In cross-sectional studies, we examined the long-term practice effects of QiGong exercise on perceived health and quality of life (QoL) in middle-aged (over 50 years) Japanese individuals. In Study 1, Japanese adults (n = 320) who practised QiGong responded to a questionnaire concerning the perceived benefits of QiGong practice and QoL. In Study 2, we collected data from QiGong participants who attended a QiGong conference (n = 799). Participants in Study 1 perceived that QiGong affords physical, psychological, and social benefits and QiGong duration in years correlated strongly with QoL. In Study 2, those who practised QiGong for 0–3 years vs. 13+ years reported a greater likelihood of perceived palpitation, insomnia, a lack of vigour, and attention deficit (odd ratios 1.56–2.60, all p < .01) with similar trends for joint pain, depression, and forgetfulness. QiGong practice for 13+ vs. 0–3 years reduced perception of physical fatigue, poor physical health, joint pain, insomnia, problems with attention, forgetfulness, and anger (odd ratios 1.95–2.85, all p < .05). However, there were no differences in the effects between other practice periods (p > .05). QiGong is a multi-component form of physical activity, which – if practised for prolonged periods – affords motor, cognitive, social, and QoL benefits.


Conservation of biodiversity in urban vegetation fragments is of increasingly high importance with growing urbanisation globally, particularly so in the biodiversity hotspot of the Mediterranean southwest of Western Australia. Relationships between fragmentation (connectivity, fragment size, time since isolation) and urban disturbances (weed invasion, human disturbance, rubbish) relative to the soil seed bank of a representative sample of Perth's urban woodland fragments (N=36) were examined. In total, 182 seedling types comprising 57 invasive, 105 native and 20 unknowns were identified. Approximately 65% of the 21,770 seedlings counted were native, 33% invasive and 2% unidentified. The average soil seed bank seedling density was 2,787 germinates per m2. Community analysis (ordination) showed that the soil seed bank composition correlated with fragment age. Subsequent quantitative analysis (linear regression) did not find evidence for species or functional trait groups being vulnerable to decline due to isolation or fragment age, indicating that species extinction is not evident within Perth's urban fragments. More invasive annual herbs were found within older fragments and the soil seed banks of smaller fragments were found to have lower native species abundance compared to larger fragments. A positive relationship was found between the number of footpaths within a fragment and the abundance of annual invasive herbs within the soil seed bank. High weed cover in a fragment resulted in high weed presence within the soil seed bank. It was also found that high weed cover did not necessarily indicate low native species diversity or abundance within the soil seed bank, suggesting caution in using weed cover to classify sites as suitable/unsuitable for topsoil transfer in restoration activities. The soil seed bank of the study sites contained a diverse range of native species, indicating that topsoil from these areas may be useful in restoration of degraded sites.


Imbibition is one of the key phenomena underlying processes such as oil recovery and others. In this paper, the influence of nanoparticles on spontaneous water imbibition into ultraconfined channels is investigated by molecular dynamics simulation. By combining the dynamic process of imbibition, the water contact angle in the capillary and the relationship of displacement (l) and time (t), a competitive mechanism of nanoparticle effects on spontaneous imbibition is proposed. The results indicate that the addition of nanoparticles decreases the displacement of fluids into the capillary dramatically, and the relationship between displacement and time can be described by l(t) ~ t1/2. Based on the analysis of the dynamic contact angle and motion behavior of nanoparticles, for water containing hydrophobic nanoparticles, the displacement decreases with the decrease of hydrophobicity, and the properties of fluids, such as viscosity and surface tension, play a major role. While for hydrophilic nanoparticles, the displacement of fluids increases slightly with the increase of hydrophilicity in the water-wet capillary and simulation time, which can be ascribed to disjoining pressure induced by "sticking nanoparticles". This study provides new insights into the complex interactions between nanoparticles and other components in nanofluids in the spontaneous imbibition, which is crucially important to enhanced oil recovery.


Leon (Judah Aryeh) Modena was a major intellectual figure of the early modern Italian Jewish community--a complex and intriguing personality who was famous among contemporary European Christians as well as Jews. Modena (1571-1648) produced an autobiography that documents in poignant detail the turbulent life of his family in the Jewish ghetto of Venice. The text of this work is well known to Jewish scholars but has never before been translated from the original Hebrew, except in brief excerpts. This complete translation, based on Modena's autograph manuscript, makes available in English a wealth of historical material about Jewish family life of the period, religion in daily life, the plague of 1630-1631, crime and punishment, the influence of kabbalistic mysticism, and a host of other subjects. The translator, Mark R. Cohen, and four other distinguished scholars add commentary that places the work in historical and literary context. Modena describes his fascination with the astrology and alchemy that were important parts of the Jewish and general culture of the seventeenth century. He also portrays his struggle against poverty and against compulsive gambling, which, cleverly punning on a biblical verse, he called the "sin of Judah." In addition, the book contains accounts of Modena's sorrow over his three sons: the death of the eldest from the poisonous fumes of his own alchemical laboratory, the brutal murder of the youngest, and the exile of the remaining son. The introductory essay by Mark R. Cohen and Theodore K. Rabb highlights the significance of the work for early modern Jewish and general European history. Howard E. Adelman presents an up-to-date biographical sketch of the author and points the way toward a new assessment of his place in Jewish history. Natalie Z. Davis places Modena's work in the context of European autobiography, both Christian and Jewish, and especially explores the implications of the Jewish status as outsider for the privileged exploration of the self. A set of historical notes, compiled by Howard Adelman and Benjamin C. I. Ravid, elucidates the text.


It is generally accepted that the interaction between particles mediated by the scattered light (called optical binding) is very weak. Therefore, the optical binding is usually neglected in a multi-particle trapping in distinct optical traps. Here we show that even the presence of only two dielectric particles confined in the standing wave leads to their significantly different behavior comparing to the case of a single trapped particle. We obtained persuading coincidence between our experimental records and the results of the deterministic and stochastic theoretical simulations based on the coupled dipole method.


In this paper, we study the problem of reproducing the light from a single image of an object covered with random specular microfacets on the surface. We show that such reflectors can be interpreted as a randomized mapping from the lighting to the image. Such specular objects have very different optical properties from both diffuse surfaces and smooth specular objects like metals, so we design a special imaging system to robustly and effectively photograph them. We present simple yet reliable algorithms to calibrate the proposed system and do the inference. We conduct experiments to verify the correctness of our model assumptions and prove the effectiveness of our pipeline.


Over the last several decades advances in the hydrologist's ability to estimate floods have resulted in increases to the design floods for many existing drainages. As with other dams throughout the world, numerous Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) dams were subject to updated design floods that could not be safely passed by the existing spillway structures. Conventional practice has been to enlarge the concrete spillway structure, raise the dam, or provide a combination thereof to accommodate the large flood flows. Although effective, this practice has required large almost prohibitive expenditures, significantly reducing the overall economic benefits derived from these water projects. Recent practice has been to develop more cost effective solutions to these conventional solutions. Principal among the innovative solutions are providing overtopping protection for embankment dams and the use of unlined fuse plug controlled spillways. Integral with the utilization of these concepts on Reclamation projects has been the direct performance or sponsorship of extensive laboratory model and prototype studies. Another essential aspect has been the use of multi-disciplined design teams to ensure the geotechnical, structural, and hydraulic aspects have been considered and fully integrated into the overall design. Several of these concepts have been implemented and are providing cost effective service on Reclamation projects. A discussion of the conceptual development, economic benefits, design, construction, and performance to date for each case history will be presented.


In this paper, a new method for recovering gas absorbance shape using wavelength modulation spectroscopy is proposed. We have mathematically proven that the gas absorbance shape can be directly recovered using the data of X and Y components of odd harmonics, regardless of the value of the modulation depth. The transitions of NH(3) near 1531 nm are selected to recover the absorbance shape using numerical simulation and experimental technique. The simulation and experiment results show that our proposed method can simply and accurately recover the gas absorbance shape.


A survey of the digested sludge from 14 U.K. wastewater treatment plants was carried out to obtain contemporary U.K. data on the concentrations of certain classes of persistent organic compounds for which data are scarce and to assess whether U.K. sludge was likely to comply with the sludge limits for PCBs and PAHs proposed by the European Union. Total PAH (24 compounds) concentrations ranged from 67 to 370 mg/kg dw, in line with data from other countries; all the samples would exceed the proposed EU limit. Total PCB concentrations were 110-440 microg/kg dw, well below the proposed EU limit. Total PCN concentrations ranged from 50 to 190 microg/kg. Total synthetic musk concentrations ranged from 2.1 to 86 mg/kg dw; there were a few very high concentrations of HHCB and AHTN in the samples. Total concentrations of the short- and medium-chained polychlorinated alkanes ranged between 7 and 200 mg/kg and between 30 and 9700 mg/kg, respectively. These very high concentrations are indicative of chemicals with numerous and ongoing diffuse sources.


Maintaining sobriety and a positive quality of life is a challenge for adults in recovery from addiction, but it is even more challenging for adolescents. Post-treatment resumption of substance-related problems for adolescents range from 60-90%. Adolescent recovery programs have struggled with the best mix of services to assure recovery stability and to promote healthy functioning and a positive quality of life. Although research is limited, evidence suggests that a continuum of care model that incorporates peer supports such as APGs (APG) to replace alcohol and drug-using peers is critical for successful recovery. If the model includes attendance at a high school designated for students in recovery, positive outcomes may be even greater. This article outlines the existing models of adolescent recovery support and provides a case study of the augmentation and development of services to adolescents and emerging adults who desire recovery in Austin, TX.


The UN Regulation No. 79 is going to be amended to allow automatically commanded steering functions (ACSF) at speeds above 10 km/h. Hence, requirements concerning the approval of automatically performed steering manoeuvres have to be set in order to allow safe use of automatic steering on public roads as well as improve overall road safety for the driver and the surroundings. By order of the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI), BASt developed and verified physical test procedures for automatic steering to be implemented in UN Regulation No. 79. The usability of currently available test tools was examined. The paper at hand describes these test procedures and presents results from verification tests. The designated tests are divided in three sections: functionality tests, verifications for the transition of control and emergency tests. System functionality tests are automatic lane keeping, automatic lane change and an automatic abort of an initiated lane change due to traffic. Those tests check if the vehicle remains in its lane (under normal operating conditions), is able to perform safe automatic lane change manoeuvres and if it considers other road users during its manoeuvres. Transition tests examine the vehicle's behaviour when the driver fails to monitor the system and in situations when the system has to hand over the steering control back to the driver. For instance these tests provoke driver-in-the-loop requests by approaching system boundary limitations, like missing lane markings, surpassing maximum lateral acceleration in a bend or even a major system failure. Even further the driver and his inputs are monitored and if the system detects that he is overriding system actions or contrary want to quit the driving task and unfastens the seat belt, it has to shut down and put the human back into manually control and the responsibility of driving. The last series of test consists of two emergency situations in which the system has to react to a time critical event: A hard decelerating vehicle and a stationary vehicle in front both with no lane change possibility for the ACSF vehicle. Some of the tests, especially the emergency manoeuvres, require special target vehicles and propulsion systems. Since no fully automatic steering vehicles are available, a current Mercedes E-Class with Mercedes' 'drive pilot' system was used. It was shown that the vehicle is automatically able to brake to a full stop towards a static Euro NCAP target from partial-automatic driving at 90 km/h, that it could brake towards a rapidly decelerating lead vehicle when travelling at 70 km/h, that it was able during partially automatic driving to remain in its lane in normal operation conditions and to perform a automatic (driver initiated) lane change while surveilling the driver's activities.


The Mary Livermore Library is embarking upon an initiative to preserve and showcase the scholarly output of UNCP's
faculty and a select group of students. The Library is participating in a consortial Institutional Repository (IR) with four
other UNC System schools: Appalachian State University, East Carolina University, UNC Greensboro, and UNC Wilmington.
This effort seeks not only to bring UNCP's scholarship together in one place; it will make it available worldwide
via the Internet. Web-based institutional repositories offer the opportunity for faculty scholarship to reach a much broader
audience than is available through the typical scholarly publication venue.


Launceston has been known to be susceptible to flooding
since the first major flood was recorded in September 1828.
Launceston has had several major floods which have
caused substantial infrastructural damage and loss of life. Among these, the flood which occurred on 4-6 April 1929 was the most significant experienced during the century in northeast Tasmania. The Launceston City Council (LCC) flood classification system identified the 1929 flood as a one in one hundred year flood event - that is, there is a 1 % chance that a flood of or greater than the magnitude of the 1929 event will occur in a given year.
In comparison, the levees protecting Inveresk and Invermay at the time of the 1929 flood were merely capable of withstanding a one in twenty year flood event. The flood caused 22 deaths, left approximately 4500 people homeless, and 1000 homes rendered in need of repair or rebuilding.


We present an automated, in-situ technique for measuring suspended-sediment concentrations and particle-size distributions. The technique uses pressure transducers to continuously monitor the fluid density, which is shown to be directly related to the mass of sediments suspended in the water column. We estimate the depth-integrated mass of 5 g of suspended sediments with an accuracy of 3%, corresponding to a suspended sediment concentration of 542 ± 14 mg L - 1 . Particle-size distributions of the sediments were estimated from the rate of change of the suspended-sediment concentrations coupled with Stokes' Law. We evaluated the accuracy using three size classes of precision glass microspheres. Good agreement between observed and calculated fall times was only found for the smallest size fraction (106 to 150 μm). Larger particles (180 to 250 μm and 300 to 425 μm) fell slower than predicted by Stokes' Law, presumably due to the onset of turbulent flow around the particles. Also, equal masses of two different sizes of microspheres did not fall independently of each other. The larger microspheres were slowed by the presence of the smaller particles while the smaller microspheres were accelerated, presumably due to entrainment of smaller particles in the wake of the larger particles. Application to laboratory characterization of soil sedimentation processes, as well as field applications for automated suspended sediment monitoring, provides the ability for real-time determination of depth-integrated sediment characteristics.


In the past two decades, researchers have amassed an impressive body of empirical data demonstrating the deleterious impact of exposure to interparental violence on children. Policymakers are now confronted with the question of how society can best prevent children's exposure to domestic violence and assist those children already exposed. A range of policy initiatives aimed at promoting the well-being of exposed children has emerged in the last several years. Whereas some statutory trends have been lauded by a broad range of constituencies, others have engendered substantial controversy. There is particularly vociferous debate about statutes that bring children exposed to domestic violence under the dependency jurisdiction of the juvenile court. This Article evaluates the soundness of this approach from theoretical and practical standpoints, and makes recommendations as to the types of statutes that are most likely to achieve their stated goals, while minimizing unintended negative consequences. This Article begins by reviewing the various types of statutes enacted to protect children from exposure to domestic violence. It then examines the history, philosophy, and traditional roles of the child protection system in the United States. It analyzes how childhood exposure to domestic violence meshes with the current mandates of, and goals served by, the juvenile court's dependency jurisdiction. The Article then focuses on the approaches taken by several U.S. states and Canadian provinces to use their child protection systems to address the needs of children exposed to domestic violence. Some states have interpreted existing statutes as reaching this population; others have passed statutes specifically expanding the state's definition of child maltreatment; and still others have made internal shifts in child protective services' handling of domestic violence cases. This Article evaluates the efficacy of these strategies, and articulates a blueprint for legal reform.


Abstract. A millimetre-wave scintillometer was paired with an infrared scintillometer, enabling estimation of large-area evapotranspiration across northern Swindon, a suburban area in the UK. Both sensible and latent heat fluxes can be obtained using this "two-wavelength" technique, as it is able to provide both temperature and humidity structure parameters, offering a major advantage over conventional single-wavelength scintillometry. The first paper of this two-part series presented the measurement theory and structure parameters. In this second paper, heat fluxes are obtained and analysed. These fluxes, estimated using two-wavelength scintillometry over an urban area, are the first of their kind. Source area modelling suggests the scintillometric fluxes are representative of 5–10 km2. For comparison, local-scale (0.05–0.5 km2) fluxes were measured by an eddy covariance station. Similar responses to seasonal changes are evident at the different scales but the energy partitioning varies between source areas. The response to moisture availability is explored using data from 2 consecutive years with contrasting rainfall patterns (2011–2012). This extensive data set offers insight into urban surface-atmosphere interactions and demonstrates the potential for two-wavelength scintillometry to deliver fluxes over mixed land cover, typically representative of an area 1–2 orders of magnitude greater than for eddy covariance measurements. Fluxes at this scale are extremely valuable for hydro-meteorological model evaluation and assessment of satellite data products.


In 2012, a debt collector, Med-1 Solutions, won a judgment against Mark Suesz in Pike Township Small Claims Court for unpaid debt that arose in Lawrence Township, Indiana. Suesz, a resident of Hancock County, sued Med-1 for a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which requires small claims suits to be brought in the same "judicial district or similar legal entity" where the debtor lives or where the debt originated. In Suesz v. Med-1 Solutions, L.L.C., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, sitting en banc, ruled in favor of Suesz and held that Pike Township Small Claims Court was a separate "judicial district or similar legal entity" from Lawrence Township, making Med-1's original suit illegal. This Comment argues in favor of the en banc majority's interpretation because it (1) incorporated the flexibility that Congress inserted within the statute, (2) allowed states to customize their judicial system to meet their residents' needs, and (3) most importantly, prevented debt collectors from using the localized courts as a weapon against debtors.


Despite the importance of community-structuring processes operating at both local and regional scales, there is relatively little work examining both forces within a single system. I used a combination of observational and experimental approaches to examine the processes structuring larval dragonfly distributions in lentic habitats that encompass a gradient of both permanence and top predator type. I compared the relative vulnerability of species to predators from different portions of this gradient to assess the role of predation as a local force structuring communities. I also assessed the role of regional processes on species' distributions by examining species' propensity to disperse to and colonize artificial ponds distributed across a landscape. In both studies I contrasted habitat specialist species, which had larvae restricted to permanent lakes, with habitat generalist species, which had larvae that occur broadly across the habitat permanence and top predator transition. Results from this work suggest that dispersal and colonization behavior were critical mechanisms restricting the distributions of habitat specialist species, but that predation may act to reinforce this pattern. The habitat specialists dispersed less frequently, colonized artificial ponds less often when they did reach them, and most moved shorter distances than the habitat generalist species. Habitat specialists were also more vulnerable than habitat generalists to an invertebrate top predator with which they do not co-exist. Results from these studies suggest that species distributions can be shaped by processes operating at both regional and local spatial scales. The role of dispersal and recruitment limitation may be generally underestimated as a force shaping species distributions and community structure across habitat gradients in which there is a transition in both the biotic interactions and the disturbance interval across that gradient.


Marine Research in Spain was funded mainly by the National Plans of the Ministry of Science and Technology. These have four-year duration and comprise priority research areas addressed by Research and Development Programmes. Marine Sciences has been identified as a Programme since 1995, and forms part of two National Plans. The Programme made annual invitations to tender with the following objectives: global change, ecosystems, sustainable fisheries, coastal zone, pollution and new technologies. Each objective had several sub-objectives. In the first period (1995-1999) Aquaculture was one of the objectives, and it had its own Programme in the second. The 1995-1999 Programme approved 189 projects (47% of the proposals submitted) with a budget of 9.14 M€ and a participation of 550 persons/year. In the 2000-2003 Programme 175 projects were approved (51% of the proposals submitted) corresponding to €12.42 M and 780 persons/year. The universities were the principal actors (58% of the projects), followed by the Science Council (25% of the projects). Catalonia is the region with the greatest participation both in projects and in funding, followed by Galicia and Andalusia. Considering that in the first period there were five invitations to tender and Aquaculture was the main objective (63 projects and €2.26 M), the increase in participation and funding is considerable. This trend is also confirmed by the increase in success rate (approval of proposals rose from 47% in the first invitation to tender to 51% in the second) and the increase in the mean budget per project (from €48.300 to €70.900 respectively).


Human action recognition is crucial to many practical applications, ranging from human-computer interaction to video surveillance. Most approaches either recognize the human action from a fixed view or require the knowledge of view angle, which is usually not available in practical applications. In this paper, we propose a novel end-to-end framework to jointly learn a view-invariance transfer dictionary and a view-invariant classifier. The result of the process is a dictionary that can project real-world 2D video into a view-invariant sparse representation, and a classifier to recognize actions with an arbitrary view. The main feature of our algorithm is the use of synthetic data to extract view-invariance between 3D and 2D videos during the pre-training phase. This guarantees the availability of training data, and removes the hassle of obtaining real-world videos in specific viewing angles. Additionally, for better describing the actions in 3D videos, we introduce a new feature set called the 3D dense trajectories to effectively encode extracted trajectory information on 3D videos. Experimental results on the IXMAS, N-UCLA, i3DPost and UWA3DII data sets show improvements over existing algorithms.


Educational institutions are pursuing quality improvement for various reasons. A great deal of literature on staff evaluation covering a wide spectrum of fields such as industry and commerce, including schools, has been produced and it generally identifies three main purposes of quality evaluation. Firstly, evaluation is conducted to review performance, identifying strengths and weaknesses. Secondly, it provides information about the service in order to improve the quality of the service and to demonstrate accountability. Thirdly, evaluation is aimed at encouraging personal and professional development. This study analyses the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS), an evaluation system which was implemented in South African public schools in 2005. The IQMS is a clear reaction to the autocratic mode of evaluation that operated during the apartheid era and is a major shift from the old paradigm of external evaluators. The new paradigm calls for a joint collaboration between schools, districts and supervisory units with the overall aim of enhancing the quality of education in South Africa, in addition to addressing the inequities and injustices of the past. Since its introduction, very little empirical research has been carried out to establish whether the IQMS model addresses that which it was intended to. This thesis evaluates the extent to which the IQMS is perceived to have enhanced individual development and ensured improvements in teaching and learning.


Darwin's naturalisation hypothesis posing that phylogenetic distance of alien species to native residents predicts invasion success, and Elton's diversity–invasibility hypothesis posing that diversity of native communities confers resistance to invasion, are both rooted in ideas of species coexistence. Because the two hypotheses are inherently linked, the mechanisms underlying them may interact in driving the invasion success. Even so, these links and interactions have not been explicitly disentangled in one experimental study before. To disentangle the links between the two hypotheses, we used 36 native grassland herbs to create greenhouse mesocosms with 90 grassland communities of different diversities, and introduced each of five herbaceous alien species as seeds and seedlings. We used phylogeny and four functional traits (plant height, specific leaf area, leaf size, and seed mass) to calculate different measures of phylogenetic and functional distance and diversity. Specifically, we tested how the alien–native distance (phylogenetic or functional) and the native diversity (phylogenetic or functional) affected each other in their effects on germination, seedling survival, growth, and reproduction of the aliens. Overall, our results supported both hypotheses. Multivariate functional distance based on four traits jointly had stronger positive effects than phylogenetic distance and the univariate ones based on each trait separately. Moreover, the aliens were more successful if they were more competitive by being taller and having larger leaves with a lower SLA than the native residents. Univariate functional diversity based on each trait separately had stronger negative effects than phylogenetic and multivariate functional diversity. Most importantly, we found that the effects of alien–native phylogenetic and multivariate functional distance became stronger as diversity increased. Our analyses with single traits also showed that the strength of the effects of both alien–native hierarchical functional distances (indicative of competitive inequalities) and absolute functional distances (indicative of niche differences) increased at higher diversities, where competition is more severe. Synthesis. Our study explicitly demonstrates for the first time how the mechanisms underlying the two classical invasion hypotheses interact in driving invasion success in grassland communities. This may help to explain some of the puzzling results of studies testing either of the two hypotheses.


By solving the two-dimensional Poisson equation for fibers with circular internal electrodes, we show that the parallelplate approximation incurs significant error in the determination of the electric field applied to the fiber core. This also affects the value of χ(3) measured in electro-optical fibers. The exact solution of Poisson's equation is used to solve the field applied to the core of a photonic crystal fiber, where the many holes screen the field. A universal curve is derived to allow using the simplifying parallel plate approximation and correcting for the error in symmetric fibers with round holes.


Most existing methods determine relation types only after all the entities have been recognized, thus the interaction between relation types and entity mentions is not fully modeled. This paper presents a novel paradigm to deal with relation extraction by regarding the related entities as the arguments of a relation. We apply a hierarchical reinforcement learning (HRL) framework in this paradigm to enhance the interaction between entity mentions and relation types. The whole extraction process is decomposed into a hierarchy of two-level RL policies for relation detection and entity extraction respectively, so that it is more feasible and natural to deal with overlapping relations. Our model was evaluated on public datasets collected via distant supervision, and results show that it gains better performance than existing methods and is more powerful for extracting overlapping relations1.


The gene for the receptor for ecotropic murine leukemia virus (Rev) has been assigned to mouse chromosome 5. This determination was made possible by an analysis of somatic cell hybrids between mouse and Chinese hamster cells. The parents of these hybrids were A/HeJ or Mus poschiavinus peritoneal exudate cells or BALB/c primary embryo fibroblasts and E36, a Chinese hamster lung fibroblast deficient in hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyltransferase. Segregation of mouse chromosomes in these hybrids was analyzed by chromosome banding and isozyme expression. Cells were tested for their ability to absorb and replicate vesicular stomatitis virus (murine leukemia virus [MuLV]) pseudotype particles and ecotropic MuLV as measured by the XC test. The presence of chromosome 5 was essential for receptor expression as determined by three statistical procedures. Segregation of the receptor for ecotropic murine leukemia virus was also followed in two series of subclones. In both, receptor expression was syntenic with phosphoglucomutase-1, an isozyme which has been mapped to mouse chromosome 5.


The small reform represented a significant step in the dynamics of the Romanian legal life. The amendments of the civil and criminal law prefigured the long waited big reform of the national legislation, to identify the mechanisms needed to accelerate the settlement of the processes as an essential coordinate of the constitutional state. The Law no. 202 from October 25, 2010 concerning some measures to accelerate the settlement of the processes brought in actuality several problems the activity of interpretation and law enforcement, of bridging modifying provisions with the existing ones in the Code of Civil Procedure and the Code of Criminal Procedure, at that time, but also concerning the application in time.


There is no doubt that agricultural growth in Nigeria has been on the decline. This is largely so because agricultural policies have a bias towards inappropriate technology, and fail to recognise women as the centrepiece in agriculture. The position taken in this paper is that women are in fact the pivot in Nigerian agriculture, and whatever technology is developed, should be in line with their needs. Such technology should involve a simple but mechanical form of weeding, the use of improved organic fertilizer and efficient methods of livestock husbandry.


Unusual Aggregates Several recent papers have revealed the unexpected genetic and pathological overlap between frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The most common genetic cause is the GGGGCC hexanucleotide repeat expansion upstream of the C9orf72 coding region affecting about 10% of all patients. It is currently unknown how repeat expansion might lead to neurodegeneration. C9orf72 patients show two distinct types of ubiquitinated inclusions in the central nervous system, one of which was identified as phosphorylated TDP-43 protein. However, all inclusions in the cerebellum and most inclusions in the hippocampus and neocortex lack TDP-43, and the actual disease protein is unknown. Mori et al. (p. 1335, published online 7 February; see the Perspective by Taylor) discovered that most of these characteristic inclusions contain poly-(Gly-Ala) and, to a lesser extent, poly-(Gly-Pro) and poly-(Gly-Arg) dipeptide-repeat proteins that are generated by non-ATG–initiated translation from the expanded GGGGCC repeats in three reading frames. The findings yield mechanistic insight into the pathogenesis of FTLD/ALS with C9orf72 repeat expansions and directly link this common mutation to the characteristic pathology. A new class of proteins links a common genetic mutation to the predominant pathology in certain neurodegenerative diseases. [Also see Perspective by Taylor] Expansion of a GGGGCC hexanucleotide repeat upstream of the C9orf72 coding region is the most common cause of familial frontotemporal lobar degeneration and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (FTLD/ALS), but the pathomechanisms involved are unknown. As in other FTLD/ALS variants, characteristic intracellular inclusions of misfolded proteins define C9orf72 pathology, but the core proteins of the majority of inclusions are still unknown. Here, we found that most of these characteristic inclusions contain poly-(Gly-Ala) and, to a lesser extent, poly-(Gly-Pro) and poly-(Gly-Arg) dipeptide-repeat proteins presumably generated by non-ATG–initiated translation from the expanded GGGGCC repeat in three reading frames. These findings directly link the FTLD/ALS-associated genetic mutation to the predominant pathology in patients with C9orf72 hexanucleotide expansion.


Background It is believed that the type of educational environment in teaching hospitals may affect the performance of medical knowledge base among residents, but this has not yet been proven. Objective We aimed to investigate the association between the hospital educational environment and the performance of the medical knowledge base among resident physicians in Japanese teaching hospitals. Methods To assess the knowledge base of medicine, we conducted the General Medicine InTraining Examination (GM-ITE) for second-year residents in the last month of their residency. The items of the exam were developed based on the outcomes designated by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare. The educational environment was evaluated using the Postgraduate Hospital Educational Environment Measure (PHEEM) score, which was assessed by a mailed survey 2 years prior to the exam. A mixed-effects linear regression model was employed for the analysis of variables associated with a higher score. Results Twenty-one teaching hospitals participated in the study and a total of 206 residents (67 women) participated and completed the exam. There were no residents who declined to participate in the exam. The mean GM-ITE score was 58 (standard deviation 8.4). The mixed-effects linear regression analysis showed that a higher PHEEM score was associated with a higher GM-ITE score (P = 0.02). Having a department of general medicine, and hospital location in a provincial community (versus an urban setting), were also shown to have a significant relationship with the higher score (P = 0.03, and P = 0.02, respectively). Conclusion We found that the performance of the medical knowledge base of resident physicians was significantly associated with the educational environment of their hospitals. Improvement of the educational environment in teaching hospitals might be crucial for enhancing the performance of resident physicians in Japan.


The accuracy of trajectory measurements is one of the crucial factors in high-resolution SAR imaging. Common navigation systems often do not fulfill the requirements that results in significant image quality degradation. In the paper, a new autofocus algorithm for the reconstruction of the SAR platform trajectory deviations is proposed. The approach is based on the estimation of the Doppler rate errors on a sequence of short-time intervals. The method is capable of estimation of time-varying and range-dependent phase error functions. The key steps of the developed technique are illustrated. The method is demonstrated on experimental data obtained with an X-band airborne SAR system.


The point of departure is the Swedish rebellion against the regime of King John (Hans) in 1501. Sten Sture the Elder was the rebellion's most prominent leader. The article moves from a discussion of Sten's character and motives for his policy to a more general discussion of the motives of the late medieval Scandinavian aristocracy's political agitation and conduct. The principal question is whether the aristocrats were motived by economic profit and personal career alone, or if other motives, like political and ideological ones, also mattered. Several examples of aristocrats' political choices that cannot have been motivated by economic gains are examined. Thereafter, the article presents the main features of the late medieval aristocracy in Scandinavia as an elite, including its political position, and then especially the balance of power between the aristocracy and the monarch. The conclusion is that the late medieval Scandinavian aristocracy's political behaviour was motivated by a set of motives, that could differ from one situation to another.


Driven
by a growth of single-person households and individualized lifestyles, solo
dining in restaurants is an increasingly recognizable trend. However, little is
known about solo diners' motives and preferences in on- and off-premises
restaurant dining and the subsequent behavioral intentions. In order to enhance
the understanding of solo diners' motives, preferences, and behavioral
intentions in restaurant dining, this dissertation proposed and completed three
studies related to solo (vs. group) diners' menu-decision making process, solo
(vs. group) diners' service mode-decision making process, and a restaurant
scale development for solo diner friendliness. Specifically, Study 1 examined
the effect of dining social context (solo vs. group) on healthy or indulgent
menu item decisions using self-control dilemmas and temporal construal theory
as a theoretical framework. Findings revealed that solo diners showed less
preferences for indulgent menu items because of a more utilitarian (i.e., less
hedonic) consumption orientation than group diners, and that solo diners showed
more preferences for healthy menu items than group diners when the menu
included nutrition information such as calories, fat, and sodium. Study 2
examined the effect of dining social context (solo vs. group) on off-site over
on-site dining intentions based on three mediators and the moderating role of
self-determination using the self-determination theory. Findings revealed that,
in the self-determined condition, solo diners showed more preferences for
off-premises dining than group diners via greater convenience-seeking and
polychronicity-seeking tendencies and lower anticipated enjoyment of on-premises
dining. In the context-determined condition, solo diners showed more
preferences for off-premises dining than group diners only via
polychronicity-seeking and anticipated enjoyment of on-premises dining, and the
effects were smaller. Lastly, Study 3 developed and validated a Solo Diner
Friendliness (SoDF) scale that measured restaurant menu and service dimensions important
for solo diners' enjoyment as well as restaurant revisit intentions. The SoDF
scale provided nine items under three factors, namely, Inconspicuousness,
Proper Service, and Healthy Menu Items, that are valid and
reliable measurements for future research and restaurant operators. Altogether,
this dissertation offered theoretical and practical implications regarding how solo
diners differed from group diners on various motivational and behavioral perspectives
in on- and off-premises restaurant dining.


The primary objective of this research is to understand the importance of BTL marketing practices which has impact on customer brand awareness that leads to enhance the brand equity of a brand. The study was conducted to explore the reasons though which of the BTL activities creates highest brand awareness of tetra pack milk. The research work is quantitative based on questionnaire. The data which is collected for this research is primary source data. Primary data were collected from 107 peoples from different areas of Karachi. Analysis of data was undertaken through statistical software SPSS. Multiple Regressions is used as a tool for this research. The study surveyed two dimensions namely brand awareness, and BTL marketing practices. Only two factors of BTL which are "word of mouth" and "availability" create highest brand awareness of tetra pack milk. Although, the other factors of BTL marketing practices also appears to have low influence on brand awareness of tetra pack milk. Findings of this research are beneficial in exploring the recent market trends on brand awareness and to understand the impact of BTL activities over consumer brand perception through various promotional activities which helps to enhance sales or brand equity. How the companies decide which medium has use to advertise their products and create awareness of their brand. This research will help the "Tetra pack milk industry" as a whole and also help them to increase their marketing activities in an efficient manner.


Barb (Barbonymus balleroides) considerably has economic potential as aquaculture commodity. However, there was still lack of development on aquaculture for this species. This study was conducted to observe the effect of different stocking density on growth of barb. The fish (body weight: 14.89 ± 0.13 g) were stocked in nine floating nets (dimension: 2 m x 2 m x 1 m) inside the concrete ponds with three stocking density treatments (10, 15, and 20 fish/m3). Each treatment consisted of three replications. Fish were fed on commercial pellet (30% of crude protein) as much as 3% of the biomass per day with twice a day of feeding frequency. Data of growth performances (body weight, specific growth rate, average daily growth, biomass, food conversion ratio, and survival rate) were collected every 30 days during 90 days of rearing period. Water quality variables (temperature, pH, and dissolved oxygen) were observed during experiment. The results showed that the optimal stocking density for the growth of barb was 10 fish/m3. Best value of food conversion ratio was found 10 fish/m3 compared with 15 and 20 fish/m3 (P<0.05). Meanwhile, there were no significant differences on survival rate between treatments. These results also showed the potential of rearing barb on culture ponds with appropriate stocking density.


At ground level, surface detector arrays sample the secondary particles from extensive air showers induced by primary cosmic rays with ultra-high energy interacting with the Earth's atmosphere. The recorded events are used to study the energy spectrum, arrival directions, and mass composition of the cosmic rays.
The surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory comprises 1660 water-Cherenkov stations deployed on a tessellated triangular grid. Each station is filled with 12 tons of ultra-purified water viewed by three 9-inch photomultipliers, which record the Cherenkov light produced mainly by electrons and muons entering the detector. Physics events are selected by exploring the temporal and spatial combination of the individual detector information in real time. The reconstruction algorithm determines the arrival direction and the energy of the primary particle, and will be described for selected events with zenith angles less than $60^\circ$ (a dataset referred to as vertical). The presented reconstruction procedure has been successfully applied to measured and simulated showers.


Ancient Models in the Early Modern Republican Imagination offers a new approach to the study of the classical dimensions of early modern republican thought by analysing its specific and concrete uses of ancient republican models.


Coal spirals are widely used in coal preparation plants in Illinois and around the world to clean fine coal, typically in the 1 × 0.15 mm size range. Despite their popularity and the trend toward increased automation in modern coal preparation plants, adjustments to the critical process variable for coal spirals, that is, product splitter position, continue to be done manually. Since spiral feed in a plant tends to fluctuate on a regular basis, suitable manual adjustment of splitter position in tens or hundreds of spirals operating in a plant is nearly impossible. As a result, the clean coal yield from a spiral and also the overall plant suffers on a regular basis. This article describes the development of a suitable sensor and control system to adjust the product splitter position of a full-scale spiral. A thorough investigation was made to make use of a basic property of coal slurry that can be measured on-line to correlate it to the constituent solid density and thus to monitor the change in the density gradient across the spiral trough at the discharge end resulting from the usual fluctuation in feed characteristics. An electrical conductivity-based sensing technique was preferred over a capacitive sensor to measure the density gradient using two sensor tubes placed at the critical separation zone of the spiral trough. A PIC24 microcontroller was programmed to send a signal to a DC gear motor based on the new density gradient measured in real time to turn clockwise, counterclockwise or to stay at the same position based on the difference between the conductivity measurement of the present cycle and that of the previous cycle. The automation system was validated by examining the performance of a full-scale spiral while deliberately changing factors like feed solid content, feed washability characteristics, and feed slurry ionic concentration. With a full-scale compound spiral programmed to achieve a specific gravity separation at 1.65, actual D 50 values achieved for two separate tests were 1.64 and 1.73, respectively.


Knowledge-based groups or communities are complex systems that emerge, evolve and mature through stages that display specific features and capabilities of the community or group. Understanding these capabilities and features are fundamental to building sustainable economic, social and learning networks systems. Understanding emergent behaviour within and beyond organizational communities requires understanding the social or sociological aspects in relation to the explicit formal/physical structures in the organization. Looking deeper into the development of informal networks across boundaries highlights the geographic structures and scales of knowledge flows and their influence on urban communities. Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to examine the theory of knowledge networks through applied research Design/methodology/approach – This is a case study approach, incorporating action research through embedded practice, utilizing interdisciplinary (or rather non-disciplinary) techniques and is thus a novel approach and application. Originality/value –This methodology translation of knowledge networks from theory into practice to yield little known or understood technical issues when working in social complex adaptive systems. Practical implications – The outcomes of the application contributes to the understanding of how, what and why sustainable social networks develop, offering the possibility of application in the field.


On the night of November 9, 1989, an electrified world watched as the Berlin Wall came down. Communism was dead, the Cold War was over, and freedom was on the rise—or so it seemed. We Were the Peopl e tells the story behind this momentous event. In an extraordinary series of interviews, the key actors in the drama that transformed East Germany speak for themselves, describing what they did, what happened and why, and what it has meant to them. The result is a powerful firsthand account of a rare historical moment, one that reverberates far beyond the toppled wall that once divided Germany and the world.

The drama We Were the People recreates is remarkable for its richness and complexity. Here are citizens organizing despite threats of bloody crackdowns; party functionaries desperately trying to survive as time-honored political prerogatives crumble beneath their feet; an oppressed people discovering the possibilities of power and freedom, but also the sobering strangeness of new political realities. With their success, East Germans encountered the overpowering might of thie Western neighbor--and stand perplexed before the onslaught of real estate agents, glossy consumer ads, political professionalism--and the discovery that a lifetime of social experience has suddenly lost all usable context. They became, in the words of one participant, a people "without biography."

Over all the recent events and unlikely turns recounted here, one thing remains paramount: the sweep of the initial democratic conception that animated the East German revolution. We Were the People brings this movement to life in all its drama and detail, and vividly recovers a historic moment that altered forever the shape of modern Europe.

Some Voices of the People Barbel Bohley/ "Mother of the Revolution"

Rainer Eppelmann/ Protestant Pastor

Klaus Kaden/ Church Emissary to the Opposition

Hans Modrow/ Former Communist Prime Minister

Ludwig Mehlhorn/ Opposition Theorist

Ingrid Koppe/ Opposition Representative

Frank Eigenfeld/ New Forum

Harald Wagner/ Democracy Now

Sebastian Pflugbeil/ Democratic Strategist

East German Workers

Cornelia Matzke/ Independent Women's Alliance

Andre Brie/ Party Vice-Chairman

Gerhard Ruden/ Environmental Activist

Werner Bramke/ Party Academic


Once again this year I had the pleasure of attending the ASTD International Conference and Exposition, held recently in Denver, Colorado, USA. I am in a fortunate position to have attended this event for the past 25 years. I was joined by more than 9 000 delegates, of which more than 2 000 were from outside USA, representing over 75 countries. There were almost 300 educational sessions to choose from have, all being aligned to ASTD's Communities of Practice to highlight their relevance to what we do and where we do it as Training and Development professionals.


There has been a data rush in the past decade brought about by online communication and, in particular, social media (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, among others), which promises a new age of digital enlightenment. But social data is compromised: it is being seized by specific economic interests, it leads to a fundamental shift in the relationship between research and the public good, and it fosters new forms of control and surveillance.Compromised Data: From Social Media to Big Data explores how we perform critical research within a compromised social data framework. The expert, international lineup of contributors explores the limits and challenges of social data research in order to invent and develop new modes of doing public research. At its core, this collection argues that we are witnessing a fundamental reshaping of the social through social data mining.


Food composition provides an important link for biodiversity and nutrition. Biodiversity at three levels—ecosystems, the species they contain and the genetic diversity within species—can contribute to food security and improved nutrition. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) are leading a new international initiative on biodiversity for food and nutrition under the umbrella of the Convention of Biological Diversity. The overall aim is to promote the sustainable use of biodiversity in programmes contributing to food security and human nutrition, and to thereby raise awareness of the importance of this link for sustainable development. Further research is needed to increase the evidence base by filling our knowledge gaps with better inventories and more data on composition and consumption. If nutrient analysis and data dissemination of the various food species and intra-species diversity are systematically undertaken, national information systems for food and agriculture will be strengthened and can be used to form the basis for priority setting and national policy making. For nutrition, this will mean introducing more compositional data on biodiversity in national food composition databases and tables; developing and using dietary assessment instruments that capture food intake at the species and variety/breed level; and allowing food labelling that encourages awareness of food plant varieties and food animal subspecies. Nutrition and biodiversity feature directly the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger; and ensure environmental sustainability. In combination, a nutrition and biodiversity initiative provides the very foundation for achieving these MDGs. r 2006 Published by Elsevier Inc.


Mental Toughness (MT), which refers to an inner focus and commitment to rise above challenges when facing adversity, is viewed as one of the most important psychological attributes in determining success in sport. However, there is little consensus on key components of MT, and existing measures vary greatly while focusing on elite athletes. The purpose of this research was to develop a measure of MT for use with college athletes. Collegiate and noncollegiate athletes (N = 271) completed the original 54-item Mental Toughness Scale (MTS) in study 1. Factor analysis (PCA) results reduced the scale to an 11-item scale, with good reliability and validity as demonstrated by its positive correlations with self-esteem and flow. A second study of college basketball players (N = 143) was conducted to establish the psychometric properties of the MTS. Study 2 demonstrated convergent, divergent and criterion validity through correlations with related measures, and a CFA provided moderate support for the MTS as a one-dimensional measure of mental toughness in sport.


Introduction: Despite the legalization of cannabis in Canada, researchers have yet to understand the extent of its side effects on neural development. This is especially true when considering the impact of cannabis on those with mental illnesses including depression. One vital protein involved in the growth and differentiation of neurons in the brain is the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). The aim of our proposed study is to evaluate how the neural health of depressed individuals is impacted by Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) consumption, the primary psychoactive component of cannabis, in comparison to those without depression by comparing their respective BDNF levels.
Methods: To test this, we will use olfactory bulbectomised rats as models for depression and measure the BDNF concentration in their frontal cortices, hippocampi, and amygdalae following controlled exposure to THC for 21 days via intraperitoneal injections. BDNF will be detected via Western blot and quantified using BDNF-specific ELISAs.
Conclusion: Our study could influence how society views the risks associated with the use of cannabis amongst individuals with depression. Given that BDNF baseline levels are lower in individuals with depression versus those without, the potentially significant effect of BDNF on overall neural development could possibly be impacted by recurrent THC dosages. Our study could impact the frequency of usage of THC amongst depressed individuals.


This work traces the early rise and subsequent decline of politically effective student activism in Malaysia. During the 1970s, the state embarked on a project of "intellectual containment" that both suppressed ongoing mobilization of university students and delegitimized further activism. That project has been notably successful in curbing student protest, erasing a legacy of past engagement, and stemming the production of potentially subversive new ideas. Innovative student proposals for reform that were once sanctioned and even welcomed (within bounds) are now illicit and discouraged, reflecting not only changes in Malaysia's political regime, but changes in the political culture overall. This incisive study sheds new light on the dynamics of mobilization and on the key role of students and universities in postcolonial political development. This analysis is based on extensive research, including interviews with dozens of past and present student activists and a close study of archives, government reports, firsthand accounts, and student publications extending over decades. Student Activism in Malaysia traces how higher education and student activism have developed and interacted, beginning with the start of tertiary education in early twentieth-century Singapore and extending to present-day Malaysia. In the process, Weiss calls into question the conventional wisdom that Malaysian students-and Malaysians overall-have become "apathetic." The author demonstrates that this apparent state of apathy is not inevitable, cultural, or natural, but is the outcome of a sustained project of pacification and depoliticization carried out by an ambitiously developmental state.


Water is a key yet limited resource in Australia. With the threat of water shortages in Western Australia becoming increasingly important, there is a great need to develop strategies to sustainably manage this resource.
Conventional methods of addressing water shortages include the development of new supplies and use of expensive engineering processes. Alternative sustainable options are available from a demand side, including implementing water saving technologies and wastewater management.

The approach to water supply and disposal in developed nations is generally governed by a centralised strategy. This process often results in water being used at an unsustainable rate and disposed of in a wasteful manner. Traditional disposal methods combine all domestic wastewater for treatment and disposal. This is often an expensive undertaking, not only financially but also in terms of energy consumption and environmental impacts. The act of disposing of treated wastewaters to the environment prevents the reuse of the constituents of wastewater.

The reuse of domestic wastewater provides an opportunity to aid water conservation. Reuse of both "blackwater" (toilet wastewater) and "greywater" (wastewater from laundry, bath/shower and kitchen) has successfully been implemented in Australia and become accepted methods of water and nutrient reuse. In the last decade, another option to recycle wastewater has become popular in Europe. This is the separation and reuse of urine. Benefits obtained from these processes include water conservation and nutrient recycling, but also reduced energy consumption and protection of effluent receiving waters.

Domestic greywater has great potential for reuse in Western Australia. Regulations have recently been relaxed to enable greywater to be reused, after on-site treatment, on domestic gardens. Greywater is the largest in-house wastewater stream, therefore large volumes are available for garden irrigation. The demonstrated success of domestic greywater reuse provides the impetus to promote and implement other forms of domestic wastewater reuse. Similar to greywater reuse, the reuse of blackwater has been successfully demonstrated in Australia, most commonly on a medium-large scale (e.g. community level), but also at the individual domestic scale. Domestic blackwater reuse only awaits approval from the regulatory authorities to make it possible.

Although urine constitutes only 1% of the total domestic wastewater stream it contributes up to 80% of Nitrogen and 60% of Phosphorus found in the stream. Separating the urine either at the toilet, or immediately after flushing, enables the urine to be reused via agricultural or horticultural irrigation. Due to the high concentrations of nutrients, urine can be an effective plant fertiliser, approximately equal to that of a chemical fertiliser. The challenge is to integrate these technologies and practices to provide a method of total domestic wastewater management and reuse.

In order to implement domestic wastewater reuse the State Government and the Regulating Authorities must shift from focussing on conventional water conservation measures to examining the emerging paradigms.


We estimate the impact of parental health on adult children's labor market outcomes. We focus on health shocks which increase care dependency abruptly. Our estimation strategy exploits the variation in the timing of shocks across treated families. Empirical results based on Austrian administrative data show a significant negative impact on labor market activities of children. This effect is more pronounced for daughters and for children who live close to their parents. Further analyses suggest informal caregiving as the most likely mechanism. The effect is muted after a liberalization of the formal care market, which sharply increased the supply of foreign care workers.


ABSTRACT Previous research in first (L1) and second language (L2) acquisition has provided evidence that linguistic confidence is a key construct that can explain linguistic behaviour. In this paper, we apply previous research in the socio-contextual model of L2 learning to data from Catalonia. More specifically, the paper investigates linguistic confidence towards Catalan and Spanish by students in Catalonia for a period of 5 years, that is, from their last year of primary education to their last year of secondary education. The methodology for the longitudinal study was based on a survey on linguistic confidence in Catalan and Spanish and other sociolinguistic and demographic information by students in five different locations in Catalonia. The results of the study show evidence that (a) linguistic confidence is very high for Catalan and Spanish; (b) there is a relationship between confidence in Spanish and Catalan and the students' L1; and (c) over time linguistic confidence in both languages increases. These results are discussed in light of current discussions on the stable or dynamic nature of linguistic confidence.


Standard Bank, South Africa, currently employs a methodology when developing application or behavioural scorecards that involves logistic regression. A key aspect of building logistic regression models entails variable selection which involves dealing with multicollinearity. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of using different variance inflation factor (VIF) thresholds on the performance of these models in a predictive and discriminatory context and to study the stability of the estimated coefficients in order to advise the bank. The impact of the choice of VIF thresholds was researched by means of an empirical and simulation study. The empirical study involved analysing two large data sets that represent the typical size encountered in a retail credit scoring context. The first analysis concentrated on fitting the various VIF models and comparing the fitted models in terms of the stability of coefficient estimates and goodness-of-fit statistics while the second analysis focused on evaluating the fitted models' predictive ability over time. The simulation study was used to study the effect of multicollinearity in a controlled setting. All the above-mentioned studies indicate that the presence of multicollinearity in large data sets is of much less concern than in small data sets and that the VIF criterion could be relaxed considerably when models are fitted to large data sets. The recommendations in this regard have been accepted and implemented by Standard Bank.


French immersion programs in Saskatchewan have traditionally served to further the goals of additive bilingualism between Canada's two official languages, French and English. Whereas these programs have historically consisted of predominantly Anglophone populations, recent trends in immigration have contributed to the increasingly diverse linguistic backgrounds of students throughout the province. The motivation, family support, and high academic achievement of allophone students learning French as an additional language have been documented extensively in Canada (Dagenais & Jacquet, 2000; Mady, 2013, 2014, 2015). Nevertheless, allophone students often do not benefit from the same access to second language education programs as their Anglophone and Francophone peers; indeed, such learners are sometimes excluded from French immersion programs on the basis of their lack of English language proficiency (Roy, 2015). Through Likert-scale surveys and semi-structured interviews, this mixed-methods research explored the perceived suitability of French immersion for allophone students by examining the perspectives of parents and educators in several schools in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. This study will share the triangulated findings of the research, discuss the suitability of French immersion programs for allophone students, and provide recommendations for the future of such programs in Saskatchewan.


Android native system services provide essential supports and fundamental functionalities for user apps. Finding vulnerabilities in them is crucial for Android security. Fuzzing is one of the most popular vulnerability discovery solutions, yet faces several challenges when applied to Android native system services. First, such services are invoked via a special interprocess communication (IPC) mechanism, namely binder, via service-specific interfaces. Thus, the fuzzer has to recognize all interfaces and generate interface-specific test cases automatically. Second, effective test cases should satisfy the interface model of each interface. Third, the test cases should also satisfy the semantic requirements, including variable dependencies and interface dependencies. In this paper, we propose an automated generation-based fuzzing solution FANS to find vulnerabilities in Android native system services. It first collects all interfaces in target services and uncovers deep nested multi-level interfaces to test. Then, it automatically extracts interface models, including feasible transaction code, variable names and types in the transaction data, from the abstract syntax tree (AST) of target interfaces. Further, it infers variable dependencies in transactions via the variable name and type knowledge, and infers interface dependencies via the generation and use relationship. Finally, it employs the interface models and dependency knowledge to generate sequences of transactions, which have valid formats and semantics, to test interfaces of target services. We implemented a prototype of FANS from scratch and evaluated it on six smartphones equipped with a recent version of Android, i.e., android-9.0.0_r46 , and found 30 unique vulnerabilities deduplicated from thousands of crashes, of which 20 have been confirmed by Google. Surprisingly, we also discovered 138 unique Java exceptions during fuzzing. ∗Part of this work was done during Baozheng Liu's research internship at Alpha Lab of 360.


Using a novel dataset, we develop a structural model of the Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) market between the Arabian Gulf and the Far East. We study how fluctuations in oil tanker rates, oil exports, shipowner profits, and bunker fuel prices are determined by shocks to the supply and demand for oil tankers, to the utilization of tankers, and to bunker fuel costs. Our analysis shows that time charter rates respond only slightly to fuel cost shocks. In response to higher fuel costs, voyage profits decline, as cost shocks are only partially passed on to round-trip voyage rates. Oil exports from the Arabian Gulf also decline, reflecting lower demand for VLCCs. Positive utilization shocks are associated with higher profits, a slight increase in time charter rates and slightly lower fuel prices and oil export volumes. Tanker supply and tanker demand shocks have persistent effects on time charter rates, round-trip voyage rates, the volume of oil exports, fuel prices, and profits with the expected sign.


Although antibodies are highly specific, cross-reactions are frequently observed. To understand the molecular basis of this phenomenon, we studied the anti-hen egg lysozyme (HEL) monoclonal antibody (mAb) D11.15, which cross-reacts with several avian lysozymes, in some cases with a higher affinity (heteroclitic binding) than for HEL. We have determined the crystal structure of the Fv fragment of D11.15 complexed with pheasant egg lysozyme (PHL). In addition, we have determined the structure of PHL, Guinea fowl egg lysozyme, and Japanese quail egg lysozyme. Differences in the affinity of D11.15 for the lysozymes appear to result from sequence substitutions in these antigens at the interface with the antibody. More generally, cross-reactivity is seen to require a stereochemically permissive environment for the variant antigen residues at the antibody-antigen interface.


Overview: This is the first book whose subject is the music, sounds and silences of Antarctica. From 2011 until 2014, Australia marked its long-standing connection with Antarctica by celebrating the centenary of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition. The icy continent, with its extremes of climate and environment and unique soundscapes, offers great potential for creative achievements in the world of music and sound. This book demonstrates the intellectual and creative engagement of artists, musicians, scientists and writers. Consciousness of sounds — in particular, musical ones — has not been at the forefront of our aims in polar endeavours, but listening to and appreciating them has been as important there as elsewhere.


Since the first reported use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as an electrode material in 1996 the use of CNTs within electrochemistry has grown rapidly. Single walled carbon nanotubes offer bio-compatibility combined with nano-scale dimensions and low background currents in the pristine state. Over the past decade the quantity of SWNTs synthesised globally has greatly increased making the material available for a variety of studies and potentially a feasible material for commercial electrodes.

Despite this rise in popularity there is still an on going debate about the sites of electron transfer (ET) at a carbon nanotube. Some reports claim that the sidewall of the carbon nanotube exhibits sluggish ET rates with the majority of the ET occurring at defect sites and the end of the CNT. In contrast there is also evidence that suggests that ET at the sidewall is facile and not sluggish. The origin of ET is investigated using both theoretical and experimental data to probe the developing diffusion profiles to active ET sites. This is achieved on the timescale of a typical voltammetric experiment by significantly reducing the rate of diffusion to the electroactive sites using a NafionTM film. The reduced rate of diffusion allows the developing diffusion profiles to the individual sites to be decoupled.

The use of convection and diffusion is a proven electrochemical technique to increase the sensitivity of analytical measurements and to probe reaction rates and mechanisms. The well-defined mass transport within a channel flow cell or an impinging jet electrode, combined with the continual replacement of solution, makes this geometry amenable to online studies, e.g. bedside or industrial monitoring, or a combination with chromatography. One draw back of conventional channel flow and impinging jet electrode set-ups is the need for specialist equipment or calibration steps each time the system is assembled. The use of microstereo lithography (MSL) to construct custom designed cells for use with a variety of planar electrodes is investigated. The hydrodynamics within the proposed designs are theoretically tested and verified experimentally. The devices constructed are easily assembled using a wide range of electrode materials and the computer aided manufacture provides flexibility in critical dimensions. Importantly, the devices only require a one-off determination of the height prior to assembly, removing the need for an electrochemical calibration step as the cells do not distort during assembly.

Of particular interest for analytical studies is the greatly reduced background currents provided by a carbon nanotube network compared to an equivalent size carbon macroelectrode. The lower background signal allows small Faradaic currents to be observed experimentally, allowing lower concentrations to be distinguished.

The enhanced sensitivity is combined with the increased mass transport of channel flow and impinging jet convective systems to determine the limit of detection for particular channel and impinging jet geometries under constant flow rates. This approach allows the successful detection of nano-molar concentrations under hydrodynamic control using standard voltammetric techniques.


Despite the fact that it is publicly available, collecting and processing the full bitcoin blockchain data is not trivial. Its mere size, history, and other features indeed raise quite specific challenges, that we address in this paper. The strengths of our approach are the following: it relies on very basic and standard tools, which makes the procedure reliable and easily reproducible; it is a purely lossless procedure ensuring that we catch and preserve all existing data; it provides additional indexing that makes it easy to further process the whole data and select appropriate subsets of it. We present our procedure in details and provide an implementation online, as well as the obtained dataset.


In-package ozonation is an antimicrobial packaging system that uses atmospheric cold plasma technology to generate ozone and other gases inside a sealed package to inhibit microbial growth on packaged food. Previous unpublished research has shown that in-package ozonation effectively kills and inhibits microbes on raw chicken breast meat. However, ozone has a high oxidation potential and may influence meat color and lipid stability (oxidation). There is a lack of information about the effect of in-package ozonation on meat quality during refrigerated storage. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of in-package ozonation on quality attributes of raw broiler breast meat. Boneless skinless broiler fillets were placed in Cryovac rigid trays sealed in air with a barrier film and exposed to ozonation treatment (70 kV for 120 s). Similarly packaged samples served as non-treated controls. Samples were stored at 4°C for 8 d. Headspace gas composition, meat surface pH, color, lipid oxidation, and drip loss were evaluated on d 1, 5, and 8. There were no treatment differences in the O2 and CO2 contents of the packages, meat color, or lipid oxidation by d 1 and d 5 of storage. By d 8 of storage, however, differences were observed for headspace composition, muscle surface pH, and color lightness. With storage from d 1 to 8, headspace O2 content decreased more in controls (21% to 3%) than treated packages (21% to 12%); CO2 content increased more in controls (0% to 18%) than treated packages (0% to 11%). With storage, color lightness (L* value) of the meat changed by more than 6 units and surface pH increased by 0.8 units in the control samples; however, they remained unchanged in treated meat. There were no differences between the control and ozonation treatments for lipid oxidation or drip loss. These results demonstrate that under our experimental conditions in-package ozonation does not have any negative effects on the quality of raw chicken breast meat during refrigerated storage.


We endogenize the threshold points in Granovetter's threshold model of collective behavior (Granovetter 1978). We do this in a simple model that combines strategic complementarity and private information in a dynamic setup with endogenous order of moves. Looking at Granovetter's model in the strategic context allows us to highlight the sensitivity of collective outcomes to the timing of the games and the reversibility of the actions, and to emphasize an extra incentive for people to follow other people: to encourage more people to follow them. JEL Classification Codes: C7, D7.


Abstract Objective: Cannabis use has increased dramatically across the country; however, few studies have assessed the long-term impact of medical cannabis (MC) use on cognition. Studies examining recreational cannabis users generally report cognitive decrements, particularly in those with adolescent onset. As MC patients differ from recreational consumers in motives for use, product selection, and age of onset, we assessed cognitive and clinical measures in well-characterized MC patients over 1 year. Based on previous findings, we hypothesized MC patients would not show decrements and might instead demonstrate improvements in executive function over time. Method: As part of an ongoing study, MC patients completed a baseline visit prior to initiating MC and evaluations following 3, 6, and 12 months of treatment. At each visit, patients completed a neurocognitive battery assessing executive function, verbal learning/memory, and clinical scales assessing mood, anxiety, and sleep. Exposure to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) was also quantified. Results: Relative to baseline, MC patients demonstrated significant improvements on measures of executive function and clinical state over the course of 12 months; verbal learning/memory performance generally remained stable. Improved cognitive performance was not correlated with MC use; however, clinical improvement was associated with higher CBD use. Analyses suggest cognitive improvements were associated with clinical improvement. Conclusions: Study results extend previous pilot findings, indicating that MC patients may exhibit enhanced rather than impaired executive function over time. Future studies should examine distinctions between recreational and MC use to identify potential mechanisms related to cognitive changes and the role of clinical improvement.


Differences in IgE binding and skin responses to pollen extracts of four species of Pistacia, and some immunochemical characteristics of this pollen were investigated. The incidence of positive SPT among atopic patients varied between 31.5%to the pollen extracts of P. vera and 24.6% to P. palaestina. The antigens are located on the exine of the grains as well as in their cytoplasm. Some of the antigens are common to all four species, whereas others seem to be specific. Cross‐reactivity was found among the four species of Pistacia and between them and Schinus terebintifolious. Five conspicuous IgE‐binding bands were observed in the immunoblots of the four examined species, the bands of 49, 57, 64, 68, and 79 kDa. The 36–37‐kDa band of P. lentiscus and the 60‐ and 84‐kDa bands of P. atlantica and P. vera were also noticeable. As the flowering seasons of Pistacia and Schinus do not overlap, the patients are exposed to such pollen for more than 4 months a year. Apparently, Pistacia pollen is a major source of allergy.


Twenty-four participants with a diagnosis of social anxiety were compared with fourteen participants with anxiety disorders other than social anxiety and twenty-nine comparison participants. Participants were matched on IQ and read strange stories to assess second-order false belief understanding. On the basis of previous research it was hypothesised that participants with social anxiety would spend significantly longer responding to non-mental and mental state questions compared to the other two groups and would give significantly poorer responses. As hypothesized, the social anxiety group did spend significantly longer responding to the mental state questions than both the other groups and the quality of their responses was poorer. The longer response times and poor quality of response were conceptualised as having a poor Theory of Mind. This link to Theory of Mind suggests a new understanding of the cycle of anxiety in social anxiety, and suggests the future of counselling with these clients may be altered to further improve effectiveness of treatment. There was also an unexpected finding for all groups, which showed that on the whole the faster a participant responded the more accurate they tended to be. The implications for this will also be discussed.


Knowledge on springback and moisture uptake is necessary in assessing the
potential use of bentwood in furniture industry. In this study Rubberwood was used for
making bentwood. Factors such as storing condition, thickness and radius on the bending
properties were studied. The specimens were plasticised by soaking in hot water for 1
hour and steamed for 25 minutes. The specimens were placed inside a stainless steel strap
and pressed in a moulded hot press at three radius of curvatures (600mm, 900mm and
1200mm). The bent specimen was further heated for setting the bentwood. The
springback assessments were carried out by exposing the bentwood to two different
conditions: workshop (23.0°C to 33.5°C and RH 67 % to 96%) and air-conditioned
room (25°C and RH 70%).
The results show the springback and the moisture uptake were high in the
workshop condition. Storage condition and thickness had significant effect influence on
the moisture uptake and springback but radius has no significant difference.
Air-conditioned room can be used as storage for bentwood in order to minimise
the moisture uptake and springback. The thicker bentwood had the lowest springback and
moisture uptake. There was a strong linear relationship between the springback and the
moisture uptake.


We show that every algorithm for testing n-variate Boolean functions for monotonicityhas query complexity Ω(n1/4). All previous lower bounds for this problem were designed for non-adaptive algorithms and, as a result, the best previous lower bound for general (possibly adaptive) monotonicity testers was only Ω(logn). Combined with the query complexity of the non-adaptive monotonicity tester of Khot, Minzer, and Safra (FOCS 2015), our lower bound shows that adaptivity can result in at most a quadratic reduction in the query complexity for testing monotonicity. By contrast, we show that there is an exponential gap between the query complexity of adaptive and non-adaptive algorithms for testing regular linear threshold functions (LTFs) for monotonicity. Chen, De, Servedio, and Tan (STOC 2015)recently showed that non-adaptive algorithms require almost Ω(n1/2) queries for this task. We introduce a new adaptive monotonicity testing algorithm which has query complexity O(logn) when the input is a regular LTF.


The role of ideology is a disputed topic among scholars interested in the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party. By means of investigating the description of foreign democracies in the party's prominent newspaper, Renmin ribao the 'People's Daily', the ideological strategy of the Hu Jintao administration is analysed in the present study. This description is compared with the concept of liberal democracy as perceived by some prominent representatives of liberalism, Marxism, and Confucianism. The results show that the description of foreign democracies in the 'People's Daily' to a high extent complies with traditional Marxist perspectives. It seems plausible that the party still relates to Marxism in order to legitimise its own rule and delegitimise liberal democracy. Marxist strategy, thus, still seems to be of great importance to the party's legitimacy.


OBJECTIVE
to carry out a situational analysis of cervical cancer prevention activities in Argentina, specifically regarding (a) the organizational framework of cervical cancer prevention activities; (b) Pap-smear coverage; (c) cytology laboratory organization; and (d) follow-up/treatment of women with abnormal lesions.

METHODS
a situational analysis of provincial cervical cancer programs using data from an ad-hoc questionnaire sent to the leaders of cervical cancer prevention programs in Argentina's 24 provinces. In addition, the provinces' program guidelines, statistical reports, laws, and program regulations were reviewed and certain key leaders were personally interviewed.

RESULTS
data were obtained for 19 of Argentina's 24 provinces. Four of the 19 provinces had no formal program framework. Conventional cytology was the most commonly used screening test. Screening was mainly opportunistic. The recommended interval between normal tests was 3 years in most provinces. The eligible age for screening ranged from 10-70 years of age; however, annual or biannual screening was the usual practice after becoming sexually active. None of the provincial programs had data available regarding Pap-smear coverage. Most of the cytology laboratories did not have a quality control policy. The number of smears read varied greatly by laboratory (650-24 000 per year). A log of events related to screening and treatment did not exist in most provinces.

CONCLUSIONS
screening in Argentina is mainly opportunistic, characterized by an estimated low coverage, coexisting with over-screening of women with access to health services, and an absence of quality control procedures. Policies for cervical cancer screening in the provinces vary and, most often, deviate from the national recommendation of one Pap smear every 3 years for women 35-64 years of age. Ensuring compliance with national program guidelines is an essential step toward significantly reducing the burden of cervical cancer.


The retention of newcomers is of vital relevance for initiatives developing Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS). Based on previous FLOSS research which repeatedly highlights the amount of knowledge developers build in the beginning of their project participation for their continuance and experiences from the organizational domain, we evaluate the use of mentoring as an appropriate knowledge transfer and retention strategy for FLOSS projects. Combining FLOSS and organizational literature, we develop our research model and hypothesize that (i) mentoring facilitates novices in their learning, which, in turn, increases their retention (ii) and (iii) that mentoring has direct effects on proteges' continued participation. The evaluation of 91 newcomers to the KDE project supports our hypotheses and finds a strong direct and indirect association between mentoring and novices' project retention. On the one hand our analysis shows that mentoring significantly increases novices' achieved level of knowledge after their ramp up period which, in turn, enlarges their project permanence. On the other hand, we find evidence that there is also a strong and significant direct association between mentoring and proteges' retention behaviour, which could be the result of the strong interpersonal relationship which is formed between mentors and proteges.


STUDY OBJECTIVES: (1) To identify behavioural and biological correlates of poor physical functioning and (2) to determine whether such associations are independent of disease. DESIGN: Potential correlates were obtained from questionnaires and screening visits at baseline and five year follow up. Physical functioning was measured at follow up using the 10 item scale from the short-form 36 health survey. SETTING: London offices at baseline. PARTICIPANTS: 10,308 civil servants (6895 men and 3413 women), with a median age (range) of 49 years (39-63) at follow up. MAIN RESULTS: Multiple logistic regression showed that cigarette smoking, physical activity, body mass index (BMI), triglycerides, fibrinogen, and insulin were independently associated with poor physical functioning for men. For women, physical activity, eating habits, body mass index, fibrinogen, and insulin were independently associated with poor physical functioning. For example, among men, current smokers who had smoked more than 20 pack years were 1.89 (95% CI 1.35 to 2.67) times as likely to have poor physical functioning as never smokers. Men with BMI of 30 kg/m2 or more were 1.71 (95% CI 1.13 to 2.59) times as likely to have poor physical functioning as those with BMI < 20 kg/m2. The corresponding odds ratio for women was 2.66 (95% CI 1.80 to 3.93). With the exceptions of fibrinogen and insulin, associations remained on exclusion of subjects with physical disease. CONCLUSIONS: Risk factors established for physical diseases are associated with poor physical functioning in a population of working age. These associations may be independent of current disease.


Most U.S. institutional portfolios have surprisingly similar betas and similar overall volatilities. Beta assumes an implicit beta for each asset class that is based on its co-movement with U.S. equities. This "total beta exposure' to equities, as the primary risk factor in most portfolios, accounts for 90% or more of volatility even in highly diversified funds with a low explicit allocation to equities. The implicit beta values determine corresponding implicit alphas that can add to expected fund return and yet have a minimal impact on total fund volatility. These implicit alphas are passive, in that there is no presumption of a positive outcome from direct active investment. Unlike the zero-sum active alphas that presume superior investment skill and must be "hunted,' the implicit alphas are passive and non-zero-sum in nature, and rather can be "gathered' through the allocation process.


The microbial conversion of organic nitrogen (N) to plant available forms is a critical determinant of plant growth and carbon sequestration in forests worldwide. In temperate zones, microbial activity is coupled to variations in temperature, yet at the ecosystem level, microbial N mineralization seems to play a minor role in determining patterns of N loss. Rather, N losses often appear to vary with seasonality in hydrology and plant demand, while exports over longer periods are thought to be associated with increasing rates of anthropogenic N deposition. We analyzed long-term (21–32 years) time series of climate and stream and atmospheric chemistry from two temperate deciduous forest watersheds in the southeastern USA to understand the sensitivity of internal forest N cycles to climate variation and atmospheric deposition. We evaluated the time series with a simple analytical model that incorporates key biotic constraints and mechanisms of N limitation and cycling in plant–soil systems. Through maximum likelihood analysis, we derive biologically realistic estimates of N mineralization and its temperature sensitivity (Q10). We find that seasonality and long-term trends in stream nitrate (NO3) concentrations can in large part be explained by the dynamics of internal biological cycling responding to climate rather than external forcing from atmospheric chemistry. In particular, our model analysis suggests that much of the variation in N cycling in these forests results from the response of microbial activity to temperature, causing NO3 losses to peak in the growing season and to accelerate with recent warming. Extrapolation of current trends in temperature and N deposition suggests that the upturn in temperature may increase future N export by greater than threefold more than from increasing deposition, revealing a potential direct effect of anthropogenic warming on terrestrial N cycles.


Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni, is one of Australia's most damaging fruit fly pests. Male Annihilation Technique (MAT) is a method used to manage fruit fly populations by luring and killing male flies, which limits population growth by preventing female flies from mating. MAT devices consist of an attractant and a toxicant, such as maldison or fipronil. Fipronil has a slow knockdown effect, which has been exploited to induce indirect toxicity of a number of insect pests, including cockroaches and termites. This indirect effect, called horizontal transfer, is facilitated through the sharing of food or contact with exposed individuals. Horizontal transfer has been reported in Queensland fruit fly, where exposed males have transferred lethal doses of fipronil to virgin females during courtship and mating. In the present study, we explored three possible modes of horizontal transfer of fipronil against Queensland fruit fly under laboratory conditions. These included: (1) direct contact of females with exposed males (2) contact of males to the regurgitant of exposed males and (3) contact of males with dead exposed males. Our results demonstrated that lethal doses of fipronil were not transferred from males to females during courtship and mating. Male flies that were exposed to fipronil one and six hours prior to dusk were all knocked down, moribund or dead at dusk and therefore did not participate in courtship displays or mating. However, we found that horizontal transfer and subsequent death occurred in males that fed on the regurgitant of exposed males, and in males that were in contact with dead exposed males. Therefore, MAT devices that contain fipronil should not be used as a standalone treatment but rather be used in combination with other control methods, such as protein bait sprays to ensure the control of female flies.


Compression of the radial nerve is most commonly described at the supinator muscle (i.e., arcade of Frohse). However, radial nerve compression can occur in the arm. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to review both etiologies of radial nerve entrapment and the sites at which this can occur in the arm. The clinical presentation of radial nerve entrapment in the arm and how it differs from that of entrapment at other sites is reviewed and the conditions potentially predisposing to nerve entrapment are described. Particular attention is paid to the nerve's course and potential variants of the anatomical structures in the arm. In each case, the recommended course of management for the neuropathy is described. Injury of the radial nerve can arise from a varied set of pathologies including trauma, tumors, anomalous muscles, and intramuscular injections. Physicians should have a good working knowledge of the anatomy and potential mechanisms for radial nerve injury.


For millennia, the culture and philosophy of the ancient Egyptians have fascinated artists, historians, and spiritual seekers throughout the world. Now, with this deluxe edition, the legendary 3,500-year-old Papyrus of Anithe most beautiful of the ornately illustrated Egyptian funerary scrolls ever discoveredhas been restored in its original sequences of text and artwork, using the latest advances in computer-imaging technology. Four exquisitely illustrated gatefold spreads and an acclaimed translation by two noted Egyptologists showcase the Papyrus's elaborately bordered images and convey its intended sense of motion and meaning in a way that other books on the subject cannot begin to match. For both lay readers and scholars interested in a wide range of topicsfrom mysticism and philosophy to anthropology and astronomythis sumptuous and accessible new volume will be an essential acquisition.