This paper examines the way in which the transfer of technology of the tobacco curing method shaped the local social relationships in Taiwan's tobacco settlement. Ever since the tobacco industry had been initiated by Japan's colonial policy, the tobacco leaves had been cured in tobacco buildings, which had a distinctive Japanese design. The farmers perceived the curing process to be the hardest part of their work. Using tobacco buildings to cure leaves was a complicated process, since it involved a combination of labour power exchange, time management and personal knowledge of temperature and humidity control. In this situation, a particular 'labour power exchange' emerged, which helped farmers to manage their time and labour power on the one hand, and on the other hand, an intimate social relationship was formed and tobacco buildings became a social centre in the local area.
However, following the development of technology, curing machines were introduced to replace the traditional tobacco buildings in the 1970s. This transformation not only changed the curing method, but it also had an impact on local social relationships. By drawing on documentary research and interviews conducted with farmers and residents in tobacco settlements in Taiwan, this paper attempts to explore the story of how people, place and the tobacco industry are connected by this transfer of technology in the contemporary society.


Background/Context Literacy has been traditionally posited as a primary educational goal. The concept is now understood in the literature as extending way beyond the mere technicalities of proficiency in reading and writing, encompassing a broad range of skills and practices related to comprehension, communication, and the ability to use texts in multiple settings. Cultural literacy and critical literacy are two conceptual models frequently used to understand the essence of literacy and why it is a worthy educational goal. Each model prescribes different curricular goals and preferred teaching practice in educational settings spanning all disciplines and age groups. In this article, we suggest a third conceptual model, identity literacy, based in developmental psychology's concept of identity. We define identity literacy as readers' proficiency and willingness to engage the meaning systems embedded within texts and to consider adopting them as part of their own personal meaning system—that system within which they define themselves and their relation to the world. Setting identity literacy as a goal of teaching frames the practice of teaching texts differently than the other models. Focus of Study The concept emerged from a qualitative study focusing on high school teachers who primarily teach texts in the classroom. The study examined their goals and justifications for their chosen practices of teaching texts and examined these in light of extant literature regarding literacy, and the literature on identity development. Setting and Participants Twelve expert teachers of the curricular subject of Jewish thought taught in the Israeli nonreligious school sector served as the empirical foundation for developing the concept. Research Design Qualitative methodology was used to explore teachers' ideas regarding teaching texts. Teachers were interviewed twice: once regarding their life story, reasons for becoming a teacher, and general goals in teaching, and once after they were observed teaching, regarding their reflections on the practices they employed in teaching texts. Common themes were identified using techniques based in grounded theory analysis. Findings/Results Three themes regarding teachers' ideas on the proper way to teach texts emerged from the analysis: Good textual study is potentially personally meaningful; good teaching accentuates the potential of texts to trigger identity processes in the reader; and for students to learn to read in this manner, a particular stance toward texts needs to be taught. Conclusions/Recommendations The concept of identity literacy is suggested as an alternative conceptual lens with which to frame the purpose and practice of teaching texts in the classroom that may be relevant to teachers in a broad range of school disciplines.


Background/Objective Demand for rheumatology care has steadily increased in recent years. The number of specialists in this field, however, seems insufficient. No recent studies have diagnosed the attributes of rheumatology training in Latin America. Methods This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. We obtained data on each country through local rheumatologists of the Pan-American League Against Rheumatism, who acted as principal investigators for participating countries. Our sample was analyzed and described through means and standard deviations or through frequencies and percentages, depending on the variable. Results Countries with the most rheumatology-training programs were Brazil (n = 50), Argentina (n = 18), and Mexico (n = 15). Ecuador, Honduras, and Nicaragua do not have rheumatology-training programs. The countries with the most available slots for rheumatology residents were Brazil (n = 126) and Argentina (n = 36). To be admitted into rheumatology training, candidates were required to have completed graduate studies in internal medicine in 42.1% of the programs. In 8 countries (42.1%), residents are not required to pay tuition; the median cost of tuition in the remaining countries is US $528 (interquartile range, US $2153). Conclusions Conditions associated with rheumatology training in Latin America vary. Significant differences exist in income and tuition fees for residents, for example, and 4 countries in Latin America do not currently offer programs. Information collected in this study will be useful when comparing the status of rheumatology services offered in Latin America with those in other countries. Most countries require a wider offering of rheumatology-training programs, as well as more available slots.


Cells of a specific type maintain a characteristic cell size, and in multicellular organisms, this effect has an influence on the size of organs or the complete animal. Even as more knowledge about control of the cell division cycle is accumulated, the mechanisms by which cells control cell size remain poorly understood. Montagne et al. provide evidence that implicates a role for a signaling pathway that controls translation in the control of cell size. Drosophila that lack DS6K, the homolog of the mammalian p70 ribosomal protein S6 kinase, develop slowly and are only about half the size of their normal counterparts. The change in size of the fly is a cell-autonomous event that reflects changes in cell size while cell number remains constant. Leevers discusses how these results, together with recent findings that cell size is influenced through signaling from the insulin receptor (which also controls the activity of DS6K), begin to define a critical pathway that regulates the size of individual cells. Montagne, J., Stewart, M.J., Stocker, H. Hafen, E., Kozma, S.C., and Thomas, G. (1999) Drosophila S6 kinase: A regulator of cell size. Science 285: 2126-2129. [Abstract] [Full Text] Leevers, S.J. (1999) All creatures great and small. Science 285: 2082-2083. [Abstract] [Full Text]


In this paper we explain the crucial role played by the processes of internalized motivation in the development of organizational commitment. Our research not only shows that the idealized influence transformational leadership style is causally linked to organizational commitment, but also that an internalization process of motivation operates as an explanatory causal mechanism. We focus on two forms of motivation: identified motivation and intrinsic motivation, which are associated with the internalization process and are closest to self-values. Based on recent findings concerning the positive behavioral outcomes of normative and affective commitment, we modeled organizational commitment as a formative construct consisting of normative and affective commitment forms. Data was gathered from an Australian manufacturing organization in early 2014. 89 responses were received. Our findings show that both intrinsic and identified motivations have a significant effect on the development of willing organizational commitment. In our model the relationship between leadership idealized influence and employee intrinsic motivation was totally mediated by identified motivation. This finding highlights the importance of the internalization process of motivation, and articulates its role in explaining the causal link between idealized influence leadership style and employee organizational commitment.


Modernity's understanding of the primacy of the individual represents a significant challenge to a holistic understanding of the vocation of the church. Furthermore, individualism, that is the understanding of oneself as separate and apart from others, is often the foundation for violence against the other as the interconnectivity, and therefore the dependence and vulnerability inherent within a relationship, is lost. When the church is relegated to serve individuals as private and individualised belief systems, it is banished to a cold, dark cell of isolation. In order to respond to violence, the church needs to create communities that restore and reconcile relationships, thus embodying peace.


This paper considers the painting Any Wintry Afternoon in England (1930) (AWA) by the prominent artist and social commentator C.R.W. Nevinson (1889–1946). The painting is one of few, and perhaps the best-known, by an English fine artist to take football as its subject matter during the first 40 years of that sport's professional existence. The paper concentrates on gaining an understanding of this painting within the context of Nevinson's biography. Of course, a painting may well be admired by viewers without any knowledge of the painter at all, and no issue is taken in the paper with the possibility of totally independent readings. But from an art-history and cultural-history perspective, knowledge of a painter's biography is significant in allowing for consideration of the artwork as a product of its time. In the case of AWA, knowledge of Nevinson's hostility to sport supports the view of a leading critic, on the occasion its of its exhibition, that the painting was intended as a satire on the mass popularity of football in England in the 1920s. Forearmed with this knowledge, wariness can be taken against subsequent attempts to locate AWA within a genre of 'football paintings' that represent an enthusiasm for the game. Nevinson's earlier involvement with Futurism had acquainted him with that movement's tendency to take aspects of popular culture as inspiration for art. But Nevinson took football as a derisory subject matter rather than inspiration and in doing so put AWA at odds with the contemporaneous visual representations of football that had begun to appear in popular mediums such as postcards and film. Yet, contrary to some wishful interpretations though it may be, AWA, owing to its very contrariness, remains an important historical image in the visual representation of football as popular culture.


For over threescore years Cyrus H. Gordon's scholarship and teaching have provided new directions to the study of the ancient Near East. This collection of 34 essays in honour of his 90th birthday, edited by three of his former pupils, celebrates his fascinating and remarkable achievements and reflects his broad command of ancient studies. The global impact of his research can be seen from the geographical dispersion of the outstanding scholars who have written here on the following topics: archaeology, Bible studies, Ugaritic, Aramaic, Arabic, Egypto-Semitic, the cuneiform world, Indo-European, Samaritan, the Graeco-Roman world, mediaeval studies. The inclusion of a complete bibliography of Gordon's works is of singular value.


Road Safety remains a major societal issue within the European Union. In 2014, some 26,000 people died and more than 203,500 were seriously injured on the roads of Europe, i.e. the equivalent of a medium town. However, although there are variations between Member States, road fatalities have been falling throughout the EU. Over the last 20 years, most Member States have achieved an overall reduction, some more than 50%. During this period, research on road safety and accident prevention has predominantly focused on protecting car occupants, with significant results. However, at the same time the number of fatalities and injuries among other categories of road users has not fallen to the same extent, indeed, in some cases, they have risen. The "Vulnerable Road Users" (VRUs) in particular are a priority and represent a real challenge for researchers working on road safety and accident prevention. Accidents involving VRUs comprised approximately 48% of all fatalities in the EU during 2014, with Powered Two-Wheelers (PTWs) comprising 18% and cyclists comprising 8% of the total numbers of fatalities. The Commission adopted in July 2010 its Policy Orientations on Road Safety for 2010-2020. One of the strategic objectifies identified by the Commission is to improve the safety of Vulnerable Road Users. With this category of road users, motorcycle and moped users require specific attention given the trend in the number of accidents involving them and their important share of fatalities and serious injuries. The SaferWheels study was therefore conducted to investigate accident causation for traffic accidents involving powered two-wheelers and bicycles in the European Union. The objective of the study was to gather PTW and bicycle accident data from in-depth crash investigations, obtain accident causation and medical data for those crashes, and to store the information according to an appropriate and efficient protocol enabling a causation-oriented analysis. The expected outcomes were: - Collection of accident data for at least 500 accidents of which approximately 80% would involve Powered Two–Wheelers and the remainder bicycles. Equal numbers of cases were to be gathered in six countries; France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and the UK. - In-depth investigation and reporting for each of the accidents on the basis of the data collected. - Description of the main accident typologies and accident factors. - Proposal of most cost-effective measures to prevent PTW and bicycle accidents.


Many situations in human life present choices between (a) narrowly preferred particular alternatives and (b) narrowly less preferred (or aversive) particular alternatives that nevertheless form part of highly preferred abstract behavioral patterns. Such alternatives characterize problems of self-control. For example, at any given moment, a person may accept alcoholic drinks yet also prefer being sober to being drunk over the next few days. Other situations present choices between (a) alternatives beneficial to an individual and (b) alternatives that are less beneficial (or harmful) to the individual that would nevertheless be beneficial if chosen by many individuals. Such alternatives characterize problems of social cooperation; choices of the latter alternative are generally considered to be altruistic. Altruism, like self-control, is a valuable temporally-extended pattern of behavior. Like self-control, altruism may be learned and maintained over an individual's lifetime. It needs no special inherited mechanism. Individual acts of altruism, each of which may be of no benefit (or of possible harm) to the actor, may nevertheless be beneficial when repeated over time. However, because each selfish decision is individually preferred to each altruistic decision, people can benefit from altruistic behavior only when they are committed to an altruistic pattern of acts and refuse to make decisions on a case-by-case basis.


A combination of rainfall estimates from the 13.8-GHz Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) precipitation radar (PR) and the 94-GHz CloudSat Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) is used to assess the distribution of rainfall intensity over tropical and subtropical oceans. These two spaceborne radars provide highly complementary information: the PR provides the best information on the total rain volume because of its ability to estimate the intensity of all but the lightest rain rates while the CPR's higher sensitivity provides superior rainfall detection as well as estimates of drizzle and light rain. Over the TRMM region between 358S and 358N, rainfall frequency from the CPR is around 9%, approximately 2.5 times that detected by the PR, and the CPR estimates indicate a contribution by light rain that is undetected by the PR of around 10% of the total. Stratifying the results by total precipitable water (TPW) as a proxy for rainfall regime indicates dramatic differences over stratus-dominated subsidence regions, with nearly 20% of the total rain occurring as light rain. Over moist tropical regions, the CPR substantially underestimates rain from intense convective storms because of large attenuation and multiple-scattering effects while the PR misses very little of the total rain volume because of a lower relative contribution from light rain. Over low-TPW regions, however, inconsistencies between estimates from the PR and the CPR point to uncertainties in the algorithm assumptions that remain to be understood and addressed.


Pineapple leaf fibres (PALF) is one of the abundant residues generated from pineapple plantation. The residues are left on the plantation for nutrient cycling or burning, and this circumstance leads to environmental issues. PALF has high cellulose content among other natural fibres. Cellulose is a reinforcing element that exists as whisker-like microfibrils and has a long-chain structure. In this study, cellulose produced from PALF was treated by steam and chemical treatment. The fibre was treated with steam at 121°C, a pressure of 21 psi for 30 or 60 min. Next, the steam-treated fibre was treated with 5 wt% sodium chlorite (NaClO2) solution with pH adjusted between 4 and 5 for 90 min. The condition was varied with three different temperatures, which were room temperature, 50, and 70°C. Then, the bleached fibre was treated with 5 wt% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at room temperature for 3 h. After the treatments, the fibre was analysed for its thermal stability, morphology, and chemical composition. Cellulose obtained from the treatment condition of steam for 60 min, bleaching at 70°C, and alkali treatment at room temperature expressed the highest degradation temperature of 276°C at 20% weight loss, percentage of cellulose of 86% and lowest moisture content (8%) compared to others sample. It also had an excellent surface morphology with finest fibril disintegration. It showed longer steam treatment (60 min) degrading more hemicellulose; and bleaching treatment at high temperature (70°C), increasing the rate of oxidative delignification. In conclusion, the suggested treatment provides a simple but efficient method to isolate cellulose that can be used for various types of applications.


This article is based on part of a survey that investigated journal cancellations in university libraries in South Africa. A study population consisting of 17 university libraries in South Africa was surveyed by means of an online questionnaire to establish the factors that influenced journal cancellations. Interpretation of the results revealed that South African university libraries, like most academic and research libraries world wide, have been adversely affected by high priced journal subscriptions and many libraries have simply cancelled subscriptions to pay for ongoing subscriptions. Recommendations are made about enhancing library budgets and access to usage statistics, supporting consortia and avoiding restrictive journal packages.


The angiotensin-(1–7) [Ang-(1–7)]/MAS1 receptor signaling axis is a key endogenous anti-inflammatory signaling pathway. However, the mechanisms by which its mediates the anti-inflammatory effects are not completely understood. Using an allergic murine model of asthma, we investigated whether Ang-1(1–7)/MAS1 receptor axis a): inhibits allergic inflammation via modulation of Src-dependent transactivation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and downstream signaling effectors such as ERK1/2, and b): directly inhibits neutrophil and/or eosinophil chemotaxis ex vivo. Ovalbumin (OVA)-induced allergic inflammation resulted in increased phosphorylation of Src kinase, EGFR, and ERK1/2. In addition, OVA challenge increased airway cellular influx, perivascular and peribronchial inflammation, fibrosis, goblet cell hyper/metaplasia and airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR). Treatment with Ang-(1–7) inhibited phosphorylation of Src kinase, EGFR, ERK1/2, the cellular and histopathological changes and AHR. Ang-(1–7) treatment also inhibited neutrophil and eosinophil chemotaxis ex vivo. These changes were reversed following pre-treatment with A779. These data show that the anti-inflammatory actions of Ang-(1–7)/ MAS1 receptor axis are mediated, at least in part, via inhibition of Src-dependent transactivation of EGFR and downstream signaling molecules such as ERK1/2. This study therefore shows that inhibition of the Src/EGRF/ERK1/2 dependent signaling pathway is one of the mechanisms by which the Ang-(1–7)/ MAS1 receptor axis mediates it anti-inflammatory effects in diseases such as asthma.


In the last decade, magistrate judges around the United States have introduced a new practice of regulating the search and seizure of computers by imposing restrictions on computer warrants. These ex ante restrictions are imposed as conditions of obtaining a warrant: Magistrate judges refuse to sign warrant applications unless the government agrees to the magistrate's limitation on how the warrant will be executed. These limitations vary from magistrate to magistrate, but they generally target four different stages of how computer warrants are executed: the on-site seizure of computers, the timing of the subsequent off-site search, the method of the off-site search, and the return of the seized computers when searches are complete.This Article contends that ex ante restrictions on the execution of computer warrants are constitutionally unauthorized and unwise. The Fourth Amendment does not permit judges to impose limits on the execution of warrants in the name of reasonableness. When such limits are imposed, they have no legal effect. The imposition of ex ante limits on computer warrants is also harmful: Ex ante assessments of reasonableness in ex parte proceedings are highly error-prone, and they end up prohibiting reasonable practices when paired with ex post review. Although ex ante restrictions may seem necessary in light of the present uncertainty of computer search and seizure law, such restrictions end up having the opposite effect. By transforming litigation of the lawfulness of a warrant's execution into litigation focusing on compliance with restrictions rather than reasonableness, ex ante restrictions prevent the development of reasonableness standards to be imposed ex post that are needed to regulate the new computer search process. Magistrate judges should refuse to impose such restrictions and should let the law develop via judicial review ex post.


A set of algorithms building a program package for the generation of twoandthree-dimensional unstructured/hybrid grids around complex geometrieshas been developed. The unstructured part of the grid generator is based on the advancing frontalgorithm. Tetrahedra of variable size, as well as directionally stretched tetrahedracan be generated by specification of a proper background grid, initiallygenerated by a Delaunay algorithm. A marching layer prismatic grid generation algorithm has been developedfor the generation of grids for viscous flows. The algorithm is able to handleregions of narrow gaps, as well as concave regions. The body surface is describedby a triangular unstructured surface grid. The subsequent grid layers in theprismatic grid are marched away from the body by an algebraic procedurecombined with an optimization procedure, resulting in a semi-structured gridof prismatic cells. Adaptive computations using remeshing have been done with use of a gradientsensor. Several key-variables can be monitored simultaneously. The sensorindicates that only the key-variables with the largest gradients give a substantialcontribution to the sensor. The sensor gives directionally stretched grids. An algorithm for the surface definition of curved surfaces using a biharmonicequation has been developed. This representation of the surface canbe used both for projection of the new surface nodes in h-refinement, and theinitial generation of the surface grid. For unsteady flows an algorithm has been developed for the deformationof hybrid grids, based on the solution of the biharmonic equation for the deformationfield. The main advantage of the grid deformation algorithm is that itcan handle large deformations. It also produces a smooth deformation distributionfor cells which are very skewed or stretched. This is necessary in orderto handle the very thin cells in the prismatic layers. The algorithms have been applied to complex three-dimensional geometries,and the influence of the grid quality on the accuracy for a finite volumeflow solver has been studied for some simpler generic geometries.


The widespread availability of digitised music collections and mobile music players have enabled us to listen to music during many of our daily activities, such as exercise, commuting, relaxation, and many people enjoy that opportunity. A practical problem that comes along with the wish to listen to music is that of music retrieval, the selection of desired music from a music collection. In this paper we propose a new approach to facilitate music retrieval. Modern smart phones are commonly used as music players, and are already equipped with inertial sensors that are suitable for obtaining motion information. In the proposed approach, emotion is derived automatically from arm gestures, and is used to query a music collection. We set-up predictive models for valence and arousal from empirical data, gathered in an experimental setup where inertial data recorded from arm movements is coupled to musical emotion. Part of the experiment is a preliminary study confirming that human subjects are generally capable of recognising affect from arm gestures. Model validation in the main study confirmed the predictive capabilities of the models.


The purpose of this study was to examine the routes to certification and turnover intentions of agriculture teachers to identify differences between alternatively and traditionally certified teachers. The population consisted of a census of early career agriculture teachers in Wisconsin with fewer than three years of teaching (N = 67) with a response rate of 52% (n = 35). The majority of respondents were traditionally certified (71%) through a bachelor's degree program, and 29% were alternatively certified through three different routes. Respondents had moderately low turnover intentions to leave the agriculture classroom as a teacher with no statistical difference (U = 130.50, p = .843) between traditionally and alternatively certified teachers. Additionally, there was no correlation between turnover intentions and traditional and alternative certification routes. While this study is not generalizable to other populations, it does provide the first insight into agricultural education research on how teachers are being alternatively certified. The results of this study prompt the need for further research on alternative certification in agricultural education, focusing on the types of programs and preparation, as well as the impact of certification route on turnover.


There is no recipe for democratisation that can be readily applied to all countries. Every country presents unique factors that influence the fate of its democratic reforms, which must therefore be evaluated within their specific socio-political, cultural and historical context. Building on this premise, this paper examines military reform and democratisation through the experiences of Turkey and Indonesia, two democratising countries with predominantly Muslim populations, secular regimes, and militaries that are deeply involved in politics. The paper strives to explain why both the Turkish and Indonesian militaries, which have developed a sense of ownership over the state, may be wary of democratic change; how the people perceive the military's traditional role in society; and in which direction societal and military attitudes towards democratic reform have been moving over the years. In relating these domestic observations to various external factors, it seeks to identify the regional and global trends, events and actors that promote and obstruct the development of substantive democracy in each country, and to draw broader lessons for the study of democratisation and military reform.


Purpose of reviewThis review summarizes findings from recent vaginal microbicide safety and effectiveness trials and discusses the challenges associated with undertaking these trials. Recent findingsIn safety trials, there has been a focus on the development of biomarkers of genital irritation. Recent safety studies have expanded the range of genital toxicity measures to include biomarkers of mucosal immunity, detection of haemoglobin in cervicovaginal lavage specimens and microbicide-induced vaginal flora changes. Four effectiveness trials have been stopped prematurely, two due to a lower than estimated HIV incidence rate, one as a result of an interim analysis suggesting increased risk of HIV acquisition among participants receiving active product, and one as a safety precaution. One effectiveness trial was completed and showed no reduction in HIV acquisition among participants receiving active product, and one ongoing effectiveness trial was modified by discontinuing a trial arm. Methodological challenges faced by these trials have included accurately estimating HIV incidence and pregnancy rates in trial populations, and improving adherence to and measurement of study product use. SummaryValidated safety and surrogate efficacy endpoints and standard ways of reporting them are being pursued. Focus has shifted to antiretrovirals containing microbicides, some of which may be used independent of coitus. Research on how to improve and measure adherence should continue.


Under the good genes model of sexual selection, females prefer males with attributes that signify high genetic quality to improve offspring fitness. This study tested the hypothesis that female mating preferences result in enhanced offspring performance, owing to genetic variation among sires in two species of red-eyed treefrogs (Agalychnis callidryas and A. moreletii). The study provides evidence for paternal size effects on offspring traits, most notably on hatchling size, larval duration and size at metamorphosis. Large males of both species produced larger hatchlings relative to half-sibs. Larger hatchlings may have immediate growth and survival advantages that propel them through the larval period and suggests the potential for increased post-metamorphic fitness benefits. Large males of A. callidryas sired larger froglets and there were positive correlations between sire size and froglet traits for both species. Tadpoles of both species that remained in a longer larval period emerged from metamorphosis at a greater size. The two species share similar life history traits, but considerable inter-specific differences of paternal effects between A. callidryas and A. moreletii may help to explain the variation in breeding behaviour and tadpole biology within these two species. In this system, females may exercise directional selection for offspring at a larger metamorphic body size that will increase her fitness through enhanced survival and reproductive success.


Abstract There is an increasing focus on notions of feedback in which students are positioned as active players rather than recipients of information. These discussions have been either conceptual in character or have an empirical focus on designs to support learners in feedback processes. There has been little emphasis on learners' perspectives on, and experiences of, the role they play in such processes and what they need in order to benefit from feedback. This study therefore seeks to identify the characteristics of feedback literacy – that is, how students understand and can utilise feedback for their own learning – by analysing students' views of feedback processes drawing on a substantial data set derived from a study of feedback in two large universities. The analysis revealed seven groupings of learner feedback literacy, including understanding feedback purposes and roles, seeking information, making judgements about work quality, working with emotions, and processing and using information for the benefit of their future work (31 categories in total). By identifying these realised components of feedback literacy, in the form of illustrative examples, the emergent set of competencies can enable investigations of the development of feedback literacy and improve feedback designs in courses through alignment to these standards.


Abstract. An energetical approach is proposed for classification decision fusion in urban areas using multispectral and hyperspectral imagery
at distinct spatial resolutions. Hyperspectral data provides a great ability to discriminate land-cover classes while multispectral data,
usually at higher spatial resolution, makes possible a more accurate spatial delineation of the classes. Hence, the aim here is to
achieve the most accurate classification maps by taking advantage of both data sources at the decision level: spectral properties of the
hyperspectral data and the geometrical resolution of multispectral images. More specifically, the proposed method takes into account
probability class membership maps in order to improve the classification fusion process. Such probability maps are available using
standard classification techniques such as Random Forests or Support Vector Machines. Classification probability maps are integrated
into an energy framework where minimization of a given energy leads to better classification maps. The energy is minimized using
a graph-cut method called quadratic pseudo-boolean optimization (QPBO) with α-expansion. A first model is proposed that gives
satisfactory results in terms of classification results and visual interpretation. This model is compared to a standard Potts models
adapted to the considered problem. Finally, the model is enhanced by integrating the spatial contrast observed in the data source of
higher spatial resolution (i.e., the multispectral image). Obtained results using the proposed energetical decision fusion process are
shown on two urban multispectral/hyperspectral datasets. 2-3% improvement is noticed with respect to a Potts formulation and 3-8%
compared to a single hyperspectral-based classification.


This study sought to determine the influence of school-based factors on educational wastage in public secondary school in Kathiani Sub-county, Machakos. A descriptive survey research design was use. The study was carried out in all 31 public secondary schools in Kathiani Sub-county, Machakos County. The target population of the study was 31 principals, 59 form four class teachers, the Sub-county director of education, 10 drop outs and 10 repeaters of secondary level of education in Kathiani Sub-county. All 31 principals were purposefully selected and one class teacher in each school was randomly selected. Data was collected using interview schedules for drop outs and questionnaires for form four class teachers, repeaters, Sub-county director of education and principals. Data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential methods. Quantitative data collected using questionnaires was analysed by the use of descriptive statistics and Chi-square statistical procedure using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 20). Descriptive statistics that were used in this study include frequencies and mean. The hypothesis was tested using the chi-square test, at a significance level of 0.05. The findings of the study show that there is a statistically significant association between school-based factors and educational wastage in public secondary schools in Kathiani Sub-county. The chi square results for curriculum overload is χ (4) =25.44, P=0.000. The results for staffing were χ2 (3 = 26.579, p-value= 0.000. School fees results were χ2 (4) = 27.649 and p-value= 0.000. The results for management support were χ (3) =27.140, p=0.000, distance to school results were χ (4) =26.070, p=0.000. Results for availability of teaching and learning facilities χ (4) =27.123, p=0.000 while results for school fees were χ (4) =27.649, p=0.000. In all these cases the Pvalues were less than 0.05 significance level, meaning they are all significant influencers of educational wastage.


Humans are equipped with some universal or language-specific abilities to recognize emotions. However, because of the different emotional contents in diverse languages and the relevant cultural differences, humans with different cultural backgrounds own different metapragmatical abilities to recognize and express emotions. A hypothesis concerning emotional effects about intonation and particle is proposed, testified by typological evidence and then extended to the relevant language phenomena. The linguistic systems utilizing emotional experiences might be more in a language with high emotional contents, and the expressions concerned with emotional metapramatical operation might be more complicated. Furthermore, high emotional contents in languages and more emotional metapragmatical abilities of the speakers lead people to pay more attention to the emotional contents, and thereby tend to develop collectivistic cultures. On the other hand, variant culture display rules regulate emotional expression and understanding, revealing the very intricate interaction between language and culture.


Although obesity is fundamentally a problem of energy balance wherein calorie intake exceeds calorie output, there is a multitude of psychological and neural factors inherent in eating and overeating. Behavioral and neuroimaging research suggests a relationship between emotion regulation and eating behavior. However, the connections among psychological characteristics, brain function, and weight loss maintenance are poorly understood. Accordingly, in the present study, fMRI was used to examine how two psychological characteristics, emotion amplification and rumination, are related to (a) neural response to food images both before (baseline [BL]) and after (3M) participants undergo a three-month behavioral weight loss intervention, and (b) initial weight loss and weight loss maintenance. Emotion amplification was associated with decreased activation in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) from BL to 3M. Rumination was associated with decreased activation in DLPFC from BL to 3M and increased activation in lateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, parahippocampal gyrus, and amygdala from BL to 3M. Rumination was also inversely correlated with BL post-meal activation in DLPFC and caudate; activation in these two regions was prospectively associated with more weight loss from BL to 3M. Findings suggest that emotion amplification and rumination contribute to how food stimuli are processed at a neural level. Potential mechanisms for behavioral regulation and treatment implications are discussed.


Abstract Detailed electron- and ion-microprobe analyses were carried out on atoll-shaped and normal garnets in ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphic eclogite from Dabie, east-central China. Compositional profiles of both normal garnets and rings of atoll garnets show well-preserved growth zoning with a decrease in Mn, Ca, and heavy rare earth elements (HREEs), and an increase in Mg toward rims. Manganese and middle rare earth element (MREE) enrichments are observed near garnet rims. Island- and peninsula-shaped garnet inside atolls are homogeneous in major elements and show the same composition as garnet rims, whereas the HREE concentrations are similar to those of the normal garnet cores. Electron back-scatter diffraction (EBSD) analyses show that the island- and peninsula-shaped garnet fractions inside atolls have crystallographic orientations identical to that of the atoll rings. These observations suggest that the atoll garnets were formed by the consumption of earlier-formed cores by fluid released from both hydroxyl exsolution from the nominally anhydrous minerals (NAMs) and lawsonite decomposition at the onset of exhumation, (i.e., garnet breakdown was from the inside and re-growth from outside to inside). Though somewhat restricted, this study reveals that because garnet and zircon act as sinks for HREEs and Zr, respectively, the majority of released HREEs and Zr were likely re-incorporated into newly grown garnet and zircon during the Dabie UHP metamorphic slab exhumation.


Optimization is important in science and engineering as a way of finding "optimal" situations, designs or operating conditions. Optimization is typically performed on the basis of a mathematical model of the process under investigation. In practice, optimization is complicated by the presence of uncertainty in the form of plant-model mismatch and unknown disturbances. Without uncertainty, one could use the model at hand, optimize it numerically off-line and implement the optimal inputs in an open-loop fashion. However, because of uncertainty, the inputs need to be re-computed or adjusted in real-time based on measurements. This is the field of real-time optimization, which is labeled RTO for static optimization problems [1]. A standard way of implementing RTO is via the so-called two-step approach of repeated parameter estimation and optimization. In this scheme, measurements are used to adapt the model parameters, and the updated model is used for optimization. The fixed point of this iterative scheme is an important issue. The quality of the model is often overlooked in real-time optimization. The model is typically inaccurate due to lack of time for detailed modeling or shear complexity. More surprising is the fact that a model can predict the plant outputs well but be inadequate to push the plant to its optimum, which means that the model does not adequately represent the optimality conditions of the plant. The problem of model selection in the two-step RTO approach has been discussed in [2]. If the model is structurally correct and the parameters are identifiable, convergence to the plant optimum can be achieved in a single iteration. However, in the presence of plant-model mismatch, whether the scheme converges, or to which point it does converge, becomes anyone's guess. This is due to the fact that the objective for parameter adaptation might be unrelated to the cost and constraint values and gradients that drive optimality in the optimization problem. Hence, minimizing the mean-square error of the plant outputs may not help in our quest for feasibility and optimality. Convergence under plant-model mismatch has been addressed in [3] and [4], where it has been shown that optimal operation is reached if model adaptation leads to matched KKT conditions for the model and the plant. This contribution addresses the convergence of two-step RTO schemes in the presence of structural plant-model mismatch. We propose to investigate the parameter estimation and optimization problems in the light of the second-order sufficient conditions of optimality to show that, in general, there are too few degrees of freedom to be able to reach plant optimality. A possible solution to this problem consists in reconciling the objectives of the parameter estimation and optimization problems along the lines of "modeling for optimization" [5,6]. One could for example use as "measured outputs" in the parameter estimation problem estimates of the necessary conditions of optimality for the optimization problem. These issues will be investigated both theoretically and via the simulation of chemical processes at steady state. References [1] Marlin, T.E. and Hrymak, A.N. (1997). "Real-Time Operations Optimization of Continuous Processes", In AIChE Symposium Series - CPC-V. Vol. 93. 156–164. [2] Forbes, J.F. and Marlin, T.E. (1996). "Design cost: A Systematic Approach to Technology Selection for Model-Based Real-Time Optimization Systems", Comp. Chem. Eng. 20, 717–734. [3] Biegler, L.T., Grossmann, I.E. and Westerberg, A.W. (1985). "A Note on Approximation Techniques Used for Process Optimization", Comp. Chem. Eng. 9, 201–206. [4] Forbes, J.F., Marlin, T. E. and MacGregor, J.F. (1994). "Model Adequacy Requirements for Optimizing Plant Operations", Comp. Chem. Eng. 18(6), 497–510. [5] Srinivasan, B. and Bonvin, D. (2002). "Interplay Between Identification and Optimization in Run-to-Run Optimization Schemes", ACC, Anchorage 2174–2179. [6] Bonvin, D. and Srinivasan, B. (2012). "On the Role of the Necessary Conditions of Optimality in Structuring Dynamic Real-Time Optimization Schemes", submitted to Comp. Chem. Eng.


Almost all law is expressed in natural language; therefore, natural language processing (NLP) is a key component of understanding and predicting law at scale. NLP converts unstructured text into a formal representation that computers can understand and analyze. The intersection of NLP and law is poised for innovation because there are (i.) a growing number of repositories of digitized machine-readable legal text data, (ii.) advances in NLP methods driven by algorithmic and hardware improvements, and (iii.) the potential to improve the effectiveness of legal services due to inefficiencies in its current practice.

NLP is a large field and like many research areas related to computer science, it is rapidly evolving. Within NLP, this paper focuses primarily on statistical machine learning techniques because they demonstrate significant promise for advancing text informatics systems and will likely be relevant in the foreseeable future.

First, we provide a brief overview of the different types of legal texts and the different types of machine learning methods to process those texts. We introduce the core idea of representing words and documents as numbers. Then we describe NLP tools for leveraging legal text data to accomplish tasks. Along the way, we define important NLP terms in italics and offer examples to illustrate the utility of these tools. We describe methods for automatically summarizing content (sentiment analyses, text summaries, topic models, extracting attributes and relations, document relevance scoring), predicting outcomes, and answering questions.


The reliability of electronic systems, used in nuclear power plants, is traditionally estimated with empirical databases such as MIL-HDBK-217, PRISM etc. These methods assign a constant failure rate to electronic devices, during their useful life. Currently, electronic reliability prediction is moving towards applying the Physics of Failure approach which considers information on process, technology, fabrication techniques, materials used, etc. The constant failure rate assumption stems from treating failures as random events. Electronics division of BARC is engaged in design & fabrication of CMOS and BJT ICs for nuclear pulse processing and signal conditioning. New microelectronic devices often exhibit infant mortality and wear-out phenomena while in operation. It points to competing degradation mechanisms-electro migration, hot carrier injection, dielectric breakdown etc.-that make a device's useful life different from that predicted by empirical methods. Understanding the dominant mechanisms that lead to device failure - Physics of Failure - is a more realistic approach to reliability prediction. This paper describes common failure mechanisms- encountered in CMOS and BJT ICs and the efforts being taken to quantify these effects in an optical-isolator IC - 4N36 - which forms a part of the trip generation circuit in neutron flux monitoring systems.


In this study, intermetatarsal angle (IMA) correction, functional outcome, and healing time for the proximal crescentic and proximal chevron osteotomies in moderate to severe hallux valgus deformity were prospectively compared. Seventy-five patients (97 feet) were prospectively randomized to either a proximal crescentic or proximal chevron osteotomy for the correction of moderate to severe hallux valgus deformity with associated metatarsus primus varus. Criteria for study entry included age (adult patients), IMA greater than or equal to 13°, persistent symptoms despite nonoperative treatment, and minimum follow-up of 12 months. Twenty-nine patients (41 feet) in the crescentic group and 37 patients (43 feet) in the chevron group returned for follow-up at an average of 24 and 20 months, respectively. Good results were achieved with both procedures. No statistically significant differences were found with respect to correction of the IMA or to functional outcome between the two groups. Results held true irrespective of patient age, severity of disease, or bilateral involvement. A statistically significant shorter healing time of the first metatarsal was found after proximal chevron osteotomy. Other potential benefits of the chevron procedure included avoidance of dorsiflexion of the first metatarsal, tendency toward less shortening of the first metatarsal, and more medial distribution of tibial sesamoids following surgery, all of which may reduce the potential for development or persistence of transfer lesions.


We extend the scarce evidence on labor supply in post-transition countries by estimating the wage elasticity of labor force participation in the Czech Republic. Using the household income survey data of 2002, we find that a one-percent rise in the gross wage increases the probability of working by 0.16 and 0.02 percentage points for women and men, respectively. Taking into account the tax and benefit system, these semi-elasticities fall to 0.06 for women and 0.01 for men. We interpret the difference between the estimates from the two specifications as a summary measure of the welfare system disincentives. The estimated wage elasticities lie at the lower end of the range of values reported for mature market economies. This finding is consistent with the stylized fact that the labor supply in countries with high labor force participation rates, such as in the Czech Republic, tends to be less sensitive to wages.


Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are members of a family of polysaccharide structures consisting mostly of repeating disaccharide units. Most GAGs are attached to specific serine residues in proteins to form proteoglycans (PGs). GAGs and PGs show a large and diverse number of biological functions ranging from cell cycle regulation and control of formation of blood vessels to modification of tissue transparency and lubrication in joints.

Glycosaminoglycan biosynthesis is initiated by the formation of a linker tetrasaccharide common to most glycosaminoglycans. Addition of the fifth monosaccharide then determines whether dermatan sulphate/chondroitin sulphate or heparin sulphate/heparin is synthesised. Since the GAGs are attached to a protein, it is complicated to study their structure and biosynthesis. Therefore lipophilic compounds carrying a xylose residue are used as artificial primers.

Xylosides carrying naphthalenic aglycon proved to be efficient primers of heparan sulphate and due to possible implications in anti-cancer therapy, further explorations into the so called naphthoxylosides were initiated.

The present thesis discusses my efforts towards a systematic investigation into the effects of aglycon structure on the antiproliferative and glycosaminoglycan priming properties of naphthoxylosides.

Varying the substitution pattern on the naphthalene framework of hydroxynaphthyl ?-D-xylosides confirmed previous indications that the aglycon structure is important for the biological activity of xylosides. Also, for healthy human lung fibroblasts a clear correlation between xyloside lipophilicity and toxicity, indicative of a passive uptake dependency, was found. However, for several compounds this correlation was absent in transformed cells, indicating the presence of a different mechanism of uptake or toxicity in these cells. Further, increased levels of apoptosis was shown in transformed cells treated with a hydroxynaphthyl ?-D-xylopyranoside with tumour-selective antiproliferative properties.

Substitution of the oxygen atoms attached to the naphthalene moiety for sulphur increased the diversity of naphthoxylosides available for study. The toxicity and glycosaminoglycan priming properties of these reinforced the complexity of the structure-activity relationship. Also, as part of the synthesis of sulphur-containing xylosides, the mechanism for the acid-catalysed nucleophilic aromatic substitution of phenolic hydroxyls in non-polar solvents was investigated. Kinetic studies indicated a mechanism involving a change in the rate-determining step depending on reaction temperature. Theoretical studies allowed a mechanism involving an unusual concerted step with a highly ordered eight-membered ring to be proposed.


Serverless distributed computing, especially Mobile Ad-hoc NETworks (MANETs) have received significant attention from the research community. Peer-to-peer overlay networks have the potential to accommodate large-scale, decentralised applications that can be integrated into a MANET architecture to enable peer-to-peer communication among different mobile peers. These overlay architectures must be very resilient and their utilisation, reliability and availability must satisfy the needs of mobile computing. One must also heed the fact that the wireless nature of the medium introduces security vulnerabilities. The aim of the work described in this paper is twofold. First, we describe our peer-to-peer distributed hash table (DHT) architecture entitled Reliable Overlay Based Utilisation of Services and Topology (ROBUST). This is designed to be efficiently applied to MANETs. We additionally propose security extensions to protect the ROBUST signalling messages against malicious activities. We evaluate the ROBUST performance as well as the security extensions under varying levels of mobility and network sizes by building a custom DHT module for the network simulator ns-2. The outcome of the results show negligible overhead introduced by the extensions giving credence to their application in security sensitive scenarios.


In this work, we show that in the wireless relay network, a tremendous savings in energy can be achieved by having side information at the transmitters and by employing power control. We present efficient protocols and the corresponding optimal power control policies that approach the universal lower bound on the outage probability of the block fading relay channel. Each of the proposed protocols have their own utility for specific channel conditions. However, a hybrid protocol between two known coding schemes is the best scheme for all channel conditions and is sufficient to approach the lower bound on outage probability. Unlike the single link channel, we show that exploiting the knowledge of the channel at the transmitters can significantly lower the outage even if the transmit powers at the source and relay have to be kept constant. In this case, it is also demonstrated that the lower bound on outage is closely followed by the outage probability of the hybrid protocol. Our results reveal that exploiting the right network protocol in conjunction with power control result in orders of magnitude savings in power over direct transmission for a target performance level.


Aim: Tropical forests account for a quarter of the global carbon storage and a third of the terrestrial productivity. Few studies have teased apart the relative importance of environmental factors and forest attributes for ecosystem functioning, especially for the tropics. This study aims to relate aboveground biomass (AGB) and biomass dynamics (i.e., net biomass productivity and its underlying demographic drivers: biomass recruitment, growth and mortality) to forest attributes (tree diversity, community-mean traits and stand basal area) and environmental conditions (water availability, soil fertility and disturbance).

Location: Neotropics.

Methods: We used data from 26 sites, 201 1-ha plots and >92,000 trees distributed across the Neotropics. We quantified for each site water availability and soil total exchangeable bases and for each plot three key community-weighted mean functional traits that are important for biomass stocks and productivity. We used structural equation models to test the hypothesis that all drivers have independent, positive effects on biomass stocks and dynamics.

Results: Of the relationships analysed, vegetation attributes were more frequently associated significantly with biomass stocks and dynamics than environmental conditions (in 67 vs. 33% of the relationships). High climatic water availability increased biomass growth and stocks, light disturbance increased biomass growth, and soil bases had no effect. Rarefied tree species richness had consistent positive relationships with biomass stocks and dynamics, probably because of niche complementarity, but was not related to net biomass productivity. Community-mean traits were good predictors of biomass stocks and dynamics.

Main conclusions: Water availability has a strong positive effect on biomass stocks and growth, and a future predicted increase in (atmospheric) drought might, therefore, potentially reduce carbon storage. Forest attributes, including species diversity and community-weighted mean traits, have independent and important relationships with AGB stocks, dynamics and ecosystem functioning, not only in relatively simple temperate systems, but also in structurally complex hyper-diverse tropical forests.


Even after his death in April 2007, Boris Yeltsin remains the most controversial figure in recent Russian history. Although Mikhail Gorbachev presided over the decline of the Communist party and the withdrawal of Soviet control over eastern Europe, it was Yeltsin-Russia's first elected president-who buried the Soviet Union itself. Upon taking office, Yeltsin quickly embarked on a sweeping makeover of newly democratic Russia, beginning with a program of excruciatingly painful market reforms that earned him wide acclaim in the West and deep recrimination from many Russian citizens. In this, the first biography of Yeltsin's entire life, Soviet scholar Timothy Colton traces Yeltsin's development from a peasant boy in the Urals to a Communist party apparatchik, and then ultimately to a nemesis of the Soviet order. Based on unprecedented interviews with Yeltsin himself as well as scores of other Soviet officials, journalists, and businessmen, Colton explains how and why Yeltsin broke with single-party rule and launched his drive to replace it with democracy. Yeltsin's colossal attempt to bring democracy to Russia remains one of the great, unfinished stories of our time. As anti-Western policies and rhetoric resurface in Putin's increasingly bellicose Russia, Yeltsin offers essential insights into the past, present, and future of this vast and troubled nation.


Privacy is a fundamental aspect when dealing with Personal Information. Privacy requirements are those that capture privacy goals and its associated measures for a system under development. In order to ensure privacy we must identify these elements. However, there are many challenges in their identification. For example, privacy requirements may be difficult to quantify and precisely specify. There is a need for systematic approaches for reasoning, modeling and analyzing privacy from the early stages of the software development. Furthermore, it is necessary to develop a usable ontology or classification of measurable aspects of privacy that can be used to aid in the specification of privacy requirements. These ontologies should be represented in a way that facilitates their use as guidelines for the requirements elicitation process. This work builds on a review of privacy legislation to develop a catalog of aspects of privacy that can be considered during requirements gathering. This catalogue is used to guide the requirements engineer through alternatives for achieving privacy. The approach uses the i* framework to model privacy as a special type of goal. We show how privacy can be modelled through different viewpoints with different alternatives for its operationalization. An example in the health care domain is used to illustrate our work.


ABSTRACT Cryptococcus neoformans is an opportunistic fungal pathogen that causes life-threatening infections of the central nervous system. Existing therapies include amphotericin B, fluconazole, and flucytosine, which are limited by toxic side effects and the emergence of drug resistance. We recently demonstrated that the protein phosphatase calcineurin is required for growth at 37°C and virulence of C. neoformans. Because calcineurin is the target of potent inhibitors in widespread clinical use, cyclosporine and FK506 (tacrolimus), it is an attractive drug target for novel antifungal agents. Here we have explored the synergistic potential of combining the calcineurin inhibitor FK506 or its nonimmunosuppressive analog, L-685,818, with other antifungal agents and examined the molecular basis of FK506 action by using genetically engineered fungal strains that lack the FK506 target proteins FKBP12 and calcineurin. We demonstrate that FK506 exhibits marked synergistic activity with the H+ATPase inhibitor bafilomycin A1 via a novel action distinct from calcineurin loss of function. FK506 also exhibits synergistic activity with the pneumocandin MK-0991/caspofungin acetate (formerly L-743,873), which targets the essential β-1,3 glucan synthase, and in this case, FK506 action is mediated via FKBP12-dependent inhibition of calcineurin. Finally, we demonstrate that FK506 and fluconazole have synergistic activity that is independent of both FKBP12 and calcineurin and may involve the known ability of FK506 to inhibit multidrug resistance pumps, which are known to export azoles from fungal cells. In summary, our studies illustrate the potential for synergistic activity of a variety of different drug combinations and the power of molecular genetics to define the mechanisms of drug action, as well as identify a novel action of FK506 that could have profound implications for therapeutic or toxic effects in other organisms, including humans.


There are different ways to allow the voters to express their preferences on a set of candidates. In ranked voting systems, each voter selects a subset of the candidates and ranks them in order of preference. Cook and Kress using a data envelopment analysis/assurance region (DEA/AR) model, proposed to assess each candidate with the most favourable scoring vector for him/her. However, the use of this procedure often causes several candidates to be efficient, i.e., they achieve the maximum score. For this reason, several methods to discriminate among efficient candidates have been proposed. In this research, after reviewing the existing ranking models, we propose a new methodology to rank the ranking models for the performance indices of only DEA efficient candidates based on a voting model. Also, an approach for combining the results obtained from the ranking models is presented.


This paper studies the design of optimal time-consistent monetary policy in an economy where the planner trusts its own model, while a representative household uses a set of alternative probability distributions governing the evolution of the exogenous state of the economy. In such environments, unlike in the original studies of time-consistent monetary policy, managing households' expectations becomes an active channel of optimal policymaking per se, a feature that the paternalistic government seeks to exploit. We adapt recursive methods in the spirit of Abreu, Pearce, and Stacchetti (1990) as well as computational algorithms based on Judd, Yeltekin, and Conklin to fully characterize the equilibrium outcomes for a class of policy games between the government and a representative household that distrusts the model used by the government.


This paper examines the value of photography walking tours for exploring meanings and experiences of community. The work is part of a larger visual research project which sought to examine the everyday lives of residents in a neighbourhood identified as 'disadvantaged', with the tour being organized as an opportunity for residents to identify what they valued about their local environment and what they considered to be problematic. The dynamics involved in gathering this photographic record are one element of the discussion as is analysis of the ways in which the participants constructed and re-constructed their sense of community through the different examples they selected for photographing. The paper is thus concerned with the ways in which visual data bring different insights to understandings of which practices, services and resources are embedded in meanings of community in working-class neighbourhoods and, in turn, how such data might have value for informing policy and practice about the experiences of inequality in contemporary England.


For decades, natural resource agencies in the United States have attempted to restore ecosystems using adaptive management, a process that emphasizes experimental learning to reduce uncertainty. Most studies show that it rarely occurs in practice and explain implementation failures as organizational issues. This study draws on policy implementation theory to suggest that behaviors and attitudes of individuals may better explain implementation gaps. This comparative case study finds differences between experts implementing adaptive management in the Fish and Wildlife Service and the United States Geological Survey. These include differences in attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors aimed at promoting individual autonomy, performance standards, and defending individual interests on the job. Policy implications are twofold: first, that individual behaviors impact adaptive management implementation and intrinsic motivation to perform such functions. Second, regardless of agency, experts view their work as a social good. This suggests that a devolved planning process may remedy implementation obstacles.


The article analyses in what way artzins (independent art and literary journals published in Poland in the 1980s and 1990s) drew inspiration from the Dada tradition, and how they made its philosophy live again. Artzins are seen here both as a medium of literature and art and as specific forms of artistic expression (press art). The article attempts to show why artzins and their authors were interested in reviving the avant-garde and Dada ideas. It also investigates how Dadaism functions today in the form of contemporary works and styles which are influenced by this avant-garde movement. What is more, the article tries to answer the question about the nature and definition of Dadaism shaped and reflected by today's artistic projects.


This study investigates L2 teachers' and L2 students' perceptions of effective foreign language teaching in Iran by evaluating adjustments and maladjustments among each group's perception of what they think an effective L2 teacher should recognize and perform in the classroom. The main aims of this study were triple: First, the recognition and contrast of post-secondary L2 students' and L2 teachers' perceptions of effective teaching conducts on a Likert-scale questionnaire; second, the contrast of students' and teachers' perceptions of how often particular teaching conducts are implemented; third, the contrast of students' assessments of teaching to their teachers' self-assessments on a similar questionnaire. Fifty teachers and their one hundred and fifty students from eight classes in some universities in Golestan province, Iran willingly joined the study in fall semester, 2014. In two visits, the students and teachers completed questionnaires concerning perceptions of 1) what effective FL teachers should be performing in the classroom, 2) how often definite target conducts are implemented, and 3) how effective teachers do them. An extra section of the study included the contrast of the students' evaluations on the language-teaching questionnaire with certain questions related to teaching taken from the standard Teacher-Course Evaluation Questions. Statistical analyses indicated that teachers and students, generally and by teacher, do have very various perceptions of what should be performed in the FL classroom, what is at this time being performed, and how effectively it is being performed. Questions that indicated statistically important distinctions among teachers and students generally concealed matters such as direct error modification, task-based teaching, and students' utilization of FL early, use of pair and small-group work, and grammar teaching. Teachers' and students' answers to the utilization of English in testing reading and listening skills, the need for the teacher to have native-like command of the target language, the explanation of the FL by the teacher to help students' comprehension, and the need of positioning grammar into real-world backgrounds were alike. Students and teachers look to have different views concerning grammar teaching and the worth of communicative language teaching strategies with students preferring a more common grammar-based method and teachers preferring a communicative FL classroom.


Demographic research has paid much attention to the impact of childhood conditions on adult mortality. We focus on one of the key aspects of early life conditions, sibling group size, and examine the causal effect of growing up in a large family on mortality. While previous studies have focused on low- or middle-income countries, we examine whether growing up in a large family is a disadvantage in Sweden, a context where most parents have adequate resources, which are complemented by a generous welfare state. We used Swedish register data and frailty models, examining all-cause and cause-specific mortality between the ages of 40 and 74 for the 1938–72 cohorts, and also a quasi-experimental approach that exploited multiple births as a source of exogenous variation in the number of siblings. Overall our results do not indicate that growing up in a large family has a detrimental effect on longevity in Sweden.


The editors of the Valparaiso Law Review had the good sense to hold their symposium conference "Money in Politics: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" the week the Supreme Court issued its decision in McCutcheon v. FEC. At the symposium, one of the authors of this article, Liz Kennedy, presented a talk entitled, "The Supreme Court, the Constitution, and the Crisis of Confidence in American Democracy," which explained how the Roberts Court has misunderstood the democratic interests at stake in its recent campaign finance cases. The Roberts Court has applied a blinded, highly abstract First Amendment doctrine, which ignores the distortion of democratic responsiveness caused by big money in politics. We see this play out in anti-majoritarian policy outcomes that demonstrate the lack of meaningful representation experienced by the non-wealthy. This type of endemic political inequality constitutes a corruption of democracy because a democratic system of government is one in which elected officials are responsive to the views of each citizen considered as political equals. Accordingly, to the extent that the First Amendment is understood to be in service to democracy, it cannot be read as permitting a small, wealthy minority to accrue political power deriving from their wealth — that, after all, is the definition of a plutocracy.This article expands upon Ms. Kennedy's presentation, further describing the jurisprudential and policy mistakes made by the controlling plurality in McCutcheon, including its inconsistency with important precedent. Specifically, Part II describes McCutcheon's plurality holding and its direct practical effects on campaign fundraising. Part III explains why the expected influx of additional money into politics will exacerbate democratic harms that already damage our republic. Part IV considers McCutcheon's place in the Court's prior jurisprudence in this area. Part V discusses the path towards the democracy we deserve. Finally, Part VI concludes by reiterating the movement towards a pro-democracy understanding of the Constitution.


Inverse Reinforcement Learning addresses the problem of inferring an expert's reward function from demonstrations. However, in many applications, we not only have access to the expert's near-optimal behavior, but we also observe part of her learning process. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm for this setting, in which the goal is to recover the reward function being optimized by an agent, given a sequence of policies produced during learning. Our approach is based on the assumption that the observed agent is updating her policy parameters along the gradient direction. Then we extend our method to deal with the more realistic scenario where we only have access to a dataset of learning trajectories. For both settings, we provide theoretical insights into our algorithms' performance. Finally, we evaluate the approach in a simulated GridWorld environment and on the MuJoCo environments, comparing it with the state-of-the-art baseline.


Dance training has developed eclectically to serve the different approaches to dance performance and making, however there is a discrepancy between the physiological demands of training and dance performance. It is no longer acceptable to train contemporary dancers without due regard for physiological concerns if they are to be prepared appropriately to meet the demands of current choreographic work.

This doctoral thesis contains six published studies (chapter 3), five of which have been published as papers in peer reviewed academic journals and one as an abstract in a peer reviewed academic journal. The main thrust of each of the studies falls under the umbrella investigations of dance specific ways of assessing and training for physical fitness in contemporary dance. More specifically, the aims of the progressive research were: to investigate the physiological demands of dance training and performance; to assess the role of supplementary fitness training in dance; to examine new dance specific methods oftesting and training dancers.

The thesis also comprises a supporting document (chapters 1,2,4,5,6) which places the work in its overall context, articulates the coherence and contemporary relevance of the work and critically evaluates its application to, and implications for, the broader dance context. The relationship between each study and how the six studies address an overarching question about the appropriateness of today's contemporary dance training is considered and some recommendations proffered. Specific limitations of each study and of the studies collectively, are articulated with recommendations for where future research efforts might be focused. Application of the research from the educator and researcher's perspective is suggested, and the significance of the work is highlighted.


This review article describes the main contributions in the literature on term structure models of commodity prices. The first section is devoted to the theoretical analysis of the term structure. It confines itself primarily to the traditional theories of commodity prices and to their explanation of the relationship between spot and futures prices. The theories of normal backwardation and storage are however a bit limited when the whole term structure is taken into account. As a result, there is a need for a long-term extension of the analysis, and this premise constitutes the second point of the section. Finally, a dynamic analysis of the term structure is presented. The second section is centered on term structure models of commodity prices. The presentation shows that these models differ on the nature and the number of factors used to describe uncertainty. Four different factors are generally used: the spot price, the convenience yield, the interest rate, and the long-term price. The third section reviews the main empirical results obtained with term structure models. First of all, simulations highlight the influence of the assumptions concerning the stochastic process retained for the state variables and the number of state variables. Then, the method usually employed for the estimation of the parameters is explained. Lastly, the models' performances, i.e., their ability to reproduce the term structure of commodity prices, are presented. The fourth section examines the two main applications of term structure models: hedging and valuation. The conclusion summarizes the broad trends in the literature on commodity pricing during the 1990s and early 2000s, and proposes future directions for research.


The fatigue behavior of welded thin-walled T-joints made up of both circular hollow section (CHS) braces and chords, subjected to cyclic in-plane bending, is described in this paper. CHS chords and braces are of thicknesses less than 4 mm. Current fatigue design guidelines show that the design of welded tubular nodal joints is restricted to thicknesses greater than or equal to 4 mm. The increased availability and use of thin-walled (t<4 mm) tubes of high-strength steels in recent years, in structures subjected to cyclic loading, means that it is important to study the fatigue behavior of welded thin-walled tubular nodal joints. In this paper, welded thin-walled CHS-CHS T-joints subjected to constant-stress-amplitude cyclic in-plane bending range are studied. The stress concentration factors (SCFs) determined experimentally at the brace and chord crown positions are shown to be about 30% and 40% respectively of the SCFs determined using parametric equations in existing fatigue design guidelines. The fatigue tests showed that in welded thin-walled CHS-CHS T-joints, a through-thickness crack occurs when the surface crack length along the weld toes in the chord has grown to a length equal to about 40% of the circumference of the brace member. An end of test failure criterion was proposed as an alternative to the through-thickness failure criterion, in obtaining data that is suitable for determining fatigue design S-N curves.


Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a lethal pathogen that causes high mortality and morbidity in immunocompromised and critically ill patients. The Type III secretion system (T3SS) of P. aeruginosa mediates many of the adverse effects of infection with this pathogen including increased lung permeability in a toll-like receptor 4/Rho A/plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-1-dependent manner. Alpha-tocopherol has anti-inflammatory properties that may make it a useful adjunct in treatment of this moribund infection. We measured transendothelial and transepithelial resistance, Rho A and PAI-1 activation, stress fiber formation, P. aeruginosa T3SS exoenzyme (Exo Y) intoxication into host cells, and survival in a murine model of pneumonia in the presence of P. aeruginosa and pretreatment with α-tocopherol. We found that α-tocopherol alleviated P. aeruginosa-mediated alveolar endothelial and epithelial paracellular permeability by inhibiting RhoA, in part, via PAI-1 activation and increased survival in a mouse model of P. aeruginosa pneumonia. Furthermore, we found that α-tocopherol decreased the activation of RhoA and PAI-1 by blocking the injection of T3SS exoenzymes into alveolar epithelial cells. P. aeruginosa is becoming increasingly antibiotic-resistant. We provide evidence that α-tocopherol could be a useful therapeutic agent for individuals that are susceptible to infection with P. aeruginosa such as those who are immunocompromised or critically ill.


p-Adic physics involves two only partially understood questions.

Is there a duality between real and p-adic physics? What is its precice mathematic formulation? In particular, what is the concrete map p-adic physics in long scales (in real sense) to real physics in short scales? Can one find a rigorous mathematical formulation of canonical identification induced by the map p→ 1/p in pinary expansion of p-adic number such that it is both continuous and respects symmetries.

What is the origin of the p-adic length scale hypothesis suggesting that primes near power of two are physically preferred? Why Mersenne primes are especially important?

A possible answer to these questions relies on the following ideas inspired by the model of Shnoll effect. The first piece of the puzzle is the notion of quantum arithmetics formulated in non-rigorous manner already in the model of Shnoll effect.

Quantum arithmetics is induced by the map of primes to quantum primes by the standard formula. Quantum integer is obtained by mapping the primes in the prime decomposition of integer to quantum primes. Quantum sum is induced by the ordinary sum by requiring that also sum commutes with the quantization.

The construction is especially interesting if the integer defining the quantum phase is prime. One can introduce the notion of quantum rational defined as series in powers of the preferred prime defining quantum phase. The coefficients of the series are quantum rationals for which neither numerator and denominator is divisible by the preferred prime.

p-Adic--real duality can be identified as the analog of canonical identification induced by the map p→ 1/p in the pinary expansion of quantum rational. This maps maps p-adic and real physics to each other and real long distances to short ones and vice versa. This map is especially interesting as a map defining cognitive representations.

Quantum arithmetics inspires the notion of quantum matrix group as counterpart of quantum group for which matrix elements are ordinary numbers. Quantum classical correspondence and the notion of finite measurement resolution realized at classical level in terms of discretization suggest that these two views about quantum groups are closely related. The preferred prime p defining the quantum matrix group is identified as p-adic prime and canonical identification p→ 1/p is group homomorphism so that symmetries are respected.

The quantum counterparts of special linear groups SL(n,F) exists always. For the covering group SL(2,C) of SO(3,1) this is the case so that 4-dimensional Minkowski space is in a very special position. For orthogonal, unitary, and orthogonal groups the quantum counterpart exists only if quantum arithmetics is characterized by a prime rather than general integer and when the number of powers of p for the generating elements of the quantum matrix group satisfies an upper bound characterizing the matrix group.

For the quantum counterparts of SO(3) (SU(2)/ SU(3)) the orthogonality conditions state that at least some multiples of the prime characterizing quantum arithmetics is sum of three (four/six) squares. For SO(3) this condition is strongest and satisfied for all integers, which are not of form n= 22r(8k+7)). The number r3(n) of representations as sum of squares is known and r3(n) is invariant under the scalings n→ 22rn. This means scaling by 2 for the integers appearing in the square sum representation.

r3(n) is proportional to the so called class number function h(-n) telling how many non-equivalent decompositions algebraic integers have in the quadratic algebraic extension generated by (-n)1/2.

The findings about quantum SO(3) suggest a possible explanation for p-adic length scale hypothesis and preferred p-adic primes.

The basic idea is that the quantum matrix group which is discrete is very large for preferred p-adic primes. If cognitive representations correspond to the representations of quantum matrix group, the representational capacity of cognitive representations is high and this kind of primes are survivors in the algebraic evolution leading to algebraic extensions with increasing dimension.

The preferred primes correspond to a large value of r3(n). It is enough that some of their multiples do so (the 22r multiples of these do so automatically). Indeed, for Mersenne primes and integers one has r3(n)=0, which was in conflict with the original expectations. For integers n=2Mm however r3(n) is a local maximum at least for the small integers studied numerically.

The requirement that the notion of quantum integer applies also to algebraic integers in quadratic extensions of rationals requires that the preferred primes (p-adic primes) satisfy p=8k+7. Quite generally, for the integers n=22r(8k+7) not representable as sum of three integers the decomposition of ordinary integers to algebraic primes in the quadratic extensions defined by (-n)1/2 is unique. Therefore also the corresponding quantum algebraic integers are unique for preferred ordinary prime if it is prime also in the algebraic extension. If this were not the case two different decompositions of one and same integer would be mapped to different quantum integers. Therefore the generalization of quantum arithmetics defined by any preferred ordinary prime, which does not split to a product of algebraic primes, is well-defined for p=22r(8k+7).

This argument was for quadratic extensions but also more complex extensions defined by higher polynomials exist. The allowed extensions should allow unique decomposition of integers to algebraic primes. The prime defining the quantum arithmetics should not decompose to algebraic primes. If the algebraic evolution leadis to algebraic extensions of increasing dimension it gradually selects preferred primes as survivors.


The purpose of this study is to know the behavior of the accounting students during examinations. It also emphasizes on how the students conduct themselves in an ethical way. Since the school is a Christian institution, it is perceived that students would not attempt to misbehave during examinations. There are students who ignore the importance of values, such as honesty. Honesty is the best policy as always heard but in reality dishonesty exists during examinations. The result of the study showed that 34.9% practice honesty and 65.1% practice dishonesty. Students are motivated to act dishonestly (cheat) because of their aim to pass the examinations. Students have their own means of cheating, and by all means, they have to do something in order to get a good grade and not to repeat the subject at least. The result also showed that female students are more prone to cheating, 54% cheat during the examinations while 46% of the male students cheat. Educators must not tolerate cheaters. Consequences must be executed when students are caught cheating. There is a need to educate the accounting students in preparation for their profession otherwise, career is at stake. Ethical principles must be instilled in their minds, thoughts, and actions.


The effect of pH and silicon (Si) in the nutrient solution on the vegetative development of 2-year-old blueberry plants (Vaccinium corymbosum L. cv. Ventura) was studied. Two independent experiments were performed on coir fiber (CF) and sand as substrates. In experiment 1, Si was applied in the nutrient solution at a dose of 0.0, 0.3, 0.6, and 1.2 mm. In experiment 2, plants were treated with nutrient solution at pH 4.00, 4.75, 5.50, and 6.25, using two sources of acidification: nitric acid and citric acid. The parameters of plant growth, foliar surface, and stem biomass were measured. With the application of 1.2 mm Si to CF, plant height registered a significant increase of 8%, and shoot dry and fresh biomass increased by 21% and 25%, respectively. The results of experiment 1 indicated that the application of Si benefits the vegetative growth of blueberry plants in CF, but no effect was observed in the sand substrate. In the results of experiment 2, the pH level of 6.25 in CF decreased the dry weight of stems and leaves by 21% and 18%, respectively. A significant increase in the pH range of 4.00 to 5.50 was recorded in both the citric acid and nitric acid treatments, but these significant effects were not found in sand. Citric acid presented a similar behavior to nitric acid, which indicates that it can be a good source of acidification in organic and ecologically friendly crops.


The results presented in this paper are aim at examining and comparing the migratory events occurred betwixt two countries which have different social and economic conditions. The information developed along this text is, therefore, an initial assessment on migration between Canada and Colombia. The author used hermeneutics as a main methodological tool for conducting this study. This paper concludes that, although there are a range of motivations behind the decision to leaving one's home country, the pursuit for better economic conditions is the dominant factor.


The United States Supreme Court recently clarified in Lingle v. Chevron U.S.A., Inc. that its often-expressed substantially advance formulation sounds in due process, and thus should be rejected as an appropriate takings test. The Court also explained that due process provides an independent and legitimate basis for attacking government deprivations of private property. Paradoxically, Lingle also reaffirmed as the Court's principal takings test the ad hoc, multifactor formulation in Penn Central Transportation Co. v. City of New York. The Article asserts that Penn Central itself is a due process test. Building upon Lingle, as the Court did not, the Article outlines separate and independent takings and due property tests. The proffered due process test is based on the need for meaningful scrutiny. The suggested takings test applies property law concepts in determining whether government arrogated private property to itself, and thus must compensate. Most particularly, the Article advocates the commercial unit as a necessarily objective measure of what constitutes a relevant interest for takings analysis.


BACKGROUND
Several studies suggest the relationship between lower socioeconomic status and environmental factors with increased risk of cancer. Within the framework of the MEDEA project, this work aims to identify geographic inequalities in larynx cancer (LC) mortality and incidence in men and its association with deprivation and environmental factors.

METHODS
Ecological study having as reference population men living in the city of Zaragoza. The study period was 1996-2003. The deaths were obtained from the Mortality Registry of Aragon, the incident cases from the Cancer Registry of Zaragoza and the socioeconomic data from the 2001 Census. We used the European Pollutant Emission Register database to locate possible polluting industries. For each census tract (CT) a deprivation index was obtained using principal components analysis. Smoothed Standardized Mortality and Incidence ratios were also calculated using Bayesian methods.

RESULTS
We analysed 211 deaths and 569 incident cases with CT, corresponding to 95% of the total registered mortality cases and 97.8% incidence. The CTs in the highest quartile, highest deprivation index, had significantly higuer risk of mortality (2.74 times) as well as incidence (1.66 times) by LC. However, the environmental indicators have not been shown a statistically significance association.

CONCLUSIONS
The CTs with the lowest socioeconomic status have higher risk of LC mortality and incidence. Nevertheless, the possible exposition to the polluting industrial focus does not explain the observed geographic variability.


There is a growing interest in designing systems for sharing experience through bodily interaction. To explore this design space, we built a probe system we named the Lega. In our 2-month-long research design process, we noted that the users' attention was set on their own reflective experience, rather than attending to the person(s) with which they were sharing their experience. To explain these findings, we present an inductive analysis of the data through a phenomenological lens to pinpoint what causes such behavior. Our analysis extends our understanding of how to design for social embodied interaction, pointing to how we need to embrace the tension between self-reflection and shared experience, making inward listening and social expression visible acts, accessible to social construction and understanding. It entails experiencing our embodied self as others experience us in order to build a dialogue.


To the Editor: The unprecedented number of Ebola virus disease (EVD) cases in western Africa has compelled the world to consider experimental and off-label therapeutics to mitigate the current outbreak. For clinicians, approved drugs are an attractive solution because of known safety profiles and availability.

Oral lamivudine (GlaxoSmithKline, Brentford, UK), a US Food and Drug Administration–approved anti-HIV drug, has been suggested as a possible antiviral agent against Ebola virus (EBOV). In September 2014, a Liberian physician, Dr. Gorbee Logan, reported positive results while treating EVD with lamivudine (1). Thirteen of 15 patients treated with lamivudine survived presumed EVD and were declared virus free. Clinical confirmation of EVD in these cases remains to be verified.

Our laboratory had previously assessed this antiretroviral compound in drug screens against EBOV and observed no discernable antiviral activity. However, given the recent testimonials regarding lamivudine effectiveness in treating EBOV-infected patients in Africa, we conducted additional studies to determine whether our previous assertion that lamivudine lacked any direct antiviral activity was correct.

Lamivudine is a nucleoside analog reverse transcription inhibitor of HIV and hepatitis B virus that acts as a synthetic cytidine analog. Incorporation of the active triphosphate form into viral DNA results in chain termination. Studies have demonstrated that lamivudine is a weak inhibitor of mammalian α, β, and γ DNA polymerases (2). Lamivudine would not be expected to inhibit the replication of a negative-strand RNA virus.

The activity of lamivudine against EBOV infection was evaluated in a cell-based ELISA with 1995 isolate EBOV H. sapiens-tc/COD/1995/Kikwit (EBOV/Kik) (3). Three cell lines were tested: Vero E6 (African green monkey kidney, ATCC CRL-1586), Hep G2 (human hepatoma, ATCC HB-8065), and human monocyte-derived macrophages. Macrophages were generated by treating CD14+ cells for 7 days with macrophage colony–stimulating factor and conditioned medium. Cells were treated with compounds in 3-, 4-, or 8- point dose response curves with 2-fold dilutions starting at 80 µmol/L or 320 µmol/L oral lamivudine. Toremifene (T7204–5MG; Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) was used as a positive control for activity against EBOV and tested at 2-fold dilutions starting at 25 µmol/L. One hour after drug addition, the cells were infected at a multiplicity of infection of 0.5 or 1 with EBOV/Kik. Experiments were run on duplicate plates or the entire experiment was run on 2 separate days. At 48 hours after infection, cells were formalin-fixed and stained with a primary antibody against EBOV (antibodies against viral matrix protein or glycoprotein) and a secondary antibody (Alexa-488 or horseradish peroxidase).

No direct antiviral effect for lamivudine was observed at concentrations ≤320 µmol/L in Vero E6 cells (Table). Because optimal efficacy of the drug requires phosphorylation, lack of activity may be caused by poor phosphorylation in Vero E6 cells (6). Therefore, we also assessed HepG2 cells and primary human monocyte–derived macrophages sensitive to EBOV infection. Toremifene was included as a positive control. Toremifene is a US Food and Drug Administration–approved drug that was reported to have direct antiviral activity in cell culture and to protect mice infected with mouse-adapted EBOV (3). As expected, toremifene inhibited EBOV at low micromolar concentrations (Table).

Table

Inhibitory effects of test compounds on Ebola virus replication*

Finally, we assessed the antiviral activity of the compounds against a recent isolate prototype from the current outbreak, EBOV H. sapiens-tc/GIN/2014/Gueckedou-C05 (EBOV/Gue) to test whether inhibition of EBOV/Gue by lamivudine was different from that of the reference Kikwit strain. In contrast to a known active compound (toremifene), lamivudine showed no direct antiviral activity.

The current data suggest that lamivudine does not directly inhibit EBOV RNA polymerase or replication of the virus. Systemic and off-target effects, while not previously described, might be possible. To address this possibility, we plan to assess lamivudine in the mouse model of EVD and will report these findings when available. However, on the basis of these in vitro tests, there is no foundation for recommending lamivudine for treatment of EVD in human patients.


Allometric growth pattern and body shape changes of the Green terror (Andinoacara rivulatus)(Cichlidae) were studied using landmark-based geometric morphometric (GM) and traditional methods, from hatching up to 1266 Hours Post Hatching (HPH) under culture conditions. The left side of specimens were photographed using digital camera and morphometric characters, including total length, head length, tail length, trunk length, eye diameter, snout length and body depth were measured using ImageJ software. In GM method, ten landmark-points were digitized on 2D pictures. Allometric growth patterns were calculated as a power function of total length and described by the growth coefficient to reveal important steps in the species' early life history. The scores of relative warp analysis (RW) were used as descriptors for the variation in shape. The growth patterns obtained by both traditional morphometric (TM) and GM methods showed similar patterns, but GM showed effective results to interpret the morphological changes and revealing larval stages based on the body shape change. The results also showed higher growth rate of head and tail regions up to yolk sac absorption following by isometric patterns, after begin of exogenous feeding. Based on the findings, the early development of this species can be divided into five stages based on its morphology, including newly hatching larvae (up to 48 HPH), younger larvae (156 HPH), older larvae (426 HPH), younger juvenile (666 HPH) and juveniles. The results confirmed this fact that morphological development and growth patterns during early life stages in A. rivulatus closely match its immediate required function.