The application of pesticides to agricultural areas can result in transport to adjacent non-target environments. In particular, surface water systems are likely to receive agricultural pesticide input. When pesticides enter aquatic environments, they may pose a substantial threat to the ecological integrity of surface water systems. To minimize the risk to non-target ecosystems the European Union prescribes an ecotoxicological risk assessment within the registration procedure of pesticides, which consists of an effect and an exposure assessment.
This thesis focuses on the evaluation of the exposure assessment and the implications to the complete regulatory risk assessment, and is based on four scientific publications. The main part of the thesis focuses on evaluation of the FOCUS modelling approach, which is used in regulatory risk assessment to predict pesticide surface water concentrations. This was done by comparing measured field concentrations (MFC) of agricultural insecticides (n = 466) and fungicides (n = 417) in surface water to respective predicted environmental concentrations (PEC) calculated with FOCUS step 1 to step 4 at two different levels of field relevance. MFCs were extracted from the scientific literature and were measured in field studies conducted primarily in Europe (publications 1 and 3).
In addition, an alternative fugacity-based multimedia mass-balance model, which needs fewer input parameters and less computing effort, was used to calculate PECs for the same insecticide MFC dataset and compared to the FOCUS predictions (publication 3). Furthermore, FOCUS predictions were also conducted for veterinary pharmaceuticals in runoff from an experimental plot study, to assess the FOCUS predictions for a different class of chemicals with a different relevant entry pathway (publication 2).
In publication 4, the FOCUS step-3 approach was used to determine relevant insecticide exposure patterns. These patterns were analysed for different monitoring strategies and the implications for the environmental risk assessment (publication 4).
The outcome of this thesis showed that the FOCUS modelling approach is neither protective nor appropriate in predicting insecticide and fungicide field concentrations. Up to one third of the MFCs were underpredicted by the model calculations, which means that the actual risk might be underestimated. Furthermore, the results show that a higher degree of realism even reduces the protectiveness of model results and that the model predictions are worse for highly hydrophobic and toxic pyrethroids.
In addition, the absence of any relationship between measured and predicted concentrations questions the general model performance quality (publication 1 and 3). Further analyses revealed that deficiencies in protectiveness and predictiveness of the environmental exposure assessment might even be higher than shown in this thesis, because actual short-term peak concentrations are only detectable with an event-related sampling strategy (publication 4). However, it was shown that the PECs of a much simpler modelling approach are much more appropriate for the prediction of insecticide MFC, especially for calculations with a higher field relevance (publication 3). The FOCUS approach also failed to predict concentrations of veterinary pharmaceuticals in runoff water (publication 2). In conclusion, the findings of this thesis showed that there is an urgent need for the improvement of exposure predictions conducted in the environmental risk assessment of pesticides as a group of highly relevant environmental chemicals, to ensure that the increasing use of those chemicals does not lead to further harmful effects in aquatic ecosystems.


This paper reviews the effects of corrosion on the engine parts that come in contact with a newly developed biodiesel fuel and its blend (with petrodiesel). The metals copper, aluminum, copper alloys (bronze), and elastomers caused significant levels of corrosive in biodiesel and biodiesel blend as opposed to low corrosion with petrodiesel. Specimens of stainless steel showed significant resistance to corrosion in biodiesel samples as compared to copper, aluminum, and copper alloys, but the level of corrosion was still higher than that in petrodiesel. Common methods adopted for measurement of corrosion include weight loss through static emersion tests, and electrochemical techniques by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy or on Potentiostat/Galvanostat. The surfaces of the specific metal strips were analyzed by optical, scanning electron, and atomic force microscopy, revealing the nature and extent of corrosion. Fourier transform Infrared Spectroscopy revealed formation of secondary product due to degradation, and x-Ray Diffractometer revealed formation of a new phase in the metal strips exposed to biodiesel and its blend with mineral diesel. Biodiesel seemed to degrade due to autooxidation and presence of moisture to secondary products that enhanced the corrosion rate. The problem related to the use of non-compatible materials as engine parts for biodiesel-run vehicles is dual in nature. The engine part in contact with the fuel is corroded as a result of fuel degradation, causing the fuel to go further off-specification.


Objectives: Cerebral palsy (CP) describes a group of disorders in the development of movement and posture in the developing brain. The main aim of this study was to determine the distribution of motor impairment and associated disorders in a population of children with CP. Method: This study was carried out in 2011 during three months, on 200 CP children. Multiple sources of ascertainment were used, including medical records of patients who access at the major rehabilitation and special educational centers in Tehran and examination by rehabilitation team. Children were grouped according to motor type, topographic pattern according to the Surveillance of Cerebral Palsy in Europe (SCPE) definitions and classifications, Manual Ability Classification System (MACS) and Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) scales. In this study we evaluate impairments such as seizure disorders, hearing and visual problems, and cognitive issues. Results: During the study period, 200 CP child (103 males, 97 females) aged 4-12 years were seen, with a mean (SD) age of 7.7(2.4) years. In this study spastic CP was the most common type (80.5%) and more specifically, bilateral CP (62.5%) was more common than unilateral (18%). With respect to the MACS classification, level IV (23%), and to the GMFCS classification also level IV (30.5%) was the most common.


In this paper I provide a description of the reflexive syncretism found in some Spanish and Catalan neighbouring varieties. In these varieties, the 3rd person reflexive pronoun se can also appear with 1st person plural and 2nd person plural verbs. With dialectal data from the COSER, the ALPI and from works of other scholars I analyse the distribution of the syncretism in order to establish what person (the 1st plural or the 2nd plural) it affected first. I also analyse this syncretism in other Romance languages, in order to see if the person hierarchies previously proposed in the literature are confirmed by these varieties.


BACKGROUND: Succinylcholine remains the muscle relaxant of choice for rapid sequence induction (RSI) but has many adverse effects. High-dose rocuronium bromide may be an alternative to succinylcholine for RSI but recovery times are nearly doubled compared with a standard intubating dose of rocuronium. Magnesium sulfate significantly shortens the onset time of a standard intubating dose of rocuronium. We set out to investigate whether intravenous (IV) pretreatment with MgSO4 followed by a standard intubating dose of rocuronium achieved superior intubation conditions compared with succinylcholine. METHODS: Adults were randomized to receive a 15-minute IV infusion of MgSO4 (60 mg·kg–1) immediately before RSI with propofol 2 mg·kg–1, sufentanil 0.2 μg·kg–1 and rocuronium 0.6 mg·kg–1, or a matching 15-minute IV infusion of saline immediately before an identical RSI, but with succinylcholine 1 mg·kg–1. Primary end point was the rate of excellent intubating conditions 60 seconds after administration of the neuromuscular blocking agent and compared between groups using multivariable log-binomial regression model. Secondary end points were blood pressure and heart rate before induction, before and after intubation, and adverse events up to 24 hours postoperatively. RESULTS: Among 280 randomized patients, intubating conditions could be analyzed in 259 (133 MgSO4-rocuronium and 126 saline-succinylcholine). The rate of excellent intubating conditions was 46% with MgSO4-rocuronium and 45% with saline-succinylcholine. The analysis adjusted for gender and center showed no superiority of MgSO4-rocuronium compared with saline-succinylcholine (relative risk [RR] 1.06, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.81-1.39, P = .659). The rate of excellent intubating conditions was higher in women (54% [70 of 130]) compared with men (37% [48 of 129]; adjusted RR 1.42, 95% CI, 1.07-1.91, P = .017). No significant difference between groups was observed for systolic and diastolic blood pressures. Mean heart rate was significantly higher in the MgSO4-rocuronium group. The percentage of patients with at least 1 adverse event was lower with MgSO4-rocuronium (11%) compared with saline-succinylcholine (28%) (RR 0.38, 95% CI, 0.22-0.66, P < .001). With saline-succinylcholine, adverse events consisted mainly of postoperative muscle pain (n = 26 [19%]) and signs of histamine release (n = 13 [9%]). With MgSO4-rocuronium, few patients had pain on injection, nausea and vomiting, or skin rash during the MgSO4-infusion (n = 5 [4%]). CONCLUSIONS: IV pretreatment with MgSO4 followed by a standard intubating dose of rocuronium did not provide superior intubation conditions to succinylcholine but had fewer adverse effects.


Australia has seen large rises in living standards over the last decades across the whole of the income distribution. Technological change and international trade have contributed to this success, but have also brought structural change. Some industries have declined, while others flourished. Furthermore, new technologies and structural change create new skills and new tasks, boosting demand for some jobs, while making others disappear.
Although technology and globalisation have not decreased overall employment, certain people, groups, and communities have undergone disruptive change and experienced falling living standards. Some groups face a higher risk of poverty and laid-off workers can have difficulty finding a new job. Well-informed and well-targeted policy is therefore needed to ensure that the benefits of technology and globalisation are widely shared.
This paper focuses on policies to ensure that everyone in Australia has the opportunity to benefit from technological change and globalisation. The paper assesses policies relating to three issues: i) labour markets and active labour market policies; ii) education and skills; to ensure adequate skills for accessing good quality jobs; and iii) urban environments, ensuring that Australia's highly urbanised population can adapt to change.


In recent years, it has become progressively clear that the TRIPS regime is in trouble. Although lawmaking in the World Trade Organization (WTO) has essentially stalled, there is a continuing need to recalibrate the rules applicable to knowledge production. There has been quite some cerebration for couple of years now, concerning the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a rather plurilateral agreement with a global impingement. Its exponents describe it as a response to the "increase in global trade of counterfeit goods and pirated copyright protected works." However, much evidence exists to suggest that, if ratified, it would criminalize peer-to-peer file sharing, subject iPods to border searches and allow internet service providers to monitor their customers' communications to name a few. The goal of the ACTA negotiations, according to the states partaking in it behind closed doors, is to provide an international framework that meliorates the enforcement of intellectual property right laws. The pith of ACTA revolves around the institutional design question on how to create an intellectual property system responsive to changing circumstances by examining how the WTO can best make use of WIPO's experience and expertise in intellectual property matters.Calls for a war on counterfeiting and piracy have intensified, led by a coalition of multinational corporations in the entertainment, pharmaceutical, and luxury goods industries, that rely on expanding IP protection for their business models. With most of these companies based in the US, it was only a matter of time that US came up with such an agreement. The US government has accepted the fact that negotiating it as an executive agreement means, by definition, it can't be inconsistent with the US law. Practically, Congress may not be that eager to change the law in any trade related area, so any agreement that would require a change in the law would be much harder to get through. So there isn't much doubt that what the US is putting forward, would not require changes in the US laws. So the question now arises, if ACTA doesn't require any change in the US laws, and other countries agree about that, what's in it for them? One of the preliminary concerns raised by its opposers is that ACTA may give competitors and patent trolls tools such as huge deterrent damages, statutory damages, freeze the entry of goods, suspend the release of infringing goods for at least one year, destruction of goods, etc.Vexations have also been raised over the furtiveness being maintained regarding the text of the agreement. There is a need for the public to have access of the ACTA texts to protect its own interests. Public interest representatives need to have just as much influence over negotiators as large content owners.This paper starts off by foraging the need and motivation for such an agreement. It then proceeds to look into the various other concerns and issues that will rise out of the ratification of ACTA. The three major issues that will be thoroughly discussed are (un)constitutionality of ACTA, its impact on public interests and its impact on the current WIPO/WTO regime.


A new method was developed to experimentally determine the minimum agitation speed for complete dispersion of two immiscible liquids in stirred vessels. The method consists of taking samples from the liquid mixture at different agitation speeds and plotting the volumetric fraction of the dispersed phase vs the agitation speed. In correspondence of the visually observed minimum agitation speed, the typical plot showed a significant change in slope or a maximum point. The plots were analyzed with a mathematical method to unequivocally determine the minimum agitation speed value. A comparison between the values so obtained and those obtained with the visual observation method showed an excellent agreement. This approach is independent of sampling point position and type of agitation. No isokinetic sampling is required. The proposed method is expected to replace the visual observation approach especially in large scale, closed, industrial reactors where the visual method cannot be used


Purpose Catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF) requires heavy anticoagulation and uncomfortable post-procedural hemostasis. We compared patient satisfaction with and the safety of unilateral groin (UG) puncture-single trans-septal (ST) ablation with conventional bilateral groin (BG) puncture-double trans-septal (DT) ablation in paroxysmal AF patients. Materials and Methods We enrolled 222 patients with paroxysmal AF (59.4±10.7 years old) who were randomized in a 2:1 manner into UG-ST ablation (n=148) and BG-DT ablation (n=74) groups. If circumferential pulmonary vein isolation could not be achieved after three attempts of touch-up ablation in the UG-ST group, the patient was crossed over to BG-DT by performing a left groin puncture. Results Ten patients in the UG-ST group (6.8%) required crossover to the BG-DT approach. There were no significant differences in procedure time (p=0.144) and major complications rate (p>0.999) between the UG-ST and BG-DT groups. Access site pain (p=0.014), back pain (p=0.023), and total pain (p=0.015) scores were significantly lower for the UG-ST than BG-DT group as assessed by the Visual Analog Scale. Over 20.2±8.7 months of follow up, there was no difference in AF recurrence free-survival rates between the two groups (Log rank, p=0.984). Conclusion UG-ST AF ablation is feasible and safe, and was found to significantly reduce post-procedural hemostasis-related discomfort, compared to the conventional DT approach, in patients with paroxysmal AF.


We evaluate improvements in information capacity gained by use of time-division multiplexing (TDM) in three-dimensional integral imaging (II) systems. This analysis supports the motivation for two TDM methods in II [Opt. Lett. 27, 324 (2002); 1144 (2002)] that we previously developed.


Since 1999, we have performed 2,302 kidney transplants at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Transplant volume has increased by 45% since 2010. Our center performed 269 kidney transplants in 2013. Our growth is related to multiple factors, including an experienced, committed team and strong support from our institution and referring nephrologists. Areas of program innovation at our center include: transplanting deceased donors with acute kidney injury, outcomes in older kidney transplant recipients, alemtuzumab induction with steroid avoidance, living donor paired kidney exchange-3 site experience, and other non-traditional deceased donor kidney transplants. Of the 162 acute kidney injury (AKI) donor transplants done at our program, 71% had severe AKI. The AKI donor kidneys had more delayed graft function; but graft survival, estimated glomerular filtration rate, and biopsy findings at 1 year were not different form the control group. We have transplanted 188 patients ≥ 70 years old at the time of transplantation. Graft survival at 1, 3, and 5 years was similar to that of patients < 70. Since 2008, 778 (37%) patients received alemtuzumab induction, therapy with excellent patient and graft survival. We have used steroid avoidance immunosuppression with excellent outcomes since 2003. Since starting kidney paired donation in 2009, it has resulted in 54 kidney transplants, including 4 compatible pairs. More than half of the deceased donor transplants done at our center are from non-traditional donors such as Public Health Service increased risk, donation after cardiac death, extended criteria donors/high kidney donor profile index, and pediatric en-bloc donors. One- and 3-year graft survival of the non-traditional deceased donor kidney transplants are not different than the traditional deceased donor kidney transplants.


Using event study methodology, this paper analyzes the capital market behavior related to shares of companies that sponsored the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games. We investigate the existence of abnormal returns and changes in trading volumes on announcement dates for companies at two sponsorship levels—Official Olympic Partners and Official Olympic Supporters. We also test for differential responses between British and non-British firms. We find that London 2012 Olympic sponsorships are associated with statistically significant increased share values for Official Partners as well as for British companies. We also observe that British sponsors, as a whole, had significantly higher than average trading volume on announcement dates. Furthermore, trading volumes for British firms were significantly greater than for non-British firms. Finally, we evaluate the possibility of principal-agent conflicts. In contrast to other research, we do not find evidence that agency issues influence the decision to become an Olympic sponsor.


The p-Laplace equation is the main prototype for nonlinear elliptic problems and forms a basis for various applications, such as injection moulding of plastics, nonlinear elasticity theory and image processing. Its solutions, called p-harmonic functions, have been studied in various contexts since the 1960s, first on Euclidean spaces and later on Riemannian manifolds, graphs and Heisenberg groups. Nonlinear potential theory of p-harmonic functions on metric spaces has been developing since the 1990s and generalizes and unites these earlier theories.This monograph gives a unified treatment of the subject and covers most of the available results in the field, so far scattered over a large number of research papers. The aim is to serve both as an introduction to the area for an interested reader and as a reference text for an active researcher. The presentation is rather self-contained, but the reader is assumed to know measure theory and functional analysis.The first half of the book deals with Sobolev type spaces, so-called Newtonian spaces, based on upper gradients on general metric spaces. In the second half, these spaces are used to study p-harmonic functions on metric spaces and a nonlinear potential theory is developed under some additional, but natural, assumptions on the underlying metric space.Each chapter contains historical notes with relevant references and an extensive index is provided at the end of the book.


Usability is one of the quality characteristics having the greatest impact on final user acceptation in a web application context. However, the relationship between usability and software architecture has not been completely identified and characterised. Some work has found some relationships between usability and architecture but not between architectural patterns. This paper's main contribution lies in its identification of architecture patterns and how they have influenced usability within the context of web applications. This study is useful for architects and new product designers regarding the early identification of possible problems and/or advantages (at architectural level), using some of them in a web application. Additionally, architects could identify weak- nesses in initial designs thereby increasing final user satisfaction. The study could be useful when a web application is being eva- luated, since detecting possible usability problems or weaknesses implies that it should be improved. Consequently, some chan- ges would be made to the application, both in its interfaces and at architectural level. In this case, the problem can be related and the most suitable solution be suggested in terms of patterns. The impact of this work's architectural pattern has been vali- dated on two Colombian small- and medium-sized enterprises which have exercised some of the proposed patterns and verified their influence on usability properties.


School districts throughout the country are considering how to best integrate technology into instruction. There has been a movement in many districts toward one-to-one laptop instruction, in which all students are provided a laptop computer, but there is concern that these programs may not yield sufficiently improved learning outcomes to justify their substantial cost. And while there has been a great deal of research on the use of laptops in schools, there is little quantitative research systematically investigating the impact of laptop use on test outcomes, and none among students at the fourth-to-fifth grade levels. This study investigated whether a one-to-one laptop program could help improve English language arts (ELA) test scores of upper elementary students, a group that often faces a slowdown of literacy development during the transition from learning to read to reading to learn known as the fourth-grade slump. We explore these questions by comparing changes in the ELA test scores of a group of students who entered a one-to-one laptop program in the fourth grade to a similar group of students in a traditional program in the same school district. After two years' participation in the program, laptop students outperformed non-laptop students on changes in the ELA total score and in the three subtests that correspond most closely to frequent laptop use: writing strategies, literary response and analysis, and reading comprehension.


Amazing and beautiful optical effects are present in Nature. Some examples are the iridescent colors produced by peacocks, butterflies and beetles. While the simulations of some of these structures have already been realized, only a few elements have been fabricated. We are interested to understand and to reproduce some of these amazing optical properties. Applications such as security or decorative elements in different fields like jewelery or horology can be imagined. SEM pictures of the structure of these animals show a frequent combination of periodic or pseudo-periodic elements such as interference filters, multilayer reflectors, microlenses and gratings. The different elements combine angular and spectral effects. This combination enables strong optical effects for a large range of viewing angles and spectra. Different technologies such as standard photolithography, recording of interference patterns, transfer of photoresist structures in glass substrates, replications, hot embossing and spincoating were used to fabricate a variety of optical elements. The fabricated elements were produced with polymer materials because of their ease of use, and the possibility to build multilevel structures with replication methods. A drawback is the small refractive index difference possible between polymers and compared to air. In the first part, different combinations of polymer microand nano-optical elements such as corrugated gratings, multilayer Bragg reflectors, microlens arrays, micro-prisms arrays and diffusers were successfully fabricated. Poly(vinyl alcohol) and poly (N-vinycarbazole) with refractive indices of 1.56 and 1.72, respectively, at a wavelength of 500 nm were used to fabricate the polymer multilayer reflectors. The micro-optical elements used were: microlenses with diameter between 32 μm and 250 μm and around 20 μm height; prisms with 50 μm period and 25 μm height. The angularly dependent reflectivity of the different fabricated elements was studied. Thanks to the close combination of diffractive, refractive and reflective microand nano-optical elements, non-standard artificial visual color effects were produced. The fabricated elements were modeled with different tools according to the dimensions of the different optical elements. Ray tracing analysis was used in the case with micro-optical elements while the Fourier modal method permitted simulation of the interaction of the light with the periodic nano-structures. The specific effects of the variation of the different parameters were highlighted, the basic principles and the limitation of the polymer technology were identified. In the second part, the optical modeling tools and the fabrication technologies developed were used to model and fabricate polymer light emitting diodes in a distributed feedback regime. The optical properties of the different layers were modeled and the physical dimensions of elements with active conductive polymers me-LPPP and F8 were calculated, fabricated and tested. The sensitive dimensions and parameters were underlined. Polymer materials permitted rapid fabrication of complex and innovative optical elements with very simple technologies like spin-coating and replication methods. These technologies allow the combination of nano-optical elements with dimensions of the order of a hundred nanometers with micro-optical elements with dimension of the order of about ten to one hundred microns. 6


The landscape of health care in the United States is in the process of dramatic change. This transformation is being instituted in an attempt to address two major dilemmas of public health significance; namely, the burgeoning cost of care and the need for quality-driven care. The Affordable Care Act has mandated that a reimbursement strategy entitled Value Based Purchasing be implemented as a means of solving these two problems.

Value Based Purchasing will help healthcare institutions and providers focus on delivering quality treatment to their patients and to address their patient's individual needs and concerns. It will, by withholding payments from non-compliant participants, save the federal government billions of dollars in the next decade. Commercial insurance companies are also implementing Value Based Purchasing as a method of saving money and providing better quality care.

Focus groups have often been used to glean valuable qualitative research data from target audiences. Two focus groups were conducted at the University of Pittsburgh in which the needs and concerns of patients who had previously undergone general anesthesia were explored. In this essay, the results of participants' responses are analyzed and then applied to the reimbursement requirements of Value Based Purchasing.


Protected Areas represent the world's economic and political commitment towards the conservation of biodiversity. The Western Ghats (WG) in peninsular India, part of the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka Hotspot has the highest human population density and population pressure in the world and is in need of urgent conservation attention. Community Reserves and Conservation Reserves are protected area systems in India which integrate local communities as well as private organisations into protected area management. The potential for Community and Conservation Reserves was evaluated at 25 reserve forests and privately owned/leased forest fragments at Kodaikanal, Theni and Valparai, which are limited-access areas in the human-dominated landscape of the southern WG. Data collection at each site, on a range of issues, was based upon the characteristics of local communities which would be central to the integration of resource-use, community participation and biodiversity conservation. The sites where local communities preferred to participate in protected area management were further prioritized through ranking them for the variables and index calculated. Sixteen potential, community and conservation reserves were subsequently identified and prioritised. An analysis of the perceptions, of forest department officials and conservation researchers, towards the establishment of such reserves revealed that they were unsure whether these reserve systems would be beneficial for biodiversity conservation.


This article reviews the emerging literature on transnational parenthood, concentrating on six themes: gender, care arrangements, legislation, class, communication and moralities. Gender concerns not only the distinction between transnational motherhood and transnational fatherhood, but also the role of children's gender and the broader networks of gender relations within which transnational parenthood is practised. Care arrangements are often the most tangible challenge for transnational parents, and an area where material and emotional concerns intersect. The third theme, legislation, primarily concerns how immigration law can be decisive for separation and the prospects for reunification, as well as for the practice of parenthood from afar. Analysis of class can help us to understand differences in how transnational parenthood is practised and experienced. Communication across long distances is a defining element in the everyday practice of transnational parenthood, shaped by the intersection of technological, economic and psychological factors. The final theme, moralities, concerns the ways in which context-specific behavioural norms guide transnational parenthood. We subsequently discuss how the age of children is an important differentiating factor in the experience of transnational parenthood. In addition to these thematic discussions, we address methodological issues in the study of the phenomenon. Throughout, we emphasise both the limitations and the dynamism of transnational parenthood as it is experienced and practised in different contexts and throughout the life course.


There has long been a debate about implications of globalization for the survival of the world of sovereign nation-states, and the role of nationalism as both an agent of and a response to globalization. In contrast, until recently there has been much less debate about the fate of religion. 'Globalization' has been viewed as part of the rationalization process, which has already relegated religion to the dustbin of history, just as it threatens the nation, as the world moves toward a cosmopolitan ethics and politics. The chapters in this book, however, make the case for the salience and resilience of religion, often in conjunction with nationalism, in the contemporary world in several ways. This book highlights the diverse ways in which religions first and foremost make use of the traditional power and communication channels available to them, like strategies of conversion, the preservation of traditional value systems, and the intertwining of religious and political power. Nevertheless, challenged by a more culturally and religiously diversified societies and by the growth of new religious sects, contemporary religions are also forced to let go of these well known strategies of preservation and formulate new ways of establishing their position in local contexts. This collection of essays by established and emerging scholars brings together theory-driven and empirically-based research and case-studies about the global and bottom-up strategies of religions and religious traditions in Europe and beyond to rethink their positions in their local communities and in the world.


Fullerenes C60 and carbon nanotubes are of considerable interest to researchers from many scientific areas due to their unique electronic and mechanical properties. One application of these carbon nanostructures that has recently attracted much attention is the creation of an oscillator that operates in the gigahertz range frequency. A number of studies have found that the sliding of the inner-shell inside the outer-shell of a multi-walled carbon nanotube can generate gigahertz oscillatory frequencies. In this paper, we investigate the mechanics of a gigahertz oscillator comprising a carbon nanotube oscillating within the centre of a uniform concentric ring or bundle of carbon nanotubes. Since much higher frequencies can be generated from a C60 fullerene oscillating inside a nanotube, we also consider the case of a C60 fullerene oscillating within a bundle of carbon nanotubes. Using the Lennard-Jones potential and the continuum approach, we obtain a relation between the bundle radius and the radii of the nanotubes forming the bundle, as well as the optimum bundle size which gives rise to the maximum oscillatory frequency for both the C60 and the nanotube bundle oscillators. While previous studies in this area have been undertaken through molecular dynamics simulations, this paper emphasizes the use of applied mathematical modelling techniques which provides considerable insight into the underlying mechanisms. The paper presents a synopsis of the major results derived in detail by the present authors in [1, 2].


"Frayn has the rare ability to construct farcical comedy around philosophical principles and the laughs and the ideas effortlessly intermesh" (Michael Billington, Guardian) Michael Frayn is a playwright, novelist, journalist and writer of screenplays. His most important plays included Copenhagen, Noises Off, Benefactors and Donkeys' Years. Writers-Files is an important series documenting the work of major dramatists of the last hundred years. Each volume contains a comprehensive checklist of all the writer's plays, with a detailed performance history, excerpted reviews and a selection of the writers' own comments on their work."Methuen are to be congratulated on launching this series...extremely useful to theatre professionals as well as to students and teachers of drama" (David Bradby, Speech and Drama)


Humans and other animals have an impressive ability to quickly adapt to unfamiliar environments, with only minimal feedback. Computational models have been able to provide intriguing insight into these processes, by making connections between abstract computational theories of reinforcement learning (RL) and neurophysiological data. However, the ability of these models falls well below the level of real neural systems, thus it is clear that there are important aspects of the neural computation not being captured by our models. In this work we explore how new developments from the computational study of RL can be expanded to the realm of neural modelling. Specifically, we examine the field of hierarchical reinforcement learning (HRL), which extends RL by dividing the RL process into a hierarchy of actions, where higher level decisions guide the choices made at lower levels. The advantages of HRL have been demonstrated from a computational perspective, but HRL has never been implemented in a neural model. Thus it is unclear whether HRL is a purely abstract theory, or whether it could help explain the RL ability of real brains. Here we show that all the major components of HRL can be implemented in an integrated, biologically plausible neural model. The core of this system is a model of "flat" RL that implements the processing of a single layer. This includes computing action values given the current state, selecting an output action based on those values, computing a temporal difference error based on the result of that action, and using that error to update the action values. We then show how the design of this system allows multiple layers to be combined hierarchically, where inputs are received from higher layers and outputs delivered to lower layers. We also provide a detailed neuroanatomical mapping, showing how the components of the model fit within known neuroanatomical structures. We demonstrate the performance of the model in a range of different environments, in order to emphasize the aim of understanding the brain's general, flexible reinforcement learning ability. These results show that the model compares well to previous modelling work and demonstrates improved performance as a result of its hierarchical ability. We also show that the model's output is consistent with available data on human hierarchical RL. Thus we believe that this work, as the first biologically plausible neural model of HRL, brings us closer to understanding the full range of RL processing in real neural systems. We conclude with a discussion of the design decisions made throughout the course of this work, as well as some of the most important avenues for the model's future development. Two of the most critical of these are the incorporation of model-based reasoning and the autonomous development of hierarchical structure, both of which are important aspects of the full HRL process that are absent in the current model. We also discuss some of the predictions that arise from this model, and how they might be tested experimentally.


We describe an automated method for identifying classes of morphologically related words in an on-line dictionary, and for linking individual senses in the derived form to one or more senses in the base form by means of morphological relation attributes. We also present an algorithm for computing a score reflecting the system=92s certainty in these derivational links; this computation relies on the content of semantic relations associated with each sense, which are extracted automatically by parsing each sense definition and subjecting the parse structure to automated semantic analysis. By processing the entire set of headwords in the dictionary in this fashion we create a large set of directed derivational graphs, which can then be accessed by other components in our broad-coverage NLP system. Spurious or unlikely derivations are not discarded, but are rather added to the dictionary and assigned a negative score; this allows the system to handle non-standard uses of these forms.


Many sporting practices are being developed by large international sporting federations based generally in the West. For the continued success of their hallmark sporting events both the International Olympic Committee and FIFA have targeted Africa and Asia as important markets. However in the sport of cricket significant changes are being led by Asia. The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) based at Lord's in London, is the home of first-class cricket in all its forms. The position of the MCC and ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) in world cricket has lost some significance with the rise of the subcontinent (Winder, 2005) and the development of limited overs cricket over the past 30 years. Since 2003 the development of a particular form of limited overs cricket, called Twenty-20 has seen a proliferation of new leagues entering the cricket market. To become official a league needs to be sanctioned by the national governing authority and the International Cricket Council (ICC). This piece of work intends to form a critique of the developments in international cricket focusing particularly on limited overs cricket and discusses some of the ramifications for the games' governing authorities.


How do managers and staff react to strategic entrepreneurship? How can we minimize resulting job stress and maximize employee retention? We surveyed 1,975 managers and staff in 110 departments of a diversified healthcare organization on department–level entrepreneurial orientation (EO) (e.g., risk taking, proactiveness, and innovativeness), degree of role ambiguity in their job, and their strength of intention to quit. After validating manager and staff reports of EO, we estimated structural equation models for managers and staff. Our results demonstrate that strategic entrepreneurship can impact management and staff differently and thus requires a correspondingly customized design philosophy.


Africa suffers enormously from conflict and armed violence. As well as the human tragedy, armed conflict costs Africa around $18bn per year, seriously derailing development. The most commonly used weapons in Africa's conflicts are Kalashnikov assault rifles. The vast majority of these weapons and their ammunition – perhaps 95 per cent - come from outside Africa. To protect lives and livelihoods, the 2008 UN Group of Governmental Experts working on the Arms Trade Treaty must ensure swift progress towards a strong and effective Treaty. All governments have a role to play in ensuring its success.


Perched on the north-west tip of the Solomon Islands archipelago, Bougainville forms part of Papua New Guinea's (PNG) easternmost border region. Despite its remote location the development of a major copper deposit in Bougainville's Crown Prince Ranges made the island one of PNG's most strategically significant areas. Consequently, when customary landowners used industrial sabotage to close the mine in 1988, this regional dispute soon transformed into a major national crisis.As the crisis unfolded the national government chose to deploy the Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) in an effort to reopen the mine and suppress the landowner movement. Extra-judicial killings, forced displacement, the internment of civilians, and the denial of humanitarian aid, were just some of the egregious tactics employed by the military. No one was exempted from the violence.Facing severe financial and logistic constraints the national government turned to the mine's operator, Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL), and PNG's principal international benefactor, Australia, to prop up the PNGDF. Both organisations provided considerable assistance. As a result of these joint efforts, approximately 10,000 to 15,000 people were killed on Bougainville. In the following case study you will be exposed to the calculations, relations, and decisions that led two democratic states and a major multinational mining corporation, to organise a systematic campaign of state violence that terrorised the residents of Bougainville for almost a decade.


Benchmarking methodologies have always relied on test conditions with
constant packet sizes, with the goal of understanding what network
device capability has been tested. Tests with a constant packet size
reveal device capabilities but differ significantly from the
conditions encountered in operational deployment, so additional tests
are sometimes conducted with a mixture of packet sizes, or "IMIX"
("Internet Mix"). The mixture of sizes a networking device will
encounter is highly variable and depends on many factors. An IMIX
suited for one networking device and deployment will not be
appropriate for another. However, the mix of sizes may be known, and
the tester may be asked to augment the fixed-size tests. To address
this need and the perpetual goal of specifying repeatable test
conditions, this document defines a way to specify the exact repeating
sequence of packet sizes from the usual set of fixed sizes and from
other forms of mixed-size specification.


Measures of several intrauterine position variables as well as an index of abnormality of fetal commissure development (z score) were obtained for fetuses of two substrains of BALB mice, BALB/cWah1 and BALB/cWah2, known to differ as adults in the proportion of animals exhibiting deficient corpus callosum (about 55% & 20% respectively). The extent of midline commissure development at embryonic Day 17.5 for most strain 1 fetuses was significantly reduced compared to strain 2 fetuses of the same chronological age. The two substrains also differed with respect to mean litter size and mean body weight (strain 2 greater than strain 1 for both measures). The ovarian and cervical positions for strain 2 uteri were found to be the most favorable for body and placental growth; no such differences were evident in strain 1. In strain 2, fetuses in the left uterine horns showed lower z scores (more retardation) than littermates on the right side, but this difference was not evident in strain 1; no other right/left differences were found in strain 2 which could help to explain the right side advantage. None of the other position variables either separately or in combination was found to be important in predicting the z score index. Tests for randomness failed to provide evidence for nonrandom distribution of severely affected fetuses. We suggest that nongenetic variability resulting from stochastic events early in development and intrinsic to the fetus may be responsible for only certain BALB fetuses within a litter exhibiting the callosal anomaly.


Purpose
Governments increasingly promote employment through social networks (whether via formal job networks or informal personal networks). However, they rarely account for how weak-tie "bridging" networks and strong-tie "bonding" networks differentially affect employment outcomes. Given criticism that (usually weak-tie bridging-focussed) formal job networks are overly focussed on finding entry-level (i.e. any) jobs, it is imperative to understand the impact of strong and weak ties on securing work with good conditions, or of meaning to the worker. Such links are poorly understood in the present literature. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach
This study uses national Australian survey data to assess whether support from close "friends" or distant "acquaintances" is associated with employment outcomes such as finding any work or "meaningful" work.

Findings
The results show that relatively distant ties (close acquaintances) and emotional support from friends are each associated with reduced chances of being an unemployed/discouraged worker. Stronger ties (close friends) are associated with better chances of a having a "meaningful" job.

Practical implications
More attention should be paid to tie strength dynamics and meaningful employment outcomes in the delivery of employment services. In particular, a role for active "close-tie brokers" in promoting networks should be investigated, instead of expecting/pushing the unemployed to rely on either extremely close or distant connections.

Originality/value
This is the first study to find a link between network type and meaningful work, which has important implications for the delivery of employment services.


Lighthouse Chapel International (LCI) is a Ghanaian Pentecostal-charismatic organization with a transnational reach. In this article,
I analyze the pedagogical system whereby this denomination has
introduced converts into its 'church planting' mission. LCI leaders are
keenly aware of both the necessity and the perils of discipline to the
Christian life, exemplifying two stances of Pentecostal-charismatic ethics
and politics: its quantitative concern with accessibility, and its qualitative
concern with piety. Attempts to balance these relatively autonomous
trends engender a gradational and distributive approach to discipline
and leniency in LCI, which calibrates disciplinary demands according to
converts' level of 'spiritual maturity'. This article takes the dialectics of
discipline and lenience that characterizes LCI's ecclesiology as an opportunity
to reconsider religious subject formation beyond the dominant
problem of 'self-fashioning'.


A community randomized controlled trial
was carried
out
in
an area of moderate
malaria transmission in the Amazon region,
in South
East Venezuela,
where the
indigenous Yanomami population
live.
The
aim
of the
project
was to
assess
the
impact of lambdacyhalothrin treated
hammock
nets
(ITHNs),
compared
to
placebo treated hammock nets (PTHNs), on the
malaria
incidence
rate
and on
the
malaria vector population Anopheles darlingi.
In both arms of the study intensive early
case
detection
was
performed
and
prompt malaria treatment administered.
Baseline
data
were
collected
one
year
before the intervention and a population of
around
924
Yanomami
was
followed
for two years.
Despite the recent introduction of nets
in the
Yanomami
villages
and the
adverse
natural conditions in the area, the majority of
Yanomami
showed
high
compliance
and took good care of the nets.
Analysis performed by gas chromatography of
samples taken from the
nets
dried
in different ways, i. e. vertically or horizontally, in the
sun or
in the
shade,
showed
that there were no significant differences between
methods with the
only
exception of drying the nets horizontally and
in the
sun
performing
significantly
worse then the others. In addition
bioassays,
with
Aedes
aegypti,
showed that
hammock nets treated at village level with
lambdacyhalothrin (10
mg/m2) and dried vertically in the sun were effectively
killing
mosquitoes
(87%)
after six
months of regular use and the mortality rate
was
83%
after washing the
nets
twice.
The malaria incidence rate per thousand person years at risk
was
114.6 in the
IHTNs group and 186.8 in the PTHNs group.
The
adjusted rate ratios
indicated
that ITHNs prevent 55% (IRR: 0.44, 95% CI: 52-59%)
of
new
malaria
cases.
ITHNs reduced the prevalence of parasitaemia
by 87% (RR: 0.17, 95% CI: 0-45%) in the first cross-sectional survey carried out
during the
high transmission
season, six months after the intervention. The
prevalence
of splenomegaly
and of
anaemia was low in both groups, and there
was no evidence
of reduction
due to
ITHNs.
There was little evidence of a mass
killing
effect
on the
density
of the
vector
population, although significant differences between
study arms
were
found
when
the analysis was carried out adjusting
for baseline
An.
darlingi
density.
The
density of An. darlingi was 62% less in
villages
with
ITHNs than those
with
PTHNs (density ratio: 0.38, 95% CI 52-70%).
The main conclusion of the present study
is that ITHNs
can reduce malaria
incidence in the area and it is the most
feasible
method
of malaria control
in
a
forested area where indigenous villages are
scattered over
a
large territory.


The apparent ability of stress to exacerbate childhood asthma provides a conundrum. Stress promotes the secretion of cortisol (which diminishes airway inflammation) and epinephrine (which acts as a bronchodilator). Thus, one might predict that stress should alleviate asthmatic symptoms. Miller and Chen investigated the relationship between life stress and expression of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and the β2-adrenergic receptor (β2AR). They administered an interview designed to assess stress to 38 healthy children and 39 children who had been diagnosed with asthma, collected a sample of blood from each child, and used reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction to quantify the expression of the GR and the β2AR in leukocytes. Although the abundance of β2AR and GR mRNA was greater in children with asthma, chronic stress was associated with a decrease in the abundance of β2AR mRNA in asthmatic children and an increase in β2AR abundance in healthy children. No effect of chronic stress alone on GR was apparent, and isolated major life events (acute stressors) within the past 3 or 6 months failed to affect the expression of either the β2AR or the GR. However, major life events that occurred in the context of chronic stress exacerbated the effects of chronic stress on the β2AR and uncovered a decrease in GR expression in asthmatic children and a more modest increase in GR expression in healthy children. Thus, the effects of stress on β2AR and GR expression in asthmatic children were in a direction consistent with decreased sensitivity to glucocorticoids and β2-adrenergic agonists. G. E. Miller, E. Chen, Life stress and diminished expression of genes encoding glucocorticoid receptor and β2-adrenergic receptor in children with asthma. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 103, 5496-5501 (2006). [Abstract] [Full Text]


By 2003, both the New York State Board of Regents Policy Statement and the new Commissioner's Regulation 100.4, required all middle level programs to implement a set of policies and practices called the NYS Essential Elements of Standards-Focused Middle-Level Schools and Programs. Early adolescence (ages 10-14) is a time when students experience, the most tumultuous physical and mental changes occur during adolescence, with the exception of a child's first year of life (Montessori, 2004). Middle grade level philosophy and a description of what middle schools should be like are directly linked to taking a balanced approach to meeting the social, emotional, intellectual and academic needs of students in the middle grades. Many of these beliefs became the foundation of middle grade level education and they serve as the principles of the NYS Essential Elements. The New York State Education Department (NYSED) never enforced its own middle grade regulations and has provided little support to help school leaders understand and implement the Essential Elements. Some observers insist that the practices required by the Essential Elements can play a critical role in supporting students' learning, while others treat practices that do not directly address their academic learning as "extras" that only the wealthiest school districts can afford. Recently, public schools in New York State have faced financial difficulties trying to manage many changes to their instructional and evaluative practices. School leaders often struggle to know what decisions to make that will improve the culture within the school and earn higher student achievement ratings on state tests. How would applying the NYS Essential Elements impact the culture in the building and the test scores of its students? This study compares the ways in which four schools implement the NYS Essential Elements and explores whether and how their implementation of the Elements may have affected three years of student achievement scores on the NYS math and ELA, 8 th grade test. Both surveys and follow up interviews were used to collect data to measure the degree each school implemented the NYS Essential Elements. A basic statistical analysis was used to explain the survey data. Interview data was coded to facilitate analysis. The study investigates how and why schools apply the NYS Essential Elements and the impact they may have on the academic and social fabric within each school. Results of the study indicated that all four schools implemented the NYS Essential Elements to a moderate or above moderate degree. The school that implemented the NYS Essential Element to the greatest degree also had the highest test scores in math and second highest in ELA in spite of having a high percentage of students living in poverty. Another school that had the highest percentage of students living in poverty implemented the Essential Elements to the second highest degree and performed as well on state tests as the school with lower rates of poverty and implementation. The two high need schools in the study performed as well or better than the average need schools. The study provides reasons to believe that applying the NYS Essential Elements can help students overcome the hurdles of poverty and achieve at a higher rate. This study contributes to the body of literature about middle level philosophy and practices. Four school case studies provide an in depth look at how and why the NYS Essential Elements of Standards Focused Middle Level Schools and Programs benefit middle school students. The study also reveals the importance of taking a balanced approach to middle grade education, making time to meet the specific needs of students and having school leaders consider the NYS Essential Elements to guide them through difficult decisions. WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE DEGREE MIDDLE SCHOOLS IMPLEMENT THE NYS ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS, STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND THE PROGRAMS AND PRACTICES APPLIED IN EACH SCHOOL?


Biochemical and fatty acid composition of the bivalve Arca noae were investigated in the Mali Ston Bay in relation to environmental conditions. Sampling was carried out monthly, from December 2001 to November 2002. Wet shellfish meat consists on average of 77.61% water and 22.39% dry matter, while dry shellfish meat consists on average of 89.04% organic and 10.96% inorganic matter. PCA analysis identified temperature, nitrate, silicate, MICRO, Chl a and salinity as the most important environmental factors influencing biochemical composition of A. noae . An increase of dry weight content of A. noae was observed during the spring when both the sea temperature and food supply increased rapidly. Contents of protein (54.39-62.06% of dry weight), carbohydrate (4.13-8.07% of dry weight) and lipid (3.46-8.58% of dry weight) varied significantly during the year. Protein and lipid level reached the maximum value in June. The fatty acid profiles of total lipids extracted from A. noae showed high level of unsaturation (UNS/SAT 1.9-3.4). Total polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) represented the majority of total fatty acids (40.3-59.9% of total fatty acids) and the most abundant were eicosapentaenoic (20:5n-3) and docosahexaenoic (22:6n-3) acid. n-3/n-6 PUFA ratio value varied between 2.1 and 5.0 and was the highest during the spring (April to June). Due to their low lipid and high percentages of healthy polyunsaturated fatty acids A. noae can be evaluated as a quality seafood product. The most suitable period of the year for its consumption is in the spring when it reaches its highest nutritional values.


Orthopositronium (o-Ps) formation and decay can replace the annihilation process, when a positron interacts in liquid scintillator media. The delay induced by the positronium decay represents either a potential signature for antineutrino detection, via inverse $\ensuremath{\beta}$ decay, or to identify and suppress positron background, as recently demonstrated by the Borexino experiment. The formation probability and decay time of o-Ps depend strongly on the surrounding material. In this paper, we characterize the o-Ps properties in liquid scintillators as function of concentrations of gadolinium, lithium, neodymium, and tellurium dopers used by present and future neutrino experiments. In particular, gadolinium and lithium are high neutron cross section isotopes, widely used in reactor antineutrino experiments, while neodymium and tellurium are double $\ensuremath{\beta}$ decay emitters, employed to investigates the Majorana neutrino nature. Future neutrino experiments may profit from the performed measurements to tune the preparation of the scintillator in order to maximize the o-Ps signature, and therefore the discrimination power.


— Human activities on land use make the land-cover gradually change or transit. In this study, we examined the use of Landsat TM data to detect the land use change of Kigali between 1987 and 2009 using remote sensing techniques and analysis of data using ENVI and ArcGIS, a GIS software. Six different categories of land use were distinguished: bare soil, built up land, wetland, water, vegetation, and others. With remote sensing techniques, we analyzed land use data in 1987, 1999 and 2009, changed areas were found and a dynamic situation of land use in Kigali city was found during the 22 years studied. According to relevant Landsat data, the research focused on land use change in accordance with the role of remote sensing in the process of urbanization. The result of the work has shown the rapid increase of built up land between 1987 and 1999 and a big decrease of vegetation caused by the rebuild of the city after the 1994 genocide, while in the period of 1999 to 2009 there was a reduction in built up land and vegetation, after the authority of Kigali city established, a Master Plan where all constructions which were not in the range of the master Plan were destroyed. Rwanda's capital, Kigali City, through the expansion of the urban area, it is increasing the internal employment rate and attracts business investors and the service sector to improve their economy, which will increase the population growth and provide a better life. The overall planning of the city of Kigali considers the environment, land use, infrastructure, cultural and socio-economic factors, the economic development and population forecast, urban development, and constraints specification. To achieve the above purpose, the Government has set for the overall planning of city Kigali, different stages of the detailed description of the design, strategy and action plan that would guide Kigali planners and members of the public in the future to have more detailed regional plans and practical measures. Thus, land use change is significantly the performance of Kigali active human area, which plays an important role for the country to take certain decisions. Another area to take into account is the natural situation of Kigali city. Agriculture in the region does not occupy a dominant position, and with the population growth and socio-economic development, the construction area will gradually rise and speed up the process of urbanization. Thus, as a developing country, Rwanda's population continues to grow and there is low rate of utilization of land, where urbanization remains low. As mentioned earlier, the 1994 genocide massacres, population growth and urbanization processes, have been the factors driving the dramatic changes in land use. The focus on further research would be on analysis of Rwanda's natural and could be, the driving of land use


Sheth misreads key aspects of my earlier comment. For the record: I consider 'uplift' an issue central to the plume debate. I reiterate; uplift 'remains a polemic issue', (i.e. worthy of discussion). Word limits preclude the desired detailed dialogue, but some important issues are raised below.

I entirely agree that concerted field work is necessary, but both this paper and Sheth (2005) offer little new field data, and instead rely largely upon an interpretation of previous authors' information. Such retrospectives do not permit the reader to evaluate the relative merits of plume versus non-plume models, and so cannot materially progress debate.

The argument regarding southward (not eastward, as suggested by Sheth) younging of the main Deccan edifice remains robust. Three independent lines of geological evidence support this interpretation: Two independent lines are usually deemed sufficient to indicate a scientific 'truth'.

Sheth concludes, logically, that Western Ghats is the product of post-Deccan denudational processes. This particular interpretation has long been available (e.g. Widdowson and Cox, 1996; Widdowson, 1997; Gunnell and Fleitout, 1998; Widdowson and Mitchell, 1999). Given this issue is not in dispute, why raise it here?

Sheth asserts that Cox's (1989) plume-head drainage idea is problematic. Perhaps, but the fact that radial drainage patterns do occur in key CFBPs remains a valid, if inexplicable (?) observation. Cox's idea was superseded by arguments provided in Widdowson and Cox (1996), Widdowson (1997; see fig. 14), and AFTA data (Gunnell et al., 2003), and so becomes irrelevant for contending pre-eruptive uplift.

Sheth argues, correctly, that the nature of the pre-Deccan palaeosurface holds important clues regarding pre-eruptive uplift in the DVP (Jerram and Widdowson, 2005). Much of this surface remains buried by the Deccan lavas, and is both inaccessible and unknowable. It only becomes exposed around the northern and eastern periphery of the main lava pile. Such peripheral localities, including many of those described by Sheth, were hundreds of kilometres from the Deccan eruptive loci. If any uplift did occur here, it would have been minimal at such large distances from the focus of putative plume head uplift, and thus consistent with that affecting the Dongargaon basin, for example (Tandon, 2002; Samant and Mohabey 2005).

The pre-eruptive palaeosurface has been significantly modified by the crustal loading of the Deccan edifice, and in its western extensions suppressed far below datum. Thus, the gross form and elevation of this basement – basalt contact is largely an artefact of post-eruptive flexural adjustment. Nevertheless, Sheth argues that this highly modified surface reveals a 'peneplain', and that its preservation as such precludes significant fluvial incision. Possibly: But peneplains are the consequence of erosion, and the classical, albeit obsolete, Davisian model requires regional uplift as a trigger for peneplanation to proceed. Etchplanation is more appropriate to the development of the pre-Deccan surface (e.g. Budel, 1982). Here, thick alteration mantles accumulate through tropical weathering of surfaces exposed during prolonged periods of tectonic stability. If, as Sheth requires, such conditions had characterised the pre-Deccan land surface, then the widespread absence of deep weathering mantle preserved beneath the lava units may instead indicate that this landscape had been thoroughly stripped prior to DVP eruptions. Etchplain stripping may be achieved through widespread fluvial erosion induced by regional uplift (Borger and Widdowson, 2001).

Offshore sedimentary records in the Krishna, Godavari, and Narmada-Tapti basins, all reveal significant increases in Late Cretaceous depositional flux (Halkett et al. 2001): these data are consistent with pre-eruptive regional erosion of peninsular India – starting with the stripping of an easily erodable weathering mantle perhaps?

If pre-eruptive (plume-driven?) uplift had occurred in pre-Deccan peninsular India, what might then be recorded in the erosional and sedimentary chronologies of the DVP peripheral regions? Removal of any easily erodable weathering mantle, perhaps; minimal changes in elevation, possibly; development of shallow basins receiving fine clastic input from the plume-uplift effects hundreds of kilometres away - may be. This interpretation of the available infra- and intra-trappean sedimentary (i.e. Lameta Beds) data is equally plausible using the same compendium of field evidence provided by Sheth. Accordingly, I offer a modified, precis version of Sheth's own summary:

'Any original flatness and elevation of the pre-Deccan landscape has been significantly modified by syn- and post-eruptive isostatic adjustment deriving, initially, from the loading of the DVP edifice, and subsequently by denudational unloading. The occurrence of a stripped, pre-eruptive etchplain, together with associated offshore sedimentological data, are consistent with those phenomena predicted had a large plume head upwelled beneath India during the Late Cretaceous.

Post-Deccan uplift has elevated both the pre-Deccan, and post-Deccan surfaces. This uplift of the Western Ghats is not related to a putative Deccan plume: it is not domal, occurs beyond the limits off the Deccan lava cover, and represents a later, denudationally-driven, uplift (Widdowson, 1997). Thus, the easterly drainage of the Indian peninsula is not plume-related dome flank drainage, and is largely antecedent to denudational uplift effects'.

To summarise, of those observations described by Sheth, most, if not all, can equally and adequately be explained by the passage of India over a static, spatially restricted, mantle melting anomaly during the Late Cretaceous: For want of a better term, and until consensus offers me a better alternative, I will continue to call this anomaly, sensu lato, a 'mantle plume'. I end by reiterating the rationale to my initial comment: The challenge to Sheth remains to deliver us an alternative, 'non plume', model that can better explain the Deccan CFBP.


Betty J. Eadie's unforgettable bestseller "Embraced by the Light" described the inspiring story of her near-death experience and its life-changing effects, and influenced the lives of millions of readers worldwide. Now she shares her journey of spiritual awakening... revealing how she has learned to live with the lessons from her experience, unveiling more mysteries of the spirit realm, and offering insights into how we all can live in a world where death need not be feared and we can embrace the simple, profound message of love that unites us all. "The Awakening Heart" expands on the invaluable knowledge and insights she has received, giving us more revelations made known to her during her near-death experience and in subsequent visions and visitations, and showing us how the healing power of positive sacred energy can affect and uplift every aspect of our daily lives. Drawing on Betty's own sometimes difficult spiritual awakening following her return to this life, as well as the ennobling experiences share by some of the people she has met on her journeys, "The Awakening Heart" radiates the strength of unconditional love, helping each one of us to seek and find the light of God within us. Betty's message of love is elemental: when we truly serve others, we grow spiritually. "The Awakening Heart" is an exciting inner adventure and a moving personal quest that will help us open our hearts, light our own spiritual paths, and infinitely strengthen our ability to love and be loved.


In this paper we study generalized symmetric Berwald spaces. We show that if a Berwald space (M,F) admits a parallel s−structure then it is locally symmetric. For a complete Berwald space which admits a parallel s-structure we show that if the flag curvature of (M,F) is ev- erywhere nonzero, then F is Riemannian.


This Essay studies the effect of Eldred v. Ashcroft on the treatment of aggressive copyright claims. Aggressive copyright claims test the boundaries of copyright by urging courts to adopt unconventional or novel readings of doctrine that would extend copyright well beyond its core of preventing individuals from reproducing the copyrighted works of others. Accordingly, aggressive copyright claims are often made against defendants who have done more than simply "parrot" a copyrighted work. These defendants have generally added meaningful work of their own, whether in the form of comment and criticism, significant reworking of the plaintiff's material, or new material unrelated to the copyrighted work. At their most extreme, aggressive copyright claims assert that almost any borrowing from a copyrighted work constitutes actionable infringement.Aggressive copyright claims are interesting because they illustrate the tension between copyright and the First Amendment. A defendant who combines original speech with material borrowed from a copyrighted source may commit infringement, but this does not mean that no free speech problems exist. Copyright judgments generally include injunctions that effectively prevent the defendant from publishing or disseminating any original speech contained in the infringing work. Aggressive copyright claims often raise significant First Amendment problems because they tend to be brought against defendants whose alleged infringements contain a significant amount of new speech. Unfortunately, courts have been overly receptive to aggressive copyright claims, at least in part because conventional wisdom states that courts can safely ignore First Amendment concerns in copyright because copyright doctrine somehow "naturally" takes account of First Amendment values. The Essay criticizes this conventional wisdom because it supports the success of aggressive copyright claims that do little to advance copyright's fundamental purposes. It goes on to argue that conventional wisdom must be changed, and that the Supreme Court has begun this process by recognizing the First Amendment's importance to copyright in the Eldred opinion. The Essay concludes by showing how proper recognition of the First Amendment in copyright affects the treatment of aggressive copyright claims.


Firefighters are called on to rescue people and protect property under serious and hazardous conditions. Some 100 firefighters die each year on duty, and another 95,000 are injured. Recommendations developed through the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP) point to many safety practices that could improve the health and safety of the nation's firefighters. The purpose of this report is to summarize the findings of a recent evaluation of the FFFIPP. Based on a national survey of fire departments and focus groups with frontline firefighters, the evaluation focused on firefighters' awareness of FFFIPP recommendations, the extent to which recommendations are being implemented, the factors affecting implementation, and NIOSH's dissemination practices. We learned that most fire departments are aware of the FFFIPP and follow its recommendations; nevertheless, various shortfalls, especially regarding cardiovascular health, motor vehicle safety, and procedures on the fireground, persist. The greatest shortfalls exist in small and volunteer fire departments where resources limit the ability to purchase needed equipment and prepare firefighters to carry out their duties safely. We identified numerous specific improvements that NIOSH could make to promote health and safety.


In this paper we present the first results of a study that aims to better understand and model the size and development of population in the Dutch Roman limes zone, as part of a larger research project investigating the development of the cultural landscape in the area. Earlier estimates of population size have only used general assumptions based on settlement density and supposed Roman army recruitment requirements and have not considered in any detail the factors influencing population growth and decline. This paper first presents the existing evidence for estimating population size in the area and then discusses the evidence for mortality and fertility estimates in the Roman period, necessary to better understand the large-scale demographic processes involved. From this evidence, new estimates for population size in the Early and Middle Roman period are calculated, using agent-based modelling to better understand the dynamics of population growth and the effects of recruitment of soldiers by the Roman army. It is concluded that earlier calculations underestimated the potential for population growth as well as the effect of forced recruitment on demography.


Facilitating knowledge sharing among employees across different units in an organization is crucial in terms of facilitating collaboration for developing competitive advantages. While a significant numbers of previous studies have examined the facilitating and inhibiting factors of knowledge sharing among employees in organizations, very few of them have empirically examined the individual effects of different types of interpersonal conflicts on interpersonal trust and, consequently, on their knowledge sharing intentions. Data collected from 224 employees of organizations in the manufacturing industry in Taiwan was analyzed to examine the proposed theoretical model using the technique of component-based structural equation modeling. The results indicate that both relationship and task conflicts have significant indirect effects on employees' knowledge sharing intentions via interpersonal trust. The theoretical and practical implications of this work are discussed.


Ability to do different daily activities defines partly one's independency. We study older adults' daytime sleep behaviour (napping) with respect to user's physical activity behaviour and physical functioning. The daytime sleep behaviour was measured via self-reported vigilance, actigraphy and bed sensor. Nineteen users took part in the study for three months. Especially actigraphy napping feature was found to have statistically significant correlation to number of steps, daily activity and selfreported exercise. According to the data, daily napping habits can also tell about the user's physical ability level.


In older persons, sleep complaints in the form of insomnia and daytime drowsiness are highly prevalent and are associated with adverse outcomes. The underlying mechanisms are linked to age‐related declines in physiology (normal aging) and age‐related increases in disease prevalence (usual aging). This article describes how normal aging leads to less‐restorative sleep, characterized by reductions in homeostatic and circadian sleep, and to phase advancement of the sleep–wake cycle, characterized by older persons being more alert in the early morning but drowsier in the early evening. It also describes how usual aging leads to sleep complaints through reductions in health status, loss of physical function, and primary sleep disorders. Psychosocial influences are likewise described, and their relevance to sleep complaints is discussed. These aging‐related changes are subsequently incorporated into a conceptual model that describes sleep complaints as a consequence of multiple and interdependent predisposing, precipitating, and perpetuating factors, akin to a geriatric syndrome. The discussion concludes by applying the conceptual model to the sleep‐related care of an older person with insomnia and daytime drowsiness and suggesting that the diagnostic assessment consider, in addition to primary sleep disorders, multiple domains, including medical, physical, cognitive, psychological, and social matters, with the intent of developing an overall therapeutic plan and establishing long‐term follow‐up.


Today's teenagers spend their free time very differently than they did 15 years ago: engagement with IT and communications technologies is now their most significant leisure activity. Representative statistics based on data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) longitudinal study indicate that Internet and computer-based recreation plays a major role for more than 95 percent of all 17-year-olds in Germany, regardless of gender. Even though access to the Internet and computer-based technologies is now widespread across all social classes, usage patterns differ according to certain socio-demographic characteristics. While lower household income is associated with higher Internet activity, it is not a factor in social networking or gaming. The latter remains a male domain, but boys' and girls' Internet usage and social network engagement do not differ: here the type of high school plays a determining role. Students in academically oriented German high schools (Gymnasien) are more likely to be active on social media on a daily basis than are students in secondary schools (Realschulen and Hauptschulen), which are less academically oriented. Education policymakers have started acknowledging the pivotal role that technology plays in young people's lives and have announced a campaign targeted to adolescents of all social segments and at all types of high schools. It aims to strengthen students' command of technology while discussing the risks of digital communication, and investigate how education can leverage more of the new opportunities in digital media.


The Article exposes how the legal categorization of au pairs as "cultural exchange participants" is strategically used to sustain – and disguise – a government-created domestic worker program to provide flexible, in-home childcare for upper-middle-class families at below-market prices. The "cultural exchange" subterfuge has created an underclass of migrant domestic workers conceptually and structurally removed from the application of labor standards and the scrutiny of labor institutions. On the one hand, the "cultural exchange" rubric enables the U.S. government to house the program under the Department of State rather than Labor, and to delegate oversight of this government program to private recruitment agencies that have strong financial incentives to overlook and even hide worker exploitation. On the other hand, the "cultural exchange" rhetoric used in the au pair program regulations and practice reifies harmful class, gender, racial biases and tropes that feed society's stubborn resistance to valuing domestic work as work worthy of labor protection. Together these dynamics render au pairs vulnerable to abuse, and threaten to undermine the tremendous gains otherwise being made on behalf of domestic workers' rights. The Article concludes with a proposal to reform the au pair program with an eye to promoting decent working conditions for all domestic workers.


In this study a variety of supramolecular tunneling junctions were created. The basis of these junctions was a self-assembled monolayer of heptathioether functionalized s-cyclodextrin (sCD) formed on an ultra-flat Au surface, i.e., the bottom electrode. This gave a well-defined hexagonally packed sCD monolayer, which was coined as a 'supramolecular platform'.

Adsorbed on the supramolecular platform were dendritic molecules that varied in core structure and/or terminal functionality. To complete the junction, a top-electrode of eutectic gallium indium was contacted the dendrimers. By changing the chemical structure of the dendrimer in the junction, it was possible to study the mechanism of charge transport as a function of molecular structure.

Statistical relevant numbers of current vs. voltage I(V) measurements performed across the different supramolecular tunneling junctions allowed for the use of the rectification ratio (R), where R=│J(-2.0 V)│/│J(+2.0 V)│, to compare the charge transport characteristics of the junctions with different dendritic molecules. This allowed for the formulation and verification of the mechanism of charge transport across the tunneling junctions, and the influence that the electrode can have on the charge transport characteristics of the junction.

Finally, by using the tip of a Scanning Tunneling Microscope, instead of a top electrode of (Ga2O3)EGaIn, it was possible to investigate the charge transport characteristics at the single molecule level, which are averaged out in large-rea junctions.


Whether observed differences in redistributive policies across countries are the result of differences in social preferences or efficiency constraints is an important question that paves the debate about the optimality of welfare regimes. To shed new light on this question, we estimate labor supply elasticities on microdata and adopt an inverted optimal tax approach to characterize the redistributive preferences embodied in the welfare systems of 17 EU countries and the US. Implicit social welfare functions are broadly compatible with the fiction of an optimizing Paretian social planner. Some exceptions due to generous demogrant transfers are consistent with the ignorance of behavioral responses by some European governments and are partly corrected by recent policy developments. Heterogeneity in leisure-consumption preferences somewhat affect the international comparison in degrees of revealed inequality aversion, but differences in social preferences are significant only between broad groups of countries.


Merker's definition of consciousness excludes self-reflective thought, making his proposal for decorticate consciousness not particularly ground-breaking. He suggests that brainstem sites are neglected in current theories of consciousness. This is so because broader definitions of consciousness are used. Split-brain data show that the cortex is important for full-blown consciousness; also, behaviors exhibited by hydranencephaly patients and decorticated rats do not seem to require reflective consciousness.


Phenanthrenes (Phs) substituted with alkyl groups are a class of compound present in the environment, and they appear to be toxic to developing fish. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of waterborne exposure to two monomethyl derivatives of phenanthrene, 1‐methylphenanthrene (1M‐Ph) and 4‐methylphenanthrene (4M‐Ph), on cytochrome P450 1A (CYP1A) gene expression in fish gills and liver. Juvenile common roaches (Rutilus rutilus) were exposed to water with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solutions of 1M‐Ph, 4M‐Ph, benzo[a]pyrene (BaP; positive control), each at a dose of 100 µg/L, or to water with DMSO alone (negative control group) for 2 d and 7 d. Significant CYP1A responses with regard to treatment and exposure duration were noted (2‐way analysis of variance [ANOVA]) in gills (p = 0.013 and p = 0.003, respectively) and liver (p < 0.001). The 2 monomethyl Phs did not induce consistent gene expression changes, except for 4‐MPh, which elevated the CYP1A messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) level in the liver at the end of the treatment (almost 4‐fold; p < 0.05; 7 d). As was expected, exposure to BaP resulted in elevation of CYP1A mRNA expression in treated fish compared with the control group. Expressions after 2 d and 7 d were approximately 220‐ and 180‐fold higher in liver and 8‐ and 6‐fold higher in gills respectively. The CYP1A protein levels remained stable in both tissues, with one notable exception in roach liver treated for 2 d with BaP (∼ 6‐fold increase; p < 0.05). The different effects of the 1‐ and 4‐methylphenanthrenes on CYP1A gene expression in roach liver suggest a relationship between chemical or 3‐D structure of the differentially substituted monomethyl Phs and their biological activity. Environ Toxicol Chem 2013;32:1604–1610. © 2013 SETAC


We study the inclusion problem for pattern languages, which is shown to be undecidable by Jiang et al. (J. Comput. System Sci. 50, 1995). More precisely, Jiang et al. demonstrate that there is no effective procedure deciding the inclusion for the class of all pattern languages over all alphabets. Most applications of pattern languages, however, consider classes over fixed alphabets, and therefore it is practically more relevant to ask for the existence of alphabet-specific decision procedures. Our first main result states that, for all but very particular cases, this version of the inclusion problem is also undecidable. The second main part of our paper disproves the prevalent conjecture on the inclusion of so-called similar E-pattern languages, and it explains the devastating consequences of this result for the intensive previous research on the most prominent open decision problem for pattern languages, namely the equivalence problem for general E-pattern languages.


High-head storage hydropower plants operate their turbines during periods of high energy demand. The starting and stopping of turbines results in rapid fluctuations of discharge and water levels in rivers called hydropeaking, which are unfavorable from an ecological point of view. Morphological measures might help to reduce the fluctuations by increasing the natural retention capacity of rivers. With this practical background, the experimental investigations presented in this paper focused on the determination of the flow resistance under steady flow conditions caused by large scale roughness elements at the channel banks, namely rectangular cavities (depressions). The experiments conducted in 41 different geometrical configurations showed various two dimensional flow characteristics in the cavities. The overall head-loss of the flow is governed by the existence of different phenomena such as vertical mixing layers, wake-zones, recirculation gyres, coherent structures and skin friction. The analysis of the experiments for steady flow conditions showed that the flow resistance is significantly increased in the macrorough configurations due to the disturbance of the bank geometry. Three different approaches have been considered relating the additional flow resistance due to macro-roughness to the forms of the banks. By separating the observed flow conditions into a square grooved, a reattachment and a normal recirculating flow type, the developed macro-rough flow resistance formulas are in good agreement with the laboratory experiments. Furthermore, water body oscillations have been observed in axi-symmetric macro-rough configurations. They lead to water-surface oscillations and transverse velocity components


This paper examines international trends in plant variety protection, a form of intellectual property rights for plant varieties akin to patents. The TRIPs Agreement under the WTO has given a strong impetus for the universalisation of plant variety protection regimes with common standards of protection across countries. This paper argues that developed and developing countries are likely to adopt widely divergent approaches to the development of intellectual property rights for plant varieties. The special features of plant variety protection constrain the appropriability of economic returns from protected plant varieties. Consequently, in developed countries PVP is being seen as a relatively weak intellectual property right instrument. As stronger forms of protection for plant varieties become available, the importance of plant variety protection in developed countries may decline. Developing countries continue to debate the merits of extending intellectual property rights to agriculture, though they too are obliged under the TRIPs Agreement to protect plant varieties. Their concerns are focused on the "inequities" inherent in a system of plant breeders' rights. Attempts by developing countries to incorporate farmers' rights provisions in their PVP systems are likely to dilute the incentives for private investment in plant breeding.


The thesis describes the interaction of auxins with membrane fractions prepared from etiolated epicotyl tissue of 'Pisum Sativum' seedling. The interaction of auxins with phospholipids was also examined.
Two classes of high affinity binding tissue sites were found in the growing region of the epicotyl tissue. Kinetic analysis of the data resulted in dissociation constant values of: K[sub]1=2.2x 10[sup]-7 M, n[sub]1=1.8x10[sup]-10 moles/g fresh wt; K[sub]2=11x10[sup]-7M, n[sub]2=3x10[sup]-10 moles/g fresh wt. These sites were not found in the non-growing region of the pea epicotyl suggesting that they may be involved in the growth process.
From the competition studies reported here, it would appear that site 2 showed greater auxin specificity than site 1 and this could be considered a candidate as an auxin receptor.
Sucrose gradient fractionation techniques were employed to further separate the two binding sites and it was shown that site 2 binding was associated with fractions rich in plasma membrane while site 1 was associated with the endoplasmic reticulum.
Separation of the solubilized sites by gel permeation methods indicated an apparent molecular weight of 42,000 daltons.
IAA was shown to complex with the polar head group region of phospholipids, in CDCl[sub]3, although the strength of the complex was rather low (Kd=1.9x10[sup]-2 Molal).
The strength of binding was influenced by the polar head groups of the phospholipids, but did not appear to be affected by the fatty acyl chain length.
The physiological significances of such interactions are discussed.


Nano or micro particle integrated polymeric fibers are commonly produced via so-called wet spinning process. During the process, particle containing polymer solution is exposed to high shear stresses while passing through the spinneret holes, and high shear stresses give rise to increased viscosity (shear thickening). In the present work, it was aimed to investigate parameters that affect the flow behavior of shear thickening fluids. The fluid considered in the simulations was prepared by dispersing silica nanoparticles in poly(ethyleneglycol), and the resulting fluid was a complex fluid which shows shear thinning until a certain shear rate, and above that shear rate it shows shear thickening. The effects of various parameters on the flow properties of the fluid have been investigated over a wide range of conditions. The variables studied are: geometry (reservoir depth, channel length, contraction width, edge roundness), velocity (0.02-0.12 m/s). A two-dimensional simulation model based on an Eulerian-Eulerian multiphase approach is considered to simulate particle containing polymeric fluid. The governing equations and constitutive relations for both phases are solved using the finite volume method, by employing the FLUENT software of ANSYS Workbench. Since it would be computationally too expensive to model the entire spinneret, only one single hole was considered as the computational domain. It was found that reservoir depth and channel length have slight effect on the viscosity but at the same time contraction width and roundness of the edge of the contraction has a significant effect on the viscosity profile. Besides, by increasing velocity fluid viscosity increased as well.


Education is fundamental to every aspect of development and there is widespread support across the world for policies that affirm that all children, regardless of their circumstances, have a right to quality schooling. Yet despite concerted efforts from national governments, multilateral organisations and NGOs over many decades we are still far from achieving education for all. In addition, while education can enhance human development, it is also associated with persistent inequalities. Education and International Development provides a comprehensive introduction to the field, giving an overview of the history, influential theories, important concepts and areas of achievement, and presenting a critical reflection on emerging trends in policy, practice and research. With chapters that review key challenges and inspiring initiatives in countries around the globe - focusing on critical issues such as language, conflict and teachers - this book serves both as a companion to graduate studies in international education and a concise reference book for practitioners and educators in the field. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/education-and-international-development-9781472510686/#sthash.wbGqVlXR.dpuf


This paper studies asset markets in which ambiguity averse investors face Knightian uncertainty about expected payos. The same investors, however, might wish to resolve their uncertainty, although not risk, by just purchasing information. In these markets, uninformed and, hence, ambiguity averse, agents may coexist with informed agents, as a result of a rational information acquisition process. Moreover, there are complementaries in information acquisition, multiplicity of equilibria, history-dependent prices, and large price swings occurring after small changes in the uncertainty surrounding the asset expected payos. Our model suggests the importance of uncertainty, as a new channel for episodes of extreme price volatility, media frenzies and media glooms.


The current debate on global inequality and social cohesion has also recognized growing differences in living standards between urban and rural areas. This policy brief discusses factors contributing to the urban-rural divide and recommends policies to facilitate the process of catching up. It stresses the megatrends of globalisation and digitalisation in explaining agglomeration in urban areas. Digitalisation and weak connectivity can further exacerbate urban-rural disparities. The policy brief concludes with a set of measures that helps rural areas catch up and contributes to inclusive economic growth. The proposed policies emphasize the need to foster social cohesion in the digital transformation.


Benchmark datasets play a central role in the organization of machine learning research. They coordinate researchers around shared research problems and serve as a measure of progress towards shared goals. Despite the foundational role of benchmarking practices in this field, relatively little attention has been paid to the dynamics of benchmark dataset use and reuse, within or across machine learning subcommunities. In this paper, we dig into these dynamics. We study how dataset usage patterns differ across machine learning subcommunities and across time from 2015-2020. We find increasing concentration on fewer and fewer datasets within task communities, significant adoption of datasets from other tasks, and concentration across the field on datasets that have been introduced by researchers situated within a small number of elite institutions. Our results have implications for scientific evaluation, AI ethics, and equity/access within the field.