Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) has been successfully applied in the sintering of nanocrystalline BaTiO3 and γ-Al2O3 in order to reach fully dense nanostructured ceramics at moderate pressure and temperature. BaTiO3 compacts with densities exceeding 97% and grain size of 50 nm have thus been prepared at temperatures not exceeding 850 oC using a uniaxial pressure of 100MPa. The selection of sintering temperature is critical for the purpose of minimizinggrain growth and there is a demarcation temperature (820 oC) between normal and abnormal grain growth for the nanocrystalline BaTiO3 powder used in this study. Fully dense α-Al2O3 compacts containing grains of the size 300nm or less were consolidated from high-purity γ-Al2O3 powders without the use of additives or seeds. The transition temperature of γ-Al2O3 to α-Al2O3 can be lowered to 960 oC when γ-Al2O3 powder is compacted in the SPS apparatus. The possible mechanisms related to this low transition temperature and to the sintering of both BaTiO3 and γ-Al2O3 are discussed with special reference to the effect of the pulsed electric field generated by the pulsed electrical current used to heat the sample


The ageing of population is a phenomenon that is affecting the majority of developed countries around the world and will soon affect developing economies too. In recent years, both industry and academia are focused on the development of several solutions aimed to guarantee a healthy and safe lifestyle to the elderly. In this context, the behavioral analysis of elderly people can help to prevent the occurrence of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and frailty problems. The innovative technologies enabling the Internet of Things (IoT) can be used in order to capture personal data for automatically recognizing changes in elderly people behavior in an unobtrusive, low-cost and low-power modality. This work aims to describe the ongoing activities within the City4Age project, funded by the Horizon 2020 Programme of the European Commission, mainly focused on the use of IoT technologies to develop an innovative AAL system able to capture personal data of elderly people in their home and city environments. The proposed architecture has been validated through a proof-of-concept focused mainly on localization issues, collection of ambient parameters, and user-environment interaction aspects.


A highly-sensitive two-dimensional high-performance liquid chromatographic (2D-HPLC) system with narrowbore reversed-phase and microbore enantioselective columns has been developed for the determination of alanine (Ala) and serine (Ser) enantiomers. The amounts of D-amino acids in biological samples are extremely low in most cases and improvement in the sensitivity is still required. For a highly-sensitive analysis, a narrowbore reversed-phase column, KSAARP (1.5 mm x 500 mm, having a wider ID than the microbore column) was used in the first dimension, and a microbore enantioselective column, KSAACSP-001S (1.0 mm x 250 mm, having a narrower ID than the frequently reported enantioselective columns) was used in the second dimension. The amino acids were derivatized with 4-fluoro-7-nitro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole and detected by the fluorescence detectors. The 2D-HPLC system was validated using a mouse cerebrum in addition to the standard amino acids, and satisfactory calibration lines and precision results were obtained. In the mouse cerebrum, a large amount of D-Ser and a small amount of D-Ala were clearly observed. These results indicated that the present method is applicable to the determination of the trace amounts of D-amino acids in tissue samples.


Proving the correctness is important to ensure faultless functionality. To prove the correctness of Active Object programs in Java, this research translates them to message passing programs.
Active Object are not a build-in feature of the Java programming language. For asynchronous method calls, we used the Java Future interface to return result values. We created a formal specification for the Java Future interface and proved a simple implementation correct using the VerCors tool set.
We implemented the communication to Active Objects using message passing with the MPJ Express library. To verify this implementation, the message passing library has been annotated and a definition of valid messages in this program is given. We also annotated our implementation, however we encountered problems annotating the returning of result values. The annotations require a lot of administrative overhead and are hard to get correct.
Also the existing VerCors tool set is not capable yet to automatically verify the program, mainly because it lacks support for output parameters or sum notation in the process algebra for futures.


OBJECTIVES
Toxoplasma gondii, the protozoan parasite infecting about 30% population worldwide, is suspected to be the etiological agent of certain form of schizophrenia disease. Toxoplasma is known to change levels of certain neurotransmitters, cytokines and several hormones in both infected animals and humans. A common feature of toxoplasmosis and schizophrenia is a disorder of immune system.

METHODS
Here we studied the levels of five neuro- and immunomodulatory steroids, selected hormones and lipids in sera of 173 schizophrenia patients.

RESULTS
Toxoplasma infected schizophrenia patients expressed only insignificantly lower concentration of neuro- and immunomodulatory DHEA metabolites. Infected women had higher concentration of glucose while infected men had higher concentration of cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. No significant effect of human cytomegalovirus infection on the concentration of the above parameters was observed. The difference in the concentration of DHEA metabolites faded with the decrease of the concentration of anti-Toxoplasma IgG antibodies (i.e. with the duration of Toxoplasma infection) while the difference in the concentration of cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol increased with the decrease of the concentration of anti-Toxoplasma IgG antibodies. The prevalence of toxoplasmosis in male (53.2%) but not female (29.8%) schizophrenia patients was unusually high in comparison with prevalence of toxoplasmosis in a general population.

CONCLUSION
Our results provided an explanation for seemingly decreasing prevalence of toxoplasmosis in schizophrenia patients observed in current studies (increased concerns about the rights of patients resulting in absence of non-cooperative Toxoplasma-positive patients in the study population) and suggest possible explanation for reported positive correlation between prevalence of toxoplasmosis and incidence of cardiovascular diseases (accelerated atherosclerotic development due to increased level of cholesterol and LDL in Toxoplasma infected humans).


Using Public Engagement to Inform the Future of Health Care in Maine: Talking About "Tough Choices" by Ronald E. Beard Tish Tanski The biennial state health plan mandated by Maine's innovative Dirigo Health Reform Act guides how the state makes decisions about using its health care resources. Public engagement in the development of this plan was made an explicit goal. This article by Ron Beard and Tish Tanski and the commentary that follows by Wendy Wolf discuss how nearly 400 Maine citizens were involved in a virtual town meeting in May 2005 that provided input on the state's health plan. The collective voice of citizens involved in this forum has proven to be an important input in the ongoing efforts of policymakers to devise a responsive health care system, a system that will enable us to achieve the lofty goal of making Maine the "healthiest state in the nation." 


The thermal efficiency and emission of large bore marine medium-speed diesel engine are required to be improved under the stringent legislations. A multi-injector system has been proposed in order to improve the thermal efficiency and NOx emission instantaneously. However, application of the multi-injector system increased the complexity of parameter optimization and control. To develop proper control strategy of the novel multi-injector system, a 1D engine model of the original engine configurations was developed initially, including a predictive combustion model in commercial 1D simulation program (GT-Power). After calibrated by test results and literature data under various engine loads, the engine model was modified from a central single injector engine to a multi-injector engine. On the basis of a conventional direct-injection diesel engine, another two injectors were added to the cylinder as side injectors in the model. And the fundamental combustion characteristics and engine performance of the marine medium-speed diesel engine with multi-injector are investigated under various injection quantity ratio between the central injector and side injectors. The effects of injection timing and split injection are also studied by simulation. The result indicated that the effective thermal efficiency and NOx emission of the medium speed marine diesel engine are optimized instantaneously by changing the injection strategies of the central and side injectors. Finally, the preferred injection strategy is proposed by the 1D model.


The purpose of this article is twofold. First, it offers a complementary reading of Franz Kafka's writings on the law and Lawrence Joseph's novel Lawyerland. This reading focuses on the distinct perspectives offered by these authors. Whereas Kafka approaches the law from the perspective of the litigant or accused, Joseph's perspective, through the eyes of his lawyers and judges, is that of the consummate insider. The importance of perspective rests with the fact that although law might constitute an objective system, its experience is inevitably subjective. The absurd malevolence of law in Kafka can thus be rationalized by the system of law depicted by Joseph. The second builds on the conclusions of the first by interpreting this complementary reading to constitute a coherent literary jurisprudence. The works of Kafka and Joseph point away from the narrow confines of academic jurisprudence and current constitutional scholarship by placing legal authority at the basic levels of legal practice. It is in the trenches of contemporary legal practice, rather than in the Supreme Court or elite law schools, where the most important decisions on the law are taken and the nature of legal reality fully explored. By recognizing this fact, the jurisprudence of Kafka and Joseph takes a relational approach to how law is conceived - law takes form only insomuch as it is utilized and applied in the course of resolving legal problems. The possibilities of such jurisprudential literature will only become more important as legal practice continues to evolve along a relational path into the twenty-first century, and law and literature should accordingly focus on these possibilities as it itself continues to evolve.


Across the Pacific local councils take a variety of different forms, ranging from traditional village structures to fullyfledged municipalities. Whatever form local government takes, an appropriate legislative and regulatory framework is essential to ensure that councils can effectively address the needs of their communities.
This study is designed to help Pacific island countries review and strengthen their existing frameworks. It begins by examining legislation and systems across a range of countries and institutional settings, identifying examples of best practice and areas for improvement. It then presents case studies of three very different legislative frameworks: Fiji, Solomon Islands and Samoa. In the conclusion, the findings are consolidated into ten key principles for effective legislation: fit for purpose; democracy and representation; local empowerment; probity; oversight and support; capacity and sustainability; efficiency, effectiveness and equity; community engagement; intergovernment cooperation; clarity and consistency.
This is an authoritative piece of research that will be extremely valuable to local government practitioners in the Pacific and beyond.


Hailed as the basis for competitive advantage of contemporary firms, knowledge transfer has recently emerged as a key research topic in the organisation and management field. Despite wide recognition of the importance of social relations for effective knowledge transfer, there is little understanding of the micro-sociological foundations of this process, and even less understanding of the ways in which human resource management practices can support social relations conducive to knowledge transfer and sharing. The present study developed an integrated conceptual model with
the aim to improve understanding of the mechanisms for and the conditions under which social relations can be transformed into useful, actionable knowledge. To test
this model, quantitative data were gathered through a questionnaire survey of 135 knowledge workers from three Irish-based organisations. Qualitative data were also
collected through semi-structured interviews with the human resource managers and knowledge managers of these organisations. The findings demonstrated that, at the
interpersonal level of analysis, the effective transfer of knowledge hinges upon the extent to which individuals share a common lexicon for communication and trust each
other, both professionally and personally. In particular, personal trust was found to be key to the transfer of tacit knowledge, thereby underlining the importance of positive
affect as a criterion for the formation of productive knowledge exchange relations. In regard to the role of human resource management, it was found that employees'
perceptions of reciprocal task interdependence, job feedback, selective staffing, intensive socialisation, and relational-oriented training and development are related
strongly to their perceptions of a social climate of teamwork and cooperation and, consequently, of knowledge sharing attitudes. Importantly, the effect of these practices was found to be mediated by employees' perceptions of line managers' support for knowledge sharing. The study concluded by suggesting the need for further integration of social relations into research on the role of human resource management practices
in knowledge transfer and organisational learning.


The Pierre Auger Observatory (Auger) in Mendoza, Argentina and the Telescope Array (TA) in Utah, USA aim at unraveling the origin and nature of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR). At present, there appear to be subtle differences between Auger and TA results and interpretations. Joint working groups have been established and have already reported preliminary findings. From an experimental standpoint, the Surface Detectors (SD) of both experiments make use of different detection processes not equally sensitive to the components of the extensive air showers making it to the ground. In particular, the muonic component of the shower measured at ground level can be traced back to the primary composition, which is critical for understanding the origin of UHECRs. In order to make direct comparisons between the SD detection techniques used by Auger and TA, a joint SD experimental research program is being developed. In the first phase, two Auger SD stations were deployed at the TA Central Laser Facility to compare station-level responses. This paper concentrates on the results obtained with the first Auger SD station (an "Auger North" design), which has been operating since October 2014. The second Auger SD station, identical to the ones being operated at Auger in Argentina (an "Auger South" design), was just deployed in June 2015. The second phase of this research program will be to co-locate six Auger North SD stations with TA stations in the field to compare event-level responses. The 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference 30 July – 6 August, 2015 The Hague, The Netherlands


Drying mushrooms is a wonderful way to preserve them for long-term storage. The increasing demands and the accompanying value addition present a great opportunity for the dairy industry to take up the production and marketing of various dairy products especially traditional products on an industrial scale. The study focussed on value-added product development by sun-drying mushrooms and incorporating its powder into a dairy product such as paneer, further supplementing the product for raising the serum levels of vitamin-D in Vitamin-D deficient women. Mushrooms were sundried under UV light for 6 hrs and then powdered and incorporated into paneer in two variations (Variation 1 and Variation 2 ) .The proximate analysis revealed significant increase in the nutrient content in variations of sundried mushroom powder enriched paneer. The vitamin D content of sundried mushroom powder enriched paneer increased significantly. Supplementation of sun dried mushroom powder enriched paneer (variation 1) in vitamin D deficient women significantly increased the serum levels of vitamin D after feeding trial for one week. This improvement in vitamin D status could be attributed to the bioavailability of vitamin D2 from vitamin D2 enhanced mushroom through sunlight exposure. The results of sensory evaluation showed that the incorporation of sun dried mushroom powder in blends of cow milk was found suitable without affecting the sensory characteristics significantly.


Several papers in the present symposium emphasize the importance and interplay of carbohydrate and fat metabolism during exercise of varying intensities and duration. In constrast, amino acid metabolism is deemed to make only a minimal contribution to the provision of energy for the working muscle and is, with few exceptions, ignored. Equally, the mechanisms of what is termed 'central fatigue', i.e. fatigue associated with alterations in the functioning of the brain or central nervous system (CNS), are largely unexplored. However, several papers over the past few years have promoted an attractive role for certain amino acids as substrates for intermediary metabolism and precursors of brain neurotransmitters. The focus of the present paper is the potential interplay between peripheral substrate utilization, amino acid metabolism, brain neurotransmitter function and fatigue. For the purpose of the present symposium only experimental data obtained from human subjects will be considered. Fatigue during exercise is commonly defined as the inability to maintain the required force or power output. In the present discussion, fatigue, or the perception of fatigue, is considered to be related to the loss of power output, or the perceived inability to maintain power output, during prolonged submaximal dynamic exercise. Fatigue during this type of exercise can be conveniently partitioned into 'central' and 'peripheral' components (Fig. 1). Much is now known of the role of substrate depletion in the aetiology of fatigue (see relevant papers in the present symposium) but subjects performing prolonged exercise perceive an increase in fatigue well in advance of the point where substrate depletion (or other components of peripheral fatigue) forces the subject either to stop or to reduce the required intensity of exercise. This perception of fatigue must reside within the brain and CNS, is thought to be related to a change in brain neurotransmitters such as serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine), noradrenaline and dopamine, and is generally known as the 'central fatigue hypothesis'. In essence, the central fatigue hypothesis suggests that an increase in brain serotoninergic function in response to an increase in the blood-borne delivery of its amino acid precursor, tryptophan, can impair certain aspects of CNS function (possibly by reducing dopaminergic activity) in order to induce an early onset of fatigue during prolonged exercise.


On December 17 2010, a young Tunisian street vendor protesting an abusive police official set off a wave of democratic uprisings throughout the Arab world. In rising up against their governments, the peoples of the Arab Spring were confronting an age-old problem in political theory: when is it acceptable to rise up against an unjust authority? This question is not only of great importance to the peoples of the Middle East today, but was also of profound interest to the American founders and, through them, has informed the very basis of modern constitutionalism. It is perhaps unsurprising then that many constitutions themselves provide an answer to this question, allowing the people to challenge or overthrow their governments under certain circumstances. But to date, little systematic and empirical analysis has been done on the prevalence of this so-called "right to resist" in national constitutions, or on what motivates constitution-makers to adopt such a right. This article takes up the task. It presents a unique and original dataset on right to resist provisions in all national constitutions written since 1781, tracing its historical trajectory and demonstrating how it has proliferated in recent decades. The article moreover provides the first-ever empirical exploration of why it is, exactly, that constitution-makers give their people a constitutional mandate to overthrow or contradict their governing authorities – likely those very authorities elsewhere empowered by the same constitution. Drawing on a range of real-world examples as well as regression analysis, we show that right to resist provisions are most likely to be first established following a disruption of the previous constitutional order, either through popular democratic transition or through a violent political break such as coup d'etat. These findings suggest that the constitutional right to resist serves a dual function, depending on its context. On the one hand, the constitutional right to resist can represent a fundamentally democratic and forward-looking tool that constrains future government abuse, empowers national citizenry, and acts as an insurance policy against undemocratic backsliding. On the other hand, the right can serve as a backward-looking justification for coup-makers who seek retroactive legitimacy for whatever political crimes placed them in a position to be making a new constitution in the first place. Which of these two functions prevails may be in large part regionally determined. Latin American constitution-makers primarily adopted the right to resist in the aftermath of coup d'etats, while in other parts of the world the right to resist functions as a pre-commitment device against undemocratic backsliding. Our findings have significant implications for our broader understanding of constitutionalism. At the heart of any constitution, it is thought, lies a wish to bind the future on behalf of the present. Yet our findings suggest that, at least in some cases, constitutional provisions may also serve the function of reinterpreting and justifying the past. At least where the right to resist is concerned, constitutions are as much about yesterday as they are about tomorrow.


We have measured the dielectric relaxation of several glass forming branched alkanes with very low dielectric loss in the frequency range 50 Hz-20 kHz. The molecular liquids of this study are 3-methylpentane, 3-methylheptane, 4-methylheptane, 2,3-dimethylpentane, and 2,4,6-trimethylheptane. All liquids display asymmetric loss peaks typical of supercooled liquids and slow beta relaxations of similar amplitudes. As an unusual feature, deliberate doping with 2-ethyl-1-hexanol, 5-methyl-2-hexanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol, 1-propanol, or 2-methyltetrahydrofuran at the 1 wt % level generates additional relaxation peaks at frequencies below those of the alpha relaxation. The relaxation times of these sub-alpha-peaks increase systematically with the size of the dopant molecules. Because these features are spectrally separate from the bulk dynamics, the rotational behavior and effective dipole moments of the probes can be studied in detail. For the alcohol guest molecules, the large relative rotational time scales and small effective dipole moments are indicative of hydrogen bonded clusters instead of individual molecules.


The paper's concern is the current difficulty, in journalism, the academy and politics, of discussing questions to do with race, ethnicity, difference and immigration because of the fear of being called a racist. It starts with an analysis of biographical interview data drawn from fifteen people who had variously acquired the label racist and who were part of a small-scale study into racism in the Midlands city of Stoke-on-Trent, UK conducted between 2003 and 2005. The interviews used the free association narrative interview method. This analysis revealed that most people do not consider themselves racist and that having a conviction for a racially aggravated offence or being a member of a far right organisation was not able to differentiate racists from non-racists. It also revealed a spectrum of attitudes towards immigrants or particular ethnic groups: strong expressions of hatred at one end of the spectrum; strong prejudicial feelings in the middle; and a feeling that 'outsider' groups should not benefit at the expense of 'insiders' (called 'othering') at the other end. The turn to theory for assistance revealed that, although hatred, prejudice and 'othering' are not the same thing, and do not have the same origins, they have become elided. This is primarily because cognitive psychology's hostility to psychoanalysis marginalised hatred whilst its exclusive preoccupation with prejudice came effectively to define racism at the individual level. Progress in thinking about racism might consist of abolishing the term and returning to thinking about hatred, prejudice and 'othering' separately.


In this paper, we show how a plate which is subjected to a heating load can be kept under an allowable temperature. Vascular channels in which coolant fluid flows have been embedded in the plate. Two types of vascular channel designs were compared: radial and tree-shaped. The effects of channel design on the thermal performance for different volume fractions (the fluid volume over the solid volume) are documented. Changing the design from radial to tree-shaped designs decreases the order of pressure drop. Hence increase in the order of the convection coefficient is achieved. However, treeshaped designs do not bath the entire domain. Therefore, we have inserted additional branches at the uncooled regions. Then, we have compared the peak temperatures of radial, traditional tree-shaped and improved tree-shaped designs. The effect of design on the maximum temperature shows that there should be an optimum design for a distinct set of boundary conditions, and this design should be varied as the boundary conditions change. This result is in accord with the constructal law, i.e. the shape should be varied in order to minimize resistances to the flows.


In this paper, a distributed Bragg reflection (DBR) type Er^(3+)/Yb^(3+) co-doped fiber laser of high output power and high slope efficiency was developed. Its gain medium was a 4.45-m-long Er^(3+)/Yb^(3+) co-doped fiber. When it was pumped by a 1064-nm Nd:YAG, the linewidth of output laser was measured as 0.072 nm by 3 dB and 0.192 nm by 25 dB at 1552.08 nm. The maximum output power was measured as 69 mW. Its power stability was <;; 5%, side mode suppression ratio was 59 dB, and the output wavelength stability was ±0.01 nm. The laser had a threshold of 12 mW and a slope efficiency of 22%.


Title of dissertation: STATISTICAL AND OPTIMAL LEARNING WITH APPLICATIONS IN BUSINESS ANALYTICS Bin Han, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Dissertation directed by: Assistant Professor Ilya O. Ryzhov Robert H. Smith School of Business Statistical learning is widely used in business analytics to discover structure or exploit patterns from historical data, and build models that capture relationships between an outcome of interest and a set of variables. Optimal learning on the other hand, solves the operational side of the problem, by iterating between decision making and data acquisition/learning. All too often the two problems go hand-inhand, which exhibit a feedback loop between statistics and optimization. We apply this statistical/optimal learning concept on a context of fundraising marketing campaign problem arising in many non-profit organizations. Many such organizations use direct-mail marketing to cultivate one-time donors and convert them into recurring contributors. Cultivated donors generate much more revenue than new donors, but also lapse with time, making it important to steadily draw in new cultivations. The direct-mail budget is limited, but better-designed mailings can improve success rates without increasing costs. We first apply statistical learning to analyze the effectiveness of several design approaches used in practice, based on a massive dataset covering 8.6 million directmail communications with donors to the American Red Cross during 2009-2011. We find evidence that mailed appeals are more effective when they emphasize disaster preparedness and training efforts over post-disaster cleanup. Including small cards that affirm donors' identity as Red Cross supporters is an effective strategy, while including gift items such as address labels is not. Finally, very recent acquisitions are more likely to respond to appeals that ask them to contribute an amount similar to their most recent donation, but this approach has an adverse effect on donors with a longer history. We show via simulation that a simple design strategy based on these insights has potential to improve success rates from 5.4% to 8.1%. Given these findings, when new scenario arises, however, new data need to be acquired to update our model and decisions, which is studied under optimal learning framework. The goal becomes discovering a sequential information collection strategy that learns the best campaign design alternative as quickly as possible. Regression structure is used to learn about a set of unknown parameters, which alternates with optimization to design new data points. Such problems have been extensively studied in the ranking and selection (R&S) community, but traditional R&S procedures experience high computational costs when the decision space grows combinatorially. We present a value of information procedure for simultaneously learning unknown regression parameters and unknown sampling noise. We then develop an approximate version of the procedure, based on semi-definite programming relaxation, that retains good performance and scales better to large problems. We also prove the asymptotic consistency of the algorithm in the parametric model, a result that has not previously been available for even the known-variance case. STATISTICAL AND OPTIMAL LEARNING WITH APPLICATIONS IN BUSINESS ANALYTICS


In order to prevent overexposure to volatile organic solvents (VOCs), a simple sensing device with high sensitivity is needed in the common workplace. Meanwhile, silicon nanowires carrying the high surface-bulk ratio as a unique characteristic could be used for VOCs sensing. This study utilised spontaneous electrochemical reaction, which involves etching of silicon wafer in a silver nitrate and hydrofluoric acid based solution, to modify etching times for silicon nanowires fabrication. This research discovered that the length of nanowire increased and VOCs sensing sensitivity improved as the etching time increased. Furthermore, diethyl ether had the optimal performance on the effect of silicon nanowires array on VOCs sensing. The study also discussed the effect of VOCs molecules and electron distribution on silicon nanowires surface, to further investigate the impact on sensing sensitivity.


Neem, Azadirachta indica A. Juss, is endowed with relevant biological properties and its oil contains unsaturated fatty acids that are susceptible to structural modification by oxidative processes such as ozonolysis to form peroxides. Therefore, the aim of this work was the synthesis, physicochemical characterization, study of thermal behavior, and evaluation of the antimicrobial potential of neem ozonated oils. The ozonolysis reaction was performed over different periods of time, in the presence or absence of water at an ozone concentration of 63 mg L−1 O3/O2. The samples were characterized by 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy, acid and iodine values and, DSC and TG/DTG thermal analyses. Additionally, quantitative 1H NMR spectroscopy was a very successful and useful tool to determine the unsaturation degree of samples. The products showed excellent broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity in comparison to other ozonated oils reported in the literature, with an MIC of <0.5 mg mL−1 for standard E. faecalis and clinical vancomycin resistant E. faecium, 5.0 mg mL−1 for clinical multiresistant K. pneumoniae (KPC), 2 mg mL−1 for standard S. aureus, and 3 mg mL−1 for methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). This is the first report on the antimicrobial action of neem oil after the ozonation process. The ozonated neem oils were investigated for their cytotoxicity against two normal human cell lines (HaCaT and HCEC). And the results show the products possess low toxicity. Our studies suggest the compounds can find potential application in the treatment of chronic wounds and skin infections.


Corrosion resistance of mild steel in simulated concrete pore solution (SCPS) prepared in well water in the absence and presence of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and Zn 2+ has been evaluated by weight loss method. It was observed that when PVA is added the corrosion inhibition efficiency (IE) increases. As the concentration of PVA increases, inhibition efficiency also increases. Addition of Zn 2+ improves of IE further. 50 ppm of PVA has 50% IE. 100 ppm of PVA shows 90% IE. When 50 ppm of Zn 2+ was added to the above system, both system shows 94% IE. The mechanistic aspects of corrosion inhibition have been studied using AC impedance spectra. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) study confirms the protection of mild steel surface by strong adsorption of PVA.


Acute fever is one of the most common presenting symptoms globally. In order to reduce the empiric use of antimicrobial drugs and improve outcomes, it is essential to improve diagnostic capabilities. In the absence of microbiology facilities in low-income settings, an assay to distinguish bacterial from non-bacterial causes would be a critical first step. To ensure that patient and market needs are met, the requirements of such a test should be specified in a target product profile (TPP). To identify minimal/optimal characteristics for a bacterial vs. non-bacterial fever test, experts from academia and international organizations with expertise in infectious diseases, diagnostic test development, laboratory medicine, global health, and health economics were convened. Proposed TPPs were reviewed by this working group, and consensus characteristics were defined. The working group defined non-severely ill, non-malaria infected children as the target population for the desired assay. To provide access to the most patients, the test should be deployable to community health centers and informal health settings, and staff should require <2 days of training to perform the assay. Further, given that the aim is to reduce inappropriate antimicrobial use as well as to deliver appropriate treatment for patients with bacterial infections, the group agreed on minimal diagnostic performance requirements of >90% and >80% for sensitivity and specificity, respectively. Other key characteristics, to account for the challenging environment at which the test is targeted, included: i) time-to-result <10 min (but maximally <2 hrs); ii) storage conditions at 0–40°C, ≤90% non-condensing humidity with a minimal shelf life of 12 months; iii) operational conditions of 5–40°C, ≤90% non-condensing humidity; and iv) minimal sample collection needs (50–100μL, capillary blood). This expert approach to define assay requirements for a bacterial vs. non-bacterial assay should guide product development, and enable targeted and timely efforts by industry partners and academic institutions.


The seriousness of the HIV epidemic in southern and eastern Africa has its roots in the 19th century—in the employment practices instituted on mines, farms and in cities, where millions of men have, ever since, lived apart from their families for the greater part of each year. This destruction of the family unit was a sociological disaster waiting for the arrival of HIV and is the source of many other social ills—not least the increasingly violent nature of South African society. In the short term we can promote HIV prevention measures such as male circumcision and condom use. In the medium term, we can hope that the many billions already spent on microbicide and vaccine research begin to pay dividends. In the long term, we need to change fundamentally the way that people live.


Experiments have shown that the quality of printed images depends on the capacity of the printing system to accurately re- produce details. We propose to improve the quality by compensat- ing for the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) of the printing system. The MTF of the printing system is measured using a mod- ified version of the method proposed by Jang and Allebach [1]. Then the MTF is adaptively compensated in the Fourier domain, depending on the frequency and on the local mean value. This compensation is included within our mathematical framework for Spatial and Color Adaptive Gamut Mapping Algorithms. Results of a category judgment experiment show significant improvement as the printed MTF compensated images obtain the best scores.


We survey selected parts of the growing literature on the microeconomics of violent conflict, identifying where academic research has started to establish stylized facts and where methodological and knowledge gaps remain. We focus our review on the role of civilian agency in conflict; on wartime institutions; and on the private sector in conflict. Future research requires new and better sources of data on conflict and conflict impacts, including from household surveys in conflict-affected areas. Impact evaluations can also be valuable sources of insights about how conflict impacts on people and how peacebuilding and reconstruction can be improved. We also see the need for much more detailed studies on the long-term impacts of conflict; on the linkages between agriculture, food security, and conflict; on the role of technology for peace; and on the micro–macro linkages of conflict, as well its macroeconomic costs. Finally, future research would benefit from linking analysis of large-scale violent conflict with other forms of violence, instability, fragility, and humanitarian crises.


We introduce a simple and effective heat sink structure for thin-film vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) in fully embedded board level guided-wave interconnects. A 50% quantum efficiency increase is experimentally confirmed for the 10-/spl mu/m thin-film VCSELs. The thermal resistance of a 1 /spl times/ 12 embedded thin-film VCSEL array in printed circuit board (PCB) is further analyzed. The experimental results show an excellent match with the simulated results. The 10-/spl mu/m-thick VCSEL had the lowest thermal resistance and the highest differential efficiency compared to 250-, 200-, 150-, and 100-/spl mu/m-thick VCSELs. A substrate removed VCSEL can be used in fully embedded board level optical interconnects without special cooling techniques.


Abstract This report describes a technique and the outcome following surgical revision of a periprosthetic infected total hip replacement (THR) in a single-stage procedure with the use of antibiotic-impregnated bioabsorbable beads. A 6-year-old German Shepherd dog underwent THR 16 months previously, which subsequently became infected. The contaminated femoral and acetabular prostheses were explanted. A femoral window was used to remove the stem and cement. The endosteal surfaces of the femur and acetabulum were reamed to remove periprosthetic tissues. The femoral window was replaced and secured in position with multiple cerclage wires. A 3.5-mm locking plate was applied to the lateral aspect of the femur to prevent fracture of the proximal femoral metaphysis and trochanter. Bioabsorbable beads of calcium sulphate, impregnated with vancomycin and gentamicin, were impacted into the femoral canal followed by an uncemented femoral stem. An uncemented acetabular implant was impacted and additional antibiotic beads placed in the vicinity prior to closure. There has been no evidence of reinfection 5 years postoperatively. Analgesic and antibacterial drugs were not required during this follow-up period; activity is unrestricted with neither lameness nor pain present. Simultaneous revision of both femoral and acetabular periprosthetic infected THR implants was successfully achieved in this patient via a single-stage procedure using uncemented implants and antibiotic-impregnated bioabsorbable beads.


FRANCE AND FRENCH CULTURAL AREAS Aesthetics of Opera in the Ancien Regime, 1647-1785. By Downing A. Thomas. (Cambridge Studies in Opera.) Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. [vii, 411 p. ISBN 0-521-80188-5. $70.] Music examples, illustrations, bibliography, index. The development of French opera provided a flashpoint for the heated aesthetic debates in seventeenth-century France, most notably the "Querelle des Anciens et Modernes"-a series of literary arguments in which one side held up the forms and language of classical texts as unequalled exemplars, while the other argued that new genres and forms equaled, and even surpassed, those of ancient Greece and Rome. Opera, with its claims of ties to ancient Greek theater, posited as sung drama by the Florentine Camerala, caused particular anxiety in France where those in the traditionalist camp viewed it as an upstart genre far inferior to spoken tragedy. Furthermore, because opera was a foreign (Italian) invention, tragedie en musique also found itself implicated in the ongoing discussions of the relative merits of French and Italian music that had their roots in the sixteenth century (Georgia Cowart, The Origins of Modem. Musical Criticism: French and Italian Music, 1600-1750 [Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1981]). The complexities of early modem Kreuch aesthetics provide a view of ways in which tragedie en musique participated in important cultural shifts in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Fiance, as its admirers and detractors sought to come to tenus with its aesthetic impact. These aesthetic debates invite interdisciplinary readings that yield a rich picture of early modern French culture that has fascinated a number of scholars. Notably, Georgia Cowart (cited above) has explored the connections between early modern French aesthetics and the development of the language and intellectual tools of modern music criticism (see also Cowan, ed., French Musical Thought, 1600-1800 [Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1989]). While Downing Thomas's Aesthetics of Opera in the Ancien Regime, 1647-1785 covers some of the same ground from the literary side, he opens up different questions, demonstrating how French opera became interwoven in multiple aesthetic discourses. Thomas argues that the close lies between opera and aesthetics experienced in the eighteenth century are quite different from post-Kantian "disinterested" aesthetics and our experience of opera (p. 322). Drawing together an illuminating array of sources, Thomas is as interested in opera imagined as in opera performed in Ihe seventeenlh and eighteenth centuries. Thus most of his chapter on architectural designs of opera houses examines plans lhal were nol, in fact, ever realized. His fascinating reading of Bernard Germain Etienne Mcdard de la Ville-sur-Illon, comte de Lacepede's imagined opera on the subject of Adam and Eve in his La poetique de la musique (Paris: de l'imprimerie de Monsieur, 1785; reprint, Geneve: Slatkine, 1970) demonstrates how deeply opera had hecome embedded in ihe experience of French culture by the late eighteenth century. Thomas's sources include literary, historical, visual, architectural, and musical materials, and for the most pan, he handles them deftly. Thomas does not presume to give a complete survey of opera, or even thought about opera, in ancien regime France. Instead, he selects particular moments, works, and texts that served as aesthetic touchstones for writers, musicians, crilics, and audiences for in-depth discussion. The book divides into two parts, the first examining tragedie and its relationship with spoken tragedy; the second, on opera more broadly conceived, focusing on eighteenth-century sensibility and sensation with particular emphasis on opfra comique. The book's greatest strength lies in the diversity of the material Thomas brings to bear on his subject and his insightful readings of it. Of particular inlerest is his reading of Abbe Jean Terrasson's (1670-1750) Dissertations critique suer 'l'Iliade d'Homere (Paris: chez Francois Fournier et Antoine-Urbain Goustelier, 1715; reprint, Geneve: Slatkine, 1970). …


Because Peyer's patches (PP) are the main inductive sites for gut IgA responses we have focused this review on what we know about the function of PP germinal centers (GC). The vast majority of IgA gene sequences in the gut lamina propria (LP) are heavily mutated arguing for an origin in GC. Because PP GC formation is dependent on the presence of CD4 T cells, we speculate that all IgA responses in the normal gut are directly or indirectly T cell-dependent (TD). We hypothesize that the CD4 T cell involvement in gut IgA responses against the microbiota is different from that in systemic responses since cognate T–B cell interactions appear not to be required. In the absence of cognate interactions the function of CD4 follicular helper T cells (Tfh) in PP GC is unclear. However, production of IL-21 and IL-6 is more pronounced than in peripheral lymph nodes. Importantly, we discuss how multiple PP are involved in generating specific IgA responses to TD antigens given orally. Recently we found that oral immunization with NP-hapten conjugated to cholera toxin (NP-CT) stimulated a strong highly synchronized, oligoclonal and affinity matured IgA response. This was achieved through re-utilization of GC in multiple PP as GC IgA B cells emigrated into already established GC. Clonally related B cells were present in both inductive and effector lymphoid tissues in the gut and clonal trees involving multiple PP could be constructed in individual mice. Through adoptive transfer of B1-8hi NP-specific B cells we demonstrated that GL7+ PP B cells could enter into pre-existing GC in PP, a process that was antigen-dependent but did not to require cognate Tfh interactions. Finally, we discuss the role of PP GC for the generation of memory B cells and long-lived plasma cells in the light of contrasting findings regarding IgA memory development to colonizing commensal bacteria versus that to oral immunization with enteropathogens or TD antigens.


Passive solar elements for both direct and indirect gains, are systems used to maintain a comfortable living environment while saving energy, especially in the building energy retrofit and adaptation process. Sunspaces, thermal mass and glazing area and orientation have been often used in the past to guarantee adequate indoor conditions when mechanical devices were not available. After a period of neglect, nowadays they are again considered as appropriate systems to help face environmental issues in the building sector, and both international and national legislation takes into consideration the possibility of including them in the building planning tools, also providing economic incentives. Their proper design needs dynamic simulation, often difficult to perform and time consuming. Moreover, results generally suffer from several uncertainties, so quasi steady-state procedures are often used in everyday practice with good results, but some corrections are still needed. In this paper, a comparative analysis of different solutions for the construction of verandas in an existing building is presented, following the procedure provided by the slightly modified and improved Standard EN ISO 13790:2008. Advantages and disadvantages of different configurations considering thermal insulation, windows typology and mechanical ventilation systems are discussed and a general intervention strategy is proposed. The aim is to highlight the possibility of using sunspaces in order to increase the efficiency of the existing building stock, considering ease of construction and economic viability.


This thesis examines the changes in health governance at both global and country levels
brought by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund), a
self-described public/private partnership intended as a financing mechanism to achieve
Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 6. Since the G8 announced the Global Fund's
creation in 2001, it has succeeded in mobilising over US$30 bn in commitments, primarily
from donor governments.
This thesis is rooted in the 'high politics' of International Relations (IR), and in particular
its literature on globalisation, governance and international institutions. Where this
literature has failures or gaps, it draws from the Development Studies and International
Political Economy (IPE) literatures. It also relies on key informant interviews undertaken
in Geneva, Lilongwe and Zomba with executives of international institutions, and those
involved in Malawi's HIV/AIDS response including government representatives and staff
from the National AIDS Commission, donors, NGOs and those working on the front line.
This thesis relies on a descriptive, single case study to create a 'thick' narrative. Rather
than deriving generalisations, it provides a basis for further research into the nature and
effects of systemic change in how health is governed that the Global Fund signals.
This thesis makes three contributions to knowledge: 1) It provides a basis to evolve the IR
literature on globalisation, governance and international institutions to consider the nature,
significance and effects of the Global Fund as a form of institutional innovation which is
disrupting the traditional multilateral order, particularly for international institutions
working in health; 2) It challenges the use of the term 'country ownership' to mean
'putting the country in the driver's seat', and instead notes the double deficit in external
accountability that arises when global politics and country evidence collide in a Global
Fund convened elite, mediated space for country ownership; and 3) It synthesises
observations from field work in Malawi on the exercise of the Global Fund's authority and
its dislocation from external accountability when failures occur. The IR literature is silent
on the rise of the Global Fund's authority. It fails to contend with the notion that country
ownership is as much about the burden of responsibility as it is about agenda setting. This
highlights the dislocation between the loci for authority and accountability despite the
Global Fund's growing authoritative territorial claims.


The first stars, galaxies and black holes in the universe produced large quantities of ionising UV radiation; forming H II regions in the neutral gas before the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR). These ionisation fronts will have come into contact with overdensities in the surrounding Intergalactic Medium (IGM), including haloes which were in the process of collapse. Previous studies have shown that the feedback processes on these secondary haloes can either disrupt the gas, or induce further cooling from the formation of molecular hydrogen. The ionising source will eventually die and create a defunct H II region, which expands into the surrounding neutral IGM. Minihaloes at the edge of these defunct H II regions are particularly susceptible to positive feedback due to not having been photoevaporated like their counterparts further inside the ionised volume. In this thesis, numerical simulations of minihaloes at the edges of H II regions formed by the first luminous objects before the EoR are presented. A methodology of including secondary ionisations from high energy photons is also implemented into the radiation hydrodynamical code ZEUS-RT. The interaction of differing spectral index sources with minihaloes including secondary ionisation is discussed. The secondary ionisations show the greatest effect for hard spectral sources with a large fraction of high energy photons; where a decrease in photoheating and an increase in ionisation rate is found at the outer reaches of the ionisation front (I-front). The increased ionisation rate lowers the optical depth of the gas for subsequent photons, and thus reduces the trapping of I-fronts in high densities found in the minihalo cores. The ratio of the free electron fraction to the temperature in the core of the minihaloes is found to constrain the resulting evolution. A high ratio is correlated with the creation of molecular hydrogen, which can then induce further cooling and the collapse of the system. i A large parameter suite of 3780 two-dimensional minihalo models utilising radiative hydrodynamical simulations with 12 species and a coupled reaction network, including H2 cooling, HD cooling, Lyman-Werner radiation and secondary ionisation is performed. The parameter space includes: the spectral index representing different sources such as quasars or galaxies, the mass of the minihaloes from 10 − 10 M , the redshift of ionisation from z ∼ 10 − 30, and other factors which denote the position of the minihalo relative to the boundary of the H II region. Minihaloes with average core densities of n0 = 2 − 10 cm−3 show almost unanimous positive feedback, while the majority of minihaloes under this average density are disrupted. Minihaloes with core densities above this value generally would have collapsed in isolation anyway, but are found to not be delayed by the I-front. The H2 fraction in the minihalo gas is also increased in models with no blowout by factors between 2 − 100 times that of an isolated minihalo. This is especially significant for lower redshift, z ≤ 15, minihaloes. Finally, a parameter suite of larger 10 − 10 M minihaloes results in the creation of self-gravitating clumps of gas moving out of the dark matter potential. The gas core is compressed by the I-front, enriched with molecular hydrogen, and ejected by the pressure front after the source dies. These "baryon bullets" could be progenitors of primordial globular clusters found in the haloes of galaxies today. Properties such as old stellar populations and the lack of dark matter haloes can be explained by this radiative ejection method. The dynamical nature of these interacting systems and diversity of subsequent evolution suggest that minihaloes less than 10 M are important in the early formation history of the universe, and in determining the constraining parameters of the EoR. The feedback mechanisms investigated, and secondary ionisation physics, should be included in astrophysical simulations and analytical calculations determining the evolution of the universe at this critical epoch.


ABSTRACT A new European Union Directive (Defence and Security Procurement Directive 2009/81/EC) intends to liberalize the European defence market. This article investigates whether this Directive leads to a more liberalized European defence market and how the defence companies respond to these changes, by carrying out a set of interviews with a selected sample of some of the most important defence contractors in Norway and Sweden. The article points out two main results. (1) The defence companies believe that the liberalization of the European defence market will at best be partial and fear that the new regulations might end up favouring the larger nations (e.g., Germany, the United Kingdom and France) at the expense of the smaller countries (e.g., Norway and Sweden). (2) The companies' scepticism and response to the Directive vary according to the defence industrial policy regime they are part of and their position in the defence industrial value-chain.


This paper presents TumbleBit, a new unidirectional unlinkable payment hub that is fully compatible with today's Bitcoin protocol. TumbleBit allows parties to make fast, anonymous, off-blockchain payments through an untrusted intermediary called the Tumbler. TumbleBit's anonymity properties are similar to classic Chaumian eCash: no one, not even the Tumbler, can link a payment from its payer to its payee. Every payment made via TumbleBit is backed by bitcoins, and comes with a guarantee that Tumbler can neither violate anonymity, nor steal bitcoins, nor "print money" by issuing payments to itself. We prove the security of TumbleBit using the real/ideal world paradigm and the random oracle model. Security follows from the standard RSA assumption and ECDSA unforgeability. We implement TumbleBit, mix payments from 800 users and show that TumbleBit's offblockchain payments can complete in seconds.


It has been proposed that certain type II restriction enzymes (REs), such as EcoRV, track the helical pitch of DNA as they diffuse along DNA, a so-called rotation-coupled sliding. As of yet, there is no direct experimental observation of this phenomenon, but mounting indirect evidence gained from single-molecule imaging of RE–DNA complexes support the hypothesis. We address this issue by conjugating fluorescent labels of varying size (organic dyes, proteins and quantum dots) to EcoRV, and by fusing it to the engineered Rop protein scRM6. Single-molecule imaging of these modified EcoRVs sliding along DNA provides us with their linear diffusion constant (D1), revealing a significant size dependency. To account for the dependence of D1 on the size of the EcoRV label, we have developed four theoretical models describing different types of motion along DNA and find that our experimental results are best described by rotation-coupled sliding of the protein. The similarity of EcoRV to other type II REs and DNA binding proteins suggests that this type of motion could be widely preserved in other biological contexts.


Since the mid-nineteenth-century abolition of slavery, the call for reparations for the crime of African enslavement and native genocide has been growing. In the Caribbean, grassroots and official voices now constitute a regional reparations movement. While it remains a fractured, contentious and divisive call, it generates considerable public interest, especially within sections of the community that are concerned with issues of social justice, equity, civil and human rights, education, and cultural identity. The reparations discourse has been shaped by the voices from these fields as they seek to build a future upon the settlement of historical crimes. This is the first scholarly work that looks comprehensively at the reparations discussion in the Caribbean. Written by a leading economic historian of the region, a seasoned activist in the wider movement for social justice and advocacy of historical truth, Britain's Black Debt looks at the origins and development of reparations as a regional and international process. Weaving detailed historical data on Caribbean slavery and the transatlantic slave trade together with legal principles and the politics of postcolonialism, Beckles sets out a solid academic analysis of the evidence. He concludes that Britain has a case of reparations to answer which the Caribbean should litigate. International law provides that chattel slavery as practised by Britain was a crime against humanity. Slavery was invested in by the royal family, the government, the established church, most elite families, and large public institutions in the private and public sector. Citing the legal principles of unjust and criminal enrichment, the author presents a compelling argument for Britain's payment of its black debt, a debt that it continues to deny in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. It is at once an exciting narration of Britain's dominance of the slave markets that enriched the economy and a seminal conceptual journey into the hidden politics and public posturing of leaders on both sides of the Atlantic. No work of this kind has ever been attempted. No author has had the diversity of historical research skills, national and international political involvement, and personal engagement as an activist to present such a complex yet accessible work of scholarship.


Being able to find relevant information about prominent entities quickly is the main reason to use a search engine. However, with large quantities of information on the World Wide Web, real time search over billions of Web pages can waste resources and the end user's time. One of the solutions to this is to store the answer to frequently asked general knowledge queries, such as the albums released by a musical artist, in a more accessible format, a knowledge base. Knowledge bases can be created and maintained automatically by using information extraction methods, particularly methods to extract relations between proper names (named entities). A group of approaches for this that has become popular in recent years are distantly supervised approaches as they allow to train relation extractors without text-bound annotation, using instead known relations from a knowledge base to heuristically align them with a large textual corpus from an appropriate domain. This thesis focuses on researching distant supervision for the Web domain. A new setting for creating training and testing data for distant supervision from the Web with entity-specific search queries is introduced and the resulting corpus is published. Methods to recognise noisy training examples as well as methods to combine extractions based on statistics derived from the background knowledge base are researched. Using co-reference resolution methods to extract relations from sentences which do not contain a direct mention of the subject of the relation is also investigated. One bottleneck for distant supervision for Web data is identified to be named entity recognition and classification (NERC), since relation extraction methods rely on it for identifying relation arguments. Typically, existing pre-trained tools are used, which fail in diverse genres with non-standard language, such as the Web genre. The thesis explores what can cause NERC methods to fail in diverse genres and quantifies different reasons for NERC failure. Finally, a novel method for NERC for relation extraction is proposed based on the idea of jointly training the named entity classifier and the relation extractor with imitation learning to reduce the reliance on external NERC tools. This thesis improves the state of the art in distant supervision for knowledge base population, and sheds light on and proposes solutions for issues arising for information extraction for not traditionally studied domains.


This research investigated the seismic behavior of the connection between concrete-filled steel tube (CFT) piles and concrete pile caps. This connection is an important component of an accelerated bridge construction technique, which involves driving steel piles to a finished elevation just below the design deck level, forming a pile cap around the ends of the driven piles, reinforcing this cap, and then filling the piles and the cap formwork with concrete. This cap then serves as the support for the superstructure of the bridge. Conventional configurations of the CFT to pile cap connection often involve congested and complex reinforcing schemes, which can limit the use of this bridge support system. The research discussed herein evaluated the performance of a new detailing scheme that significantly reduces congestion and construction issues, and developed a mechanics-based analysis tool to predict load carrying capacity of this type of connection. This new reinforcing scheme uses U-shaped reinforcing bars to encircle the tip of the embedded CFT pile within the cap, which act to confine the concrete immediately around the pile and transfer the loads throughout the cap. In this research, six connection specimens with various details were tested under lateral loads until failure while monitoring applied loads and lateral displacements. As intended, five specimens experienced failure in the concrete cap, with the remaining specimen failing through plastic hinging in the CFT at the face of the cap. The focus of this test program was on characterizing the failure behavior of the concrete cap; typically, this behavior was observed to consist of crushing of the concrete adjacent to the pile near the face of the cap and at the tip of embedment, followed by yielding of the longitudinal reinforcement, and concluding with yielding of the transverse reinforcement and the formation of diagonal cracks extending from the embedded pile to the edge of the cap. Based on the results of this and a previous investigation, an analysis methodology (similar to moment-curvature analysis) was developed and evaluated. This methodology proved to be an effective means for predicting the ultimate capacity of CFT to concrete pile cap connections.


Modern society has led many people to become consumers of data unlike previous generations. How this shift in the way information is communicated and received - including in areas of science - and affects perception and comprehension is still an open question. This study examined one aspect of this digital age: perceptions of astronomical images and their labels, on mobile platforms. Participants were n = 2183 respondents to an online survey, and two focus groups (n = 12 astrophysicists; n = 11 lay public). Online participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 12 images, and compared two label formats. Focus groups compared mobile devices and label formats. Results indicated that the size and quality of the images on the mobile devices affected label comprehension and engagement. The question label format was significantly preferred to the fun fact. Results are discussed in terms of effective science communication using technology.


This article is intended to help you find the relevant sources you need to provide reliable answers to issues about lawyer conduct. To do this, you will need to identify issues, understand the basic resources that can provide you with the knowledge you need, employ some advanced research techniques, and evaluate the materials you discover to know whether to pursue additional research in other jurisdictions. This article also should help you identify legal ethics issues. Additionally, it should familiarize you with sections of the lawyer codes that speak to general obligations of lawyers, such as competence, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, and the limits of the law. When a problem involving the conduct of lawyers arises, the first step in solving it is to define these issues. You may immediately discover some, such as confidentiality or loyalty, and you may immediately recognize the relevance of specific professional rules, such as Model Rule 1.6 or 1.7. Whether or not this occurs, be open to the possibility that additional lawyer code provisions or other legal remedies also may be relevant to your inquiry.We have relied on national standards (the ABA Model Rules and the ALI's Restatement of the Law Governing Lawyers) in writing this article. Although these models provide the template for most state law, the answer to the issue that you face may differ in any given jurisdiction. This is why you must know how to locate your jurisdiction's lawyer code, case law, and ethics opinions, and the range of remedies that may exist for the conduct you propose or have engaged in. If your jurisdiction has not yet addressed an issue, you will need to find relevant analogs in other jurisdictions, and recognize when it is time to find an expert.


a conversation It is undeniable that systemic design approaches almost all disciplines and hence offer potential for a similar understanding (a general system) of how to design, which behavioral, technical or structural rules to follow, to take on board or to create. The panel takes on the role of a 'crisp' conversation between a variety of 'design' perspectives in different disciplines, driven by and focusing on the challenges the anthropocene brings. Aim is to present short varying pitches ranging from innovation to material resilience, the relevance of geo-tagging or the necessity for education in design thinking. Pitches are to clarify and to confuse, to trigger and to embrace, to innovate, to criticize and to shake up. The format of the panel acts as interface and as systemic design methodology in itself. 5x15 slides, presented for 20 seconds each describe the blueprint for an agile construction.


To investigate the trace element contents of local coal, four coal samples were collected from operating mines in NW Taiwan. Detailed petrographic and chemical characterization analyses were then conducted. Analytical results indicate that (1) the samples were high volatile bituminous coal in rank with ash content ranging from 4.2 to 14.4% and with moisture content ranging from 2.7 to 4.6%; (2) the macerals were mostly composed of vitrinite with vitrinite reflectance less than 0.8%; (3) the sample of Wukeng mine has the highest Fe2O3 (29.5%), TI (54.8 ppm), Zn (140 ppm), and As (697 ppm) contents in ash and Hg (2.3 ppm) in the coal. If used properly, these coals should not present health hazards.


Background In the United Kingdom (UK), in recent influenza seasons, children are offered a quadrivalent live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV4), and eligible adults mainly trivalent inactivated vaccine (TIV). Aim To estimate the UK end-of-season 2017/18 adjusted vaccine effectiveness (aVE) and the seroprevalence in England of antibodies against influenza viruses cultured in eggs or tissue. Methods This observational study employed the test-negative case–control approach to estimate aVE in primary care. The population-based seroprevalence survey used residual age-stratified samples. Results Influenza viruses A(H3N2) (particularly subgroup 3C.2a2) and B (mainly B/Yamagata/16/88-lineage, similar to the quadrivalent vaccine B-virus component but mismatched to TIV) dominated. All-age aVE was 15% (95% confidence interval (CI): −6.3 to 32) against all influenza; −16.4% (95% CI: −59.3 to 14.9) against A(H3N2); 24.7% (95% CI: 1.1 to 42.7) against B and 66.3% (95% CI: 33.4 to 82.9) against A(H1N1)pdm09. For 2–17 year olds, LAIV4 aVE was 26.9% (95% CI: −32.6 to 59.7) against all influenza; −75.5% (95% CI: −289.6 to 21) against A(H3N2); 60.8% (95% CI: 8.2 to 83.3) against B and 90.3% (95% CI: 16.4 to 98.9) against A(H1N1)pdm09. For ≥ 18 year olds, TIV aVE against influenza B was 1.9% (95% CI: −63.6 to 41.2). The 2017 seroprevalence of antibody recognising tissue-grown A(H3N2) virus was significantly lower than that recognising egg-grown virus in all groups except 15–24 year olds. Conclusions Overall aVE was low driven by no effectiveness against A(H3N2) possibly related to vaccine virus egg-adaption and a new A(H3N2) subgroup emergence. The TIV was not effective against influenza B. LAIV4 against influenza B and A(H1N1)pdm09 was effective.


Problems in criminal justice system response to date-acquaintance rape and nonpenetration sexual offenses include (a) they are markers of a sexual offending career, yet are viewed as minor; (b) perpetrators are not held accountable in ways that reduce reoffense; and (c) criminal justice response disappoints and traumatizes victims. To address these problems, a collaboration of victim services, prosecutors, legal scholars, and public health professionals are implementing and evaluating RESTORE, a victim-driven, community-based restorative justice program for selected sex crimes. RESTORE prepares survivors, responsible persons (offenders), and both parties' families and friends for face-to-face dialogue to identify the harm and develop a redress plan. The programthen monitors the offender's compliance for 12 months. The article summarizes empirical data on problems in criminal justice response, defines restorative justice models, and examines outcome. Then the RESTORE program processes and goals are described. The article highlights community collaboration in building and sustaining this program.


The differences in two groups of patients (24 with chronic bronchitis and 24 with bronchial asthma) were compared by bronchoscopy and bronchial biopsies. The same investigations were carried out on 24 healthy control subjects. The only bronchoscopic difference between the two groups was hypertonicity of the bronchial wall, which was frequent in the asthmatics and absent in the chronic bronchitics. Mucus was scanty and viscous in the asthmatics and more abundant and watery in the chronic bronchitics. Hypersecretion of mucus occurred in both groups. In asthma the mucous hyperplasia affected chiefly the goblet cells. In chronic bronchitis the deeper bronchial glands were affected as well as the goblet cells. In asthma the mucus stained predominantly with the periodic-acid Schiff technique, and was thus presumed to contain much neutral mucopolysaccharide. In chronic bronchitis the mucus was strongly alcian blue positive and was thought to consist largely of acid mucopolysaccharide. Thickening of the basement membrane was almost constant in bronchial asthma and rare in chronic bronchitis. Tissue eosinophilia was very frequent and intense in asthma but infrequent and sparse in chronic bronchitis. Mast cells were degranulated and decreased in number in asthma but increased in number and packed with granules in chronic bronchitis. It is presumed that there is a relation between tissue eosinophilia and degranulation of mast cells. The study confirms that bronchial asthma and chronic bronchitis are two distinct diseases, both with a separate pathology.


Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) disciplines have become key focus areas in the education community of the United States. Newly adopted across the nation, Next Generation Science Standards require that educators embrace innovative approaches to teaching. Transforming classrooms to actively engage students through a combination of knowledge and practice develops conceptual understanding and application skills. The partnerships between researchers and educators during the Amundsen Sea Polynya International Research Expedition (ASPIRE) offer an example of how academic research can enhance K-12 student learning. In this commentary, we illustrate how ASPIRE teacher–scientist partnerships helped engage students with actual and virtual authentic scientific investigations. Crosscutting concepts of research in polar marine science can serve as intellectual tools to connect important ideas about ocean and climate science for the public good.


We extend the geometrical theory presented in [5] for collisional and frictional particle abrasion to include an independent physical equation for the evolution of mass and volume. We introduce volume weight functions as multipliers of the geometric equations and use these mutipliers to enforce physical volume evolution in the unified equations. The latter predict, in accordance with Sternberg's Law, exponential decay for volume evolution. We describe both the PDE versions, which are generalisations of Bloore's equations and their heuristic ODE approximations, called the box equations. The latter are suitable for tracking the collective abrasion of large particle populations. The mutual abrasion of identical particles, called the self-dual ows, play a key role in explaining geological scenarios. We give stability criteria for the self-dual ows in terms of the parameters of the physical volume evolution models and show that under reasonable assumptions these criteria can be met by physical systems. We also study a natural generalisation, the unidirectional Bloore equation, covering the case of unidirectional abrasion. We have previously shown that his equation admits travelling front solutions with circular profiles. More generally, in three dimensions, they are so-called linear or special Weingarten surfaces.


Purpose – Crowdfunding implies mobilizing the crowd to finance projects which are posted on dedicated websites, known as crowdfunding platforms. Funding is provided by web users in exchange for some claims on the project revenues, or for a reward, or simply for donation. In this paper, we aim at learning more on what determines the probability of a project to reach the target funding. We apply the lens of social capital, defined by the goodwill available to her/him from the structure and content of his/her social relations (Adler and Kwon 2002). In particular we distinguish between 'individual' (exclusive) and 'territorial' (locally shared) social capital. Design/methodology/approach – We test our hypotheses by running Probit estimates on a sample of 461 crowdfunding projects posted by 699 proponents and hosted on 11 Italian crowdfunding platforms. The focal dependent variables deal with the individual social capital and geographically localized social capital. The former is proxied by the number of contacts of proponents on digital social networks (i.e. Facebook). To account for the latter, we refer to the municipality of residence of each proponent and resort to the traditional measure of localized social capital used in the literature. We control also for a set of project-specific variables. Originality/value –This methodology puts in evidence that in a framework with information asymmetry individual social capital (ISC) is positively and significantly correlated with the probability of success of a crowdfunding project, providing a positive signal to crowdfunders. On the contrary, we do not find any significant correlation with the diffused territorial social capital (TSC). By jointly considering the impact of ISC and TSC, we find that TSC weakens the signal provided by ISC. We posit that such result is a consequence of an 'adverse-selection' problem. Good-quality projects may more easily collect money on a territorial basis if TSC is large. Therefore crowdfunding projects originated in large-TSC milieus ceteris paribus are less easily financed by crowdfunders. Practical implications – Our work has interesting managerial implications. Individual social capital impacts on the success of crowdfunding projects and interacts with geolocalized territorial social capital. Accordingly, proponents, funders and managers of crowdfunding platforms who are interested in selecting potentially successful projects must consider such interaction, and carefully evaluate both individual and territorial social capital.


This study uses psychoanalytic object relations theory to understand and analyze the lived experiences of adult Mexican males which will include the psychological meaning of loss and grief resulting from immigrating into the United States. The literature review illustrates and serves as a guide to broaden the understanding of the complex psychological and emotional processes that adult Mexican immigrants experience when faced with the reality of adapting to a host-culture. Participants were interviewed through a descriptive phenomenological approach seeking a complete description of their lived immigration experiences of grief, loss, and coping. After analysis of the transcriptions, several notable themes emerged that can be divided into two main sections. The main themes in Part A indicate how participants described their experience in the United States: excitement, post-immigration fear-based living, overall positive life changes, struggling to learn a new language, adapting to new ways of living, feelings of gratitude and valuing all work opportunities. The main themes in Part B indicate how participants identified and described losses, grief, and ways they coped after immigrating: family separation, loneliness, being unable to touch or see family for years, and irreparable time loss with family. They found comfort from supporting family financially, calling or writing letters as a way to communicate, and utilizing grief as a motivator. The electronic version of the dissertation is accessible at Ohiolink ETD center http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd.


The amount of melt generated per unit pressure drop during adiabatic upwelling, the isentropic melt productivity, cannot be determined directly from experiments and is commonly assumed to be constant or to decrease as melting progresses. From analysis of one– and two–component systems and from calculations based on a thermodynamic model of peridotite partial melting, we show that productivity for reversible adiabatic (i.e. isentropic) depressurization melting is never constant; rather, productivity tends to increase as melting proceeds. Even in a one–component system with a univariant solid–liquid boundary, the 1/T dependence of (∂S/∂T)P and the downward curvature of the solidus (due to greater compressibility of liquids relative to minerals) lead to increased productivity with increasing melt fraction during batch fusion (and even for fractional fusion in some cases). Similarly, for multicomponent systems, downward curvature of contours of equal melt fraction between the solidus and the liquidus contributes to an increase in productivity as melting proceeds. In multicomponent systems, there is also a lever–rule relationship between productivity and the compositions of coexisting liquid and residue such that productivity is inversely related to the compositional distance between coexisting bulk solid and liquid. For most geologically relevant cases, this quantity decreases during progressive melting, again contributing to an increase in productivity with increasing melting. These results all suggest that the increases in productivity with increasing melt fraction (punctuated by drops in productivity upon exhaustion of each phase from the residue) predicted by thermodynamic modelling of melting of typical mantle peridotites using MELTS are neither artifacts nor unique properties of the model, but rather general consequences of adiabatic melting of upwelling mantle.


We experimentally demonstrate the first integrated temporal Fourier transformer based on a linearly chirped Bragg grating waveguide written in silica glass with a femtosecond laser. The operation is based on mapping the energy spectrum of the input optical signal to the output temporal waveform by making use of first-order chromatic dispersion. The device operates in reflection, has a bandwidth of 10 nm, and can be used for incident temporal waveforms as long as 20 ps. Experimental results, obtained through both temporal oscilloscope traces and Fourier transform spectral interferometry, display a successful Fourier transformation of in-phase and out-of-phase pairs of input optical pulses, and demonstrate the correct functionality of the device for both amplitude and phase of the temporal output.


Schistosomiasis remains a major cause of morbidity in the world. The challenge today is not so much in the clinical management of individual patients, but rather in population-based control of transmission in endemic areas. Despite recent large-scale efforts, such as integrated control programs aimed at limiting schistosomiasis by improving education and sanitation, molluscicide treatment programs and chemotherapy with praziquantel, there has only been limited success. There is an urgent need for complementary approaches, such as vaccines. We demonstrated previously that anti-oxidant enzymes, such as Cu–Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione S peroxidase (GPX), when administered as DNA-based vaccines induced significant levels of protection in inbred mice, greater than the target 40% reduction in worm burden compared to controls set as a minimum by the WHO. These results led us to investigate if immunization of non-human primates with antioxidants would stimulate an immune response that could confer protection as a prelude study for human trials. Issues of vaccine toxicity and safety that were difficult to address in mice were also investigated. All baboons in the study were examined clinically throughout the study and no adverse reactions occurred to the immunization. When our outbred baboons were vaccinated with two different formulations of SOD (SmCT-SOD and SmEC-SOD) or one of GPX (SmGPX), they showed a reduction in worm number to varying degrees, when compared with the control group. More pronounced, vaccinated animals showed decreased bloody diarrhea, days of diarrhea, and egg excretion (transmission), as well as reduction of eggs in the liver tissue and in the large intestine (pathology) compared to controls. Specific IgG antibodies were present in sera after immunizations and 10 weeks after challenge infection compared to controls. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells, mesenteric, and inguinal node cells from vaccinated animals proliferated and produced high levels of cytokines and chemokines in response to crude and recombinant antigens compared with controls. All together, these data demonstrate the potential of antioxidants as a vaccine in a non-human primate model.


AIM
Traumatic thoracic disc herniation is an extremely rare pathology. We will present a case (3rd report in the literature, 1st case with sequestrated-extruded disc herniation) of thoracic disc herniation that was sequestrated only by ligamentous injury without thoracic osseous pathology.

METHOD
We reviewed the diagnosis and treatment of a 25-year-old man presenting with paraplegia after a car accident.

RESULTS
In this case, no pathology was seen on the X-ray and spinal computed tomography (CT), and the paraplegia of the patient was unexplained in the first examination. Subsequent spinal MRI revealed a T12-L1 cranial-migrated soft disc herniation, which was surgically treated and neurologically recovered within weeks after surgery.

CONCLUSION
Traumatic thoracic disc herniations are extremely rare and can be seen without any obvious signs of trauma on X-ray and spinal CT. A spinal MRI scan helps with diagnosis, while rapid surgical treatment (decompression) supports excellent recovery.


OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to develop and to test a home-based, guided imagery treatment protocol, using audio and video recordings, that is easy for health care professionals and patients to use, is inexpensive, and is applicable to a wide range of health care settings. METHODS: Thirty-four children, 6 to 15 years of age, with a physician diagnosis of functional abdominal pain were assigned randomly to receive 2 months of standard medical care with or without home-based, guided imagery treatment. Children who received only standard medical care initially received guided imagery treatment after 2 months. Children were monitored for 6 months after completion of guided imagery treatment. RESULTS: All treatment materials were reported to be self-explanatory, enjoyable, and easy to understand and to use. The compliance rate was 98.5%. In an intention-to-treat analysis, 63.1% of children in the guided imagery treatment group were treatment responders, compared with 26.7% in the standard medical care–only group (P = .03; number needed to treat: 3). Per-protocol analysis showed similar results (73.3% vs 28.6% responders). When the children in the standard medical care group also received guided imagery treatment, 61.5% became treatment responders. Treatment effects were maintained for 6 months (62.5% responders). CONCLUSION: Guided imagery treatment plus medical care was superior to standard medical care only for the treatment of abdominal pain, and treatment effects were sustained over a long period.


Product verifications have become a cost -intensive and time-consuming aspect of modern electronics production, but with the onset of an ever-increasing miniaturisation, these aspects will become even more cumbersome. One may also go as far as to point out that certain precision assembly, such as within the biomedical sector, is legally bound to have 0 defects within production. Since miniaturisation and precision assembly will soon become a part of almost any product, the verifications phases of assembly need to be optimised in both functionality and cost. Another aspect relates to the stability and robustness of processes, a pre-requisite for flexibility. Furthermore, as the re-engineering cycle becomes ever more important, all information gathered within the ongoing process becomes vital. In view of these points, product, or process verification may be assumed to be an important and integral part of precision assembly. In th is paper, product verification is defined as the process of determining whether or not the products, at a given phase in the life -cycle, fulfil the established specifications. Since the product is given its final form and function in the assembly, the product verification normally takes place somewhere in the assembly line which is the focus for this paper.


Long-lived systems rely on reflective self-modification to evolve. Unfortunately, since such a system is at both ends of a causal loop, this means modifications that impact the reflective layer itself can be overly difficult to apply.
 This paper introduces ObjectSpaces, a reification of the familiar Smalltalk image as a first-class entity. By confining the system inside an ObjectSpace, we isolate the evolution tools from it, while still giving them reflective access to the confined system. We describe the ObjectSpaces idea, the interface to communicate, inspect, and debug objects contained inside and ObjectSpace, based on a prototype implementation in GNU Smalltalk.


In this paper we present two topologies for differential high-sensitivity comparators, suitable to be implemented in GaAs MESFET/HEMT technologies. Both topologies use positive feedback to compensate for the moderate specific transconductance of GaAs devices, and differ for the implementation of the summation node. The linear and non-linear behaviour of the circuits are analysed, in order to define limitations due to process parametric dispersion using state of art technologies. Circuit simulations are reported to estimate slew rate performance. The topology based on the cascade of two differential cells shows better slew rate performance and results not very sensitive to process parameter dispersion, whereas the topology based on the shunt connection of two differential pairs is more sensitive to process variations but allows to electronically control its DC transfer function.


A limited adaptive genetic algorithm (LAGA) is proposed in the paper for inner-plant economical operation of a hydropower station. In the LAGA, limited solution strategy, with the feasible solution generation method for generating an initial population and the limited perturbation mutation operator, is presented to avoid hydro units operating in cavitation–vibration regions. The adaptive probabilities of crossover and mutation are introduced to improve the convergence speed of the genetic algorithm (GA). Furthermore, the performance of the limited solution strategy and the adaptive parameter controlling improvement are checked against the historical methods, and the results of simulating inner-plant economical operation of the Three Gorges hydropower station demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. First, the limited solution strategy can support the safety operations of hydro units by avoiding cavitation–vibration region operations, and it achieves a better solution, because the non-negative fitness function is achieved. Second, the adaptive parameter method is shown to have better performance than other methods, because it realizes the twin goals of maintaining diversity in the population and advancing the convergence speed of GA. Thus, the LAGA is feasible and effective in optimizing inner-plant economical operation of hydropower stations.


Interaction forces between silica surfaces with adsorbed poly (amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers were measured with the colloidal probe technique based on the atomic force microscope (AFM). At small separations, attractive non-DLVO forces are observed. These forces likely originate from interactions between oppositely charged patches on the surfaces, resulting from the heterogeneous distribution of the adsorbed positively charged dendrimers on the negatively charged surface. At large separation distances, the interaction forces are repulsive and consistent with DLVO theory. These forces can be interpreted quantitatively as originating from the overlap of diffuse layers of positively charged surfaces in terms of the Poisson-Boltzmann theory. From the resulting diffuse layer potentials, one can extract the effective charge of the dendrimers in the adsorbed state. This effective charge is about half of the ion condensation value given by Poisson-Boltzmann theory for a charged spherical macromolecule in solution for the different dendrimer generations investigated. This reduction probably originates from the smaller volume available for the diffuse layer of adsorbed macromolecules, but charge neutralization may also play an essential role.


This article proposes a quick method for computing approximate threshold levels that control the genome-wise type I error rate of tests for quantitative trait locus (QTL) detection in interval mapping (IM) and composite interval mapping (CIM). The procedure is completely general, allowing any population structure to be handled, e.g., BC(1), advanced backcross, F(2), and advanced intercross lines. Its main advantage is applicability in complex situations where no closed form approximate thresholds are available. Extensive simulations demonstrate that the method works well over a range of situations. Moreover, the method is computationally inexpensive and may thus be used as an alternative to permutation procedures. For given values of the likelihood-ratio (LR)-profile, computations involve just a few seconds on a Pentium PC. Computations are simple to perform, requiring only the values of the LR statistics (or LOD scores) of a QTL scan across the genome as input. For CIM, the window size and the position of cofactors are also needed. For the approximation to work well, it is suggested that scans be performed with a relatively small step size between 1 and 2 cM.


Discussions with math teachers, of various grade levels, brought out one consistent observation. Each year, students need to be retaught math concepts that they have been previously taught but have forgotten. With the ever-expanding curriculum of material that teachers need to cover over the course of a school year continually growing, it becomes plausible that not enough time is spent on material for it to be internalized and truly learned, for the long term. The amount of material to be covered will not likely decrease, so what can be done to help the instruction that does take place be more effective? What can be done to help students retain information and be able to recall and use it when needed? My Action Research project evolved to answer the question: Would using music improve math skill acquisition and retention?


These original empirical research essays in the psychology of perception, cognition, and language were written in honor of Henry and Lila Gleitman, two of the most prominent psychologists of our time. The essays range across fields foundational to cognitive science, including perception, attention, memory, and language, using formal, experimental, and neuroscientific approaches to issues of representation and learning. An introduction provides a historical perspective on the development of the field from the 1960s onward. The contributors have all been colleagues and students of the Gleitmans, and the collection celebrates their influence on the field of cognitive science. Contributors: Cynthia Fisher, Susan Goldin-Meadow, Katherine Hirsh-Pasek, John Jonides, Phillip Kellman, Michael Kelly, Donald S. Lamm, Barbara Landau, Jack Nachmias, Letitia Naigles, Elissa Newport, W. Gerrod Parrott, Daniel Reisberg, Robert A. Rescorla, Paul Rozin, John Sabini, Elizabeth Shipley, Thomas F. Shipley, John C. Trueswell.


Admired and Understood analyzes Behn's only pure verse collection, Poems upon Several Occasions (1684), and situates her in her literary milieu as a poet. Behn's book demonstrates her desire for acceptance in her literary culture, to be "admired and understood," as she puts its, the antitheses of what many surmise from reading her other works - that she saw herself primarily as a guerilla critic of her culture's views on race, class, and gender. The introduction to Admired and Understood argues that her colleagues thought of her as poet first, rather than as a dramatist, reviews current criticism about Behn, and provides a brief overview of late seventeenth-century poetical theory. The first chapter explains the intricately interwoven structure of Behn's collection. The next two chapters concern intertextual linkages between Behn and Abraham Cowley, as well as the influence of Thomas Creech's translations of Horace, Theocritus, and Lucretius on her poetics. The ensuing chapters concern Behn's response to Rochester's libertine aesthetic, a close reading of "On a Juniper-Tree" (a poem central to her collection), Katherine Philips as Behn's most important predecessor as a woman writing poetry, and her epistolary verse novel, A Voyage to the Isle of Love, the cornerstone and climax of her collection. M. L. Stapleton is Professor of English at Stephen F. Austin State University.