In this paper the core issues that need resolution before water development especially by the private sector, and efficient usage can happen are very briefly outlined. These are Water rights have to be defined more functionally to include tradability. There is a need to move away from price based subsidies in electricity for irrigation and in irrigation water, to endowment based subsidies where these endowments can be traded. Administrative and organizational reform of parastatals in water, is most vital. The starting point of the same would be to grant operational autonomy and empower the leadership of water development departments. Creating institutionalized rules to overlay endowments and rights in cooperative water systems that can put free these organisations from the free-rider problem to lead to efficient management of water and to the enhancement of its generation. A strategic shift to more storage especially in the Deccan and its extensions, and to counter opposition from the post-modernist NGOs both within and outside the country by having excellent policies and actions to manage displacement and rehabilitation would also be necessary. River training for storage, canals, and recreation and navigation along with urban renewal can be an important way to finance vast infrastructure to develop cities and add to water resources as well.


The present study deals with amine oxide-based foam formulation especially developed for decontamination application in the nuclear industries. The effect of various foam boosters such as Lauryl Amido Propyl Betaine (LAPB), Coco Diethanol Amide (CDEA) and Lauryl Alcohol Ethoxylate (LAE) on the foaming power of surfactants in the presence of several decontaminating chemicals has been evaluated. It has been found that Laurylamido Propyl Amine Oxide (LAPAO) in conjunction with LAE is the most effective in producing highly stable foam. Increased foam stability and foaming power of the formulation in the presence of commonly used decontaminating agents such as HNO3, oxalic acid, EDTA and Na2CO3 shows promise for effective use in decontamination applications. The foaming properties have been studied using standard Ross-Miles method and a newly constructed apparatus.


Background: This study aimed to examine the effects of endurance swimming training during pregnancy on pregnant rat's neonate liver tissue apoptotic index. Methods: 16 pregnant rats (200 ± 20 g) were divided into two swimming and control groups. The rats of training group were forced from first day of pregnancy to delivery in a particular pool. The sampling of the neonate liver tissue was performed two days after born and the liver apoptotic percent index was determined with TUNEL technique. Statistical analysis of the data was done using independent t-test (ɑ ≤0.05). Results: The results showed that the average neonate liver apoptotic index in the control and training group respectively was 6.40% and 6.20% that indicate no significant difference between two groups (p<0.05). In addition, exercise produced no significant changes in birth weight (p <0.05). Conclusion: These results suggest that swimming endurance training during pregnancy maybe have no negative and worrying impact on neonate growth and liver apoptotic index.


An understanding of existing ecosystem conditions is necessary for planning efforts that include formulation of landscape conservation goals and implementation strategies. In support of a landscape planning effort for a 946,000-ac mixed-ownership area in eastern Wyoming, we used remote sensing and field sampling to assess existing ecosystem conditions of terrestrial ecological sites. We used SPOT 5, 33-ft (10-m) multi-spectral satellite imagery combined with NRCS ecological sites to create a geographic information system layer of vegetation cover by ecological site. We then integrated the remote sensing information with field data (571 plots) collected from a stratified random design from 2003 through 2005. The integration of the field data with the satellite mapping provided specific information about each terrestrial ecological site including species composition, productivity, structure, and shrub cover. Western wheatgrass was the most dominant species across all of the terrestrial ecological sites followed by big sagebrush, needle and thread, blue grama, annual brome species and to a lesser extent threadleaf sedge, and six weeks fescue. We found species that typically decrease with grazing (for example green needlegrass, bluebunch wheatgrass, Indian ricegrass) to be lacking or entirely absent from plant communities. Introduced species, especially the annual bromes, were prevalent across all ecological sites. Over 55 percent of the terrestrial ecosystems we sampled had greater than five percent relative cover of introduced plant species. Current ecosystem conditions for many wildlife of the area, as identified by our assessment, had generally lower habitat quality than desired and treatments to improve these conditions are planned.


The religiously sanctioned Devadasi system in India exemplifies intersectional oppression of gender, caste, and sexuality. Historically, Devadasis, or "servants of God," were women wedded to God who performed temple duties and were considered sacral women with ritual powers. As part of her duties, the Devadasis offer sexual services to her patrons, invariably the economically and socially powerful patriarch/s in society. The Devadasis were not a monolithic community; there were caste-based segregations within the Devadasi community which delineated their social positions. Devadasis were drawn from castes lower in the hierarchy (non-Brahmins) and the Scheduled castes (Dalits). To distinguish the two categories, the Devadasis from the non-Brahmin castes were referred to as Kalavantin/Isai Vellalar/ Kalavantulu and those from the Dalit castes were referred to as Jogini/Mathamma; their social and economic status were entirely different. The Devadasis from the non-Brahmin communities performed classical music and dance, while the Dalit Devadasis performed folk dances during temple festivals. Though the Devadasi system was outlawed in 1988, the practice of dedicating young girls as Devadasis continues to be prevalent among the Scheduled castes. This paper argues that the activists who fought for the liberation of the Devadasis from the oppressive system focused mostly on the Devadasis from the non-Brahmin castes, excluding the Devadasis from the Scheduled castes. This paper contextualizes the prevalence of the Devadasi system within the interconnected matrices of caste and gender structures in Hindu society. Drawing on the socio-historical trajectory of the emancipation of Devadasis in Goa, a state in Western India, this paper analyzes the caste hierarchies and social inequities embedded within the Devadasi system. Apart from discussing the legal interventions initiated by the State to abolish the Devadasi system, this paper also analyses the role of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in the emancipation and empowerment of Dalit Devadasis.


Dutch is a so-called verb-second language, i.e. the finite verb typically occurs in second position with one constituent in initial position. The element in initial position is often the subject. However, if it is an adverb or an object, the subject occurs after the finite verb. This characteristic, known as 'inversion' is acquired in both child first- and adult second-language acquisition as a function of topicalization. Both learner varieties develop from a lexical system to a functional system. At the lexical stage, utterance structure is the result of predicate-argument structure interacting with principles of information structuring. The shift to a functional system comes as a result of the identification of the initial position in a sentence as a structural topic position. It coincides with the acquisition of auxiliary verbs (the category AUX) such that AUX + subject pronoun (subjP) functions as a topicalization device. Hence, inversion is an artifact. It is the result of a process of restructuring due to the acquisition of topicalization. Also the fact that both L1 and L2 Dutch learner systems seem to develop as the result of the interaction between predicate-argument structure and principles of information structuring explains why the process leading to the acquisition of 'inversion' takes place similarly in both children and adults.


In this paper, we present a performance analysis of the European Cooperation for Lightning Detection (EUCLID) lightning detection network using data obtained on lightning currents measured at the Säntis Tower (located in northeastern of Switzerland) from June 2010 to December 2013. In the considered period of analysis, a total number of 269 upward negative flashes were recorded at the Säntis Tower. The performance of the EUCLID lightning detection network is evaluated in terms of detection efficiency, location accuracy, and peak current estimates for upward flashes. Excluding flashes containing only an initial continuous current with no superimposed pulses exceeding 2 kA, the flash detection efficiency for upward flashes is estimated to be 97%. The recorded flashes contained a total of 2795 pulses (including return strokes and International Conference on Communications pulses characterized by risetimes lower than 8 µs and peaks greater than 2 kA). The overall pulse detection efficiency was found to be 73%. For pulses with peak values higher than 5 kA, the pulse detection efficiency was found to be about 83%. Peak current estimates provided by the EUCLID network were found to be significantly larger than their directly measured counterparts. This overestimation might be attributed to the enhancement of the radiated electromagnetic fields associated with the presence of the tower and the mountain. The median of the absolute distance error, defined as the median distance between the Säntis Tower location and the EUCLID's stroke locations, was found to be 186 m, the majority of large location errors being associated with measured current peaks lower than 10 kA. The analysis revealed also that the location accuracy of the EUCLID network improved significantly in 2013 as a result of an upgrade in the location algorithms to take into account propagation effects.


The author proposes and evaluates econometric models that try to explain and forecast real quarterly housing expenditures in Canada. Structural and leading-indicator models of the Canadian housing sector are described. The long-run relationship between expenditure and its determinants is shown to have shifted during the late 1970s, which implies that important changes have occurred in how the housing market is driven. The author finds that the response of housing investment to interest rates has become more pronounced over time. He compares out-of-sample forecasts from linear and non-linear cointegration models (which make use of information on fundamentals such as wealth and demographics) with forecasts from simple leading-indicator models (which exploit information such as housing starts or household indebtedness). The author finds that simple leading-indicator models can provide relatively accurate near-term forecasts. The preferred structural model, which allows for a shift in the cointegrating vector, provides a rich analysis of the housing sector, with good forecast accuracy on the construction side but not on the resale side, which is more difficult to predict.


Global Environment 6 (2011): 68–94 The present paper examines the chronic occurrence of famine in Manbhum after the 1860s due to environmental degradation. Colonial intervention from the late 18th century onwards led to a process of transformation of the area. Ecological intervention was the prime factor behind this transformation. The agrarian conquest of Manbhum in the 19th century not only changed the local land use pattern, it transformed the agrarian structure and led to deforestation. The increase in commodity production and the expansion of monoculture badly shook the ecological balance of the area. Environmental change ultimately led to water and nutritional crises. The denudation of forests deprived people of alternative food sources during scarcity. Though the British idea of progress was based on agricultural advancement, this was carried out at the expense of the forest and was quite unsuited to the characteristics of the area. In general, monocultures of short-lived annual plants, a typical agricultural strategy in temperate zones, are inappropriate for tropical regions. The sustainable economy of the local adivasis (aboriginals) was permanently destabilised, and the district made vulnerable to famine. In the late 19th century the area faced several harsh famines. The adivasis tried to survive on the products of what was left of the jungle as their paddy crops failed. They not only collected starchy root tubers such as pan alu, a wild variety of ole (Amophophallus campanulatus [Araceae]), and others, and the flowers of the mahua (Madhuca indica, Gmelin [Combretaceae]) as a primary food source from forests, and tamarind leaves (Tamarindus indica L., Family Leguminosae) as spice, but also cultivated indigenous low-cost cereals such as eri, gundlu, marua, sama, and others for survival. These cereals, although their yields were low, could be cultivated even under drought conditions because of their low water requirements (jowar, bazra and ragi were also used for the same purpose).


The flight dynamics of the Yamaha RMAX unmanned helicopter has been investigated, and mapped into a six degrees of freedom mathematical model. The model has been obtained by a combined black-box system identification technique and a classic model-based parameter identification approach. In particular, the closed-loop behaviour of the built-in attitude control system has been studied, to support the decision whether to keep it as inner stabilization loop or to develop an own stability augmentation system. The flight test method and the test instrumentation are described in detail; some samples of the flight test data are compared to the model outputs as validation, and an overall assessment of the built-in stabilization system is supplied.


Dikes were the core of Dutch river flood protection. Near-floods in 1993 and 1995 and debates about climate change, however, led to a rethinking of existing approaches. In the policy directive 'Room for the River' the focus has shifted from infrastructure (dikes) to spatial measures (bypasses, dike relocations, 'green' rivers). While people and land used to be separated from water by dikes, this new policy intensifies water-society interactions. This has important social, spatial and property consequences for inhabitants, and requires a style of governance based on negotiations between the government and societal actors. In this article, we discuss the case of the Overdiep polder along the river Meuse where a 'Room for the River' project is being implemented. The inhabitants have developed a plan for a spatial redesign of the polder to make peak water retention possible. We discuss key aspects of the complex negotiations about property, security and continuity of living and farming in the polder.


We present some results on the freeness or non freeness of some tridendriform algebras. In particular, we give a combinatorial proof of the freeness of WQSym, an algebra based on packed words, result already known with an algebraic proof. Then, we prove the non-freeness of an another tridendriform algebra, PQSym, a conjecture remained open. The method of these proofs is generalizable, in particular it has been used to prove the freeness of the dendriform algebra FQSym and the quadrialgebra of 2-permutations.


In the two decades after independence, Georgia's open economy and lax immigration policies have engendered, for the first time, immigration from far outside of the region. On the streets of Tbilisi, the most conspicuous of these migrants are from India, China, and the countries of Africa. Of those from India, a substantial number are students of medicine, or enrolled in other professional courses. Africans in Georgia are mostly driven by work opportunity with a few students in higher education institutions. Chinese immigrants, on the other hand, are almost entirely driven by economic opportunities. A modern Chinese presence in Georgia began in the 1990s with the beginning of Chinese state-owned investment ventures in the region, as well as a burgeoning restaurant scene. In 2000s, this expanded to encompass a trickle and then an influx of Chinese migrant shop owners and market vendors. The third wave of migration occurred in 2010 as a result of contract construction workers. As of today, there are around 1,000 Chinese now divided into five groups: specialists, businessmen, shopkeepers, contract workers, and those in the restaurant and catering sector. This paper will focus on the history of Chinese migrants in Georgia, driving causes, their level of integration (or lack thereof), vulnerabilities, and their status in Georgian society. It will also cover increasingly large-scale economic ventures in the country, the status of Chinese as a foreign language in Georgia, and the role of the PRC Embassy in the Chinese community.


Three field sites have been established and laboratory flume experiments begun to assess the effect of habitat enhancement measures on water-surface profiles and local scour in flood control channels. Multiple field sites with diverse substrate and flow conditions allow us to measure the hydraulic effects of habitat structures directly in a variety of prototype applications. The fixed bed flume model permits isolation of the individual structures to study their impact on water surface elevations and velocity distributions under a wide range of flow conditions. Our goal is to formulate guidance for the selection and design of habitat enhancement features that optimize flood conveyance and environmental value.


Most academic work exploring the makeover genre has argued that TV "experts" draw on a narrative of humiliation to push the participant to adopt more appropriate forms of feminine appearance. However, shows like How to Look Good Naked, while sharing the problematic logics of the makeover, are qualitatively different in tone and style from more aggressive shows. We extend emerging analyses which argue that makeover shows can be read as reflecting struggles for recognition by demonstrating that TV "experts" can also interrupt processes of mis-recognition by offering alternative symbolic systems of interpretation of the body by which the body can be recognised, visible and valued. We argue that humiliation is not the only point of affective engagement for audiences of these shows, while wanting to avoid the seductive illusion that this makes the shows more empowering or less malevolent. We conclude that in failing to embrace the wide variety of affective mechanisms by which we might be able to appreciate the popular appeal of reality TV, we do a disservice to female audiences and women participants, as well as limiting our own theoretical insights.


Technology permeates nearly every aspect of our daily lives. Cars enable us to travel long distances, mobile phones help us to communicate, and medical devices make it possible to detect and cure diseases. But these aids to existence are not simply neutral instruments: they give shape to what we do and how we experience the world. And because technology plays such an active role in shaping our daily actions and decisions, it is crucial, Peter-Paul Verbeek argues, that we consider the moral dimension of technology. "Moralizing Technology" offers exactly that: an in-depth study of the ethical dilemmas and moral issues surrounding the interaction of humans and technology. Drawing from Heidegger and Foucault, as well as from philosophers of technology such as Don Ihde and Bruno Latour, Peter-Paul Verbeek locates morality not just in the human users of technology but in the interaction between us and our machines. Verbeek cites concrete examples, including some from his own life, and compellingly argues for the morality of things. Rich and multifaceted, and sure to be controversial, "Moralizing Technology" will force us all to consider the virtue of new inventions and to rethink the rightness of the products we use every day.


Context. The issue of fiscal sustainability has affected not only central governments but also – and in some instances with more severe impacts – local governments (LGs) especially in contexts with high autonomy. This has exacerbated, at both the operational and scientific level, the issue of having effective measurement systems and assessment methodologies to detect, and therefore to prevent, financial defaults. Accounting plays an important role to understand the financial health of local governments. Yet, not only the debate about which system of accounts is more suitable for this purpose is still open, but also the growing development of overlaps and linkages within governments and private-sector organizations to provide local services in the era of the so-called " network governance " (e.g., outsourcing, public-private partnership, and, in some countries, the increasing phenomenon of public owned enterprises) and the intertwining of fiscal rules provided by central governments as well as the differentiated effects of local economies have tangled further. Problem. A greater need for cross countries comparative financial health analysis has emerged for several years, not only to compare central governments, but also LGs, especially in those supra-national settings like the EU. The work on international accounting standards is a great move toward more accurate cross country comparisons. However, the cultural background, the risks and protections offered by each country to LGs may lead to different financial health analysis's objectives and to various methodologies and focuses, that cannot be taken into account by accounting standards only. Objective. The paper offers to identify and discuss practitioners' visions of LGs' financial health and their objectives when assessing LGs' financial health. What do they consider to be a " bad financial situation " ? It aims at understanding the perceived influence of national environment (legislation, accounting reliability, LG perimeter…) on financial analysis objectives and methods, and operates a comparison of Italian and French situation on these issues. Method. To do so, we use a qualitative methodology. Several practitioners in France and in Italy will be interviewed: financial managers in local governments, public auditors and bankers that work in the context of LGs' economies (factoring services to LGs' providers, dealer of LGs' bonds, borrowing to LGs). The content of interviews will be analyzed through a thematic analysis. The main themes that will emerge in France and Italy will be compared and discussed. The qualitative methodology aims at identifying the practitioners' views, without measuring their representativeness. How LGs' " financial health " and " financial risk " is shaped, the methodology used to assess financial health, and issues such as LG perimeter, accounting reliability and country specificities will be discussed. Originality and value. The study aims at giving an overview of elements that should be taken into account for cross cultural financial health analysis, beyond issues of accounting harmonization. Usual cross cultural financial analysis methods neglects differences in risk vision, and in LG's perimeter. The paper aims at giving insights to decision makers of how to interpret and understand the financial situation of foreign LG.


In this article, an analysis of the utilisation of outer texts in recently compiled dic- tionaries of African languages is presented. The analysis is undertaken in the context of an upsurge of the compilation of dictionaries in the African la nguages. It is undertaken with a view to do a qualitative evaluation of the many new dictionaries of African languages that have come on the market in recent years. The point of departure is that prior to the recent lexicographic develop- ments, the then available dictionaries were compiled in the context of the limited role the African languages played. It has been found that most of those dictionaries are limited in scope, perspec- tive and function and hence less effective now that the languages are being assigned a greater social role. The evaluation of outer texts in modern dictionaries is therefore a way of measuring the extent to which lexicographic practice in the African languages is applying theoretical develop- ments to produce better dictionaries.


This research is an attempt to framework the applied strides to evaluate the long run relationship among commonly used inflation proxies induces such as, wholesale price index (WPI) and consumer price index (CPI), and crude oil price (COP) with KSE100 index returns. In this research we used monthly data for the time period from July 1995 to June 2016, and thus, in this way total 252 observations have been considered. Time series have been made stationary by applying ADF and PP tests at first difference. Johansen multivariate conintegration approach was used to test the long-term association amongst the considered macroeconomic variables. The results indicated that CPI and COP significantly affect KSE100 index returns that indicated CPI along with COP have foreseen power to impact KSE100 index. In contrary, the results of WPI and COP do not have long run relationship with KSE100 index in case of Pakistani economy. Results of variance decomposition exhibited that the index of LKSE100 was realistically rarer exogenous in connection to distinctive factors, as around 92.31% of its variation was explained due to its own specific shocks. It is concluded that CPI and COP can impact the KSE100 index returns. It is confirmed by the results of impulse response function that there is a positive and long run relationship between KSE100 returns and consumer price index (proxy of inflation) and international crude oil prices.


A panel of Italian single households is used to test for rational addiction in alcohol consumption. These monthly consumption data raise problems of measurement errors and unobservable heterogeneity. To deal with the zeros in the dependent variable we adopt a specification based on infrequency of purchase. GMM estimators are used to deal with errors in variables and unobserved heterogeneity. There is evidence that alcohol consumers are actually forward-looking. Past consumption is also significant in explaining current consumption thus detecting the addictive nature of alcohol. Discount rates, the strength of addiction, short and long run price and income elasticities are significant and in line with the theoretical predictions. These results and the inclusion of a number of demographic and geographic characters deliver valuable information for public policy purposes and suggest significant differences driven by individual heterogeneity.


This multi-layered case study examines the evolution and operations of one long-lived organized research unit (ORU), the Office of Arid Lands Studies (OALS), at the University of Arizona (UA). The first part includes a history of arid lands research at the UA and the beginning of OALS, a review of the Office's extramural and internal funding since 1964, and a comparison of that data and other performance indicators with other ORUs and, to some extent, with departments. The results are examined in relation to U.S. science policy and the theory of academic capitalism. The second part explores the causes of OALS' 1981 administrative move from the Vice President for Research Office to the College of Agriculture in the context of the University's multiple cultures and institutional and resource dependence theories of organizational change. The final part considers the influence of student workers on faculty supervisors who work as technicians in an OALS lab, and the role of funding agencies in the lab's operations. Theories of power and technology in the workplace provide a frame for the discussion. Findings suggest the placement of this ORU in a college has been beneficial in clarifying research turf, minimizing conflicts, supporting instruction, and in terms of funding. OALS' extramural support has averaged more than four dollars to every one dollar received internally, and OALS faculty compare favorably with other faculty in numbers of publications, and to a certain extent with teaching and advising. While the OALS remote sensing lab does utilize students as sources of cheap labor, the students do have considerable influence over how the lab operates. The only areas of conflict occurred over linking thesis topics to research projects and in meeting funding agency deadlines.


Link prediction is an important task in network analysis, benefiting researchers and organizations in a variety of fields. Many networks in the real world, for example social networks, are heterogeneous, having multiple types of links and complex dependency structures. Link prediction in such networks must model the influence propagating between heterogeneous relationships to achieve better link prediction performance than in homogeneous networks. In this paper, we introduce Multi-Relational Influence Propagation (MRIP), a novel probabilistic method for heterogeneous networks. We demonstrate that MRIP is useful for predicting links in sparse networks, which present a significant challenge due to the severe disproportion of the number of potential links to the number of real formed links. We also explore some factors that can inform the task of classification yet remain unexplored, such as temporal information. In this paper we make use of the temporal-related features by carefully investigating the issues of feasibility and generality. In accordance with our work in unsupervised learning, we further design an appropriate supervised approach in heterogeneous networks. Our experiments on co-authorship prediction demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.


This research sought to establish the extent of and reasons for community participation and non participation in local decision-making practices in the New Forest National Park, a protected area, in Southern England.

Following a critical examination of the literature and previous research the concepts and theories of government, governance and of social capital were identified as being critical for an understanding and explanation of community engagement and disengagement. Primary data was collected through a series of qualitative interviews with representatives of institutions and of the local community in the area together with two concurrent quantitative surveys, one a random household survey and the other of individuals registered on an existing citizen's panel.

Unlike studies of participation in society at large, the findings show a high level of participation is occurring. The nature and characteristics of this participation are examined in terms of non participation and three levels of participation categorized as; individual, collective, and leadership. Distinguishing characteristics of these four categories include the respondents' 'level of education', 'length of residence in the area' and their views of their local community. It was also demonstrated that the varying levels of engagement and disengagement can additionally be differentiated by an individual's perception as to their political efficacy and their degree of cynicism towards institutions. These views on governance question the depth and quality of participation occurring in the New Forest and are further related to the systems of engagement identified.

This research addresses gaps in previous studies conducted in protected areas in that it focuses upon the range of participation and non participation demonstrated in a western protected area context. The results of this research raise questions as to just how transferable best practices are and how feasible wider community engagement is to achieve in the New Forest or other protected areas where participatory principles are practiced in what are fundamentally centralized governmental systems based on representative democratic regimes.

These findings have implications for the design of community engagement strategies and for additional research into community participation. They suggest that if further progress is to be made in understanding community participation in protected areas two challenges need to be confronted, namely agreement on a definition of 'good' governance and on the constituents of wider community engagement which recognise the particular characteristics of the 'protected area' context.

Suggestions for future research based on single, comparative and longitudinal case studies in other protected areas are proposed. More specifically research on non and limited participation is particularly encouraged due to the potential such an inquiry holds for informing the design of innovative and effective forms of participation aimed at increasing wider community engagement.

Keywords: community participation, local decision-making, characteristics and reasons for engagement and disengagement, social capital, governance, best practice, wider community.


Paired informal and scholarly essays show how everyday events reveal fundamental concepts of data, including its creation, aggregation, management, and use. Whether questioning numbers on a scale, laughing at a misspelling of one's name, or finding ourselves confused in a foreign supermarket, we are engaging with data. The only way to handle data responsibly, says Melanie Feinberg in this incisive work, is to take into account its human character. Though the data she discusses may seem familiar, close scrutiny shows it to be ambiguous, complicated, and uncertain: unruly. Drawing on the tools of information science, she uses everyday events such as deciding between Blender A and Blender B on Amazon to demonstrate a practical, critical, and generative mode of thinking about data: its creation, management, aggregation, and use.
 Each chapter pairs a self-contained main essay (an adventure) with a scholarly companion essay (the reflection). The adventure begins with an anecdote—visiting the library, running out of butter, cooking rice on a different stove. Feinberg argues that to understand the power and pitfalls of data science, we must attend to the data itself, not merely the algorithms that manipulate it. As she reflects on the implications of commonplace events, Feinberg explicates fundamental concepts of data that reveal the many tiny design decisions—which may not even seem like design at all—that shape how data comes to be. Through the themes of serendipity, objectivity, equivalence, interoperability, taxonomy, labels, and locality, she illuminates the surprisingly pervasive role of data in our daily thoughts and lives.


We consider the Minimum Perimeter Polygon Problem (MP3): for a given set V of points in the plane, find a polygon P with holes that has vertex set V , such that the total boundary length is smallest possible. The MP3 can be considered a natural geometric generalization of the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), which asks for a simple polygon with minimum perimeter. Just like the TSP, the MP3 occurs naturally in the context of curve reconstruction. Even though the closely related problem of finding a minimum cycle cover is polynomially solvable by matching techniques, we prove how the topological structure of a polygon leads to NP-hardness of the MP3. On the positive side, we provide constant-factor approximation algorithms. In addition to algorithms with theoretical worst-case guarantess, we provide practical methods for computing provably optimal solutions for relatively large instances, based on integer programming. An additional difficulty compared to the TSP is the fact that only a subset of subtour constraints is valid, depending not on combinatorics, but on geometry. We overcome this difficulty by establishing and exploiting geometric properties. This allows us to reliably solve a wide range of benchmark instances with up to 600 vertices within reasonable time on a standard machine. We also show that restricting the set of connections between points to edges of the Delaunay triangulation yields results that are on average within 0.5% of the optimum for large classes of benchmark instances.


As a recursive algorithm, the particle filter requires initial samples to track a state vector. These initial samples must be generated from the received data and usually obey a complicated distribution. The metropolis-Hastings (M-H) algorithm is used for sampling from intractable multivariate target distributions and is well suited for the initialization problem. Asymptotically, the M-H scheme creates samples drawn from the exact distribution. For the particle filter to track the state, the initial samples need to cover only the region around its current state. This region is marked by the presence of modes. Since the particle filter only needs samples around the mode, we modify the M-H algorithm to generate samples distributed around the modes of the target posterior. By simulations, we show that this "mode hungry" algorithm converges an order of magnitude faster than the original M-H scheme for both unimodal and multi-modal distributions.


Abstract In this paper we give a full characterization of Nash implementability of social choice correspondences (SCCs) in allotment economies on preference domains with private values and different types of indifference. We focus on single-peaked/single-plateaued preferences with worst indifferent allocations, single-troughed preferences and single-troughed preferences with best indifferent allocations. We begin by introducing a weak variant of no-veto power, called I∗${I^*}$ -weak no-veto power, which form together with unanimity and a stronger version of Maskin monotonicity a sufficient condition for Nash implementation in general environment. We apply this result to the above preference domains and we prove that any SCC that has full range is Nash implementable if and only if it satisfies Maskin monotonicity. We examine the implementability of some well-known correspondences. We give examples of SCCs that are monotonic in the unrestricted domains and also monotonic in our setup, and we provide exemples of SCCs that are not monotonic in the unrestricted domains, but monotonic and therefore Nash implementable in our context. Finally, we give examples of SCCs that are not monotonic in the restricted domains and also not monotonic in our area, and therefore not Nash implementable.


Three environmental groups have filed suit against the National Institutes of Health in an attempt to block an experiment approved in April by the NIH Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee. The experiment, designed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, to enhance the frost resistance of crops, would release genetically engineered organisms into the general environment for the first time. The suit, filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia, claims that releasing frost-resistant bacteria into the environment could have damaging ecological consequences, that NIH should have issued an environmental impact assessment before approving any experiment involving the release of genetically engineered organisms, and that the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee lacks the expertise to assess environmental risks.


This paper describes a distributed system which aggregates the unused and usually wasted processing capacity of idle workstations. The aggregation is achieved through the use of now ubiquitous internet infrastructure and web technology. And, it delivers a powerful yet inexpensive execution environment for computationally intensive applications. The prototype system described here makes use of Sun Microsystems Jini technology, particularly JavaSpaces, along with Java Web Start, to produce a dynamic, flexible and reliable system. Two example applications used to evaluate the system are described: (a) the n-Queens problem and (b) a parallel sorting (shearsort) application. The results of the evaluation clearly show that, for certain classes of applications, the system is capable of delivering significant performance.


Phosphorylation by IKKε of the transcription factor STAT1 tips the balance of the antiviral response from type II to type I interferon. Type I and type II interferons (IFNs) are secreted cytokines that function as a first line of defense against viral infection. IFN-α and IFN-β are type I IFNs and stimulate the formation of a transcriptional regulatory complex called ISGF3 composed of signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) proteins STAT1 and STAT2 with IFN regulatory factor 9. IFN-γ is the type II IFN and stimulates the formation of a STAT1 homodimeric transcription factor complex called GAF. Note that the kinase IKKε phosphorylates STAT1 at Ser708, and this is important for an effective antiviral response. Ng et al. explored the antiviral response of IKKε-deficient mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) and determined that these cells exhibited a reduced IFN type I response and an enhanced IFN type II response compared with wild-type MEFs. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed that binding of GAF to cognate DNA sequences was enhanced in IKKε-deficient MEFs stimulated with either IFN-γ or IFN-β; whereas binding of ISGF3 to a subset of its target genes, those known to be IKKε-dependent, was reduced. Overexpression of catalytically active, but not inactive, IKKε reduced STAT1 homodimerization and stabilized the interaction between STAT1 and STAT2, which would be expected to shift the balance of STAT1 from GAF to ISGF3. Analysis of transcripts from bone marrow–derived macrophages from wild-type and IKKε-deficient mice showed that IFN-γ–regulated genes had increased basal expression, whereas IFN-β–regulated gene expression was lower in cells from the IKKε-deficient mice. Chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments confirmed that binding of STAT1 to promoters of genes induced by type I IFNs was reduced, whereas binding of STAT1 to type II IFN-induced genes was unaffected in the absence of IKKε. Thus, IKKε shifts the antiviral response toward that mediated by type I IFNs by reducing the ability of STAT1 to homodimerize and thus allowing the formation of more ISGF3. S.-L. Ng, B. A. Friedman, S. Schmid, J. Gertz, R. M. Myers, B. R. tenOever, T. Maniatis, IκB kinase ε (IKKε) regulates the balance between type I and type II interferon responses. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 108, 21170–21175 (2011). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Having been shut out of use of the telephone, the major means of communication for personal, social and vocational purposes for over one hundred years, deaf people have enthusiastically welcomed the advent of text and other visual modes of communication via the Internet. Deaf people are using the Internet for the usual purposes hearing people do: socialising, entertainment, learning, business, etc. Evidence is emerging that they too are using the Internet to forge new links and alliances both nationally and internationally. From these links may be emerging a new sense of "Deafhood" (Ladd, 2003), with common experiences of being Deaf in a hearing-speaking world uniting signing Deaf people from all around the world into a "Deaf-World" (Lane, Hoffmeister & Bahan, 1996) which transcends national and geographic barriers. A theoretical analysis of such activities in the Deaf-World will be informed by an extension of Granovetter's (1983) notion of "the strength of weak ties" which posits that in social networks "weak ties" among acquaintances and more distant contacts will provide more new knowledge and information (in this case about innovative communication technologies) than "strong ties" like family and close friends will do. It is considered that the contacts made on the Internet are examples of weak ties which will help expedite the development of new ideas and wider contacts among Deaf people and the development of a more outward looking Deaf World that incorporates broader international perspectives. Following up on previous research in Australia, Germany and Norway (Power, Power & Horstmanshof, 2007; Power, Power & Rehling, 2007; Bakken, 2005) this paper reports a study of the online links and activities of Deaf sites and individuals on the Internet in Europe. It examines Deaf-related blogs, vlogs, Second Life and other social networking sites to determine themes of Deafhood and evidence of the development of more contacts that are weakly tied to the Internet user that emerge in the online communications and activities of Deaf people.


Keypoints of objects reflect their concise abstractions, while the corresponding connection links (CL) build the skeleton by detecting the intrinsic relations between keypoints. Existing approaches are typically computationally-intensive, inapplicable for instances belonging to multiple classes, and/or infeasible to simultaneously encode connection information. To address the aforementioned issues, we propose an end-to-end category-implicit Keypoint and Link Prediction Network (KLPNet), which is the first approach for simultaneous semantic keypoint detection (for multi-class instances) and CL rejuvenation. In our KLPNet, a novel Conditional Link Prediction Graph is proposed for link prediction among keypoints that are contingent on a predefined category. Furthermore, a Cross-stage Keypoint Localization Module (CKLM) is introduced to explore feature aggregation for coarse-to-fine keypoint localization. Comprehensive experiments conducted on three publicly available benchmarks demonstrate that our KLPNet consistently outperforms all other state-of-the-art approaches. Furthermore, the experimental results of CL prediction also show the effectiveness of our KLPNet with respect to occlusion problems.


Communal roosting in Bechstein's bat colonies is characterized by the formation of several groups that use different day roosts and that regularly dissolve and re-merge (fission–fusion dynamics). Analysing data from two colonies of different sizes over many years, we find that (i) the number of days that bats stay in the same roost before changing follows an exponential distribution that is independent of the colony size and (ii) the number and size of groups that bats formed for roosting depend on the size of the colony, such that above a critical colony size two to six groups of different sizes are formed. To model these two observations, we propose an agent-based model in which agents make their decisions about roosts based on both random and social influences. For the latter, they copy the roost preference of another agent which models the transfer of the respective information. Our model is able to reproduce both the distribution of stay length in the same roost and the emergence of groups of different sizes dependent on the colony size. Moreover, we are able to predict the critical system size at which the formation of different groups emerges without global coordination. We further comment on dynamics that bridge the roosting decisions on short time scales (less than 1 day) with the social structures observed at long time scales (more than 1 year).


In 1991, The Dannon Company provided 287 of its employees with a choice of healthcare plans. The new plan was less expensive and designed to fit employees' needs better. Contrary to managerial expectation, threequarters of employees continued to choose the more expensive plan. To study why this was occurring and to determine if these choices reflected employee "mistakes," a cooperative effort was begun between The Dannon Company and Cornell University. This cooperative effort allowed us to investigate this problem using actual employee medical claims. Analysis revealed employees strive not only to minimize costs, but also to avoid risk in their health care plan decisions. Overall, employees with the most significant cost difference chose the plan with the lowest total costs. This effect translated into financial savings for the employees. Employees were better off as a group with the freedom to make their own selections than they would have been if they had been forced into either of the two available health care options. Thus, this study demonstrated that choice is valuable to employees. Implications for Dannon and for future research are discussed.


To study profile dispersion effects on transmission bandwidth in high-bandwidth graded-index fibers, baseband frequency responses of various graded-index fibers with different profile parameters have been characterized in the 0.78-1.50-microm wavelength range. The test graded-index fibers were made by the MCVD technique. Intrinsic intermodal dispersions of these fibers were determined using a combination of a GaAlAs laser and a grating monochromator, a mode-locked Nd:YAG laser, an InGaAsP/InP laser, and stimulated Raman scattering in a single-mode fiber as the light sources. Transmission bandwidth functional dependences on wavelength are presented. The transmission bandwidth of the individual fibers changed by more than 400% within the experimental spectral range. The maximum transmission bandwidth so far observed was 3.74 GHz.km at 1.225-microm wavelength for a fiber with 0.20 N.A. Transmission bandwidth spectra were compared with computer calculated results based on Olshansky's theory.


In Western Europe medicine packages contain an insert prepared by the manufacturer which enumerates the drug side-effects. We investigated the influence of this insert on alleged theophylline side-effects. Forty literate adult asthmatics were randomly allocated into two groups (n = 20 each): theophylline packages contained the manufacturer's insert in group A but not in group B. Theophylline was prescribed (10 mg.kg-1 body weight qd) for one week. During this period the patients filled a diary grading 13 different symptoms from 0 to 3; 5 of these symptoms were listed on the insert as theophylline side-effects. On the eighth day the patients were interviewed and theophylline blood levels measured. Theophylline side-effects were significantly more marked in group A than in group B, whereas the other symptoms were of similar magnitude. Eight patients prematurely stopped their treatment in group A vs 3 in group B, because of alleged intolerance. Theophylline blood levels did not differ significantly in the two groups; neither did they in the subgroup which stopped treatment and in the one which complied to prescription. We conclude that side-effects were suggested to the patients by the insert and/or that the insert increased their awareness of side-effects, with a subsequent detrimental influence upon compliance to therapy.


Success with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0: Implementing Customer Relationship Management is aimed at readers who are interested in understanding how to successfully implement Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 within their projects. It is intended as an implementation roadmap for the business and technical representatives leading or engaged in a project. The book covers the capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, both in the traditional functional areas of sales, marketing, and service and as an applications framework for XRM deployments. The book demonstrates Microsoft CRM best practices for design, configuration, and development. Through realworld solutions and exercises, you will be given the confidence and expertise to deliver an implementation that provides longterm success for your organization. What youll learn How to choose an implementation model (live, hosted, onpremise) appropriate for your circumstances Design and configuration best practices for each of the traditional functional areas of sales, marketing, and service When and how to develop and extend the Microsoft Dynamics CRM application platform Realworld solutions that can be applied to your projects How to ensure your solution evolves with your organizations needs and provides longterm business value


OBJECTIVES
Despite society guideline recommendations, intraoperative high-frequency ultrasound (HFUS) and transit-time flow measurement (TTFM) use in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) has not been widely adopted worldwide. This retrospective review of the REQUEST (REgistry for QUality assESsmenT with Ultrasound Imaging and TTFM in Cardiac Bypass Surgery) study assesses the impact of protocolled high-frequency ultrasound/TTFM use in specific technical circumstances of CABG.

METHODS
Three REQUEST study sub-analyses were examined: (i) For off-pump (OPCAB) versus on-pump (ONCAB) procedures: strategy changes from preoperative plans for the aorta, conduits, coronary targets and graft revisions; and for all REQUEST patients, revision rates in: (ii) arterial versus venous grafts; and (iii) grafts to different cardiac territories.

RESULTS
Four hundred and two (39.6%) of 1016 patients undergoing elective isolated CABG for multivessel disease underwent OPCAB procedures. Compared to ONCAB, OPCAB patients experienced more strategy changes regarding the aorta [14.7% vs 3.4%; odds ratios (OR) = 4.03; confidence interval (CI) = 2.32-7.20], less regarding conduits (0.2% vs 2.8%; OR = 0.09; CI = 0.01-0.56), with no differences in coronary target changes or graft revisions (4.1% vs 3.5%; OR = 1.19; CI = 0.78-1.81). In all REQUEST patients, revisions were more common for arterial versus venous grafts (4.7% vs 2.4%; OR = 2.05; CI = 1.29-3.37), and inferior versus anterior (5.1% vs 2.9%; OR = 1.77; CI = 1.08-2.89) and lateral (5.1% vs 2.8%; OR = 1.83; CI = 1.04-3.27) territory grafts.

CONCLUSIONS
High-frequency ultrasound/TTFM use differentially impacts strategy changes and graft revision rates in different technical circumstances of CABG. Notably, patients undergoing OPCAB experienced 4 times more changes related to the ascending aorta than ONCAB patients. These findings may indicate where intraoperative assessment is most usefully applied.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER
ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02385344.


We argue that a fundamental reason for the short term perspective of corporate executives is the short-term orientation of shareholders and financial markets that drive the performance benchmarks of CEOs. In our view, long-term committed shareholders can provide substantial benefits to the company they invest in and although some shareholders are prepared to take a more long-term view, they are generally not rewarded for their loyalty to the company. We believe that because they are a scarce resource and provide benefits to the company and other shareholders that have all the features of a public good, long-term shareholders need to receive financial incentives. While lengthening stock option vesting periods and introducing claw-back provisions into CEO compensation contracts help induce a more long-term orientation of CEOs, we argue that it is also necessary to reinforce this more long-term performance-based compensation with a better alignment between shareholders and CEOs horizons. Our proposal for moving towards such an alignment is to introduce Loyalty-Shares (or L-shares). These shares provide an additional reward (usually under the form of an extra-share or extra-dividend) to shareholders if they have held on to their shares for a contractually specified period of time, the loyalty period. The reward we propose, which we believe would be a more optimal solution in many cases, is in the form of a warrant giving the right to purchase a pre-determined number of new shares at a pre-specified price and granted to loyal investors at the expiration of the loyalty period. This paper discusses how L-shares under the form of loyalty warrants can be structured and distributed, how they may be valued and how they may affect liquidity and control of the corporation.


This paper investigates the impact of television on internal migration in Indonesia. We exploit the differential introduction of private television throughout the country and the variation in signal reception due to topography to estimate the causal effect of media exposure. Our estimates reveal important long and short run effects. An increase of one standard deviation in the number of private TV channels received in the area of residence reduces future inter-provincial migration by 1.7-2.7 percentage points, and all migration (inter and intra-provincial) by 4-7.4 percentage points. Short run effects are slightly smaller, but still sizeable and statistically significant. We also show that respondents less exposed to private TV are more likely to consider themselves among the poorest groups of the society. As we discuss in a stylized model of migration choice under imperfect information, these findings are consistent with Indonesia citizens over-estimating the net gains from internal migration. JEL: J61, L82, O15


The thesis is concerned with an examination of Islam in Sri Lanka.
It argues that while Sri Lankan Islam shares an ideology with the
Islamic world, it has a specificity which may only be understood with
reference to its particular historical and cultural context. As an
Islamic community on the periphery of the Islamic world, Sri Lankan
Muslims find their ideology, enduringly problematic. They must
continually assert their egalitarian ideology, within the
hierarchically ordered cosmological universe, that they share with
Sinhalese Buddhists and Tamil Hindus. They must further assert their
egalitarianism in the face of constant forces of stratification,
internal to the Muslim community itself. Islamic ideology, given this
particular cultural context, is both determining and constitutive of
the community. The consolidation of the varied histories of the
diverse Muslim community in the late colonial period is shown to be
an aspect of hegemonic domination of the community by a fraction of
it.
The structure and force of Islamic ideology as revealed in Sri Lanka
is discussed through an examination of religious understanding and
ritual practice. The significance of the myths behind, and practices
associated with, the shrines of the saints are explored and
contrasted with those elsewhere in the Muslim world. Critical
distinctions in the practice of Muslim saint 'worship' are discussed.
The centrality of the mosque and the male religious community are
examined, and the articulation of the mosque with the domestic order
is clearly outlined. Sri Lankan Muslims elaborate, through their
calendrical ritual, a constant regeneration of the Islamic community
- ummah. At its most fundamental level this regeneration requires the
unification of male and female, mosque and house. This practice is
a constant metaphor of the original basis, and current practice, of
the Sri Lankan Muslim community, founded by the marriages of Arab
Muslims to indigenous women, in whose houses they took up residence.
Regenerative symbols in this context are those of food and hearth,
and feast practices reveal the constant constitution of the community
through its rituals of communal commensality. The calendrical aspects
of the regeneration are most readily determined through a discussion
of the ritual complex surrounding Ramazan and culminating in the
Feast of Sacrifice at the end of the Hajj. The ideological
constitution of the ummah, at its various levels of incorporation,
is examined from the perspective of the Sri Lankan Muslims. A
perspective in which they as one of a multitude of specific,
culturally and historically diverse communities of the Muslim world,
participate in a calendrical ritual cycle, which they perceive at the
ideological level, to embrace them all.


The lateral current spreading (CS) effect on the efficiency droop in GaN-based LEDs has been studied in terms of the CS distance (LCS) using a designed pattern with the 2-D current spreading profile. The correlations of CS effect with the electrical, luminescent and electric-thermal properties of the LEDs have been discussed. LEDs with the LCS longer than the theoretically calculated effective CS length (Leff) suffer from more serious efficiency droop and the degradation of luminescent properties. However, the influence of CS effect on the ideality factors of LEDs is not obvious. Higher chip temperature caused by poor CS was observed and may further enlarge the efficiency droop.


Draws on themes of the disability-rights movement to identify people with disabilities as members of a socially disadvantaged minority group rather than as individuals who need to adjust. Highlights the hidden history of people with disabilities in church and society. Proclaiming the emancipatory presence of the disabled God, the author maintains the vital importance of the relationship between Christology and social change. Eiesland contends that in the Eucharist, Christians encounter the disabled God and may participate in new imaginations of wholeness and new embodiments of justice.


Images of urban conflagration had a powerful hold on the ancient Roman literary imagination. This phenomenon represents a unique confluence between literary tradition and urban reality: Greco-Roman literature offers a wide array of poetic, philosophical and historiographic reflections of cities destroyed by fire, yet daily life in ancient Rome was haunted by the very real fear of conflagration. The major investigative goal of this project is the exploration of the ways in which Romans authors used powerful images of fiery destruction, often drawn from the broader literary tradition, to address contemporary moments of political crisis in the early imperial period. In three chapters, I follow the intersection of urban fires and claims to power, as expressed both in urban space and in the literary city of Rome, during three critical periods from early imperial history: Augustan, Neronian, and post-Neronian Rome. In each period, a distinct set of fire-related problems arose for the current leader: in the aftermath of disaster, each leader in different ways, attempted to configure himself as protector of and provider for the urban population, with varying outcomes. Augustus faced the task of renewing Rome after the defining rupture of the triumviral conflicts and the fall of the republic; Nero came to power after generations of jeopardized successions and often-violent transitions had produced significant civic anxiety and suspicion of new leadership, a precarious dynamic even before the unprecedented destruction of 64 CE; and Vespasian, founder of the Flavian dynasty, came to power in 69 CE, after Rome had been ravaged by the violent (and incendiary) Year of Four Emperors. Each ruler, in his own way, worked to equate his restoration of Rome after disaster, which included efforts to prevent future fires, with his larger claims to political control and even mastery of the cosmos. Likewise, authors working in an increasingly repressive environment found in images of urban destruction a productive set of metaphors and figures for addressing the fears and tensions attached to contemporary ideology. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Classical Studies First Advisor James Ker


To the Editor: Malaria caused by Plasmodium spp. is one of the most prevalent parasitic diseases in the world, especially in tropical countries. P. vivax represents the second most prevalent of malaria species. Therefore, as measures to control the high death rates in humans caused by P. falciparum become more effective, P. vivax is likely to become the primary malaria threat (1). In P. vivax infection, the main clinical signs and symptoms are fever, chills, nausea and vomiting, generalized body pain and fatigue, toxic shock and pulmonary edema, retinal hemorrhage, renal failure, uremic encephalopathy, and thrombocytopenia (2–6).

Because of their phylogenetic proximity to humans, nonhuman primates have been used extensively as animal models of human diseases (7). Thousands of workers come in contact with monkeys, but little information about the prevalence of P. vivax in bred cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) is available worldwide. The objective of our investigation was to examine whether P. vivax seroprevalence is present in bred cynomolgus monkeys in the People's Republic of China.

A total of 328 blood samples were collected by venous puncture during June 2008–September 2009. Of these, 224 blood samples were from 4 nonhuman primate centers in Guangxi Zhuang Nationality Autonomous Region and 108 blood samples were from 2 nonhuman primate centers in Guangdong Province. All of the cynomolgus monkeys were caged. Each cage has 2 rooms, 1 indoors and 1 outdoors. The monkeys spend ≈10 hours in the outdoor room each day during the daytime. The age and sex of monkeys are listed in the Table. Serum samples were separated and stored at –20°C before testing.

Serum samples were tested for P. vivax antibodies by using a commercially available ELISA kit (Tiancheng Yiliu Co., Ltd, Shanghai, China), according to the manufacturer's instructions. This kit uses biotinylated anti–P. vivax as a coating antigen and is specifically for monkeys. Positive and negative control serum samples were provided in the kit and included in each test. Those samples with doubtful results were retested.

Differences in the seroprevalence of P. vivax in bred cynomolgus monkeys according to sex and area were analyzed by using the χ2 test in SPSS 13.0 standard version for Windows (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). The differences were considered to be statistically significant when the p value obtained was <0.05.

The total prevalence of anti–P. vivax antibodies in bred cynomolgus monkeys in southern China was 3.4% (11/328), which was lower than the prevalence of anti–P. vivax antibodies in captured monkeys (Alouatta seniculus, Saguinus midas, and Pithecia pithecia) in French Guiana (8). The prevalence in female monkeys (3.1%, 5/161) was slightly lower than that in male monkeys (3.6%, 6/167); the seroprevalence of 3.6% (8/224) in Guangxi Zhuang Nationality Autonomous Region was slightly higher than that in Guangdong Province (2.9%, 3/104) (Table), but these differences were not significant (p>0.05). A total of 52 monkey serum samples from nonhuman primate center E in Guangdong Province were found seronegative for P. vivax antibodies (Table). The difference in prevalence of P. vivax antibodies in different nonhuman primate centers may be related to differences in ecologic and geographic conditions, climate conditions, as well as in the management practices. All of the nonhuman primate centers are surrounded by hills or paddy fields, and the environment is favorable for Anopheles mosquitoes. The mosquito control measures, including the use of antimosquito insecticides and good drainage facilities for preventing water collection on the ground, were better executed at nonhuman primate center E than at the other nonhuman primate centers.

Table

Prevalence of Plasmodium vivax antibodies in serum samples, from bred cynomolgus monkeys in southern China, determined by ELISA, 2008–2009*

Our survey showed P. vivax seropositivity in 5 of the 6 nonhuman primate centers in southern China, which is a potential health problem for bred cynomolgus monkeys. This finding also indicates the risk for infection with P. vivax for the employees of these nonhuman primate centers. Therefore, studies are warranted that assess the seroprevalence of P. vivax infection in persons who work in these nonhuman primate centers, as well as the seroprevalence of P. vivax infection in wild monkeys.


In this article we analyse whether university-industry relations (UIR) work to inhibit university researchers' scientific productivity. We find that UIR exercise a positive effect on university scientific productivity when they are based on the development of activities with high scientific content, but only up to certain level. Also, we find that researchers that combine research and UIR activities obtain higher funding from competitive public sources than those that only engage in research. In addition, their average scientific productivity is higher and they achieve higher status within the institution than those members of faculty that concentrate only on research.


The main objectives of this study were (a) to examine food shopping, choices, and budgeting practices among the two major recently arrived refugee groups, those of Burmese and Iraqi origin, and (b) to compare pre-resettlement living conditions and access to food between these same two groups. The study was approved by the IRB of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. A case-study approach was used to carry out an in-depth investigation of food choices and shopping practices of eight newly arrived refugee families. Of the eight families, four were Iraqi refugees, while four were originally from Burma. Participating families were interviewed to collect socio-demographic and related information on pre-resettlement living conditions. Additionally, food receipts were collected from each family for one and a half to two months to determine which foods were purchased, the percentage of the food budget coming from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, and the types of stores visited. The receipt data were analyzed using descriptive frequencies. Results indicated that refugees of Burmese origin spent on average 19 years living in rural refugee camps, while the Iraqi refugee families lived in urban centers in neighboring countries prior to resettlement for an average of four and a half years. The SNAP benefits represented the majority of the food budget for most families. Refugee families from Burma on average spent more of their food budget at ethnic stores compared to Iraqi families. Purchase of dairy foods and plant proteins was rare among participants from Burma while animal protein accounted for 30 percent of their food budget. Iraqis spent 18 percent of their food budget on foods from the solid fats and added sugar category. In conclusion, nutrition education interventions with refugees should be tailored to families taking into account their pre-resettlement living situations and prior food access.


Aim: To report a case of unilateral choanal atresia diagnosed in a 48-year-old, presenting with fatigue as the major symptom. To highlight the importance of a detailed clinical history and physical examination for an accurate diagnosis. Background: Choanal atresia is an uncommon and often poorly recognized cause of unilateral or bilateral nasal obstruction. It is a congenital condition that occurs in approximately 1 in 5,000 to 8,000 live births. Case report: This study reports a case of unilateral choanal atresia diagnosed in a 48-year-old presenting with fatigue as the major symptom. The patient presented with a lifelong history of tiredness investigated in cardiology. She was treated by a combined transseptal and transnasal endoscopic surgical technique. Topic use of mitomycin was performed with no use of stents, with clinical regression of the symptoms. Conclusion: Unilateral choanal atresia usually presents in younger patients but can be undiagnosed until adulthood due to the nonspecific nature of the symptoms. This diagnosis should be, therefore, considered in all ages and bedside diagnostic procedures should, then, be done. Nasal endoscopy and computed tomography (CT) scan are the gold standard for the diagnosis. The use of stents and mitomycin C topically as an adjunct to the surgical repair of choanal atresia is a controversial subject.


Global overfishing indicates a need to define fisheries sustainability thresholds and identify social factors promoting successful management, but rates of fishing and factors mediating sustainability over long timescales are largely unknown. Here, we reconstruct fisheries yield for the entire period of human habitation (five to seven centuries) for two coral reef ecosystems with substantially different fisheries histories (Florida Keys and the Hawaiian Islands) and evaluate the management strategies associated with periods of sustainable fishing. This involved a mixed methods approach, in which we estimated yield by fishery sector (commercial, subsistence, recreational and aquaculture) and characterized management strategies associated with periods of sustained high yields. We found differences between the two locations, with Hawai'i sustaining yields of more than 12 mt km )2 for four centuries prior to the arrival of Europeans. This period was characterized by adaptive management whose design and enforcement exhibited characteristics of common property resource governance systems, and which effectively protected reef habitat, vulnerable lifehistory stages for fish, and species with high susceptibilities to overfishing. Reefs in both Florida and Hawai'i were exploited intensively after European contact, with sequential export-driven depletion evident in Florida over the past century. Today, both exhibit strikingly similar modern catch levels, with landings exceeding 10 mt km )2 and evidence of overfishing. Our results demonstrate that management strategies and social institutions that support strict enforcement by a local rulemaking authority have had substantial impacts on fisheries yields in the past and suggest that long-term sustainability of fisheries is possible, although rare today.


A probabilistic pursuit.evasion game from the literature is used as an example to study constrained communication in multi-robot systems. Communication protocols based on time-triggered and event-triggered synchronization schemes are considered. It is shown that by limiting the communication to events when the probabilistic map derived by the individual pursuers contain new information, as measured through their map entropy, the utilization of the communication link can be considerably improved compared to conventional time-triggered communication.


The concept of discourse genre has been a focus of analysis and discussion in recent literature. Multiple alternative conceptions and classifications have been advanced, from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. During the last ten to fifteen years an important debate has taken place in linguistics. However, the elusive and divergent conceptions underlying this concept sometimes encounter extreme opposite viewpoints. This chapter offers an interdisciplinary theoretical approach in order to reach an integral conception. Thus, accepting the social and semiotic factors involved, we propose a theoretical framework and a definition with an emphasis on a cognitive perspective and on a subject's active role in its construction. At the same time, a proposition for academic and professional genres construction in disciplinary domains is advanced.


The formation of c-Li3.75Si is known to be detrimental to silicon anodes in lithium-ion batteries. To suppress the formation of this crystalline phase and improve the electrochemical performance of Sibased anodes, three approaches were amalgamated: addition of a nickel adhesion sublayer, alloying of the silicon with titanium, and the addition of either carbon or TiO2 as a capping layer. The silicon-based films were analyzed by a suite of methods, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and a variety of electrochemical methods, as well as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to provide insights into the composition of the resulting solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). A nickel adhesion layer decreased the extent of delamination of the silicon from the underlying copper substrate, compared to Si deposited directly on Cu, which resulted in less capacity loss. Alloying of silicon with titanium (85% silicon, 15% titanium) further increased the stability. Finally, capping these multilayer electrodes with either a thin 10 nm layer of carbon or TiO2 resulted in the best electrode behavior, and lowest cumulative relative irreversible capacity. TiO2 is slightly more effective in enhancing the capacity retention, most likely due to differences in the resulting solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). The combination of an adhesion layer, alloying, and surface coatings shows a cumulative suppression of the formation of c-Li3.75Si and SEI, resulting in the greatest improvement of capacity retention when all three are incorporated together. However, these strategies appear to only delay the onset of the c-Li3.75Si phase; eventually, the c-Li3.75Si phase will form, and at that point, the rate of capacity degradation of all the electrodes becomes similar.


This material is based on work funded and supported by Department of Homeland Security and is also available at FirstResponder.gov in the Technology Documents Library. This report presents four best practices for the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) program. These best practices were identified through interviews with emergency management agencies across the United States. The WEA "Go Live" Checklist identifies key steps that an emergency management agency should perform when implementing WEA in a local jurisdiction and provides guidance for completing each action. The WEA Training and Drilling Guide identifies the steps for preparing staff to use WEA and includes suggestions shared by alerting authorities that have implemented WEA. The WEA Governance Guide identifies steps for using or preparing to use WEA to ensure coordination between participating alerting agencies. The WEA Cybersecurity Risk Management (CSRM) Strategy describes a strategy that alert originators can use throughout WEA adoption, operations, and sustainment, as well as a set of governance activities for developing a plan to execute the CSRM. Because best practices will evolve as WEA matures and becomes more widely used, an appendix provides information on how a best practice–driven organization can search for best practices, adapt them to the local context, and adopt them for everyday use.


Although English government policy has encouraged the implementation of self-management programmes in services for people with long-term conditions, the evidence for their efficacy has been limited. People with long-term neurological conditions use community-based health services including community nursing, and have particular needs in regards to self-management. This article provides an overview of the evidence for the effectiveness of self-management interventions for people with long-term neurological conditions, in particular those with stroke, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis. The current need for better interventions is highlighted, particularly the importance of providing condition-specific information and deliverance of interventions in a group setting to improve self-management outcomes. In response to weaknesses of previous self-management interventions for this population, an innovative Hertfordshire Neurological Service self-management programme is discussed, and the implications for future research are described.


This paper evaluates the role of the construction sector in accounting for the performance of the U.S. economy in the last decade. During the Great Recession (2008-09), employment in the construction sector experienced an unprecedented decline that followed the largest expansion in total employment since the 1950s. Despite the small size of the construction sector, its interlinkages with other sectors in the economy propagate the effect from changes in the demand of residential investment, hence amplifying the effect on the overall economy. An input-output analysis reveals that the construction sector has been an important driver of the dynamics of aggregate employment and output of the U.S. economy through the sectorial interlinkages. The importance of interlinkages is illustrated in a static model and then quantified in a generalized framework that includes fixed and residential investment. The model is calibrated to reproduce the boom-bust dynamics of construction employment in the period 2000-10. We find that construction and its interlinkages account for a large share of the actual changes in aggregate employment and gross domestic product during the expansion and the recession. Through the lens of the standard business cycle accounting, the recession generated in the model, as in the data, is due to the worsening of the labor wedge.


Shear strength tests were conducted on tibia, humerus, and radius bones from white leghorn layers to establish the type of statistical distribution function that best fits poultry bone strength data. The results indicated that a three-parameter Weibull distribution best described the maximum shear force and stress of the tibia and a shifted log-normal distribution best described the maximum shear stress of the radius. None of the chosen distributions (normal, log-normal, Weibull, and gamma) fit the data for the maximum shear force of the radius or humerus. Because of the nonnormal nature of the distribution of poultry bone strength, nonparameter statistics should be used to analyze the data.


In this paper, tris(hydroxymethyl)methylene ammonium acetate supported on GO as a new multifunctional heterogeneous catalyst was synthesized. After its characterization by different techniques such as FT-IR, TEM, FESEM, EDS, XPS, solid-state MAS NMR and elemental analysis, it was used as an efficient catalyst for the synthesis of hexahydroquinolines (HHQs) via a one-pot multi-component reaction. Different HHQs were synthesized in the presence of this heterogeneous metal-free catalyst in good to high yields at room temperature under solvent-free conditions. The catalyst was easily separated and reused at least five times without significant loss of activity. The acidic nature of GO improved the catalytic activity of the supported ILs and also provided heterogeneity to the ILs. This is the first report for the synthesis of HHQs in the presence of a multifunctional heterogeneous catalyst.


A critical issue when setting up a board of directors in small and medium-sized enterprises relates to the chairperson position. This study examines whether and how chairperson's experience and leadership influence the extent to which the board of directors is involved in strategy. We rely on survey data from multiple respondents in 326 firms and use regression analysis to test our hypotheses. We find that chairpersons' board experience and leadership efficacy have a positive and significant effect on boards' involvement in strategy. Our findings provide ample support for the significance of chairperson behaviours in explaining board outcomes in firms.


In finance, a market-maker quotes both a buy and a sell price in a financial instrument or commodity, with the intention of making a profit on the bid/ask spread. The function of market-making in financial instruments is at present almost exclusively the domain of humans. Computational finance (systems used lo make trading, hedging and investment decisions) has made significant progress in recent years but the focus has been on pricing and hedging complex financial instruments. The proportion of trades that are executed electronically has also increased remarkably in all asset classes, yet market-making has remained relatively labor intensive, lacking theoretical research to underpin practical innovation.

In this thesis, we investigate a novel and more intuitive theoretical approach which aims to model the market-making process. The fundamental principle of market-making is inventory management: we propose a unified approach, applicable to all asset classes, that manages the risk of a market-making book automatically. This study reveals several interesting properties which are generally intuitive to most professional market-makers but are hard to precisely encode into an automated strategy. The primary contribution of the methodology is that it enables us to grade different market-making policies and then to search for the optimal one. This can be performed not only for a single asset but also for a portfolio of correlated assets. Furthermore, in the case of a portfolio of assets, the framework enables the market marker to specify each asset's price and market-making dynamics.

We then apply the theoretical framework to build an automated market-making algorithm for the European government bonds book at Deutsche Bank. A completely automated market-making book requires numerous components, from price discovery to trade capture and risk analysis, in addition to the inventory management engine: we describe in detail how each component is implemented and integrated within the market-making system. Previous academic studies in this field have generally fallen short of any real application, because they do not have access to real trading environments. The performance of the proposed algorithm is assessed in terms of risk-management and profits or losses on a trading book especially set up for this purpose on the Global Rates Trading desk. The initial three months' performance was mediocre with regards to profits, although we used this period to set the main parameters of the system and further develop weak areas. Thereafter we have had positive results in terms of both risk-management and profits.
The contributions to science of this thesis are: (i) a mathematical framework to classify different market-making strategies within a portfolio of assets; (ii) a methodology to search for the optimal strategy for specific order arrival and asset price dynamics; (iii) the real-world application and test of the proposed algorithm.


If there is one constant in medicine, it is change. Medical education has not escaped this phenomenon, with recent initiatives including early exposure to real-world clinical experiences, a shift from pedagogical teaching to self-learning, and an emphasis on problembased learning and effective communication. The ultimate aim is to produce an individual who is grounded in patient care and medical knowledge, committed to lifelong learning, and an exemplar of communication. Feeding this stream of graduates is an array of undergraduate and graduate medical schools with a variety of curricula.


Although theorists and policy makers agree that schooling should be democratic, what this exactly means often varies. This article establishes a conceptual model for analyzing education policy in democratic societies, based on the key concepts of equality, diversity, participation, choice, and cohesion. The model facilitates the design, evaluation, comparison, and analysis of education policy in democratic societies. It also facilitates analysis of the interrelationship of the five concepts and the ways in which they both complement and conflict with each other. By providing an integrated view of the five democratic values, the model can help policy makers and analysts balance competing demands on education policy. Finally, the model improves understanding of the ways in which educational systems continually adjust to changing theory and economic, political, and social forces, and therefore, it has the potential to help explain and predict educational change.


Background: Spinal block provides excellent anesthesia for cesarean section, but it is frequently accompanied by hypotension, which if untreated can pose serious risks to mother and baby. Over the years, many interventions have been tried to prevent hypotension, but no single technique has proven to be effective and reliable. This study was carried out with the aim to find if wrapping the legs with elastic crepe bandage in addition to traditional methods was effective in preventing post spinal hypotension. Materials and Methods: A total of 60 full-term parturients with an uncomplicated pregnancy belonging to American Society of Anesthesiologists I or II were allocated randomly (30 in each group) to have their legs wrapped with elastic crepe bandage or no wrapping was done. All patients received intravenous (IV) crystalloid (20 ml/kg) 15 min prior to spinal injection and were placed in left lateral position. Electrocardiography and oxygen saturation was monitored continuously and heart rate, blood pressure was measured every 2 min until delivery of baby and every 5 min thereafter until end of cesarean section. Significant hypotension was treated with IV phenylephrine 50 µg bolus doses. Results: The frequency of hypotension was significantly less ( P = 0.009) in Group B (legs wrapped group) 3 (10%) patients when compared with Group A (nonleg wrapped) 13 (43.33%). In Group A 10 (33.33%) patients and in Group B 3 (10%) patients required rescue dose with phenylephrine which was statistically significant ( P = 0.0003). Difference in the mean change of arterial pressure between Group A and B was highly significant ( P Conclusion: Incidence of hypotension can be reduced by wrapping the legs with elastic crepe bandage with a subsequent reduction in the use of potent vasopressor. Since leg wrapping with crepe bandage is cheap, easy, readily available, noninvasive, and nonpharmacological method, it can be recommended for preventing post spinal hypotension in a developing country like ours.


SUMMARY: Tidal mills were the main industrial activity in the Bay of Cadiz for centuries. They were the last step in the production of salt and flour made by grinding grains. They were installed along the shallow channels, called "canos", around the Bay, where the frictional and geometrical effects are very strong. The authors have analyzed the propagation of the semidiurnal tidal waves along the Cano de Sancti Petri and the available tidal power in the area. The ancient tidal mills were located where the available tidal potential energy is highest, which ensured productivity for grinding salt and wheat in ancient times. Some considerations about the possibility of installing tidal power plants in the Bay of Cadiz now are given, which show that it could be a real and renewal alternative source of energy for the area.


Homo sapiens is possibly the most ecologically plastic animal species ever, capable to overcome climatic variability beyond its physiological limits by means of culture. This adaptability has a strong cultural component which required the development both new technologies and major social changes sometimes in our distant past1,2. Highly contentious archaeological evidence suggests these innovations may have predated the emergence of our own species3. Here we studied climate niche width evolution in Homo, using fine-detailed palaeoclimatic data while controlling for phylogenetic effects. Our results point to sudden widening of the climatic niches exploited by Homo starting with the emergence of H. heidelbergensis. From the Middle Pleistocene, Homo ceased to be confined to physiologically suitable regions, despite progressive harshening of global climatic conditions. These results suggest cultural modernity, and its associated technological advancements, including habitual use of fire and clothing, appeared before the emergence of our own species.


The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) will not accredit an organization that it defines as a commercial interest, that is an entity that produces, markets, resells, or distributes health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients. Thus, commercial interests are not eligible to be accredited organizations offering continuing medical education (CME) credit to physicians. This decision is based on the concern that commercial interests may use CME events to market their products or services to physicians, who then might inappropriately prescribe or administer those products or services to patients. Studies have shown that CME events supported by pharmaceutical companies, for example, have influenced physicians' prescribing behaviors. Currently, however, the ACCME does not recognize electronic health record (EHR) vendors, which are part of a multi-billion-dollar business, as commercial interests, and it accredits them to provide or directly influence CME events. Like pharmaceutical company-sponsored CME events, EHR vendor activities, which inherently only focus on use of the sponsoring vendor's EHR system despite its potential intrinsic limitations, can lead to physician reciprocity. Such events also may inappropriately influence EHR system purchases, upgrades, and implementation decisions. These actions can negatively influence patient safety and care. Thus, the authors of this Perspective call on the ACCME to recognize EHR vendors as commercial interests and remove them from the list of accredited CME providers.


Without the maternal hold, without its herethical ethics and sublimation, without the stability (fragile as it may be) that this hold can bring, we are melancholically or defensively driven to commit the most heinous acts of atrocity and violence in the name of eternal life, development, and progress. For the most part, Kristeva has described the combination of personal loss and social, cultural, and historical pressures brought to bear on the vexed (but ultimately successful) sublimation of the maternal hold by artists like Giovanni Bellini. More recently, however, her attention has turned to other contemporary examples, in particular, Max Beckmann whose works, she claims, sublimate the loss of the maternal hold itself. They are examples of a Sacred Family, a Pietà, or a Dormition that have undergone a radical transformation. They are representations of a society, a culture, indeed a world, that is losing its maternal hold; a world that is losing both its herethical ethics, and the capacity to sublimate its apoptotic inheritance. Following Kristeva, I will put Eduardo Lalo's book of poems and drawings Necrópolis (2014) in a tradition of representation of the maternal hold that is close to a thousand years old. This tradition goes from the confrontation with nothingness in Theophane the Greek's Dormition (1392) to the modern matricide represented in Pablo Picasso's Maternity Apple (1971).


In this work three formulations of modified release tablets containing pentoxifylline 400 mg/tablet were obtained. Hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC) in di®erent ratios was used as hydrophilic matrix agent. The pentoxifylline inclusion in the matrix has been carried out by water granulation, using PEG 6000 as binder. Tablets were obtained with a single station tablet machine (Korsch), using standard pressure, and obtaining tablets with 13 mm diameter, 800 mg weight and 400 mg pentoxifylline per tablet. The weight uniformity, friability, hardness, thickness and disintegration of tablets were determined according to the stipulations of the 2001 Supplement of the Romanian Pharmacopoeia Xth edition. The experimental formulations with 400 mg pentoxifylline/tablet were studied by comparing them to the industrial reference product, Trental 400 mg (Aventis Pharma) and in according to the stipulations of Romanian Pharmacopoeia Xth edition, USP 27 and European Pharmacopoeia 5th edition. Every determination was performed using 20 tablets. We followed the comparison between dissolution profiles of slow release tablets containing pentoxifylline based on hydrophilic matrix. The dissolution studies were performed using the method from USP 24, using the paddle apparatus, and water as medium of dissolution at 37+/-0,5 Celsius degrees, at a rotation speed of 50 rpm. The determination was performed by spectrofotometric as say in UV at 274 nm. It was noticeable that regarding the weight uniformity, friability, hardness, thickness and disintegration the proposed formulations are comparable with the industrial reference product (Trental, 400 mg) and are in agreement with the stipulations of the Romanian Pharmacopoeia Xth edition and European Pharmacopoeia 5th edition. The analysis of dissolution profiles showed that all formulations exhibit slow release.


A consultation amongst consultations: The historical context of the Cottesloe Church Consultation reconsidered At the time of writing it happens to be thirty years since the well known Cottesloe Church Consultation took place. On the other hand the November 1990 consultation of a wide variety of South African churches appears strongly in the focal point. In this article the socio-political, ecclesiastical and theological context of the Cottesloe Consultation is reconsidered. Finally some conclusions are drawn as regards the relevance of the Cottesloe Consultation for our times.


This review takes the experimental and theoretical discussions on the Cope rearrangement as the basis to emphasize its tight connection to many closely related pericyclic reactions. The Cope reaction, which is rather simple in a formal sense, has led to a plethora of mechanistic discussions to determine the nature of biradical‐like intermediates or transition structures. After intense experimental and theoretical investigations starting in the late 1960s, the Cope rearrangement turned out to be a multifaceted reaction with a 'chameleonic' nature, ranging from homoaromatic transition structures to biradical intermediates in substituted cases, and six‐electron transition states in the parent system. Additionally, the Cope rearrangement served as an excellent example to probe theoretical methods for the computations of a variety of pericyclic reactions. However, the relationship of the Cope rearrangement with analogous reactions has been hampered by the notion that pericyclic reactions typically are assumed to proceed in a concerted fashion. Only in the past 10 years, the Cope reaction, with its 1,5‐hexadiene unit, emerged as the structural and mechanistic prototype of a large family, including sigmatropic, cycloaddition, and other electrocyclic reactions as well as thermal rearrangements of polyunsaturated systems, enediynes, eneyne‐allenes, and many others. The recurrent and interconnecting motif in this family of reactions is the questions regarding cyclic aromatic transition states and the possible involvement of biradical intermediates. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. WIREs Comput Mol Sci 2011 1 172‐190 DOI: 10.1002/wcms.17