Ten bambara groundnut [Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc] landraces of diverse origin were used to examine the effect of temperature on the rate of leaf appearance (RLA) and to determine the base temperature (T b ) among landraces. Knowledge of leaf development is required in breeding programs where crop morphological development is considered an important selection criterion. The ability to predict leaf appearance would also facilitate modeling of plant development. Plants were grown in controlled-environment growth rooms under different temperatures (20, 25, 30, 32, and 35°C ± 1). The study to examine the effect of temperature on leaf appearance in bambara groundnut landraces indicated that the base temperature (T b ) for leaf appearance ranged from 8.1 to 12.0°C. Within the range of temperatures evaluated in this study, the observation of differences in T b values among the landraces suggests that T b values for leaf appearance are landrace dependent. The phyllochron was also variable among landraces ranging from 40.9 to 53.0°C. The RLA ranged from 0.19 to 0.63 leaves d -1 depending on temperature and landrace. The landrace variations in relation to leaf appearance may allow selection of landraces for different environments.


Preface A Note on References and Abbreviations Chapter the First: An Easy Version of the New Testament Chapter the Second: Telling the Gracious and Compassionate History Chapter the Third: The Eternal Majesty of Heaven Chapter the Fourth: Where the Two Ends of Life Meet Chapter the Fifth: "It is True! He is the Son of God!" Chapter the Sixth: Our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ Chapter the Seventh: Seeking for No Other Footsteps Selected Bibliography Index.


Abstract. The spatial distribution of snow accumulation substantially affects the seasonal course of water storage and runoff generation in high mountain catchments. Whereas the areal extent of snow cover can be recorded by satellite data, spatial distribution of snow depth and hence snow water equivalent (SWE) is difficult to measure on catchment scale. In this study we present the application of airborne LiDAR (Light Detecting And Ranging) data to extract snow depths and accumulation distribution in an alpine catchment. Airborne LiDAR measurements were performed in a glacierized catchment in the Otztal Alps at the beginning and the end of three accumulation seasons. The resulting digital elevation models (DEMs) were used to calculate surface elevation changes throughout the winter season. These surface elevation changes were primarily referred to as snow depths and are discussed concerning measured precipitation and the spatial characteristics of the accumulation distribution in glacierized and unglacierized areas. To determine the redistribution of catchment precipitation, snow depths were converted into SWE using a simple regression model. Snow accumulation gradients and snow redistribution were evaluated for 100 m elevation bands. Mean surface elevation changes of the whole catchment ranges from 1.97 m to 2.65 m within the analyzed accumulation seasons. By analyzing the distribution of the snow depths, elevation dependent patterns were obtained as a function of the topography in terms of aspect and slope. The high resolution DEMs show clearly the higher variation of snow depths in rough unglacierized areas compared to snow depths on smooth glacier surfaces. Mean snow depths in glacierized areas are higher than in unglacierized areas. Maximum mean snow depths of 100 m elevation bands are found between 2900 m and 3000 m a.s.l. in unglacierized areas and between 2800 m and 2900 m a.s.l. in glacierized areas, respectively. Calculated accumulation gradients range from 8% to 13% per 100 m elevation band in the observed catchment. Elevation distribution of accumulation calculated by applying these seasonal gradients in comparison to elevation distribution of SWE obtained from airborne laser scanning (ALS) data show the total redistribution of snow from higher to lower elevation bands. Revealing both, information about the spatial distribution of snow depths and hence the volume of the snow pack, ALS data are an important source for extensive snow accumulation measurements in high alpine catchments. These information about the spatial characteristics of snow distribution are crucial for calibrating hydrological models in order to realistically compute temporal runoff generation by snow melt.


Purpose To evaluate interns' perceived preparedness for defined surgical residency responsibilities and to determine whether fourth-year medical school (M4) preparatory courses ("bootcamps") facilitate transition to internship. Method The authors conducted a multi-institutional, mixed-methods study (June 2009) evaluating interns from 11 U.S. and Canadian surgery residency programs. Interns completed structured surveys and answered open-ended reflective questions about their preparedness for their surgery internship. Analyses include t tests comparing ratings of interns who had and had not participated in formal internship preparation programs. The authors calculated Cohen d for effect size and used grounded theory to identify themes in the interns' reflections. Results Of 221 eligible interns, 158 (71.5%) participated. Interns self-reported only moderate preparation for most defined care responsibilities in the medical knowledge and patient care domains but, overall, felt well prepared in the professionalism, interpersonal communication, practice-based learning, and systems-based practice domains. Interns who participated in M4 preparatory curricula had higher self-assessed ratings of surgical technical skills, professionalism, interpersonal communication skills, and overall preparation, at statistically significant levels (P < .05) with medium effect sizes. Themes identified in interns' characterizations of their greatest internship challenges included anxiety or lack of preparation related to performance of technical skills or procedures, managing simultaneous demands, being first responders for critically ill patients, clinical management of predictable postoperative conditions, and difficult communications. Conclusions Entering surgical residency, interns report not feeling prepared to fulfill common clinical and professional responsibilities. As M4 curricula may enhance preparation, programs facilitating transition to residency should be developed and evaluated.


There are over 1.9 million eye injuries per year in the United States with over 30,000 patients left blind in at least one eye as a result of trauma. Some of the most severe eye injuries can occur in automobile accidents and from sports related impacts. Eye injuries in the military environment are even more prevalent and are generally more severe than eye injuries to civilians. The rate of eye injuries has dramatically increased in warfare in recent years, rising from 2% of all casualties during World War I and World War II to over 13% of all combat injuries in Operation Desert Storm. While many of the conflict-related eye injuries are caused by shrapnel and other debris, nearly 25% of the injuries are also caused by blunt trauma from motor vehicle and helicopter crashes, falling, and direct hits from blunt objects. In order to develop safety countermeasures effective at preventing these eye injuries, as well as evaluate the eye injury potential of different impacts, it is desirable to have the capability for distinguishing between injurious and non-injurious eye impacts. Current anthropometric test device (ATD) headforms lack instrumentation and facial features to allow detailed assessment of eye or discrete facial injuries. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to present the development and validation of the Facial and Ocular CountermeasUre Safety (FOCUS) headform's synthetic eye and orbit and corresponding eye injury risk criteria.


Mammalian hair is readily shed and transferred to persons or objects during contact; this property renders hair as one of the most ubiquitous and prevalent evidence type encountered in forensic investigations and at ancient burial sites. The durability and stability of hair ensures their survival for millennia; their status as a privileged repository of viable genetic material consolidates their value as a biological substrate. The aims of this thesis are to showcase the wealth, and breadth, of information that may be gleaned from these unique structures and address the current problem regarding the mis-identification of animal hairs.

Despite the similar appearance of human and animal hairs, the expertise required to accurately interpret their respective structures requires significantly different skill sets. Chapter Two in this thesis discusses the consequences of mis-identification of hair structures due to lack of competency or adequate training in regards to hair examiners and discusses some of the myths and misconceptions associated with microscopy of hairs.

Hairs are resilient structures capable of surviving for millennia as exemplified by extinct megafauna hairs; however, they are not totally immune to deleterious effects of environmental insults or biodegradation. There is a paucity of morphological data available illustrating the deleterious effects of biological agents on hairs. This void is filled through the comprehensive review of biodegradation of hair in Chapter 3 which showcases, for the first time, a collective visual catalogue of the destructive effects caused by an elite group of biological agents. These effects were evident in hairs from prehistoric, ancient and modern human and animal hairs.

During the course of this study hair morphologies were observed which challenged current paradigms in relation to their genesis. The results of the present study unequivocally demonstrate that hair structures, previously characterised as genetic in nature, are due to the effects of biodegradation. Furthermore, this body of work is the first to record that morphological characteristics previously ascribed to taphonomy (post-mortem insults), also occur in hairs from the living. The implications of the interpretation of hair structures in forensic investigations are discussed in greater detail in Chapter 3.

 Chapter four represents the first demonstration of the advantages of adopting a multidisciplinary approach to hair examination. This chapter presents a detailed microscopical audit of extinct megafauna hair that was the remains of a larger hair sample previously consumed in more destructive analyses (molecular analyses and radio carbon dating). One of the most significant morphological finds of this work was the presence of unusual structural features, not previously recorded, that may have been central to the survival of extinct megafauna.

 Lastly, Chapter Five introduces the concept of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS also referred to as massive parallel sequencing) to investigate the forensic potential of human hairs on the basis of transfer of their respective bacterial 'profiles or signatures'.

Taken together, this body of work presents fresh approaches to the manner in which mammalian hairs could be processed in the future and demonstrates the benefits of multi-disciplinary approaches to their examination. Bacterial DNA profiles, derived from human hair using NGS technologies, may prove to be a valuable future addition to the forensic molecular toolkit. Furthermore, this present study challenges current paradigms regarding the interpretation of microscopic post-mortem artifacts that occur on ancient and modern mammalian hairs.


Background: Predator assemblages can differ substantially in their top-down effects on community composition and ecosystem function, but few studies have sought to explain this variation in terms of the phylogenetic distance between predators. The effect of a local predator assemblage will depend on three things – which predators tend to co-occur, how similar their prey preferences are, and how they interact with each other and the whole community. Phylogenetic distance between predators may correlate with each of these processes, either because related predators are more likely to share the same traits, and therefore have similar habitat and prey preferences, or because predators are more likely to compete, and therefore diverge in habitat and prey preferences. Therefore, the phylogenetic structure of predator assemblages could provide a unifying framework for predicting how predators will impact their prey - and therefore any ecosystem functions mediated by their prey. Methods: We examined the effects of predators on macroinvertebrate food webs found in bromeliads, combining field observations, laboratory feeding trials and a manipulative experiment. We determined whether the phylogenetic distance between predators could explain: the co-observed occurrence of predator species among bromeliads, overlap in prey preferences under no-choice conditions, and effects of predator composition on prey survival, prey composition and ecosystem processes. Results: We found that phylogenetic distance does not predict either the co-occurrence of predator species nor the overlap in their prey preferences. However, our manipulative experiment showed that prey mortality decreased as the phylogenetic distance between predator species increased, reflecting antagonistic interactions among more distant predators. These effects of phylogenetic distance on prey mortality did not translate into effects on ecosystem function, as measured by rates of detrital decomposition and nitrogen cycling. Discussion: We conclude that the effects of predator phylogenetic diversity on the bromeliad food web are primarily determined by antagonistic predator-predator interac-tions, rather than habitat distribution or diet overlap. This study illustrates the potential of a phylogenetic community approach to understanding food webs dynamics.


Since 2004, six new strawberry cultivars have been released from the breeding programme at East Malling Research, two everbearing and four June-bearing. 'Judibell' (2005) has extended dormancy which results in a very late season for a June-bearing type - the second half of July in southern England. The berries are moderately firm and attractive with mid-red colour and pleasant flavour. Plants are quite dense with good resistance to Verticillium dahliae and Phytophthora cactorum, and moderate resistance to Colletotrichum acutatum and Podosphaera aphanis. 'Delia' (2005) is an early-season type with high yield. The berries are large, uniform and glossy with orange-red colour and excellent shelf life. Plants are moderately vigorous with no particular resistance to any common diseases. `Malling Pearl' (2005) is a high yielding everbearing type that is at its most productive during August and September. The berries are large and conical with an attractive colour and excellent eating quality. Plants have medium vigour and moderate resistance to P. aphanis but are susceptible to P. cactorum. 'Malling Opal' (2005) is a sister seedling of 'Malling Pearl' with a similar cropping pattern and plant characteristics. 'Malling Opal' has larger average fruit size and higher yield than 'Malling Pearl' but is less attractive with inferior shelf life and is considered most suitable for pick-your-own and direct marketing. 'Sallybright' (2007) is an early-season type with moderate yield and good fruit size. The berries are attractive with strong red colour and good flavour. Plants are vigorous with the flowers held above the leaf canopy. They are robust but have no particular resistance to any common diseases. 'Sallybright' is considered suitable for direct marketing and amateur use. 'Amelia' (200 7 ) is a late-season type with moderate yield and good fruit size. The berries are firm and attractive with a mid-red colour and pleasant flavour. Plants are vigorous with moderate resistance to P. aphanis and P. cactorum.


Evidence-based parallels: 1948-1960 Key words: Home-based services, clinical team, practice development, meaningful activities Reference: Warren, Mrs J. (2006). Auckland Domicilary Patients' Scheme. New Zealand Journal of Occupational Therapy, 53(2), 32. (Reprinted from Newsletter Journal, Vol 7, July 1953). Auckland Domicilary Patients' Scheme The Domiciliary Patients' Scheme has now been in now been in operation for over a year and has reached the stage of establishing itself by proving quite successful. There is an average of 28 patients on treatment, most of these being visited once a week, while the remainder once a fortnight. Some of the latter could be visited more often but through lack of transport it has been found impossible to do this. To commence with the District Nurses helped considerably by providing transport in conjunction with their own round of patients. Occasionally now a new patient living in an "awkward area" is visited for the first time with the district nurse. Other than that all of the visiting is done by travelling by tram, bus and a considerable amount of walking. Amongst the different types of illnesses treated, the more common are rheumatoid arthritis, hemiplegia, epilepsy, disseminated sclerosis, and congestive heart failure. Also a number of patients convalescing after operations are referred to us after discharge from any of the Public Hospitals. Quite a number of patients are referred by the District Nurses, and some by doctors in private practice. Providing that it is within their scope, most of the patients try all of the usual crafts. One patient in particular supplies all her friends and family with Christmas and birthday presents from her selection of crafts. She has often remarked that without this work, life would not be worth living. Comments: Mrs Warren nee Beatrice Thexton was well known to Sunny Riorden who was appointed to the domiciliary position next. Researcher: Beth Gordon Beth Gordon (Master of Public Health) Health and Disability Advisor Address for correspondence: firstname.lastname@example.com A Short History of Occupational Therapy in New Zealand Key words: History, service development, education, professional organisation. Reference: Rosser, Joyce K. (2006) A Short History of Occupational Therapy in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Occupational Therapy, 53 (2), 32-33. (Reprinted from Occupational Therapy, Vol 11, No 4, December 1956). No history of Occupational Therapy in New Zealand can be considered apart from the development of the country itself. The geography, the British tradition, the distribution of population, the development of health Services and the growth of the "Welfare Sate" all have influenced the establishment of Occupational therapy in New Zealand and made some aspects of our profession unique to this country. A need is felt. The earliest date of an official establishment including anything approximating to occupational therapy of which we have a record is in 1915 of a convalescent hospital for returned servicemen. 'In the Queen Mary Hospital, Hanmer, Christchurch, NZ., craft work for patients (i.e. rug-making, basket work, wood carving etc.) was commenced by the Officer-in-charge simultaneously with the establishment of the hospital in 1915'. In Mental Hospitals members of women's voluntary organisations taught the patients various handcrafts. Artisans took charge of small groups of patients in bootmaker's, upholsterers' and paint shops. The farm, gardens, household tasks and laundry employed a great number of patients. This was an acknowledgement of the value of occupation for mental hospital patients. A beginning is made. The first qualified Occupational therapist arrived in January 1940 (New Zealand being at war) alien to these conditions bringing with her ten pound ($30) of equipment. …


Governance in South America is signified by strategies pursued by state and non-state actors directed to enhancing (some aspect of) their capabilities and powers of agency. It is about the spaces and the practices available, demanded or created to 'make politics happen'. This framework lends explanatory power to understand how governance has been defined and practiced in South America.

Pia Riggirozzi and Christopher Wylde bring together leading experts to explore what demands and dilemmas have shaped understanding and practice of governance in South America in and across the region. The Handbook suggests that governance dilemmas of inequitable and unfulfilled political economic governance in South America have been constant historical features, yet addressed and negotiated in different ways. Building from an introduction to key issues defining governance in South America, this Handbook proceeds to examine institutions, actors and practices in governance focusing on three core processes: evolution of socio-economic and political justice claims as central to the demands of governance; governance frameworks foregrounding particular issues and often privileging particular forms of political practice; and iterative and cumulative processes leading to new demands of governance addressing recognition and identity politics.

This Handbook will be a key reference for those concerned with the study of South America, South American political economy, regional governance, and the politics of development.


Abstract The use of automatic load-haul-dump (LHD) machines in underground metal mines is a promising way to overcome some of the challenges now facing mining companies. They offer several potential benefits over man-operated units, mostly in terms of safety and health of the workers, but also in terms of higher availability, increased productivity, and reduced mining cost. That said, using such systems at their full capacity is a challenging and complex task. In this context, after describing some commercially available equipment and systems, the paper examines factors affecting reliability, availability and productivity of automatic LHDs and notes several technical and operational concerns.


We consider the problem of visual tracking of regions of interest in a sequence of motion blurred images. Traditional methods couple tracking with deblurring in order to correctly account for the effects of motion blur. Such coupling is usually appropriate, but computationally wasteful when visual tracking is the lone objective. Instead of deblurring images, we propose to match regions by blurring them. The matching score for two image regions is governed by a cost function that only involves the region deformation parameters and two motion blur vectors. We present an efficient algorithm to minimize the proposed cost function and demonstrate it on sequences of real blurred images.


Abstract We perform a systematic detection of deep tectonic tremor beneath the southern Central Range in Taiwan using a dense, small‐aperture seismic array. Deployed in February 2011, the array has been recording tectonic tremor nearly continuously for 134 days, including tremor triggered by the 2011 M w  9.0 Tohoku‐Oki earthquake. We use broadband frequency–wavenumber beamforming and moving‐window grid‐search methods to compute array parameters for all continuous data and identify tremor as coherent nonimpulsive seismic signals with deep incidence angles. The obtained array parameters closely match with those of relocated local earthquakes and triggered tremor bursts located by the waveform envelope correlation and clustering (WECC) method, indicating the robustness of our array technique. During the 134‐day study period, we detect tremor for 44 days, with a total duration of 1481 min, three to six times as long as the detection of tremor by the WECC method. We find a relative quiescence in ambient tremor activity for about 20 days following the 2011 Tohoku‐Oki earthquake, suggesting that dynamic stresses from the distant mainshock triggered most tremor close to failure, resulting in a temporary lack of tremor activity. In some cases, we observe rapid tremor migration with a speed at the order of 40–50  km/hr that is similar to the speed of fast tremor migration along dip on narrow streaks in Japan and Cascadia. Our results suggest that dense array techniques are capable of capturing detailed spatiotemporal evolutions of tremor behaviors in southern Taiwan. Online Material: Tables of station coordinates and tremor event parameters, and figures of the moving‐window grid‐search test with local earthquakes, tremor triggered by the 2011 Tohoku‐Oki earthquake, and additional examples of detected ambient tremors.


This article examines the design of digital indigenous knowledge archives. In a discussion of the distinction between indigenous knowledge and western science, a decentred perspective is developed, in which the relationship between different local knowledges is explored. The particular characteristics of indigenous knowledges raise questions about if and how these knowledges can be managed. The role of technology in managing indigenous knowledges is explored with examples from fieldwork in India and Kenya and from web-based databases and digital archives. The concept of contact zone is introduced to explore the space in which different knowledges meet and are performed, such as indigenous knowledge and the technoscientific knowledge of the database. Design for the contact zone, this article proposes, is an intra-active and adaptive process for in creating databases that are meaningful for indigenous knowers. The meta-design approach is introduced as a methodology, which may provide indigenous knowers tools for self-representation and self-organisation through design.


Although much evidence exists to suggest that conceptual software engineering design is a difficult task for software engineers to perform, current computationally intelligent tool support for software engineers is limited. While search-based approaches involving module clustering and refactoring have been proposed and show promise, such approaches are downstream in terms of the software development lifecycle - the designer must manually produce a design before search-based clustering and refactoring can take place. Interactive, user-centered search-based approaches, on the other hand, support the designer at the beginning of, and during, conceptual software design, and are investigated in this paper by means of a case study. Results show that interactive evolutionary search, supported by software agents, appears highly promising. As an open system, search is steered jointly by designer preferences and software agents. Directly traceable to the design problem domain, a mass of useful and interesting conceptual class designs are arrived at which may be visualized by the designer with quantitative measures of structural integrity such as design coupling and class cohesion. The conceptual class designs are found to be of equivalent or better coupling and cohesion when compared to a manual conceptual design of the case study, and by exploiting concurrent execution, the performance of the software agents is highly favorable.


Oestradiol (E2) regulation of microRNAs (miRNAs) is well characterised in breast cancer, but poorly understood in regulating coagulation. We previously reported that miR-494 directly downregulates Protein S gene (PROS1) expression in E2-treated human liver carcinoma cells (HuH-7) (Tay et al. 2013). Subsequent miRNA array analyses (NanoString nCounter®) identified numerous E2-responsive miRNAs in HuH-7 cells, which may be involved in regulating thrombotic factors. Therefore, this study sought to validate the E2 responsiveness of the candidate miRNAs and investigate their direct effects on coagulation gene targets. Twelve E2-responsive miRNAs were selected for validation and their potential coagulation gene targets predicted using four computational tools. HuH-7 cells were cultured -/+ 10nM E2 for 12h followed by RT-qPCR quantitation of E2-mediated expression of the twelve selected miRNAs and predicted gene targets. The direct interaction between validated miRNAs and their common coagulation gene targets were measured via dual-luciferase reporter assays. In concordance with NanoString nCounter® results, expression of let-7f-5p, miR-26b-5p, miR-128-3p, miR-365a-3p, miR-455-3p and miR-548aa were significantly downregulated following E2 treatment (p<0.05). An associated increase in common predicted targets Tissue Factor (F3) and Factor VIII (F8) mRNA levels was also observed. Furthermore, miR-365a-3p was identified to have a direct binding site on F3-3'UTR. MiR- 365a-3p was down-regulated by E2 and it could directly bind to F3-3'UTR, suggesting downregulation of miR-365a-3p may lead to up-regulation of Tissue Factor to promote thrombosis in high circulating E2 levels during pregnancy or contraceptive pill use.


This paper examines governance issues more closely and in relation to rural institutions and sustainable livelihood improvement, drawing on evidence from shariah cooperatives in Indonesia. More specifically, this paper provides a diagnostic of governance systems in Indonesia, which basically follow the Dutch law origin. Indonesia and the role that shariah cooperatives might play in strengthening such systems. This paper offers a description of both formal and informal rural governance systems in Indonesia, the role of shariah cooperatives and other membership-based rural producer organizations in these systems, and possible avenues through which rural organizations can play a larger role in improving rural governance. By using a combination of survey data and case studies, it sheds light specifically on the influence of local governance systems on people' cooperatives in Indonesia. The relationships and interactions between local governance systems and cooperatives are an important issue in Indonesia because both play an essential part in promoting and implementing the Government of Indonesia's far-reaching rural development and poverty reduction strategies. These strategies include the government's agricultural development-led program, its unitary policy, its administrative and fiscal decentralization efforts, and a whole range of social welfare and capacity building programs designed to support these strategies. Findings suggest that local governance systems and cooperatives are closely linked by interactions at multiple levels and with varying effects on rural people. These interactions have the potential to strengthen the role of cooperatives in local development, but also run some serious risks. Underlying these risks is the long-standing issue of trust between government and community. While it is difficult to provide explicit policy recommendations based on the analysis provided in this paper, at least one key issue can be raised for consideration by policymakers at all levels in Indonesia. If efforts to strengthen local governance systems and to build effective cooperatives can focus on this issue of trust between government and community, there is much cause for hope. However, getting this balance right is difficult and, in the long run, will be a significant challenge for policymakers to address. Keywords : governance; cooperative organization; JEL Classification : G21; G23; G38; P13; Z12


In Shark Bay, Western Australia, bottlenose dolphins Tursiops sp. carry conical sponges Echinodictyum mesenterinum on their rostra in the only documented cetacean foraging behaviour using a tool ('sponging'). In this study, we examined the influence of various ecological factors on live sponge distribution and the occurrence of sponging in parts of the western gulf of Shark Bay. We assessed sponge distribution and seagrass cover along 12 transects of approximately 11 km length, by recording sponges and seagrass in a total of 1380 quadrats (1 x 1 m), of which 56 quadrats contained conical sponges. The occurrence of sponging dolphins ('spongers') was documented along 10 of these 12 transects. The distribution of conical sponges was negatively correlated with the distribution of seagrass: no conical sponges were observed in water depths of 12 m. A digital elevation model, created from the sample depth data, identified channels in the region. Binary logistic and Poisson log-linear generalised linear models showed that water depth and bathymetric features including channel, substrate and slope were significant in predicting the occurrence and the mean number of conical sponges, as well as that of seagrass. Conical sponge distribution was positively correlated with the distribution of sponging, indicating that ecological factors influence where sponging occurs. The greater number of spongers found in this region may be explained by the larger area of habitat suitable for conical sponges in the western than the eastern gulf of Shark Bay.


In decades past, children entered into classrooms that were less diverse. They all came in knowing much of the same information, having had very similar experiences. They spoke the same language, ate the same food, and heard the same stories and music. In many case, they even knew each other. This group of less diverse students stayed less diverse as they progressed through 12 years of school, all together. Today, few classrooms have children who share similar backgrounds. Children come from different types of family structures and cultures. Many speak languages beyond what is spoken in the classroom. Today, teachers are faced with a more diverse set of students. Is it easier to teach less diverse students? Well, it probably is, however, at a cost. ********** As a psychology statistics professor who teaches a wide range of students, I work with diversity in many forms. In every class I teach, I have students with extreme math anxiety sitting next to students with no math anxiety. I have college students who have limited mathematical skills sitting next to students who have mastered calculus. It would be easier if everyone came into the class knowing the same amount of math material, but since they have not, I believe, I have become a better teacher. The effects of extreme anxiety on exam performance would not have been nearly as noticeable had I never taught students who are comfortable with mathematics. The questions I have heard from my more mathematically gifted students have aided me in coming up with better ways of presenting material to all of my students, just as having to break down a complex topic into pieces for my mathematically challenged students. My students' diversity in mathematical comfort and knowledge has forced me to become a better instructor for all of my students. As such, though I will say, teaching a school filled with children who have all experienced the same things in the same ways would be easier, it is precisely through diversity that we become more knowledgeable and better educators. In this article, I will explain how a specific cognitive function called the schema is often what is driving the differences we see between the children in our classrooms. It is through understanding how schemas impact how we attend, comprehend, and behave that will enable us to better understand issues of diversity and assist our children in this endeavor as well, because people who understand schemas understand Difference. No difference in Mr. Squirrel When my daughter was two she just loved watching squirrels, which lead my husband to name the squirrel in our yard, Mr. Squirrel. As time passed, and the trees in our yard matured, more squirrels came to settle. Seldom would there be more than one squirrel visible at a time. As such, my daughter viewed all squirrels as Mr. Squirrel. At around the age four, when she past a major cognitive developmental milestone (often referred to as possessing a theory of mind), I, like any cognitive developmentalist, began to informally test her cognitive abilities, to see what changed and what stayed the same regarding her thinking. Every time we saw a squirrel in our yard, I asked her if it was Mr. Squirrel. She assured me it was. I inquired as to how she recognized a squirrel as being Mr. Squirrel. My daughter told me that the squirrel in question was behaving like Mr. Squirrel, so it must be Mr. Squirrel. Within the year we moved, not far, but probably too far for Mr. Squirrel to join us. After we had been at the house for a couple of days, my daughter saw a squirrel and became very excited. "Mr. Squirrel moved with us," she squealed. My daughter was certain Mr. Squirrel was in our new yard as the squirrel in our yard behaved JUST like Mr. Squirrel. You see, every time my daughter approached Mr. Squirrel, he would run to the closest tree, start up the one side, then quickly scamper around to the back of the tree and continue up the tree. …


Even in inter regional risk management phenomena of retardation and adaptation play an important role in the interplay between different logical management levels. In this paper it is demonstrated that an System Dynamics (SD) approach may be very suitable for modeling and simulating such phenomena. In some situations, however, SD approaches and modeling tools may pose some unnecessary restrictions on the procedure. Hence, the authors recommend a pragmatic and flexible attitude towards the choice of approach and tools.


We present the design and characterization of compact out-of-plane focusing grating couplers on a silicon photonic platform, based on the fabrication restrictions for standard 193 nm UV lithography. The characterization by spatially sweeping a lensed fibre across the grating couplers clearly reveals the focusing behaviour and validates the design based on phase matching conditions for the oneand two-dimensional case. To our knowledge, this makes these grating couplers the first experimentally demonstrated 2D out-of-plane focusing grating couplers on a standard 220 nm-SOI platform. These grating couplers can find application as optical photonic layer couplers in optical sensing, as vertical interconnects, or to address spintronic memory elements.


The lack of consumer awareness of mediation and other methods of ADR/ODR hinders the effectiveness of dispute resolution. Consumers are not always aware of what entity can be of help should they experience a problem with a product or a service. This work shows the process of implementing a database on consumer mediation and information. It also shows a mobile application, named Geoconsum that has been developed to offer the information to end-users. The database contains, on the one hand, a comprehensive treatment of consumer mediation bodies in Catalonia. On the other hand, it also encompasses a set of normative applicable dispositions, including different levels of legislation and encompassing both hard and soft law instruments. The article shows the methodology and the challenges of implementing the database. It also shows the functionalities of the mobile application. Geoconsum is a mobile application with appropriate, low-cost, basic technology and geolocation parameters. Consumers may download such application into their smartphone. Upon request, the application provides the contact details of the entity searched for. It redirects the user to the entity's web page, allowing emailing the entity's representative, or displays the entity's telephone number, allowing making a phone call. The device also works as a mapping service application since it offers a route planner to access the nearest consumer mediation entity.


Arguably, the largest problem in international income taxation is the proper treatment of income that is subject to the legitimate taxing claims of two or more countries. A source country's jurisdiction to tax foreign persons is limited to income earned within the source country's borders. Under current international norms, however, the taxpayer's residence country is required to accommodate the source country's taxing right by employing a foreign tax credit or by exempting foreign source income. Thus, source taxation is at once geographically constrained, but also jurisdictionally superior to residence taxation.These principles require that international income be divided and accounted for between countries according to criteria that relate income and deductions to geographic locations. To be specific, the consequence of geographically limited source taxation and overlapping, but secondary, residence taxation is that the source of income must be determined so that the right to tax can be assigned. In this sense, the concept of "source" is at the heart of international taxation.We argue in Section II that the right of source countries to tax foreign persons on their source country income has a robust normative foundation. By contrast, we find that source rules that serve as instruments for implementing source taxing jurisdiction and effecting residence country accommodation of source country taxation are surprisingly lacking in normative content. Thus, if timing of income and expense recognition is the Achilles heel of a purely domestic income tax system, the source of income and expense is an equally weak link in the international tax rules. Because no clear economic or equitable principles guide the formulation of rules to divide income and expense by geographic origin, the construction of these rules has been a significantly arbitrary exercise.Why is it important to get source and source taxation rules right? One reason is to protect the U.S. income tax base. Today, sophisticated taxpayer planning exploits weaknesses in the income tax regimes of the United States, as well as other developed countries, by taking advantage of (1) the evolution of economic activity in the developed world toward value-added services and intangible assets, (2)increased flexibility in locating tangible economic functions and intangible assets, (3) technological and communications advances that challenge the ability of countries to impose tax at source, (4) substantial innovations in the structuring of financial assets, and (5) the continued availability of low-tax countries that sometimes erect enforcement obstacles in the form of confidentiality restrictions. Although source taxation plays a vital role in the U.S. international income tax regime by protecting the U.S. income tax base, there has not been a systematic reexamination of U.S. source taxation rules since 1966. In that year, the Foreign Investors Tax Act of 19669 reduced the "force of attraction," net-basis taxation of. foreign investors' U.S. investment income in order to encourage investment of foreign capital in the United States to relieve a chronic balance of payments deficit in the early 1960's. Since that time, however, the balance of payments has ceased to be a concern and the United States has become a net importer of foreign direct as well as portfolio investment." A reexamination of U.S. source taxation rules is long overdue.A fresh consideration of source rules and source taxation also is timely because international income is an increasingly important element of the U.S. economy. The 2002 Economic Report of the President identifies two directly relevant trends: (1) increased globalization and location of economic activity according to advantageous terms of trade, and (2) a related evolution of U.S. economic activity toward highly mobile value-added services and intangible products (and tangible products with embedded intangible value). Indeed, total trade (measured as imports plus exports) increased from 16% of gross domestic product in 1975 to 26% in 2000.In our reconsideration of source taxation and the related rules that assign geographic source to items of income and expense, we assume that source taxation will continue to have primacy over residence taxation, except to the extent that treaties provide otherwise, and that international double taxation issues will continue to be addressed through unilateral and bilateral measures. Moreover, we assume that nations will not forgo self-interest in any significant way when they undertake such unilateral and bilateral measures. In short, we believe that reconsideration of source taxation and source rules must be constrained by the premise that nations will continue to approach international taxation issues within a structure that does not depart radically from current international norms. In particular, we see nothing to suggest any reasonable prospect for nations, including particularly the United States, joining in multilateral approaches that deal with sourcing and double taxation of income.In Section II we set out the theoretical justification for taxing foreign persons who earn both active and passive income by making use of the U.S. physical, legal, and/or economic infrastructure. We evaluate alternative approaches to imposing tax at source on U.S. business activity and conclude that taxation of net business income at the same progressive rates applicable to residents is the best alternative. We also evaluate the role of fairness considerations in source taxation and conclude that they do not bear significantly, except that fairness would not necessarily be enhanced by eliminating taxation at source.In Section III we summarize the U.S. tax policy objectives regarding international income and develop criteria for U.S. source taxation of foreign persons on income from their U.S. businesses and portfolio investments. U.S. source taxation of nonresidents is important to preserve the perceived legitimacy of residence-based taxation with respect to similar activities carried on by U.S. persons. Specifically, we suggest that a need for "perceived parity" requires a level of effective source taxation comparable to that imposed on residents engaged in the same activity. Moreover, source taxation is important to prevent residents from having an incentive to become nonresidents and earn U.S. income.As a country whose residents invest abroad, the United States also has strong reasons to resist excessive or discriminatory taxation of nonresidents. We suggest in Section III, however, that the existing treaty concept of nondiscrimination does not adequately recognize the ways in which differential taxation of owners of U.S. business entities should be taken into account in evaluating whether a tax rule results in discrimination in fact.Finally, in Section III we undertake an extended review of the impact of source taxation's geographical limitations on the administration and enforcement of source tax rules. We observe that withholding at source helps overcome limitations on jurisdiction to enforce. Adoption of the qualified intermediary rules extends the reach of this regime outside the United States to the financial institution dealing directly with the nonresident taxpayer. Notwithstanding these improvements in enforcement mechanisms, we conclude that administration of source taxation would be less burdensome and enforcement less problematic if exceptions from source taxation were adopted only by treaty. We also conclude that enforcement of netbasis taxation at source on a remote seller (of goods, intangibles, or services) without a direct physical presence is extremely difficult in the absence of a treaty.In Section IV we consider the implications for certain selected U.S. source rules of the criteria developed in Section III. We disclaim, however, any attempt at a comprehensive critique of U.S. source rules. Instead, we provide illustrative examples of our analytical approach by considering the consequences of applying the Section III criteria to the U.S. sourcing rules for services and royalties. We also discuss the implications of residence-based source rules. While we do not evaluate the policy wisdom of exempting income from foreign owned capital, in the light of changes in the U.S. mechanisms for enforcing source taxation of investment income, we argue that now is an appropriate time to consider whether reciprocal treaty exemptions should replace the current U.S. unilateral exemption of portfolio interest and gains on the sale of large stock holdings. We also suggest consideration of developing mechanisms to tax at source income from U.S. sales of goods and services by remote sellers, subject to relief by treaty.In Section V, we contrast the source rules used for source taxation with the source rules used for the foreign tax credit limitation. We conclude that the two sets of source rules need not be symmetrical if the differences reflect different objectives. We conclude that there is a need to reevaluate the current scope of U.S. taxation at source. In the absence of a treaty, the objective of the U.S. source taxation regime should be parity in taxation of U.S.-owned and foreign-owned businesses carried on in the U.S. marketplace and a desired level of taxation on income earned by foreign owned capital employed in the U.S. marketplace. The structure of U.S. rules for taxing international income should not expose the U.S. tax base (all income of U.S. residents and U.S. income, appropriately defined, of nonresidents) to erosion. Relief from source taxation should be extended by treaty, not unilaterally, so that the United States can receive reciprocal benefits and can obtain the treaty partner's assistance to assure that the relief does not go to inappropriate persons. We also urge a comprehensive reexamination of U.S. source rules to take account of the purpose for each rule.


We consider completely integrable classical field theory models with a view to identifying the properties which characterize their integrability. In particulars, we study the infinite sets of 'hidden' symmetries, and the corresponding transformations carrying representations of infinite dimensional loop algebras, of the following models; the chiral-field equations in two dimensions, the self-dual sector of pure gauge theories in 4 dimensions, the functional (loop-space) formulation of 3-dimensional gauge theories, and some sectors of the extended superaymmetric gauge theories. We also construct an infinite number of conserved spinor currents for the latter theories. The (non-) integrability of the full four dimensional Yang-Mills equations is studied? and a local approximation for the non-integrable phase factor of gauge theories on an arbitrary, infinitesimally small, straight-line path is presented. Finally, we study classical gauge theories in dimensions greater than four5 and obtain, in analogy to the self-duality equations, algebraic equations for the field-strength which automatically imply the higher dimensional Yang-Mills equations as a consequence of the Bianchi identities. The most interesting sets of equations found are those in eight dimensions which have a structure related to the algebra of the octonions.


The problem and the solution. Although technology is being used to support learning through electronic versions of traditional instructional programs, its most direct effect on work performance is through interactive tools that structure work processes and provide links to supporting resources. Human resource development professionals charged with enhancing performance and learning must examine the new range of alternatives provided through technology and consciously determine better ways to provide support, references, courses, and collaboration.


This study investigated the relationships between perceived procedural injustice, organisational politics, emotional intelligence and organisational retaliatory behaviour. The Perceived procedural, organisational politics, emotional intelligence and organisational retaliatory scales were used to elicit responses from participants. Hypotheses were tested among 141 public-service employees of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC). Consistent with our hypotheses, results showed that perceived procedural injustice was positively related to organisational retaliatory behaviour. The results equally revealed that perceived organisational politics was positively related to organisational retaliatory behaviour and that emotional intelligence was negatively related to organisational retaliatory behaviour. The discussion was based on the social exchange theory. The result implies that organisational practitioners should desist from all acts that are capable of causing employees to hurt the organisation which in the long run will diminish its chances of realizing its goals.


Despite a voluminous literature on the topic, the question of whether foreign aid leads to growth is still controversial. To observe the pure effect of aid, researchers used instruments that must be exogenous to growth and explain well aid flows. This paper argues that instruments used in the past do not satisfy these conditions. We propose a new instrument based on predicted aid quantity and argue that it is a significant improvement relative to past approaches. We find a significant and relatively big effect of aid: a one standard deviation increase in received aid is associated with a 1.6 percentage points higher growth rate.


This is the second working paper from a project that explored the experience of problems at work and sources of support and advice of non-unionised workers in Britain. It explored 'concerns' at work – what these were, how they were perceived, whether any action was taken or not - and wider issues of individual employment rights and their enforcement. Non-unionised workers' use of union help-lines, statutory bodies such as Acas and the Employment Tribunal system, various support and advice agencies, such as Citizens Advice Bureau and law centres, and wider social networks were examined. The research involved both a telephone survey of 500 workers and qualitative interviews of a smaller number accessed through the survey respondents, the Citizens Advice Bureaux and other informal channels. Wider attitudes towards individual and collective representation and broader social engagement were also explored.


Electric buses are increasingly appearing on the streets of cities around the world. Thus, it is necessary to consider the impact of their charging on the distribution system operation, especially near the charging point. This article presents the problems that may arise while new charging points are connected. Research was carried out on the existing charging point at Spartańska Street in Warsaw, which allowed to obtain daily bus charging profiles and voltage curves. The authors then proposed an exemplary model of a bus terminus with the designed infrastructure for charging buses, based on the assumptions of the public transport operator in Warsaw. The comparison of these two solutions was made and based on it, a methodology of calculating daily demand for any terminus was prepared. In addition, no problems with the power quality were found during the research. This allows us to state that the introduction of electric buses into the fleet of passenger carriers will have a minor impact on the operation of the power system in Warsaw.


Aim To analyse the overall cosmetic outcome according to patient self-assessment in relation to the fractionation received. Materials and methods A questionnaire, drawn up on the basis of subjective rating scales of cosmesis and of acute and late toxicity RTOG/EORTC, EORTC QLQ-C30 (v3) and LENT SOMA, was applied to patients with early-stage breast cancer who received radiotherapy with tangential fields between June 2014 and July 2015. Self-perception of cosmesis, changes in the treated breast, pain and fractionation used (hypofractionation (HF) 42.56 Gy in 16 fractions or conventional fractionation (CF) 50 Gy in 25 fractions) were evaluated. Results Three hundred and fifty-two questionnaires were obtained. The median age was 58 years. 45% of patients reported 'excellent' cosmesis, 53% 'good', and 2% 'poor' cosmesis. Cosmesis was considered 'excellent/good' by 98% of patients. No statistically significant difference was found in overall cosmesis according to fractionation received (p = 0.6). The most frequent alteration was 'difference between both breasts' (77%), and 48% reported change in normal breast colour. Fifteen percent of patients who are younger than 58 years reported a change of normal breast colour affecting cosmesis compared to 9% of patients older than 58 years (p = 0.04). Complications affecting breast cosmesis were reported by 9% of patients with stages I-II compared with 2% with cancer in situ (DCIS) (p = 0.04); 14% in stages I-II referred colour change affecting cosmesis compared to 6% of those with DCIS (p = 0.03). Ninety-four percent of patients stated that they would accept treatment again. Conclusions No difference in cosmetic results was found between HF and CF in our patients. Great satisfaction regarding cosmetic outcome of cancer treatment was reported, given by 98% of excellent/good cosmesis, and 94% of patients who would receive treatment again.


This is approximately the 13th revision of a 496 pp. casebook containing a modest statutory supplement. The second page grants a royalty-free license for noncommercial reproduction.The book has been used (sometimes twice annually) in, a 3-semester-hour survey for more than ten years. Except for when it was published by Carolina Academic Press, the book has been updated and otherwise revised for each use. This version is intended for use in the spring of 2011.Agencies that regulate technology or confer intellectual property rights have long been overlooked as governed by administrative law. This book attempts to correct that. Aside from agencies addressed in leading cases such as McKart or Chevron, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) receives the most attention. It offers rich opportunities for exploring both traditional and non-traditional administrative law topics. One non-traditional topic is the PTO's unique capacity to regulate practitioners; another is the Federal Circuit's singular role in direct and collateral review of PTO patent grants as well as it's limited role in overseeing PTO trademark registrations. Because of status ambiguity generated by their residence within the Library of Congress, the Copyright Office and the Copyright Review Board, a sister agency central to collecting and distributing billions of dollars in compulsory media licenses, are also of interest.The focus is judicial oversight. Therefore, matters such as jurisdiction and other threshold issues, as well as standards of review, receive above average attention. Organization and content heavily rest on nearly forty years of teaching both administrative process and a full spectrum of substantive intellectual property courses. Development of the book was also advanced in a series of research seminars.The book contains no index. It does, however, have a relatively complete table of cases, often useful despite the capacity to search digitally. The statutory appendix includes the bulk of the Administrative Procedure Act and most of the Freedom of Information Act. It also contains relevant provisions from Titles 15 (trademarks), 17 (copyrights), 28 (courts) and 35 (patents) of the U.S. Code.


We measured the ability of humans to discriminate the positions of spherical objects passively contacting the fingerpad. The discrimination threshold averaged 0.55 mm for a moderately curved sphere (radius 5.80 mm) and decreased to 0.38 mm for a more curved sphere (radius 1.92 mm); since the receptor density is about 1 per mm2, these values are substantially smaller than those predicted by the sampling theorem (referred to as hyperacuity). To elucidate the underlying neural mechanisms, responses to the same spheres and random sequences of stimuli were recorded from single Merkel afferents (SAIs) and Meissner afferents (RAs) in anesthetized monkeys. For multiple applications of identical stimuli, coefficients of variation of responses were around 3%. Profiles of responses across the SAI population were "hill-shaped." A change in position of the stimulus on the skin resulted in a matching shift of the profile, evident over the whole profile for the more curved sphere but ony at the skirts for the less curved sphere. The shift in response profiles, relative to the standard deviations, increased as the change in position increased, and was more reliable for the more curved sphere. Responses were measured over four time frames: 0.2, 0.3, 0.5, and 1.0 sec. Although responses increased with an increase in integration time, so, too, did their standard deviations, so that signal-to-noise ratios or the resolution in the SAI population was bout the same at 0.2 sec as at 1.0 sec. Only half the RAs responded; responses were small, but signalled reliable information about the position of the stimulus.


In this paper we propose a model of bounded rational organizations that addresses the role of organizational capabilities in shaping firm size, growth rates and profitability. Our approach aims at reconciling the logic behind stochastic models of firm growth with the notion of organizational capabilities as drivers of economic performance. We extend the stochastic framework by incorporating behavioural assumptions on: (a) the interactions between the firm and the business environment; and (b) the mechanism by which firms sense and seize business opportunities. In our perspective, the degree of concurrence between the substance and organization of the firm and the context in which it operates will directly influence its profitability and indirectly (through costly mutations of the organizational structure) drive its growth. Despite its simple nature the model is able to capture well known regularities about industry dynamics. It generates firm size distributions that are skewed and heterogeneous across different scenarios. Moreover, our results suggest that the higher the selective power of the firm's organizational capabilities, the more the steady state distribution deviates from a log normal. Besides, the distribution of growth rates has a tent-shaped form which is consistent with the pattern described in empirical studies. The distribution of opportunities per firm is also skewed suggesting that a very few entities account for a large fraction of business opportunities arising throughout the simulation period. Finally, the interaction between the external environment and the internal structure of the firms also influences the heterogeneity in the value of the opportunities they capture.


In order to preconcentrate iprodione fungicide in white wine samples, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) specific for iprodione were synthesized using two polymerization approaches: precipitation (MIPp) and bulk polymerization (MIPb). A comparison of the performance of the MIPs and the corresponding non-imprinted polymers (NIPs) was conducted in batch studies. In this case, the MIPp revealed better recognition properties toward iprodione in wine samples than the MIPb. The MIPp and MIPb were then used as sorbents on solid phase extraction cartridges (MISPEp and MISPEb consecutively) in order to pre-concentrate iprodione from white wine samples. The optimization of the MISPE elution step was done using MIPp and acetonitrile was shown to be the best eluting solvent. MISPEp showed better iprodione recovery and pre-concentration factor than MISPEb. The selectivity of the MISPE method for iprodione was evaluated in white wine samples in the presence of two other fungicides, pyrimethanil and procymidone. MISPEp was very selective for iprodione compared with the two other fungicides. However, MISPEb was able to preconcentrate iprodione as well as its analogues.


Background Knowledge regarding characteristics and transmission of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis and Mycoplasma genitalium and antibiotic resistance in N gonorrhoeae in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa, is entirely lacking. Objectives To characterise N gonorrhoeae, C trachomatis and M genitalium samples from Guinea-Bissau and to define bacterial populations, possible transmission chains and for N gonorrhoeae spread of antibiotic-resistant isolates. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Two sexual health and family planning clinics, Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. Participants Positive samples from 711 women and 27 men. Material and methods Positive samples for N gonorrhoeae (n=31), C trachomatis (n=60) and M genitalium (n=30) were examined. The gonococcal isolates were characterised with antibiograms, serovar determination and N gonorrhoeae multiantigen sequence typing (NG-MAST). The C trachomatis ompA gene and the M genitalium mgpB gene were sequenced, and phylogenetic analyses were performed. Results For N gonorrhoeae, the levels of resistance (intermediate susceptibility) to ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, rifampicin, ampicillin, tetracycline, penicillin G and cefuroxime were 10% (0%), 6% (10%), 13% (10%), 68% (0%), 74% (0%), 68% (16%) and 0% (84%), respectively. All isolates were susceptible to cefixime, ceftriaxone, spectinomycin and azithromycin, and the minimum inhibitory concentrations of kanamycin (range: 8–32 mg/l) and gentamicin (range: 0.75–6 mg/l) were low (no resistance breakpoints exist for these antimicrobials). 19 NG-MAST sequence types (STs) (84% novel STs) were identified. Phylogenetic analysis of the C trachomatis ompA gene revealed genovar G as most prevalent (37%), followed by genovar D (19%). 23 mgpB STs were found among the M genitalium isolates, and 67% of isolates had unique STs. Conclusions The diversity among the sexually transmitted infection (STI) pathogens may be associated with suboptimal diagnostics, contact tracing, case reporting and epidemiological surveillance. In Guinea-Bissau, additional STI studies are vital to estimate the STI burden and form the basis for a national sexual health strategy for prevention, diagnosis and surveillance of STIs.


Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) provides a means of imaging small deformations of the Earth's surface (millimeter scale). Furthermore, interferometric point target analysis (IPTA) and time-series analyses can be enhanced using polarimetric and interferometric synthetic aperture radar (PolInSAR) processing techniques to improve detection of point targets or coherent scatterers (CS) that are characterized by a point-like scattering behavior. A mixture of single or multiple scattering mechanisms with a high range of backscattering amplitudes characterize many SAR images over a number of areas. However, the fact that a number of scatterers are characterized by a strongly polarized behavior and are located at different heights even within the same resolution cell make the combination of polarimetric and interferometric information a promising one. For the study site of Socorro, New Mexico, full polarization techniques provided a significant increase (i.e. more than doubled) in CSs compared to a non full polarization. Scattering mechanism and temporal behavior of the CSs were investigated. The CS scattering mechanism behavior was found consistent amongst the CS lists. Full polarization processing was found to increase the CS quantity significantly compared to single polarizations while maintaining high temporal coherence. Thus, this significant increase in full polarization CSs has the potential to increase the overall InSAR processing quality. For sites that challenge (e.g. vegetated areas and other low coherence environments) the single polarization InSAR processing, the full polarization increase in CSs may be essential for processing.


Network services have been increasingly integrated into our daily lives, but their accessibility and stability are also frequently impacted by flash crowds or Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. To be immune from flash crowds or DoS attacks, robust network services must possess two important qualities: completeness and generality. Completeness implies that all resources must be protected, including CPU time, memory and disk capacity, and link bandwidth. Generality means not handling attacks or faults as extraordinary events, but instead treating them within the same framework used during normal operations. Fundamentally, this is a matter of efficient management of networked resources.
Toward this end, we use Content Distribution Networks (CDN) as an example, and investigate how request redirection impacts CDN robustness. CDN systems deploy redundant resources (servers) geographically distributed across the Internet and distribute client requests to an appropriate server based on a variety of factors—e.g., server load, network proximity, cache locality—in an effort to reduce response time and increase the system capacity under load. We explore the design space of the redirection strategies employed by request redirectors, and define a class of new algorithms that carefully balance load, locality, and proximity. We use large-scale detailed simulations to evaluate various strategies. These simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of our new algorithms, which yield a 60–91% improvement in system capacity when compared with the best published CDN technology, yet user-perceived response latency remains low and the system scales well with the number of servers. We also build a prototype CDN, named CoDeeN, on the PlanetLab testbed. CoDeeN helps us to gain experience on managing and monitoring an operational CDN, and will be used in future research.
Through this thesis, we demonstrate that the resilience of large wide area network services can be improved through efficient management of networked resources. By adapting unified resource management schemes, we present a practical way to build network systems that not only handle a larger volume of regular traffic more easily, but also absorb flash crowds and deter DoS attacks as a natural part of their operations.


PivotTables may be Excel's most powerful feature, but Microsoft has estimated that only 15% of Excel users take advantage of them. That's because PivotTables (and their companion feature, PivotCharts) have a reputation for being difficult to learn. Not any more! In this book, Excel legends Bill Jelen ("MrExcel") and Michael Alexander teach PivotTables and PivotCharts step-by-step, using realistic business scenarios that any Excel user can intuitively understand. Jelen and Alexander go far beyond merely explaining PivotTables and PivotCharts: they present practical "recipes" for solving a wide range of business problems. Drawing on more than 30 combined years of Excel experience, they provide tips and tricks you won't find anywhere else, and show exactly how to sidestep common mistakes. Coverage includes: " Creating PivotTables, customizing them, and changing the way you view them " Performing calculations within PivotTables " Using PivotCharts and other visualizations " Analyzing multiple data sources with PivotTables " Sharing PivotTables with others " Working with and analyzing OLAP data " Making the most of Excel 2010's powerful new PowerPivot feature " Using Excel 2010's Slicer to dynamically filter PivotTables " Enhancing PivotTables with macros and VBA code This book is part of the new MrExcel Library series, edited by Bill Jelen, world-renowned Excel expert and host of the enormously popular Excel help site, MrExcel.com. Teaches PivotTables, PivotCharts, and Excel 2010's new PowerPivot feature through real-world scenarios that make intuitive sense to users at all levels Includes proven PivotTable recipes for instant on-the-job results Helps Excel users avoid common pitfalls and mistakes Part of the brand-new MrExcel Library series, edited by Excel legend Bill Jelen


Geography has long been considered as a fundamental prerequisite for economic development and growth. In recent years, a growing number of papers have considered the role of physical geography as a determinant of regional growth and development by considering it as a source of "intrinsic advantage". Malaria is considered to be strictly related to poverty and its geographically-related origin is now widely recognized, i.e. it is endemic only in certain areas of the globe whose environmental and climatic characteristics are ideal for the proliferation of mosquitoes which are the vector for the transmission of the disease. The World Health Organization is currently setting a series of policies aiming to eradicate the disease from Africa, with the specific goals to preserve human lives and possibly to boost economic growth in those areas. Among the several malaria parasites, the worst, Plasmodium falciparum, has infested Italian regions for centuries until the complete eradication occurred in the period 1945-1950. In this paper I provide an empirical assessment of the economic outcomes of malaria eradication in Italian regions. By making use of both macroeconomic and microeconomic data, I found support to the hypothesis that malaria eradication boosts productivity growth and that in the long run it leads to an increase in human capital. In particular, I found that the presence of malaria reduced significantly regional growth over the period 1891-1961, while its eradication increased the years of schooling for both males and females respectively, although my evidence points at a larger support for a very long run impact of eradication actions through an intergenerational spillover effect.


Introduction Serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) is an enzyme that catalyses the interconversion of lactate and pyruvate. LDH inhibition can reduce the excitability of neurons in mice; this leads to the hope that LDH inhibitor may be used to treat seizure. Translating this laboratory experimental finding to clinical medicine, one would like to investigate the potential correlation of serum LDH and seizure in human. Objective The objective of this study is to investigate "would a patient with an acute illness, who has seizure as one of the clinical manifestations, has an elevated serum LDH before, during, or after an episode of seizure?" Method The PubMed database was searched. The search algorithm was: (epileps* OR seizur*) AND (lactate dehydrogenase* OR LDH). Patients with known established conditions that could elevate LDH were excluded. Results Fifteen clinical cases met the criteria and were reviewed. Their serum LDH levels in relation to a seizure event were studied. The ratio of serum LDH to the upper limit of the reference ranges were all above 1.0 (ranging from 1.4 to 23.1). Conclusion Patients with an acute illness, who had seizure as one of their clinical manifestations, had elevated serum LDH above the upper limit, before, during, or after an episode of seizure.


D-600, the methoxy derivative of verapamil, is said to affect the force of cardiac contraction and the slow inward current (Isl) specifically by reducing the membrane conductance for Ca2+ (gsi). However it is apparent that many effects of D-600 cannot be adequately explained solely by an effect on gsi. We studied the effects of D-600 on membrane current and tension of cat papillary muscle, using a conventional single sucrose gap voltage clamp technique. The results indicate that D-600 not only reduces the maximal Ca conductance but also, depending on concentration and duration of exposure, alters both the kinetics of the Ca-carrying system and the amplitude of the steady state outward current. No changes in the steady state activation and inactivation variables or in the rate of Isi inactivation were found. However, a substantial increase in the time to peak Isl, as much as 7 times normal, was observed after exposure to D-600 (0.S × 10-6 to 2.0 × 10-6 M) for at least 20 minutes. Because approximately only 75% of the reduction in lsl induced by D-600 could be attributed to change in the maximum value of gsi (gsi), we conclude that the change in time to peak and about 25% of the reduction in Isi must be due to a change in the activation kinetics of the Ca-carrying system. Calculations suggest that the time to 70% activation of gsi can be prolonged to as much as 10 times normal by prolonged exposure to negatively inotropic concentrations of D-600.


The management of Down syndrome patients. with heart disease is a well-published ethical dilemma. Controversy exists .about whether to operate or not, and what lesions should be operated on. Tbere is, to our knowledge, no published data on Down syndrome patients with congenital heart disease in southern Africa. This ethical dilemma is even worse in our country with its limited resources and is exacerbated by the complexity of heart disease in these children. The aim of this study was to analyse our data on patients with Down syndrome and heart disease and to establish whether surgery is feasible or not. Data on 67 Down syndrome patients were analysed. The pre-operative mortality rate was 23.8 %, while the postoperative mortality rate was 20%. No patient with uncomplicated tetralogy of Fallot who was operated on died. Although no statistical difference between the two groups could be demonstrated, the quality of life of those operated on improved dramatically. In conclusion, the same indications applicable to patients with heart disease without Down syndrome must be applied to Down syndrome patients with heart disease.


While Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) should generate control commands based on neural activity only, the electroencephalogram contains artifacts such as eye-or muscle activity, and healthy subjects might use those (sub-)consciously for BCI-control. We analyze the influence of an automatic, subject independent artifact reduction step on the performance of a motor imagery setup that uses Common Spatial Patterns. The offline test conducted on data from 80 subjects revealed no performance drop of the Berlin Brain-Computer-Interface after rigorous artifact reduction based on Independent Component Analysis (ICA).


Instagram is one of social media that has been widely used by society nowdays. Instagram brings back the use of the hashtag written in the caption form. The purpose of this study is the increasing posts of children's photos on Instagram that using a lot of babystagram hashtag #babystagram and this phenomenon called babystagram. This phenomena followed by the case of profiteering of children photos from some celebrities of Indonesia, those are uploaded on their babystagram account. This research is focused on finding the meaning in the posts of children photos on babystagram account.  The purpose of this research is to know the meaning of the photo on the account babystagram that being posted and to know whether uploading children photos in Instagram can be one of the causes of child exploitation indication. The analysis method for the data research is using qualitative descriptive. The data are analyzed by Semiotic method of Roland Barthes. The conclusion  showed the meaning of denotation from photos on babystagram account is for many purposes like pleasure, entertainment shows compassion, and the form of pride.  Whereas the meaning of the connotation is for showing off, a popularity, satisfy self-obsession, for economic interests such as get many endorsement, advertising offers, movies, brand ambassador, model, and result with the main goal is for economic interests or money.  The myth from the research showed a luxurious lifestyle that culminated in the formation of the ideology; narcism, hedonism, consumerism that caused the emergence of commodification content in photos on babystagram account.  From the entire meaning is an indication of child exploitation can be truly occur on the posts of the celebrity children photos on Instagram. Keywords: B abystagram, semiotics , Instagram, photograph , c hild-exploitation


This is a terrific book, scholarly but at the same time elegantly written and entertaining.
Zatlin succeeds in fulfilling a number of varied objectives, which include a detailed history
of the political economy of the German Democratic Republic and an innovative account
of its ultimate failure during the 1980s. He achieves this, first, by making the theory of
money and the contradictions of its implementation the entry point from which the reader
is asked to observe the 40 years of economic history in the exotic and artificial construct
that was the GDR. Zatlin then crystallizes his analysis of the GDR's failure, by asserting
that one (key) deficiency was the monetization and commodification of economic relations
in a society which was supposed to achieve precisely the opposite; by setting itself up as a
(poor) competitor to the more efficiently monetized and commodified Federal Republic
and, more dramatically, by using the DM as a parallel trading currency in the Intershops
and exploiting official and black market exchange rates in the Exquisit and Delikat chains,
the GDR condemned itself in ideological terms and in practice.


In addition to suppressing protein synthesis and activating protein degradation in skeletal muscle and other cell types 5'-AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is known to stimulate nuclear apoptosis in non-muscle cells through cleaved (activated) caspase-3 one of the final steps in the apoptosis cascade. Although it is unknown whether AMPK stimulates caspase-3 cleavage or nuclear apoptosis in skeletal muscle cells in vivo AMPK activity and nuclear apoptosis are elevated at rest in aged rat skeletal muscle. AMPK phosphorylation and activity are also higher in old vs. young rats and humans in response to overload or resistance exercise. Furthermore older individuals display lower muscle glycogen content a condition known to accentuate AMPK activity at rest and during aerobic exercise. We hypothesized that skeletal muscle cleaved caspase-3 content would be higher after acute resistance exercise in older versus younger individuals. Seven young (21.7 ± 2.1 yrs) and 11 old (67.0 ± 8.6 yrs) subjects performed an acute bout of leg extension resistance exercise. Muscle biopsies were obtained pre-exercise (PRE) immediately post-exercise (0P) 1-hour post-exercise (1P) and 2-hours post-exercise (2P). Glycogen content was measured in muscle samples as were the phosphorylations (via western blot) of AMPK and acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC; a marker of AMPK activity). Procaspase-3 and cleaved (activated) caspase-3 contents were also assessed via western blot. AMPK phosphorylation was significantly (p < 0.05) increased in old but not young subjects immediately post-exercise. In both age groups AMPK activity (assessed by ACC phosphorylation) was elevated vs. PRE at the 0P and 1P time points and cleaved caspase-3 content was elevated vs. PRE at the 0P 1P and 2P time points. However there was no effect of exercise on procaspase-3 content in either age group and no differences between age groups in AMPK activity procaspase-3 content or cleaved caspase-3 content at any time point. There were significant or close to significant relationships between glycogen content and AMPK activity at time points PRE 0P and 1P regardless of age. However no significant correlations between AMPK activity and cleaved caspase-3 content were observed at any time point. In summary these data indicate that cleaved caspase-3 (e.g. caspase-3 activity) increases in response to acute resistance exercise in both young and old subjects. However exercise-induced AMPK activation may not be the mechanism by which this occurs.


This study examined human listeners' ability to classify domestic cat vocalisations (meows) recorded in two different contexts; during feeding time (food related meows) and while waiting to visit a veterinarian (vet related meows). A pitch analysis showed a tendency for food related meows to have rising F0 contours, while vet related meows tended to have more falling F0 contours. 30 listeners judged twelve meows (six of each context) in a perception test. Classification accuracy was significantly above chance, and listeners who had reported previous experience with cats performed significantly better than inexperienced listeners. Moreover, the two food related meows with the highest classification accuracy showed clear rising F0 contours, while clear falling F0 contours characterised the two vet related meows that received the highest classification accuracy. Listeners also reported that some meows were very easy to classify, while others were more difficult. Taken together, these results suggest that cats may use different intonation patterns in their vocal interaction with humans, and that humans are able to identify the vocalisations based on intonation. (Less)


The structure of the wake behind a continuously swimming mullet was analysed qualitatively and quantitatively by applying two-dimensional particle image velocimetry. A detailed analysis of the flow pattern and of the swimming movements of the fish allowed us to derive a kinematic explanation of the flow pattern as well as an estimate of the relative contributions of the body and the tail to thrust production. During active propulsion, the undulatory swimming fish shed a wake consisting in the medio-frontal plane of a rearward, zigzagging jet flow between alternating vortices. The fish shed one vortex per half tailbeat when the tail reached its most lateral position. Part of the circulation shed in the vortices had been generated previously on the body by the transverse body wave travelling down the body. This undulatory pump mechanism accounted for less than half of the energy shed in the wake. The remainder was generated by the tail. The vortex spacing matched the tailbeat amplitude and the stride length.


Bayesian neural networks (BNNs) demonstrate promising success in improving the robustness and uncertainty quantification of modern deep learning. However, they generally struggle with underfitting at scale and parameter efficiency. On the other hand, deep ensembles have emerged as alternatives for uncertainty quantification that, while outperforming BNNs on certain problems, also suffer from efficiency issues. It remains unclear how to combine the strengths of these two approaches and remediate their common issues. To tackle this challenge, we propose a rank-1 parameterization of BNNs, where each weight matrix involves only a distribution on a rank-1 subspace. We also revisit the use of mixture approximate posteriors to capture multiple modes, where unlike typical mixtures, this approach admits a significantly smaller memory increase (e.g., only a 0.4% increase for a ResNet-50 mixture of size 10). We perform a systematic empirical study on the choices of prior, variational posterior, and methods to improve training. For ResNet-50 on ImageNet, Wide ResNet 28-10 on CIFAR-10/100, and an RNN on MIMIC-III, rank-1 BNNs achieve state-of-the-art performance across log-likelihood, accuracy, and calibration on the test sets and out-of-distribution variants.


The Muckleshoot basin of Western Washington state extends from the western base of the Cascades to approximately 10 km east of the Puget Sound. Mapped traces of the Tacoma and White River fault systems, to the west and southeast, respectively, stop abruptly at the basin margins, where sediments cover the underlying structures recorded in deeper strata. This research presents new crustal models based on analyses of gravity and magnetic data and explores possible connectivity of mapped faults to the east and west of the basin. As discussed in previous studies, the Muckleshoot basin appears to be segmented into two smaller basins by a northwest-southeast-trending gravity high that runs roughly parallel to the trend of the White River fault. Gravity and magnetic anomaly maps created in this study support the existence of the two sub-basins and explore any structural control over the location of the two. Twodimensional cross-sectional models indicate the sub-basins are approximately 20 km wide and have Eocene-aged sediments buried up to roughly eight to nine km below the surface. Deformation of Quaternary sediments suggests that the basin is actively deforming today as a consequence of plate subduction to the west. Pseudo-three-dimensional models constructed from three intersecting profiles extracted from the gravity and magnetic data indicate that the White River fault bends slightly to the west, aligning with a splay of the Tacoma fault. This geometry is consistent with north-directed compression and clockwise rotation postulated from geodetic models. The geometry revealed in the models raises the potential for an interacting fault system in which rupture along one segment could trigger or advance failure on another.


Abstract In volume-sensitive clays the annual cycle of wetting and drying causes shrink and swell displacements. These movements cause damage to many infrastructure types, including railway and highway embankments and cut slopes, earth dams and flood embankments. At present there is little information on the impacts of expected climate change on the stability and serviceability of infrastructure embankments and slopes constructed of clay in the UK. In this paper, a water balance model is used to calculate daily changes in soil moisture content in the surface layers of a clay slope. Summer soil moisture deficit and winter runoff are calculated over a baseline period (1960–1991) for four locations in the UK. The calculations are repeated using synthetically generated time series of weather data representative of UKCIP climate change scenarios for the 21st century. Results indicate that recent summers considered to be exceptionally dry are likely to become the average condition later in the 21st century. Although total annual runoff is predicted to decrease, extreme wet events are still likely to occur. This will increase the magnitude of the cycles of winter soil wetting and summer drying. The implications for the design and maintenance of clay slopes and embankments are discussed.


In theory, customer preferences cannot justify discriminatory treatment by employers. The reality is more complicated. Built into the structure of federal employment discrimination law are several openings for customer preferences to provide employer defenses to what would otherwise likely be actionable discrimination. This Article explores when and which customer preferences can enter those openings. In particular, I focus on what I deem the "preferred preferences": the customer preferences that have formed the basis of successful employer defenses to discrimination claims. I identify six such preferences, ranking them according to how much deference they receive: (1) aesthetic appeal; (2) physical privacy from employees of the opposite sex; (3) psychological comfort/affinity with employees of the same sex; (4) an English-speaking environment; (5) the desire not to be proselytized to/feel judged; and (6) convenience. I also analyze a potential seventh "preferred preference" — diversity — that courts have yet to consider.
I show that each individual preferred preference is not just a one-off exception to the supposed irrelevance of customer preferences, but part of a collective body of doctrine that operates according to its own principles. Although courts are not explicit about this, these preferences intuitively strike courts as reasonable and natural, both because they do not seem invidiously discriminatory and because they align with ingrained social conventions and norms. As a result, courts either (1) consider them weightier than "mere preferences" and/or (2) view compliance with them as imposing only a minor burden on employees. The more that these two factors are satisfied, the more "preference deference" we see.
But courts are not striking the right balance in their preference deference. This largely stems from the tension between the claim that customer preferences are irrelevant in antidiscrimination law and the reality that they sometimes do count. In order to reconcile this dissonance, courts elevate the preferred preferences into virtual needs or minimize how much they burden employees. In the process, biases and inconsistencies sneak in. Courts should begin by acknowledging that all of these preferences are indeed preferences rather than virtual necessities, and show greater awareness of the ways in which policies responding to these preferences can impose differential burdens — particularly with respect to the protected characteristics of sex, race, national origin, and/or religion — on employees. Although I do not argue that all customer preferences should be held invalid, I propose two important guideposts in analyzing these issues: (1) a context-specific look at whether the preference relates to the employee's actual performance of the specific job and (2) a broad look at the extent to which the preference limits equal employment opportunity in the workplace. Applying these principles, I argue that a re-ordering of the current preference hierarchy is in order.


In 2006, several isolated Phytophthora ramorum infested locations were selected just outside an 800-ha infested area in southern Humboldt County, California, for silvicultural treatments that targeted the removal and/or reduction of tanoak (Notholithocarpus densiflorus) and California bay laurel (Umbellularia californica), the main tree hosts supporting sporulation of P. ramorum. The treatments included cutting of hosts, cutting with burning, and herbicide removal. Important differences emerged between the treatment responses in shrub cover, tanoak resprouting, fuel loads, and host tree regeneration. In 2010, another isolated infestation was verified in northern Humboldt County. This infestation was 80 km away from the core infested area in southern Humboldt. Stand-level P. ramorum disease dynamic models and forest growth simulations parameterized with data collected in this northern infestation suggested that California bay laurel and tanoak thinning treatments may slow tanoak mortality, foster a greater component of mature tanoak over the next 100 years, and contribute to greater amounts of live-tree carbon. Reviewing these long-running, landscape-scale P. ramorum management projects provides a platform to inform future adaptive management of P. ramorum. This paper summarizes two presentations from the Sixth Sudden Oak Death Science Symposium held in June 2016 in San Francisco, California.


In this article, I will attempt to link altruism, a concern of Positive Psychology, a recent branch of psychology, and dāna, the deeply entrenched aspect of Indian thought. These aspects strive towards a connection with the self and well-being. In addition, an association between Indian psychological attributes, especially with reference to the Mahābhārata, and Positive Psychology will be shown. In the Indian context, dāna or the act of giving involves not merely the act of giving material or tangible goods or objects but also involves doing an act, doing something for others in which one has no stake or claim. In other words, the giving involves giving something from the depths of oneself, for the 'good' of another, without expecting anything in return. The cultivation of generosity facilitates a pliancy of mind that allows for the eradication of delusion of a limited self as well as disables greed and hate. In addition to anna-dāna, jala-dāna, bhūmi-dāna, vidyā-dāna and jnana-dāna, the Mahābhārata also talks about sharing with love and affection. A desire for good is a desire for self-satisfaction, bearing a positive therapeutic value for a better, truer, more real self.


This article argues for a constitutional right to counsel for state inmates in all initial federal habeas corpus proceedings based on access-to-the-courts doctrine. The doctrine guarantees an indigent inmate a constitutional right to meaningful access to the courts in incarceration-related litigation, including postconviction proceedings. The Supreme Court initially articulated the access right, in relevant part, as merely prohibiting states from actively interfering with an indigent inmate's efforts at pursuing postconviction relief from a criminal judgment. Today, though still fairly inscrutable in dimension, the access right has evolved to require states in certain circumstances to provide affirmative assistance to inmates to ensure constitutionally adequate access to the writ. In Pennsylvania v. Finley and Murray v. Giarratano, a pair of decisions rendered in 1987 and 1989, respectively, the Supreme Court held that the right of access does not require assistance of counsel in either noncapital or capital state postconviction proceedings, at least insofar as the inmate seeks to raise claims litigated on direct appeal. The primary rationale in Finley and Murray was that habeas litigants have enjoyed assistance of counsel at trial and on direct appeal, and thus should be able simply to parrot that work product in the federal habeas forum to obtain judicial review of any cognizable claims. The Court analogized to an earlier case, Ross v. Moffitt, in which it had held no right to counsel attaches in discretionary appeals. The Court has never addressed the issue whether the access right demands assistance of counsel in federal habeas proceedings. But the lack of such right appeared a foregone conclusion after Finley and Giarratano.On April 24, 1996, however, Congress enacted the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"), which introduced a myriad of exceedingly complex procedural requirements -- most significantly, a one-year statute of limitations -- that a petitioner must satisfy in order to obtain merits review of claims set forth in a federal habeas petition. For the prototypical pro se habeas litigant, these requirements, in particular the statute of limitations, erected an impenetrable wall around federal judicial review of merits claims. Indeed, the effect of AEDPA's enactment has been to stymie many pro se inmates' efforts at obtaining federal habeas review of state court judgments. Yet, to date, the Supreme Court has not recognized a right to counsel in federal habeas corpus. Federal courts, while struggling mightily to make sense of a poorly drafted statute, continue to abide by a literal fiction in assuming that most inmates are sufficiently competent to navigate post-AEDPA federal habeas practice without assistance of counsel.This article argues that absent constitutionally guaranteed assistance of counsel in federal habeas corpus and a concomitant remedy where that assistance falls short, AEDPA's procedural intricacies function to deny the indigent, pro se state inmate the right to meaningful access to the courts in federal habeas proceedings. As such, absent repeal of AEDPA, the access right requires recognition of a right to assistance of counsel in filing a first federal petition. This right would extend only to navigating and comprehending the procedural complexity of federal habeas under AEDPA, rather than to the articulation and framing of substantive claims and subsequent litigation.