Monetary policy affects the degree of strategic complementarity in firms' pricing decisions if it responds to the aggregate price level. In normal times, when monopolistic competitive firms increase their prices, the central bank raises interest rates, which lowers consumption demand and creates an incentive for firms to reduce their prices. Thereby, monetary policy reduces the degree of strategic complementarities among firms' pricing decisions and even turns prices into strategic substitutes if the effect of interest rates on demand is sufficiently strong. We show that this condition holds when monetary policy follows the Taylor principle. By contrast, in a liquidity trap where monetary policy is restricted by the zero lower bound, pricing decisions are strategic complements. Our main contribution consists in relating the determinacy and stability of equilibria to strategic substitutability in prices. We discuss the consequences for dynamic adjustment processes and some policy implications. Abstract Monetary policy affects the degree of strategic complementarity in firms' pricing decisions if it responds to the aggregate price level. In normal times, when monopolis-tic competitive firms increase their prices, the central bank raises interest rates, which lowers consumption demand and creates an incentive for firms to reduce their prices. Thereby, monetary policy reduces the degree of strategic complementarities among firms' pricing decisions and even turns prices into strategic substitutes if the effect of interest rates on demand is sufficiently strong. We show that this condition holds when monetary policy follows the Taylor principle. By contrast, in a liquidity trap where monetary policy is restricted by the zero lower bound, pricing decisions are strategic complements. Our main contribution consists in relating the determinacy and stability of equilibria to strategic substitutability in prices. We discuss the consequences for dynamic adjustment processes and some policy implications.


How does today's convergence culture affect the communities that evolve in its wake when the hybridization of formerly distinct cultural forms, practices and professions is not only possible but actively promoted by various individuals, organizations and institutions? This dissertation answers this question through a study of one particular form of emergent collectivity – that uniting journalism and public relations under the label of "brand journalism." It examines how this hybridization practice occurs, what it suggests about the existing communities of cultural producers, and how it changes the established power relations between different groups. It explains the processes through which a hybrid "interpretive community"--brand journalism--comes into existence, establishes its identity and authority as a collective, challenging the boundaries between existing communities. In particular, this dissertation studies the tensions over cultural authority, identity and discursive power that play into the rise of hybrid cultural practices by examining three sets of discursive qualities of the brand journalism community: 1) articulated vs. unarticulated; 2) intrinsic vs. extrinsic; and 3) indicative vs. subjunctive. The tension between articulated and unarticulated voices suggests that there exist unequal power relations within and among interpretive communities. The tension between intrinsic and extrinsic discourses illustrates how the boundaries of a community are permeable, sometimes offering membership to "others." The tension between subjunctive and indicative discourses in the community shows how the boundaries of interpretive communities are discursively imagined and maintained to decrease the gap between collective vision and practice. Contrary to Fish (1980)'s theory on interpretive communities, this dissertation suggests that collectivity in a community is not merely about consensus or agreement. Instead, it is an ongoing process that often creates discord and mobility. In addition, the discursive shape of interpretive communities is more dynamic, unstable and complex than existing theories on interpretive communities suggest. The dichotomies between us and them, inclusion and exclusion, permissible and impermissible, and central and marginal are neither stark nor clear-cut as scholars have argued. Borrowing, tweaking and reinterpreting journalistic discourse, brand journalism also poses a critical question to journalism scholars: What is journalism when "the classical modes of journalism production and dissemination" are radically changing and corporate brands are increasingly becoming a part of the news ecosystem? This dissertation suggests that brand journalism emblematized one response to the challenges, confrontations and tensions that journalism has to face in the changing information environment. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Communication This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1833 First Advisor Barbie Zelizer


Activated carbon (AC)-supported molybdenum catalysts, either with or without a potassium promoter, were prepared by the incipient wetness impregnation method. The materials were characterized using differential thermal analysis (DTA) and temperature programmed reduction (TPR), and were used for mixed alcohol synthesis from syngas (CO+H2). DTA results showed that a new phase, related to the interaction between Mo species and the AC support, is formed during the calcination of the Mo/AC catalyst, and the introduction of a K promoter has noticeable effect on the interaction. TPR results indicated that the Mo is more difficult to reduce after being placed onto the AC support, and the addition of a K promoter greatly promotes the formation of Mo species reducible at relatively low temperatures, while it retards the generation of Mo species that are reducible only at higher temperatures. These differences in the reduction behavior of the catalysts are atributed to the interaction between the active components (Mo and K) and the support. Potassium-doping significantly promotes the formation of alcohols at the expense of CO conversion, especially to hydrocarbons. It is postulated that Mo species with intermediate valence values (averaged around +3.5) are more likely to be the active phase(s) for alcohol synthesis from CO hydrogenation, while those with lower Mo valences are probably responsible for the production of hydrocarbons.


: This article adds to current sociological debates on cultural taste and social distinction. I particularly discuss the use of cultural capital as an analytical tool for capturing and explaining aspects of distinction within contemporary gourmet food culture, and explore the possibility of whether a different conceptualization of social distinction is more fruitful for understanding some of the patterns that are uncovered. I argue, more generally, that all social gaps in cultural taste cannot be taken as indicators of unequal distribution of power in society, as some Bour-dieu-inspired scholars, tend to do.


Strategic alliances - voluntary, long-term collaborations between firms to achieve their objectives - are attracting increasing attention in business schools because of their growing prevalence among organizations today. Mastering the art of managing strategic alliances allows firms to radically improve their performance and this book provides a detailed, evidence-based approach outlining the design, management, and evaluation of these alliances. Elaborating on the decision-making structures apparent during each stage in the alliance life-cycle and in elucidating cases from across the world, Strategic Alliance Management offers a systematic framework that provides insights into the development and deployment of alliances. Concluding with the three alliance paradoxes managers must address to design and manage their alliances effectively and efficiently, this text offers a profound vision of the key decision-making rationales and processes inherently related to strategic alliances. As such, it will be required reading for students studying the subject and a valuable supplementary reading source to those studying strategic management more generally. A website run by the authors, can be found here: http://www.strategic-alliance-management.com/


This paper describes the findings of case studies-based research on how poor and marginalised people in post-apartheid migrant networks seek to ameliorate poverty and manage their vulnerability. It argues that the ways in which people make decisions regarding formal social grants and cash transfers, their utilisation and their indirect impacts need to be understood in the context of the pre-existing and underlying systems and practices of informal social protection (Bracking and Sachikonye, 2006). These informal strategies are shaped by two key phenomena (du Toit and Neves, 2008): complex, spatially extended, de-centred social networks; and deeply sedimented and culturally specific practices of reciprocal exchange. This paper shows how social grants are used in this context, and illustrates how cash transfers allow poor and vulnerable people to make 'investments' in human, physical and productive capital. The paper argues that a crucial aspect of the impact of cash transfers lies in the way they allow the leveraging of scarce resources within networks of reciprocal exchange. Social grants thus have an impact far beyond the particular groups targeted in official plans, often providing key resources for those who would otherwise be marginalised. At the same time, they have only limited utility in addressing the core dynamics that drive chronic poverty. Reducing structural poverty in South Africa requires measures that address the underlying problems of structural unemployment.


The application of form criticism to the study of the NT Gospels in the twentieth century led to parable scholarship generally giving little interpretive weight to the parables' immediate narrative contexts and Gospel framing. Despite recent critique of form criticism, this lack of attention to the NT Gospels' literary arrangement of the parables has yet to be adequately rectified, leaving a gap in parable scholarship that this thesis seeks to partially fill. What follows is an exercise in literary criticism, as informed by socio-historical research, that reads the parables in interpretive dialogue with the material placed in immediate literary proximity to them within the NT Gospels. In dialogue with Irenaeus and several modern parable scholars, I provide a possible theoretical rationale for the importance of the Gospel framing of the parables of Jesus. I observe that scholarship reading the parables in isolation from their Gospel frames tends of interpretive necessity to adapt the parables to general hypotheses. These hypotheses tend to dominate in the interpretive process, so that the parables typically function primarily to illustrate, reinforce or commend what is already known from elsewhere in the Gospels (and the NT) or from historical inquiry concerning Jesus. My proposal is that the NT Gospels' arrangement of the parables, situational and contextual in nature, anticipates an alternative approach to reading the parables, involving an interpretive dialogue between parable and frame that is generative of meaning, so that the parables may make their own unique contribution to their Gospels. I propose a methodology for reading the NT parables that brings individual parables, the narrative circumstances of their telling, and the direct speech elements that accompany them, into an interpretive relationship. This methodology recognises an interpretive dependency (at a literary level) between the parables and their Gospel frames, that creates the conditions for a genuine and collaborative dialogue between them, in which both may mutually inform, and in doing so provide an audience with new ways of seeing the situation at hand. In this way the (situational) meaning and significance of a parable is established in a dialogical manner, and without the parable being dominated by a hypothesis. This interpretive process is shown to be generative of meaning, with associated interpretive outcomes going beyond what is explicit in either parable or frame, even while being thoroughly informed and shaped by them. Applying this methodology to six Synoptic parables results in an emphasis on contextual concerns given insufficient attention in other scholarship, so that new insights emerge concerning the meaning and function of these parables in the ministry of the Synoptic Jesus. I argue that the resulting interpretive outcomes are more varied and specific than when the parables are adapted to a general hypothesis. Further, I show how this contextual approach to interpretation then allows a parable (as first interpreted contextually) to make its own distinct contribution to developing and enriching a Gospel's wider narrative and iii theology (even while being given further depth and perspective through reference to that narrative and theology). Included within my methodology is a model designed to illuminate the communicative dynamics that give the parables their persuasive power in relation to their Gospel narrative audiences and circumstances. This model is proposed as a new contribution to parable scholarship, and when applied to the six Synoptic parables brings new insights concerning each parable's rhetorical function and the rhetorical strategies by which they each achieve their didactic and/or prophetic aims. In general I find that these parables are skilful rhetorical pieces, designed to subvert the way an audience understands the circumstances to which each parable speaks, providing a new perspective on those circumstances that has the potential to liberate and empower an audience to participate (or further participate) in the kingdom of God in new ways. I also argue that the detailed and parable-specific contextual data that the Synoptics provide for these parables allows us to define their individual rhetorical strategies with greater specificity than is otherwise possible. A preliminary assessment of whether my methodology may be applied to all the main Synoptic parables suggests that the NT Gospels' literary arrangement of the parables of Jesus consistently anticipates a contextual reading. In particular, I argue that the parables are thoroughly integrated into their immediate literary contexts as components of carefully structured literary units, and that sufficient parable-specific data is provided to allow us to assess each parable's significance for the narrative circumstances associated with its telling. I discuss possible objections to a contextual reading of the parables of Jesus. I argue that the parables' (polyvalent) nature must be not be confused with their actual use and reception in particular circumstances (which may be univalent). I also argue that my approach need not confine the parables' significance to history; rather the parables may alter the perceptions of a contemporary audience in the same way as I have suggested they altered the perceptions of the parables' Gospel narrative audiences, where the circumstances of the two audiences are similar or analogous. Further, I observe that recent Gospel origins scholarship, together with literary arguments in this thesis, suggest it may be important to re-evaluate the conclusions of Form and Redaction Criticism concerning the historicity of the Gospel arrangement of the parables. Finally I propose that the NT Gospels' literary arrangement of the parables of Jesus, far from being ahistorical, may have been carefully designed to replicate for the reader the opportunity the parables provided for the first disciples of the historical Jesus to learn the discipline of active, inquiring and responsive listening (to Jesus) which is necessary to receive the mystery of the kingdom of God.


This paper presents an organic electronics laboratory course on an Electrical Engineering Master's program. The course is composed of five laboratory exercises, with supporting lectures. Each exercise takes from one to four lab sessions to complete and targets some important aspect of organic electronics: organic electronic materials and substrates, preparation of the materials for fabrication, novel flexible devices, inkjet fabrication technology, and organic electronic devices as an alternative to conventional electronic ones. Together, they give students a comprehensive insight into the field of organic electronics as well as its possibilities and applications. The students' academic results were excellent, and an anonymous end-of term questionnaire revealed that they were very satisfied with this lab-based course.


Groundwater monitoring plays a significant role in groundwater management. This study presents an optimization method for designing groundwater-level monitoring networks. The proposed design method was used in the Eshtehard aquifer, in central Iran. Three scenarios were considered to optimize the locations of the observation wells: 1) designing new monitoring networks, 2) redesigning existing monitoring networks, and 3) expanding existing monitoring networks. The kriging method was utilized to determine groundwater levels at non-monitoring locations for preparing the design data base. The optimization of the groundwater monitoring network had the objectives of 1) minimizing the root mean square error and 2) minimizing the number of wells. The non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) was applied to optimize the network. Inverse distance weighting interpolation was used in NSGA-II to estimate the groundwater levels while optimizing network design. Results of the study indicate that the proposed method successfully optimizes the design of groundwater monitoring networks that achieve accuracy and cost-effectiveness.


Vocabulary is vital to English language teaching since without adequate vocabulary repertoire students cannot understand others or express their own ideas. Wilkins (1972) wrote that "without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed" (pp. 111–112). As a result, this study which was conducted in one of the institutions of Tabriz. Iran aimed at investigating the comparative effects of pictures and songs on vocabulary learning. Sixty-eight senior male EFL learners participated in this quasi – Experimental study, all of whom were studying in their final academic semester. There were two groups one of which was taught new words through pictures while the other one was taught the same words through songs. One pre-test was administered before the study and one post-test after program for measuring the effectiveness of the treatments. The results have been analyzed by SPSS indicated that clustering is more effective than pictures; this was so because the words which are interrelated in their meaning reinforce the learning and recalling of the other. It can be said that through using clusters of words the relevant schema is activated in effective manner.


This is a report of a 5-year-old boy who presented with an exudative retinopathy consistent with Coats' disease. Optical coherence tomography confirmed the concurrent presence of retinoschisis in the same eye, adjacent to the areas of exudation and ischemia. Treatment with laser photocoagulation, corticosteroids, and anti-VEGF therapy led to the resolution of the schisis cavity 1 year later. This represents the second published account of retinoschisis in the setting of Coats' disease.


The belief that privatization of road maintenance can improve road maintenance service, is in question. Interviews with JKR road engineers revealed their dissatisfaction regarding the performance of the concession company in carrying out periodic maintenance works. This study covers the contract specifications, advantages and disadvantages of privatization, the most common type of periodic maintenance work carried out, incurred costs for periodic maintenance works, and the level of satisfaction of JKR as the client. A study on the Privatization Agreement revealed the actual terms of contract. Collection of data for periodic maintenance was analyzed to identie the most common type of maintenance work and its costs. A questionnaire form was submitted to JKR staffs and analyzed to identify their level of satisfaction with the privatization company's performance. It has been found that the company undertakes routine, periodic, and emergency works for the states of Perlis, Pulau Pinang, Kedah, and Perak for a period of 15 years. The major periodic maintenance work carried out by the concession company until 2003 is Regulating and Paving existing roads. However, JKR is not satisfied with the costs for works claims by the company.


Biomineralization is the complex process by organisms produce protective and supportive structures. Employed by mollusks, biomineralization enables creation of external shells for protection against environmental stressors. The shell deposition mechanism is initiated in the early stages of development and is dependent upon the concentration and availability of calcium carbonate ions. Changes in concentrations of the critical ions required for shell formation can result in malformation of shells. As pCO2 concentrations in the atmosphere continue to increase, the oceans are becoming more acidified. This process, known as ocean acidification (OA), has demonstrated adverse effects on shell formation in calcifying organisms across taxa. Although OA is known to inhibit the shell deposition in mollusks, the impact of OA on the gene regulation of calcium deposition remains unknown. Here we show the responses of four calcium-binding protein genes, caltractin (cetn), calmodulin (calm), calreticulin (calr), and calnexin (canx), to CO2-derived OA using a Crassostrea virginica mantle cell (CvMC) culture model and a larval C. virginica model. These four genes were cloned from C. virginica and the three-dimensional structures of the proteins encoded by these four genes were fully characterized using homologue modeling methods. Although an acidified environment by increased atmospheric pCO2 (1000 ppm) did not result in significant effects on CvMC proliferation and apoptosis, lower environmental pH induced upregulations of all four calcium-binding protein genes in CvMCs. Similarly, increased pCO2 did not affect the growth of larval C. virginica in the early stages of development. However, elevated pCO2 concentrations enhanced the expression of these calcium-binding protein genes at the protein level. The four calcium-binding protein genes demonstrated responsive expression profiles to an acidified environment at both cellular and individual levels. Further investigation of these genes may provide insight into the molecular regulation of mollusk biomineralization under OA stress.


Image reconstruction enhanced by regularizers, e.g., to enforce sparsity, low rank or smoothness priors on images, has many successful applications in vision tasks such as computer photography, biomedical and spectral imaging. It has been well accepted that non-convex regularizers normally perform better than convex ones in terms of the reconstruction quality. But their convergence analysis is only established to a critical point, rather than the global optima. To mitigate the loss of guarantees for global optima, we propose to apply the concept of \textit{invexity} and provide the first list of proved invex regularizers for improving image reconstruction. Moreover, we establish convergence guarantees to global optima for various advanced image reconstruction techniques after being improved by such invex regularization. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first practical work applying invex regularization to improve imaging with global optima guarantees. To demonstrate the effectiveness of invex regularization, numerical experiments are conducted for various imaging tasks using benchmark datasets.


Fault-tolerance of embedded control systems is of great importance, given their wide usage in various domains such as aeronautics, automotive, medical, and so on. Signal perturbations such as small amounts of noise, shift, and spikes, can sometimes severely hamper the performance of the system, apart from complete failure of components and links. Finding minimal counterexamples (perturbations on the system leading to violation of fault-tolerance requirements) can be of great assistance to control system designers in understanding and adjusting the fault-tolerance behavior of the system. Fault injection is an effective method for dependability analysis of such systems. In this paper, we introduce the concept of dominating sets of perturbations, and define a minimal set of counterexamples called the basis. We propose effective methods using a simulation-based fault injection technique on Simulink models for finding the basis set at an early stage of design, given the fault specification and fault-tolerance requirements. Experimental results on two different control system examples from the Simulink automotive library demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed framework.


The aim of this article is to analyse the form and extent of IFRS adoption in the Czech accounting and the main reasons of the lack of interest in IFRS reporting with a special attention to the segment of SMEs. This research is based on the qualitative analysis of present accounting regulation and on results of questionnaire survey of 260 Czech SMEs. As the main causes of the lack of interest in IFRS usage are the specific features of economic conditions, resulting in imbalances between the costs and benefits of practical implementation of IFRS and the lack of interest to report in accordance with IFRS on the side of business partners.


This article presents a case study of liberating reading lists through a staff-student collaboration in a UK arts university. It characterizes reading lists as a familiar but under researched feature of academic life and discusses their practical and symbolic role in maintaining Western / Eurocentric / White disciplinary canons, and how they inform what it means to be 'well read' in a discipline. The collaborative project, which was initiated as Liberate the Curriculum work, brought together students, academic staff and librarians to audit and review reading lists, and reimagine them to represent multiple narratives, reflecting the diverse and international student population of the university. The article explores the challenges of auditing reading lists and identifying more diverse resources, and the complex relationships between identity and knowledge production. The authors use Critical Race Theory to comment on the relationship between race, colonialism and the arts, and how racism is reproduced within the academic environment. The project methodology is described, with an evaluation of the project as a student staff collaboration, and the learning and impact within the institution.


Ply level detailed prediction of fatigue performance of a nontraditional carbon fiber reinforced composite laminate with open hole has been accomplished and compared with experimental data. Discrete Damage Modeling (DDM) method was used for this purpose. The essence of this technique is the insertion of true displacement discontinuities independent of mesh orientation to simulate matrix cracking. Multiple cracking in each ply is allowed. All plies are tied together by using cohesive interfaces, which are allowed to delaminate. Matrix cracks in two adjacent plies interact through the interface cohesive model and their presence is a major delamination initiator. A material history variable in each integration point is introduced and updated after each loading increment, corresponding to certain load amplitude and number of cycles. The computation begins without any matrix cracks present. A matrix crack is inserted when the material history variable value reaches unity. Failure criterion and cohesive zone model for initiation and propagation of cracking and delamination under fatigue loading were proposed. The delamination and matrix cracking extent under fatigue loading in open hole [30/60/90/-60/-30]2s laminate was predicted and showed good correlation with experimental micro X ray CT imaging. In addition, static residual strength in tension and compression for the same laminate after 200,000 fatigue cycles was predicted and showed slight increase in tension and slight decrease in compression residual strength as compared to pristine laminate, which is in qualitative agreement with experimental observations.


Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of ethylene/air diffusion flames in decaying two-dimensional turbulence were performed to investigate flame extinction characteristics at different pressures. A Damköhler number based flame extinction criterion as provided by classical large activation energy asymptotic (AEA) theory is also assessed for its validity in predicting flame extinction induced by strain and heat losses. The DNS code, S3D, solves compressible flow conservation equations using a high order finite difference and explicit time integration schemes. The ethylene/air flame behavior is described by employing a reduced mechanism that accurately describes up to C4 chemistry by the directed relation graph (DRG) method along with stiffness removal. The model configuration is an ethylene fuel strip embedded in ambient air on both sides, which is superimposed by a prescribed decaying turbulent flow field. Due to the high spatial and temporal stiffness associated with the detailed chemistry, a spatial resolution of 8 μm was used, and the time resolution was varied from 5 to 10 ns. A total physical time of 1 ms was computed in order to observe the temporal evolution of diffusion flame extinction events. The emphasis of this study is on the several flame extinction events observed in the simulations. The effect of pressure on extinction is studied by considering three different pressures: 0.1, 1.0, and 10 atm. To isolate the pressure effects on the turbulence and those on the chemistry, contrived physical parameters were considered by artificially changing the gas transport properties in relation with the pressure change. This methodology allows a consideration of identical turbulent flow fields at different pressure conditions. An extinction criterion based on the local Damköhler number is tested for its validity in predicting various flame extinction events encountered. Results show that, despite the relative simplicity of the AEA flame extinction criterion, it can accurately predict the flame extinction conditions. In particular, radical concentrations near the stoichiometric mixture fraction isocontour follow similar trends at extinction for all pressure conditions considered. A more rigorous mathematical approach based on the chemical explosive mode analysis (CEMA) was used in comparison with the AEA-based diagnostic. It is found that the AEA flame extinction criterion provides identifications of extinction events that are consistent with those provided by CEMA. This study supports the validity of a simple Damköhler number based criterion to predict flame extinction in engineering-level CFD models.


ABSTRACT Manufactured housing (MH) is a central component of affordable housing in the United States. Yet the MH tenure ranges from manufactured homes on privately owned property to rental units, to owned homes placed on rented lots in mobile home parks. Despite the widespread use of MH, no current research has analyzed the high level of internal variation within MH or documented how this variation impacts housing affordability between MH tenures. Moreover, little is known about the degree of segregation of manufactured homes, which are often clustered in mobile home parks and informal subdivisions. This study represents a first-time national analysis of demographic, spatial, and affordability characteristics with regard to variation between MH tenures, using data from the American Housing Survey. By disaggregating various MH tenures and clustered community arrangements, we detail the demographic and geographic characteristics of MH households by housing tenure, analyze how housing costs differ across MH tenures, and demonstrate that MH is highly segregated from the conventional housing stock in a way that impacts housing affordability. These findings offer policy prescriptions for MH policy specifically and may contribute to broader affordable housing policy in the United States.


In the last years, the evolution and the advances of the nanobiotechnologies applied to the systematic study of proteins, namely proteomics, both structural and functional, and specifically the development of more sophisticated and largescale protein arrays, have enabled scientists to investigate protein interactions and functions with an unforeseeable precision and wealth of details. Here, we present a further advancement of our previously introduced and described Nucleic Acid Programmable Protein Arrays (NAPPA)-based nanoconductometric sensor. We coupled Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation factor Monitoring (QCM_D) with piezoelectric inkjet printing technology (namely, the newly developed ActivePipette), which enables to significantly reduce the volume of probe required for genes/proteins arrays. We performed a negative control (with master mix, or MM) and a positive control (MM_p53 plus MDM2). We performed this experiment both in static and in flow, computing the apparent dissociation constant of p53-MDM2 complex (130 nM, in excellent agreement with the published literature). We compared the results obtained with the ActivePipette printing and dispensing technology vs. pin spotting. Without the ActivePipette, after MDM2 addition the shift in frequency (Δf ) was 7575 Hz and the corresponding adsorbed mass was 32.9 µg. With the ActivePipette technology, after MDM2 addition Δf was 7740 Hz and the corresponding adsorbed mass was 33.6 µg. With this experiment, we confirmed the sensing potential of our device, being able to discriminate each gene and protein as well as their interactions, showing for each one of them a unique conductance curve. Moreover, we obtained a better yield with the ActivePipette technology.


Having served as an editor of a peer-reviewed journal ( Family Relations) over the last four years, I read Epstein's (October 1995) comment with great interest. Among a number of thought-provoking suggestions, he recommended that two changes should immediately be made in the editorial review process: (a) Reviewers should sign their reviews, and (b) authors should be provided with the opportunity to evaluate the quality of each of the reviews on their manuscript. Although I disagree with the first recommendation, I agree in principle with the second.


The objective of this study was to assess the O2 budget in the water under sea ice combining observations and modelling. Modelling was used to discriminate between physical processes, gas-specific transport (i.e., ice-atmosphere gas fluxes and gas bubble buoyancy) and bacterial respiration (BR) and to constrain bacterial growth efficiency (BGE). A module describing the changes of the under-ice water properties, due to brine rejection and temperature-dependent BR, was implemented in the one-dimensional halo-thermodynamic sea ice model LIM1D. Our results show that BR was the dominant biogeochemical driver of O2 concentration in the water under ice (in a system without primary producers), followed by gas specific transport. The model suggests that the actual contribution of BR and gas specific transport to the change in seawater O2 concentration was 37% during ice growth and 48% during melt. BGE in the water under sea ice, as retrieved from the simulated O2 budget, was found to be between 0.4 and 0.5, which is in line with published BGE values for cold marine waters. Given the importance of BR to seawater O2 in the present study, it can be assumed that bacteria contribute substantially to organic matter consumption and gas fluxes in ice-covered polar oceans. In addition, we propose a parameterization of polar marine bacterial respiration, based on the strong temperature dependence of bacterial respiration and the high growth efficiency observed here, for further biogeochemical ocean modelling applications, such as regional or large-scale Earth System models.


Achieving development goals in health is confounded by shortage of health care staff in poorer countries due to migration to richer countries, and to HIV. Zambia for example has a 48% shortfall of nurses; 2000 Zambian nurses work in the UK alone. Retention is problematic – salaries are low, conditions poor, and professional updating is lacking. Health workers attending overseas universities may be less likely to return home. One response is to improve course provision and professional updating opportunities in-country. Leeds Metropolitan University, with funding from the Commonwealth Scholarships Commission under their distance learning initiative, runs a tailor-made MSc Public Health (Environmental Health and Health Promotion) in Zambia, for nurse tutors, clinical officers and environmental health workers. Using locally relevant curricula, with community-based, student centred, problem-solving approaches, retention may be improved. Greater cost-effectiveness and wider participation are achieved. The paper will discuss how the course is delivered in Zambia, how the partnership developed such as to enable effective delivery of the course, and how sustainable learning can be achieved in a developing country in partnership with a UK University.


A survey of salmonella infection on 454 commercial layer flock holdings in the uk was carried out between October 2004 and September 2005. Fifty-four (11·7 per cent, 95 per cent confidence interval 9·3 to 14·0 per cent) were salmonella positive. The most common serovar identified was Salmonella Enteritidis at a prevalence of 5·8 per cent, and 70 per cent of these isolates were phage types 4, 6, 7 and 35. Salmonella Typhimurium was the second most prevalent serovar, found in 1·8 per cent of the farms. Of the three other serovars given top priority by the eu because of their public health significance, Salmonella Virchow and Salmonella Infantis were each isolated from one holding, but Salmonella Hadar was not isolated from any of the holdings. Analysis of antimicrobial resistance patterns revealed that over 76 per cent of the isolates were sensitive to all of the 16 drugs tested, and all the isolates were sensitive to ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, ceftazidime, apramycin, amikacin, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, neomycin and cefotaxime.


In the face of lower real interest rates, central bank balance sheets are likely to remain larger relative to pre-crisis levels, resulting in greater banking system liquidity. However, there is little evidence on the impact of higher liquidity on credit supply and the monetary transmission mechanism in the 'new normal'. We exploit a novel dataset on bank liquidity positions arising from a unique regulatory regime and combine it with a highly-detailed, loan-level administrative dataset on UK mortgages. Using the design of quantitative easing auctions as an instrument for liquidity to address endogeneity, we find that more liquid banks charge slightly higher mortgage interest rates, and pass on significantly less changes in risk-free rates. We explain this through bank behaviour that attempts to preserve net interest margins in the face of holding low-yielding liquidity. Consistent with this, we find excess liquidity leads to reaching-for-yield responses in banks' mortgage risk-taking. Additionally, the results shed light on the optimal mix between (un)conventional monetary policy tools. Policies that boost bank net interest margins are more likely to help the transmission of risk-free rates to lending rates.


Sense and Sensibility | Pride and Prejudice | Mansfield Park | Emma | Northanger Abbey | Persuasion | Lady Susan. Few novelists have conveyed the subtleties and nuances of their own social milieu with the wit and insight of Jane Austen. Through her vivacious and spirited heroines and their circle, she paints vivid portraits of English middle-class life as the eighteenth century came to a close. Each of the novels is a love story and a story about marriage - marriage for love, for financial security, for social status. But they are not mere romances; ironic, comic and wise, they are masterly studies of the society Jane Austen observed. The seven novels in this volume contain some of the most brilliant, dazzling prose in the English language.


This study examined educational differences in associations of noticing anti-tobacco information with smoking-related attitudes and quit intentions among adult smokers. Longitudinal data (N = 7571) from two waves of six countries of the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Europe Surveys were included. Generalized estimating equation analyses and multiple linear and logistic regression analyses were conducted. Higher educated smokers noticed anti-tobacco information slightly more often than lower educated smokers (F(2) = 25.78, P < 0.001). Noticing anti-tobacco information was associated with more negative smoking-related attitudes (β = 0.05, P < 0.001) and more quit intentions (OR = 1.08, P < 0.001). Among smokers without a quit intention at baseline, a positive association was found for noticing anti-tobacco information at baseline with follow-up quit intention (OR = 1.14, P = 0.003). No other longitudinal associations were found. No educational differences were found in the association of noticing anti-tobacco information with smoking-related attitudes but associations with quit intentions were found only among low (OR = 1.12, P = 0.001) and high educated respondents (OR = 1.11, P < 0.001) and not among moderate educated respondents (OR = 1.02, P = 0.43). Noticing anti-tobacco information may positively influence quit intentions and possibly smoking-related attitudes. Lower educated smokers were as likely to be influenced by anti-tobacco information as higher educated smokers but noticed anti-tobacco information less often; increasing reach of anti-tobacco information may increase impact in this group.


The first solitary migration of juvenile birds is difficult to study because of a low juvenile survival rates and sometimes long delays in return to the breeding grounds. Consequently, little is known about this crucial life event for many bird species, in particular the sensory guidance mechanisms facilitating the first migratory journey. Initial orientation during the first migration is a key measure to investigate these mechanisms. Here, we developed an assay to measure initial orientation as flight direction upon first take-off in nocturnally fledging juvenile seabirds. We dorsally deployed a coloured LED on juvenile birds to allow researchers to observe the vanishing bearings of individuals as they flew out to sea. Additionally, we co-deployed either a small Neodymium magnet or glass bead (control) on top of the bird's head to investigate the use of magnetoreception, previously unexplored in this early life stage. We used this assay to observe the first flight of Manx shearwaters ( Puffinus puffinus ) and found that they did not orient towards their wintering ground straight after taking off. Further, we did not find an effect of the magnetic treatment on juveniles' flight direction, though whether this is due to the birds not using magnetoreception, other salient cues being available or a lack of motivation to orient to the migratory beeline is unclear. We were, however, able to identify wind direction and topography as drivers of first flight direction in Manx shearwaters, which fledged with wind component between a crosswind and a tailwind and directed their maiden flight towards the sea and away from the land. This novel assay will facilitate the study of the maiden flight of nocturnally fledging birds and will help advance the study of sensory guidance mechanisms underpinning migratory orientation in a wide range of taxa, including species which are traditionally challenging to study.


The paper studies the specifics of implementing a platform technology in an organization which regards IT as core competence and prides itself as particularly employee focused and friendly. As result of strategic alignment, management has developed a vision of how Real Time Collaboration can contribute to the future concept of the company and the enactment of the organizational leitidee of an integrated service unit. The paper reports on the challenges of managing the transition from a voluntary use in an experimental setting towards mandatory use in operational processes. In line with the corporate culture, management is relying on self-organizing forces on the team level while it is at the same time carefully monitoring the adoption process and cautiously sets rules and guidelines to facilitate team-based modes of use.


Permanent magnet (PM) excited synchronous machines have shown increasing popularity in recent years for the industrial drive applications due to the recent developments in magnetic materials, power converters, and digital signal processors. The control of a high performance permanent magnet synchronous motor drive for general industrial application has received wide spread interest of the researchers. Interior permanent magnet synchronous motor drives are widely used in high performance applications. In these applications, the drive speed should follow accurately a certain command trajectory and recover from sudden load disturbances very fast. The precise control of the permanent magnet synchronous motor is necessary where the dynamic responses greatly affect the quality of the products. -- In this thesis, a complete permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drive system fed by a PWM voltage source inverter is developed. The design of multi-loop control for the interior permanent magnet synchronous motor drive for high performance application is introduced. Speed controller using synchronous reference frame proportional integral (PI) regulator is employed as an outer loop. Moreover, two synchronous frame PI regulators are employed as inner loops to control the direct and quadrature axis current components of the motor. Implementation of the current controllers in the synchronous reference frame ensures independency of the controllers on the cross coupling between the d-q axis and gives superior performance. The controllers are based on the indirect field oriented control. A systematic mathematical formulation is presented for designing motor controllers. The control scheme is implemented using a high speed digital signal processor (DSP). The experimental results validate the theoretically simulated speed responses with different dynamic operating conditions. These results illustrated the efficacy of the proposed multi-loop control of the PMSM drive.


The present work attempts to establish a theory of reference from a linguistic — rather than philosophical — point of view. PART Is The Preliminaries (pp. lo-113) surveys various linguistic and philosophical problems associated with ref¬ erence; it argues against predicational analysis as a vi¬ able framework for dealing with reference; and it estab¬ lishes the field of referentiality as the domain divided between deixis (spatio-temporal location) and denotation (categorial location). PART II: The Theory (pp. 114-233) begins by drawing a fundamental distinction (based on Frege) between syntactico-semantic (SS) and referential-semantic (RS) analysis, and by setting up the notion "referential potential" as a property of linguistic items. The common — metaphysical — basis for the calculus of classes and the referential theory is demonstrated, and the formal framework developed. Four RS-categories are recognized, associated with "all", "kind" (i.e. genus), "some", and "one". These categories are considered to be the 'heads' in referential phrases, each one of which consists of one of the functional (deic¬ tic) categories and one lexical (denotative) category. The referential phrases are ordered hierarchically in a ref¬ erential branch under which NP is generated. Two different serialization-types (appositive and delimitative) are considered referentially significant. A transformational component is introduced to account for serialization within the NP; three transformational pro¬ cesses are recognized. After a number of data from languages other than Eng¬ lish has been adduced in support of various aspects of the theory, PART IIIi The Application (pp. 234-413) be¬ gins by establishing the (closed) class of referential functives in English. These fall into four subclasses: quantifiers, E-classifiers, determinatives, and pronouns. These subclasses are established distributionally on the basis of the serialization-types they may enter. The remainder of PART III applies the theory to English NP's which contain a referential functive. Finally, a number of other areas are briefly mentioned for which RS-analysis is likely to prove insightful.


Earthworms are being used to manage most organic wastes; treat wastewater; clean-up chemically contaminated soils; improve soil fertility and produce food crops. Their use in production of life-saving medicines and raw materials for industries are some new discoveries. We have successfully experimented in vermicomposting of 'MSW', vermifiltration of 'municipal & industrial wastewater', vermiremediation of chemically contaminated soils' and production of 'cereal & vegetables crops' with amazing results. Wastes are degraded by over 75% faster, BOD and TDSS of wastewater is reduced by over 95% and growths of crop plants are enhanced by 30–40% higher over chemical fertilisers.


The seasonal cycle (i.e. phenology) of oceanic primary production (PP) is expected to change in response to climate warming. Here, we use output from 6 global biogeochemical models to examine the response in the seasonal amplitude of PP and timing of peak PP to the IPCC AR5 warming scenario. We also investigate whether trends in PP phenology may be more rapidly detectable than trends in annual mean PP. The seasonal amplitude of PP decreases by an average of 1–2% per year by 2100 in most biomes, with the exception of the Arctic which sees an increase of ~1% per year. This is accompanied by an advance in the timing of peak PP by ~0.5–1 months by 2100 over much of the globe, and particularly pronounced in the Arctic. These changes are driven by an increase in seasonal amplitude of sea surface temperature (where the maxima get hotter faster than the minima) and a decrease in the seasonal amplitude of the mixed layer depth and surface nitrate concentration. Our results indicate a transformation of currently strongly seasonal (bloom forming) regions, typically found at high latitudes, into weakly seasonal (non-bloom) regions, characteristic of contemporary subtropical conditions. On average, 36 yr of data are needed to detect a climate-change-driven trend in the seasonal amplitude of PP, compared to 32 yr for mean annual PP. Monthly resolution model output is found to be inadequate for resolving phenological changes. We conclude that analysis of phytoplankton seasonality is not necessarily a shortcut to detecting climate change impacts on ocean productivity.


Abstract. The transient responses of the energy budget and the hydrological cycle to CO2 and solar forcings of the same magnitude in a global climate model are quantified in this study. Idealized simulations are designed to test the assumption that the responses to forcings are linearly additive, i.e. whether the response to individual forcings can be added to estimate the responses to the combined forcing, and to understand the physical processes occurring as a response to a surface warming caused by CO2 or solar forcing increases of the same magnitude. For the global climate model considered, the responses of most variables of the energy budget and hydrological cycle, including surface temperature, do not add linearly. A separation of the response into a forcing and a feedback term shows that for precipitation, this non-linearity arises from the feedback term, i.e. from the non-linearity of the temperature response and the changes in the water cycle resulting from it. Further, changes in the energy budget show that less energy is available at the surface for global annual mean latent heat flux, and hence global annual mean precipitation, in simulations of transient CO2 concentration increase compared to simulations with an equivalent transient increase in the solar constant. On the other hand, lower tropospheric water vapor increase is similar between simulations with CO2 and solar forcing increase of the same magnitude. The response in precipitation is therefore more muted compared to the response in water vapor in CO2 forcing simulations, leading to a larger increase in residence time of water vapor in the atmosphere compared to solar forcing simulations. Finally, energy budget calculations show that poleward atmospheric energy transport increases more in solar forcing compared to equivalent CO2 forcing simulations, which is in line with the identified strong increase in large-scale precipitation in solar forcing scenarios.


This study was concerned with determining how the Algerian dailies, El Moudjahid, and El Djomhouria, and the United States dailies, The New York Times and The Christian Science Monitor, which function in two different press systems, compare in reporting international news in terms of type and tension. This study concludes that the four dailies are similar in type of news; they report more news than editorials, more straight news than in-depth reports, more news of elites than common people, and more news from the Third World than from the Western World or the socialist bloc, and they differ in tension in that the tension within international news was higher in the two United States dailies than in the two Algerian dailies.


Introduction Loss of corneal endothelial cells (CECs) is one major factor limiting transplant clarity and survival after keratoplasty. Amongst other factors, apoptosis due to cellular stress is responsible for these problems. This study investigates the possible anti-apoptotic and cytoprotective effects of minocycline on a human corneal endothelial cell line (HCEC-SV40) cultured under oxidative stress and with transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β). Methods CECs were treated with 1–150 μM minocycline. Cell viability and the median inhibitory concentration (IC50) were evaluated after 48 h and after H2O2 treatment (tetrazolium dye reduction assay and live–dead assay). Expression of B-cell CLL/lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) and X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis (XIAP) and their mRNA were assessed by reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR and western blot analysis after treatment with minocycline alone and consecutive incubation with 200 μM H2O2 and TGF-β2. A quantitative detection of histone-associated DNA fragmentation by ELISA was performed. Results Minocycline concentrations from 1–50 μM showed no toxic effects on CECs. Pre-treatment with 10–40 μM minocycline led to an increase in viability after H2O2 treatment. In addition, minocycline pre-treatment attenuated the increase of histone-associated DNA fragmentation after treatment with H2O2 and TGF-β2 significantly. When CECs were treated with minocycline and then consecutively with H2O2 or TGF-β2, RT-PCR and western blot analysis yielded an overexpression of Bcl-2 and XIAP. Conclusion In this study minocycline prevented apoptotic cell death in cultured CECs in vitro. Our results suggest that minocycline might offer cytoprotective properties that might help to prevent loss of corneal endothelial cells in vivo.


The Carandiru House of Detention, in the teeming city of Sao Paulo, was the largest and most crowded prison in Latin America. Known as the 'Old House', it was also highly unusual in the way it was governed. Closed to the outside world, and even largely to the wardens, it was run almost entirely by the inmates themselves, who created a unique society complete with politics, hierarchies and a system of justice. In 1989, at the height of the AIDS epidemic in Brazil, with only a handful of physicians attempting to treat an inmate population of over 7,000, the medical situation at Carandiru was dire. A city doctor, Drauzio Varella, volunteered his time at Carandiru over the course of thirteen years, in an effort to combat the rampant disease. As he gained the inmates' trust he was given access to their society, where he was overwhelmed by the profound humanity and freedom of spirit shown by these men, despite their terrible crimes and the inhuman conditions in which they lived. Lockdown is Varella's powerful depiction of life on the inside, wherein he recounts the prisoners' colourful and surprising stories. The book ends with the massacre by the police of the prisoners that ultimately brought down the 'Old House'.


In the recent high profile case LB Islington v Al Alas and Wray [2012] EWHC 865 (Fam), [2012] 2 FLR (forthcoming) there were allegations that the parents had inflicted multiple fractures to, and caused the death of, a first born baby Jayden, prompting the local authority to commence proceedings in relation to a second child, Jayda. The assessment of risk posed to Jayda by her parents was entirely dependent on findings in relation to the injuries allegedly inflicted upon her brother. Jayden Al Alas Wray (born on 7 March 2009; died on 25 July 2009) was said by the London Borough of Islington to be a victim of baby shaking, demonstrated by the classic TRIAD of injuries (subdural haematoma, encephalopathy and retinal haemorrhages) to which fractures at multiple sites and of varying ages added additional evidence of violence to substantiate death through non-accidental injury (NAI). At the conclusion of a 6 week fact-finding hearing before Theis J all allegations against the parents were found not proven. In summary:


We present here an experiment with designing for cultural integration in one of Montréal's public library. This experiment, conducted from May 2019 to June 2019, aimed at producing a design audit of a particular library and proposing design responses that would be mediated by cultural inclusion impact indicators. To assess the contribution of design to the taming of local cultural issues we elaborated an enriched version of the Canadian Urban Library Council's Social Inclusion Audit and Toolkit. The difficulties experimented with our research through design strategy shed light on some of the organizational conditions that should be carefully dealt with when designing for public services innovation.


Imagine being able to change the languages for the applicationsthat a computer is running and taking control over it. That is exactly what managed code rootkits can do when they are placed within a computer. This new type of rootkit is hiding in a place that had previously been safe from this type of attack-the application level. Code reviews do not currently look for back doors in the virtual machine (VM) where this new rootkit would be injected. An invasion of this magnitude allows an attacker to steal information on the infected computer, provide false information, and disable security checks.Erez Metula shows the reader how these rootkits are developed and inserted and how this attack can change the managed codethat a computeris running, whether that be JAVA, .NET, Android Dalvik or any other managed code. Management development scenarios, tools like ReFrameworker, and countermeasures are covered, makingthis book a one stop shop for this new attack vector. Introduces the reader briefly to managed code environments and rootkits in general Completely details a new type of rootkit hiding in the application level and demonstrates how a hacker can change language runtime implementation Focuses on managed code including Java, .NET, Android Dalvik and reviews malware development scanarios


This paper presents the findings from the first phase of a two-phase project that examines integrated supply chain management (ISCM) in Australian and Malaysian businesses. Phase 1 in Australia involved detailed in-company research to document, in the form of case studies, how suppliers have adopted the supply chain management strategy and practices, the specific benefits achieved and the problems/challenges faced. In Malaysia, Phase 1 took the form of a focus group discussion session involving representatives from five organisations. Phase 2 of the project will involve a large questionnaire survey of organisations in both countries. This paper presents the key findings from Phase 1 of the project. For the Australian suppliers, the cases indicate that there are significant benefits derived when implementation has been strategic rather than reactive. These include 1) lead time and inventory reductions, 2) improved data accuracy and customer service, 3) better demand forecasting and revenue increases coupled with cost reductions. Limitations recorded included 1) an increased level of complication in despatching processes, 2) problems with system compatibility, 3) some added complications in marketing practices and 4) greater vulnerability to sudden changes in demand (ie through operating more streamlined systems. The Malaysian focus group discussion results identified Malaysian retailers to be lagging behind their Australian counterparts in the adoption of ISCM. Many MNCs operating in Malaysia are well ahead of their local counterparts in the implementation of the elements of ISCM. The current approach taken by Malaysian companies appears to be "Reactive" or "Tactical" with barcoding and some EDI being the main technologies being adopted. However, companies interviewed showed interest and enthusiasm to apply this technology in the future.


Chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) affects 240 million people worldwide and may cause liver disease including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Initially patients have high levels of HBV DNA in their blood, no liver disease and express the e antigen (HBeAg). At some point an immune response is mounted and the viral load decreases with several log10 copies/ml, they lose HBeAg and severe liver damage may follow if the virus is not cleared efficiently. Meanwhile, the circulating levels of the surface antigen (HBsAg), not bound to viral particles, remain high. In the liver, the viral DNA might integrate in the genome of hepatocytes. This has been proposed as a mechanism potentially promoting cancer development. The aims of this thesis were to investigate the mechanisms behind the great decline in HBV DNA at loss of HBeAg while the HBsAg levels remain relatively stable, to evaluate the utility of quantification of HBsAg in serum as a marker for liver damage, and to assess the extent of integrated HBV DNA in liver biopsies. The main methods used in this thesis are various types of polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The material was blood samples and liver biopsies from chronic carriers of HBV. Viral load in the liver, both DNA and RNA, was quantified by real-time PCR and integrated HBV DNA sequences were identified using Alu-PCR. Serum levels of HBV DNA and HBsAg correlated with intrahepatic levels of covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA), the template for new viral particles and antigens. By comparing viral load between patients positive or negative for HBeAg it was found that the 3-5 log10 decline of HBV DNA at HBeAg seroconversion mainly is explained by decrease in cccDNA and reduced transcriptional efficiency of pregenomic RNA (pgRNA), the template for virus DNA. However, retention of viral particles and decreased half-life of virions seem to have an additional impact. By comparing results of serum levels of HBsAg and histological examination of liver biopsies it was concluded that a cut-off of <3.0 log10 IU/ml of HBsAg and <4.0 log10 copies/ml could identify patients with low liver damage with a specificity of 96%. With Alu-PCR integrated sequences were detected in 36 of 48 liver biopsies examined. In total 45 integrated sequences were analysed from 32 different patients. Integration of HBV DNA was thus a very common event in the chronic HBV carriers. In summary, this study contributes to the understanding of the replication and integration of the hepatitis B virus.


Temperature observations of the upper-air atmosphere are now available for more than 40 years from both ground- and satellite-based observing systems. Recent years have seen substantial improvements in reducing long-standing discrepancies among datasets through major reprocessing efforts. The advent of radio occultation (RO) observations in 2001 has led to further improvements in vertically resolved temperature measurements, enabling a detailed analysis of upper-troposphere/lower-stratosphere trends. This paper presents the current state of atmospheric temperature trends from the latest available observational records. We analyze observations from merged operational satellite measurements, radiosondes, lidars, and RO, spanning a vertical range from the lower troposphere to the upper stratosphere. The focus is on assessing climate trends and on identifying the degree of consistency among the observational systems. The results show a robust cooling of the stratosphere of about 1–3 K, and a robust warming of the troposphere of about 0.6–0.8 K over the last four decades (1979–2018). Consistent results are found between the satellite-based layer-average temperatures and vertically resolved radiosonde records. The overall latitude–altitude trend patterns are consistent between RO and radiosonde records. Significant warming of the troposphere is evident in the RO measurements available after 2001, with trends of 0.25–0.35 K per decade. Amplified warming in the tropical upper-troposphere compared to surface trends for 2002–18 is found based on RO and radiosonde records, in approximate agreement with moist adiabatic lapse rate theory. The consistency of trend results from the latest upper-air datasets will help to improve understanding of climate changes and their drivers.


Use of mobile computing devices such as laptops, PDAs, and Wi-Fi enabled phones is increasing in the workplace. As the usage of corporate 802.11 wireless networks (WLANs) grows, network performance is becoming a significant concern. We have built DenseAP, a novel system for improving the performance of enterprise WLANs using a dense deployment of access points (APs). In sharp contrast with wired networks, one cannot increase the capacity of a WLAN by simply deploying more equipment (APs). To increase capacity, the APs must be assigned appropriate channels and the clients must make intelligent decisions about which AP to associate with. Furthermore, the decisions about channel assignment, and associations must be based on a global view of the entire WLAN, rather than the local viewpoint of an individual client or AP. Given the diversity of Wi-Fi devices in use today, another constraint on the design of DenseAP is that it must not require any modification to Wi-Fi clients. In this paper, we show how the DenseAP system addresses these challenges, and provides significant improvements in performance over existing WLANs.


Phase and intensity of light are detected simultaneously using a fully digital imaging technique: single-photon synchronous detection. This approach has been theoretically and experimentally investigated in this paper. We designed a fully integrated camera implementing the new technique that was fabricated in a 0.35 mum CMOS technology. The camera demonstrator features a modulated light source, so as to independently capture the time-of-flight of the photons reflected by a target, thereby reconstructing a depth map of the scene. The camera also enables image enhancement of 2D scenes when used in passive mode, where differential maps of the reflection patterns are the basis for advanced image processing algorithms. Extensive testing has shown the suitability of the technique and confirmed phase accuracy predictions. Experimental results showed that the proposed rangefinder method is effective. Distance measurement performance was characterized with a maximum nonlinearity error lower than 12 cm within a range of a few meters. In the same range, the maximum repeatability error was 3.8 cm.


As mantle rocks melt, an interconnected network of liquid drives the ascent of magma to the sea floor. The permeability of the upper mantle controls melt segregation beneath spreading centers. Reconciling contradictory geochemical and geophysical observations at ocean ridges requires a better understanding of transport properties in partially molten rocks. Using x-ray synchrotron microtomography, we obtained three-dimensional data on melt distribution for mantle peridotite with various melt fractions. At melt fractions as low as 0.02, triple junctions along grain edges dominated the melt network; there was no evidence of an abrupt change in the fundamental character of melt extraction as melt fraction increased to 0.2. The porosity of the partially molten region beneath ocean ridges is therefore controlled by a balance between viscous compaction and melting rate, not by a change in melt topology.


After many years of silence, eradication of malaria is, once again, one of the top priorities on the agenda of many international health and development agencies. To meet this idealistic goal, a combination of control tools is needed. From this armentarium, a malaria vaccine is central to prevent infection and/or disease. However, numerous malaria vaccine candidates have shown limited efficacy in Phase II and III studies. One reason for these failures has been that the assessment of efficacy in the context of malaria has been difficult to standardize. In this article, we have reviewed and discussed the different ways to assess the outcome of a malaria vaccination.


During nervous system development, axonal growth cones respond to attractive and repulsive cues that help them navigate to their targets. Wen et al. discovered that, whereas embryonic Xenopus spinal axons in an in vitro culture system were attracted to a gradient of bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP7) presented 4 to 8 hours after being placed in culture, BMP7 repelled the same axons after they had been cultured overnight. The type II BMP receptor (BMPRII) mediated both attractive and repulsive responses, and overexpression of a shortened form of BMPRII [which lacks a region that mediates interactions with LIM kinase I (LIMKI) but is dispensable for activation of Smad signaling] abolished BMP7-induced turning. A 32-amino-acid peptide that competitively inhibits LIMKI abolished attractive turning to BMP7, as did a dominant-negative LIMKI mutant, whereas neither affected repulsive turning. In neurons cultured overnight that overexpressed a dominant-negative mutant of the phosphatase Slingshot (SSH), however, the response to BMP7 was converted from repulsion to attraction. A combination of live imaging of the actin cytoskeleton, immunofluorescence analysis of the phosphorylation of XAC [Xenopus actin-depolymerizing factor (ADF)/cofilin], and expression of wild-type and mutant forms of XAC revealed that LIMKI and SSH regulated growth cone turning through phosphorylation of XAC. BMP7 elicited an increase in growth cone calcium concentration in neurons cultured overnight but not in those cultured for 6 hours. Manipulations designed to block calcium signaling failed to affect attractive turning in 4- to 8-hour cultures, whereas in overnight cultures these treatments abolished the BMP-dependent decrease in XAC phosphorylation and converted repulsive to attractive turning, as did pharmacological inhibition of calcineurin. The transient receptor potential channel TRPC1 was more abundant in overnight cultures than in 4- to 8-hour cultures, and expression of a dominant-negative TRPC1 mutant abolished BMP7-dependent repulsion in overnight cultures, whereas overexpression of wild-type TRPC1 elicited BMP7-dependent repulsion in 4- to 8-hour cultures. Thus, opposing actions of LIMKI and SSH on XAC phosphorylation appear to regulate the actin cytoskeleton and thereby growth cone turning, with calcium influx through TRPC1 switching attraction to repulsion by shifting the balance toward SSH. Z. Wen, L. Han, J. R. Bamburg, S. Shim, G.-l. Ming, J. Q. Zheng, BMP gradients steer nerve growth cones by a balancing act of LIM kinase and Slingshot phosphatase on ADF/cofilin. J. Cell Biol. 178, 107-119 (2007). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Large-scale infrastructure projects are a vital part of the World Bank's development agenda, but the World Bank and host countries alike have placed little emphasis on combating corruption attached to these projects. Investigation of ongoing corruption and punishment of offenders is an important end goal in itself, and can be an important deterrent to future corruption. The World Bank and host countries face challenges in properly pursuing investigation and punishment, but the results certainly are worth the effort. This Note explores the importance of investigating and punishing corporate corruption on World Bank-funded large-scale infrastructure projects, and presents practical suggestions as to how investigation and punishment processes might be made more effective. Specifically, host countries and the World Bank should utilize a "trigger" mechanism, by which investigations by one party automatically trigger investigations by the other, in order to increase accountability. Other factors including the willingness of third party states to assist in these efforts also influence the outcome, but the triggering mechanism may be an important step forward. The outcome of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project corruption investigations provides a useful illustration of how such a cooperative triggering mechanism might work.


The current study highlights emotions, emotional regulation and social identity in a Swedish military context. It is based on interviews with 18 officers and soldiers, whose ranks ranged from private soldier to higher level officer. The interviewees were mainly from the army, of whom 15 were men and three were women. The study shows how physical, psychological and emotional experiences (metaphorically labelled as shared bodily fluids) play a crucial role in soldiers' social identity. As a result emotional experiences within a work group (here: military troop, or 'the military family') increase the social identity with that group (the in-group) and may contribute to conflicts with partners (close family members) because of the lack of corresponding shared emotional experiences. Additionally, it shows that external social threats, such as the general public's negative attitudes to the military, contribute to an increased social identity with the in-group.


Quantum optomechanics exploits radiation pressure effects inside optical cavities. It can be used to generate quantum states of the center-of-mass motion of massive mechanical objects, thereby opening up a new parameter regime for macroscopic quantum experiments. The challenging experimental conditions to maintain and observe quantum coherence for increasingly large objects may require a space environment rather than an earth-bound laboratory. We introduce a possible space experiment to study the wave-packet expansion of massive objects. This forms the basis for Schr\"odinger cat states of unprecedented size and mass.


In early 2017 I co-founded 'Typ-ooo North' with Lukas Hornby (Chapel Street Studio, Bradford) to re-print an archive (housed at Merz Barn, Cumbria) belonging to the late printmaker Gwyneth Alban Davis. This project is supported by Heritage Lottery Fund 'Sharing Heritage. It commenced in April 2017 and will be completed by October 2017

Our project aims to re-activate important archival material, belonging to the late Gwyneth Davies, a printmaker and contemporary of the artist Kurt Schwitters, during his time in exile at Elterwater (1945-48). Currently housed at Merz Barn, Gwyneth's archive is in a state of disrepair; her press is out of alignment, unusable and exposed to the elements and the 60+ wooden relief etched printing blocks, made during her time in the Lakes, have never been re-printed, catalogued and included in scholarship relating to Kurt Schwitters experience in exile. Our project aims to re-activate the press: firstly making visible -through re-printing- the work of Gwyneth Alban and the rich history of artistic endeavour once present at this site. The press can then be used as an active resource; as a site for generating workshops, engaging with the community, new audiences and helping to contextualise history through practical engagement with archival material. Our project will involve: photographing, cataloguing and finally re-printing Gwyneth's blocks; calibrating the press to working order for future use and commissioning a protective cover; building a housing unit to store the letterpress archive/ materials for printing; purchasing materials to print with (rollers, inks, aprons etc); generating a three day event in which local schools, businesses and the public can be shown printing techniques, observe the blocks being printed for the first time since 1948 and engage with the history of the site through practical and fun activities; create a catalogue to be widely distributed to generate an awareness of this history and the new resources/facilities held at Merz Barn; entering these prints into a museum/gallery's collection (The Hatton Gallery, Newcastle) which would encourage continued future engagement with this heritage. This year will be the 70th anniversary of Kurt Schwitters Merz Barn and will see the re-opening and re-contextualisation of The Merz Barn Wall in the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle, the awarding of a funded Kurt Schwitters in Britain PhD and various celebratory events in and around this site. Our project would dovetail with these events, aiming to share this heritage and bring it to life. We aim to make visible Gwyneth's artistic contribution to the history of this site and in doing so, share and disseminate new documents of history; contribute to future scholarship; make new links with the site. On a more practical note we would make this heritage more relevant through encouraging a practical interaction with archival material.


Laboratory methods of semen evaluation are used to select males for artificial insemination. The current review describes several techniques that have been recently used for sperm analysis. Conventional microscopic methods in combination with the objective computerassisted sperm motility and morphology analyzers and flow cytometry, allows to obtain more precise information about the membrane and functional status of spermatozoa. By using several methods to detect motility, viability, acrosomal and capacitation status besides DNA integrity sperm biology and some of the mechanism involved in sperm cry injury can be better understood. The number of possible targets related to sperm quality is increasing, and possible that some of them could enable sperm analysis for predicting freezability and fertility to be improved.


The reporter's privilege is under attack, and "pajama-clad bloggers" are largely to blame. Courts and commentators have argued that because the rise of bloggers and other "citizen journalists" renders it difficult to define who counts as a reporter entitled to invoke the privilege, its continued existence is in grave doubt. The accompanying Article argues that this hysteria is misplaced. The development of the internet as a new medium of communication in many ways poses the same kinds of challenges to the reporter's privilege that courts and state legislatures have faced for decades as television reporters, radio commentators, book authors, documentary filmmakers, and scholars seek to invoke its protections. After exploring the history and purpose of the reporter's privilege, and the increasingly significant contributions of citizen journalists to the public debate, this Article makes a radical proposal: everyone who disseminates information to the public should be presumptively entitled to invoke the reporter's privilege, whether based on the First Amendment, federal common law, or a state shield law. Rather than attempting to limit the category of individuals who are entitled to the privilege by focusing on the medium of publication, the "newsworthy" nature of the desired information, or a "functional" approach that unconstitutionally requires judicial scrutiny of the editorial process, the focus should instead be on limiting the scope of the privilege itself. This Article offers several exceptions to a presumptive privilege that appropriately balance the public's fundamental interest in a vigorous and informed debate against its equally important interests in fairness and justice.


The aim of this thesis is to investigate the link between biochemical intracellular processes and mechanical contraction of the cardiac muscle. First, the regulation of intracellular energy fluxes between mitochondria and myofibrils is studied. It is shown, that the experimentally observed metabolic stability of the cardiac muscle is reproducible by a simple feedback regulation mechanism, i.e., ATP consumption in myofibrils and ATP production in mitochondria are balanced by the changes of the high energy phosphate concentrations. Second, an important property of energy transformation from biochemical form to mechanical work in the cardiac muscle, the linear relationship between the oxygen consumption and the stress-strain area, is replicated by a cross-bridge model. Third, by using the developed cross-bridge model, the correlation between ejection fraction of the left ventricle and heterogeneity of sarcomere strain, developed stress and ATP consumption in the left ventricular wall is established. Fourth, an experimentally observed linear relationship between oxygen consumption and the pressure-volume area can be predicted theoretically from a linear relationship between the oxygen consumption and the stress-strain area. Summing up, it is shown how the macrovariables of a cardiac muscle are interwoven with intracellular physiological processes into a whole.


In artificially prepared standards analyzed by our dc arc emission spectrometric technique, copper showed very poor precision for repeated analyses at any concentration between 1 and 100 ppm. Similar observations for copper, and only copper, in graphite-based graded standards containing 60 elements, have been reported by Chaney. Mitteldorf has also reported that similar complaints have been made regarding copper inconstancy in prepared standards. It is the purpose of this note to report our solution to this problem in the hope that it may be of value to other spectrographers faced with the same problem.


A new MMIC PA for Cellular & AMPS handsets based on the asymmetric power combining scheme of Doherty amplifier has been developed to boost the efficiency at a low power level. The amplifier has two modes of operation, low and high power modes. At a low power mode, only the main amplifier generates output power and at a high power mode, both the main and auxiliary amplifiers are operational, combining the power efficiently by the load modulation. For the CDMA environment, the amplifier at the low power mode exhibits PAE of 35% and ACLR less than 31dBc at 18.6dBm and the high power mode exhibits PAE of 37.7% and ACLR of 31dBc at 28.4dBm. For the AMPS mode operation, the amplifier delivers 21dBm with PAE of 41.7% and 30.3dBm with 43% in low mode and high mode, respectively.


This paper critically analyses the main challenges related to teaching and learning in emerging business disciplines. It focuses on the field of Business Intelligence (BI), as a prime example of dynamic, industry-driven discipline where the content as well as methods and frameworks for professional practice are still emerging and co-evolving with teaching practices. However, the work presented goes beyond BI and is equally relevant for any other emerging teaching and professional field of Business Information Systems (BIS). The paper argues that order to address the identified challenges, we need to move away from the traditional transmission model of teaching and adopt a new educational model based on the concept of synergetic learning communities designed to cross university industry / boundaries. To support the argument, the paper uses a case study of an active world-wide, synergetic BI learning community called Teradata University Network (TUN). Most importantly, the paper offers a reflective analysis of the changing role of university teacher that could be directly attributed to the new educational model. The reported findings are the result of an ongoing participatory action research project in this area.


Tree based ensemble methods can be seen as a way to learn a kernel from a sample of input-output pairs. This paper proposes a regularization framework to incorporate non-standard information not used in the kernel learning algorithm, so as to take advantage of incomplete information about output values and/or of some prior information about the problem at hand. To this end a generic convex optimization problem is formulated which is first customized into a manifold regularization approach for semi-supervised learning, then as a way to exploit censored output values, and finally as a generic way to exploit prior information about the problem.


Ghana has been highly successful in mining for over a century. However, one area of concern is the negative impact of mining activities on water resources: their quality and quantity. Mining companies are guided by rules and regulations, particularly those that have to do with the quality of water supply. Safe water supply is essential for improved health and quality of life for increased productivity. Yet, water supply in mining communities has not assumed the critical importance that it deserves toward the realization of human health security. A combination of key informant interviews and a copious desk-top study of official documentary reports were analysed in the context of the polluter-pays principle. The paper interrogates the corporate social responsibility ambivalence that arises from fresh water contamination during the extraction of mineral resources in the western mining region of Ghana. In spite of some efforts at addressing this problem through corporate social responsibilities, communities affected by mining still question the professed sensitivity of mining companies to their plight with respect to their inalienable right to water supply.


BACKGROUND
Education plays a key role in the development of self-management skills for people with type 2 diabetes, although there is limited evidence for the use of video education.

AIMS
To develop a video-based lifestyle education programme for people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and to evaluate changes in knowledge, biomedical indices and quality of life.

METHODS
Forty-two newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic subjects were recruited and randomly allocated to either a video education or control group. Data were collected at baseline and 6 months after the intervention. Subjects (43% male) had a mean (SD) age of 60.8 (9.6) years, weight 89.5 (15.5) kg, BMI 31.3 (5.1) kg m(2), glycated haemoglobin (A1c) 7.4 (1.7)%, total cholesterol 4.7 (1.2) mmol L(-1), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol 1.15 (0.34) mmol L(-1), triglycerides 1.8 (1.0) mmol L(-1), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol 2.8 (1.0) mmol L(-1), pedometer reading 5721 (3446) steps per day. There were 63.7% correct answers given to the ADKnowl questionnaire and the WHO-5 Well-Being score was 65.8%.

RESULTS
At 6 months, the intervention group showed increased knowledge compared to controls (74.3% versus 56.4% correct answers, P < or = 0.0001). Although there were no significant differences in changes over 6 months between the two groups, the intervention group showed improvements in A1c (-0.7%, P = 0.024), total cholesterol (-0.5 mmol L(-1), P = 0.017), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (-0.5, P = 0.018) and increased physical activity measured by pedometer (1266 steps per day, P = 0.043) from baseline, with no significant changes in the control group.

CONCLUSIONS
A brief video intervention increased diabetes knowledge amongst those newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and may comprise an effective way of directing education to such individuals.


BACKGROUND
Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) has strong chemoprotective properties in experimental animal models. The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system has been implicated as a risk factor for the development of bladder cancer. The present study examined CLA regulation of TSU-Pr1 bladder cancer cell proliferation and apoptosis and the influence of CLA on IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR) signaling.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
TSU-Pr1 cells were cultured in serum-free medium with 0, 2, 5, or 10 microM CLA and/or 10 nM IGF-I. [3H]Thymidne incorporation, DNA laddering, FACS analysis, immunoprecipitation and Western blotting were performed.

RESULTS
CLA decreased DNA synthesis and induced apoptosis in TSU-Pr1 cells dose-dependently. Exogenous IGF-I alone increased viable cell numbers but did not counteract growth inhibition induced by CLA. CLA decreased IGF-IR and insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1 protein levels. In addition, CLA decreased IGF-I-induced phosphorylation of IGF-IR and IRS-1, recruitment of the p85 subunit of phosphoinositide 3-kinase to IRS-1 and phosphorylation of Akt and extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1/2.

CONCLUSION
These results suggest that CLA inhibits cell proliferation and stimulates apoptosis of TSU-Pr1 cells via its inhibition of the IGF-IR signaling pathway.


Hydrocarbon contamination, which can alter the physiochemical and biological properties of the subsurface,
can be monitored by using geochemical analyses and integrated geophysical techniques.
Electrical resistivity tomography, induced polarization, ground-penetrating radar, and self-potential
methods were used in this work to characterise the hydrocarbon contamination and investigate the
geoelectrical properties of a site impacted by an aged hydrocarbon plume. Throughout the investigation,
geoelectrical measurements supported the conductive plume model and consistently recorded
low-resistivity anomalies and high-chargeability values in the contaminated aquifer. Furthermore, the
low-resistivity anomalies were found to be coincident with regions of ground-penetrating radar
attenuated reflections and significant negative self-potential anomalies associated with oxidation–
reduction processes. These findings were supported by the geochemical measurements, which
revealed depleted concentrations of terminal electron acceptors (TEAs) and elevated amounts of ions
and total dissolved solids, which could be attributed to bacterial biodegradation of hydrocarbons. The
study showed that biological alterations of hydrocarbon-induced subtle changes in the pore water
biogeochemistry, which consequently modified the geophysical properties of the contaminated sediments.
Based on these observations, the extent of groundwater contamination was delineated according
to the geophysical contrast between the contaminated and clean zones. The combination of different
geophysical methods constrained by geochemical point measurements provided insight on the
different processes that might have modified the soil and groundwater biogeochemical properties.


This chapter presents the ability of some pathogenic ( Listeria monocytogenes , Escherichia coli , Salmonella enterica , Campylobacter jejuni , Pseudomonas aeruginosa ) and toxigenic bacteria ( Bacillus cereus , Staphylococcus aureus ) to form biofilms and contribute to the persistence of these microorganisms in the food industry. Particularities regarding attachment and composition of biofilms formed in food and food processing environments are presented and genes involved in biofilm production are mentioned. To give a perspective on how to fight against biofilms with new means, nonconventional methods based on bacteriocins, bacteriophages, disruptive enzymes, essential oils, nanoemulsions and nanoparticles, and use of alternative technologies (cold plasma, ultrasounds, light-assisted technologies, pulsed electric field, and high pressure processing) are shortly described.


Abstract The Exquisite Corpse is a game-based art form popularized by the surrealists. The final result is based on an unconscious collaboration of collective artists; each provides his or her part without knowing what the other has selected. For example, each one provides adjective, verb and noun to create poems; head, torso and legs for drawings. Actually, concerning drawings, each one draws his part in a piece of paper and folds it, so the next artist is able to see the border traces in the folded column and normally begins from there. The exquisite Corpse is a game with several interesting properties: 1. It's an example of collective creation and formation of a collective pattern; 2. We can envision a micro and macro levels, even if there are not so many participants 3. There is no unity, there is author fragmentation and so the complete outcome cannot be intended and planned in advance; 4. In fact, we are in face of an unpredictable and surprising outcome; 5. There is no direct communication between the participants, besides the fact that they are going to draw some predetermined part, they do not communicate at all or they communicate indirectly through the work (traces in the folded zones); 6. Nobody has a bird eye view of the work in progress, they are restricted to their own local zone. Our contribution to this Symposium is an artificial painting tool that has several properties of the Exquisite Corpse Game but in a much bigger scale in the sense that we can have thousands of very simple micro-painters limited to a very narrow and local area that will try to coordinate and to make emerge a collective pattern. In this tool we can try out different types of coordination between painters and see the resulting pattern exploring the link between the macro and micro-level, In contrast with the Exquisite Corpse Game which is sequential, in our painting society, artists work in parallel and they can communicate either directly or indirectly through the painting. We will begin to describe a coordination type based only on a stigmergic form of communication between painters. The artificial canvas has dynamic properties where artificial pheromones can be produced, diffused and evaporated. They are the communication medium and they control the movements of individuals. For example, the non-painted areas will produce chemical that will diffuse and attract painters making strange and unpredictable patterns appear. We will also describe other types of agent coordination based on imitation where some consensual attributes, like color or orientation, or position, will emerge, creating some order on a potential collective chaos. This consensus can die out, randomly or by interaction factors, and new consensual attributes can win resulting in heterogeneous paintings with interesting patterns, which would be difficult to achieve if made by human hands. We think that our main contribution, besides the creative exploration of new artistic spaces with swarm-art, will be in the sense of showing the possibilities of generating unpredictable and surprising patterns from the interaction of individual behaviors controlled by very simple rules. This interaction between the micro and macro levels in the artistic realm can be the source of new artistic patterns and also can foster imagination and creativity.


Scientific applications face serious performance challenges on multicore processors, one of which is caused by access contention in last level shared caches from multiple running threads. The contention increases the number of long latency memory accesses, and consequently increases application execution times. Optimizing shared cache performance is critical to reduce significantly execution times of multi-threaded programs on multicores. However, there are two unique problems to be solved before implementing cache optimization techniques on multicores at the user level. First, available cache space for each running thread in a last level cache is difficult to predict due to access contention in the shared space, which makes cache conscious algorithms for single cores ineffective on multicores. Second, at the user level, programmers are not able to allocate cache space at will to running threads in the shared cache, thus data sets with strong locality may not be allocated with sufficient cache space, and cache pollution can easily happen. To address these two critical issues, we have designed ULCC (User Level Cache Control), a software runtime library that enables programmers to explicitly manage and optimize last level cache usage by allocating proper cache space for different data sets of different threads. We have implemented ULCC at the user level based on a page-coloring technique for last level cache usage management. By means of multiple case studies on an Intel multicore processor, we show that with ULCC, scientific applications can achieve significant performance improvements by fully exploiting the benefit of cache optimization algorithms and by partitioning the cache space accordingly to protect frequently reused data sets and to avoid cache pollution. Our experiments with various applications show that ULCC can significantly improve application performance by nearly 40%.