Malformations of cortical development (MCD) include a broad range of disorders that result from disruption of the major steps of cortical development: cell proliferation in germinal zones, neuronal migration and cortical organization. With the improvement and increased utilization of modern imaging techniques, MCD have been increasingly recognized as a major cause of seizure disorders. The advent of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), in particular, has revolutionized the investigation and the treatment of patients with epilepsy. High-resolution MRI may elucidate the type, the extension and the localization of MCD; therefore, in a group of patients suffering from drug-resistant partial epilepsy (DRPE), MRI greatly contributes to the identification of subjects who are suitable for surgical treatment. In the recent past, many efforts were addressed to establish the MRI diagnostic criteria for a peculiar group of MCD, namely focal cortical dysplasias (FCD), histopathologically distinguished as types I and II. Some subtle FCD, which were previously cryptic to imaging investigation, can now be recognized by MRI, however their detection and specification remains challenging. This review will re-visit the neuroimaging findings, including structural MRI, PET, co-registered PET/MRI, MEG and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of FCD types I and II. Three major issues will be discussed: 1) the morphological MRI features of the FCDs, 2) the utility of PET and MEG and the use of co-registration methods and 3) diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) as a future modality of investigation, which may add additional informations regarding the microstructure of the grey matter (GM) and white matter (WM) in cortical dysplasia.


Importance
Globally, access to evidence-based psychological treatment is limited. Innovative self-help methods using smartphone applications and low-cost virtual reality have the potential to significantly improve the accessibility and scalability of psychological treatments.

Objective
To examine the effectiveness of ZeroPhobia, a fully self-guided app-based virtual reality cognitive behavior therapy (VR CBT) using low-cost (cardboard) virtual reality goggles compared with a wait-list control group and to determine its user friendliness.

Design, Setting, and Participants
In a single-blind randomized clinical trial, participants were enrolled between March 24 and September 28, 2017, and randomly assigned (1:1) by an independent researcher to either VR CBT app or a wait-list control group. A total of 193 individuals aged 18 to 65 years from the Dutch general population with acrophobia symptoms and access to an Android smartphone participated. The 6 animated modules of the VR-CBT app and gamified virtual reality environments were delivered over a 3-week period in participants' natural environment. Assessments were completed at baseline, immediately after treatment, and at 3-month follow-up. Analysis began April 6, 2018, and was intention to treat.

Intervention
Self-guided app-based VR CBT.

Main Outcomes and Measures
The primary outcome measure was the Acrophobia Questionnaire. The hypothesis was formulated prior to data collection.

Results
In total, 193 participants (129 women [66.84%]; mean [SD] age, 41.33 [13.64] years) were randomly assigned to intervention (n = 96) or a wait-list control group (n = 97). An intent-to-treat analysis showed a significant reduction of acrophobia symptoms at posttest at 3 months for the VR-CBT app compared with the controls (b = -26.73 [95% CI, -32.12 to -21.34]; P < .001; d = 1.14 [95% CI, 0.84 to 1.44]). The number needed to treat was 1.7. Sensitivity and robustness analysis confirmed these findings. Pretreatment attrition was 22 of 96 (23%) because of smartphone incompatibility. Of the 74 participants who started using the VR-CBT app, 57 (77%) completed the intervention fully.

Conclusions and Relevance
A low-cost fully self-guided app-based virtual reality cognitive behavioral therapy with rudimentary virtual reality goggles can produce large acrophobia symptom reductions. To our knowledge, this study is the first to show that virtual reality acrophobia treatment can be done at home without the intervention of a therapist.

Trial Registration
Trialregister.nl identifier: NTR6442.


In this paper we describe possible interpretation and reduction of fuzzy attributes in GeneralizedOne-sided Concept Lattices (GOSCL). This type of concept lattices represent generalization ofFormal Concept Analysis (FCA) suitable for analysis of datatables with different types of attributes. FCA as well as generalized one-sided concept lattices represent conceptual data miningmethods. With growing number of attributes the interpretation of fuzzy subsets may become unclear, hence another interpretation of this fuzzy attribute subsets can be valuable. The originalityof the presented method is based on the usage of one-sided concept lattices derived from submodels of former object-attribute model by grouping attributes with the same truth value structure.This leads to new method for attribute reduction in GOSCL environment.


An autocorrelation measurement of femtosecond laser pulse duration using the Kerr-lens mechanism is demonstrated. This technique can also be used as a sensitive and absolutely calibratable method for measuring ultrafast optical nonlinearities. A method that uses an electronic spectral-filtering scheme is proposed for determining the frequency chirp of pulses by interferometric autocorrelation.


Abstract Here we illustrate how investigation of individuals acutely after stroke, before structure/function reorganization through recovery or rehabilitation, can be helpful in answering questions about the role of specific brain regions in language functions. Although there is converging evidence from a variety of sources that the left posterior-superior temporal gyrus plays some role in spoken word comprehension, its precise role in this function has not been established. We hypothesized that this region is essential for distinguishing between semantically related words, because it is critical for linking the spoken word to the complete semantic representation. We tested this hypothesis in 127 individuals with 48 hours of acute ischemic stroke, before the opportunity for reorganization or recovery. We identified tissue dysfunction (acute infarct and/or hypoperfusion) in gray and white matter parcels of the left hemisphere, and we evaluated the association between rate of semantic errors in a word-picture verification tasks and extent of tissue dysfunction in each region. We found that after correcting for lesion volume and multiple comparisons, the rate of semantic errors correlated with the extent of tissue dysfunction in left posterior-superior temporal gyrus and retrolenticular white matter.


Fault location has been studied deeply for transmission lines due to its importance in power systems. Nowadays the problem of fault location on distribution systems is receiving special attention mainly because of the power quality regulations. In this context, this paper presents an application software developed in Matlabtrade that automatically calculates the location of a fault in a distribution power system, starting from voltages and currents measured at the line terminal and the model of the distribution power system data. The application is based on a N-ary tree structure, which is suitable to be used in this application due to the highly branched and the non- homogeneity nature of the distribution systems, and has been developed for single-phase, two-phase, two-phase-to-ground, and three-phase faults. The implemented application is tested by using fault data in a real electrical distribution power system.


Pellets may be produced with different types of agriculture or forestry crops in Costa Rica. This work evaluated the energy, physical, and mechanical properties of pellets fabricated from 12 types of agricultural and forestry crops (Ananas cumosos, Arundo donax, Coffea arabica, Cupressus lusitanica, empty fruit bunch and oil palm mesocarp fiber of the fruit of Elaeis guineensis, Gynerium sagittatum, Pennisetum purpureum, Phyllostachys aurea, Saccharum officinarum, Sorghum bicolor, and Tectona grandis), and similarities among these crops were established by multivariate principal component analysis. High variation was found in the pellet properties. The energy evaluation revealed that C. lusitanica and P. aurea are the crops with the best qualities for fuel use because of their high calorific values (from 16807 kJ/kg and 19919 kJ/kg, respectively) and low ash content (1.03% and 3.39%, respectively). As for physical properties, most crops exhibited values within the range noted by several authors and standards. All 12 pellet crops displayed high durability (from 72.12% to 92.98%) and compression force (from 295.18 N to 691.86 N). Moreover, the evaluation of crop similarities allowed the determination of four group combinations. Within these groups, C. lusitanica, P. aurea, and G. sagittatum had similar energy qualities and the best caloric characteristics.


This study reports on the findings of a mixed methods study that was undertaken to establish student perceptions of academic learning environments and the perceived impact of these on their articulation of employability skills. This was so student perspectives on employability could be used to inform reflection on pedagogic practices for their educators in higher education. Using a purposive sample of 250 students based in a recently modernised Sciences Complex Building in a Higher Education Institution (HEI), the study was cross sectional and descriptive by design. The social learning spaces researched were perceived by participants to provide optimal academic learning environments for their development of knowledge, skills and professionalism through certain signature pedagogies as they progressed through their programmes of study. Students also expressed the view that their acquisition of functional skills were significantly more important than any personal attributes/characteristics that they brought to programmes. What also mattered was whether the importance of certain graduate skills to the workplace had been made explicit to them so that they could see the relevance of their studies to practice. In defining 'graduateness', in employability terms the research concluded that it was necessary to consider how it was shaped by the context of delivery of subject disciplines, stages of academic progression, and the use of social learning spaces, as they all had a significant impact on the perceptions students held about their potential employability upon completion of their academic programmes.


Glioblastoma (GBM), the most aggressive primary human brain tumor, carrier a dismal prognosis and is increasingly characterized by cellular and genetic intra-tumoral heterogeneity (ITH). Many of the 14 members of the erythropoietin-producing hepatocellular carcinoma receptor (EphR) family and their ephrin ligands are expressed in GBM cells and constitute potential molecular targets for novel therapeutic agents. We hypothesize that multiple members of the EphR family play a critical role in orchestrating the clonal evolution of GBM progression. Individual Eph receptor targeting strategies have shown only modest pre-clinical success, likely because single agent therapy cannot target the degree of ITH in GBM. Using a highly specific human Eph receptor monoclonal antibody (mAb) panel (EphR profiler), we identified five Eph receptors with dysregulated expression in recurrent GBM as compared to primary GBM. With our unique chemoradiotherapy-adapted, patient-derived xenograft model of GBM, we identified EphA2 and EphA3 expression to be upregulated after therapy. Here we show that EphA2 and EphA3 co-expression marks a highly tumorigenic cell population in recurrent GBM with higher in vitro and in vivo self-renewal and proliferation capacity as compared to EphA2+/EphA3-, EphA2-/EphA3+ or EphA2-/EphA3- cells. Lentiviral mediated knockdown of EphA2 and EphA3 blocks this self-renewal and proliferation capacity in recurrent GBM. Through further characterization using mass cytometry (CyTOF) assay, we find that EphA2 and EphA3 is co-expressed with multiple brain tumor initiating cell (BTIC) markers (CD133, CD15, Bmi1, Sox2, Integrin α6 and FoxG1). Considering the important role of EphA2+/EphA3+ cells in GBM tumorigenesis and recurrence, we generated a bi-specific antibody (bsIgG) that co-targets EphA2 and EphA3. In vitro treatment of GBM with bsEphA2/A3 IgG led to pharmacological blockade of phosphorylated EphA2. We then assessed the in vivo efficacy of the bsEphA2/A3 IgG to block GBM tumor growth in our PDX model, and found that treatment with intracranial bsIgG resulted in non-invasive and significantly smaller lesions. The striking reduction in tumor burden in recurrent GBM after co-targeting of EphA2 and EphA3 validates the premise of our therapeutic strategy of targeting multiple EphRs. Discovering the clonal composition of recurrent GBM will enable us to target cellular subpopulations, and this ITH, with selective compounds that inhibit BTIC and Eph receptor activity with minimal off-target effects. Comprehensive Eph receptor profiling of individual patient-derived GBM will allow us to develop a therapeutic strategy for each patient9s tumor, employing polytherapy with mAbs against Eph receptors expressed at recurrence. Citation Format: Parvez Vora, Maleeha Qazi, Chirayu Chokshi, Chitra Venugopal, Max London, Amy Hu, Nicole McFarlane, Minomi Subapanditha, Mohini Singh, Sujeivan Mahendram, Jarrett Adams, Jason Moffat, Sachdev Sidhu, Sheila Singh. Therapeutic targeting of tumorigenic EphA2+/EphA3+ brain tumor initiating cells with bi-specific antibody in glioblastoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Second CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival; 2016 Sept 25-28; New York, NY. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2016;4(11 Suppl):Abstract nr B092.


In 1791, American states were enacting laws against sodomy at the same time they ratified the Bill of Rights, the first ten constitutional amendments meant to safeguard fundamental rights of individuals in a free society. In a March 1789 letter to James Madison, Thomas Jefferson asserted that a bill of rights was necessary to give the judiciary the power to protect such individual rights. Ironically, that which the judiciary gives, it may also take away, since "[t]he legislator is a writer. And the judge a reader." This Article deconstructs recent sodomy cases in order to challenge judicial adoption or reinscription of "the straight mind," the social construct grounded in and perpetuating the heterosexual paradigm. Although deconstruction informs the argument, the Wallace Stevens poem A High-Toned Old Christian Woman is used as an extended metaphor for the analysis of judicial reasoning in selected state and federal sodomy cases. In this poem, addressed to "A High-Toned Old Christian Woman," Stevens describes two possible worlds: a "nave" (i.e., the central part of a cathedral) derived from "the moral law," and a "peristyle" (i.e., columns surrounding a temple or court) derived from "the op posing law," Although the moral law satisfies the "conscience," the opposing law "indulge(s)" it. So, although "we agree in principle" with the consequences of the moral law, Stevens preferred the "bawdiness" of the opposing law and "imagined a world where sexuality was to be indulged and displayed like the sounds of the words themselves." A High-Toned Old Christian Woman serves as a metaphor for judicial reasoning in sodomy cases. As argued in this Article, Bowers v. Hardwick represents the "haunted heaven" built from the "moral law" concerning homosexuality and sodomy. In this frequently-cited decision, the Supreme Court upheld Georgia's sodomy law. Bowers contrasts with state decisions that have stricken sodomy laws, such as Commonwealth v. Wasson, State v. Morales, Campbell v. Sundquist, and Gryczan v. State. These cases "take ... [t]he opposing law and make a peristyle" rejecting Bowers v. Hardwick. Wallace Stevens, who was a lawyer in addition to being a poet, was undoubtedly well-acquainted with the phenomenon of legal reasoning in which the analysis of a specific set of facts could result in widely disparate conclusions. Just as Stevens attempted to rout out "the flaccid underside of any dogmatic position," this Article joins numerous others which criticize Bowers' flaccid foundation. Specifically, it illustrates how Bowers produces the straight mind and examines whether other cases successfully subvert that production. Also asked is what happens when we consider the ethical implications of these sodomy decisions. Can the law incorporate an ethics of care for the other, or must it continue to oppress the other? To lay the foundation for answering these questions, Part I defines the straight mind and traces its historical development relying primarily on the work of Michel Foucault, Part II briefly de fines deconstruction and considers features of a deconstructive reading. This deconstructive approach provides a practical and pragmatic technique to interrogate judicial reasoning and to change injustice. Part III critiques Bowers by showing how the decision in corporates or reinscribes the straight mind, Part IV presents several state decisions that rejected Bowers' reasoning and argues that even though these state decisions reject Bowers and come to an opposite conclusion, they are not always completely successful in rejecting the straight mind. Although examining how the law produces the straight mind constitutes an ethical endeavor, Part V focuses on three problems that more obviously concern ethical is sues: (i) the failure to acknowledge violence encouraged by the straight mind; (ii) the failure to enforce sodomy statutes; and (iii) the failure to inculcate an ethics of inclusion or care for the other. Sodomy cases apply universal laws, i.e., civil liberties that try to protect individual rights in a pluralistic society. In applying these universal laws, however, the cases fail to reconciliate self and other, and thus illustrate a cardinal binary interrogated by deconstruction: the subject/object or subject/other. As will be argued below, the appearance of reconciliation usually indicates that the writing is a "product of ideological distortion, suppression of difference or subordination of the other."


Stochastic variance reduction algorithms have recently become popular for minimizing the average of a large, but finite number of loss functions on a Riemannian manifold. The present paper proposes a Riemannian stochastic recursive gradient algorithm (R-SRG), which does not require the inverse of retraction between two distant iterates on the manifold. Convergence analyses of R-SRG are performed on both retractionconvex and non-convex functions under computationally efficient retraction and vector transport operations. The key challenge is analysis of the influence of vector transport along the retraction curve. Numerical evaluations reveal that R-SRG competes well with state-of-the-art Riemannian batch and stochastic gradient algorithms.


Background: Polymorphisms in carcinogen detoxification enzymes, NAT2 and GSTM1, have been suggested as susceptibility factors for DNA damage and lung cancer. However, little information is available on DNA adduct burden in the lung tissue and polymorphisms in NAT2 and GST genes. We investigated the independent and combined effects of the metabolic gene polymorphisms of NAT2 and GSTs on DNA adduct formation in different tissues (lung and blood) in lung cancer patients. Methods: DNA adducts were measured in lung and blood by the 32P-postlabeling assay. Multiple regression models were used to assess adjusted percent change in DNA adduct levels associated with GST and NAT2 genotypes. Results: After adjusting for potential confounders, as well as for other GST gene variants, lung adduct levels significantly increased by 150.3% [95% confidence interval (95% CI), 35.4-362.6%] for the GSTM1 null and by 73.9% (95% CI, −3.2% to 212.4%) for the NAT2 slow acetylator genotype, respectively. No association was seen with polymorphisms of other GST genes such as GSTT1 and GSTP1. The high-risk group, the combined GSTM1 null plus NAT2 slow, had significantly enhanced levels of lung adducts by 295% (95% CI, 72.7-803.5%) over those associated with single genes, suggesting a synergistic effect on DNA damage in the target lung tissue. Conclusions: The increase in DNA adduct levels in lung is associated with the GSTM1 null and NAT2 slow genotypes alone or in combination. Impact: These results suggest that GSTM1 and NAT2 genotypes play an independent and interactive role in the formation of carcinogen DNA adduct in the lung. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 19(6); 1492–7. ©2010 AACR.


Skates and rays are an integral part of the trophic structure of many estuarine ecosystems. However, there are many aspects of the fisheries biology of these species that require further exploration. For example, few comparisons have been done of the feeding habits of sympatric species that potentially overlap in resource usage, diets over time, or food preferences between fish populations from different regions. Most of what is known of batoid elasmobranch (skate and ray) diets on the Western Atlantic coast is a compilation of data from the entire continental shelf with no distinction of diets for populations within different estuaries that vary in abiotic characteristics and trophic structure. My research objectives were to: (1) quantitatively characterize the diets of the major batoid elasmobranchs (skates and rays) in Delaware Bay and in Narragansett Bay, (2) describe seasonal variation in diet, if any, (3) examine diet overlap and food resource partitioning among species within each ecosystem, and (4) compare diets of selected species between the geographic locations (specifically populations of Little, Winter, and Clearnose skates; Leucoraja erinacea, L. ocellata, and Raja eglanteria, respectively,). Through gut content analysis, calculation of trophic level and overlap indices, and multivariate statistical techniques such as non-metric multidimensional scaling and ANOSIM, diets of 3 different batoids were characterized; 2 from Delaware Bay and 1 from Narragansett Bay. The diets of the bullnose ray Myliobatis freminvillii, the Clearnose skate Raja eglanteria, and the little skate Leucoraja erinacea were also evaluated for ontogenetic, spatial, and temporal differences within their respective species. Myliobatis freminvillii was considered a moderate gastropod specialist with shifts in diet over ontogeny. Raja eglanteria was characterized as a generalist with preferences for benthic crustaceans, exhibiting ontogentic differences between juveniles and adults, and strong dietary differences between sexes. Leucoraja erinacea was determined to be a broad-scale generalist preferring amphipods and sand shrimp and was shown to feed based on prey availability since there were temporal and spatial differences in diet that corresponded to variations in prey abundance. These data were used to contribute to estuary-specific community analyses of batoid trophic relationships in Delaware and Narragansett Bays and a comparison of the trophic dynamics between those two communities. The skate species of Narragasett Bay exhibited significantly different diets, but did not show ontogenetic differences when compared together. The skates and rays of Delaware Bay showed differences in diet by species and by size within species. It is proposed that a higher level of partitioning exists in Delaware Bay since there are more batoid species to compete for resources, but this would only be the case if resources were limiting and data were not collected that could confirm this. Since all the organisms studied were benthic secondary consumers based on available data, the diets of the batoids in each estuary were found not to be significantly different. Any observed differences were not due to the specific prey species that were found in the diet but to the proportions of the various prey that were consumed.


This paper presents the results of an experimental program investigating the effects of using a pulsed laser for laser-oxygen cutting of thin section stainless steels. It was discovered that if the pulse conditions are optimised, the maximum cutting speed for a set average laser power could be increased by up to 15 %. This increase in cutting speed was made possible by a change in the material removal mechanism in the cut zone. The steady state melting-oxidation-ejection process was replaced by a periodic expulsion of melt as a result of small "explosions" caused by the spike at the beginning of each laser pulse.This paper presents the results of an experimental program investigating the effects of using a pulsed laser for laser-oxygen cutting of thin section stainless steels. It was discovered that if the pulse conditions are optimised, the maximum cutting speed for a set average laser power could be increased by up to 15 %. This increase in cutting speed was made possible by a change in the material removal mechanism in the cut zone. The steady state melting-oxidation-ejection process was replaced by a periodic expulsion of melt as a result of small "explosions" caused by the spike at the beginning of each laser pulse.


A three-dimensional time-dependent convection model is used to describe circulation and property fields in rotating, stratified, and moving fluids near a point source of heat. The study context and, consequently, model scales are those of chronically discharging hydrothermal vent fields found at submarine ridge crests. Hydrothermal plumes having distinctive thermal and chemical anomalies have been observed to rise several hundreds of meters above the deep-sea floor before being advected away by background cross flows typically of magnitude 1–4 cm s−1. The model is used to study effects of rotation and indicate differences in plumes with respect to variation of subgrid-scale turbulence intensity and cross-flow strength. Counterrotating vorticity (ζ) couplets in all three coordinate directions develop in the lower plume stem at startup and follow the plume to the level of neutral buoyancy; for a nonrotational case (Ω=0), ζ patterns resemble those previously found for jets injected into homogenous cross flow. Ambient fluid entrainment into the convecting column is primarily from the upstream side, but deflection of background flow around both sides of the rising column is the root of the relative vorticity (ζz) couplet in the lower plume. Turbulence intensity within the buoyant region of the plume and/or globally controls smoothness and temporal variability of distal nonbuoyant plume distributions, allowing or preventing oscillations of potential temperature, θ, for example, at background buoyancy frequency, N. Over the range of turbulent mixing studied, rise height of plumes did not change appreciably, but breadth of plumes, counterintuitively, increased for decreasing turbulent mixing strength. Increasing cross-flow strength, U0, bends model plumes such that rise height ∝ U0−0.4. For the two largest values of cross flow, for which R, the ratio of maximum vertical velocity to U0, took values of 2.8 and 1.0, plumes showed evidence of bifurcation.


Fear presides over these memories, a perpetual fear. Of course no childhood is without its terrors, yet I wonder if I would have been a less frightened boy if Lindbergh hadn't been president or if I hadn't been the offspring of Jews. (Plot 1) Fear certainly presides over the incipit of Philip Roth's The Plot against America, a Novel, published in 2004; the very first sentence literally encapsulates the whole narrative beginning with the word fear and ending with a chapter entitled "Perpetual fear." As a matter of fact this forceful incipit gives the key to the novel's major thematic content (fear) as well as to the main narrative strategy: repetition, so systematic a repetition that it creates clusters of obsession. And it so happens that this hyperbolic, all-invading fear is made all the more powerful as it is still there, poisoning the narrator's present narration of his past memories. There is no paranoia, though, as some critics may have suggested. For what is this time-transcending "perpetual fear" directly connected with "Jews" if not a euphemistic reference to antisemitism? Besides, "perpetual fear" indirectly recalls the "eternal antisemitism" doctrine that Hannah Arendt denounced as "giv[ing] the best possible alibi for all horrors" (Arendt 7) in her chapter about "Antisemitism as an outrage to common sense" in The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951, revised 1973). This is not to say that The Plot Against America is to be read as a theoretical essay on antisemitism or even a belated response to Arendt; it is to be read for what it is: a novel, and one of a most provocative kind, for sure, on the "what if" mode, what if America had gone fascist and elected an overtly antisemitic president? Let's say that the result proves Arendt totally right: it's "all horrors," martial law, riots, massacres, pogroms and murder and there's very little outcry from "ordinary" American citizens. Those that dare speak out, like Walter Winchell on the radio or F.D. Roosevelt, are silenced one way or another, temporarily "detained" in Roosevelt's case or simply "murdered" like Winchell. This "terrific political novel" (Paul Berman, The New York Times Book Review) which was published three years after the 9/11 tragic events did not raise the big controversy some of the critics announced, maybe because Roth made it perfectly clear in his "Postscript Note to the Reader" that " The Plot Against America [was] a work of fiction" (Plot 364). And the book was well received as such: "a fable of an alternative universe" (Berman), "a stunning work of political extrapolation" (Charles). To go on with the reception of the book, let's mention that some critics pointed at a subtext about the Bush administration and the dangers of isolationism in American contemporary policies after the 9/11 events, which Roth repeatedly denied. And also a jarring note coming from Bill Kauffman (from The American Conservative) who denounced The Plot as "a repellent novel, bigoted and libelous of the dead, dripping with hatred of rural America, of Catholics, of any Middle American who has ever dared stand against the war machine" (Kauffman 2004). Charles Lindbergh as the point of junction between fantasy and antisemitism in the Roth novel is precisely what the controversy originates in and feeds on. So Lindbergh as the illustration of the fiction and history (or "Counterhistory") interplay in the novel will be discussed with special emphasis on his function in the building up of "the terror of the unforeseen." I. 'The terror of the unforeseen " (Plot 113): History or Counterhistory? The terror of the unforeseen is what the science of history hides, turning a disaster into an epic. (Plot 114) That "disaster" is Lindbergh's election as president; it is a major change in the narrator's life ("A new life began for me. I'd watch my father fall apart, and I would never return to the same childhood" [Plot 113]) and a turning point in the collective history of America, referred to as "the unfolding of the unforeseen": "And as Lindbergh's election couldn't have made clearer to me, the unfolding of the unforeseen was everything. …


Essential hypertension (EH) is considered one of the major contributors to the present pandemic of cardiovascular disease (CVD). EH has a largely obscure aetiology, which lies upon both environmental risk factors and underlying genetic traits. The stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHRSP) is an excellent model of human EH and exhibits salt sensitivity. Two quantitative trait loci (QTL) for blood pressure (BP) regulation have been identified on rat chromosome 2 (chr.2). On this basis, previous work in our laboratory focused on construction of chr.2 congenic strains, on both the SHRSP and Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) genetic backgrounds. In combination with microarray gene expression profiling in kidney from salt-loaded rats, two positional candidate genes for salt-sensitive hypertension were identified. Sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor 1 (S1pr1) and vascular adhesion molecule (Vcam1) lie on the chr.2 congenic interval implicated in salt-sensitivity. Additionally, studies on vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) demonstrated enhanced S1PR1-mediated sphingosine signalling in SHRSP compared to WKY. Finally, glutathione S-transferase mu 1 (Gstm1) was identified as another chr.2 candidate gene for BP regulation, lying outside the region implicated in salt-sensitivity.
This project attempts to comprehensively investigate the potential role of altered S1PR1 signalling in BP regulation and salt-sensitivity, through comparative proteomic and metabolomic profiling in WKY, SHRSP and chromosome 2 congenic and transgenic stains (WKY.SPGla2a, SP.WKYGla2a, SP.WKYGla2k and Gstm1-transgenic).
Characterisation of S1PR1 expression in renal and vascular tissue from 21 week-old salt-loaded rats, demonstrated below detection protein levels across parental and congenic strains. To further investigate the effect of the congenic interval and Gstm1 on salt-sensitivity and BP regulation and identify putative biomarkers, high-throughput metabolomic screening of urine and plasma was conducted in parental, SP.WKYGla2k congenic and Gstm1-transgenic strains, on a normal-salt and high-salt diet. In both urine and plasma, salt-loading affected processes implicated in CVD, including inflammatory response, free radical scavenging and lipid metabolism. In urine, oleic acid, implicated in regulation of renin levels, was increased in the SHRSP and transgenic salt-sensitive strains compared to the WKY and 2k congenic salt-resistant strains, upon salt-loading. In plasma, known biomarkers of CVD were altered in SHRSP compared to the other three strains, at normal-salt, including L-proline and linoleic acid. Upon salt-loading, glutathione disulfide and sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) were identified in high levels in the salt-sensitive strains. However, at normal-salt S1P was decreased in SHRSP compared to WKY and 2k congenic strains. Therefore, characterisation of the impact of S1P/S1PR1 signalling in the vasculature across the different strains was further investigated. Initially, structure, mechanical properties and vascular reactivity of mesenteric resistance arteries (MRA) were studied in 16 week-old parental and reciprocal 2a congenic strains (WKY.SPGla2a and SP.WKYGla2a). There was no significant remodelling observed across the strains. However, SHRSP vessels were stiffer and this phenotype was under the control of the congenic segment. SHRSP exhibited hypercontractility, which was mediated by RhoA/Rock signalling pathway and was corrected by the transfer of the congenic interval in SP.WKYGla2a. SHRSP also displayed endothelial dysfunction, which was related to reduced nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability and was not improved by the congenic interval. The predominant regulatory mechanisms of contraction and relaxation in MRAs from WKY and WKY.SPGla2a were demonstrated to be different compared to SHRSP.
Subsequently, representation of these physiological differences in MRAs, at the molecular level, was investigated along with the effect of S1P-signalling in HTN. Comprehensive, high-throughput proteome profiling of S1P-stimulated primary mesenteric VSMCs from parental and 2a-reciprocal congenic strains, was achieved through triple stable isotope labelling (SILAC), LC-MS/MS analysis and MaxQuant quantification. Detection of few abundant phosphorylated proteins was attributed to lack of enrichment for phosphoproteome. Therefore, focus was placed on proteins whose differential expression between SHRSP and WKY was genetically regulated. These proteins mapped to pathways implicated in BP-regulation, including oxidative stress, vascular tone regulation and vascular remodelling. Glutathione S-transferase mu 1 (GSTM1) was upregulated in SHRSP, as opposed to down-regulated NAD(P)H oxidase quinone 1 (NQO1) and heme oxygenase 1 (HMOX1), suggesting different antioxidant mechanisms in health and disease. Natriuretic peptide receptor C (NPR3) which is implicated in vascular relaxation was increased in SHRSP, along with activators of RhoA contractile mechanism, such as caveolin1 (CAV1). Furthermore, RhoA/Rock signalling pathway was highly altered in SHRSP. Finally, differentially expressed proteins were related to sphingosine signalling, including superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2) and collagen type III, alpha 1 (COL3A1).
To further investigate the metabolic effect of sphingosine signalling across the strains, and assess the contribution of the congenic interval, metabolomic profiling of primary mesenteric VSMCs from parental and SP.WKYGla2a congenic strains, was performed at basal conditions and upon S1P-stimulation. A labelling-free, untargeted approach was employed, using HILIC-MS analysis and data processing through IDEOM. The effect of the congenic interval on the metabolic profile of SP.WKYGla2a was more profound under basal conditions. S1P-stimulation induced greater responses in SHRSP than WKY, indicating altered signalling. Furthermore the responses were different in each strain, suggesting a combined effect of the genetic background and the congenic interval on S1P signalling regulation. Inosine, which is implicated in purine metabolism, was significantly decreased in SHRSP compared to SP.WKYGla2a, at basal conditions, but was increased upon-S1P stimulation, implying that this S1P effect depends on the congenic interval. Moreover, tyramine, which has vasodilatory properties, was increased in stimulated SHRSP compared to basal conditions, indicating potential relation of sphingosine signalling with BP-regulation.
This study has combined high-throughput proteomic and metabolomic screenings with congenic and transgenic strains to capture a clearer picture of the pathophysiological processes that underlie HTN in SHRSP. Individual metabolites and proteins or pathways and processes identified to be altered in HTN, through this work, can be used for generation of new testable hypothesis towards the development of new therapeutic approaches against HTN.


Distribution map of black elderberry (Sambucus nigra) These maps were produced by combining numerous and heterogeneous data collected from atlas monographs providing complete species distribution maps, from national to regional atlases, occurrence geodatabases and scientific literature. The maps were created using ESRI shapefiles (*.shp, *.shx, *.dbf, *.prj files) archived in the ZIP file. Species range is mapped with polygon features (name suffix "plg"), which define continuous areas of occupancy of the species, and with point features (name suffix "pnt"), which identify more fragmented and isolated populations. If synanthropic occurrences are reported outside the species natural range, additional point and/or polygon shapefiles are also present (suffix "syn"). All polygon borders delimiting the range are generalized across the mainland and sea boundaries, and not clipped to a specific coastline. This offers the possibility to mask sea areas, or to clip and extract the terrestrial range parts using GIS data layers of the users' choice. Please cite as: Caudullo, G., Welk, E., San-Miguel-Ayanz, J., 2017. Chorological maps for the main European woody species. Data in Brief 12, 662-666. DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2017.05.007 Additional information and used references are on 'supplementary materials' document: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5091901 Chorological maps are part of the "European Atlas of Forest Tree Species" project: https://w3id.org/mtv/FISE-Comm/v01


The issue of funeral picketing has received national media coverage and has resulted in a frenzy of legislation in a short amount of time. The group responsible for the funeral picketing, Westboro Baptist Church, has targeted soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, homosexuals, political figures and even children. Some may want to dismiss Westboro as a fringe group that should not be taken seriously, but they have been taken seriously by at least twenty-seven states, the federal government, and mourners who have been eyewitnesses to the group's tactics. Funeral picketing raises crucial First Amendment issues including whether the Supreme Court's interest in protecting unwilling listeners and captive audiences is broad enough to cover mourners. This article is a reflection on whether the state should recognize mourning as a legitimate interest and whether that interest should be properly balanced against the right of Free Speech. In an attempt to respond to this issue, the majority of the state legislatures have produced laws that are unconstitutional because of their geographic overbreadth. This article examines the legislative response to funeral picketing and proposes ways the statutes can be constitutionally defensible. This article also argues for expansion of the captive audience doctrine and illustrates why privacy in mourning is as important as privacy in one's home. The issue of funeral picketing and the privacy interest in mourning has generated very little, if any, legal scholarship. I intend for this article to fill a void in the literature and provide guidance to legislatures and courts who will undoubtedly be wrestling with this issue in years to come.


X-ray computed tomography (CT) is an imaging tool that is becoming increasingly available for use in veterinary medicine. Advantages, including depiction of detailed cross-sectional anatomy, improved contrast resolution, and computer reformatting, make it a potentially valuable diagnostic technique. Veterinary application of CT has been primarily limited to use in small animals. Current reports describe the technique for use in the horse, but there are no published studies correlating serial CT images with equine cross-sectional anatomy. A study of the distal extremity of the horse was undertaken to facilitate interpretation of images produced using CT. Transverse CT images of the distal forelimb of equine cadavers were evaluated relative to gross anatomic dissection. Resolution of bone architecture in transverse plane images was satisfactory, but soft-tissue' resolution, although satisfactory for visualization of major structures, was relatively poor, probably due to lack of interposed fat and insufficient differences in physical density and atomic number. Thus it appears in the equine distal limb that CT may be most useful for evaluation of complex bone abnormalities.


Abstract We propose the design of an adaptive cruise controller (ACC) of a Smart vehicle as a benchmark set up for methods developed for piecewise affine (PWA) systems based on model predictive control (MPC) arguments. The control law of the system aims at achieving a trade-off between tracking and fuel consumption while guaranteeing specific constraints , related to physical limitations, safety/comfort issues, environment protection and energy saving. In this paper we consider some PWA MPC control design methods, an on-line, an offline and a robust on-line and compare them with an on-line linear approximation and an off-line gain scheduling approach. The results will be briefly described and the algorithms will be tested in terms of key issues for real implementation and accuracy of the solution.


One of the most striking features of the development of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) during the 1990s has been the emergence of a political and economic alliance between the Union des Associations Européennes de Football (UEFA) and the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF). What is remarkable about this state of affairs is that the relationship between the two confederations has traditionally been characterized by acrimony and mistrust. However, the election of the Swede, Lennart Johansson, as Europe's leading football administrator in 1990 has transformed the climate of power relations between African and European football. As well as exploring the nature of the Afro-European coalition and assessing its impact on world football politics, this article examines how and why Johansson came to form the central axis around which this new relationship was brokered. Particular attention is accorded to Johansson's nationality and it is argued that his approach to the governance of world football is underpinned by the broader philosophies that are embodied within his own country's system of political, social, economic and sporting organization, or the `Swedish model' as it has come to be known. The article adopts a qualitative methodology involving in-depth interviews with Johansson as well as key figures within Svenska Fotbollförbundet (Swedish Football Association) and parliamentarians responsible for their respective parties' sports policies. Extensive use is also made of primary archival sources obtained from the Swedish Sports High School (Idrottshögskolan) in Stockholm, the Swedish Sports Confederation (Riksidrottsförbundet) in Farsta and additional primary research sources obtained from FIFA, CAF and UEFA.


This article posits the idea of robot learning as a new subfield. The results of the Robolearn-96 Workshop provide evidence that learning in modern robotics is distinct from traditional machine learning. The article examines the role of robotics in the social and natural sciences and the potential impact of learning on robotics, generating both a continuum of research issues and a description of the divergent terminology, target domains, and standards of proof associated with robot learning. The article argues that although robot learning is a new subfield, there is significant potential for synergy with traditional machine learning if the differences in research cultures can be overcome.


Abstract Introduction: The peritumoral inflammatory reaction has a substantial importance in the oncologic outcome of bladder cancer (BC). One biomarker proven to be practical and accessible is the NLR (neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio) for high risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). The aim of the study was to investigate the role of NLR as a prognostic biomarker for disease recurrence, progression and survival of p Ta (pathological assesment of the primary tumor) NMIBC. Material and Methods: In our retrospective study we included 54 patients with pTa NMIBC from a total of 235 patients who underwent transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT) during two consecutive years: January 2007 - December 2008 [median follow-up 106 months (interquartile range-IQR 68-116)]. Criteria for inclusion were: primary tumor, low-grade, with NLR available at 2 weeks prior to TURBT. NLR was considered altered if higher than 3. Results: The median age of the patients included was 63 years (IQR 55 - 72). Most of the patients had NLR---lt---3 (37 patients). Median EORTC (European Organization of Research and Treatment of Cancer) Recurrence Score was 4 (IQR 1-6), while EORTC Progression Score was 3 (IQR 0-6), respectively. Recurrence occurred in 8 out of 54 (14.81 %) patients and progression was identified in 2 out of 54 (3.70 %) patients with muscle-invasive BC during follow-up. NLR---gt---3 was not associated with clinical and pathological factors. In multivariable Cox regression analyses NLR as a continuous variable was an independent predictive factor for recurrence. Recurrence-free survival (RFS) Kaplan-Meier analysis did not show a statistical significance between NLR groups: 82.67% vs. 64.12%, p=0.26. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed a lower Progression-free survival (PFS) in the NLR---gt---3 group: 94.12% vs. 100%, p=0.04. During follow-up (106 months) 18 patients deceased with no impact of NLR as a prognostic factor in multivariable analyses. Kaplan-Meier overall survival (OS) analysis showed a 10-year OS of 70.27% in the low NLR group compared with 58.82% in the high NLR group, p=0.45. Conclusion: In this cohort, high NLR was associated with high recurrence rate in patients with Ta NMIBC. In low-risk NMIBC NLR could represent a valid biomarker for clinical usage regarding the intensity of follow-up schedule.


Phase-Locked Loops (PLLs) are electronic systems that can be used as a synchronized oscillator, a driver or multiplier of frequency, a modulator or demodulator and as an amplifier of phase modulated signals. This book updates the methods used in the analysis of PLLs by drawing on the results obtained in the last 40 years. Many are published for the first time in book form. Nonlinear and deterministic mathematical models of continuous-time and discrete-time PLLs are considered and their basic properties are given in the form of theorems with rigorous proofs. The book exhibits very beautiful dynamics, and shows various physical phenomena observed in synchronized oscillators described by complete (not averaged) equations of PLLs. Specially selected mathematical tools are used the theory of differential equations on a torus, the phase-plane portraits on a cyclinder, a perturbation theory (Melnikov s theorem on heteroclinic trajectories), integral manifolds, iterations of one-dimensional maps of a circle and two-dimensional maps of a cylinder. Using these tools, the properties of PLLs, in particular the regions of synchronization are described. Emphasis is on bifurcations of various types of periodic and chaotic oscillations. Strange attractors in the dynamics of PLLs are considered, such as those discovered by Rssler, Henon, Lorenz, May, Chua and others.


In respiratory tract infections, therapy is often empirical and there is a need for local data on the rate of resistance to available antimicrobials. In this multicentre study which is a part of the international e-BASKETT-II surveillance study, respiratory isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae (n=260) and Streptococcus pyogenes (n=312) collected between September 2002 and June 2003 from 18 hospitals in Turkey were tested against penicillin G, amoxicillin, cefuroxime, ceftriaxone, erythromycin, clarithromycin, azithromycin, clindamycin, telithromycin, tetracycline, levofloxacin and vancomycin. Antibiotic susceptibilities were determined with disk diffusion method and confirmed with broth dilution method following the CLSI guidelines. Isolates which were resistant to erythromycin were genotyped by polymerase chain reaction. In S. pneumoniae 11.5% of the isolates were highly and 22.7% were intermediately resistant to penicillin. Rate of resistance to erythromycin, clarithromycin, azithromycin was 17.3%, and 21.5% of the isolates were resistant to tetracycline. Resistance to levofloxacin and vancomycin was not observed and only one isolate was found intermediately resistant (MIC=2 microg/mL) to telithromycin. Genotypes in erythromycin-resistant isolates were ermB (77.8%), mefA (17.8%) and ermB+mefA (2.2%). S. pyogenes isolates were uniformly susceptible to beta-lactams and vancomycin, and only one isolate was intermediately resistant to levofloxacin. Macrolide resistance was observed in 1.3% of the isolates and three out of these harboured the mefA gene. One isolate with an MIC of 4 microg/mL for telithromycin had ermB gene. Telithromycin has demonstrated a good in vitro activity against macrolide-resistant respiratory tract isolates. As a result, e-BASKETT-II surveillance study has been one of the most extensive in vitro studies comparing telithromycin to available antimicrobial agents for respiratory tract infections in Turkey.


Deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are the state-of-the-art in image classification. Since CNN feed forward propagation involves highly regular parallel computation, it benefits from a significant speed-up when running on fine grain parallel programmable logic devices. As a consequence, several studies have proposed field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based accelerators for CNNs. However, because of the large computational power required by CNNs, none of the previous studies has proposed a direct mapping of the CNN onto the physical resources of an FPGA, allocating each processing actor to its own hardware instance. In this letter, we demonstrate the feasibility of the so called direct hardware mapping (DHM) and discuss several tactics we explore to make DHM usable in practice. As a proof of concept, we introduce the HADDOC2 open source tool, that automatically transforms a CNN description into a synthesizable hardware description with platform-independent DHM.


Science Hunters is an outreach project based in Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, which uses Minecraft to engage children in science learning and environmental science research. We offer opportunities across all year groups in schools, at public events such as community days and festivals, and at a regular Minecraft Club held on campus in association with the National Autistic Society. The project targets children from Widening Participation backgrounds (those who may face a barrier to accessing Higher Education) and has a particular focus on children with Special Educational Needs. We find that children who come to us at events outside school are predominantly of primary school age, and for several years we have been funded to deliver activities in primary as well as secondary schools. Alongside other regions, we deliver sessions in Bristol primary schools from Reception age up, and receive overwhelmingly positive feedback. Minecraft is an extremely useful tool for engaging children with science learning as it is interactive, can be used to demonstrate real-world processes which can't otherwise be replicated in a classroom, and appeals to and engages children as it is a hugely popular game in which they often feel they have expertise.


Current methodologies to produce glass forming metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) rely on non-scalable solvothermal syntheses which have high energy requirements, relatively low yields and large tetratogenic solvent usage. Here we use a mechanochemical method to produce glass-forming MOFs, ZIF-62 and ZIF-UC-5, in 30 minutes at room temperature, using microlitre quantities of solvent and stoichiometric amounts of organic linkers. This method facilitates the accurate synthesis of ZIF-62 structures containing both Co and Zn, allowing the effect of metal-ion dopant upon melting temperature to be studied for the first time. Further to this, we present variable organic linker ratio series of IF-62 and of ZIF-UC-5. The specific composition of the materials in the series is made possible by the mechanochemical method. We also present a greener solvothermal method to form ZIF-62, which is capable of producing crystalline materials of suffcient quality for single crystal diffraction experiments.


In this article, we pursue the objective of empirically testing the extent to which changes in environmental policy outputs can explain changes in environmental impacts. Previously, systematic testing of this relationship was hampered by the lack of a compelling measurement of changes in regulatory policy outputs. To remedy this, we present a novel approach to the measurement of events of regulatory output change. We illustrate our concept by employing data on changes in clean air regulations in 24 advanced democracies from 1976 to 2003. In a next step, we explore the extent to which changes in clean air regulations can account for changes in air pollutant emissions. The empirical analysis suggests that changes in clean air regulations cannot be unconditionally associated with changing intensities of air pollutant emission. We deem these results to have far-reaching implications for the study of regulatory policy change.


Though George W. Bush took office in January, the nation is still recovering from the prolonged and complex process by which he was elected. The Florida electoral controversy and the subsequent decisions by both the Florida courts and the US Supreme Court left citizens and scholars alike divided over the role of the judiciary in the electoral arena. Now, after several months of reflection, leading constitutional scholars - Cass R. Sunstein, Richard A. Epstein, Pamela S. Karlan, Richard A. Posner and John Yoo, among others - weigh in on the Supreme Court's actions, which still seem sensible, legally legitimate and pragmatically defensible to some and an egregious abuse of power to others. Representing the full spectrum of views and arguments, "The Vote" offers the most timely and considered guide to the ultimate consequences and significance of the Supreme Court's decision. The contributors to this volume were highly visible in the national media while the controversy raged, and here they present fully fleshed-out arguments for the positions they promoted on the airwaves. Readers should find in "The Vote" equally impassioned defences for and indictments of the Court's actions, and they should come to understand the practical and theoretical implications of the Court's ruling in the realms of both law and politics. No doubt a spate of books will appear on the 2000 presidential election, but none will claim as distinguished a roster of contributors better qualified to place these recent events in their appropriate historical, legal and political contexts.


In this article, we re.ect on architecture and management and organization theory, in terms of their mutual implications. We focus especially on a tacit implication in mainstream organization theory, which has an architectural genesis. In the past, management has been largely undergirded by a Cartesian rationality, one seen most clearly in the argument that structure follows strategy. Architecturally, this Cartesianism is present in the injunction that form follows function. Criticizing this point of view, we argue that organizations should be thought of as material, spatial ensembles — not just cognitive abstractions writ large. Linking space and organization in this way, we re.ect on the power that every spatial organization necessarily implies, both in negative and positive terms. After examining existing approaches to this issue, we discuss some positive power implications for management. We introduce the concept of the generative building that, instead of being a merely passive container for actions happening in it, contributes positively towards an organization's capacities. We conclude with a re.ection on the impact of the generative building on management and processes of organizing.


This timely book provides a comprehensive guide to, and rigorous analysis of, prosecutorial discretion at the International Criminal Court. This is the first ever study that takes the reader through all the key stages of the Proscecutor's decision-making process. Starting from preliminary examinations and the decision to investigate, the book also explores case selection processes, plea agreements, culminating in the question of how to end engagement in specific country situations. The book serves as a guide to the Rome Statute through the lens of the Prosecutor's activities. With its unique combination of legal theory and specific policy analysis, it addresses broader questions that will be relevant to other international and hybrid criminal courts and tribunals. The book will be of interest to students, practitioners of law, academics, and the wider public concerned with international law, criminal justice and international relations.


The article examines Khloé Kardashian's self-help book Strong Looks Better Naked from the perspective of representing a celebrity-based inspirational guide that extols the values of exercise and healthy living and in terms of key tenets of the autobiography. In this
 context, the article argues that the book represents an in-depth example of Sean Redmond's concept of the 'celebrity confessional' in that it uses self-reflective disclosures to connect with readers. However, given the confessionals of bodily issues revealed in the book,
 the article explores how Khloé Kardashian's narrative critically exhibits, drawing on the work of Bourdieu, a double sense of habitus. This is explored through her insider perspective that articulates the bodily norms and expectations associated with contemporary celebrity culture,
 and through her revealing of her own relationship with this culture, a factor significantly exacerbated through her membership of the Kardashian family and its extensively mediated celebrity brand.


Extended households, usually in the form of an elder or grandparent, have always provided a safety net for orphaned children. However, the high rates of HIV (AIDS) infection, unemployment and poverty have weakened their capacity to fulfil this vital role.The majority of extended households live in poverty and, therefore, lack sufficient resources to care for these children. In addition to receiving government social grants, some extended households are also receiving financial and non-financial assistance from local non-governmental organisations (NGOs). These local NGOs provide basic needs such as food, clothes and medical care to orphans living in extended family units. Little has been done to quantify their economic impact. This paper, therefore, investigates the economic impact of NGOs in improving the well-being of vulnerable orphaned children living in extended households in Soweto. Using Foster, Greer and Thorbecke's (FGT) poverty indices, we found that the help of NGOs was statistically significant in reducing the level and extent of poverty in such dwellings. The results of FGT are supported by those of the logit econometric model.


An improved measurement methodology and a data-processing technique for multiangle data obtained with an elastic scanning lidar in clear atmospheres are introduced. Azimuthal and slope scans are combined to reduce the atmospheric heterogeneity. Vertical profiles of optical depth and intercept (proportional to the logarithm of the backscatter coefficient) are determined. The purpose of this approach is to identify and remove data points that distort the regression analysis results in order to improve the accuracy of the retrieved optical depth and of the intercept. In addition, the influence of systematic distortions has been investigated. Furthermore, profiles of the optical depth, intercept, and the range-squared-corrected signals have been used to determine the lidar overlap function as a function of range. Simulation and experimental results of this data-processing technique are presented.


The development of metamaterials, i.e., artificially structured materials that interact with waves in unconventional ways, has revolutionized our ability to manipulate the propagation of electromagnetic waves and their interaction with matter. One of the most exciting applications of metamaterial science is related to the possibility of totally suppressing the scattering of an object using an invisibility cloak. Here, we review the available methods to make an object undetectable to electromagnetic waves, and we highlight the outstanding challenges that need to be addressed in order to obtain a fully functional coating capable of suppressing the total scattering of an object. Our outlook discusses how, while passive linear cloaks are fundamentally limited in terms of bandwidth of operation and overall scattering suppression, active and/or nonlinear cloaks hold the promise to overcome, at least partially, some of these limitations.


This article offers a reconstruction of the intellectual dialogue between Kantian aesthetician Li Zehou 李澤厚 (1930–) and humanist literary critic Liu Zaifu 劉再復 (1941–). By comparing Li's ruminations on "cultures of pleasure" (legan wenhua 樂感文化) and Liu's treatises on "literatures of sin" (zuigan wenxue 罪感文學), the author shows how religious ethics became a crucial medium for them to reflect on the theologico-political aspects of Chinese revolutionary culture. In particular, Li's cultures of pleasure were grounded in the May Fourth aesthetic discourse that highlighted the inculcation of secular humanity as an alternative to religious transcendence. Meanwhile, Liu underscored the transcendence of literatures of sin to stimulate an inner morality through which to excise all secular political commands from human interiority. Whereas Li prioritized a realistic ethical and psychological noumenon in Confucian aesthetics to refute the romantic and sublime figure of the proletarian subject, Liu's espousal of religious transcendence provided Chinese writers with a spiritual dimension to actualize literature's breakaway from the tutelage of the revolutionary state. Their reflections on this-worldly pleasure and otherworldly sin have merged in exorcising the myth of Mao's revolutionary utopia.


The United Nations (UN) Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) discussions on lethal autonomous weapons (LAWS) have been confused, not constructive, and largely for the same definitional reasons identified two years ago. This paper attempts to address why the dialogue at the UN LAWS dialogue has proceeded as it has and proposes how it should proceed at the likely group of government expert meetings in 2017-2018. This paper focuses on the problems created by framing the LAWS discussion in terms of full autonomy and suggests that CCW States Parties refocus on the critical functions of selecting and engaging targets. The full autonomy framework both confuses and distracts – and has driven the dialogue in an unproductive circular direction. To explain why framing the discussion in terms of full autonomy dooms the LAWS discussion to be perpetually circular in nature, Part I of this paper explores the challenges in trying to define and otherwise categorize system autonomy. This includes why distinguishing systems based on whether a human is in/on/out of loop, or whether a system is automated, automatic, or autonomous, is only of minimal, descriptive, utility. Part II then applies the concept of autonomy to weapon systems, focusing first on the reality that weapons systems capable of selecting and engaging targets without further human intervention have existed for decades and then on explaining why full autonomy is a distractor. Part III then emphasizes the need to refocus the LAWS conversation within the purpose of the CCW, following which the paper concludes.


This pursuit of the merchant debtor is divided into three
Parts, the first two Parts deal with the enforcement of debt as
a whole, with the emphasis on merchant transactions; the last Part
being kept entirely to the development of the bankruptcy laws.
Part One is given over to a study of the law as it stood
largely prior to 1285.
Chapter 1 produces a general survey of the methods of debt
enforcement which bad been adopted by earlier alien societies, in
order to appreciate more readily the slow manner in which English
law applied itself to helping the merchant creditor.
Chapter 2 deals with the emergence of the Royal Courts, and
shows the pre-occupation in the first two centuries of post Conquest
Law with the enforcement of Services due to a Lord,rather than with
debts.
Chapter 3 pays particular attention to the relationship and
transactions between the King and the Jews; together with the
gradual development of the Writ of Debt and its acceptance by the
Royal Courts.
Chapter 4 studies the means for enforcing attendance at court
and the excuses which might be offered. Only a defaulting accountant
is subject to bodily attachment. Even when the debtor attends, the
modes of proof awarded to be performed at another day pay no attention
to legal right.
Chapter 5, continues, on the day appointed for proof to be made
with an account of the last stage of the trial and the methods of
execution at the disposal of a creditor. The recording of debts on
Court Rolls, the awarding of damages and costs, the place of equity and the punishment of fraud in the early court, and the methods
of debt enforcement existing in Fair and Borough Courts are all
included here.
Part Two records the history of debt enforcement from 1283
to l542.
Chapter 6 covers the various enactments which provided
special machinery for the enrolment of debts with the ready methods
for enforcement of such enrolled debts, and providing imprisonment
for the contumacious debtor. The Statutes Merchant, the Statute
Staple, the provision for Statutory Recognizances fall within this
head. The granting of the Writ of Elegit is also contained here.
Chapter 7 sets out the reforms in the law which finally
enable the debtor to be imprisoned on means process, providing
outlawry for the missing debtor. This form of imprisonment is
extended by Common Law to the judgment debtor. To safe-guard the
debtor's freedom there are the provisions relating to Bail and the
use of the Writs Corpus Cum Causa and Audita Querela.
Chapter 8 considers the use of the fraudulent conveyance
made to defeat the creditor and the manner of its adoption in
relation to the use of Sanctuary.
Chapter 9 surveys the many courts and varying jurisdictions
of this period. Outside such jurisdictions there are the protection
of the King, the Royal prerogative and the use of special privileges
to be contended with.
Chapter 10 shows how the petition to the King, his Council,
or his Chancellor came to be used as a means of combating fraud.
Chapter 11 describes the limited way in which the Legislature
and the Common Law came to deal with the particular fraudulent
actions of forgery, perjury and duress. Chapter 12 investigates the way in which imprisonment of
the debtor is regulated. This covers the special position of the
sheriff and the allowance of bail. The basic need was for the
debtor to be kept safely in prison. If this was not done, then the
gaoler or sheriff must pay the creditor.
Chapter 13 is devoted to the position of the imprisoned
debtor who must by-law live or die of his own sustenance. Gaolers
extorted or extracted what they could for services; charity is the
only answer to a poor debtor's survival.
Chapter 14 brings this period to a close with a review of
the widening mercantile horizons, the need for capital bringing
with it a rebirth of usury, and the general ineffectualness of the
legal machinery to deal with the increasing merchant failures.
Part Three relates solely to the development of the Bankruptcy
Laws.
Chapter 15 shows the difficulties which were found in producing
and enforcing the first bankruptcy enactment, 34. 35 Henry
VIII, c.4.
Chapter 16 is confined to an exposition of the way in which
the courts interpreted the term 'trader' for the purposes of the
bankruptcy laws.
Chapter 17 discusses the various actions which, if accompanied
by the intention to delay or hinder creditors, might render
a debtor a bankrupt under 13 Elizabeth I, c.7.
Chapter 18 completes the list of actions specifically termed
'acts of bankruptcy' up to and including the enactment of 5 George
II, c.30.
Chapter 19 outlines the position of the Lord Chancellor in
the bankruptcy machine and the manner in which a creditor might petition for a commission to issue so that commissioners of
bankrupts could be appointed.
Chapter 20 follows the process from the adjudicating of
the debtor a bankrupt, and takes as its subject the appointment
of the assignees and their duties, and the persona who might
come in under a commission as creditors in order to prove their
debts. Future debts may be proved but contingent debts must stay
outside. Fraud will provide a complete bar to a creditor.
Chapter 21 demonstrates the wide powers given to the
commissioners so that they might obtain the appearance, and make
full examination of the bankrupt. Failure to comply might mean
death to the bankrupt. Similar powers are given so that witnesses
might be adequately exm1ned.
Chapter 22 reveals the completeness of the authority given
in order to strip the bankrupt of all property held by him at the
time of his act of bankruptcy. There are few exceptions to this
rule.
Chapter 23 ends the analysis of the commission with the
granting of the certificate of discharge and the rights of the
various creditors to participate in the distribution of the estate
after the deduction of certain allowances. The costs of the
commission and thechargea of the commissioners might well render any
such distribution largely illusory. Also in this chapter are included
details concerning the keeping of the records of the commission
and the circumstances under which a commission might be
superseded.
Chapter 24 illustrates the general attitude towards bankruptcy
and bankrupts during this period. In a harsh, invigorating
age the legislature met reality with reality and inflicted severe
punishments. Although the death penalty was available to punish the
fraudulent bankrupt, the provision was rarely invoked. nally comes
the era of reform and the bankrupt is redeemed, to emerge a quasihonest
citizen rather than a quasi-criminal.


Probabilistic models for infectious disease dynamics are useful for understanding the mechanism underlying the spread of infection. When the likelihood function for these models is expensive to evaluate, traditional likelihood‐based inference may be computationally intractable. Furthermore, traditional inference may lead to poor parameter estimates and the fitted model may not capture important biological characteristics of the observed data. We propose a novel approach for resolving these issues that is inspired by recent work in emulation and calibration for complex computer models. Our motivating example is the gravity time series susceptible–infected–recovered model. Our approach focuses on the characteristics of the process that are of scientific interest. We find a Gaussian process approximation to the gravity model by using key summary statistics obtained from model simulations. We demonstrate via simulated examples that the new approach is computationally expedient, provides accurate parameter inference and results in a good model fit. We apply our method to analyse measles outbreaks in England and Wales in two periods: the prevaccination period from 1944 to 1965 and the vaccination period from 1966 to 1994. On the basis of our results, we can obtain important scientific insights about the transmission of measles. In general, our method is applicable to problems where traditional likelihood‐based inference is computationally intractable or produces a poor model fit. It is also an alternative to approximate Bayesian computation when simulations from the model are expensive.


Generally speaking, theories of adolescent drug use emphasize either attitudinal variables, such as self-esteem or self-control, or behavioral variables, such as interactions with delinquent peers. This research uses variables such as self-esteem, impulsiveness, parental attachment, commitment to education, and peer drug use to predict adolescent substance usc. The analysis is conducted on a sample of 312 middle-school children from South Carolina. Results indicate that while attitudinal variables are important for predicting use, behavioral variables are superior predictors of adolescent drug use. Involvement in non-drug related crimes, associating with drug-using peers, and involvement in a recreational routine activity pattern, all behavioral variables, were the best predictors of adolescent drug use. Attachment was the best attitudinal predictor of drug use. This research implies that dynamic models are needed to adequately explain the variation in adolescent drug usc, Researchers and theorists are reminded that recreational drug use among adolescents is often a behavior that conforms to sub-group norms and not simply behavior that deviates from the dominant culture's norms.


I. INTRODUCTION When members of the Al Qaeda terrorist organization attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon with hijacked commercial aircraft on September 11, it was the first time since a young America fought pitched battles with British troops during the War of 1812 that aggressors from abroad had engaged targets on contiguous American soft. In short order, the coordinated attack by terrorists became a watershed event in U.S. history, as it led to substantial changes in the fabric of our nation's life. Since September 11, America has been on a war footing, with armed soldiers standing guard at our nation's airports, enhanced security at nuclear power plants and other vulnerable locations, and military jets flying combat air patrols in order to intercept and shoot down hijacked commercial aircraft. The legal climate has also been affected by the events of September 11. Congress has passed, and the President has signed, anti-terrorism legislation (1) that expands police surveillance powers. Additionally, the President has announced that suspected terrorists who are not U.S. citizens may be tried in special military tribunals lacking many of the due process standards of American criminal courts. (2) The events of September 11 have forced Americans to rethink the way we operate when it comes to dealing with violence within our borders. As our nation has moved quickly to reassess and sometimes reform the ways we have traditionally thought about and dealt with the specter of violent acts, attention has been focused on a set of incidents that government leaders have defined as the most likely or most disruptive to our way of life (such as airline hijackings and attacks on nuclear facilities). (3) Consideration of the current situation, however, suggests that those tasked with planning for and dealing with terrorist violence have overlooked one obvious potential threat: attacks by well-trained terrorist cells armed with military arms and ordnance on Americans who have congregated in public spaces such as schools, shopping malls, churches, and sports arenas. Currently local police officers have the exclusive charge to respond to and handle any attacks of this sort within the rubric of state and federal statutes that forbid assault, murder, the possession of specific sorts of weapons, etc. A cursory look at law enforcement capabilities to protect innocents should a group of terrorists conduct a military-style assault, however, indicates that the police might be quickly overmatched. In this Article we first show why the police may not be capable of effectively dealing with assaults by terrorist cells on groups of American citizens. Second, we argue that our nation needs to develop contingency plans that would allow the U.S. military to take direct action against terrorists under certain conditions. Third, we identify some possible socio-legal consequences of the gap in our current capabilities to respond to military-style terrorist assaults. The first step in this process is to briefly review the history of such attacks in the Middle East and other parts of the Islamic world and explain why we believe that military-style terrorist attacks should be considered a realistic threat in present-day America. We next discuss current police response capabilities to such attacks, explain how they have developed over the last few decades in response to specific instances of mass criminal violence committed by U.S. citizens, and identify the limitations of law enforcement's ability to respond to military-style terrorist attacks. We then explain how the military could, at least theoretically, fill the void in our nation's current antiterrorist response capabilities, specify the conditions under which we believe U.S. military should be used, and discuss the legal and social ramifications of U.S. military action on U.S. soil. We conclude with an analysis of how the American public may respond to such threats with a return to an "unorganized militia" and a traditional interpretation of the Second Amendment. …


This handbook is geared towards the following aims: Reviewing the state of research on disordered language perception and production in adults and children. Describing and discussing present attempts at modelling human language processing by using linguistic disorders and pathologies as a data base. Presenting diagnostic and therapeutic concepts. Pointing out gaps and inconcistencies in current knowledge and theories. In bringing together knowlegde of different sources and disciplines under a common roof, the editors have achieved a comprehensive overview of the state of the art in the field of language pathology. Because of the diversity of the disciplines contributing to this scientific field, the chapters differ clearly in theories and methodologies. Yet this handbook represents a clear and common interdisciplinary contribution to linguistic disorders and pathologies and, furthermore, demonstrates the amount of interdisciplinary interaction still required. We chose this title in order to encompass as broadly as possible abnormalities and alterations of language perception, comprehension and production in adults and children, including nonpathological disorders. This handbook will be of interest to anybody involved with disordered language and/or language and speech disturbances, such as linguists and psychologists working in related research areas or teaching related subjects, scientists analyzing and modelling linguistic and cognitive processes (e.g. in Cognitive Psychology, Psycholinguistics, Neurolinguistics, Neuropsychology, Behavioural Neurology, Artificial Intelligence Research, and Cognitive Science), clinicians dealing with aquired or developmental language disorders, and speech pathologists and therapists. Besides presenting the state of the art, the handbook provides rich bibliographical information for research workers, clinicians, and advanced students.


Introductions: Hair loss is common after bariatric surgery. This study analyzes the extent and risk factors of hair loss following laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG), and satisfaction of self-prescribed supplements.
Methods: All patients of LSG bariatric surgery during June 2013 to August 2016 at Shanghai East Hospital affiliated to Tongji University, Shanghai, China were included in the study. Study variables were- age, gender, preoperative body mass index, hemoglobin, albumin, total cholesterol, iron, zinc, copper, folic acid, vitamin B12, vitamin D, and postoperative excess weight loss (% EWL), time and degree of hair loss, satisfaction of using supplements. Logistic regression was used to analyze risk factors for hair loss.
Results: Total of 86 patients underwent LSG. After exclusion data on 54 patients (M=11, F=43) were analyzed. Hair loss was reported by 42/54 (77.8%, M=6, F=36), starting at 3.43±1.36 months and ending at 8.59±3.38. All of 11 severe hair losses were in female. The female gender, preoperative serum folic acid, and %EWL were significant risk factors for hair loss. Hair regrowth was reported by 39/42 (92.86%). The 15 patients who used various self-prescribed iron and zinc supplements reported no satisfactory benefit.
Conclusions: Hair loss was seen in 3/4th of patents after LSG bariatric surgery. Self-prescribed nutrition supplements were used by 1/3 of patients without satisfaction. Female gender, preoperative serum folic acid, and %EWL were significant risk factors for hair loss.


Small aerosol particles have for a long time been known to be harmful to humans, and are today regarded to cause a larger number of deaths than traffic accidents globally. Energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) is a well known method that has been used for identification of toxic as well as non-toxic elements in the particles. The combination of elements will together with other information help to identify the sources and predict the effects of particles on environment and human health. The present work was conducted in Kwabenya, a suburb of the capital Accra of Ghana, which is frequently exposed to Harmattan dust from the Sahara-Sahel region. In total 171 filters each of PM2.5 and PM(2.5-10) were collected during 1 year. Levels of elements, black carbon (BC) and mass, were determined for both particle sizes. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed on the datasets from Harmattan and non-Harmattan periods. The daily average of PM10 0 was very high, 179 μg m ―3 and the BC contents were 4 μg m ―3 . The presence of crustal elements was large in PM(2.5-10) as well as in PM2.5, and had a more than tenfold increase in PM(2.5-10) during the Harmattan period. Major characteristic elements for different sources were identified from correlation coefficients and regression analysis of the data. Sahara sand aerosol was the major source in both study periods, but influence from biomass burning, sea-spray and metal industries was also observed.


This paper presents a novel population-based meta-heuristic algorithm inspired by the game of tug of war. Utilizing a sport metaphor the algorithm, denoted as Tug of War Optimization (TWO), considers each candidate solution as a team participating in a series of rope pulling competitions. The teams exert pulling forces on each other based on the quality of the solutions they represent. The competing teams move to their new positions according to Newtonian laws of mechanics. Unlike many other meta-heuristic methods, the algorithm is formulated in such a way that considers the qualities of both of the interacting solutions. TWO is applicable to global optimization of discontinuous, multimodal, non-smooth, and non-convex functions. Viability of the proposed method is examined using some benchmark mathematical functions and engineering design problems. The numerical results indicate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm compared to some other methods available in literature.


Team sports are characterized by intermittent high-intensity activity patterns. Typically, play consists of short periods of very intense or all-out efforts interspersed with longer periods of low-intensity activity. Fatigue is a complex, multi-factorial process, but intense intermittent exercise performance can potentially be limited by reduced availability of substrates stored in skeletal muscle and/or metabolic by-products associated with fuel breakdown. High-intensity interval training (HIT) has been shown to induce adaptations in skeletal muscle that enhance the capacity for both oxidative and non-oxidative metabolism. Nutrient availability is a potent modulator of many acute physiological responses to exercise, including various molecular signaling pathways that are believed to regulate cellular adaptation to training. Several nutritional strategies have also been reported to acutely alter metabolism and enhance intermittent high-intensity exercise performance. However, relatively little is known regarding the effect of chronic interventions, and whether supplementation over a period of weeks or months augments HIT-induced physiological remodeling and promotes greater performance adaptations. Theoretically, a nutritional intervention could augment HIT adaptation by improving energy metabolism during exercise, which could facilitate greater total work and an enhanced chronic training stimulus, or promoting some aspect of the adaptive response during recovery, which could lead to enhanced physiological adaptations over time.


Products can be divided into those that meet daily needs and those that meet unknown needs. Determining patterns of purchase of products for daily needs is relatively easy, but identifying the purchase behavior of products for unknown needs is more difficult. This study was conducted to examine a community of users of an exclusive product: the Vespa motorcycle. Validity and reliability were established, and descriptive analysis showed that all the variables met the goodness-of-fit test. The obtained results showed that the assumption of a normal line and autocorrelation cannot be determined; there is heteroscedasticity and some models fit to collinearity. The F test results showed that the independent and dependent variables are interrelated. The t-test revealed several variables that proved the null hypothesis, and several hypotheses are accordingly proposed. This means that there are several variables that are not related to the dependent variables (decision variables). Direct and indirect tests using a structural equation model showed that most do not meet the goodness-of-fit test. In conclusion, most relationships had little value, whereas other relationships had greater values. It is recommended to only measure relationships that have a value above 0.50 because the purchase behavior does not reflect the demand for scarce goods as with normal goods.


Through his graffiti-inspired drawings, paintings, sculptures, murals, and other works, Keith Haring created an immediately recognizable visual iconography that spoke to an enormous population - gay and straight, young and old, male and female. His importance in the annals of popular culture is indisputable, but little attention has been paid to his advocacy for social justice. Haring's political perspective is the focus of this visually arresting selection of works that traces the artist's development and historical significance and gives new gravitas to his career. Accompanying a major exhibition at the de Young museum in San Francisco, this book features more than 130 works of art, including large-scale paintings on tarpaulin and canvas, sculptures, and subway drawings. Together they create a narrative that explores Haring's responses to nuclear disarmament, racial inequality, capitalist excess, environmental degradation, and other prevalent social issues. Essays and conversations with writers, critics, and art dealers round out this important analysis of Haring's life, career, and passion. Exhibition Itinerary, de Young museum, San Francisco, 8th November 2014 - 8th February 2015.


Declarative parallel programs offer deterministic results, allowing the language implementation to schedule parallel tasks in any order. However, program performance hinges crucially on the way that these tasks are scheduled. In this work, we use formal language semantics to express different scheduling policies. These semantics enable us to compare different policies and to understand their effects on the use of space. We offer several example programs to demonstrate that scheduling policy can have a dramatic, and even asymptotic, effect on space usage. To predict performance, programmers require a means to understand the effects of scheduling. We define a cost semantics that allows programmers to reason about how space is used by parallel declarative programs. At the same time, these costs provide a specification for how implementations should behave.


Abstract. The Shiaolin landslide occurred on 9 August 2009 after Typhoon Morakot struck Taiwan, claiming over 400 lives. The seismic signals produced by the landslide were recorded by broadband seismic stations in Taiwan. The time-frequency spectra for these signals were obtained by the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) and were analyzed to obtain the seismic characteristics of the landslide. Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) was applied to differentiate weak surface-wave signals from noise and to estimate the surface-wave velocities in the region. The surface-wave velocities were estimated using the fifth intrinsic mode function (IMF 5) obtained from the EMD. The spectra of the earthquake data were compared. The main frequency content of the seismic waves caused by the Shiaolin landslide were in the range of 0.5 to 1.5 Hz. This frequency range is smaller than the frequency ranges of other earthquakes. The spectral analysis of surface waves (SASW) method is suggested for characterizing the shear-wave velocities of the strata in the region.


This paper analyses how effectively local government in Australia performs its functions as a key element of subnational governance. Service delivery and local democracy are identified as the core functions of local government. The analysis takes into account paradigms of public administration, democracy and management, the public organization, accountability and capacity. The concept of 'capacity' brings together many of the issues discussed in this paper. Questions of capacity relate to whether local governments are effectively performing their institutional functions, how they do so with regard to principles of good governance, and whether the dimensions of their capacity can be reformed if there was the need to meet additional demands.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ppaa.14.3.13433


In Australia, growth in the demand of early childhood services for young children aged birth to three years has placed increased pressure on the early childhood education sector as new policy stipulates the need for qualified teachers. The new policy has resulted in a growth in Master of Early Childhood Education programs in Australian universities. These programs are designed as initial teacher education programs for people with a non-education Bachelor degree wanting to become a qualified early childhood teacher in 18 months. Little is known about the structure as well as the content of these new programs in their ability to address infants and toddler education. This paper explores 18 postgraduate Master education programs that were approved by the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) and listed on their website as at January 2014. Our aim is to examine programs for the amount of content and assessment that focuses on infants and toddlers. Utilising information from program websites and course guides, data was examined using content analysis to reveal the nature and extent of inclusion of learning, focused on infants and toddlers. Four interviews were also conducted with teacher educators. Findings are important for early childhood teacher education in Australia if the overall goal is to improve quality for all children, including the very youngest in education and care.


Increase in data transmission and processing speed unavoidably leads to high requirements on power supply. Especially in the case of high- capacity electronic routers, the question of power consumption will be the major issue and probably the most important limiting factor for the future. This paper analyzes the role of bufferless optical packet switches (OPSs) realized in semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) technology in reducing average power consumption. An analytical model is proposed to provide an expression for the average power consumption of bufferless OPSs as a function of both the offered traffic and the main parameters characterizing the power consumption of the space switching modules (SSMs) and wavelength converters (WCs) needed to realize the bufferless OPSs. The effectiveness of WC sharing, which reduces the average power consumed by WCs, is evaluated in the case in which the Tucker's model for the evaluation of the power consumed by the SSMs and WCs is used. The obtained results show that, due to the high power consumed by the switching elements, switches with shared WCs may require average power consumption higher than switches in which WC sharing is not performed. In particular, only when the offered traffic is low and high-energy-consumption WCs are used, is the WCs sharing effective. When cross-gain modulation WCs are employed, the sharing technique allows for a reduction of average power consumption from 50% to 10% when the offered traffic is varying from 0.1 to 0.9. To obtain more realistic power consumption of the bufferless OPSs, we have introduced in our analytical model some power consumption values evaluated and experimentally validated for the SOAs produced by some manufacture's and needed to realize the SSMs and WCs. In this case we compare the power consumed of the bufferless OPSs to that of a Cisco GSR 12008 router equipped with ten slots that can accommodate up to 4 Gb/s per slot and designed for operation in a network core. We take into account for comparison the power consumption normalized to the offered total input bit rate.


Human activity currently plays a significant role in determining the frequency, extent and intensity of landscape fires worldwide. Yet the historical and ecological relationships between humans, fire and the environment remain ill-defined if not poorly understood and an integrative approach linking the social and physical aspects of fire remains largely unexplored. We propose that human fire use is ubiquitous and evidence that historical fire patterns do not differ from non-anthropogenic fire regimes is not evidence that humans did not practice fire management. Through literature review and the presentation of two case studies from the south-eastern USA and tropical Australia, we discuss how the study of fire ecology can benefit from paying attention to the role of humans in three thematic areas: (1) human agency and decision processes; (2) knowledge and practice of landscape fire and (3) socioecological dynamics inherent in the history of social systems of production and distribution. Agency, knowledge of fire ecology and social systems of production and distribution provide analytical links between human populations and the ecological landscape. Consequently, ignitions ultimately result from human behaviours, and where fire use is practised, ignitions result from decision process concerning a combination of ecological knowledge and belief and the rationale of livelihood strategies as constrained by social and ecological parameters. The legacy of human land use further influences fuel continuity and hence fire spread.


Throughout the Mesozoic and Cenozoic, tectonically activated joint fissures and karstic cave systems have acted as reservoirs for terrestrial vertebrate remains. They yield concentrations of microfaunal elements rarely if ever preserved in other situations. In the 1850s, Charles Moore realized their potential and exploited them to discover the earliest known mammals in late Triassic fissure infillings in the Carboniferous Limestone of Somerset. The history of that discovery and its associated problems of interpretation are recorded. His work greatly influenced succeeding generations of palaeontologists and, as techniques developed, fossil fissure discoveries have made a major impact on our understanding of vertebrate evolution.