Local variation in the density of Anopheles mosquitoes and the risk of exposure to bites are essential to explain the spatial and temporal heterogeneities in the transmission of malaria. Vector distribution is driven by environmental factors. Based on variables derived from satellite imagery and meteorological observations, this study aimed to dynamically model and map the densities of Anopheles darlingi in the municipality of Saint-Georges de l'Oyapock (French Guiana). Longitudinal sampling sessions of An. darlingi densities were conducted between September 2012 and October 2014. Landscape and meteorological data were collected and processed to extract a panel of variables that were potentially related to An. darlingi ecology. Based on these data, a robust methodology was formed to estimate a statistical predictive model of the spatial-temporal variations in the densities of An. darlingi in Saint-Georges de l'Oyapock. The final cross-validated model integrated two landscape variables—dense forest surface and built surface—together with four meteorological variables related to rainfall, evapotranspiration, and the minimal and maximal temperatures. Extrapolation of the model allowed the generation of predictive weekly maps of An. darlingi densities at a resolution of 10-m. Our results supported the use of satellite imagery and meteorological data to predict malaria vector densities. Such fine-scale modeling approach might be a useful tool for health authorities to plan control strategies and social communication in a cost-effective, targeted, and timely manner.


The permeability of a crystal mush fundamentally controls the ability of its melt to migrate or segregate with respect to the solid phase and thus controls the extent to which compaction and porous-media convection can occur in crystallizing igneous cumulates. In particular, the existence of a percolation threshold, which defines the porosity at which a crystallizing rock becomes impermeable, can limit the effectiveness of these processes. We present three-dimensional numerical models of the topology of porosity in both texturally equilibrated and nonequilibrated crystal-melt systems; these models enable porosity vs. permeability relationships and hence percolation thresholds to be calculated. The permeability of the nonequilibrated models was calculated using a network-simulation method. These models confirm that there is no percolation threshold for a perfectly texturally equilibrated rock with dihedral angles of 20%. These results suggest that the volume of trapped melt in an igneous cumulate may be controlled by the ability of the crystallizing crystal-melt system to reach textural equilibrium.


Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate improvements in swallowing function and physiology in a series of healthy older adults with radiographically confirmed dysphagia, following completion of an exercise-based swallowing intervention. Patients and methods Nine otherwise healthy older adults (six females, mean age =75.3, SD =5.3) had confirmed impairments in swallowing safety and/or efficiency on a modified barium swallow study. Each participant completed an 8-week swallowing treatment protocol including effortful swallows, Mendelsohn maneuvers, tongue-hold swallows, supraglottic swallows, Shaker exercises and effortful pitch glides. Treatment sessions were conducted once per week with additional daily home practice. Penetration–Aspiration Scale and the Modified Barium Swallowing Impairment Profile (MBSImP) were scored in a blind and randomized fashion to examine changes to swallowing function and physiology from baseline to post-treatment. Results There were significant improvements in swallowing physiology as represented by improved oral and pharyngeal composite scores of the MBSImP. Specific components to demonstrate statistical improvement included initiation of the pharyngeal swallow, laryngeal elevation and pharyngeal residue. There was a nonsignificant reduction in median PAS scores. Conclusion Swallowing physiology can be improved using this standardized high-intensity exercise protocol in healthy adults with evidence of dysphagia. Future research is needed to examine the individual potential of each exercise in isolation and to determine ideal dose and frequency. Studies on various etiological groups are warranted.


"Penetrating interviews with some of Florida's journalism titans."--Jeff Klinkenberg, St. Petersburg Times Newspapers in Florida are generally regarded as among the best in the country. Despite its image as a modern sun-and-fun frontier state filled with eccentrics, corrupt politicians, and feuding immigrant communities, Florida has become an economic, political, and social juggernaut that continues to have a significant impact on America. Orange Journalism presents 18 writers, editors, and publishers who have nurtured and influenced the high quality of print journalism in Florida during the last half-century. Focusing on both the daily and the weekly press, this oral history includes candid interviews with such visionaries as Al Neuharth, who founded USA Today, and such prominent writers as Carl Hiaasen and Rick Bragg. The book features conversations with sportswriters, investigative journalists, editorial cartoonists, Pulitzer prize-winning writers, and the publishers of an African American and a Spanish-language paper. It also includes interviews with publishers of large state newspapers (David Lawrence of the Miami Herald); medium-sized papers (Diane McFarlin of the Sarasota Herald Tribune); and smaller weeklies (the colorful Tommy Green of the Madison County Carrier). It covers the state geographically, with journalists from all major newspaper chains in Florida as well as a rapidly dwindling group of independent newspapers, primarily the St. Petersburg Times. For students of the Fourth Estate, these lively interviews offer insights about the status of women in a traditionally male profession; the impact of new technology on newspapers; and management differences between large national conglomerates and state newspapers. The book also explores ownership issues between corporate conglomerates and family-owned and independent papers. For general readers, the comments on topics like race, class, drugs, and tourism and observations on specific issues such as civil rights in Miami and the growth of the space industry and Disney World illuminate the important role that Florida newspapers play in politics, economics, and the environment. Personal and relevant, Orange Journalism delivers the inside scoop on a profession that serves as the eyes and ears of the public. Julian M. Pleasants, director of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program and professor of history at the University of Florida, is the author or editor of several books, including most recently Buncombe Bob: The Life and Times of Robert Rice Reynolds.


Adobe Creative Suite CS5 Web Premium How-Tos: Essential Techniques is a concise, economical, current, and informed guide to the key techniques for creating inviting and accessible Web sites using Adobe Creative Suite CS5. Readers choose the How-Tos guide when they want immediate access to just what they need to know to get results. This book shows readers the Dreamweaver CS5 features they need to manage Web sites; design page layout with CSS styles; and generate menu bars, tabbed panels, tooltips, datasets, and forms with validation scripts. It gives readers the Photoshop CS5 skills to prepare photos and thumbnails for the Web. It teaches Illustrator CS5 techniques to create Web banners, navigations icons, and scalable graphic elements. It shows how to create scrollbars and buttons in Flash Catalyst CS5. Readers can learn to generate animation in Flash Professional CS5, and they can discover ways to integrate Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash to create cutting-edge Web sites with custom video players, animation, and interactivity.


Over the last few years, the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") has awakened Section 5's "unfair methods of competition" prong from its slumber and ignited a debate about when, if ever, it is proper to use Section 5 to reach conduct beyond the Sherman Act's four corners. Complicating matters is the dearth of federal court guidance on the issue. It has been a quarter of a century since any federal court has opined on Section 5's scope and nearly 40 years since the Supreme Court last chimed in. Consequently, discussions about Section 5's reach often sound as if they are occurring in a doctrinal vacuum with proponents of Section 5 relying on the statute's legislative history; opponents arguing that, as a policy matter, there should rarely be a need to resort to Section 5; and those in the middle trying to achieve consensus on limiting principles. While the Supreme Court has said nothing during this period about Section 5, it has been vocal about its views on antitrust common law more generally, asserting that antitrust rules need to be administrable and predictable. That emphasis has undoubtedly spurred the important search for limiting principles, but the identification of those principles should only be part of the Section 5 doctrinal equation. If and when the Commission provides the federal courts with an opportunity to revisit Section 5, the Commission is most likely to succeed if it persuades the courts that it has applied Section 5 in a predictable fashion. The Commission can do so if it pleads conduct-specific theories of liability (as opposed to just an "unfair method of competition") and, in consent orders and opinions, identifies conduct-specific tests that govern those theories of liability.


This thesis describes the fabrication and properties of novel organic/silicon hybrid field-effect transistor gas sensors. Whilst most of the work used the emeraldine base form of the conductive polymer polyaniline, the response of a device incorporating a metal-free phthalocyanine is also reported. Arrays of p-type transistors in which the gate electrodes were replaced by 'charge-flow' capacitors were fabricated using standard semiconductor processing techniques. Each array consisted of four devices in which the width of metallisation removed from the gate electrode (total width 72 µm) varied from 0 µm (i.e. the control device) to 35 µm. Thin films of the gas-sensitive organic materials were deposited by spin-coating, and chemically patterned within the holes in the gate metallisation. A delay, referred to as the 'turn-on' response, was observed in the drain current on application of a gate voltage. This was shown to depend on the temperature, level of humidity and the presence of certain gases. The electrical operating characteristics of the hybrid device with and without the polyaniline were examined. These included capacitance-voltage measurements, the 'turn-on' response at different temperatures and the variation of threshold voltage with temperature. From these results an understanding of the effect of integrating polyaniline within a p-channel transistor structure was obtained. The 35 µm gate-hole sensor incorporating polyaniline was found to be sensitive to NO(_x) and SO(_2) at room temperature at concentrations as low as 1 or 2 ppm. Decreasing the gate-hole area, and therefore the surface area of polyaniline, reduced the sensitivity of the device. The reactions were found to be reversible, although complete recovery required approximately eight hours. A similar sensor incorporating a metal-free phthalocyanine compound was reversibly sensitive to 2 ppm NO(_x) with a more rapid recovery of five hours. There was no observable response to SO(_2) or H(_2)S up to 30 ppm.


The focus of this study is the habitual speculator in commodity futures markets. The speculator's activity broadens a market, creates essential liquidity, and performs an irreplaceable pricing function. Working knowledge of the profiles and motivations of habitual speculators is essential to both market theorist and policy makers. Responses to a 73 question survey were collected directly from retail commodity brokers with offices in Alabama. Each questionnaire recorded information on an individual commodity client who had traded for an extended period of time. The typical trader studied is a married, white male, age 52. He is affluent and well educated. He is a self-employed business owner who can recover from financial setbacks. He is a politically right wing conservative involved in the political process. He assumes a good deal of risk in most phases of his life. He is both an aggressive investor and an active gambler. This trader does not consider preservation of his commodity capital to be a very high trading priority. As a result, he rarely uses stop loss orders. He wins more frequently than he loses (over 51% of the time) but is an overall net loser in dollar terms. In spite of recurring trading losses, he has never made any substantial change in his basic trading style. To this trader, whether he won or lost on a particular trade is more important than the size of the win or loss. Thus he consistently cuts his profits short while letting his losses run. He also worries more about missing a move in the market by being on the sidelines than about losing by being on the wrong side of a market move; i.e., being in the action is more important than the financial consequences. Participating brokers confirmed that for the majority of the speculators studied, the primary motivation for continuous trading is the recreational utility derived largely from having a market position.


Despite claims that state terrorism has been more of a problem than the insurgent variety, the evidence provided by both a content analysis of bibliographies on the topic of terrorism and the opinions of a great number of academics suggests that there is a far smaller amount of academic literature on state terrorism than there is on insurgency terrorism. In addition it has been noted that the literature on state terrorism, like that on terrorism generally, suffers from a lack of work on the definition of the term. Whilst it is difficult to think of any author who has methodically applied a definition to the actions of a particular actor in order to assess whether each constitutes an act of terrorism. This thesis attempts to address each of these issues. However before doing either of these things it attempts to show that the suggested reasons as to why the State cannot commit acts of terrorism can be at least questioned, whilst simultaneously showing that some authors believe that state terrorism has produced far more victims and than the sub-state variety. Then after revealing the explanations for academia's neglect of state terrorism the thesis investigates the notion of (substate) terrorism in order to identify its core meaning, before attempting to incorporate this into a 'comprehensive' definition of terrorism which would enable the political analyst to identify acts of state terrorism committed within the area of the state's jurisdiction and abroad. This definition, along with other definitions of terrorism taken from both the literature and legislation, are then tested by being applied to the 'counter-terrorist' activities of Israel, form which concluding comments on each and the general notion are made. The decision to concentrate solely upon counter-terrorist actions can also be seen to be addressing a gap in the literature, as can the choice of a Western state. The application of various definitions of state terrorism to the counterterrorist actions of Israel within Israel, the administered West Bank and abroad, therefore means that this area provides a novel testing ground for any definition. By examining the issue of state terrorism the thesis aims to raise, if not answer several important questions and issues surrounding the concept of state terrorism. In addition to illustrating the problems facing the production of any definition of the word 'terrorism' such an examination will hopefully illustrate the problems of applying any definition of terrorism. Finally the thesis aims to further the cause of knowledge by accurately describing the legalities of various aspects of Israel's counter-terrorist policies since Israel took over the administration of the West Bank in 1967. As well as using the existing literature this thesis contains both the quantitative and qualitative replies of 120 academics to a pointed questionnaire on the topic. Many of the results of this are scattered throughout the conceptual parts of the thesis including this introductory chapter, and all the quantifiable results and the sampling technique are described in Appendix A.


Developing countries, such as Indonesia, in general, is an agricultural country. Agricultural development is a prerequisite
for economic growth and national development. In addition, the agricultural sector can also absorb a lot of manpower and
opening of the employment, as well as foreign exchange saver. The purpose of this review is to determine the role of social
capital in maintaining the optimization of local agricultural institutions in the province of Bali. Social capital consists of
three main elements, namely trust, norms, and networks. Subak is an agency in Bali that handle agricultural irrigation
systems. To increase the capacity of farmers and the level of adoption of agricultural innovations is needed revitalization of
social capital, especially in the development and strengthening of social capital and institutional farmer. A high social
capital would open the possibility of resolving the complexity of the problems more easily, so that the social capital could
encourage the emergence of institutions and modern organizations with the principles of openness, and networks based on
the norms and trust to achieve common goals.


A review of empirical studies on teacher motivation indicates decreasing levels of motivation among secondary school teachers ultimately leading to minimal achievements of the projected Kenya's Vision 2030. This study examined the school curriculum as a determinant of secondary school teacher motivation in Kenya in curriculum implementation. The research adopted a survey study design, adopting mixed methods research approach with an aim of fortifying and converging both quantitative and qualitative data. The respondents were sampled from 46 secondary schools located in Nyeri and Kirinyaga counties of Kenya. The findings of this study inform curriculum planners, education leadership and policy makers on the school curriculum as a core determinant of teacher motivation in secondary schools that influence curriculum implementation in Kenya.
Key Words: School Curriculum; Teacher Motivation; Curriculum Implementation


Diabetic hypoglycemia produces cognitive-motor slowing, which is assumed to increase risk of automobile crashes. This study investigated driving decrements during and after hypoglycemia, and the patients' awareness of driving decrements. We used a randomized, single-blind, crossover design and conducted the study at the University of Virginia's General Clinical Research Center. We studied a volunteer sample of 27 consecutive adult type I diabetic patients who responded to newspaper ads. Two dropped out (final n = 25). Mean age (± SD) was 35.9 ± 14 yr. Diabetes history was 14.6 ± 10.5 yr, with HbA1 of 10.8 ± 2.9%. Driving experience was 19 ± 13.2 yr. Participants drove a state-of-the-art driving simulator on two consecutive days: Control day involved four euglycemia (mean blood glucose, 6.3 ± 0.89 mM) driving tests; experimental day involved testing at euglycemia, mild hypoglycemia (mean blood glucose, 3.6 ± 0.33 mM), moderate hypoglycemia (mean blood glucose, 2.6 ± 0.28 mM), and again at euglycemia. Patients were blind to blood glucose manipulations and levels. Driving performance was not disrupted at mild hypoglycemia nor after recovery from moderate hypoglycemia. Moderate hypoglycemia disrupted steering, causing more swerving (P < 0.03), spinning (P < 0.03), time over midline (P < 0.05), and time off road (P < 0.01). It also resulted in an apparent compensatory slowing, with more very slow driving (P < 0.04). Global driving performance decrements were observed in 35% of the patients, only 50% of whom stated they would not drive under similar conditions. Driving decrements were unrelated to demographic, disease, or driving history variables. Between 3.6 and 2.6 mM, driving performance was disrupted and not reliably recognized by our patients.


Today, digital technologies are being routinely incorporated within most companies' marketing strategies, and ongoing advancements mean that marketers are increasingly spoilt for choice as to which ones to employ. Yet little research has sought to investigate the use of these technologies from a consumer perspective. To address this deficiency, a sample of 967 adult residents of the United States provided their perspectives in relation to 18 technology-based initiatives along two separate constructs: their ethicality according to society's moral norms, and their effectiveness as a mainstream marketing tool. This study focusses on examining the interrelationships between these two constructs. Findings indicate a wide spectrum of opinion as to what constitutes both an ethical as well as an effective initiative. In general, the two constructs are positively correlated in that the more an initiative is perceived to be ethical the more it is seen to be effective. However, these perceptions are not equal in measure on each scale. Whereas toward the top end of each scale, those initiatives perceived to be highly ethical are also seen to be highly effective, toward the bottom end of each scale those that are perceived to be highly unethical are almost invariably still viewed to be somewhat effective. Principal Components Analysis suggests the potential existence of three sub dimensions of the ethicality-effectiveness correlation dyad, provisionally labelled here· according to similarities in the characteristics of member initiatives: Message Dissemination", "Consumer Benefits" and "Company Stealth". Overall, findings indicate that marketers would be well advised to complete their due diligence so as to determine which technology-based marketing strategy under consideration is likely to be viewed most favorably by consumers in relation to both constructs, prior to a decision to operationalize it.


High-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors will be used in future space missions for gamma-ray measurements and will be subject to interactions with energetic particles. To simulate this process, several large-volume n-type HPGe detectors were incrementally exposed to a particle fluence of up to 10/sup 8/ protons cm/sup -2/ (proton energy: 1.5 GeV) at different operating temperatures (90 to 120 K) to induce radiation damage. Basic scientific and engineering data on detector performance were collected. During the incremental irradiation, the peak shape produced by the detectors showed a significant change from a Gaussian shape to a broad complex structure. After the irradiation, all detectors were thoroughly characterized by measuring many parameters. To remove the accumulated radiation damage, the detectors were stepwise-annealed at temperatures of T >


We design a general framework for answering adaptive statistical queries that focuses on providing explicit confidence intervals along with point estimates. Prior work in this area has either focused on providing tight confidence intervals for specific analyses, or providing general worst-case bounds for point estimates. Unfortunately, as we observe, these worst-case bounds are loose in many settings — often not even beating simple baselines like sample splitting. Our main contribution is to design a framework for providing valid, instance-specific confidence intervals for point estimates that can be generated by heuristics. When paired with good heuristics, this method gives guarantees that are orders of magnitude better than the best worst-case bounds. We provide a Python library implementing our method.


The plausibility of revealing linear magnetoelectric coupling is investigated in the cobalt molybdate (Co2Mo3O8). Recently, Wang et al.[Scientific Reports. 2015;Vol. 5:Article 12268] showed that iron molybdate(Fe2Mo3O8) can be induced into a ferrimagnetic state from a nominal antiferromagnetic state via application of a magnetic field. As such, it may be possible that cobalt molybdate exhibits a similar effect intrinsically or with addition of iron dopant. Single crystals of the hexagonal molybdate (Co1−xFex)2Mo3O8 (x=0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1) were synthesized via chemical vapour transport. The magnetic properties were investigated along the polar axis and in the basal plane. Despite doping with iron, no metamagnetic phase transition was present in (Co1−xFex)2Mo3O8 (x=0.25, 0.5, 0.75). Low field measurements of the susceptibility reveal the presence of an anisotropic ferromagnetic-like moment, which is suppressed at moderate fields. This is believed to be a product of an exchange-bias-like phenomena, which is not fully understood. The magnetocapacitance was measured along the c-axis for x=(0.25, 0.5). Co1.5Fe0.5Mo3O8 exhibits the conventional magnetodielectric effect, with a proportionality constant of (5.1±0.3) ×10−14 Oe−2 at 40K, while the capacitance of Co1Fe1Mo3O8 shows linear dependency on H, with slope (-6.99 ±0.07)×10−9 Oe−1 at 49K.


Divided attention, the ability to attend and respond simultaneously to two or more stimuli or tasks, has been typically investigated using dual task paradigms. Dual task paradigms have been extensively used to examine attentional demands in healthy people, including various age and patient groups. The effect of ageing on dual task performance is well-documented; however, dual task research on Huntington's disease (HD) is very limited, despite evidence suggesting poor dual task performance in this disease. The overarching aim of this thesis was to investigate dual task performance in HD, and in younger (18-30 years) and older (> 60 years) healthy adults. To achieve this aim, we used a battery of dual tasks that varied in their input (e.g., visual, auditory) and output (e.g., motor, verbal) modalities. Each task was examined under two difficulty levels: easy and hard. Tasks were chosen based on past dual task research in HD and ageing, and divided attention theories (e.g., resource allocation theories). Overall, our results showed that HD participants were slower and less accurate across all task conditions compared with controls. Similarly, older adults were slower and less accurate compared with younger adults. With a few exceptions, differences reached statistical significance either in terms of speed or accuracy within each set of tasks. Our findings suggest differential effects of dual task performance in people with HD compared to healthy individuals, and between younger and older adults. Findings also highlight the importance of taking into account different measures of performance (e.g., speed, accuracy, dual task costs, etc.) since relationships between groups may differ across measures. In regards to the effect of difficulty, overall, dual tasks were performed slower and less accurately than single tasks, and harder levels were performed slower and less accurately than easier levels. A key outcome of our research is that HD participants and older adults may adopt differential behavioural strategies depending on the type of concurrent task, compared with controls and younger adults, respectively. Further investigation of dual tasking in HD and ageing, in conjunction with other tasks, will contribute to better understanding of attentional impairments that manifest with disease progression and older age. Consequently, this knowledge will assist with the development of adaptive strategies or treatments to improve functioning in people with HD and in the elderly.


ABSTRACT Otodus megalodon (Lamniformes: Otodontidae) is a gigantic late Neogene shark that lived nearly worldwide in tropical-temperate regions. Its gigantic teeth have captivated imaginations of the scientific community and general public alike, where the most commonly cited maximum size range of O. megalodon in scientific literature is 18–20 m in total length (TL). In this study, I reexamined the ontogenetic development of teeth and the quantitative relationships between TL and the crown height of anterior teeth in the extant white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, with an ultimate goal to clarify the current state of the scientific understanding of the body size of O. megalodon. My study suggests that the use of upper anterior teeth is much preferred over lower anterior teeth when estimating TL. This study combined with previous studies suggests that the presently verifiable maximum TL estimates of O. megalodon (i.e. scientifically justifiable account based on museum specimens) are 14.2‒15.3 m TL, where individuals of O. megalodon exceeding 15 m TL must have been exceptionally rare. Nevertheless, O. megalodon can still be regarded as one of the largest carnivores, if not superpredators, that have ever lived on Earth.


The present paper addresses the relationship between corpora and one commonly used type of pedagogical material in instructed English as a Foreign Language (EFL) settings, namely the textbook. Major English Language Teaching (ELT) publishers increasingly use native and learner corpora as input material on which to build, at least in part, new series of reference and pedagogical material such as dictionaries, grammar or vocabulary books. Surprisingly, however, English for General Purposes (EGP) textbooks are exceptions to the rule and still shy away from corpora. After a first section on the corpus tradition in ELT, we provide a survey of textbook research in Section 2. The third section presents a new type of pedagogically annotated textbook corpus: the TeMa corpus (corpus of Textbook Material). From a methodological viewpoint, we will show that the collection and annotation of pedagogical corpora allow for new automated search options which are not available in the manual 'page by page' approach often adopted in traditional textbook analyses. Concrete examples of search options and their preliminary results will be presented in Section 4, together with suggestions on how pedagogically annotated corpora can help learners, teachers, and material designers meet new educational challenges.


Abstract The biocatalytic asymmetric reduction of prochiral ketones is a significant transformation in organic chemistry as chiral carbinols are biologically active molecules and may be used as precursors of many drugs. In this study, the bioreduction of 1-(benzo [d] [1,3] dioxol-5-yl) ethanone for the production of enantiomerically pure (S)-1-(1,3-benzodioxal-5-yl) ethanol was investigated using freeze-dried whole-cell of Lactobacillus fermentum P1 and the reduction conditions was optimized with a D-optimal experimental design-based optimization methodology. This is the first study using this optimization methodology in a biocatalytic asymmetric reduction. Using D-optimal experimental design-based optimization, optimum reaction conditions were predicted as pH 6.20, temperature 30 °C, incubation time 30 h, and agitation speed 193 rpm. For these operating conditions, it was estimated that the product could be obtained with 94% enantiomeric excess (ee) and 95% conversion rate (cr). Besides, the actual ee and cr were found to be 99% tested under optimized reaction conditions. These findings demonstrated that L. fermentum P1 as an effective biocatalyst to obtain (S)-1-(1,3-benzodioxal-5-yl) ethanol and with the D-optimal experimental design-based optimization, this product could be obtained with the 99% ee and 99% cr. Finally, the proposed mathematical optimization technique showed the applicability of the obtained results for asymmetric reduction reactions.


Inositol 2,4,5-trisphosphate irreversibly activated capacitative calcium entry in Xenopus oocytes, whereas guanosine thiotriphosphate (GTP[S]) and AIF4- only activated capacitative calcium entry transiently. Both GTP[S] and AIF4- inhibited capacitative calcium entry activated by thapsigargin pretreatment, but guanosine thiodiphosphate (GDP[S]), inositol 2,4,5-trisphosphate and dibutyryl cyclic GMP did not affect capacitative calcium entry. This suggests the involvement of heterotrimeric GTP-binding proteins in the regulation of capacitative calcium entry. Activation of protein kinase C or cyclic-AMP-dependent protein kinase had profound effects on capacitative calcium entry, which were consistent with the hypothesis that the effects of GTP[S] and AIF4- on capacitative calcium entry may be mediated via heterotrimeric GTP-binding protein stimulation of kinases. Further evidence for this hypothesis was derived from the result that the effects of GTP[S] on calcium entry could be inhibited by the application of the protein kinase inhibitor staurosporine.


This text is a challenging work on ancient history and should be of interest to historians of the Greco-Roman world. It combines sociological acumen with solid historical craftsmanship, to provide an insightful account of the major institutions, social groups and historical developments of some 1400 years of Graeco-Roman civilization.


It is probable that all practical engineering structures are nonlinear to some extent. In this thesis work a two degrees of freedom nonlinear system and experimental structure with zero memory were simulated, modeled and analyzed to understand their behavior for different conditions. Nonlinear parameters and true linear frequency response was extracted. The limit of chaos was also determined. To achieve these results simulation and experimental model was used and analyzed using MATLAB toolbox. This was done using random noise and sweeping sine forces as an input and controlling the amplitude specially when determining the limits of chaos. Good results were achieved and verified combining the simulation and experimental results.


The effect of osmotic stress on the intracellular diffusion of proteins in Escherichia coli was studied, using a pulsed version of fluorescence recovery after photo‐bleaching, pulsed‐FRAP. This method employs sequences of laser pulses which only partly bleach the fluorophores in a cell. Because the cell size and geometry are taken into account, pulsed‐FRAP enables to measure diffusion in very small cells of different shapes. We found that upon an osmotic upshock from 0.15 to 0.6 Osm, imposed by NaCl or sorbitol, the apparent intracellular diffusion (D) of mobile green fluorescent protein (GFP) decreased from 3.2 to 0.4 μm2 s−1, whereas the membrane permeable glycerol had no effect. Exposing E. coli cells to higher osmolalities (> 0.6 Osm) led to compartmentalization of the GFP into discrete pools, from where the GFP could not escape. Although free diffusion through the cell was hindered, the mobility of GFP in these pools was still relatively high (D∼0.4 μm2 s−1). The presence of osmoprotectants restored the effect of osmotic stress on the protein mobility and apparent compartmentalization. Also, lowering the osmolality from 0.6 Osm back to 0.15 Osm restored the mobility of GFP. The implications of these findings in terms of heterogeneities and diffusive barriers inside the cell are discussed.


This article uses Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data to assess whether a single-payer health system delivers more care at less cost than do other universal coverage models. Single-payer plans are defined as those that rely on a limited number of revenue sources and systems in which financing is concentrated and private insurance for hospital and medical services is limited. Single-payer advocates argue that this organizational model is best able to reduce administrative costs, control provider payments, and limit the supply of services. This analysis shows that single-payer-like systems do not do a consistently better job of controlling physician incomes but do achieve some administrative cost savings compared to more fragmented systems. Overall, single-payer systems are modestly less costly than their peers and spend a slightly smaller share of the gross domestic product (GDP) on health. There are, however, substantial variations both over time and across countries in the performance of the single-payer-like nations, as well as among the nations in the other universal coverage model categories. Overall, the differences in system performance among the universal coverage OECD countries are very small, while the difference between the performance of any one of these countries and the United States is enormous and persistent.


For centuries physicians, scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and many others have been asking: 'what are the forces that drive tissues in an embryo to their final geometric forms?' At the tissue and whole embryo level, a multitude of very different morphogenetic processes, such as gastrulation and neurulation are involved. However, at the cellular level, virtually all of these processes are evidently driven by a relatively small number of internal structures all of whose forces can be resolved into equivalent interfacial tensions γ. Measuring the cell-level forces that drive specific morphogenetic events remains one of the great unsolved problems of biomechanics. Here I present a novel approach that allows these forces to be estimated from time lapse images. In this approach, the motions of all visible triple junctions formed between trios of cells adjacent to each other in epithelia (2D cell sheets) are tracked in time-lapse images. An existing cell-based Finite Element (FE) model is then used to calculate the viscous forces needed to deform each cell in the observed way. A recursive least squares technique with variable forgetting factors is then used to estimate the interfacial tensions γ that would have to be present along each cell-cell interface to provide those forces, along with the attendant pressures in each cell. The algorithm is tested extensively using synthetic data from an FE model. Emphasis is placed on features likely to be encountered in data from live tissues during morphogenesis and wound healing. Those features include algorithm stability and tracking despite input noise, interfacial tensions that could change slowly or suddenly, and complications from imaging small regions of a larger epithelial tissue (the frayed boundary problem). Although the basic algorithm is highly sensitive to input noise due to the ill-conditioned nature of the system of equations that must be solved to obtain the interfacial tensions, methods are introduced to improve the resulting force and pressure estimates. The final algorithm returns very good estimates for interfacial tensions and intracellular cellular pressures when used with synthetic data, and it holds great promise for calculating the forces that remodel live tissue.


Many children and adolescents care for their family members in some form during their childhoods, but some take on adult roles and responsibilities beyond what is considered to be developmentally appropriate – a situation known in academic and clinical literature as parentification. Much of the literature on parentification comes from the disciplines of psychology and social work, and focuses on what are perceived to be "normal" or "abnormal" child development trajectories. The psychological literature mostly stresses the negative developmental processes that result from youth being prematurely and/or inappropriately exposed to adult roles and responsibilities.  In this paper, we consider the impact of parental deployments on the lives of adolescents growing up in military families on/near a large army base in Canada.  We use data from 61 semi-structured interviews conducted in 2009/10—part of a larger mixed methods research project—to assess the adolescents' experiences of parental deployments in light of the concept of parentification. We depart from previous literature by taking a sociological approach, which shows that while adolescents take on more adult roles during parental deployments, the impact of this situation upon them varies according to their gender, their relationship with their undeployed parent, and their perception of the support they receive from their school.  For the most part, adolescents whose parents are deployed experience significant quality of life losses.  However, this is not true for every adolescent, and the impact of each loss depends upon the social context in which it occurs.


Variable Palatability of Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) for Large Ungulate Herbivores Patrice Nielson Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences Master of Science Aspen is a key resource in the Rocky Mountain Region for wildlife forage and habitat, lumber products, scenery, and plays important roles in fire ecology and hydrological processes. There is evidence of aspen decline over much of the Intermountain West for approximately 100 years. In Dixie and Fishlake National Forests, UT, aspen distribution has decreased by nearly half. Causes of this decline are not well understood, although wildlife browsing by ungulates has been implicated as playing a major role. The objective of this research was to examine what soil or plant factors might be involved in wildlife browse choice in aspen. Twenty-two pairs of moderately and intensively browsed sites were studied to identify factors related to browse preferences over two field seasons. In the summer of 2008, sites were sampled in June, July, and August, and in the summer of 2009 sites were sampled in August only. Soils were analyzed for pH, EC, total nitrogen and carbon, and mineral nutrients. Leaf tissue samples were analyzed for defense chemical (tannin and phenolic glycoside) concentrations, mineral nutrients (via acid digestion), acid-detergent fiber, water content, carbon:nitrogen ratio, and non-structural carbohydrate (sugar) concentration. No significant difference in phenolic glycoside concentrations between moderately and intensively browsed sites was found. Tannins were highest in sites with intensive levels of browsing. Iron was significantly higher and zinc lower in intensively than moderately browsed sites. Leaf moisture was also significantly lower in intensively browsed sites. In the absence of differences in phenolic glycosides, ungulates may be selecting browse sites based on iron requirements. Seasonal changes in the studied factors could be identified in 2008. Over the course of the summer, we found significant decreases in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, zinc, iron, copper, phenolic glycosides, and moisture concentration. Seasonal increases in calcium, sodium, tannins, sugars, acid-detergent fiber, and carbon:nitrogen ratios were observed. The need for large ungulates to obtain specific nutrientsr may indicate that aspen is in higher demand as a forage at different times of the year, particularly in areas with forages low in these nutrients. Our data suggest that aspen high in iron may be at risk since other factors explaining browsing choice were not significantly different in our study. This information can help identify clones that are at risk and direct resources where and when they are needed most.


Get the communication skills you need for career success with this unique book. Preparing you for exams and beyond, the valuable content delves into the issues that you'll face in corporate, retail, and remote support environments. The book offers more than fifty scenarios depicting typical workplace situations, possible responses-and appropriate solutions to guide you. With this approach, you'll gain valuable insight into becoming a team player and learn strategies to communicate more effectively with coworkers and customers.


This paper reviews the technical capabilities for monitoring deforestation from a pan-tropical perspective in response to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process, which is studying the technical issues surrounding the ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation in developing countries. The successful implementation of such policies requires effective forest monitoring systems that are reproducible, provide consistent results, meet standards for mapping accuracy, and can be implemented from national to pan-tropical levels. Remotely sensed data, supported by ground observations, are crucial to such efforts. Recent developments in global to regional monitoring of forests can contribute to reducing the uncertainties in estimates of emissions from deforestation. Monitoring systems at national levels in developing countries can also benefit from pan-tropical and regional observations, mainly by identifying hot spots of change and prioritizing areas for monitoring at finer spatial scales. A pan-tropical perspective is also required to ensure consistency between different national monitoring systems. Data sources already exist to determine baseline periods in the 1990s as historical reference points. Key requirements for implementing such monitoring programs, both at pan-tropical and at national scales, are international commitment of resources to increase capacity, coordination of observations to ensure pan-tropical coverage, access to free or low-cost data, and standardized, consensus protocols for data interpretation and analysis.


Teacher quality, teaching standards, and entry criteria for teacher education courses are currently subjects of intense national debate and policy development in Australia. As tertiary institutions respond to calls for a review of standards, there is a need for more data on the characteristics of entrants to teacher education and the factors that are likely to influence their performance as teachers. This survey-based study investigated the entry characteristics of four cohorts of secondary English majors at one institution. Prior studies have focussed on graduate-level students in one-year preparation courses, and addressed fewer factors. This study surveyed undergraduate students embarking on a four-year degree, and included a wider survey of motivations, perceptions and abilities. The findings indicate participants had strong emotional investments but modest past achievement in secondary school English. They rated affective factors as more important for teaching than academic performance or intellectual ability; and they rated their own knowledge and skills in some key curriculum areas as marginal. These results are considered in relation to the debate on teaching standards and the capacity of undergraduate teacher education courses to prepare high quality teachers.


. The hardness of machine components which, in operation time, collide and rub against each other and are made of St.42 steel needs to be found out. Therefore, research on the hardness of St.42 steel especially those which are heated needs to be carried out so that it can be chosen as machine component properly. This research tests the change of the surface hardness by applying Rockwell method and is the continuation from a former research. Steel is a technical material which is often used as machine components, so that its strength against external loads is really needed to be known. External loads which are often occurred on machine components are friction load, torsion load, tensile load, bent load and mash load. This research aims to find out how much the change of the hardness of standard St.42 steel surface after being heated at temperature of 800 0 C and quickly cooled by using fresh water which is carried out in laboratory of material testing, Department of Mechanical Engineering, State Polytechnic of Bali. The result shows that the hardness of the surface of steel which is heated until 800 0 C and quickly cooled by using fresh water is more lenient than the standard St.42 steel, although it is tested by applying either Rockwell B (HRB) or Rockwell C (HRC) methods. The change of the strength based on Rockwell B method shows the decrease in surface hardness until 19,81%; from 29,93 (Kgf/mm 2 ) to 24,0 (Kgf/mm 2 ). In Rockwell C method there is also decrease in surface hardness which is equal to 20,23%; from 54,7(Kgf/mm 2 ) to 43,63 (Kgf/mm 2 ).


Ladder operators are introduced in SU(2) parameter space to analyze the space-variant Pancharatnam-Berry (PB) phase. The spin and orbital angular momentum transfers to a wave passing through the PB phase optical elements are understood in terms of the PB phase. Space-variant PB phase structures are identified in polarization grating and cholesteric liquid crystal, providing an explanation for the beam propagation direction alteration. A simultaneous occurrence of the wavefront shaping and the beam propagation direction alteration is demonstrated experimentally.


A templating technique is proposed for improving the electro-optical properties of polymer stabilized blue phase (PSBP). After polymerizing a monomer-doped blue phase, the remaining chiral nematic liquid crystal was removed to create a porous free-standing cast that retained the 3D structure of the blue phase. The effects of the helical twisting power of the filling mesogen on the electro-optical properties of PSBP were studied. The driving voltage effectively declined as the proportion of chiral dopant in the filling material was decreased. Because of the achiral mesogen tended to be less twisted intrinsically, the elastic restoring force helped the electric field to unwind the helical structure, which was supported by the polymer anchoring force. Replacing the chiral agent with a reverse-handed chiral further reduced the driving voltage by 40% and doubled the value of the resulting figure of merit.


A sediment sequence from Loon Lake, Geographical Society O, East Greenland, was geophysically, sedimentologically, biogeochemically, and biologically investigated in order to reconstruct the entire history of the lake. The chronology of the 10.25 m long sequence is based on three AMS 14C dating performed on marine fossils. In the basal part of the sedimentary record a diamicton represents the deposition during the Last Glacial Maximum. Subsequent to deglaciation at c. 10,250 cal. yr BP Loon Lake area was inundated by the sea and marine sediments were deposited. A turbidite interspersed into the marine sediments at around 8300 cal. yr BP could be a result of the Storegga Tsunami or of increased meltwater supply after the 8.2 kyr BP cooling event. Marine sedimentation continued at least until c. 7500 cal. yr BP, when the isostatic rebound terminated this state. Full limnic conditions became established at c. 6000 cal. yr BP. Compared with other studies in this area such a late isolation is presumably a result of the delayed retreat of the fjord-filling outlet glacier in the Kejser Franz Josephs Fjord. The climate history documented in the Loon Lake sediments is widely masked by the sea-level history.


Let k be a p -adic field. It is well-known that k has only finitely many extensions of a given finite degree. Krasner [1966] gives formulae for the number of extensions of a given degree and discriminant. Following his work, we present an algorithm for the computation of generating polynomials for all extensions K / k of a given degree and discriminant. We also present canonical sets of generating polynomials of extensions of degree p m . Some methods from the proof of the number of extensions of a given degree and discriminant can also be used for the determination of a bound that gives a considerably improved estimate of the complexity of polynomial factorization over local fields. We use this bound in an efficient new algorithm for factoring a polynomial Z over a local field k . For every irreducible factor [varphi]( x ) of Z ( x ) our algorithm return an integral basis for k [ x ]/[varphi]( x ) k [ x ] over k .


The purpose of the study was to investigate patterns of major local and non-local news suppliers operating across a range of media – broadcast and print and relationships between Libyan undergraduate students' consumption of different news media platforms. A survey was administered to a sample of 400 students at Al-Fateh University using a stratified random sampling approach with sampling strata set by demographic groups. The new TV news services played an important role in attracting young Libyans with information they desire. The spread of new news media sources (TV, radio, and print) in Libya has created a new type of news product that transcends national boundaries. The findings indicated that there were distinct news consumption-related population sub-groups defined in part by news platform (TV vs. radio vs. print) and in part by type of news supplier (local vs. international TV news operations). These findings indicated the emergence of new niche markets in news in Libya.


This research examines the coupling between residential towers and threatening and/or threatened female bodies in two films—David Cronenberg's Shivers (1975), and Bernard Rose's Candyman (1992)—locating in each productive engagements with different stages of neoliberalism and urban development. Negotiating the complex legacy of the association of the home with the realm of the feminine, I propose the concept of concrete maternality, which alludes to the residential tower as a new site that incubates anxieties related to the late capitalist transformation of social relations and its gendered formulations of unhomeliness. The dialectical oppositionality of the concrete, a harsh and industrial material, and the maternal, which evokes both intimacy and repression, enables a conceptualization of the cinematic abject in high-rise horror films as referring to a boundary breach for subjectivity. In treatment of the residential high-rise as womb-like, I understand the building as concrete, objective in its materiality, while envisioning its interiors to be experiential/embodied, thus open to subverting the logic of late capitalism from within.

Keywords: concrete maternality; abject; grotesque; gendered building; architecture; high-rise; late capitalism


Following the seminal contributions of Benoit Mandelbrot in the 70s, concepts derived from fractal geometry gave a new impulse to several areas of mathematics. The goal of this volume is to present syntheses on two subjects where important advances occurred in the last 15 years: multiplicative processes and fragmentation. One arose from harmonic analysis (Riesz products) and the other from a probabilistic model proposed by N. Kolmogorov in order to explain experimental observations on rock fragmentation; however they share analogies and use common mathematical tools issued from the study of random fractals. The first text introduces basic concepts in fractal analysis. It starts with the description of the historical developments that led to their introduction and interactions. The definitions of fractional dimensions are introduced, and pertinent tools in geometric measure theory are recalled. Examples of multifractal functions and measures are studied. Finally, ubiquity systems, which play an increasing role in multifractal analysis, are introduced. The second text deals with fine geometric properties of measures obtained as limits of multiplicative processes. One starts by showing in which contexts they appear, and what are their key properties. The notions of dimension of a measure and of multifractal analysis are introduced in a general setting, and illustrated on the aforementioned examples. Finally, one shows the efficiency of these measures for the description of percolation on trees, and for dynamical or random coverings. The third text describes the time evolution of objects that disaggregate in a random way, and the fragments of which evolve independently. A statistical self-similarity assumption endows them with a structure of random fractal. The foundations of fragmentation theory are given, and the laws of these processes are shown to be characterized by a self-similarity index, a dislocation measure and an erosion coefficient. Then, one considers a random tree endowed with a distance, that allows to describe the genealogy of the process. Finally, one studies the speed with which the fragment containing a given point decays. This leads to the introduction of a multifractal spectrum of speeds of fragmentation.


The problem of relating electrophoretic mobilities to surface charge densities of particles in suspension has been investigated mainly experimentally. The subject has been approached by comparing the surface potentials at an oil/water interface calculated for adsorbed films of ionic surface active agents, with the zeta potentials of oil droplets in similar surface-active agent solutions. When the bulk viscosity and dielectric constant were used in calculating the zeta potentials, the surface and zeta potentials converged towards low surface charge densities. At higher charge densities the zeta potentials fell well below the surface potentials. The reasons for this discrepancy have been investigated. Misapplication of the Gibbs equation, surface hydrolysis of adsorbed ions, specific interaction of adsorbed ions with counter-ions, surface conductivity, internal circulation in the liquid droplets and double-layer dielectric constants and viscosities were considered. By elimination it has been concluded that only enhanced values of the η/D ratio in the electrical double layer can account for the experimental observations. Independent evidence for this phenomenon has been briefly examined. The circumstances under which a reliable value of surface charge may be determined from electrophoretic measurements have been discussed.


Abstract: The absence of democracy in the Arab–Muslim world is a 'striking anomaly' for democratization scholars. This cannot be seen as caused by religion as such, as there are now several democratic Muslim-majority states. Popular explanations such as values, culture, economic development, natural resources, or colonial legacy have been refuted. Based on Ostrom's approach regarding local groups' ability to establish institutions for 'governing the commons', we present a novel explanation for this puzzle, based on historical variations in institutions for financing religion. In Northwestern Europe, religion and secular services managed by local religious institutions have been financed 'from below', creating local systems for semi-democratic representation, transparency, and accountability. In the Arab–Muslim region, religion and local secular services have been financed 'from above', by private foundations lacking systems for representation and accountability. It is thus not religion, but how religion has been financed, that explains lacking successful democratization in the Arab–Muslim world.


This article reviews legal scholars' key prudential and moral reasons to oppose the view that law can exist without the state. After a discussion of the real-world impact of views on what counts as law, the article discusses the following grounds for resistance to stateless law: law as something necessarily produced by states scores quite high on criteria to determine how good a theory is; paradigms intrinsically resist change; certain forgotten prudential political rules are wrongly remembered as analytical precepts; there is sheer political resistance to the emancipation of powers outside the state; attempts are made by those who shape our understanding of law to please their constituencies; the pursuit by academics of a legal practice interferes with rigorous legal thinking; there are important vested interests in the current state-centred system; and a sense of anti-intellectualism dominates certain areas of the legal academy.


Zero resource speech processing refers to a scenario where no or minimal transcribed data is
available. Unsupervised Acoustic Segment Modelling (ASM) is a technique for unsupervised dis-
covery of acoustic segments from speech and building corresponding acoustic models without any
prior knowledge or manual transcriptions. ASM mainly comprises of three steps: a) segmentation
of speech utterances into acoustic segments b) segment labelling c) segment modelling. This work
focuses on improving initial segmentation and acoustic segment labelling (ASL). In the first step,
we segment the speech signal into acoustically homogeneous regions, resulting in a large number of
varying length segments. We propose a new kernel gram matrix-based approach for segmentation.
It determines the number of segments automatically and delivers comparable performance to the
state of the art algorithms. The second step involves clustering the varying-length segments into
a finite number of clusters so that each segment can be labeled with a cluster index. To improve
labelling, a new graph clustering based framework is proposed. A major problem in ASM is the
estimation of the number of ASM units that should be used for modelling the speech data. It is
often left unaddressed, or an empirical number of ASM units is adopted. Our algorithm estimates
the number of ASM units to be used reasonably well. Performance comparison with baseline ap-
proaches demonstrates the ability of our algorithm to model ASM with minimal supervision. In
the third step, a deep neural network classifier is trained to map the feature vectors extracted from
the signal to its corresponding virtual phone label. The virtual phone posteriors extracted from the
DNN are used as features in the zero resource speech processing. The effectiveness of the proposed
approach is evaluated on both ABX and spoken term discovery tasks (STD) using spontaneous
American English and Tsonga language datasets, provided as part of zero resource 2015 challenge.
It is observed that the proposed system outperforms baselines, supplied along the datasets, in both
the tasks without any task specific modifications


Two field experiments were carried out on a private farm at Wadi El-Natrun (latitude of 30.48° N and longitude of 30.50° E), Beheira Governorate, Egypt, in the 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 seasons, to find out the effect of adding zeolite as a soil conditioner and potassium fertilizer on growth, yield, and quality of sugar beet crop (Beta vulgaris L. var. saccharifera) grown in sandy soil conditions. The present work included 12 treatments, which were the combinations of four zeolite levels (Zero, 476, 952, and 1,428 kg ha-1), and three levels of potassium in the form of potassium sulfate (119, 178.5, and 238 kg K2SO4 ha-1), which were added as a soil application. The treatments were arranged in a complete block design in a split plot with four replications. The results showed that higher values of the photosynthetic pigments, root diameter, fresh and foliage weights plant-1, as well as, sucrose and extracted sugar percentages, quality index, yields of the root, top, and sugar ha-1, were obtained by adding 1,428 kg zeolite, compared with the other levels of zeolite, in both seasons. However, sodium, alpha-amino N contents in the root, and sugar lost to molasses% were insignificantly affected by zeolite rates in both seasons. Application of 238 kg K2SO4 ha-1 significantly resulted in the highest values of photosynthetic pigments, root dimensions, sucrose%, and root potassium content. In addition, extracted sugar %, quality index, root, top, and sugar yields ha-1 were increased compared with the other lower K-sulphate levels in both seasons. On the contrary, sugar lost to molasses% was insignificantly affected by applied potassium sulfate in both seasons. The maximum values of root diameter, fresh weight, yields of root and top ha-1 in both seasons, and also sugar yield in the second season were produced from the interaction between applying 1,428 kg zeolite and 238 kg potassium sulfate ha1.


The amount of reflected light fed back in the coupling of semiconductor lasers and tapered hemispherical-end (TH) fiber is estimated. Reflection from incident hemisphere is estimated to be below −50 dB, from the loss in the coupling between the laser and its virtual image. For multimode TH fiber reflection of backward-propagating light from connections can be reduced to below −50 dB by an ∼10-μm lateral displacement parallel to the junction plane; there is a small penalty in forward-coupling efficiency. The reduction of reflection is confirmed by measuring relative intensity noise of coupled laser light.


Soils in northern lower Michigan, all formed in sandy glacial out-wash, were examined to determine the effects of vegetation and fire frequency vs. climate on their development. To accomplish this, soil development was quantified for 13 pedons that span a region known as the Grayling Fingers. Next, a GIS was used to examine spatial interrelationships among the following data sets for the Fingers area: soils, climate, and presettlement vegetation. The 13 sampled pedons span a major pedologic ecotone between an area of strongly expressed spodic morphology (with hardwood forests, low fire frequencies, and deep snowpacks) and one where soils are Psamments. The Psamment area is dominated by jack pine and oak barrens, which frequently burned in presettlement time, and have much less snow cover in winter. The texture and mineralogy of all pedons are generally similar, thereby ruling out parent material as a controlling factor in their development. The relationships among vegetation patterns and soil development remain unclear in this area. Spatial relationships among snowfall amounts and snowpack thicknesses, however, correlate extremely well to soil development patterns. Thus, I conclude that in this region, patterns of soil development are related primarily to the influence of snowmelt infiltration and its previously documented impact on podzolization. Overstory vegetation may provide a strong, reinforcing influence or may be reacting in turn as a dependent variable to soil development and soil moisture during spring, as impacted directly by snowmelt infiltration.


Aim To investigate the risk of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) following retinal artery occlusion (RAO). Methods The study cohort included all patients diagnosed with RAO between January 1999 and December 2008 (n=688) in the Taiwan Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000. The control group included randomly selected patients (n=4128) from the same database that were matched to the study group, using a propensity score, for age, gender, and comorbid diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, chronic renal disease and atrial fibrillation status. The ACS-free survival rate was calculated using Kaplan–Meier analysis. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis was used to obtain the adjusted HR for ACS after adjustment for potential confounding factors. The incidence and risk of ACS were compared between the RAO and control groups. Results Thirty-seven patients in the RAO group (5.38%) and 138 controls (3.34%) had ACS (p=0.0063) during the follow-up period, resulting in a significantly higher risk of ACS in the RAO group (HR=1.67, 95% CI 1.16 to 2.40). After adjustment for potential confounders, the HR for developing ACS in the RAO group was 1.72 (95% CI 1.20 to 2.47) times higher than that of controls. When stratified by RAO type, the adjusted HR for ACS was 3.57 (95% CI 2.09 to 6.10) for the central RAO subgroup. Conclusions We found that RAO increased the risk for ACS. We recommend thorough follow-up cardiovascular examinations and medical prevention for ACS in patients following RAO.


A broadly based, quantitative, empirical study of 208 R&D projects within the national laboratories (NLs) of a technology latecomer country (TLC) finds that the performance of R&D projects within the NLs of that TLC is highly dependent on the pathway by which knowledge enters the R&D project group that delivers the project or on how it is created therein. Performance also depends upon the mission of the NLs with which the project is aligned. These findings suggest that managers of R&D project groups within the NLs in this TLC can take a nuanced approach to organizational learning. They can improve the performance of individual R&D projects by emphasizing the knowledge pathways that have the greatest positive impact on the mission that is most important to the project. The study's findings also provide theoretical insights that go beyond the context of NLs in TLCs. They explain why vicarious learning cannot be associated positively with team performance, and they suggest that contextual learning is positively correlated to team performance under specific circumstances, only. Moreover, the findings imply that extant theory on organizational learning is insufficiently granular to explain the apparently complex relationship between group knowledge and group performance.


The last few decades have seen great achievements in dynamic fracture mechanics. Yet, it was not possible to experimentally quantify the full-field behavior of dynamic fractures, until very recently. Here, we review our recent work on the full-field quantification of the temporal evolution of dynamic shear ruptures. Our newly developed approach based on digital image correlation combined with ultrahigh-speed photography has revolutionized the capabilities of measuring highly transient phenomena and enabled addressing key ques- tions of rupture dynamics. Recent milestones include the visualization of the complete displacement, particle velocity, strain, stress and strain rate fields near growing ruptures, capturing the evolution of dynamic friction during individual rupture growth, and the detailed study of rupture speed limits. For example, dynamic friction has been the big- gest unknown controlling how frictional ruptures develop but it has been impossible, until now, to measure dynamic friction during spontaneous rupture propagation and to understand its dependence on other quantities. Our recent measurements allow, by simul- taneously tracking tractions and sliding speeds on the rupturing interface, to disentangle its complex dependence on the slip, slip velocity, and on their history. In another application, we have uncovered new phenomena that could not be detected with previous methods, such as the formation of pressure shock fronts associated with "supersonic" propagation of shear ruptures in viscoelastic materials where the wave speeds are shown to depend strongly on the strain rate.


The transformation of the presidential electoral process from a party-controlled to a media-driven candidate-centered system has made it increasingly difficult for presidents to meld governing and campaigning expertise within a single White House-centered advisory organization. This is because the skills needed to win office are increasingly divorced from those needed to govern effectively. As presidential priorities shift from campaigning to governing (or vice versa), then, presidents must reorganize their advisory system to maximize the usefulness of those aides possessing the requisite talents and experiences. The findings from a logistic regression analyzing the causes of staff turnover during the period 1929-1997 are consistent with the claim that higher rates of presidential staff turnover are linked to changes in the presidential selection process.


Circadian rhythms can be perturbed by shift work, travel across time zones, many occupational tasks, or genetic mutations. Perturbed circadian rhythms are associated with the increasing problem of obesity, metabolic dysfunction, and insulin resistance. We hypothesized that insulin sensitivity in skeletal muscle follows a circadian pattern and that this pattern is important for overall metabolic function. This hypothesis was verified using mice as a model system. We observed circadian rhythmicity in whole body insulin tolerance, as well as in signaling pathways regulating insulin- and exercise-induced glucose uptake in skeletal muscle, including AKT, 5′-adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and TBC1 domain family member 4 (TBC1D4) phosphorylation. Basal and insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in skeletal muscle and adipose tissues in vivo also differed between day- and nighttime. However, the rhythmicity of glucose uptake differed from the rhythm of whole-body insulin tolerance. These results indicate that neither skeletal muscle nor adipose tissue play a major role for the circadian rhythmicity in whole-body insulin tolerance. To study the circadian pattern of insulin sensitivity directly in skeletal muscle, we determined glucose uptake under basal and submaximal insulin-stimulated conditions ex vivo every sixth hour. Both insulin sensitivity and signaling of isolated skeletal muscle peaked during the dark period. We next examined the effect of exercise training on the circadian rhythmicity of insulin sensitivity. As expected, voluntary exercise training enhanced glucose uptake in skeletal muscle. Nevertheless, exercise training did not affect the circadian rhythmicity of skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity. Taken together, our results provide evidence that skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity exhibits circadian rhythmicity.


Primary neuroendocrine neoplasms of the lung represent a clinical spectrum of tumors ranging from the relatively benign and slow-growing typical carcinoid to the highly aggressive small-cell lung carcinoma. The rarity of carcinoids has made the role of radiation therapy in their management controversial. This review considers the results of published studies to generate treatment recommendations and identify areas for future research. Surgery remains the standard of care for medically operable disease. Histology plays the most important role in determining the role of adjuvant radiation. Resected typical carcinoids likely do not require adjuvant therapy irrespective of nodal status. Resected atypical carcinoids and large-cell neuroendocrine carcinomas have a significant risk of local failure, for which adjuvant radiation likely improves local control. Definitive radiation is warranted in unresectable disease. Palliative radiation for symptomatic lesions has demonstrated efficacy for all histologies. Collaborative group trials are warranted.


ABSTRACT The Middle Permian-Late Permian boundary (Guadalupian-Lopingian boundary, GLB) interval is characterised by important faunal assemblage changes. This extinction-turnover episode is considered by some authors to be the first step of the end-Permian biodiversity drop. The forty-five meters thickness of sediment encompassing the GLB in Chaotian section (Sichuan Province, South China) was sampled and processed for ostracod study. This study presents the first analysis of ostracod faunas in the GLB interval. A total of 154 species belonging to 29 genera are identified. Three species are described as new: Bairdia chaotianensis Zazzali, n. sp., Microcheilinella wujiapingensis Zazzali, n. sp., Microcheilinella pagodaensis Zazzali, n. sp. All the ostracods discovered in the section belong to shallow marine taxa. So these results are not consistent with previous interpretations (lagoonal environment or deep water setting) based on other evidences. Abundance and diversity present a rapid and noticeable decline in the Early Capitanian. Recovery is then recorded about three meters above the GLB. At specific level, a 93% extinction rate and a 96% turnover rate are recorded at the GLB. Moreover, Palaeocopida, straight dorsal border ostracods known to progressively disappear from the Late Permian to the basal Middle-Triassic, are here less abundant and diversified after the GLB. This could reflect the first step of their disappearance at the end of the Palaeozoic.


Unemployment is a massive and rapidly growing problem in the world as a whole and in South Africa in particular. Its consequences have assumed proportions comparable to those of disasters caused by tornados and hurricanes. Social commentators believe it should be treated the same way as HIV/AIDS in the South African context. Yet policy makers and decision makers have not given enough attention to the problem of unemployment in relation to its devastation effects. Economics and its theories seem unable to provide coherent understanding as to the mechanism leading to unemployment on such a massive scale. The response of the Church to this problem have been indifference; either due to ignorance or to a spiritualised faith and emphasis has been on personal virtues and vices such as industriousness and initiative over and against laziness and lethargy. This thesis aims to give an indication of the extent and urgency of the problem of unemployment, investigate the impact of the phenomenon on the youth in Pietermaritzburg, and the role befitting the Church in helping people deal with the problem. This study attempts to present to the public the contribution of theology, especially Industrial Mission, to the understanding of unemployment. Most research in the field of unemployment has been done by economists and the availability to an audience outside the community of economists is extremely limited. Economists generate their ideas and research results in technical journals where emphasis is on the methodology used and established scientific terminology. This vast technical literature fails to reach the wider public debate about work. This study tries to avoid both jargon and oversimplification in the belief that the research effort must become widely known amongst the employed and unemployed alike. Key Terms: Church; Communalism; HIV/AIDS; Industrial Chaplaincy; Industrial Mission; Pastors; Poor; See-Judge-Act; Unemployment; Work; Work Ethic; Workers; Young Christian Workers.


The UK adult social care sector is growing constantly and finds itself under continuous scrutiny and evaluation regarding the conduct and effectiveness of its workers. This creates a dual challenge to organisations and recruiters to continue to provide an effective and efficient service whilst ensuring high care standards. The challenge is accentuated by the high turnover the sector currently experiences. There is a lack of robust recommendations pertaining to recruitment and selection practices, and a lack of identification of the drivers of turnover in adult social care workers. It is this domain that the present research looks to address. This research seeks to (1) Establish criteria for effective performance of care workers in adult social care, (2) Identify the individual level antecedents of effective performance, (3) Identify the conditions under which antecedents are enhanced or inhibited in achieving effective performance, (4) Develop a strategy for the recruitment and selection of effective care workers, (5) Identify the drivers of retention and attrition in the adult social care sector. The thesis presents the findings of three research studies, with the first two informing the third. The first consisted of interviews with present and past care workers to ascertain drivers of satisfaction and retention versus dissatisfaction and turnover. The second developed and validated a performance effectiveness measure to assess care worker performance. The third consisted of a longitudinal study of care worker effectiveness.This looked to identify the antecedents to effective care worker performance and the wider aspects that may impact on whether performance in realised. This then informed a strategy for the recruitment and selection of care workers. The findings of the main research study revealed: (1) There is no one set of variables that lead to all care worker effectiveness areas,(2) Recruitment and selection recommendations divide into three models: performance, job satisfaction and turnover intention, and actual turnover, (3) Personality has an important role to play in care worker effectiveness. (4) Organisational practices are influential in care worker practices. Theoretical and practical recommendations are also discussed.


A hollow Silicalite-1-HZSM-5 zeolite capsule structure (H-S-Z) embedded with Mo nanoparticles was designed and prepared. The H-S-Z was obtained by a dual-layer hydrothermal synthesis method using activated carbon (AC) as a hard template via self-assembly combined hydrothermal crystallization. One layer of Silicalite-1 zeolite shell was first synthesized on the AC core under neutral-like synthesis conditions. Then, a HZSM-5 zeolite shell was synthesized on this Silicalite-1 zeolite shell enveloping the AC core, followed by calcination in air to remove the core AC. After being loaded with Mo, this hollow zeolite capsule catalyst was tested in a methane dehydroaromatization (MDA) reaction. Compared with the conventional solid catalyst, the Mo/H-S-Z catalyst significantly improved the methane conversion, formation rate of the benzene product, and catalytic stability, and inhibited the carbon deposition, due to the accelerated mass-transfer rate in the hollow structure. Furthermore, the catalyst deactivation derived from the side reactions such as poly-aromatics or coke formation at the inner zeolite could be eliminated.


'Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED)', 'designing out crime', 'safer by design', 'secured by design' or any of the other 'flavours' of manipulating the built environment to prevent crime, invariably engender an inter-disciplinary approach. This work is frequently the domain of architects, urban planners, police, security professionals, local authority planners and community safety professionals (amongst others). Despite the real work being undertaken by these actors, the diverse disciplinary and practitioner perspectives are insufficiently heard within criminological discourse. We have sought to rectify this by bringing together contributions from built environment and local authority practitioners from England, Australia and New Zealand in this 'Designing out Crime – Voices from the Fields' special edition of the Safer Communities journal. We believe that these perspectives provide fresh insights into a body of work that is now many decades in the making (and perhaps centuries in the making – see Cozens (2008)). The different disciplinary and jurisdictional perspectives uncover numerous practical dilemmas, competing priorities, and tensions in how this work is approached and implemented. By viewing these issues through various disciplinary, organisational and jurisdictional perspectives, it is possible to not only compare and contrast approaches, but to also identify emerging themes consistent in these different locations, ensuring that this edition will be of great interest to policy makers, practitioners and scholars alike.


The 2007 Niigataken Chuetsu-oki earthquake occurred near the Kashiwazaki–Kariwa nuclear power plant in Japan, the largest in the world. The strong motions were recorded by seven seismometers installed at the foundation slab (base-mat) of the plant and exceeded the design level of the ground motion for the plant. The strong motion observed by the seismographs in and around the plant show high coherency with three significant pulses. In order to understand the cause of these pulses, the rupture process of the earthquake was estimated using these seismograms. The seismograph network was taken into account as a dense array and semblance-enhanced waveform stacking was performed. By projecting the power of the stacked waveforms onto the fault plane, the asperities that generated significant pulses were successfully separated. The first and third pulses were generated at the hypocenter and the southwest edge of the rupture zone, respectively. The rupture propagated toward the southwest and terminated offshore from the power plant. The overall pattern of the imaged asperities coincides well with the slip distribution determined by conventional waveform inversions.


Statement of the Problem: Swelling of the surrounding tissue of surgical site is one of the most common, devastating effects after maxillofacial surgery and can have an effect on quality of life and the patients' satisfaction. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a custom-made appliance by the method of Computer-aided design/Computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) compared with conventional dressing for reducing facial swelling after maxillofacial surgery. Materials and Method: This clinical trial accomplished in 14 patients voluntarily referred to the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Bahonar hospital in Kerman. These patients were the candidate for surgical treatment of similar bilateral facial fractures (10 patients) and orthognathic surgery (4 patients). Facial computed tomography (CT) scans of the patients were taken to build up a custom-made appliance. Based on three-dimensional reconstruction from facial CT scan data, custom-made appliance was designed and built. Swelling on one side with custom-made appliance and on the opposite side with conventional dressing measured with paper tape graded before surgery, immediately after surgery, 24 hours, 48 hours, and 7 days later, we divided the patients into two groups of trauma and orthognathic surgical procedures Results: Based on the defined landmarks, all of the measurements were performed on both sides. Statistical analyses do not show any asymmetry before surgery (p= 0.48). In addition, there was no significant difference between two methods of dressing on the day of surgery and a day later (p= 0.084, p= 0.09), but there was a significant difference between two methods of dressing on second and seventh days. The swelling has decreased faster and further in our new method. Conclusion: Regarding the exact adaptation to the surgical site on facial skin, using custom-made appliance by the method of CAD/CAM could be an effective tool that reduces swelling after maxillofacial surgery.


In Hungary, the decline of traditional peasant culture and its heritage has prompted urban revivals, leading to the acceptance of traditional Hungarian folk singing as a performing arts genre. Drawing from a series of in-depth interviews, this study shows how contemporary Hungarian folk singers navigate (define, learn, police) different forms of authenticity within the field of folk music. While we find that objectified authenticity – heritagized classification systems – is the dominant form of symbolic capital, the broader symbolic economy of authenticity is complicated by competing definitions of folk singing as, variously, culture, heritage, and art. Third-person authenticity is more highly regarded, but it is more difficult for contemporary urban folk singers to achieve because they were not socialized in peasant communities. Therefore, they use objectified authenticity such as 'original recordings' as a proxy for learning about living folk culture. Although objectified authenticity constrains the agency of artistic expression, it affords discriminatory creativity (choosing one's own repertoire) and rationalized creativity (adapting traditional material to external values and contexts).


ABSTRACT Marriage has become an individual choice in most European countries. In this article we study entry into marriage, i.e., weddings, which in the contemporary research literature are often presented with an emphasis on modernity: consumerism, celebration of romance, and the experience of a unique and individual occasion. The wedding guests are an important part in the making of 'the perfect day' but the topic has largely been neglected in the literature. In this study we analyse the selection of wedding guests in 12 weddings (six French and six Finnish) to investigate the dynamics of the interplay between individual preferences and the determinants that are more relational in origin. Three empirical questions are presented: first, who is responsible for choosing the guests? Second, what is the distribution of wedding guests between kin and non-kin? And third, who are the non-kin guests: are they friends first met by the couple alone, or also by the wider family? The results show that despite the predominantly individualistic discourse expressed by the couples, a wedding is still a familial affair: the configurations of family ties are influential in constraining as well as enabling the choices available to the couple.


Recently distributed Raman amplification of the upstream signal has been proposed to improve the loss budget for gigabit passive optical networks (GPON), and systems of 60-km reach and up to 128 way split have been demonstrated employing state-of-the-art fibers. However, a deployed fiber plant may not perform as well due to elevated fiber attenuation, splice losses, and back-reflections that are present in a realistic GPON system. In this paper, their effects on the Raman amplified 1310-nm upstream signal in a GPON reach extension system is investigated numerically. Using the parameters of a deployed fiber, a design solution is provided for a purely passive, Raman amplified GPON reach extender. Results show that 55-km logical reach and 1:32 split ratio can be achieved using a realistic fiber plant and class B + transceivers.


Feminist theory and research has made a distinction between
heterosexuality as a practice and heterosexuality as an institution and the line
between the two is an area of confusion and contradiction. Discussions have been
hampered by an unnecessary binary that hinders and limits theorising, working to
silence the debates from either side, produce unnecessary divisions within feminism
and inhibit the development of links between theory and practice. In examining
heterosexuality as either an institution or a practice, it has been constructed as
dangerous or pleasurable, victimising or agentic, oppressive or liberating, social or
sexual. Missing between these two is a link that would suggest how these liberating
activities challenge the heterosexual institution or how the analysis of the institution
can make a material impact on women's sexual relationships. Women who identify
as feminist and heterosexual are situated at the intersection of these two discourses
where heterosexuality as an institution is defined as dangerous and oppressive, and
heterosex as a practice is seen as pleasurable and liberating. To consider the
intersection of institution and practice, the research asked 40 self-identified
heterosexual feminists, between the ages of 19 and 68, about their sexual practice
in the light both of feminist theorising around heterosexuality and its construction in
the media. Taking the media as an institution that may both sustain and reinforce a
discourse of heterosexuality, the research explores the mediation of women's
heterosexuality and the potential for a feminist practice of resistance through the
pleasurable consumption of media images. Employing a broad analysis of the
media the thesis adopts a multi-methodological approach in the range of data
collected, the methods employed and the analysis undertaken. It addresses three
aims. First, to contribute to the wider literature within feminism. about heterosexuality
and sexual practice. Second, to understand the role of the media in formulating
feminist and heterosexual identities. Third, to consider the use and application of a
range of different methods for a feminist cultural politics. Drawing on data from
qualitative and quantitative media reviews, a questionnaire study; and diaries, focus
groups and telephone interviews with the participants, I discuss the construction of
heterosexuality and feminism, and the women's talk about their sexual practice.


Problem statement: Rectangular steel plates are widely used in variou s steel structures and steel industries. For a proper design of steel plate structures and efficient use of material, the behavior, strength, buckling and post-buckling char acteristics of plates should be accurately determined. Approach: Considering the significance of this matter, later al vibration of thick rectangular plates was studied on the basis of mind lin plate theory. The exact characteristic equations for a plate which is single supported in two opposite edges are available in the literature. S-C-S-F boundary condition which covers all possible situations is selected in this study. Results: The plate frequencies were calculated for this boundary condition for a wide range of plate sizes and thicknesses. The plate mode shapes were obtained fo r different cases and the effect of changes in boundary conditions; size ratio and thickness on th e vibration behavior of rectangular steel plates ar e studied. Conclusion/Recommendations: Since the results of this study is exact and witho ut any approximation, the presented values can be used as a proper criteria to evaluate the error value of approximate methods which are used by engineers for design of steel plates. These results can provide a good gridline for efficient design and prevention of using high safety factors. Considering the wide range of steel rectangular plates, more sizes and t hicknesses of plates can be studied. The behavior o f plates with other boundary conditions can also be s tudied for future research.


Sulfation is an essential component of the selectin ligands, potentially mediated by members of a new family of carbohydrate sulfotransferases. In this study, we assessed the contributions of CHST1, CHST2, CHST3, and CHST4 in producing functional l‐selectin ligands. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells predominantly expressed CHST1 and CHST2 transcripts with low levels of CHST3 mRNA, while cytokine activation up‐regulated CHST2 expression and induced low‐level CHST4 expression. A human umbilical vein endothelial cell line, EA.hy926, displayed functional l‐selectin ligands that correlated with CHST1 and CHST2 expression in the absence of CHST4 expression. Increased CHST1 or CHST2 expression by a cell line expressing low‐level l‐selectin ligand activity during in vitro flow chamber assays increased rolling leukocyte numbers, reduced rolling velocities, and enhanced leukocyte rolling under higher shear stresses. These results suggest that CHST1 and CHST2 contribute to the generation of optimal l‐selectin ligands in vascular endothelial cells at sites of inflammation.


This study was conducted to determine quality and phytochemical characteristics of 'Ercis' cultivar that is indigenous to Van province for wine and must as well as table grapes due to specific aroma. In this framework, physical (color, cluster weight (g), berry length (mm), berry width (mm) and berry weight (g)), chemical (pH, titratable acidity (TA%), total soluble solids (TSS%), maturation index (MI), sugars, organic acids, total antioxidant activity, macro and micro elements) and phytochemical characteristics (phenolic compounds) of the cultivar were examined.  Paired sample t test was performed to determine differences between years. In addition, multidimensional scaling was utilized to indicate visual representation of proximities for the characteristics. Differences between years for cluster weight, berry length, berry width and berry weight were found statistically significant, however, there is no significant differences for other characteristics. In addition, some negative and positive correlations were observed among the physical, chemical and phytochemical characteristics.


Physical measurements made in Lake Kinneret, during the stratified period, indicate that the lower water mass (LWM) consists of two layers: a turbulent benthic boundary layer (BBL) and a hypolimnetic layer overlying the BBL. The water in the LWM moves in response to vertical mode one seiching of the metalimnion; this movement is accentuated near the perimeter of the metalimnion due to shoaling of the seiche and breaking of internal waves. The motion associated with this phenomena induce a well mixed benthic boundary layer (BBL) adjacent to the lake bottom. The BBL and hypolimnion were distinguished chemically because transport of solutes between these water bodies was very small. Compared to the hypolimnion, the BBL was characterized by more intensive biomineralisation processes as indicated by the faster depletion of DO and NO3, by higher levels of NH4,H2S, and soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) and by lower pH values. SRP levels in the hypolimnion were particularly low, suggesting that phosphorus was either preferentially removed by sedimentation from the hypolimnion, or it was not released from particles. As a result NH4 over SRP ratios in the hypolimnion were significantly higher than in the BBL and diffusional fluxes of both nutrients from the LWM to the trophogenic epipelagic water, should therefore be characterized by relatively high N/P ratios.


Digitization and democratization of independent cinema Making and self-distributing high quality films have never been as affordable as they are today. Even films shot on cellphones are celebrated at festivals around the world. This is really empowering for storytellers who don't want to submit to a Hollywood struggle or don't have a big budget for making their film. Filmmaking is now a democratic arena. Even previously silent audiences are now becoming noisy participants in the films that they consume. But mere accessibility to the resources for production doesn't entirely satisfy passionate creators who want to reach out to audiences far and wide. The Internet's low entry barriers make room for everyone, resulting in a cluttered environment, where the effective discovery of applicable content becomes important. Each member of the networked audience affects the discoverability of content floating around on the web for others, within their own capacity. The audience's emerging role as re-distributers, along with easy tools and resources that allow them to partake in cinema and popular culture, influences the content and format in which cinema is presented on the web. These premises offered an opportunity to introduce affordances that encourage new degrees of participation. With a focus on the emerging activities of appropriation, a system that honors content creators by making attribution consistent and codified is proposed in this project. The establishment of a culture of crediting welcomes the arrival of a future indie cinema, which is integral to the social nature of the Internet.