Rainfall records with time steps less than 15 min, which are required for designing storm water sewerage in urban areas, are rarely available throughout the Moroccan territory. The study was conducted with the objective to tackle this problem through the use of design storm structures with time steps that vary from 5 to 15 min. For this purpose, we used two structural families of design storms: (i) design storms derived from Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) curves of Chicago, Composite, Desbordes, Watt, Weibull, Uniform, and Triangular design storm types; (ii) design storms from the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) synthetic rainfall. The selected design storm structures are those adapted to the rainfall distribution of Tangiers experimental basin and their resulted peak flows are comparable to the flow generated using the synthetic rainfall events. We also did sensitivity analysis for the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) to changes of different design storm structural parameters, which includes storm duration, time steps, and intensity peak position. We evaluated how changes on these parameters affect peak flows and runoff volumes. In addition, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method was used to validate the sensitivity analysis by identifying key storm parameters that significantly affect peak flows and Runoff volumes. SWMM model calibration results showed that the Desbordres and Chicago structures best fitted observed flow. Moreover, comparison of different SCS synthetic rainfall forms to observed rainfall events retains that of type 1. Furthermore, the Weibull and watt storms have both a shape parameter that has been calibrated by using the observed events. Overall, simulation results confirmed that peak flow was greatly affected by design storm structures, but was not closely correlated with rainfall intensity.


A combination of two drugs works better than either drug alone for patients with renal cell carcinoma, the most common form of kidney cancer, according to a pilot study led by Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers. "We found that by combining a drug that enlists the immune system's help in combating cancer with one that cuts off a tumor's blood supply, we could substantially increase patients' response rates to treatment," said Jared Gollob, M.D., an oncologist at Duke and lead investigator on the study. The researchers published their findings in the August 1, 2007 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute. Interferon alpha, an immunotherapy agent that boosts the body's own abilities to fight off infections and tumors, has been used for several decades to treat advanced renal cell carcinoma. But kidney tumors only respond to interferon alpha about 5 percent to 10 percent of the time, Gollob said. The second drug, sorafenib, which is sold as Nexavar, is a member of a promising class of drugs known as anti-angiogenics, which work by choking a tumor's blood supply and thereby restricting its growth. But sorafenib causes substantial tumor shrinkage in only 5 percent to 10 percent of kidney cancer patients, Gollob said. Even in these patients, it can slow the progression of the disease but does not offer a cure. "Most tumors that respond to either therapy alone begin growing again after about five or six months," Gollob said. "By using interferon alpha and sorafenib in combination, we not only increased the response rate, but found we could double the amount of time that these patients could survive without their tumors growing." When used in combination, the drugs led to significant tumor shrinkage in 33 percent of the 40 patients who participated in the study, and two of the patients had complete responses, meaning their tumors were destroyed, Gollob said. Study participants all had renal cell carcinoma that had already spread to other organs, known as stage IV disease. The researchers gave the study patients sorafenib in a pill form twice daily and interferon alpha via injection three times a week for eight-week cycles. If the patient's tumor had not grown or had shrunk after eight weeks, the cycle would be repeated after a two-week break, until the tumors disappeared or until the cancer got worse. The researchers monitored the patients' progress using computerized-tomography (CT) scans that show the size of the tumors. Based on the success of this study, researchers will soon begin a multi-site confirmatory trial that will take this study one step further by seeking to determine whether patients show additional progress when they take increasing doses of sorafenib alone after achieving maximum tumor shrinkage with the dual therapy, Gollob said. Kidney cancer afflicts about 50,000 people per year in the United States according to the American Cancer Society. Most patients are over 45, and men are affected more than women. Kidney cancer generally does not cause symptoms until it has reached an advanced stage, when it can lead to blood in the urine, pain in the abdomen, fever, sweats, fatigue and anemia, Gollob said. When it has advanced to stage IV, the cancer has spread to organs such as the lungs, liver and bone. Most people currently facing a diagnosis of stage IV kidney cancer survive anywhere from six months to two years, and only about ten percent are alive five years after diagnosis, Gollob said. One of the biggest challenges facing doctors who treat kidney cancer is its resistance to chemotherapy, radiation and other common cancer-fighting tools, Gollob said. So doctors have relied on drugs such as interferon alpha and sorafenib, which benefit more patients, he said. "This is a deadly cancer that has been hard to treat, and the results of our study suggest that we may be able to further improve the efficacy of exciting new drugs like sorafenib," he said. Other researchers involved in this study were Tina Richmond, Christine Marino, Elizabeth Miller, Lin Gu and Bercedis Peterson of Duke; Kimryn Rathmell, Gayle Grigson and Catherine Watkins of the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center; and John Wright of the National Cancer Institute.


Some fundamental characteristics of the subambient pressure air bearing suction force were investigated analytically and numerically. The performance of air bearing suction force is strongly determined by the cavity bearing number, in which the cavity region recess depth is used as the characteristic film thickness. Although the optimal recess depth for maximum suction force varies for different operation conditions, the optimal cavity bearing number can be found in a wide range of applications. The analytical model was confirmed by a finite element analysis. Examples of different disc velocities, slider dimensions, and ambient pressure effect were presented.


Transition is an important phenomenon in large scale, commercial, wind tunnel testing at low speeds because it is an excellent indicator of an airfoil performance. It is difficult to estimate transition through numerical techniques because of the complex nature of viscous flow. Therefore experimental techniques can be essential. Over the transition region the rate of heat transfer shows significant increases which can be detected using infrared thermography. This technique has been used predominantly at high speeds, on small models made of insulated materials, and for short test runs. Large scale testing has not been widely undertaken because the high sensitivity of transition to external factors makes it difficult to detect. The present study records the process undertaken to develop, implement and validate a transition detection system for continual use in the Virginia Tech Stability Wind Tunnel: a low speed, commercial wind tunnel where large, aluminium models are tested. The final system developed comprises of two high resolution FLIR A655sc infrared cameras; four 63.5-mm diameter circular windows; aluminium models covered in 0.8-mm silicone rubber insulation and a top layer of ConTact© paper; and a series of 25.4-mm wide rubber silicone fiberglass insulated heaters mounted inside the model and controlled externally by experimenters. This system produces images or videos of the model and the associated transition location, which is later extracted through image processing methods to give a final transition location in percentage chord. The system was validated using two DU96-W-180 airfoils of different chord lengths in the Virginia Tech Stability Wind Tunnel, each tested two months apart. The system proved to be robust and efficient, while not affecting the airfoil performance or any other system in use in the wind tunnel. Transition results produced by the system were compared to measurements obtained from pressure data and stethoscope tests as well as the numerical predictions of XFOIL. The transition results from all four methods showed excellent agreement with each other for the two models, for at least two Reynolds numbers and for several angles of attack on both suction and pressure side of the model. The agreement of data obtained under such different conditions and at different times suggests that the infrared thermography system efficiently and accurately detects transition for large aluminium models at low speeds.


No poet has been more wilfully contradictory than John Donne, whose works forge unforgettable connections between extremes of passion and mental energy. From satire to tender elegy, from sacred devotion to lust, he conveys an astonishing range of emotions and poetic moods. Constant in his work, however, is an intensity of feeling and expression and complexity of argument that is as evident in religious meditations such as 'Good Friday 1613. Riding Westward' as it is in secular love poems such as 'The Sun Rising' or 'The Flea'. 'The intricacy and subtlety of his imagination are the length and depth of the furrow made by his passion,' wrote Yeats, pinpointing the unique genius of a poet who combined ardour and intellect in equal measure.


As migration growth in Russia's population keeps falling, Russia may face a renewed reduction of its population as early as this year amid the natural decline in the population. This situation is driven by a decreased migration growth from Ukraine amid a weak recovery of the migration inflow from Central Asian countries. Migrants' payments to Russian regions' budgets keep growing.


Author(s): Marsh, Rex E. | Abstract: The pest status of pocket gophers (Thomomys spp. and Geomys spp.) to agricultural crops and home gardens is well established, as is the fact that trapping in the early history of this country and its western expansion was the predominant method of their control. The former payment of bounties for gopher scalps or tails is thought to have stimulated the development and production of dozens of different kinds and models of gopher traps. In the Midwest, prior to the industrial revolution, small size leg-hold traps were used for taking gophers because they were the only traps available. By 1880, traps were being developed and manufactured specifically for gophers, with a dozen or so marketed prior to 1900. The zenith of gopher trap development was from 1900 through the 1930s. Following the end of World War II, the use of poison baits for gopher control significantly replaced the use of traps. Five of the most successful gopher traps, all with a long history of production, are enumerated and the specific history of the Macabee gopher trap is detailed.


Nigeria's recent electoral season marked an important departure from the familiar trajectory of politics in that country. Departing from Nigeria's history of flawed elections and oligarchic control, this most recent balloting offered a broadly credible and competitive exercise across most of the country. Yet the outcome of the presidential contest, though seemingly decisive in numerical terms, has also sharpened sectional tensions that could upset Nigeria's fragile political equilibrium. Political initiative, economic strategy, and the changing nature of social movements will determine whether or not Nigerians can successfully navigate the risk of sectional conflict.


Self-assembly of organic molecules represents an efficient and convenient bottom-up approach for the structural functionalization of surfaces at the nanometer scale. The great potential of assembling supramolecular architectures from organic molecules lies in the vast choice of building blocks that are accessible. This allows to predefine and to direct the molecular organization through the steric and electronic information stored in the molecules. A large variety of homotopic supramolecular structures can be achieved, however limited in complexity. The full realization of highly developed surface architectures for designable chemical functions and physical properties may depend critically on a higher level of complexity, which could be satisfied by utilizing a mixture of different molecular building blocks. Within this thesis, the self-organization of multi-component systems at well-defined metal surfaces is investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy. The mixtures consist of different representatives of linear polyaromatic ligands with carboxylate or pyridyl derived functional groups. The assembly is directed by hydrogen bonding, metal-organic complex formation or a combination of both, i.e. a hierarchical interaction scheme. The aim of this thesis is threefold: First, the homotopic self-assembly of different pyridyl ligands is investigated as a basis for the multi-component systems. One-dimensional chains as well as two dimensional (2D) networks can be formed by copper-pyridyl coordination motifs. The influence of the substrate on these structures will be discussed in detail. Moreover, the self-organization process of multi-components is investigated at the fundamental level. Since functional groups primarily discriminate the different molecular species during the assembly and with that assure a distinguished arrangement, selective bonding schemes are essential for the design of highly ordered supramolecular architectures. Two suitable selective coordination motifs are identified, an iron-carboxylate and a copper-pyridyl complex node. In ligand mixtures, strong preference of one metal species is observed at surfaces, which would not be expected in solution. In addition, redundant mixtures (i.e. ligands of different size but same functional group) serve as model systems to investigate the dynamic self-organization process of modular multicomponent systems, e.g. self-selection or error tolerance, directly with nanometer accuracy. Self-selection is observed if the molecular recognition is steered by a highly reversible coordination bond, while a more robust bonding fosters structural adaption and tolerance to the introduced error (i.e. redundant mixture). These experiments underline the importance of reversibility of the interactions steering the self-assembly process into highly ordered structures. Finally, the extended possibilities due to the multi-component approach for the construction of advanced architectures and structural control are explored: Complex and sophisticated supramolecular networks can be directly synthesized out of simple molecules at the surface. A hierarchical assembly is presented, where a coordination motif defines a primary unit, while hydrogen bonding steers the 2D organization. The secondary level of interaction (hydrogen bonding) can be exclusively addressed, leading to distinct 2D arrangement of the undisturbed primary coordination units. A concept of structural control by rational design is presented, where geometric network parameters can be modified by the replacement of the appropriate molecular species. Due the multi-component nature of the systems, a finer tuning of the structure is enabled (independent substitution of each component) compared to homotopic assemblies. Moreover, a continuation of the multi-component concept is demonstrated, where organizational control is imposed to a homotopic system by adding an additional molecular species. It is demonstrated that a long range order and thermal stability is imposed onto meta-stable Cu-pyridyl coordination chains by cooperative assembly with a carboxylate species.


Professional journals have a legitimating and sanctioning role in the development of disciplinary knowledge, as well as professional practices and identities. The British Journal of Music Therapy (BJMT) – the only UK-based peer-reviewed music therapy journal – has portrayed research, theory and accounts of practices, reflecting trends and developments in the field of music therapy since 1987. Marking the 25th anniversary of the BJMT and looking into its future development, a content analysis of the journal since its inception (1987–2011) was conducted with the aims of (i) tracing trends and developments of music therapy praxes and professional identities, and (ii) exploring the journal's engagement with disciplinary discourses and practices alongside and beyond those of music therapy. The study provides an overview of the BJMT in terms of 1) paper types, 2) authorship: numbers and professional titles, 3) countries of project sites and countries of authors, 4) sample conditions, sizes and ages, 5) formats of practices, and 6) models and themes. The results show that the majority of the articles published in the BJMT are theoretical, focus on one-to-one sessions, are single authored by music therapists and are UK-focused in terms of authorship, project site and models. This study brings to the fore questions for the future development of music therapy as profession and discipline.


Abstract Romantic notions and critical theories of play describe an assault by rationalization processes on the free and spontaneous nature of play. Other theories seek to describe the dialectical nature between rationalization and freedom, between routine, and magic, and between planning and spontaneity. This article seeks to focus on the rationalization processes of play and to examine whether and in what dimensions, these processes shape the characteristics of play and hamper its spontaneity and freedom. Examination of these processes, performed by socio-historical analysis of legal gambling in Israel, shows that rationalization processes were active on both the practical and technological levels, and on the discursive level of the games of chance. Nevertheless, the characteristics of freedom, joy and spontaneity appeared only on the discursive level of the game and were designed to deliberately serve the economic interests of the various agents in the Israeli gambling field.


An integrating sphere for determining spectral reflectance and transmittance as a function of angle of incidence and wavelength in the 0.33- to 2.5-μ region is described. Geometrical arrangement of sample, entrance port, and detector as well as directional characteristics of detector and sphere wall coating permit absolute or relative measurements to be made for a sample with an arbitrary reflection-distribution function.


The primeval forest of Indiana was without doubt representative of some of the most magnificent sections of the great eastern deciduous region. In a previous paper (9) we described briefly the fate of our hardwoods, and pointed out that only small tracts of comparatively undisturbed stands remain for observation. Since reports on the early forests are rather vague, and based on superficial observation rather than on quantitative data, it is somewhat difficult to gain from them a true picture of the phytosociology of these forests prior to time of settlement. Qualitative and quantitative studies of the remaining small stands referred to above, however, enable us to set up, or establish a fairly accurate norm with which to compare areas which have been disturbed, and see to what extent this disturbance has progressed. For detailed studies of a number of such stands, the reader is referred to the following literature references (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19).


Crude pyrolysis bio-oil contains significant quantities of carboxylic acids which limit its utility as a biofuel. Vapour phase ketonisation of organic acids contained within biomass fast-pyrolysis vapours offers a potential pre-treatment to improve the stability and energy content of resulting bio-oils formed upon condensation. Zirconia is a promising catalyst for such reactions, however little is known regarding the impact of thermal processing on the physicochemical properties of zirconia in the context of their corresponding reactivity for the vapour phase ketonisation of acetic acid. Here we show that calcination progressively transforms amorphous Zr(OH)4 into small tetragonal ZrO2 crystallites at 400 °C, and subsequently larger monoclinic crystallites >600 °C. These phase transitions are accompanied by an increase in the density of Lewis acid sites, and concomitant decrease in their acid strength, attributed to surface dehydroxylation and anion vacancy formation. Weak Lewis acid sites (and/or resulting acid-base pairs) are identified as the active species responsible for acetic acid ketonisation to acetone at 350 °C and 400 °C, with stronger Lewis acid sites favouring competing unselective reactions and carbon laydown. Acetone selectivity is independent of acid strength.


Single crystals of muscovite ( N = 143) from different zones of selected granitic pegmatites belonging to two well-known gem-producing districts of the Eastern Brazilian Pegmatite Province (northern Aracuai and western Governador Valadares in Minas Gerais) were analyzed for major, minor and trace elements. Structural formulae display considerable (Fe+Mg) variation within the octahedral site, coupled with tetrahedral Si-Al substitution (Tschermak substitution – phengite component). Tetrahedral Si varies from 3.06 to 3.21 and Al VI from 1.71 to 1.90 apfu. Trace elements in muscovite are significant indicators for the economic potential of pegmatites as well as for the differentiation degree and origin of the magma. Muscovite with higher Li and B contents is characteristic for gem-tourmaline-bearing pegmatites. Lower concentrations in K/Rb, Ti and Mg and higher F contents are found in muscovites from higher differentiated zones within the pegmatite. In comparison with anatectic pegmatites, relatively low K/Rb ratios of muscovite from the studied pegmatites are indicative of derivation by fractional crystallization of granite magma. Zn, Ga and Y, elements rarely analyzed in micas, tend to increase with decreasing K/Rb ratios, showing them to be good indicators of the fractionation degree of magmas.


(ABSTRACT) As chip vendors are increasingly manufacturing a new generation of multi-processor chips called multicores, improving software performance requires exposing greater concurrency in software. Since code that must be run sequentially is often due to the need for synchronization , the synchronization abstraction has a significant effect on program performance. Lock-based synchronization – the most widely used synchronization method – suffers from programability, scalability, and composability challenges. Transactional memory (TM) is an emerging synchronization abstraction that promises to alleviate the difficulties with lock-based synchronization. With TM, code that read/write shared memory objects is organized as transactions, which speculatively execute. When two transactions conflict (e.g., read/write, write/write), one of them is aborted, while the other commits, yielding (the illusion of) atomicity. Aborted transactions are restarted , after rolling-back changes made to objects. In addition to a simple programming model, TM provides performance comparable to lock-based synchronization. Software transactional memory (STM) implements TM entirely in software, without any special hardware support, and is usually implemented as a library, or supported by a compiler or by a virtual machine. In this thesis, we present ByteSTM, a virtual machine-level Java STM implementation. ByteSTM implements two STM algorithms, TL2 and RingSTM, and transparently supports implicit transactions. Program bytecode is automatically modified to support transactions: memory load/store bytecode instructions automatically switch to transactional mode when a transaction starts, and switch back to normal mode when the transaction successfully commits. Being implemented at the VM-level, it accesses memory directly and uses absolute memory addresses to uniformly handle memory. Moreover, it avoids Java garbage collection (which has a negative impact on STM performance), by manually allocating and recycling memory for transactional metadata. ByteSTM uses field-based granularity, and uses the thread header to store transactional metadata, instead of the slower Java ThreadLocal abstraction. We conducted experimental studies comparing ByteSTM with other state-of-the-art Java STMs including Deuce, ObjectFabric, Multiverse, DSTM2, and JVSTM on a set of micro-benchmarks and macro-benchmarks. Our results reveal that, ByteSTM's transactional throughput improvement over competitors ranges from 20% to 75% on micro-benchmarks and from 36% to 100% on macro-benchmarks. Without her love, care and support, I could not have completed this thesis To my parents. Without their love, trust and continued support, I could not have made their dream true iii Acknowledgments First, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Binoy Ravindran, for his continues support, help, guidance, encouragement, and trust. He believed in me …


Signaling through the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathway can lead to either cell proliferation or differentiation, and the difference in the outcome appears related to the duration of the ERK signal. Prolonged ERK activity leads to proliferation, whereas transient ERK signaling can lead to differentiation (see Coleman and Marshall). The sustained ERK activity appears to require input both from the cell adhesion pathways, as well as from mitogenic growth factors, and appears to be dependent on the cytoskeleton. Welsh et al. show that inhibition of the Rho family of guanosine triphosphatases (GTPases) (Rho, Rac, and Cdc42) inhibits sustained ERK activity and induction of the expression of the cyclin D1 protein and leads to cell cycle arrest in G1. Inhibition of Rho (but not of Rac or Cdc42) blocks sustained ERK activation, but did not inhibit cyclin D1 expression; instead, the rate of cyclin D1 production was enhanced, suggesting that the different members of the Rho family of GTPases have different effects on cyclin D1 production. Indeed transfection of activated forms of Rac or Cdc42 led to the production of cyclin D1 in G0 and early G1, whereas activated Rho did not. The ability of activated Rac or Cdc42 to accelerate cyclin D1 synthesis was independent of ERK signaling, occurring in cells in which the ERK pathway was pharmacologically inhibited, and was independent of signals generated from cell adhesion, occurring in suspended cells. In unattached cells, or cells with a disrupted cytoskeleton, that were stimulated with basic fibroblast growth factor, cyclin D1 expression was not elevated. However, when Rho was inhibited, then cyclin D1 was expressed, suggesting that Rho couples the mitogenic signal to cell adhesion and the cytoskeleton. Rho appears to act as a switch limiting the production of cyclin D1 to the late G1 phase, possibly by inhibiting pathways downstream of Rac and Cdc42, which would promote premature cyclin D1 expression. M. L. Coleman, C. J. Marshall, A family outing: small GTPases cyclin' through G1. Nature Cell Biol. 3, E250-E251 (2001). [Online Journal] C. F. Welsh, K. Roovers, J. Villanueva, Y. Liu, M. A. Schwartz, R. K. Assoian, Timing of cyclin D1 expression within G1 phase controlled by Rho. Nature Cell Biol. 3, 950-957 (2001). [Online Journal]


Armed conflict has the potential to disrupt water systems that are crucial to environmental and human wellbeing. Yet there is no comprehensive overview of scientific evidence on the impact of armed conflicts on water resources and their management. This paper assesses the relevant scientific evidence through a systematic literature review. We discern conceptual, empirical, and methodological approaches adopted in the reviewed publications and synthesize the overarching research results. Common research topics across the body of literature include the role of water resources in armed conflicts, either as a casualty or as a weapon used by conflict parties, and the implications of armed conflict on water resources management, such as basic service provision and water governance. The analysis also pinpoints the research field's focus on empirical studies based on a small number of cases, and highlights a lack of conceptual engagement with the notion of armed conflict. Future research on water resources and their management in conflict settings needs to be more transparent on conceptual frameworks and assumptions to facilitate knowledge integration across different studies.


Wild and cultivated potatoes (Solanum section Petota) present challenges to taxonomists arising from lack of clearly defined morphological character differences among many species, phenotypic plasticity, a range of ploidy levels from diploid to hexaploid, and hybrid speciation and introgression. Taxonomic treatments of the group have differed greatly regarding numbers of species and hypotheses of their interrelationships at the series level. Recent morphological phenetic studies and molecular studies have confirmed the general lack of clearly defined species, have shown the need to use a number of character states with overlapping ranges for species delimitation (polythetic support), and have suggested the need for the reduction of species in section Petota. Molecular studies have sometimes confirmed hypotheses of hybridization and sometimes have failed to support them. Molecular studies have suggested the need for a reconsideration of the traditionally held series concepts. Currently, section Petota contains 196 wild species and a single cultivated species, Solanum tuberosum, with eight landrace cultivar groups, exclusive of the modern cultivars that are not yet classified into cultivar groups. The number of wild species likely will decrease with future study. These points are here illustrated by (1) a discussion of published species level studies in Solanum series Longipedicellata, the Solanum brevicaule complex, and the cultivated landrace populations of potatoes; (2) reinvestigations of hybridization in S. chacoense, S. raphanifolium and S. xrechei; and (3) studies of ingroup and outgroup relationships of section Petota.


Cholesteatomas are often observed in the middle ear or mastoid cavity. However, cholesteatomas in areas other than the middle ear or mastoid are extremely rare and thus are not often reported in the literature. We recently treated an 18-year-old female patient with an incidentally detected maxillary sinus mass. A paranasal sinus computed tomography examination revealed a cystic lesion in the left maxillary sinus infiltrating the posterolateral walls of the left maxillary sinus. An endoscopic operation was performed for definitive diagnosis. Histopathological examination of the mass confirmed the diagnosis of cholesteatoma. Despite the rarity of paranasal cholesteatoma in comparison with cholesteatomas in the tympanum, a few cases involving the frontal sinus have been reported. However, retromaxillary cholesteatoma is even less common than sinus cholesteatoma and is reported rarely. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a maxillary cholesteatoma originating from the retromaxillary area. For this reason, we present this case along with a literature review.


To assess the effects of GH treatment on carbohydrate and protein metabolism, we studied eight patients with short stature before and after the commencement of GH treatment. The hyperglycemic clamp procedure was employed to produce a hyperglycemic stimulus of 50 mg/dL above fasting levels for 120 min. These patients were then treated with 0.3 mg/kg. week GH for 6 months, after which they were restudied. Patients were compared to eight healthy control children matched for age, sex, and Tanner stage. Fasting plasma glucose did not change significantly, but fasting plasma insulin levels were higher after GH therapy (P < 0.005). Despite identical glucose increments during the glucose clamp procedure, both first, and second phase insulin responses were markedly greater after instituting GH treatment. Even in the face of higher mean plasma insulin levels after GH treatment, the rate of insulin-stimulated glucose metabolism did not differ during the last 60 min of both studies. Hence, the rate of insulin-stimulated glucose metabolism/mean plasma insulin ratio (an index of insulin sensitivity) was sharply reduced after GH treatment (P < 0.01). During the clamp, the fall in circulating branched chain amino acid levels was significantly greater after GH therapy (P < 0.02). We conclude that glucose-stimulated insulin responses are increased in short children treated with GH and that such hyperinsulinemic responses compensate for reductions in insulin sensitivity. The compensatory hyperinsulinemic responses induced by GH therapy may serve a beneficial role by augmenting insulin's anabolic effects on protein metabolism.


The thesis of this article is that the unique nature of terrorist crime requires a tweaking of the entrapment rules. The entrapment defense is our legal system's primary mechanism for regulating government sting operations. I argue that sting operations and surveillance are conceptually distinct (or rival) methods of law enforcement, which compete for resource allocation. If an enforcement agency favors one method, it shifts resources away from the other. To the extent that we dislike panoptic government surveillance, we can steer enforcement agencies away from it by encouraging targeted stings; and we can achieve this, in part, by adapting the rules for the entrapment defense as applied to terrorism prosecutions. Due to the unique nature of terror-related crimes, combating them with surveillance necessitates non-specific, panoptic surveillance, something much more invasive than was necessary with traditional victimless crimes like trafficking in drugs or sex, etc. This changed circumstance results from the greater emphasis on prevention, as opposed to punishment, and the nature of the organizations involved. In order to be effective against terrorism, surveillance would have to be so intrusive, expansive, and expensive that it warrants a consideration of alternative methods in this context. Adapting the legal rules surrounding entrapment would facilitate a beneficial and efficient shift in methodologies.


Looking back over the past quarter century of justice system initiatives in the U.S., many will likely agree that the introduction of the drug court model has been one of the major innovations that occurred. For the field of court administration, it represented a practical application of Differentiated Case Management (DCM) principles – e.g. the recognition that all cases filed in a court system are not alike and that multiple paths for their disposition should be created for the purpose of both efficiency and justice. For the larger field of justice system operations, it represented a re-examination of the traditional approach for criminal case processing and a jumpstart to creating partnerships with agencies outside of the justice system per se -in this case, public health – in order to more efficiently and effectively manage the case disposition process for certain criminal cases not productively handled through the traditional criminal case process. For the legal profession, specifically – judges, prosecutors, defense counsel – it opened up the opportunity to use the leverage of the criminal justice system to utilize therapeutic approaches to the disposition of cases that did not lend themselves to the traditional punitive criminal case disposition approach – e.g., cases involving what later became recognized as the chronic disease of addiction and associated mental health disorders. Of particular import was that these nontraditional approaches were being instituted in an era of mandatory sentencing. All of these developments occurred within the framework of the constitutional and legal procedures, including "due process protections" that govern the criminal process and none of the founding drug court leaders ever intended for the drug court model to operate outside of that framework. The focus of this article is upon the evolution of the drug court model in the U.S. since it was first introduced – not always a straightforward path as anticipated by the early developers of the model – and discussion of a few of the numerous issues that implementation of the drug court model has raised as new generations of leaders become involved, often without the institutional perspective of those who initially instituted the program, and suggestions for moving forward to promote the long term institutionalization of the drug court model within the constitutional and legal framework that applies to the U.S. criminal justice process. The observations and recommendations which follow draw on the author's experience in providing technical assistance and training to over 800 drug courts in the U.S. since 1989, much of which is documented in technical assistance reports, training curricula, and presentations at state, regional and national conferences.2


Government student loan programs must balance the need to enforce repayment among borrowers who can afford to make their payments with some form of forgiveness or repayment assistance for those who cannot. Using unique survey and administrative data from the Canada Student Loan Program, we show that nearly all recent borrowers with annual incomes above $40,000 make their standard loan payments while repayment problems are common among borrowers earning less than $20,000. Still, over half of all low-income borrowers manage to make timely payments. We demonstrate that other financial resources in the form of savings and family support are key to understanding this – repayment problems are rare among low-earners with access to savings and family support. This has important policy implications, in part, because many recent proposals have advocated for a move to an income-based repayment system. Under such a system, many low-income borrowers in good-standing (due primarily to savings and family support) would pay less, while little new revenue would likely be generated from inducing payment among those that are currently delinquent or in default since their income levels are so low. Specifically, we show that expanding Canada's income-based Repayment Assistance Plan to automatically cover all borrowers could reduce revenue by nearly one-half over the first few years of repayment. Although a sizeable group of recent borrowers would benefit from improved repayment assistance, our results suggest caution before broadly expanding assistance to all low-income borrowers, many of whom already benefit from informal insurance provided by savings and their families.


There are preconceptions about the Tudor and Stuart period when it comes to the religious identity of England. One of the extreme views is that the Reformation aimed at eliminating any and all aspects of Catholicism from England. Within the Tudor and Stuart periods, Henry VIII started the dissolution, Edward VI progressed it further, Mary attempted to revert England back to Catholicism and Elizabeth created Catholic martyrs to get rid of the Catholic threat, whilst James was an extreme Protestant determined to push forward with the Reformation. By considering a specific Catholic belief, saints and relics, the religious and political ideas surrounding this Catholic doctrine can be brought to the fore. This thesis will look at the survival of Catholicism in England, by representing the continued belief and support by English Catholics through saints and relics of the early modern period. The focus will be the Reformation from 1558 to 1625, covering the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. It will be argued that there was a continuation from the medieval period of the belief in the power that saints and relics could provide Catholics, and that there was a revitalisation during the Reformation period, 1558-1625, in the collection and preservation process, as new saints and relics were being established throughout the period in question. Using a combination of material objects and written sources, which will include legislation as well as popular culture; it will depict the importance and significance that this one area of Catholic devotion entailed. Through this, I will be able to determine how saints and relics survived the Reformation and how the reliance on objects continued throughout.

By analysing how saints and relics were venerated, we will see a shift away from the public collections in cathedrals to private collections in domestic settings. Relics were still preserved but in the private not the the public sphere with increased emphasis on the domestic sphere. This thesis aims to analyse how far the Catholic faith in England continued in relation to saints and relics during the Reformation.


In the wake of two momentous critiques of legal education, popularly known as the "Carnegie Report" and "Best Practices," law schools are reconsidering certain basic assumptions about how we educate future lawyers. Even the most forward-thinking reformers, however, struggle with the details of how to implement many of the recommendations of those reports. Providing more formative assessment, for instance, is a laudable objective but one that has serious ramifications in terms of resource expenditures. This article seeks to provide a remedy for many of these struggles: "Academic Support Across the Curriculum." This piece argues that the reconceptualization of an under-leveraged asset in many law schools, Academic Support Programs (ASPs), can help provide crucial improvements in legal education. By examining the reforms urged by the Carnegie Report and Best Practices, and by detailing the methods of certain exemplary ASPs throughout the country, this piece analyzes how ASPs just might be the answer to many tough questions.


Aim The aims of the study were to assess the differences in rating of potential harm avoided by a pharmacist's intervention using a multidisciplinary team and whether the experience of a healthcare professional affects how an intervention is rated. Method A random sample of 30 pharmacist interventions made on a neurosurgical ward were tabulated and sent to a multidisciplinary panel for review and grading using the National Reporting and Learning System risk scoring, one being negligible harm and five being catastrophic.1 Each intervention was subjected to the Medication Error Reporting and Prevention Index for categorising actual medication errors.2 The panel consisted of a consultant neurosurgeon, neurosurgical registrar, specialist nurse, senior pharmacist and junior pharmacist. Data included demographic and clinical details of the patient and the intervention made by the ward pharmacist. Each individual was asked to score each of the 30 interventions in terms of potential harm had the pharmacist not intervened. Results The mode for this data set was 2, the median was 3 and the range was 4. The neurosurgical registrar rated the interventions with the highest average intervention score of 2.1. The neurosurgical consultant and the junior pharmacist both had an average intervention score of 2.06. The specialist nurse and the senior pharmacist had the lowest average score for the interventions which were 1.93 and 1.8 respectively. 21 of the 30 interventions were made prior to the administration of the prescribed medication. An example of a high scoring intervention is the failure to prescribe buccal midazolam for a child who suffers with seizures, severe enough to warrant a stay in our paediatric intensive care unit. The basic grade pharmacist and the neurosurgical consultant were the only two who categorised any of the interventions as catastrophic. The specialist nurse categorised four of the interventions at a category of moderate to catastrophic, whereas the senior pharmacist categorised three within this category. Nine (30%) of the interventions made involved the use of antibiotics. 33% of these interventions related to antibiotic drug omissions and 33% related to under dosing the patient with antibiotics. These under doses reported were due to the Trust switching from the use of cefuroxime to cefotaxime (in the neurosurgical ward) as a first line antibiotic which was being used at a dose of 30 mg/kg instead of the standard 50 mg/kg. Conclusions The results show that professionals with similar experiences score interventions similarly such as the specialist nurse and senior pharmacist (both sit on the Trust Medicines Safety Committee) or the neurosurgical registrar and consultant. Future study will include a larger cohort from the medical, pharmacy and nursing team.


We report on subjects' perceptions of the risks of hurricanes and relocation decisions. Our sample contains individuals displaced by Hurricane Katrina or Rita in Gulf-coast areas, as well as a comparison group of people, not much affected by the hurricanes. Results are presented for two choice experiments, conducted immediately after the hurricane and again roughly one year later, in which we evaluate the trade-offs between given levels of risks and income, while controlling for amenities and other location characteristics. We find that perceptions of risk and damages fade, and willingness to pay to obtain protection falls over time.


Human neutrophils, monocytes, and eosinophils are known to undergo apoptotic cell death. The Fas/Fas ligand pathway has been implicated as an important cellular pathway mediating apoptosis in diverse cell types. We conducted studies to examine the importance of the Fas/FasL system in normal human phagocytes. Although Fas expression was detected on neutrophils, monocytes, and eosinophils, constitutive expression of FasL was restricted to neutrophils. The three types of phagocytes demonstrated differential sensitivity to Fas-induced apoptosis. Only neutrophils were highly susceptible to rapid apoptosis in vitro after stimulation with activating anti-Fas IgM (mAb CH-11). Fas-mediated neutrophil apoptosis was suppressed by incubation with G-CSF, GM-CSF, IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha, or dexamethasone, as well as the selective tyrosine kinase inhibitors, herbimycin A and genistein. Spontaneous neutrophil death in vitro was partially suppressed by Fas-Ig fusion protein or antagonistic anti-Fas IgG1 (mAb ZB4). In coculture experiments, neutrophils released a soluble factor inducing death in Fas-susceptible Jurkat cells via a mechanism sensitive to the presence of Fas-Ig or anti-Fas IgG1. Immunoblot analysis using specific anti- human FasL IgG1 (mAb No. 33) identified a 37-kD protein in lysates of freshly isolated neutrophils and a 30-kD protein in the culture supernatant of neutrophils maintained in vitro. Our results suggest that mature neutrophils may be irrevocably committed to autocrine death by virtue of their constitutive coexpression of cell-surface Fas and FasL via a mechanism that is sensitive to proinflammatory cytokines, glucocorticoids, and inhibitors of tyrosine kinase activity. Furthermore, neutrophils can serve as a source of soluble FasL, which may function in a paracrine pathway to mediate cell death.


The success of pre-trained contextualized representations has prompted researchers to analyze them for the presence of linguistic information.
Indeed, it is natural to assume that these pre-trained representations do encode some level of linguistic knowledge as they have brought about large empirical improvements on a wide variety of NLP tasks, which suggests they are learning true linguistic generalization.
In this work, we focus on intrinsic probing, an analysis technique where the goal is not only to identify whether a representation encodes a linguistic attribute but also to pinpoint where this attribute is encoded.
We propose a novel latent-variable formulation for constructing intrinsic probes and derive a tractable variational approximation to the log-likelihood.
Our results show that our model is versatile and yields tighter mutual information estimates than two intrinsic probes previously proposed in the literature.
Finally, we find empirical evidence that pre-trained representations
develop a cross-lingually entangled notion of morphosyntax.


The high-speed swirling flow field in the cyclone oil-gas separator will cause the breakup of oil droplets, thus reducing the separation efficiency. In this paper, the performance of an oil-gas cyclone separator was investigated through both numerical simulations and experiments with considering the breakup of oil droplets in oil-gas cyclone separators. The gas flow field was simulated using the RSM turbulence model and the trajectory of the oil droplets was calculated by the Discrete Phase Model(DPM).The breakup of oil droplets was simulated by TAB model and the wall boundary of oil droplets was treated as Reflect boundary. Meanwhile, the separation efficiency was measured and the Malvern Particle Size Analyzer was applied to get the droplets diameter distribution at the inlet and exit of the oil-gas cyclone separators to verify the simulation model. The results showed that the separation efficiency was influenced significantly by the breakup of oil droplets, especially for the high inlet velocity. The simulation results based on the presented model were in good agreement with the experimental data.


[1] Since 1996, quality assurance experiments of electrochemical concentration cell (ECC) ozonesondes of two different model types (SPC-6A and ENSCI-Z) have been conducted in the environmental simulation facility at the Research Centre Juelich within the framework of the Juelich Ozone Sonde Intercomparison Experiment (JOSIE). The experiments have shown that the performance characteristics of the two ECC-sonde types can be significantly different, even when operated under the same conditions. Particularly above 20 km the ENSCI-Z sonde tends to measure 5–10% more ozone than the SPC-6A sonde. Below 20 km the differences are 5% or less, but appear to show some differences with year of manufacture. There is a significant difference in the ozone readings when sondes of the same type are operated with different cathode sensing solutions. Testing the most commonly used sensing solutions showed that for each ECC-manufacturer type the use of 1.0% KI and full buffer gives 5% larger ozone values compared with the use of 0.5% KI and half buffer, and as much as 10% larger values compared with 2.0% KI and no buffer. For ozone sounding stations performing long term measurements this means that changing the sensing solution type or ECC-sonde type can easily introduce a change of ±5% or more in their records, affecting determination of ozone trends. Standardization of operating procedures for ECC-sondes yields a precision better than ±(3–5)% and an accuracy of about ±(5–10)% up to 30 km altitude.


INTRODUCTION
Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is the leading cause of chronic liver disease and is a serious global health problem. Hepatitis C infection is highly prevalent in patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD), due to frequent exposure to blood and blood products, nosocomial transmission of HCV, and prolong hemodialysis duration. The aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of IL-33/ST2 signaling pathway on severity of the liver disease in ESRD HCV+ patients.

METHODOLOGY
Blood samples from patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD) and hepatitis C infection (HCV), 20 patients with HCV infection, 20 patients with ESRD and 20 healthy control donor patients were taken for the examination of biochemical parameters, for the determination of the serum cytokine concentration, and for the molecular diagnostics of HCV.

RESULTS
Systemic sST2 positively correlated with serum level of urea and creatinine, respectively. Serum sST2 was significantly increased in ESRD HCV+ patients in comparison to HCV+ group. sST2/IL-1, sST2/IL-4 and sST2/IL-23 ratios were significantly increased in serum of ESRD HCV+ patients in comparison to HCV+ patients. Significantly higher systemic level of sST2 and sST2/IL-1 and sST2/IL-4 ratios were measured in ESRD patients compared to non-ESRD patients.

CONCLUSION
These results suggested that elevated level sST2, as the consequence of renal failure, causes less destruction of liver in HCV infection.


This volume examines the sociocultural factors that influence language choices and uses in the multilingual country of Luxembourg. Patterns of language use within and across communities are viewed in terms of interrelationships among language policy intent, implementation, and experience.
The study considers the ways in which the language and social experiences within low socioeconomic communities differ from school expectations and how these differences affect achievement of both individual and government goals. A history of past language policies and practices sets the background for recent policy formation and current language uses and values.
An investigation of the roles of reading, writing and speaking within school settings illustrates policy implementation and individual usage. The ways in which policy is experienced is described in terms of the number and extent of language functions within communities.
The nature of language experience is reflected in ethnographic descriptions of the roles language and literacy abilities play in social life. These descriptions are presented in terms of patterns of language use across socioeconomic groups and through composite case studies of three families representing upper, middle and lower class backgrounds. Community and school language behaviors are then compared across socioeconomic groups through an analysis of the degree of congruence between reading, writing, and speaking functions outside of the school and the in-school norms and methods of language instruction.
The study further explores the practical and theoretical implications of the relationships among policy intent, implementation, and experience in the context of socioeconomic transitions in modern multilingual nations.


Abstract A pure fusion mirror device suffers from the predicted low values of the Q factor (energy gain factor). A much higher energy production may be achieved in a fusion-fission reactor, where the fusion plasma neutron source is surrounded by a fission mantle. The fusion neutrons are capable of initiating energy producing fission reactions in the surrounding mantle. A mirror machine can probably be designed to provide sufficient space for a 1.1 m wide fission mantle inside the current coils, and the power production from the fission reactions can in such a case exceed the fusion power by more than two orders of magnitude (Pfis/Pfus ≈ 150), suggesting a realistic reactor regime for a mirror based fusion-fission device. An energy producing device may operate with an electron temperature around 1 keV. Transmutation of long-lived radio active isotopes (minor actinides) from spent nuclear fuel from fission reactors can reduce geological storage from 100 000 years to only 300 years. Since the energy of D-T fusion neutrons are above the threshold for the most important transmutation reactions desired for treatment of nuclear waste, there may be an interest for a mirror transmutation device even if no net energy is produced. Recent theoretical simulations have considered the possibility to use the Gas Dynamic Trap (GDT) at Novosibirsk as a subcritical burner for transmutation by fusion neutrons. In the present work, possibilities for mirror based fusion-fission machines are discussed. Means to achieve sufficient end confinement for a straight field line mirror fusion-fission system with a thermal barrier are briefly analyzed. End leakage can alternatively be avoided by connecting the ends of a magnetic mirror with a stellerator tube, while the fusion neutrons are produced in the mirror part where a high energy sloshing ion component is confined. A zero dimensional model for such a mirror-stellarator system has been developed. The computed results indicate some possible parameter regimes for industrial transmutation and power production.


In this paper, we study direct transfer methods for multilingual named entity recognition. Specifically, we extend the method recently proposed by Tackstrom et al. (2012), which is based on cross-lingual word cluster features. First, we show that by using multiple source languages, combined with self-training for target language adaptation, we can achieve significant improvements compared to using only single source direct transfer. Second, we investigate how the direct transfer system fares against a supervised target language system and conclude that between 8,000 and 16,000 word tokens need to be annotated in each target language to match the best direct transfer system. Finally, we show that we can significantly improve target language performance, even after annotating up to 64,000 tokens in the target language, by simply concatenating source and target language annotations.


The average results obtained by unsupervised statistical parsers have greatly improved in the last few years, but on many specific sentences they are of rather low quality. The output of such parsers is becoming valuable for various applications, and it is radically less expensive to create than manually annotated training data. Hence, automatic selection of high quality parses created by unsupervised parsers is an important problem.

In this paper we present PUPA, a POS-based Unsupervised Parse Assessment algorithm. The algorithm assesses the quality of a parse tree using POS sequence statistics collected from a batch of parsed sentences. We evaluate the algorithm by using an unsupervised POS tagger and an unsupervised parser, selecting high quality parsed sentences from English (WSJ) and German (NEGRA) corpora. We show that PUPA outperforms the leading previous parse assessment algorithm for supervised parsers, as well as a strong unsupervised baseline. Consequently, PUPA allows obtaining high quality parses without any human involvement.


The exponential sum associated with f is defined as where the sum is taken over a complete set of residues modulo q and let x = (x1, x2, ... , xn) be a vector in the space Zn with Z ring of integers and q be a positive integer, f a polynomial in x with coefficients in Z. The value of S(f; q) has been shown to depend on the estimate of the cardinality |jV|, the number of elements contained in the set where fx is the partial derivative of f with respect to x = (x1, x2, ..., xn). This paper will give an explicit estimate of |V| for polynomial f(x; y) in Zp[x; y] of degree five. Earlier authors have investigated similar polynomials of lower degrees. The polynomial that we consider in this paper is as follows: The approach is by using p-adic Newton Polyhedron technique associated with this polynomial.


Kidneys are the most prevalent organ transplants, but demand dwarfs supply. Kidney exchanges enable willing but incompatible donor-patient pairs to swap donors. These swaps can include cycles longer than two pairs as well, and chains triggered by altruistic donors. Current kidney exchanges address clearing (deciding who gets kidneys from whom) as an offline problem: they optimize the current batch. In reality, clearing is an online problem where patient-donor pairs and altruistic donors appear and expire over time. In this paper, we study trajectory-based online stochastic optimization algorithms (which use a recent scalable optimal offline solver as a subroutine) for this. We identify tradeoffs in these algorithms between different parameters. We also uncover the need to set the batch size that the algorithms consider an atomic unit. We develop an experimental methodology for setting these parameters, and conduct experiments on real and generated data. We adapt the REGRETS algorithm of Bent and van Hentenryck for the setting. We then develop a better algorithm. We also show that the AMSAA algorithm of Mercier and van Hentenryck does not scale to the nationwide level. Our best online algorithm saves significantly more lives than the current practice of solving each batch separately.


The use of global suppliers has increased considerably over the last three decades. Operations management theory establishes that global sourcing requires more units of inventory, but since these units are often procured at a lower cost from global suppliers the capital invested in inventory and the consequent financial burden may increase or decrease with global sourcing. This study provides rigorous firm-level empirical evidence that links the global sourcing practices of public U.S. firms and their inventory investments. We process bill of lading manifests customs forms to extract information on over half a million sea shipments from global suppliers to U.S. public firms and link this information with quarterly financial data from the Compustat database. We provide stylized facts on the participation of different firms and sectors in global trade. Using a simultaneous equation model, we find that an increase in global sourcing results in an increase in inventory investment. A 10% shift in sourcing from domestic to global suppliers increases the inventory investment by 8.8% for an average firm in our sample. We also find that increasing the number of suppliers can mitigate this increase in inventory investment: for example, going from single to dual sourcing reduces inventory investment by about 11%. We illustrate the use of our estimates to identify the impact of changing global sourcing strategy on inventory investment and operational performance metrics.

This paper was accepted by Martin Lariviere, operations management.


Currently, software engineering is becoming even more complex due to distributed computing. In this new context, portability is one of the key issues and hence a cluster-aware Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that can transparently execute Java applications in a distributed fashion on nodes of a cluster, while providing the programmer with the single system image of a classical JVM, is really desirable. This way multi-threaded server applications can take advantage of cluster resources without increasing their programming complexity. However, such kind of JVM is not easy to design. Moreover, one of the most challenging tasks in its design is the development of an efficient, scalable and automatic dynamic memory manager. Inside this manager, one important module is the automatic recycling mechanism or garbage collector. This collector is a module with very intensive processing demands that must concurrently run with user's application. It can consume a very significant portion of the total execution time spent inside JVM in uniprocessor systems, and its overhead increases in distributed garbage collection because of the update of changing references in different nodes. Hence, the garbage collector is a very critical part in distributed designs of JVMs, both for performance and energy. In this paper our contribution to automatic distributed garbage collection is two-fold. First, we have analyzed the barrier mechanism design space for the study of tracing-based distributed garbage collectors. Second, we have evaluated the impact of the most significative barrier strategies as main bottlenecks in global performance. Our preliminary results show that the choice of the specific technique used in barrier mechanisms produces significant differences both in performance and internodes messaging overhead.


Longitudinal data from the children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) were used to assess how well measures of short-term and working memory and attention in early childhood predicted longitudinal growth trajectories in mathematics and reading comprehension. Analyses also examined whether changes in memory and attention were more strongly predictive of changes in academic skills in early childhood than in later childhood. All predictors were significantly associated with academic achievement and years of schooling attained, although the latter was at least partially mediated by predictors' effect on academic achievement in adolescence. The relationship of working memory and attention with academic outcomes was also found to be strong and positive in early childhood but nonsignificant or small and negative in later years. The study results provide support for a "fade-out" hypothesis, which suggests that underlying cognitive capacities predict learning in the early elementary grades, but the relationship fades by late elementary school. These findings suggest that whereas efforts to develop attention and memory may improve academic achievement in the early grades, in the later grades interventions that focus directly on subject matter learning are more likely to improve achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)


We examine pre-service teachers' theoretical learning during one five-week training module, and their educators' learning about better lecture design to foster student learning. The study is iterative: interventions (one per group) were implemented sequentially in student groups A–C, the results of the previous intervention serving as the baseline for the design developed for the next. These learning study participants, 79 students from year three of a teacher training programme, studied the variation theory (VT) of learning. Three lesson cycles were completed, each comprising four steps: (1) a pre-test, (2) a 15-min intervention discussing VT, (3) a post-test and (4) a delayed post-test conducted eight weeks later. The results indicated learning differences between groups; qualitative analysis identified three categories of student answers, i.e. emergent, premature and unaware, regarding their theoretical understanding. Group C had more students with emergent knowledge (36%) than did groups A (20%) or B (17%) at post-testing.


1. 1900-1920: Cultural and Historical Context for the First Twenty Years. Early Twentieth-Century Realists. The Younger American Painters, Giles Edgerton (Mary Fanton Roberts). Progress in Our National Art..., Robert Henri. Diaries (1906, 1908, 1909, 1911, 1912), John Sloan. The Critical Issues: Modernism and American Consciousness. Art: Life's Prismatic Glass, Benjamin DeCasseres. Modern Painting: Its Tendency and Meaning, Willard Huntington Wright. Artists and Others, John Weichsel. African Negro Art: Its Influence on Modern Art, Marius DeZayas. Of Our Spiritual Strivings, W.E.B. DuBois. American Art, Robert J. Coady. New Forms for a New Century. Notes for a Catalogue, Elie Nadelman. The Fourth Dimension from a Plastic Point of View, Max Weber. Statement for 291 Exhibition, John Martin. The Georgia O'Keeffe Drawings and Paintings at '291,' William Murrell Fisher. Photography as Art, Photography as Tool for Reform. Photography as a Fine Art, Charles H. Caffin. Photography, Paul Strand. Social Photography, Lewis Hine. Armory Show, Independents Show of 1917, and New York Dada. A Layman's Views of an Art Exhibition, Theodore Roosevelt. Cubists and Post-Impressionism, Arthur Jerome Eddy. Collection of the Societe Anonyme: Museum of Modern Art, Marcel Duchamp. We Are Living in the Age of the Machine, Paul B. Haviland. The Blind Man, Marcel Duchamp et al. Mefk Maru Mustir Daas, Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. 2. The 1920s: Cultural and Historical Context for the Jazz Age. Machine Age Modernism and Modernity. The Brooklyn Bridge, Joseph Stella. The Americanization of Art, Louis Lozowick. Ford Plant Photos of Charles Sheeler, Samuel M. Kootz. The Great Figure, William Carlos Williams. Cultural Nationalism-Defining American: The Usable Past, the Local the Popular. On Creating a Usable Past, Van Wyck Brooks. My American Epic in Paint, Thomas Hart Benton. Advertures in the Arts, Marsden Hartley. The Great American Billposter, Matthew Josephson. Cultural Primitivism-Defining Authenticity: The Usable "Other" Natural Men and Women. America Has Its Primitives, Holger Cahill. A Negro Artist Plumbs the Negro Soul, Edward Alden Jewell. Introduction to Max Weber, Primitives: Poems and Woodcuts, Benjamin DeCasseres. Georgia O'Keeffe: White Paint and Good Order, Waldo Frank. The New Negro. The Legacy of the Ancestral Arts, Alain Locke. The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain, Langston Hughes. An Autobiography, Augusta Savage. Artists Abroad. Why Do Americans Live in Europe?, Robert McAlmon et al. Letters from Paris, Stuart Davis. 3. The 1930s: Cultural and Historical Context for the Depression Years. The Depression Experience. An Artist's Experience in the 1930s, Raphael Soyer. Interview with Philip Evergood, Philip Evergood. American Rhapsody (2), Kenneth Fearing. Interview..., Jacob Lawrence. Revolutionary Theory and Practice-The Search for Styles. The World Crisis Expressed in Art..., John Reed Club. Why an Artists' Congress?, Stuart Davis. New Content-New Form, Grace Clements. Towards a Revolutionary Art, Louis Lozowick. What's the Matter with Sculpture, Isamu Noguchi. Civic Documentary History, Bernice Abbott. Mexican Artists in the United States. The Radio City Mural, Diego Rivera. I Paint What I See, E.B. White. Frida Kahlo de Rivera, Andre Breton. Government Projects. American Resources in the Arts, Holger Cahill. Harlem Community Art Center, Gwendolyn Bennett. Official Art, Elizabeth Noble. Memorandum, 1942, Roy Stryker. Nationalism and Racialism in the Arts as Issues in the 1930s. Modern Art: The Men, the Movements, the Meaning, Thomas Craven. Reviews: The New York American Scene in Art, Stuart Davis. The Negro Artist and Modern Art, Romare Bearden. Race, Nationality and Art, Meyer Schapiro. 4. 1940s-Mid-1950s: Cultural and Historical Context for World War II and the Cold War. Critical Responses: The Transition to Abstract Expressionism and "Pure" Painting. Abstract Art, Clement Greenberg. The American Action Painters, Harold Rosenberg. de Kooning Paints a Picture, Thomas B. Hess. The Liberating Quality of Avant-Garde Art, Meyer Schapiro. New York School: Voices of Individual Artists. Garden in Sochi, Arshile Gorky. Thesis, Norman Lewis. The Modern Painter's World, Robert Motherwell. The Romantics Were Prompted, Mark Rothko. My Painting..., Jackson Pollock. The Ideaographic Picture, Barnett Newman. 12 Americans, Grace Hartigan. Notes for David Smith Makes a Sculpture, David Smith. The Figurative Artists in the Post-War Years. Interview..., Henry Koerner. Negro Artists, Elizabeth Catlett. Statement, Milton Avery et al. The New Decade, Stephen Greene. Northern California, David Park. New Images of Man, Leon Golub. The Cold War and the Arts. Modern Art Shackled to Communism, Representative George A. Dondero. Truth, Freedom, Perfection, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. File on Ben Shahn, Newark Branch, Federal Bureau of Investigation. 5. 1955-1967: Cultural and Historical Context for a Consumer and Technological Society. America, Allen Ginsberg. Assemblage, Installations, Happenings, Events, Performance. Happenings in the New York Scene, Allan Kaprow. I Am for an Art..., Claes Oldenburg. Manifesto, George Maciunas. I Want the Dancers... and Be Prepared, Carolee Schneemann. New York Pop, West Coast Funk, and Chicago "Sub-Pop." Sixteen Americans, Robert Rauschenberg. Contemporary Art and the Plight of Its Public, Leo Steinberg. An Interview with Roy Lichtenstein, John Coplans. What Is Pop Art?, G.R. Swenson. The Underground Pre-Raphaelitism of Edward Kienholz, Sidney Tillim. Chicago, Franz Schulze. Minimal Art. Frank Stella, Carl Andre. Questions to Stella and Judd, Lucy R. Lippard. Notes on Sculpture, Robert Morris. Shape as Form: Frank Stella's New Paintings, Michael Fried. Agnes Martin, Lawrence Alloway. 6. 1968-1980: Cultural and Historical Context for the Vietnam War Era. Dematerialization: Conceptual Art, Systems, Earth Art. Paragraphs on Conceptual Art, Sol LeWitt. A Sedimentation of the Mind, Robert Smithson. Problems of Criticism, IV: The Politics of Art, Barbara Rose. Introduction to Stolen, Lawrence Alloway. Eva Hesse: The Circle, Lucy R. Lippard. Christo's Public Art, Calvin Tomkins. Realism and Figuration. Figure Painters Today Are Not Made in Heaven, Philip Pearlstein. Alice Neel, Alice Neel. Color, Audrey Flack. Artists's Statement, Robert Bechtle. Bob Colescott Ain't Just Misbehavin,' Lowery Stokes Sims. The Vietnam War, Political Art, Political Criticism. Art Workers' Coalition, Lucy R. Lippard. Communique, Guerrilla Art Action Group. To All Interested Parties, Hans Haacke. Art Is a Political Act, Max Kozloff et al. The Artist as Anthropologist, Joseph Kosuth. Art of Conscience: The Last Decade, Donald B. Kuspit. Black Arts Movement. A Poem for Black Hearts, Amiri Baraka (Le Roi Jones). Any Day Now: Black Art and Black Liberation, Larry Neal. A New Criticism Is Needed, Edmund B. Gaither. For the Women's House, Michele Wallace. Women's Movement. Judy Chicago Talking to Lucy R. Lippard, Lucy R. Lippard. Feminist Abstract Art-A Political Viewpoint, Harmony Hammond. The 7000 Year Old Woman, Betsy Damon. Visions and Re-Visions, Moira Roth. Taking Art to the Revolution, May Stevens. 7. 1980s-1990s: Cultural and Historical Context for the Age of Reagan and Postmodernism. Exit Modernism, Enter Postmodern Critique. Farewell to Modernism, Kim Levin. Nature and Culture, Peter Halley. Whatever Happened to Postmodernism?, Hal Foster. The End of the Art World, Robert C. Morgan. New Painting and Sculpture. New Image Painting, Susan Rothenberg. Popeye Meets Picasso in MoCA Survey, Christopher Knight. The Radiant Child, Rene Ricard. Mark Tansey, Jonathan P. Binstock. The Matter at Hand, Robert Storr. Word-Based, Photo-Based and Theory-Based Art. Pictures, Douglas Crimp. Women in Theory, Sheila Tebbatt. Went Looking for Africa: Carrie Mae Weems, Kate Linker. Identities Unmasked, Classifications Resisted. Seventies into Eighties-Neo-Hoodooism vs. Postmodernism: When (Art) Worlds Collide, Judith Wilson. Sharp Rocks, Edgar Heap of Birds. Documented/Undocumented, Guillermo Gomez-Pena. Asia/America: Identities in Contemporary Asian American Art, Margo Machida. The Shadow Knows: An Hysterical Tragedy of One Young Negress and Her Art, James Hannaham. The Passionate Camera: Photography and Bodies of Desire, Deborah Bright. Bodies Reclaimed. Hannah Wilke: 'The Body Politic,' Lowery Stokes Sims. An Interview with Kiki Smith, Robin Winters. The Artifact Piece, James Luna. Censorships and Propaganda in Art and Visual Culture. Welcome to America's Finest Tourist Plantation, Elizabeth Sisco et al. The Many Roles of Mapplethorpe, Michael Brenson. DIS-IN-FOR-MA-TION, Rudolf Baranik. War Stories: Narrative Reporting of the Gulf War, Patricia Johnston. Statement 1992, Bill Viola. The Construction of Knowledge: Museums, Art History, and Studio Practices. Revisionism Has Transformed Art History but Not Museums, Alan Wallach. Interview with Fred Wilson, Martha Buskirk. The Future of Art History and the Undoing of the Survey, Mark Miller Graham. Teaching Students the Way They Learn, Amalia Mesa-Bains. Art in Public Spaces. A Conversation with the Artist, Hayden Herrera. An Interview with Maya Lin, Elizabeth Hess. Editorial: Which Way the Titled Arc?, Alan Wallach. Murales del Movimiento: Chicano Murals and the Discourses of Art and Americanization, Marcos Sanchez-Tranquilino. The Advantages of Being a Woman Artist and Do Women Have to Be Naked to Get into the Met. Museum?, Guerrilla Girls. The Government Has Blood on Its Hands, Gran Fury. Comments on Code 33: Emergency Clear the Air, Suzanne Lacy. Index.


Abstract One of the most significant failures in the development process has been our inability to match water demand to its supply. For a large portion of the world's population, this has meant a lack of provision of adequate water for domestic use, resulting in a significant loss of time and effort, especially on the part of women. While science can now provide us with detailed assessments of water resource availability, little to date has been done to link this to our knowledge of human resources and their geographical distributions. In order to manage these resources better, it is essential that they be addressed in a more holistic way. This paper provides a preliminary discussion of possible ways in which an interdisciplinary approach can be taken to produce a more holistic assessment of water stress, in such a way as to link physical estimates of water availability with the socio-economic drivers of poverty. To this end, some approaches to creating a Water Poverty Index are discussed, and it is hoped that this paper will generate interest and debate among a wide range of readers.


The purpose of this study was to identify the benefits of a systematic mentorship programme using a recreational agency as the case study. Demographic information was used to understand the current state of recreation agencies and this resulted in utilising a systematic mentoring process to address a lack diversity and inclusion in their membership agencies and communities, with the intended purpose of improving the effectiveness of park and recreation agencies. An example of a systematic mentorship programme is a 3-person cohort programme that facilitates the exchange of knowledge and experience between each member of the cohort. The benefit of this mentorship approach is to engage in discussions to strategically address and provide recommendations related to diversity and inclusion.


In this paper, a model is presented which shows the relationship between country grain storage costs and transport bottlenecks that exist in the harvest period. It is shown that transport bottlenecks limit the amount of grain that can be transported from receival points in the peak receival period. This constraint means that the cost of operating country receival points is high because the turnover of storage capacity is limited. However, system costs can be reduced by focusing the peak transport task at sites that are less intensive users of scare transport capacity. This allows more grain to be transported out of the system in the peak period, decreasing the need for costly long term storage at country sites. In the longer term, differences in the intensity of transport use means that optimal levels of investment in storage capacity (relative to grain receivals) will differ between sites. Relatively more storage should be constructed at sites that are intensive users of transport capacity (eg. those sites that are furthest from the port). Less storage capacity is needed at sites that are less intensive users of transport because a large depot-to-port transport task will be concentrated at these sites in the peak period.


A doubly fed-induction generator (DFIG) has a significant advantage of fast dynamic frequency regulation. However, conventional virtual inertia control (VIC) design only takes frequency into account and may face secondary frequency drop during rotor speed restoration. To solve these problems, the novel decentralised control strategy is proposed for a hybrid micro-grid. Firstly, the load disturbance is considered to enhance control system accuracy, which is estimated by using the state observer based on the dynamic mathematical model. Then, the sliding mode VIC controller is designed by taking advantage of the observed disturbance value and frequency deviation for DFIG output dynamic adjustment according to the conventional frequency control (VIC) model. Furthermore, during DFIG rotor speed restoration, pitch angle control based on the mathematical model is applied for reserve capacity, and a new triggering condition according to the conventional condition is designed, so as to release reserve power at an appropriate time. Finally, the proposed strategy is tested in a typically isolated micro-grid with diesel and DFIG through a simulation and experiment.


The central question of this thesis is, how has the alternative US media framed the war in Syria? The analytical approach is informed by recent scholarly debate regarding peace journalism and constructive journalism. The framings of the war in Syria have been studied in three alternative US online news sources through a qualitative content analysis. The news sources are Truthout, The Progressive and Common dreams. Results show that these alternative US media has framed the war in line with characteristics of peace journalism and constructive journalism. This tendency departs from how the conflict is regularly framed in mainstream US media. The three studied media have for example promoted diplomatic and peaceful solutions to the war in Syria and tend to give voices to people that are not part of the US political elite. 1. Table of


This article considers how existing literature on privacy recognizes, constructs and otherwise implicates something the Anglo-American legal tradition recognizes as 'identity'. Integral to this concern is approaching privacy as a regulative principle for constructing and managing relations between the individual and three primary spheres of engagement: society, the market, and the state. Contemporary analyses of privacy tend to concentrate of how privacy protects the individual from state tyranny or the prying eyes of social busy bodies. Much less attention has been paid, however, to privacy as a principle for demarcating a space beyond the reach of market forces. As privacy recognizes and protects the conditions necessary for proper individuation and realization of the self over time, it stands in stark opposition to the expansive forces of the modern market that is based on a globalizing premise of reducing all that comes within its grasp to a common medium of exchange. The existing literature on privacy lays the groundwork for a consideration of how the law constructs and manages 'identity.' At the core of this process lies a concern to define and protect certain dignitary interests that are seen as critical to maintaining the integrity of the self in the face of modern social, economic, and political forces. Privacy, in short, provides principles for negotiating the legal management of personhood in a manner that facilitates the development and maintenance of a coherent individual identity essential to our liberal polity's commitment to human flourishing. Among these principles are a commitment to maintaining the conditions necessary for proper individuation and realization of the self over time. In particular, this involves the legal recognition and protection of a sphere of personhood beyond the reach of market forces, a place where a person may choose to locate aspects of herself which may not be rendered fungible or commensurable with other objects through a market exchange. More generally, the literature also reveals the potential for recognizing privacy as a means through which society itself is constituted. As a principle of community maintenance, privacy casts the construction of the self as a relational, social process that implicates identities drawn from powerful historical and social affiliations. In this context, privacy challenges the notion of the bounded self and provides legal principles that construct identity as contingent, open, shifting across time and space. Yet privacy is also ultimately grounded in a concern to protect the basic dignity implicated in allowing a person to negotiate this complex terrain with a measure of autonomy and control over the process of developing an individuated self capable of human flourishing.


The inhalation of asbestos fibers may lead to a number of respiratory diseases, including lung cancer, asbestosis, pleural plaques, benign pleural effusion, and malignant mesothelioma. Although exposure is now regulated, patients continue to present with these diseases because of the long latent period between exposure and clinical disease. Presenting signs and symptoms tend to be nonspecific; thus, the occupational history helps guide clinical suspicion. High-risk populations include persons in construction trades, boilermakers, shipyard workers, railroad workers, and U.S. Navy veterans. Every effort should be made to minimize ongoing exposure. Patients with a history of significant asbestos exposure may warrant diagnostic testing and follow-up assessment, although it is unclear whether this improves outcomes. Patients with significant exposure and dyspnea should have chest radiography and spirometry. The prognosis depends on the specific disease entity. Asbestosis generally progresses slowly, whereas malignant mesothelioma has an extremely poor prognosis. The treatment of patients with asbestos exposure and lung cancer is identical to that of any patient with lung cancer. Because exposure to cigarette smoke increases the risk of developing lung cancer in patients with a history of asbestos exposure, smoking cessation is essential. Patients with asbestosis or lung cancer should receive influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations.


Evaluating an agent's performance in a stochastic setting is necessary for agent development, scientific evaluation, and competitions. Traditionally, evaluation is done using Monte Carlo estimation; the magnitude of the stochasticity in the domain or the high cost of sampling, however, can often prevent the approach from resulting in statistically significant conclusions. Recently, an advantage sum technique has been proposed for constructing unbiased, low variance estimates of agent performance. The technique requires an expert to define a value function over states of the system, essentially a guess of the state's unknown value. In this work, we propose learning this value function from past interactions between agents in some target population. Our learned value functions have two key advantages: they can be applied in domains where no expert value function is available and they can result in tuned evaluation for a specific population of agents (e.g., novice versus advanced agents). We demonstrate these two advantages in the domain of poker. We show that we can reduce variance over state-of-the-art estimators for a specific population of limit poker players as well as construct the first variance reducing estimators for no-limit poker and multi-player limit poker.


The sex chromosomes often follow unusual evolutionary trajectories. In particular, the sex-limited Y and W chromosomes frequently exhibit a small but unusual gene content in numerous species, where many genes have undergone massive gene amplification. The reasons for this remain elusive with a number of recent studies implicating meiotic drive, sperm competition, genetic drift and gene conversion in the expansion of gene families. However, our understanding is primarily based on Y chromosome studies as few studies have systematically tested for copy number variation on W chromosomes. Here, we conduct a comprehensive investigation into the abundance, variability, and evolution of ampliconic genes on the avian W. First, we quantified gene copy number and variability across the duck W chromosome. We find a limited number of gene families as well as conservation in W-linked gene copy number across duck breeds, indicating that gene amplification may not be such a general feature of sex chromosome evolution as Y studies would initially suggest. Next, we investigate the evolution of HINTW, a prominent ampliconic gene family hypothesized to play a role in female reproduction and oogenesis. In particular, we investigate the factors driving the expansion of HINTW using contrasts between modern chicken and duck breeds selected for different female-specific selection regimes and their wild ancestors. Although we find the potential for selection related to fecundity in explaining small-scale gene amplification of HINTW in the chicken, purifying selection seems to be the dominant mode of evolution in the duck. Together, this challenges the assumption that HINTW is key for female fecundity across the avian phylogeny.


Denise L. Moretz, Reading Attitude and Academic Achievement in Third, Fourth, and Fifth Grade Children, 1997, Dr. Randall Robinson, Thesis Advisor, Master of Science in Teaching, Rowan University. The purpose of this study was to determine if a correlation existed between reading attitudes and academic achievement of elementary school children n grades three, four, and five. Also, the researcher wanted to determine if variables such as gender or time in school affected the relationship between reading attitude and academic achievement. The subjects consisted of seventy students from three intact classrooms. This study took place in a middle class suburban elementary school in southern New Jersey. Twenty-seven students were from third grade, twenty-one students were from fourth grade, and twenty-two students were from tifth grade, Thirty-eight females and thirty-two males participated in the study. The reading attitudes of the subjects were assessed with the Educational Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS) developed by McKenna & Kear (see appendix A) This survey consisted of twenty questions dealing with recreational and academic reading. Each question had four standard pictorial figures for subjects to use as their answer. The academic achievement of the students was collected by obtaining the scores for each subject on the IOWA Test of Basic Skills, a standardized test taken by each student participating in the study. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to statistically analyze the data Positive correlations between reading attitude and academic achievement were found to exist The relationship between reading attitude and academic achievement was not significant when looking at the groups by gender. The findings also indicated a negative trend between reading attitude and achievement (academic, reading, and comprehension) exists as students progress through school.


Mihov, M., G. antonova and K. Mihov, 2013. Energy assessment of new broccoli variety. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 19: 1056-1060 The energy budgets in crop production could be used as a key indicator that helps to assess the productivity and profitability that are dependent on energy use. therefore, it is essential to conduct an energy assessment of crop varieties, as they are a major component of production. tests were carried out in three consecutive years (2010-2012) under standard technology for late field production in order to determine the energy costs involved in the production of two varieties of broccoli as well as to assess the energy parameters. Standard fertilization and plant protection with pesticide chemical origin were applied. the total energy consumption in Coronado F1 and iZK iskra varieties productions was 3570.31 MJ.da -1 and 3511.68 MJ.da-1, respectively. Variety IZK Iskra is more energy efficient because of reduced energy costs for diesel oil, machinery, some insecticides, human power and higher energy output. the higher energy output in iZK iskra variety leads to a 22.50% increase in energy productivity and energy use efficiency in comparison with Coronado F1 variety. the shares of non-renewable energy for Coronado F1 and iZK iskra varieties production were almost equal and were up to 89.30%. there is a heavy reliance on the use of chemical fertilizers, diesel oil and machinery. Consumption of these non-renewable energies can be reduced using bioproducts for fertilization and plant protection, and biofuel. It is essential for the creation and use of modern energy efficient varieties and hybrids.


Disease assessment and management in cultured aquatic animals is a major concern in commercial aquaculture. Disease outbreaks have direct effects on fish production, causing serious economic losses in this industry. This can be overcome by early detection through molecular high sensitivity tools such as PCR (polymerase chain reaction). One of the most critical steps in the study of bacterial fish diseases is the precise identification of the infectious agent. Considering the damage that some bacteria can cause to fish and humans, the development of a rapid detection method for the four target species that demonstrates to be simple, accurate and low cost is an essential step for the prevention and early treatment of these diseases. Edwardsiella tarda (ACC 36.1), Vibrio harveyi (DSM 19023), Vibrio anguillarum (AQV 55.1) and Vibrio alginolyticus (CECT 521) were selected as targets of a multiplex PCR tool. The multiplex PCR reactions were performed in various reaction conditions, including different annealing temperatures (between 49 °C and 55 °C) and changes in the MgCl2 concentration from 2 mM to 8 mM. Best results were obtained at 51 °C and MgCl2 concentration from 4 mM to 6 mM. Primers were tested using purified DNA from the respective bacterial strains, yielding bands at expected sizes, which can be identified on agarose gels with clearness and without overlapping sizes. Results indicate that this multiplex PCR tool is suitable for the detection of target pathogens and may, in the future, have extended practical application in commercial aquaculture.


This work provides a detailed investigation of the measured in-plane field-swept homodyne-detected ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) spectra of an extended Co/Cu/NiFe pseudo-spin-valve stack using a nanocontact (NC) geometry. The magnetodynamics are generated by a pulse-modulated microwave current, and the resulting rectified dc mixing voltage, which appears across the NC at resonance, is detected using a lock-in amplifier. Most notably, we find that the measured spectra of the NiFe layer are composite in nature and highly asymmetric, consistent with the broadband excitation of multiple modes. Additionally, the data must be fit with two Lorentzian functions in order to extract a reasonable value for the Gilbert damping of the NiFe. Aided by micromagnetic simulations, we conclude that (i) for in-plane fields the rf Oersted field in the vicinity of the NC plays the dominant role in generating the observed spectra, (ii) in addition to the FMR mode, exchange-dominated spin waves are also generated, and (iii) the NC diameter sets the mean wave vector of the exchange-dominated spin wave, in good agreement with the dispersion relation.


Inequality is generally thought to affect the electoral fortunes of the left, yet the theory and evidence on the question are unclear. This is the case even in Latin America, a region marked by enormous inequalities and by the stunning return of the left over the last decade. We address this shortcoming. Our game-theoretic model reveals that the probability that the left candidate is elected follows an inverted U-shaped relationship. At low levels of inequality, the rich do not bribe any voters and poor voters are increasingly likely to vote for the left candidate based on redistributive concerns. At high levels of inequality, the rich want to avoid redistribution and bribe poor voters, causing the left candidate to be elected with decreasing probability. We find support for our hypothesis, using 110 elections in 18 Latin American countries from 1978 to 2008.


Emissions of hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) by industrial activities is frequent cause of corrosion and unpleasant odours. Treatment of gaseous emissions contaminated with H 2 S by biotrickling filters inoculated with single cultures of sulfur oxidizer bacteria exhibit several advantages over physicochemical methods, such as shorter adaptation times and higher removal ability. Biofilms of Thiobacillus thioparus and Acidi thiobacillus thiooxidans have proved to exhibit high removal capacities, yet no comparative studies between them have been reported. This article reports the efficiency of biotrickling filters inoculated with T. thioparus and A. thiooxidans under similar conditions excepting the pH, that was the optimal for the bacterial growth, for the removal of H 2 S. The support was selected by determining the respirometric coefficients of the biomass. The maximum removal capacity of the biofilter inoculated with T. thioparus , operating within the range of pH (5.5-7.0) was 14 gS m -3 h -1 , lower the value obtained for the biotrickling filter inoculated with A. thiooxidans ; 370 gS m -3 h -1 . Therefore, it is concluded that acid biotrickling filter inoculated with A. thiooxidans constitute the best strategy to remove H 2 S, with the advantage that the system not require an exhaustive pH control of the liquid media.


This essay is part of a roundtable titled "The Scholarship, Influence, and Legacy of David F. Schmitz." The roundtable includes an introduction from Andrew L. Johns; essays by Vanessa Walker, Steven J. Brady, Kimber M. Quinney, and Kathryn C. Statler; and a response from David F. Schmitz.


In a transparent optical network it is desirable to have design control over the length of normal working paths and over the end-to-end length of paths in any restored network state. An obvious approach with p-cycles is to limit the maximum allowable circumference of candidate cycles considered in the network design. But this is somewhat inefficient and does not directly control the end-to-end length of paths in a restored state; it only controls the maximum length of protection path-segments that might be substituted into a working path on failure. Another basic strategy is now considered. It consists of systematically matching shorter working paths with longer protection path-segments through p-cycles, and vice versa, with direct consideration of the end-to-end length of paths in the restored network state during the design. This complementary matching notion is studied through an integer linear programming (ILP) model to minimize cost while intelligently associating longer working paths with shorter protection path-segments and vice versa. The basic ILP is adapted in one case to minimize the average restored state path lengths; in another to achieve the least possible longest path length; and, finally, to also constrain all restored path lengths under a fixed limit. Each variation can also be subject to a requirement of using only the theoretically minimal spare capacity or, through bi-criteria methods, a minimal amount of additional spare capacity for the corresponding objective on path lengths. Taken overall the work provides the means to design an entire transparent survivable island that respects the transparent reach limits of a given ultra-long-haul technology. A heuristic combination of ILP and genetic algorithm methods is also developed to solve some of the larger problems and is shown to perform well.