the annual changes in the spatiotemporal patterns of the estimated silking stage had a high level of agreement with those of the NASS-derived statistics. These results suggested that the TSF method could provide local-scale information of corn phenological stages, which had an advantage over the NASS-derived statistics particularly in terms of the spatial resolution.


This study investigated the effects of Classwide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) on the reading skills of urban middle-school students using novels as the curriculum. Teacher-led instruction was compared with CWPT and CWPT plus a lottery contingency for appropriate on-task and tutoring behaviors. Three sixth-grade general education reading classes under the direction of one teacher participated. Data were collected on all students from weekly written tests of vocabulary and comprehension. Additional oral reading rate and academic engagement data were collected from three "low-achieving" target students. Overall, results demonstrated improved performance on weekly tests under CWPT conditions compared with teacher-led instruction. CWPT plus lottery resulted in further increases. Data also revealed differences in the types of academic responses made during teacher-led instruction and CWPT and increases in oral reading rates for two target students. These findings suggest that CWPT, particularly CWPT plus lottery, can improve the reading skills of urban middle school students.


This highly innovative work on poetic influence among women writers focuses on the relationship between modernist poet Elizabeth Bishop and her mentor Marianne Moore. Departing from Freudian models of influence theory that ignore the question of maternal presence, Joanne Diehl applies the psychoanalytic insights of object relations theorists Melanie Klein and Christopher Bollas to woman-to- woman literary transactions. She lays the groundwork for a far-reaching critical approach as she shows that Bishop, mourning her separation from her natural mother, strives to balance gratitude toward Moore, her literary mother, with a potentially disabling envy.Diehl begins by exploring Bishop's memoir of Moore, "Efforts of Affection, " as an attempt by Bishop to verify Moore's uniqueness in order to defend herself against her predecessor's almost overwhelming originality. She then offers an intertextual reading of the two writers' works that inquires into Bishop's ambivalence toward Moore. In an analysis of "Crusoe in England" and "In the Village, " Diehl exposes the restorative impulses that fuel aesthetic creation and investigates how Bishop thematizes an understanding of literary production as a process of psychic compensation.


The Humanizer is a program developed to solve a problem genetic researchers encounter when humanizing genes. To humanize a gene means to make modifications to a model organisms gene so it may perform in a way that is more like how it would perform in humans. This is done by making changes to a model organisms gene only when a discrepancy exists between the model organisms gene and the human gene. Today, researchers in this field spend long hours humanizing genes manually because there is no other way to do it. In addition, the length of genes can range from hundreds to thousands of nucleotide base pairs which can make the process even more dreadful. If done manually, it is inevitable that researchers have to humanize each nucleotide, one by one. Such a process is time consuming, error-prone, and requires the coordination of many tools. Therefore, the purpose of The Humanizer is to change the manual process into an automatic process, cutting the wait time from several days to several minutes. This application performs as any researcher would: determining genes in test organisms by querying through databases, comparing and retrieving related sequences, and humanizing the gene one base at a time,


In traditional computer science courses, students do not often get the chance to experience an entire project cycle, starting from the idea development stage and ending with the final release of a product together with collaborators from different disciplines. Developing a game gives learners the possibility to experience an entire development cycle, to learn how to work in a team, and to learn new skillsets required to create games. Students can profit even more from an interdisciplinary and international setup. In this paper, we describe a first pilot of an interdisciplinary and international student game project, during which students from different backgrounds, and with different nationalities and different learning expectations can work together to develop games. We report on a first pilot with 24 students studying different subjects, such as computer science, law, or biology, in two different countries. First results show that such programs are highly engaging for students, can boost their employability, have a high learning outcome, and raise their interest in international collaborations.


Tetracyclines are a family of antibiotics very common in clinical practice that have been used in not infectious affections. One of their most studied actions is their ability to inhibit matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), a group of proteinases that have been implicated in pathological processes as oncogenesis and inflammation. Tetracyclines have been shown to play an important role in malignant angiogenesis and cancer invasion, which is related with tumor aggressiveness and metastatic potential.They also show anti-inflammatory activity in neurological, respiratory, bone and heart diseases, and in rheumatologic and dermatologic processes. The aim of this review is to make an updating about the non antimicrobial actions of tetracyclines, specially their therapeutic applications in different diseases.


We define and enumerate a new class of self-avoiding walks on the square lattice, which we call weakly prudent bridges . Their definition is inspired by two previously-considered classes of self-avoiding walks, and can be viewed as a combination of those two models. We consider several methods for recursively generating these objects, each with its own advantages and disadvantages, and use these methods to solve the generating function, obtain very long series, and randomly generate walks of arbitrary size. We find that the growth constant of these walks is approximately 2.58, which is larger than that of any previously-solved class of self-avoiding walks.


The North Carolina barrier islands, a 325-mile-long string of narrow sand islands that forms the coast of North Carolina, are one of the most beloved areas to live and visit in the United States. However, extensive barrier island segments and their associated wetlands are in jeopardy. In The Battle for North Carolina's Coast, four experts on coastal dynamics examine issues that threaten this state treasure. According to the authors, the North Carolina barrier islands are not permanent. Rather, they are highly mobile piles of sand that are impacted by sea-level rise and major storms and hurricanes. Our present development and management policies for these changing islands are in direct conflict with their natural dynamics. Revealing the urgency of the environmental and economic problems facing coastal North Carolina, this essential book offers a hopeful vision for the coast's future if we are willing to adapt to the barriers' ongoing and natural processes. This will require a radical change in our thinking about development and new approaches to the way we visit and use the coast. Ultimately, we cannot afford to lose these unique and valuable islands of opportunity. This book is an urgent call to protect our coastal resources and preserve our coastal economy.


Contract theory is a curiously neglected field. While the efficiency of contract law rules has received much attention, the same cannot be said of the more basic question why contracts should be enforced. The reliance and autonomy explanations which contract theorists most frequently offer are moreover unpersuasive. Reliance theories would ground relief on detrimental reliance, and fail to explain why promisees should be given an incentive to rely. Autonomy theories misfire by failing to account for the conventional nature of promissory institutions, and do not explain why they ought to exist, as opposed to any number of other conventions (or games) one might imagine. In their place I propose a conventional explanation of contractual institutions that is derived from David Hume's analysis of promising. Unlike Hume, however, I argue that promissory theories are incomplete without a principle of fidelity linking a promisor to the institution; and I offer a positional explanation for such a duty.


Kalwant Bhopal and Patrick Danaher examine 'race', identity and gender within education and explore the difficulties of relating these concepts to the experience of students in higher education. In drawing together the experience of local and international students in the UK and in Australia, they examine the ways identities are understood and conceptualized within higher education in local contexts and on a global level. They consider the complexity of 'race', gender and identity in relation to education within the context that education continues to be dominated by predominantly white, middle class values and perspectives.

Identity and Pedagogy in Higher Education examines the extent to which education [is] a vehicle for change in the light of the controversial debates surrounding race and gender inequalities.


Abstract. MOURA instrument is a three-axis magnetometer and gradiometer designed and developed for Mars MetNet Precursor mission. The initial scientific goal of the instrument is to measure the local magnetic field in the surroundings of the lander i.e. to characterize the magnetic environment generated by the remanent magnetization of the crust and the superimposed daily variations of the field produced either by the solar wind incidence or by the thermomagnetic variations. Therefore, the qualification model (QM) will be tested in representative scenarios like magnetic surveys on terrestrial analogues of Mars and monitoring solar events, with the aim to achieve some experience prior to the arrival to Mars. In this work, we present a practical first approach for calibration of the instrument in the laboratory; a finer correction after the comparison of MOURA data with those of a reference magnetometer located in San Pablo de los Montes (SPT) INTERMAGNET Observatory; and a comparative recording of a geomagnetic storm as a demonstration of the compliance of the instrument capabilities with the scientific objectives.


This study primarily focuses on evaluating the effects of solution matrix and pH for the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROSs) in Z-nZVI-catalyzed sodium percarbonate (SPC) system to degrade 1,1,1-trichloroethane (1,1,1-TCA) in the absence and presence of reducing agent (RA) i.e. hydroxylamine. 1,1,1-TCA degradation was 49.5% and 95% in the absence and presence of RA. Probe tests confirmed the generation of major hydroxyl radicals (OH•) and minor superoxide species (O 2 –• ), and scavenger tests verified the key role of OH• and less of O 2 –• radicals. 1,1,1-TCA degradation decreased significantly in the presence of Cl − and HCO 3 – , while NO 3 – and SO 4 2– have negligible effects in absence of RA. Addition of RA significantly enhanced 1,1,1-TCA degradation by generating more OH• and O 2 –• radicals in presence of anions. 1,1,1-TCA degradation increased in acidic range (1–5) while, an inhibitive trend from neutral to basic (7–9) was observed. On the contrary, a significant increase in 1,1,1-TCA degradation was observed with addition of RA in all pH values (1–9). In conclusion, the anions and pH significantly influenced the generation and intensity of ROSs and 1,1,1-TCA was effectively degraded in Z-nZVI-catalyzed SPC system in the presence of RA.


Molybdo-flavoenzymes (MFEs), aldehyde oxidase (AOX) and xanthine oxidoreductase (XOR) are involved in the oxidation of N-heterocyclic compounds and aldehydes, many of which are environmental pollutants, drugs and vitamins. This biotransformation generally generates more polar compounds that are more easily excreted, thus MFEs have been classed as detoxication enzymes.

To date there has been scant study of the properties, substrate and inhibitor specificities of MFEs in non-mammalian vertebrate organisms. This investigation focuses on MFEs in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) as it belongs to a class of fish that host a single AOX (AOXβ) and one XOR.

In this study the substrate specificity of rainbow trout liver AOX and XOR was investigated using HPLC and spectrophotometric assays. AOX in hepatic cytosol was found to be able to catalyse the oxidation of azanaphthalenes belonging to a group of compounds that are environmental pollutants such as phenanthridine, phthalazine and cinchonine. In addition, xenobiotic aromatic aldehydes (vanillin and dimethylaminocinnamaldehyde) and drugs such as allopurinol and pyrazinamide were substrates. Several endogenous vitamins including pyridoxal (vitamin B6), all-trans retinal (vitamin A) and N1-methylnicotinamide were also biotransformed by the rainbow trout AOX. In contrast to liver no AOX activity was detectable in kidney and gill tissue. XOR activity in rainbow trout liver was measurable with the endogenous purine xanthine, purine drug metabolites (1-methylxanthine and 6-thioxanthine) and N-heterocyclic drugs (allopurinol and pyrazinamide). Unlike mammalian XOR that can utilise both NAD+ and O2 as electron acceptors, trout XOR was exclusively NAD+-dependent with no activity being detected with O2.

Eadie-Hofstee plots were using to determine the Km and Vmax of rainbow trout AOX and XOR with different substrates and it was found the Vmax of the rainbow trout enzymes were generally lower and Km generally higher than mammalian AOX and XOR.

Inhibitors of mammalian AOX were tested to determine if they could interact with the piscine AOX. Environmental pollutants (17α-ethinyl estradiol and phenanthridine), an endogenous steroid (estradiol) and drugs (chlorpromazine and menadione) were found to be effective inhibitors and were classed as competitive, non-competitive and uncompetitive respectively using Lineweaver-Burk plots. The drug metabolite, oxipurinol, was a non-competitive inhibitor of rainbow trout XOR.

In order to further characterise trout AOX protein purification was carried out. In contrast to mammalian AOX, the piscine enzyme was not thermotolerant at 55°C nor was it inhibited by benzamidine, thus heat treatment and affinity chromatography could not be used as a purification steps. Trout AOX was purified 210-fold using ammonium sulphate fractionation, together with ion exchange and gel filtration chromatography. The native molecular mass of the piscine AOX was 295 kDa, which is similar to mammalian AOXs.

In conclusion this study yields new insight into groups of anthropogenic environmental pollutants, drugs and vitamins that are substrates and inhibitors of an ancestral vertebrate AOX. The toxicological relevance of these findings is discussed.


We demonstrate the possibility of producing Au/SiO2 core–shell nanoparticles by nanosecond laser irradiation of thin (5 and 20 nm) Au films on Si. The Au/Si eutectic reaction and dewetting process caused by the fast melting and solidification dynamics induced by the nanosecond laser irradiations are investigated as the origin of the formation of core–shell nanoparticles. Using several microscopic techniques (Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and energy filtered transmission electron microscopy) the formation and evolution of the core–shell structures are investigated as a function of the laser fluence in the 500–1500 mJ cm−2 range for both film thicknesses. In particular, the mean height and diameter and surface density evolution of the core–shell structures are quantified and correlated to the laser fluence and Au film thickness.


The first part of this paper studies a Levenberg - Marquardt scheme for nonlinear inverse problems where the corresponding Lagrange (or regularization) parameter is chosen from an inexact Newton strategy. While the convergence analysis of standard implementations based on trust region strategies always requires the invertibility of the Fréchet derivative of the nonlinear operator at the exact solution, the new Levenberg - Marquardt scheme is suitable for ill-posed problems as long as the Taylor remainder is of second order in the interpolating metric between the range and domain topologies. Estimates of this type are established in the second part of the paper for ill-posed parameter identification problems arising in inverse groundwater hydrology. Both transient and steady-state data are investigated. Finally, the numerical performance of the new Levenberg - Marquardt scheme is studied and compared to a usual implementation on a realistic but synthetic two-dimensional model problem from the engineering literature.


Adnexal tumors of the skin are complex, with confusing nomenclature. Many lesions show marked variation in histological appearance and there is considerable morphological overlap between different entities. These tumors are relatively rare, compared for example with melanocytic lesions, but still are part of everyday routine work for all histopathologists. Therefore, many general pathologists (the majority of whom are obliged to report dermatopathology specimens) are unfamiliar with the topic and even the experts have difficulties with the more challenging cases. Although the majority of adnexal tumors represent benign lesions, malignant counterparts do occur and these often represent a diagnostic pitfall. There are many inherited syndromes in which cutaneous adnexal tumors are a feature, and failure to recognize these associations may have serious implications. The proposed book will be comprehensive and will include all recognized variants covering the broad spectrum of adnexal tumor pathology. Included will also be chapters dealing with site-specific lesions such as the eyelid, neck, navel, anogenital areas, etc. The format will be extremely user-friendly comprising succinct text and comprehensive microscopic illustrations. The scope will be such that any variation on the theme of adnexal tumor pathology will be readily available at a glance. The text will be structured as follows: clinical features, histology, immunohistochemistry, genetic features and differential diagnosis.


This article reviews and analyzes the growing bodies of literature on the regulation of sorcery and witchcraft beliefs and practices. The most visible problems relating to these beliefs and practices are the violent exorcisms, banishment, torture, and killing inflicted upon those accused of practicing sorcery and witchcraft in many parts of the global South. Sorcery and witchcraft are also (once again) becoming a challenge for countries in the global North, mainly within migrant communities in relation to children accused of witchcraft and exorcized and also in the context of claims to refugee status and freedom of religion. The article covers scholarly literature (legal, anthropological, economic, historical), law reform commission reports, nongovernmental organization (NGO) reports, and UN documents over the past 15 years concerning the regulation of the negative societal impacts of sorcery and witchcraft practices and beliefs. It concludes that there is a need for greater empirical study of the impacts...


This thesis deals with various aspects of growth, convergence and technological change, all analysed from an empirical perspective. A common theme throughout the six chapters is the analysis of economic historical questions of productivity growth with the use of quantitative statistical techniques. An introductory chapter is followed by two chapters on the Western European regional growth and convergence process, analysed in comparison with the US, using distribution dynamics and panel-data models. Chapter 4 uses Data Envelopment Analysis to decompose the proximate sources of regional productivity growth, whereas chapters 5 and 6 use time series methods such as cointegration and Granger causality on Swedish industrial data to investigate the issue of Swedish productivity growth throughout the 20th century. The thesis provides new knowledge about the European regional convergence process starting in 1950. It is found that Europe's plummeting employment ratios since the 1970s and stagnating growth since the 1990s have been accompanied by similar regional divergence in these variables. Moreover, national institutions have played a significant role in the process, and the pattern of capital accumulation has slowed down productivity convergence since 1980. The thesis also points out the importance of not only understanding technical change as a process of sectoral complementarities that form development blocks, which in turn drive productivity growth, but also identifying how the dynamic effects of pervasive technologies such as electricity drive whole eras of productivity increases. (Less)


The Croatian Labor Code was significantly reformed in 2003 as a result of extensive negotiations lasting about two years. Proponents of the reform emphasized the supposed rigidity of the labor market, resulting from restrictive employment protection legislation, as a main rationale for the reform. Critics believed that the labor market is much more flexible than often thought due to inadequate enforcement of legislation. This study aims to assess the level of labor market dynamics by constructing disaggregated indicators of job and worker flows, according to different types of enterprises and workers. Job and worker flows reveal that the overall degree of flexibility is not below that observed in other transition countries as employers learned to increasingly use flexible contracts. However, the findings confirm a strong dualism in the Croatian labor market. While labor market regulation did not significantly inhibit flexibility in the new private sector, it seems that regulation may have slowed down the process of restructuring and shedding labor in the state and newly privatized sectors. Also, as employers in the de novo private sector increasingly relied on short-term temporary contracts, it seems that incentives for engaging informal labor diminished. Therefore, the reform of regulation is likely to foster employment restructuring in state and newly privatized sectors, but cannot be expected to facilitate more flexibility in the de novo private sector.


There is a moral presumption against the possession or exercise of coercive power, but political power is coercive. If we think that political power is sometimes morally justified, then given the moral presumption against coercive power, we need a theory as to when political power is morally justified and what justifies it. That is, we need a theory of political legitimacy. This dissertation develops and defends a novel theory of legitimacy, the Act-Focused Consequentialist Theory of Legitimacy. This theory departs in significant respects from existing theories. In Part One of the dissertation, "Four Theses on Legitimacy," I argue that these departures are well-motivated given the shortcomings of these existing theories. I object that these theories are mistaken to attempt to ground the authority of the State or a moral obligation to obey the law because it is the law. Such attempts are mistaken because authority and legitimacy ought to be addressed separately. I also object that existing theories of legitimacy are radically incomplete insofar as they focus almost exclusively on the legitimacy of 'the State' at the expense of the legitimacy of particular actions by state actors. Furthermore, I articulate significant, enduring problems for theories of legitimacy that claim it is the 'will of the people' or the 'consent of the governed' (in some sense) that legitimates political power. In light of these objections, I argue in defense of a new approach to theorizing about legitimacy, an approach that ignores questions of authority, that primarily focuses on the legitimacy of particular actions rather than the legitimacy of the State, and that eschews grounding legitimacy in 'the will of citizens' in some sense. In Part Two, "An Act-Focused Consequentialist Theory of Legitimacy," I develop and defend a theory that embodies this novel approach. I argue that what legitimates particular actions—and, ultimately, the State—is the production of good consequences. I argue that the good consequence to be produced is Functional Autonomy, the ability to successfully act on one's authentic values, at least up to some reasonable threshold. To maximize overall Functional Autonomy, I argue that there ought to be two divisions of labor. First, there ought to be an institutional division of labor, according to which different institutions perform tasks integral to the production of Functional Autonomy. Second, there ought to be a role-based division of labor, a division of labor within those institutions according to which different state actors deliberate and act in specialized ways. Deliberating and acting in specialized ways amounts to deliberating and acting on role-based reasons. On this theory, a particular action by a state actor is legitimate if and only if the role-based reasons to perform the action are not outweighed by role-independent moral reasons. I propose that there is very strong moral reason to maximize Functional Autonomy, and so state actors will be morally justified in exercising coercive power so long as their actions are appropriately contributing to their institutional tasks, which in turn are producing Functional Autonomy. As for macro legitimacy, states enjoy degrees of legitimacy, where the degree of legitimacy is determined by how much Functional Autonomy a state produces. A recurring theme in this second part of the dissertation is that various problems that arise for consequentialism as a theory of interpersonal morality do not arise in the context of an act-focused theory of political legitimacy. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2712 Graduate Group Philosophy First Advisor Samuel Freeman


The upcoming Internet of Things (IoT) applications include real-time human activity monitoring with wearable sensors. Compared to the traditional environmental sensing with low-power wireless nodes, these new applications generate a constant stream of a much higher rate. Nevertheless, the wearable devices remain battery powered and therefore restricted to low-power wireless standards such as IEEE 802.15.4 or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Our work tackles the problem of building a reliable autonomous schedule for forwarding this kind of dynamic data in IEEE 802.15.4 TSCH networks. Due to the a priori unpredictability of these data source locations, the quality of the wireless links, and the routing topology of the forwarding network, it is wasteful to reserve the number of slots required for the worst-case scenario, under conditions of high expected datarate, it is downright impossible. The solution we propose is a hybrid approach where dedicated TSCH cells and shared TSCH slots coexist in the same schedule. We show that under realistic assumptions of wireless link diversity, adding shared slots to a TSCH schedule increases the overall packet delivery rate and the fairness of the system.


Epithelial ovarian cancer is one of the most common gynecological malignancies and the fifth most frequent cause of cancer death in women, affecting over 22,000 women annually. Nearly 15,500 affected women die from this disease annually, and chemoresistance from the commonly prescribed platinum-based drug, carboplatin, is a major contributor to this mortality rate. Previous studies have identified genes with CpG islands that are methylated and transcriptionally silenced in resistant epithelial ovarian cancer patients. One of these genes is GSK3β, an important regulator of apoptosis and cell growth in the Wnt pathway. Thus, understanding the role of GSK3β suppression in chemoresistance of epithelial ovarian cancer can help contribute to more effective treatments for this disease. By performing assays of cell growth, viability, and apoptosis, our study examined the functional role that GSK3β plays in carboplatin mediated apoptosis. Our results suggest that cells with suppressed GSK3β had increased proliferation and reduced apoptosis. We conclude that silenced GSK3β expression might therefore contribute to carboplatin resistance seen in tumors and our in vitro analysis suggests that GSK3β expression is vital to carboplatin chemosensitivity. Future research is required to further investigate the role of GSK3β methylation to facilitate the design of potential genome-guided treatments for patients with chemoresistant epithelial ovarian cancer.


Decoding human brain activities via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has gained increasing attention in recent years. While encouraging results have been reported in brain states classification tasks, reconstructing the details of human visual experience still remains difficult. Two main challenges that hinder the development of effective models are the perplexing fMRI measurement noise and the high dimensionality of limited data instances. Existing methods generally suffer from one or both of these issues and yield dissatisfactory results. In this paper, we tackle this problem by casting the reconstruction of visual stimulus as the Bayesian inference of missing view in a multiview latent variable model. Sharing a common latent representation, our joint generative model of external stimulus and brain response is not only "deep" in extracting nonlinear features from visual images, but also powerful in capturing correlations among voxel activities of fMRI recordings. The nonlinearity and deep structure endow our model with strong representation ability, while the correlations of voxel activities are critical for suppressing noise and improving prediction. We devise an efficient variational Bayesian method to infer the latent variables and the model parameters. To further improve the reconstruction accuracy, the latent representations of testing instances are enforced to be close to that of their neighbours from the training set via posterior regularization. Experiments on three fMRI recording datasets demonstrate that our approach can more accurately reconstruct visual stimuli.


Thirty lines and six cultivars of soybeans (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) were evaluated in wide-row
(76 em) and narrow-row (18 cm)spacingsat two locations in 1982 and one in 1983. The objective of the
study was to determine if evaluation of lines in wide rows can be used to identify superior linesfor
narrow-row culture. Yield in narrow rows was 27.0% higher than wide rows at both locations in 1982
and 20.8% higher in 1983. In general, the high yielding entries in wide rows were also the highest yielding
ones in narrow rows, although they did not necessarily include all the highest yielding ones in narrow
rows. One cultivar and two lines were, however, consistent in exhibiting a moderate to high response to
narrowing of row spacing, over years and locations. No trait was identified as being associated with the
response. In general, selection of lines superior in wide row nurseries will identify lines that will perform
best in narrow-row culture.


This paper was presented as a position paper at the International Conference "The Nature and Culture of Forests" in May 2001 at the University of British Columbia, Canada. The conference brought together international scientists and policymakers in the field of Sustainable Forest Management.

This paper presents an overall concept for sustainable forest management and the strengths and weaknesses of the components of this framework. It is concluded that an efficient policy framework is needed in order to achieve sustainable development. A sufficient policy framework in this respect is missing in most countries today.


This essay merges scholarship on coloniality and hemispheric theories to elaborate a hemispheric decolonial feminism. I adopt this approach to illustrate how two Cuban exile writers, Mayra Montero and Cristina García, located at different sites in the hemisphere, create narratives that expose and provide positive alternatives to Western knowledge systems and their mechanisms for reproducing asymmetrical power relations in the Americas. A comparative analysis of their work reveals that travel and migration narratives provide an oppositional ideological-discursive location from which feminists along the North-South axes combat the power that regimes based on coloniality exercise to alienate and exclude. Their narratives illustrate the dialectical permutations of historically continuous encounters between the Anglo-European and the American subaltern around conflictive ways of being and knowing—those based in Western scientific paradigms and those based in the Caribbean's African-derived cosmologies of vodou and Santería.


A theoretical model is developed for the transverse vibrations of bellows expansion joints. The model is based on Timoshenko beam theory and includes the added mass effect of an internal fluid. An analytical expression for bellows natural frequencies is developed in the form of a Rayleigh quotient and is presented in a way which is suitable for hand calculations. The results for the first four transverse modes are compared with experiments as well as the predictions of the simplified analysis of the Expansion Joint Manufacturers Association (EJMA). While the present analysis agrees well with experiments, the EJMA approach can be substantially in error due to its neglect of rotary inertia and the convolution distortion component of fluid added mass.


We study the choice of a principal to either delegate a decision to a group of careerist experts or to consult them individually and keep the decision-making power. Our model predicts a trade-off between information acquisition and information aggregation. On the one hand, the expected benefit from being informed is larger in case the experts are consulted individually. Hence, the experts either acquire the same or a larger amount of information, depending on the cost of information, than in case of delegation. On the other hand, any acquired information is better aggregated in the case of delegation, in which experts can deliberate secretly. To test the model's key predictions, we run an experiment. The results from the laboratory confirm the predicted trade-off despite some deviations from theory on the individual level. This paper was accepted by Yan Chen, decision analysis.


SUMMARY: Oceanographic conditions in spring and summer, caused by northerly-easterly winds of medium and low intensity, in the Bay of Biscay seem to induce good levels of recruitment to the anchovy population. This wind regime produces upwelling conditions with, generally, low degrees of turbulence. Indices of upwelling and turbulence were built and proved significantly correlated with an index of annual recruitment of anchovy (p<0.0001). Both physical parameters explain about 70% of the variance in the index of recruitment of the Bay of Biscay anchovy. The likely explanations for this relationship are outlined and discussed in the light of the current hypotheses about the processes determining recruitment of marine populations. Enhancement of the productivity and increased availability of food to the early life history stages of anchovy seem to be the main consequence of the prevalence of weak upwelling conditions in this area during spring.


Introducing theories and concepts essential for human services administration, this book covers organization theory and management, budgeting and financial management, personnel administration and labor relations, laws and regulations, innovation and change, and data administration and information systems. The author explores bioethics and managing "Babies Doe," legal right to refuse treatment, nursing home payments, and more. He applies important general concepts to specific concerns such as organizational structure and service delivery arrangements, internal financial planning, innovations in drug services delivery, and implementing medical information systems.


The main information of a signal resides in its frequency, its amplitude (or its power) and in their temporal evolution. Thus, a great number of methods for instantaneous frequency estimation have been proposed in the literature. Most of these algorithms use an adaptive filter-based (notch or bandpass filter) structure. In many applications, the information of interest is present in more than one signal. However, to our knowledge no algorithm able to track the frequency on several signals has been presented in the literature. Usually, frequency components are estimated and extracted on each signal independently. Artifacts or noise relative to a specific signal can thus disturb the frequency estimation process. Moreover, low amplitude components present in every signal (but non dominant) will not be estimated. The objective in the first part of this thesis is to develop different methods able to extend existing frequency tracking algorithm in order to improve the quality of the estimate, in terms of estimation variance and robustness with respect to noise. The proposed methods can be applied to algorithms using adaptive filters for the frequency estimation. For the multi-signal frequency tracking extension, these methods use the redundancy of information present in the signals under study. A first approach uses a unique filter for every signal. A set of weights is computed, depending on a measure of the estimate quality, and makes it possible to balance the influence of each signal on the tracking filter update. The second approach consists in using a different adaptive filter for each signal. A set of constraints links the central frequencies of each filter so that they are as similar as possible. Both methods yield frequency estimates more robust with respect to noise and more stable, without any decrease in estimation accuracy. For the harmonic frequency tracking, we propose a method using the information present in the harmonic component to improve the estimate of the fundamental frequency. The proposed methods also permit to extract the signal components corresponding to the estimated frequencies. These components are very useful for subsequent study. In the second part of this thesis, the algorithms developed in the first part are applied to biomedical signals. Two different applications are studied in this work : electrocardiograms and electroencephalograms. Firstly, a frequency tracking algorithm as well as its multi-signal extension are used to predict the success of electrical cardioversion attempts in patients suffering from atrial fibrillation. The instantaneous frequency is estimated using the algorithms and the corresponding signal component is extracted from electrocardiograms recorded prior to the attempt. With a few parameters computed on the estimated frequency and the corresponding signal component, we were able to predict the result of the cardioversion attempt on our database comprising 18 patients with a success rate of 94% for both algorithms. We think that this result can be very useful for helping the clinician to choose the appropriate therapy for atrial fibrillation management. The developed algorithms are also used to track the oscillatory components present in electroencephalograms. The performance of the basic algorithm is illustrated using single-trial electroencephalogram signals from a visual evoked potential experiment. The algorithm is used to track the gamma component (30-50 Hz). It is able to successfully track the spectral component in spite of the fact that large amplitude variations are present in the signal. A complex version of the multi-signal extension is also used to have an algorithm able to track multiple frequency components on multiple signals. The performance of this algorithm is also illustrated with single-trial electroencephalogram signals. It was shown to be able to correctly track up to four frequency components simultaneously. The quality of the estimation is improved using multiple lead signals.


Significance Forests remove about 30% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions through photosynthesis and return almost 40% of incident precipitation back to the atmosphere via transpiration. The trade-off between photosynthesis and transpiration through stomata, the water-use efficiency (WUE), is an important driver of plant evolution and ecosystem functioning, and has profound effects on climate. Using stable carbon and oxygen isotope ratios in tree rings, we found that WUE has increased by a magnitude consistent with estimates from atmospheric measurements and model predictions. Enhanced photosynthesis was widespread, while reductions in stomatal conductance were modest and restricted to moisture-limited forests. This result points to smaller reductions in transpiration in response to increasing atmospheric CO2, with important implications for forest–climate interactions, which remain to be explored. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that plant water-use efficiency (WUE)—the ratio of carbon assimilation to water loss—has increased in recent decades. Although rising atmospheric CO2 has been proposed as the principal cause, the underlying physiological mechanisms are still being debated, and implications for the global water cycle remain uncertain. Here, we addressed this gap using 30-y tree ring records of carbon and oxygen isotope measurements and basal area increment from 12 species in 8 North American mature temperate forests. Our goal was to separate the contributions of enhanced photosynthesis and reduced stomatal conductance to WUE trends and to assess consistency between multiple commonly used methods for estimating WUE. Our results show that tree ring-derived estimates of increases in WUE are consistent with estimates from atmospheric measurements and predictions based on an optimal balancing of carbon gains and water costs, but are lower than those based on ecosystem-scale flux observations. Although both physiological mechanisms contributed to rising WUE, enhanced photosynthesis was widespread, while reductions in stomatal conductance were modest and restricted to species that experienced moisture limitations. This finding challenges the hypothesis that rising WUE in forests is primarily the result of widespread, CO2-induced reductions in stomatal conductance.


During the Great War, the dependents of all servicemen in each branch of the British Armed Forces became theoretically eligible for maintenance at public expense. In August 1914, only a fraction of all Army wives and no Navy wives were eligible for allowances or pensions; by November of that year all were entitled to some level of assistance. The organisational chaos caused by the Liberal Government's decision to grant "universal" benefits to dependents sparked an extensive press campaign and inspired the formation or expansion of a large number of charitable agencies. 1915 and 1916 witnessed attempts on the part of the Asquith Liberal Government and the Asquith Coalition Government to respond to these expressions of concern with a series of half measures. By the summer of 1916, however, the issue had been complicated by the looming problems of reconstruction and predictions of the collapse of the system under the demands of millions of demobilised servicemen. Before the resignation of Asquith in December 1916, the Ministry of Pensions Act was passed. Thus, between August of 1914 and December of 1916 the system had been completely transformed from a disparate, and limited trickle of maintenance for a select few to a widely dispersed benefit controlled by the state. The accelerated pace of social policy in this arena has attracted some attention particularly from feminist historians who describe this system as the cornerstone of the gendered British welfare state. In illuminating some important issues in the debate over these benefits, this approach has obscured others. While it is crucial to understand the roots of inequity in the British welfare state, too narrow a focus has tended to obscure continuity in practice and theory and minimise the impact of contemporary attitudes on the development of these policies. This thesis counteracts the tendency of feminist historians to apply presentist models by demonstrating that charities and governmental agencies responsible for the welfare of servicemen's dependents owed as much or more to traditional Liberal, Conservative and patriotic conceptions of poor relief as to New Liberal ideals of state iii responsibility. As well, by focusing on the process of decision making at the highest levels of government, this thesis demonstrates the heterogeneity of people and ideals influencing the formation of policy in this period. Both pragmatic and theoretical concerns inspired the drive for reform in this arena. During the Great War, the traditional role of women as the first victims of any war had been partially superseded by the necessity to convince them of their centrality to the war effort. Some perceived the moral and physical power wielded by women in wartime as a promise, others as a threat; both sides of the debate used the treatment of servicemen's wives and widows as a bulwark for their arguments. Servicemen's wives and widows fit neatly into the dichotomy of the female role in wartime; their image could be used to promote an idealised form of passive female bravery and to counteract the "masculinising" tendencies of the war. The ubiquity of such images contributed to the conception of these women as inherently IIdeserving" of public maintenance. Through the examination of such images, this thesis demonstrates the link between the vagaries of public opinion and the often haphazard formation of social policy.


The current debate over shareholder access to the issuer's proxy for the purpose of making director nomination is both overstated in its importance and misses the serious issue in question. The Securities Exchange Commission's new e-proxy rules, which permit reliance on proxy materials posted on a website, should substantially reduce the production and distribution cost differences between a meaningful contest waged via issuer proxy access and a freestanding proxy solicitation. The serious question relates to the appropriate disclosure required of a shareholder nominator no matter which avenue is used. Institutional investors and other shareholder activists should focus their energies on working through the mechanics of waging short-slate proxy contests using e-proxy solicitations. Activist institutions need to prepare the disclosure package required under the existing proxy rules. Such disclosure may be tested (and refined) through litigation, but a standardized package should emerge relatively quickly that the institution could use in proxy contests without a control motive. Institutional investors need to become facile with the e-proxy model (including coordinating a practice for opting-in to web-access) and should appreciate the extent to which proxy advisory services will do much of the actual solicitation work. If institutions are unwilling to make the relatively modest investment to master the mechanics of e-proxy contest, both in their initiation as well as voting in support of them, then their role in corporate governance will necessarily be limited.


An analogue coherent-optical free-space link for local cloud-based radio access networks is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The adoption of a single externally modulated laser as optical transmitter and coherent homodyne receiver at either link end guarantees conceptual simplicity for the opto-electronic sub-systems of this optical fronthaul. The realization of full-duplex signal transmission over a single, laser-based transceiver device further allows to off-load the directional split in the optically fronthauled radio signal chain to the radio-frequency domain. We prove this concept for an in-door link and show that bidirectional transmission of orthogonally frequency division multiplexed radio signals with 64-point quadrature amplitude modulated formats is possible over an optical budget of 21.3 dB, or over an estimated reach of ∼100 m in case of bad atmospheric conditions. A small penalty of less than 1% in terms of error vector magnitude compared to a direct-detection receiver confirms the correct operation of the low-complexity coherent homodyne detector, even though no digital signal processing functions are applied for the purpose of signal recovery. Continuous long-term measurements including Ethernet payloads confirm the stability of the free-space optical link architecture, for which a small fraction of less than 1% has shown an excursion in reception penalty.


This article traces the role of the Prime Minister, Joseph Benedict Chifley, in Australia's response to the Dutch-Indonesian colonial conflict. It argues for Chifley's centrality to the formation of Australia's eventual policy to support Indonesian nationalist aspirations, a policy often in antithesis to the views of H.V. Evatt. This is significant because a focus on Evatt has distracted historians from ascertaining the causes of Australia's policy. Examining Chifley's attitude and role reveals that Australia's response to revolutionary Indonesia stemmed from an application to the Southeast Asian colonial question of a labourist and post-war reconstructionist ethos, an idea of sweeping reform to rectify deep economic and social grievances.


Several experimental procedures produce dramatic alterations in kidney renin production, leading to increased plasma renin levels with attendant hypertension in animal model systems. The pattern of changes for kidney renin messenger RNA (mRNA) levels relative to changes for tissue and plasma renin activity was studied in Sprague-Dawley rats made hypertensive by either coarctation of the aorta between the two renal arteries or clipping of the left renal artery. In both models, the renin mRNA content of the contralateral hypertrophied kidney transiently decreased to undetectable levels while the ischemic kidney exhibited transient increases in renin mRNA. In aorta-coarctated rats ischemic kidney renin mRNA increased 10-fold to 16-fold during the first 3 days after coarctation but returned to the level observed in sham-operated rats 14 days after operation. However, differences between the time course and magnitude of changes in renin mRNA levels and the pattern of alteration in tissue and plasma renin activities were observed. Thus, although the kidney renin mRNA transiently increased in hypertensive animals, the extent of this increase was insufficient to account for the 30-fold to 50-fold increases in plasma renin activity. Similarly, the transient increase in kidney renin mRNA was inconsistent with only a twofold increase in tissue renin enzyme activity of the ischemic kidney. These data indicate that in addition to alterations in the kidney renin mRNA pool, posttranslational processing and/or release of renin from the kidney are cocontributors in regulating the plasma renin levels in these experimental models.


This study determines business students' levels of perceptions of six service quality factors and their relationships to their satisfaction in polytechnics. The factors identified from literature were quality of program, facilities, academic staff, support services, accessibility and location, as well as campus climate. Differences among students' years, levels of studies, types of sponsorship and zones were determined as well as predictors of students' satisfaction. The primary data were collected using student survey questionnaires through proportionate cluster sampling. A total of 469 business students were involved in the study sample. Findings indicated 'moderate' to 'good' levels of satisfaction among students. Significant differences were observed between certificate and diploma students on quality facilities, support services and campus climate. Significance differences were found among students of different years on quality facilities. Significant differences also existed among polytechnics in North, East, Central and South zones. All six service quality factors were linearly correlated and significant with levels of students' satisfaction, the strongest was for campus climate (r =. 774, p =. 0001). Five out of six service quality factors accounted for 66.2% of the variance in students' satisfaction. This study had implications on both quality facilities and support services in polytechnics. Both tangible (quality of program, facilities, academic staff, support services, accessibility and location) and intangibles aspects (campus climate) were important in polytechnics. Administrators need to improve strategies aimed at achieving better students' satisfaction emphasizing both tangible and intangible aspects and responding to the demand for skilled workers in a competitive economy.


To explore the impact of nitrogen (N) rate during the wheat season and N fertilizer management during the rice season on carbon and soil nutrient pools in paddy soil, a wheat–rice rotation system for 2 successive years was implemented. In the rotation system, a conventional N rate (Nc; 150 kg/ha) and a reduced N rate (Nr; 120 kg/ha) were applied in the wheat season. Based on an application rate of 150 kg/hm2 N in the rice season, three N management models were applied, in which the application ratio of base:tiller:panicle fertilizer was 20%:20%:60% in treatment M1, 30%:30%:40% in treatment M2, and 40%:40%:20% in treatment M3. Zero N was used as the control (M0). Experimental results indicate that, under Nc, the M2 management model during the rice season, improvements were seen in paddy soil urease, organic carbon, and annual yield relative to other conditions. The average organic matter and total N associated with the M2 rice management model and conventional N application during the wheat season were 5.13% and 4.95% higher, respectively, relative to the use of a reduced N application rate during the wheat season. Similarly, the average total carbon content and annual yields were 6.61% and 5.56% higher under the model M2 with conventional N application during the wheat season, respectively, relative to reduced N application after the two-year study period. These findings indicate that production and carbon fixation in paddy fields can be optimized through a conventional N application rate during the wheat season, and an M2 N management model during the rice season in southern China under a wheat–rice rotation system.


Abstract: We develop a self-normalization (SN) based test to test the structural stability of temporally dependent functional observations. Testing for a change point in the mean of functional data has been studied in Berkes, Gabrys, Horvath and Kokoszka [4], but their test was developed under the independence assumption. In many applications, functional observations are expected to be dependent, especially when the data is collected over time. Building on the SN-based change point test proposed in Shao and Zhang [23] for a univariate time series, we extend the SNbased test to the functional setup by testing the constant mean of the finite dimensional eigenvectors after performing functional principal component analysis. Asymptotic theories are derived under both the null and local alternatives. Through theory and extensive simulations, our SN-based test statistic proposed in the functional setting is shown to inherit some useful properties in the univariate setup: the test is asymptotically distribution free and its power is monotonic. Furthermore, we extend the SN-based test to identify potential change points in the dependence structure of functional observations. The method is then applied to central England temperature series to detect the warming trend and to gridded temperature fields generated by global climate models to test for changes in spatial bias structure over time.


Recent work on the psychology of gender is pluralistic, stemming from varied specialty areas within psychology, grounded in several intellectual frameworks, and reflecting a spectrum of feminist perspectives. This article is a critical appraisal of diverse approaches to the study of women and gender. It first describes prefeminist or "womanless" psychology, then analyzes four co-existing frameworks that have generated recent research. The four frameworks are: Exceptional Women, in which empirical research focuses on the correlates of high achievement for women, and women's history in the discipline is re-evaluated; Women as Problem (or Anomaly), in which research emphasizes explanations for female "deficiencies" (e.g., fear of success); the Psychology of Gender, in which the focus of inquiry shifts from women to gender, conceived as a principle of social organization that structures relations between women and men; and a (currently relatively undeveloped) Transformation framework that reflexively challenges the values, assumptions, and normative practices of the discipline. Examples of research programs within each approach are described, and the strengths and limitations of each approach are critically examined.


Abstract An important part of every country's development process is the building of a social contract in which citizens pay tax and, in turn, receive public goods and services. Evidence suggests that this is associated with the establishment of a norm of tax payment and a belief that non-payment is wrong. We exploit a new, nationally representative, dataset to explore which factors are associated with higher tax morale in Nigeria. We find that a perception of higher penalties and greater difficulty avoiding taxes are both associated with higher tax morale. Tax morale is also higher the more people believe that other Nigerians pay taxes, the less frequently they have to pay bribes and the greater the trust they have in tax officials. However, we also find that Nigerians who believe that tax officials discriminate in their treatment of different ethnic, religious and gender groups have higher, not lower, tax morale. And we find no relationship between service delivery and measures of tax morale based on the respondent's own behaviour, in contrast to the positive association found in the literature using broader measures of tax morale. This suggests that building a social contract based on taxation may be harder than previously thought.


Objective: To screen out psychiatric 'cases' and find the frequency of anxiety and depression symptoms in military volunteers performing duties at very high altitudes in the Karakoram ranges of Pakistan. Methods: This was a descriptive study lasting from Jan 2015 to June 2015, on volunteers serving at very high altitude, using General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Urdu versions. Analysis involved descriptive, inferential techniques and Bonferroni test. Demographic variables were compared to the scores. Results: A high percentage of the military volunteers screened positive for psychiatric 'caseness' and symptoms of anxiety and depression; mostly in the mild to moderate range, while very few of them reported severe symptoms. Demographic variables such as marital status, number of children, positive family psychiatric history, past medical history, duration at high altitude and educational levels were found to be significant risk factors for developing symptoms of anxiety and depression. Conclusions: Individuals performing duties at very high altitude, experience symptoms of anxiety and depression, their demographics are important in understanding their emotional problems.


: Studies were performed in the summer of 1989 in the vicinity of the Polish Polar Station at Hornsund, Svalbard, in an attempt to characterize the functioning of selected tundra soils in terms of bioenergetics. The intensity of bioenergetical processes in the soil was evaluated by the rates of O 2 consumption and C 0 2 production, measured in the laboratory under controlled hydrothermic conditions. Soils metabolic processes are markedly correlated with soil water content and dependent upon soil structure, water capacity and character of plant cover. The strongest correlation was observed in the more aerated soils with small water capacity and without vegetation. The respiratory quotient (RQ) decreased with the growth of soil moisture content. Soil metabolic activity began directly after the summer melting of the ground, when the soil temperature reached 0°C, and ceased in autumn, when temperatures fell below 0°C again.


Fire use for land management is widespread in natural tropical and plantation forests, causing major environmental and economic damage. Recent studies combining active fire alerts with annual forest-cover loss information identified fire-related forest-cover loss areas well, but do not provide detailed understanding on how fires and forest-cover loss are temporally related. Here, we combine Sentinel-1-based, near real-time forest cover information with Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) active fire alerts, and for the first time, characterize the temporal relationship between fires and tropical forest-cover loss at high temporal detail and medium spatial scale. We quantify fire-related forest-cover loss and separate fires that predate, coincide with, and postdate forest-cover loss. For the Province of Riau, Indonesia, dense Sentinel-1 C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar data with guaranteed observations of at least every 12 days allowed for confident and timely forest-cover-loss detection in natural and plantation forest with user's and producer's accuracy above 95%. Forest-cover loss was detected and confirmed within 22 days in natural forest and within 15 days in plantation forest. This difference can primarily be related to different change processes and dynamics in natural and plantation forest. For the period between 1 January 2016 and 30 June 2017, fire-related forest-cover loss accounted for about one third of the natural forest-cover loss, while in plantation forest, less than ten percent of the forest-cover loss was fire-related. We found clear spatial patterns of fires predating, coinciding with, or postdating forest-cover loss. Only the minority of fires in natural and plantation forest temporally coincided with forest-cover loss (13% and 16%) and can thus be confidently attributed as direct cause of forest-cover loss. The majority of the fires predated (64% and 58%) or postdated forest-cover loss (23% and 26%), and should be attributed to other key land management practices. Detailed and timely information on how fires and forest cover loss are temporally related can support tropical forest management, policy development, and law enforcement to reduce unsustainable and illegal fire use in the tropics.


In statistics, censoring occurs when the value of an observation is only partially known. The aim of this paper is estimation of a regression model with censored data using Logistic and Tobit models. We have compared two models based on goodness of fit and forecasting accuracy criteria. We have used the data of rate of return and volatility of Tehran Stock Exchange. Results indicate that Based on Akaike info criterion, Schwarz criterion, Hannan-Quinn criterion and Log likelihood, the model of Tobit has better goodness of fit than Logistic model. Criteria of RMSE and MAE indicate that the Tobit model has more accuracy of forecasting than Logistic Model. [Atefeh younesi, Elham Kamangar. The Estimation of Regression Models with Censored Data Using Logistic and Tobit Models. Life Sci J 2013;10(7s):545-550] (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com. 85


Background Percutaneous adductor longus tenotomy (PAT) is a frequently used procedure, yet no study has ever compared its effectiveness and safety with those of open adductor longus tenotomy (OAT). We conducted this prospective study to describe the effects of PAT and to compare them with those of OAT. Methods This consisted of a cross-over randomized controlled trial including 50 consecutive hips from 27 patients with cerebral palsy scheduled for adductor tenotomy in the setting of multilevel tendon lengthening/release procedures or hip surgery (femoral or Dega osteotomy) in a university hospital. A pediatric orthopaedic surgeon conducted a PAT. Another surgeon extended the wound to explore what had been cut during the PAT, and completed the tenotomy if necessary. Hip abduction (HA) was assessed by a third surgeon immediately before PAT, after PAT, and then after OAT, using a goniometer, in a standardized reproducible manner. All 3 surgeons were blinded to the others' findings. Primary end-points included the percentage of tendon/muscle portion sectioned percutaneously, and the HA measure. Comparison between HA after PAT and OAT was done using a paired t-test with a 95% confidence interval. The influence of anatomic variants of adductor longus origin was also assessed. Results Mean HA (hips flexed) measured 40.36 degrees preoperatively and increased to 50.04 degrees after PAT (P<0.0001). After OAT, HA averaged 53.32 degrees with no statistical gain compared with that observed after PAT (P=0.2). The tendinous portion of adductor longus was cut to an average of 98% by PAT (completely in 46 cases and more than 75% in only 4 cases). The muscular portion of adductor longus origin was cut to an average of 83.7% (completely in only 15 cases, cut to more than 75% in 26 cases, and approximately 50% in 9 cases). The gain in HA positively correlated with the extent of the tendinous portion divided (P=0.03) but not with the extent of muscular portion divided. Results were independent of the anatomic variants of adductor longus origin. Partial section of adductor brevis after PAT was encountered in 6 cases. No major iatrogenic lesion was observed (obturator nerve, major vessels). Conclusions This is the only prospective study concerning the effects of PAT. The anatomic factor associated with gain in HA seems to be the extent of the section of the tendinous portion of adductor longus origin, which was found to be cut to more than 90% in all cases after PAT. The extent of muscular portion section does not seem to influence the gain in HA. The researchers detail the technique of percutaneous adductor tenotomy and show that when done correctly, PAT is a fast and simple procedure, as reliable and effective as the open release and without any major risks. Level of Evidence Level II therapeutic study—prospective comparative study.