It is six in the morning and a law student is walking her dog before beginning a full day of classes. Across town a few hours later, a classmate rushes onto a crowded subway train, forced to stand sandwiched between strangers during his commute to school. That afternoon, an evening student sits in rush hour traffic, hoping to make it into the city in time for class. Later that night, a student jogs on a treadmill at the gym after a long day of school. What do all of these students have in common? They are learning by listening to their professors' podcasts. Even though they are located in different places, at different times of the day, while their hands or eyes may not be free to open a book to study, they can still listen and learn. This article discusses how and why professors can use podcasts to supplement their classroom instruction to enhance their students' education. Podcasts provide students with an opportunity to listen to their professor outside of the time and space constraints of the classroom. This article discusses the accessibility, portability, and simplicity of using podcasts. Whether a student is a night owl or a morning person, whether she prefers to listen to a podcast on her iPod or MP3 player, burn a CD, or listen to it on her computer, the student decides when, where, and how she will listen to the podcast on her own terms and timetables. The article also examines the benefits and challenges of using podcasts. Finally, it illustrates how professors can use podcasts as a teaching tool to reach today's multi-tasking, technology-savvy student in a different way than traditional classroom teaching methods. Now instead of just listening to rock, pop, jazz, country, or any other musical genre, students can add their law school podcasts to their playlist.


This is an extension of the Flow Solver for Incompressible 2-D Drive Cavity software described in the preceding article. It solves the Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible flow using finite differencing on a uniform, staggered grid. There is a runtime choice of either central differencing or modified upwinding for the convective term. The domain must be rectangular, but may have a rectangular walled region within it. Currently, the position of the interior region and exterior boundary conditions are changed by modifying parameters in the code and recompiling. These features make it possible to solve a variety of classical fluid flow problems such as an L-shaped cavity, channel flow, or wake flow past a square cylinder. The code uses fourth-order Runge-Kutta time-stepping and overall second-order spatial accuracy. This software permits the walled region to be positioned such that flow past a square cylinder, an L-shaped cavity, and the flow over a back-facing step can all be solved by reconfiguration. Also, this extension has an automatic detection of periodicity, as well as use of specialized data structure for ease of configuring domain decomposition and computing convergence in overlap regions.


ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS. germplasm collection, squash, SRAP markers, AFLP markers, morphological type ABSTRACT. Cucurbita maxima Duch. is one of the most morphologically variable cultivated species. The Center for Conservation and Breeding of the Agricultural Diversity (COMAV) holds a diverse germplasm collection of the Cucurbita genus, with more than 300 landraces of this species. Morphological and molecular characterization are needed to facilitate farmer and breeder use of this collection. With this aim, the morphological variation of a collection of 120 C. maxima accessions was evaluated. The majority of these accessions originated from Spain, which has acted as a bridge since the 16th century for spreading squash morphotypes between the Americas and Europe. South American landraces (the center of origin of this species) were also included. Eight morphological types were established based on this characterization and previous intraspecifi c classifi cations. A subset of these accessions, selected from these classifi cation and passport data, was employed for molecular characterization. Two marker types were used; sequence related amplifi ed polymorphism (SRAP), which preferentially amplifi es open reading frames (ORF), and amplifi ed fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). In the main, SRAP marker analysis grouped accessions in accordance to their type of use (agronomic traits) and AFLP marker analysis grouped accessions as to their geographical origin. AFLP marker analysis detected a greater genetic variability among American than among Spanish accessions. This is likely due to a genetic bottleneck that may have occurred during the introduction of squash into Europe. The disparity of the results obtained with the two markers may be related to the different genome coverage which is characteristic of each particular marker type and/or to its effi ciency in sampling variation in a population. Cucurbita maxima Duch. is an extremely diverse species. It has been suggested that it has more cultivated forms than any other


The recent advent of compliant and kinematically redundant robots poses new research challenges for human-robot interaction. While these robots provide a great degree of flexibility for the realization of complex applications, the flexibility gained generates the need for additional modeling steps and definition of criteria for redundancy resolution constraining the robot's movement generation. The explicit modeling of such criteria usually require experts to adapt the robot's movement generation subsystem. A typical way of dealing with this configuration challenge is to utilize kinesthetic teaching by guiding the robot to implicitly model the specific constraints in task and configuration space. We argue that current programming-by-demonstration approaches are not efficient for kinesthetic teaching of redundant robots and show that typical teach-in procedures are too complex for novice users. In order to enable non-experts to master the configuration and programming of a redundant robot in the presence of non-trivial constraints such as confined spaces, we propose a new interaction scheme combining kinesthetic teaching and learning within an integrated system architecture. We evaluated this approach in a user study with 49 industrial workers at HARTING, a medium-sized manufacturing company. The results show that the interaction concepts implemented on a KUKA Lightweight Robot IV are easy to handle for novice users, demonstrate the feasibility of kinesthetic teaching for implicit constraint modeling in configuration space, and yield significantly improved performance for the teach-in of trajectories in task space.


An experimental study of backscatter enhancement from rough surfaces is presented. The Stokes parameters of the average scattered light from two-dimensional rough surfaces show the presence of an unpolarized component, which lends support to the multiply scattering ray model. Experimental data from one-dimensional rough surfaces are compared with numerical calculation.


To explore the influence of primary results during the 2008 nomination process we leverage a previously unused methodology—the analysis of prediction market contracts. The unique structure of prediction markets allows us to address two unexplored questions. First, we analyze whether primary results affect candidates' chances in the general election, as candidates who take strong positions during the nomination contest may be unable to easily appeal to centrist voters in the general election. We also assess whether states with early primaries, such as Iowa and New Hampshire, have a disproportionate effect on the nominating process. We show that the length of the primary season has a minimal impact of the electability of candidates in the general election, and that some states have a disproportionate impact on the nominating process. However, the states that have the largest impact are not necessarily New Hampshire and Iowa, the states that have often been assumed to be the most influential because of their early position on the primary calendar.


The solute diffusion coefficient in soil (Ds) and its dependency on the soil water content (θ), soil type, and compaction govern the transport and fate of dissolved chemicals in the soil vadose zone. Only a few studies have quantified solute diffusivity (Ds/D0, where Ds and D0 are the solute diffusion coefficients in soil and pure water, respectively) for variably compacted soils with different textures. We measured the Ds for KCl on five different soils from Japan: two volcanic ash soils (Andisols) at different bulk densities, two sandy soils, and a loamy soil. The Ds was measured across a wide range of θ using the half‐cell method. The Ds/D0 values for Andisols with bimodal pore size distribution were comparatively lower than for the other soils. Opposite to the behavior for sandy soils, the Ds/D0 for Andisols at a given θ decreased markedly with increasing bulk density under wet conditions but increased with increasing bulk density under dry conditions. Data for all soil types including sandy soils with unimodal pore size distribution implied a two‐region behavior when plotted as log(Ds/D0) vs. θ. We suggest that the similar behavior across soil types can be explained by regions of low and high water phase connectivity for relatively structureless soils and by high intraaggregate and low interaggregate water phase tortuosity for aggregated soils. Among a number of tested predictive models for Ds/D0, the Penman–Millington–Quirk model, which requires knowledge of only θ and total porosity, performed best across soil types.


The purpose of this study is to provide a descriptive analysis of high school choral teachers' inclusion of popular music in current teaching practices by (a) determining the frequency of inclusion, (b) developing a profile of teachers, schools, and choral programs that include popular music in the curriculum, (c) determining which demographic characteristics affected the amount of popular music included, and (d) developing a profile of popular music implementation details. The Popular Music Survey, a researcher designed online survey, was developed to collect demographic data and information concerning the participants' inclusion of popular music in their high school choral classrooms. Participants were high school choral teachers in the Commonwealth of Virginia (n = 104). Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Macintosh, Version 22.0.Results of the study revealed that 100% of participants include popular music in the choral curriculum as performance literature and/or instructional materials. Descriptive statistics of demographic data of the teacher, school, choral program, and ensemble were used to develop a profile to describe the typical high school choral teacher who includes popular music. Descriptive statistics were also used to develop a profile to describe how high school choral teachers included popular music in the choral classroom. The majority of participants (n = 91, 87.4%) responded that the percentage of popular music performed was 30% or less of their total performance literature. Pearson Chi-square and one-way analysis of variance were used to determine the extent to which popular music was included in the high school choral curriculum. The achievement of a master's degree was the only teacher characteristic that significantly affected the amount of popular music included in the high school choral curriculum (p = .028). Participants with a master's degree included more popular music than participants who did not have a master's degree. Implications for music education were discussed in relation to the findings of the current study. Recommendations were made for future research regarding the inclusion of popular music in choral classrooms, as well as in other areas of music education.


A drawing selected for international juried group exhibition of artworks around the following theme: There are places we find ourselves where light fades and darkness arrives. That edge, precipice, or boundary, where the light meets the dark, can become a threshold into an unknown abyss or terrain. It might be the moment after opening the door to reveal the darkness of your home or studio. Entering a cave on a bright day. Looking out at a moon-lit lake of dark water that you would never dare dive into. The end of an affair, marriage or friendship. We have all looked into the darkness at the edge, the place where we let go of what we had, knew or cherished. Darkness at the edge is about those moments of liminality; the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in life and dream when you no longer hold what you held, but have not yet begun the transition to what you will hold. During a ritual's liminal stage, a participant "stands at the threshold," often in a state of contemplation of what was and what could be.


It is presented one proposal for pedagogical intervention to improve the teaching and learning of physics in higher education institutions. The project is a training of 12 hours for professors concerning teaching and learning of Physics. The aims of the proposal are to identify the factors and conditions that favor learning, to concretize short, medium and long term pedagogical plans, as well as to train with the teachers participants the writing of pedagogical aims, the differentiated and strategic application of models and methods of teaching, to apply and to create evaluation instruments; all of it will be based on constructivist alignment and in SOLO taxonomy. This kind of project can be restructured to other kinds of contents, such as Mathematics, History, or even a specific content of one subject, the Mechanics, in a course of Physics. This paper can be used as a guideline to establish a course to teach teachers so that the student's learning can be effective and profound.


As large-scale oil, gas, and mining projects move to increasingly remote areas, they threaten to generate adverse impacts for the local communities and indigenous peoples who inhabit these areas. For many project-affected communities, Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) represents a critical tool for ensuring that they have a say in whether and how extractive industry projects move forward. This policy briefing examines publicly available corporate commitments regarding community rights and community engagement. The results suggest increasing commitments to FPIC in the mining sector but disappointing trends in relation to the oil and gas sector and women's participation in decision making. For the launch of the report, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples prepared a video address for Oxfam: Message of Victoria Tauli-Corpuz for the Save the Date for the Community Consent Index launch . At the Community Consent Index launch event in Washington, DC on 23 July 2015, Oxfam staff were joined by representatives from industry and civil society on a panel discussion.


Title of Dissertation: THE PRESS AS CONSTITUTIONAL LITIGATOR: SHAPING FIRST AMENDMENT DOCTRINE IN THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT Eric B. Easton, Doctor of Philosophy, 2011 Dissertation directed by: Professor Emerita Maurine Beasley Philip Merrill College of Journalism This dissertation examines the role of the press in constitutional litigation before the United States Supreme Court to shape the First Amendment doctrine that forms the legal environment in which journalists operate. Although the journalism and legal academies produce a significant body of scholarship analyzing First Amendment doctrine generally, and a growing body of work discussing the role of the press in individual cases, relatively little scholarship focuses on the way the press has contributed to the evolution of constitutional doctrine through the litigation process. This dissertation demonstrates that the Court has consistently ruled in favor of the press's interpretation of the First Amendment on publishing issues such as prior restraints, libel, and privacy. But the press has failed to persuade the Court that the First Amendment protects newsgathering, as in reporters' privilege, cameras in courtrooms, and ride-along cases. While the reasons for these outcomes are many and varied, this dissertation argues that the press itself played a significant, if not necessarily decisive role in the process. Three cases most clearly illustrate how the development of First Amendment doctrine intersects the evolution of the press as a constitutional litigator. Near v. Minnesota marks the first great Supreme Court victory for the press in a publishing case, as well as the emergence of the press as a force to be reckoned with in constitutional litigation. Forty years later, Branzburg v. Hayes established a disastrous precedent for newsgathering cases, but spurred a press divided by that case to professionalize its litigation efforts. And after another thirty years, Bartnicki v. Vopper implicated both publishing and newsgathering doctrine, testing one against the other, with a positive outcome for today's highly organized media defense bar. This dissertation focuses on these three cases, using archival research, interviews with some of the principal actors, and traditional legal analysis. It also surveys the evolution of constitutional press law before and between these case studies, with special emphasis on the participation of litigators representing the mainstream press. Finally, it concludes with some observations that can be drawn from this study, including statistical analyses of press participation in First Amendment litigation before the Supreme Court, and recommendations for future research. THE PRESS AS CONSTITUTIONAL LITIGATOR: SHAPING FIRST AMENDMENT DOCTRINE IN THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT


President Ronald Reagan proposed in March 1983 that the US scientific community develop the ability to shoot down ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads. He hoped to shift the international security environment awav from a balance of terror, which was then commonly referred to as mutual assured destruction, to a more reliable deterrent strategy. The then-Secretary of State was so unsettled upon hearing of the President's forthcoming speech that upon entering the Oval Office to preview the president's remarks, he exclaimed, "Some darn fool is trying to sell you on missile defense, Mr. President." The reaction of the media and the academic community to the President's March 1983 speech was also one of incredulity. The Hartford Courant in an editorial described the idea as "Star Wars," a phrase quickly repeated by a number of senators who announced their opposition to the President's plan. Shortly thereafter, a prominent group of nuclear physicists warned that US missile defenses would cause a war between the United States and the USSR. they contended that missile defense would "upset detente." By 1984, then presidential candidate Walter Mondale made opposition to missile defense a central plank in his campaign against Reagan. And even as late as 2000, the Democratic Party platform opposed what they termed "an ill-conceived missile defense system" that would plunge the United States "into a new arms race". A Thousand Interceptors Now, some thirty years after the 1983 speech, the United States has deployed over 1,000 missile interceptors of all kinds, from the Army's Patriot and Theater High Altitude Defense, to the Aegis Standard Missiles aboard Navy cruisers. In addition, silo-based ground-based interceptors were deployed in Alaska and California on alert to defend against long range ballistic missiles from such nations as North Korea and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Allies from Japan, England, the Republic of Korea, Australia, Israel, Denmark, Spain, Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Holland, Italy, and Taiwan have built complimentary missile defense systems and radars, or are working closely with the United States to do so in the future. Plans for this decade alone might bring the number of worldwide allied missile defense interceptors to over 1,500 and likely closer to 2,000. Emerging Technology and Challenges Ahead Reagan's hope to destroy "missiles as they come out of their silos" remains a key hurdle. According to retired General Uzi Rubin, the former director of the Arrow missile defense program in Israel, early interception from the sea, against both North Korean and Iranian rockets, would be doable with greater interceptor speeds. This is one of the future goals of the US European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA), a plan to deploy greater technological capability over time, including faster interceptors than the current ship-based Standard Missile. Space-based systems including sensors could also work, especially those developed during the Reagan and Bush administrations. They are highly effective. When combined with the current ground and sea-based systems, such defensive capabilities could, as a March 1992 report to Congress stated, "contribute to the deterrence of intentional limited strikes by undermining their military and political value." Space systems also avoid the need for prior allied country agreements to base ground systems in their country. More importantly, the report correctly predicted the significant growth of ballistic missile threats in the Persian Gulf area and the need to move beyond seeing missile defense almost entirely through the prism of arms control and strategic stability with Moscow. And this new rocket laden landscape we face also features alliances between terror groups and states, such as the one between Hezbollah and Iran. The former is armed with tens of thousands of rockets and missiles of varying ranges, primarily from Iran, Syria, North Korea, and China. …


Aims: This study aims to review the influence of gender-specific differences and patient demographics on cardiac device and pacing mode selection over a 10-year period. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed patients who underwent first implantation of the cardiac device between January 1, 2006 and June 31, 2016. Results: During the study period, 704 patients underwent first cardiac device implantation. Number of patients undergoing pacemaker was 452 and number of patients undergoing implantable cardioverter defibrillator/cardiac resynchronization therapy and defibrillator (ICD/CRT-D) was 252. Patients undergoing pacemaker were 49.9% female with mean age 72.36+11.1. The most common indication was atrioventricular block (AVB) (84%) in both genders. The most frequently used pacing modes were VVI (70.8%), but over a 10-year period pacemaker selection shifted from VVI to DDD pacemakers. Patients undergoing ICD/CRT-D were 19.7% female with mean age 62.5+10.8. The most common indications for ICD/CRT-D was ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICMP) (55.0%). The rate of male patients was higher in patients who have received device therapy for dilated cardiomyopathy (DCMP) or ICMP, whereas the rate of female patients was higher in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCMP) patients. The most common used implanted system was VVI-ICD (60.6%). Conclusions: The present study demonstrated that there was no significant difference between female and male patients in pacing mode selection, mostly VVI pacing mode was chosen; however, over a 10-year period pacemaker selection shifted from VVI to DDD pacemakers. Female patients had less ICD/CRT-D implantation than male patients.


In October 2013, the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section ("ABA CJS") convened its 2nd annual International White Collar Crime conference in London, United Kingdom. In an auditorium filled almost to capacity, audience members representing practitioners, corporations, enforcement agencies, and academia listened intently to discussions regarding a myriad of topics, including enforcement trends, international internal investigation strategies, and global whistleblower incentives. The large audience and strong interest in the subject of the conference reiterated the growing importance of matters related to international white collar crime in an ever-increasingly globalized business environment.One of the topics that drew much discussion in London was the impending adoption of deferred prosecution agreements in the United Kingdom. Deferred prosecution agreements ("DPAs") are negotiated settlements of criminal investigations entered into between the government and the investigated entity. Typically, such agreements require an entity to admit wrongdoing, pay a substantial fine, and engage in remedial measures. If an entity succeeds in satisfying the requirements of a DPA, the government agrees to dismiss any criminal charges that have been filed against the entity related to the matter. This article examines deferred prosecution agreements in the United States and the UK. Further, this article considers the draft Code of Practice for DPAs issued by the SFO in 2013 and the insights it offers into various aspects of the impending roll-out of DPAs in the UK.


Future network architectures for mesh networks, sensor networks, and hybrid networks include multiple wireless hops with fixed or mobile routers relaying messages between mobile nodes and access points. The vast literature on routing for ad hoc networks is applicable for route discovery between a mobile node and an access point for these multi-hop networks. However, most ad hoc routing protocols rely upon "least-cost" or "shortest-path" routing, wherein a single metric of hop-count or energy-usage is used to define the path cost. For multi-hop networks, a number of additional metrics should be simultaneously considered for determining path cost. In this paper, we introduce our first step towards combining a number of cost criteria to define path cost during route discovery. Our simulation results indicate that giving simultaneous consideration to hop-count, path-congestion, and energy-usage results in a system performance with greater packet delivery ratio, lower end-to-end delay, lower overhead, and lower per-node energy usage


Around one-third of Australia's coal-fired power stations closed during 2012–2017, with most of the remainder expected to close over coming decades. Current investment in generation capacity is primarily in the form of alternative power, especially wind and solar. In this paper we conduct an event study to assess the local unemployment effects of Australia's coal-fired power station closures. This is an issue of considerable interest given the prominence of coal-fired power stations in local economies. Our analysis uses monthly regional labour force survey data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. We find that there has on average been an increase in local unemployment of around 0.7 percentage points after the closures of coal-fired power stations, an effect that tends to persist beyond the months immediately after closure. The findings raise questions about appropriate policy responses for dealing with local structural adjustment issues facing coal-reliant communities.


In addition to the striking beauty inherent in their complex nature, fractals have become a fundamental ingredient of nonlinear dynamics and chaos theory since they were defined in the 1970s. Moreover, fractals have been detected in nature and in most fields of science, with even a certain influence in the arts. Fractal structures appear naturally in dynamical systems, in particular associated with the phase space. The analysis of these structures is especially useful for obtaining information about the future behavior of complex systems, since they provide fundamental knowledge about the relation between these systems and uncertainty and indeterminism. Dynamical systems are divided into two main groups: Hamiltonian and dissipative systems. The concepts of the attractor and basin of attraction are related to dissipative systems. In the case of open Hamiltonian systems, there are no attractors, but the analogous concepts of the exit and exit basin exist. Therefore basins formed by initial conditions can be computed in both Hamiltonian and dissipative systems, some of them being smooth and some fractal. This fact has fundamental consequences for predicting the future of the system. The existence of this deterministic unpredictability, usually known as final state sensitivity, is typical of chaotic systems, and makes deterministic systems become, in practice, random processes where only a probabilistic approach is possible. The main types of fractal basin, their nature, and the numerical and experimental techniques used to obtain them from both mathematical models and real phenomena are described here, with special attention to their ubiquity in different fields of physics.


Drawing on the success of "XS" series, "Nano House" presents 43 examples of the most innovative, most ingenious and most responsible designs for small-scale (less than 75m2) houses set in a variety of contexts. Each house, shown in texts, photographs and plans, is an object lesson in domestic design. Using digital tools, sustainable materials and new prefabrication technologies, all these projects offer exciting and realistic solutions for houses where space is at a premium, nature must be preserved or accommodation created for those who need it most.


Protein-tyrosine kinases (PTKs) play essential roles in the cell signaling pathways of eukaryotes. However, since their discovery, PTKs have also been linked to cancer and it is now known that many of these enzymes actively promote oncogenic cell signal transduction in unregulated forms. Therefore, there has been a concerted effort on the part of researchers to identify the PTKs that potentiate such pathways, characterize their regulatory properties, and develop strategies to selectively disrupt these key elements of oncogenic signaling. Following this strategy, work described in this dissertation first focuses on the characterization of a relatively unstudied PTK, known as SRMS, which may be linked to cancer. To accomplish this, a novel strategy was developed to purify active SRMS, which can also be used to purify other PTKs for in vitro biochemical studies. Additionally, the purified SRMS was shown to activate upon autophosphorylation of the activation loop tyrosine, representing the first known regulatory mechanism of SRMS. The second focus of this dissertation was to develop a novel strategy for the design of selective PTK inhibitors. Using dasatinib, an established small-molecule inhibitor, a series of carboxyester-linked derivatives were synthesized and evaluated against a panel of PTKs. The biochemical data obtained presents a library of compounds with modified specificity toward individual PTKs. Thus, this strategy represents a break-through in the development of new, more selective PTK inhibitors for use as medicinal drug lead compounds.


Sex-specific alternative processing of doublesex (dsx) precursor messenger RNA (pre-mRNA) regulates somatic sexual differentiation in Drosophila melanogaster. Cotransfection analyses in which the dsx gene and the female-specific transformer (tra) and transformer-2 (tra-2) complementary DNAs were expressed in Drosophila Kc cells revealed that female-specific splicing of the dsx transcript was positively regulated by the products of the tra and tra-2 genes. Furthermore, analyses of mutant constructs of dsx showed that a portion of the female-specific exon sequence was required for regulation of dsx pre-messenger RNA splicing.


Objectives: Since the first report the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in China on December 2019, enormous number of researches are ongoing to understand its epidemiological characteristics One of the most important tools used to understand the epidemic curve and to predict its dynamic are epidemiological and statistical/mathematical models Methods: We used an SIR (Suspected-Infected-Recovered-Deceased) model to estimate the coefficients of infection, recovery and death, the reproduction number, the specific time of contact, the rate of recovery to the rate of death and the basic reproduction number and the peak of the COVID-19 epidemic in Algeria Results: According to the estimation of the SIRD model the peak of the epidemic will be reached on August-September in Algeria The coefficient of infection, recovery and death are estimated at 0 1655, 0 1077 and 0 0035 (day-1) respectively The basic reproduction value is 1 4876 The specific time of contact is estimated at 6 0423 days and the rate of recovery to the rate of death is estimated at 30 4183 Conclusion: These results could contribute in the epidemiological characterization of COVID-19 in Algeria which will be helpful for the Algerian Authorities in the anti-COVID-19 battle Results highlight also the role of the SIRD model in the study of COVID-19 dynamics


Timebudget of dabbling ducks migrating through Modena province in spring time. The authors report first data of Time budget activity in the pre-breeding migration of 6 dab - bling ducks migrating through Modena province. Figures of 8,356 ducks were gathered in the main peak of migration (February-March). Sampling method suggested by AltMAnn (1974) was used. The main behaviors observed were: sleeping, swimming and feeding; contra courtship, and vigilance were insignificant, it could mean that the migrating birds are all paired. We remark the drop of Anas querquedula that few years ago was the dominant duck migrating in Modena prov- ince.


Spectral distributions of 622 samples of daylight (skylight, and sunlight plus skylight) have been subjected to characteristic vector analysis, as composite data and in three subgroups (99 distributions measured by Budde; 249, by Condit; and 274, by Henderson and Hodgkiss). The chromaticity coordinates (x,y) computed from these distributions have been compared with direct visual determinations of chromaticity coordinates of daylight by Nayatani and Wyszecki, and by Chamberlin, Lawrence, and Belbin. It was found that the chromaticities indicated by the spectral distributions and by direct visual colorimetry cluster about the curve: y = 2.870x−3.000x2−0.275. This curve of typical daylight chromaticities falls slightly on the green side of the Planckian locus. From the mean and the first two characteristic vectors of the composite data, spectral distribution curves have been reconstituted by choice of scalar multiples of the vectors such that the chromaticity points fall on the curve of typical daylight chromaticities at places corresponding to correlated color temperatures of 4800°, 5500°, 6500°, 7500°, and 10 000°K. The representative character of these reconstituted spectral-distribution curves has been established by comparison with the measured curves from each subgroup yielding the closest approximation to the same chromaticities. The agreement so found suggests that this family of curves is more representative of the various phases of daylight between correlated color temperatures 4800° and 10 000°K than any previously derived distributions.


This thesis addresses the contested and poorly defined subject area of cultural iconicity. Careful consideration of three specific uses of the term - in the popular media, as a new way of articulating national identity, and in academic publications - reveals the extent to which the term is currently poorly comprehended and misapplied. The research proposes the introduction of tighter defining parameters to cultural iconography and presents an original definition against existing work in the field.
 The main aim, therefore, is straightforward; to attempt to answer the general question, what are cultural icons? To meet this end a definition of iconicity will be proposed consisting of four inter-connected conditions comprising, a) distinctness of image, b) durability of image, c) reproducibility of image and d) the tragic-dramatic narrative inherent in the image. The decision to implement such a definition is supported by a range of theoretical influences, from the ideas on perception developed by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, to recent work on the dramatic impact of tele-visual images. The philosophical influence applies the idea that human perception is strongly drawn towards tragic-dramatic forms - the tragic-dramatic narrative of cultural icons being an essential component of the definition - while new research into how images impact on common memory supports this application.
 The method adopted attacks the central question in three ways. Firstly, by applying throughout the work an original and practical working definition of cultural iconicity. Secondly, by differentiating the properties of primary cultural icons from other important cultural symbols (as in, for example, comparing cultural icons to photographic iconography and non-image based cultural myths). Third, a series of in-depth case studies applying the definition to real examples, which will be the crux of the project and, if successful, may prove not only an original contribution to knowledge in this new and exciting area of research, but should also appeal to a wider, non-academic readership.


A History of the University of Cambridge. Volume II: 1546-1750. By Victor Morgan, with a contribution from Christopher Brooke. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, Pp. xxii, 613. $150.00.) Between the Reformation and the middle of the nineteenth century it is difficult to overestimate the importance of the two English universities to the history of the church. The Church of England could, of course, be found everywhere-every square mile of England and Wales was part of a parish that possessed its own ordained minister. But anyone searching for a central institution that represented the church would have been hard pushed to identify one, especially when convocation, its "parliament," met only rarely. In the context of such institutional fragmentation, the universities could lay as great a claim as any other institution to represent the church. In 1683, indeed, the University of Oxford produced a decree that came as close as anything to a statement of Anglican theological orthodoxy since the Thirty-nine Articles, though it was soon rendered irrelevant by the Glorious Revolution. The universities were, as Victor Morgan reminds us, seen as "nurseries" or "seminaries," performing a series of interlocking roles: as centers of theological scholarship, as the source of a clergy fit to preach the Gospel throughout the land, and as the educators of a key section of the aristocracy and gentry. This volume, which completes the four-volume History of the University of Cambridge under the general editorship of Christopher Brooke, casts much new light upon these roles, since its dominant theme is the relationship between the university and the outside world. This is not to say that other themes are neglected: there is some fascinating material on constitutional changes within the university and on relations between college heads and their fellows; the declining intimacy between tutors and tiieir students is charted and explained; a couple of chapters elegantly pull together the limited surviving evidence to show us what was actually taught. The core of the book, however, is the chapters contributed by Victor Morgan analyzing the relations of die university with the state, with parliament, and with "the country," by which he essentially means the provincial gentry. He argues that the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries witnessed the development of a particularly high degree of intimacy between the university and the wider world, which then declined in the latter part of the period covered by the volume. In the context of die working out of the revolutionary impact of the Reformation on English politics, religion, and society this probably appears unsurprising, but Morgan's account of the process is subtle and complex, revealing clearly the symbiotic nature of the relationship and, in the process, triumphantiy vindicating the practice of a sophisticated institutional history. The rapid growth of the colleges, for example, is linked to the development and significance of lay patronage, which, incidentally, helped to frustrate any ambitions that the state may have had to establish any form of doctrinal hegemony. …


Objective To investigate whether cognitive and physical activities in midlife are associated with reduced risk of dementia and dementia subtypes in women followed for 44 years. Methods A population-based sample of 800 women aged 38–54 years (mean age 47 years) was followed from 1968 to 2012. Cognitive (artistic, intellectual, manual, religious, and club) and physical activity were assessed at baseline. During follow-up, dementia (n = 194), Alzheimer disease (n = 102), vascular dementia (n = 27), mixed dementia (n = 41), and dementia with cerebrovascular disease (n = 81) were diagnosed according to established criteria based on information from neuropsychiatric examinations, informant interviews, hospital records, and registry data. Cox regression models were used with adjustment for age, education, socioeconomic status, hypertension, body mass index, cigarette smoking, diabetes mellitus, angina pectoris, stress, and major depression. Results We found that cognitive activity in midlife was associated with a reduced risk of total dementia (hazard ratio [HR] 0.66; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.49–0.89) and Alzheimer disease (HR 0.54; 95% CI 0.36–0.82) during follow-up. Physical activity in midlife was associated with a reduced risk of mixed dementia (HR 0.43; 95% CI 0.22–0.86) and dementia with cerebrovascular disease (HR 0.47; 95% CI 0.28–0.78). The results were similar after excluding those who developed dementia before 1990 (n = 21), except that physical activity was then also associated with reduced risk of total dementia (HR 0.67; 95% CI 0.46–0.99). Conclusion Our findings suggests that midlife cognitive and physical activities are independently associated with reduced risk of dementia and dementia subtypes. The results indicate that these midlife activities may have a role in preserving cognitive health in old age.


There are well documented methods for stack emissions monitoring. These are all based on stack sampling through sampling ports in well defined conditions. Once sampled, the molecules are quantified in instruments that often use optical techniques. Unfortunately sampling ports are not found on all stacks/ducts or the use of the sampling ports cannot be planned efficiently because of operational constraints or the emissions monitoring equipment cannot be driven to a remote stack/duct. Emissions monitoring using many of the same optical techniques, but at a standoff distance, through the atmosphere, using short range high spatial resolution lidar techniques was thus attempted. Standoff absorption and Raman will be discussed and results from a field campaign will be presented along with short descriptions of the apparatus. In the first phase of these tests, the molecules that were targeted were NO and O2 . Spatially resolved optical measurements allow for standoff identification and quantification of molecules, much like the standardized methods, except for the fact that it is not done in the stack, but in the plume formed by the emissions from the stack. The pros and cons will also be discussed, and in particular the problem of mass emission estimates that require the knowledge of the flow rate and the distribution of molecular concentration in the plane of measurement.


The historical decline of fertility in Europe has occupied a central place in social history and demography over the past quarter-century. Most scholars credit Europeans with modulating sexual behavior, through either abstinence or the practice of coitus interruptus, as a rational choice made in the interest of personal economic comfort; yet peasant and working classes have typically lagged behind in birth control and have given rise to the adage that "sexual embrace is the festival of the poor." Scholarly analyses of "lag" often reinforce this stigmatizing view.Now this subject is given a fresh look through a case study in Sicily, one of the last outposts of Western Europe's demographic transition. By examining population changes in a single community between 1860 and 1980, the authors offer an extended review and critique of existing models of fertility decline in Europe, proposing a new interpretation that emphasizes historical context and class relations. They show how the spread of capitalism in Sicily induced an unprecedented rate of population growth, with boom-and-bust cycles creating the class experiences in which "reputational networks" came to redefine family life; how Sicilians began to control their fertility in response to class-mediated ideas about gender relations and respectable family size; and how the town's gentry, artisan, and peasant classes adopted family planning methods at different times in response to different pressures.Jane and Peter Schneider's anthropologically oriented political-economy perspective challenges the position of Western Europe as a model for fertility decline on which every other case should converge, looking instead at the diversity of cultural ideals and practices--such as those found in Sicily--that influence the spread and form of birth control. Combining anthropological, oral historical, and archival methods in new and insightful ways, the authors' synthesis of a particular case study with a broad historical and theoretical discussion will play a major role in the ongoing debates over the history of European fertility decline and point the way toward integrating the analysis of demographic upheaval with the study of class formation and ideology.


Titanium implants are nowadays often used in orthopedics and dentistry to repair or replace bone injuries or defects caused by aging, accident or diseases. Even if titanium is biocompatible, a low osseointegration between the implant and the surrounding tissue may result in graft rejection and a series of unwanted reactions.
To overcome these issues, two main strategies have been investigated: a physicochemical modification of the implant surface (e.g. roughness, energy or chemistry of the surface) or a functionalization of the surface with cell adhesive molecules.
This research project will mainly focus on the second approach which consists on the biofunctionalization of the surface. There are many types of cell adhesive molecules that can be used for such purpose. One of the most common family of cell adhesive molecules used are the proteins found in the extra cellular matrix (ECM).The cell bonding activity of these proteins is usually contained within a few amino acids. This is the case of the sequence Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) found in many proteins of the ECM. Thus, the use of these short peptide sequences has been explored to biofunctionalize materials and to improve cell adhesion.
To create a covalent and stable binding between the peptides (organic molecules) and the titanium surface (inorganic surface), the use of linker molecules is required. This can be achieved by using organosilanes.
The aim of this project is to improve the adhesion of the osteoblasts onto the titanium graft. In order to do so, different activation methods of the titanium surface will be explored followed by a silanization step that ensure the attachment of the peptides to the surface. Then, RGD peptides will be immobilized to improve the binding of the cells on the surface.
The central theme of this research will be to compare two methods that increase and accelerate the adhesion of the cells in order to decrease the risk of complications. The first method is a simple physisorption of the peptide onto the implant surface and the second method is a creation of a strong covalent bond between the surface of the implant (made of titanium) and the peptides. The effect of the distinct activation treatments on the physicochemical properties of the surfaces will be investigated by means of contact angle measurements, interferometry, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The biological properties of the functionalized materials will be explored by means of cell adhesion assays with osteosarcoma cells.


In this paper a small-scale macroeconomic system is estimated in the framework of a common trends model, in order to explore the dynamic interactions between real house prices, consumption expenditure and output in the US and major European economies. The results point to important differences across countries, with long-run house price effects on consumption only for France, Germany and the US. However, some interactions between house prices and consumption are detected in all countries at shorter horizons. Evidence of international comovements in the common trend component of house price dynamics is also found.


We present a photonic meta-material with planar dielectric chiral structures on SU-8 realized using nanoimprint lithography (NIL). A Si template with chiral structure arrays was first fabricated by electron beam lithography (EBL) followed by reactive ion etch (RIE). The chiral pattern on the template was then transferred to a SU-8 layer spin coated on Pyrex using an in-house developed press. The imprint property of SU-8 under various pressures and temperatures was systematically studied. The optimized imprint process was successfully applied for the fabrication of planar chiral structure in SU-8. The periodically distributed chiral elements form a photonic crystal with the pitch of 4 μm. Optical diffraction of such kind of periodically arranged chiral structures in SU-8 has been observed for the first time.


External beam radiation therapy is essential in the management of a wide spectrum of musculoskeletal conditions, both benign and malignant, including bony and soft-tissue sarcomas, metastatic tumors, pigmented villonodular synovitis, and heterotopic ossification. Radiation therapy, in combination with surgery, helps reduce the functional loss from cancer resections. Although the field of radiation therapy is firmly rooted in physics and radiation biology, its indications and delivery methods are rapidly evolving. External beam radiation therapy mainly comes in the form of four sources of radiotherapy: protons, photons, electrons, and neutrons. Each type of energy has a unique role in treating various pathologies; however, these energy types also have their own distinctive limitations and morbidities.


Natural Earth is a public domain, map dataset available at 1:10, 1:50, and 1:110-million scales. Announced at the 2009 NACIS (North American Cartographic Information Society) annual meeting in Sacramento, California, the goal is to give cartographers an off-the shelf solution for creating small-scale world, regional, and country maps. It has several features of interest to mountain cartographers producing small-scale physical maps: rendered shaded relief images and GIS labels for many mountain peaks, ranges, and other physical features. But perhaps more importantly, it includes other reference themes that fit that physical geography. Natural Earth data builds on Tom Patterson's Physical Map of the World presented at the 2008 ICA Mountain Cartography Workshop, Lenk, Switzerland. With NACIS backing, we have launched a new website, naturalearthdata.com, where you can download Natural Earth and updated versions of Natural Earth Raster imagery of Natural Earth I and II raster imagery in perfect registration with vector linework. Both political and physical features are included in Natural Earth data. Natural Earth solves a problem that many cartographers face: finding vector data for making publication-quality small-scale maps. In a time when the web is awash in interactive maps and free, downloadable vector data, such as Digital Chart of the World and VMAP, mapmakers are forced to spend time sifting through a confusing tangle of poorly attributed data. Many mapmakers working under tight project deadlines must use manually digitalized bases instead. Small-scale map datasets of the world do exist, but they have their problems. For example, most are crudely generalized—Chile's fjords are a noisy mess, the Svalbard archipelago is a coalesced blob, and Hawaii has disappeared into the Pacific two million years ahead of schedule. They contain few data layers, usually only a coast and country polygons, which may not be in register. The lack of good small-scale map data is not surprising. Large mapping organizations that release public domain data, such as the US Geological Survey, are not mandated to create small-scale map data for a small user community that includes mapmaking shops, publishers, web mappers, academics, and students—in other words, typical mountain cartographers. Natural Earth fills this oft-overlooked but important niche.


Many beta-lactamases have active-site serine residues, and are competitively inhibited by boronic acids. Hitherto, the boronic acids used have lacked any structural resemblance to the substrates of beta-lactamases. Phenylacetamidomethaneboronic acid, trifluoroacetamidomethaneboronic acid and 2,6-dimethoxybenzamidomethaneboronic acid have now been synthesized. The first of these contains the side-chain moiety of penicillin G, and the last that of methicillin. The pH-dependence of binding of the first inhibitor to beta-lactamase I from Bacillus cereus revealed pK values of 4.7 and 8.2 for (presumably) active-site groups in the enzyme. The kinetics of inhibition were studied by cryoenzymology and by stopped-flow spectrophotometry. These techniques provided evidence for a two-step mechanism of binding of the first two boronic acids mentioned above to beta-lactamase I, and for benzeneboronic acid to a beta-lactamase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The slower step is probably associated with a change in enzyme conformation as well as the formation of an O-B bond between the active-site serine hydroxy group and the boronic acid.


The South Pacific convergence zone (SPCZ) exhibits well-known spatial displacements in response to anomalous sea surface temperatures (SSTs) associated with the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Although dynamic and thermodynamic changes during ENSO events are consistent with observed SPCZ shifts, explanations for these displacements have been largely qualitative. This study applies a theoretical framework based on generalizing arguments about the relationship between the zonal-mean intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) and atmospheric energy transport (AET) to 2D, permitting quantification of SPCZ displacements during ENSO. Using either resolved atmospheric energy fluxes or estimates of column-integrated moist energy sources, this framework predicts well the observed SPCZ shifts during ENSO, at least when anomalous ENSO-region SSTs are relatively small. In large-amplitude ENSO events, such as the 1997/98 El Niño, the framework breaks down because of the large change in SPCZ precipitation intensity. The AET framework permits decomposition of the ENSO forcing into various components, such as column radiative heating versus surface turbulent fluxes, and local versus remote contributions. Column energy source anomalies in the equatorial central and eastern Pacific dominate the SPCZ shift. Furthermore, although the radiative flux anomaly is larger than the surface turbulent flux anomaly in the SPCZ region, the radiative flux anomaly, which can be viewed as a feedback on the ENSO forcing, accounts for slightly less than half of SPCZ precipitation anomalies during ENSO. This study also introduces an idealized analytical model used to illustrate AET anomalies during ENSO and to obtain a scaling for the SPCZ response to an anomalous equatorial energy source.


Accurate prediction is essential for patient counselling, appropriate selection of treatments and determination of eligibility for clinical trials. In this review we assess the available determinants of oncological outcome after radical cystectomy (RC) for transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder. We reviewed previous publications to provide guidelines in terms of criteria, limitations and clinical value of available tools for predicting patient outcome after RC. Our findings suggest that while individual surgical, patient and pathological features provide useful estimates of survival outcome, the inherent heterogeneity of tumour biology and patient characteristics leads to significant variation in outcome. By incorporating all relevant continuous predictive factors for individual patients, integrative predictive models, such as nomograms or artificial neural networks, provide more accurate predictions and generally surpass clinical experts at predicting outcomes. Nonetheless, there is a clear need for the development and validation of molecular biomarkers and their incorporation into multivariable predictive tools. Significant progress has been made in identifying important molecular markers of disease and the development of multifactorial tools for predicting the outcome after RC.


Veins bearing titanian andradite were found in a metasomatically altered clinopyroxenite cumulate of an alkali magmatic suite (Little Dromedary, NSW, Australia). The titanian andradite is up to 2.5 cm in size, mainly subhedral and displays a large concentric, oscillatory intergrowth with layers consisting of plagioclase and alkali feldspar. Detailed field work and petrography showed that there is a gradual change in paragenesis from the cumulitic clinopyroxenite with interstitial plagioclase to an apatite- and scapolite-bearing plagioclase-titanian andradite-pyroxene rock, which hosts the titanian andradite veins. Clinopyroxene composition changes from a magmatic Ti-bearing subsilicic ferrian aluminian diopside to a metamorphic Ti-free, Al-poor diopside. Plagioclase changes composition from oligoclase (Ab 81 An 14 Or 5 ) in the pyroxenite to bytownite (Ab 14 An 86 ) in the garnet-pyroxene rock and to oligoclase (Ab 76 An 21 Or 3 ) in the vein. Orthoclase occurs exclusively in the vein and contains 12% albite component. The titanian andradite-bearing veins and the change in paragenesis, bulk rock and mineral composition provide evidence for the reaction of a late magmatic, oxidizing hydrothermal fluid with the magmatic pyroxenite. The temperature of alteration is constrained by the composition of the coexisting plagioclase and alkali feldspar in titanian andradites to ∼ 420 °C. Crystallization of the titanian andradite indicates that Ti was transported on a metre scale from the magmatic clinopyroxene to the vein by a fluid. Ti solubility may have been enhanced by ligands such as F - , Cl - , PO 4 3- , SO 4 2- and CO 3 2- , which are all present in the fluid as documented by their incorporation in metamorphic apatite, scapolite, and carbonate coexisting with titanian andradite. KCl and NaCl salt inclusions in feldspar within the titanian andradite were found with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and indicate that the fluid was partly supersaturated in these components. The alternating intergrowth of titanian andradite and feldspars mirrors an oscillating evolution of the fluid. TEM images of the garnet-feldspar interface suggest that garnet has been partly dissolved prior to or during feldspar precipitation, supporting the hypothesis of significantly changing fluid composition during vein formation. The concentric intergrowth is interpreted as the result of both the changing chemistry of the fluid and the different growth behaviour of garnet and feldspar.


The international legal framework regulating the problem of human trafficking contains the presumption that the return of victims of human trafficking to their countries of origin is the standard resolution for their cases. However, victims might have legitimate reasons for not wanting to go back. For those victims, resort to the legal framework of the European Convention on Human Rights could be a solution. I elaborate on the protection capacity of Article 3 when upon return victims face dangers of re-trafficking, retaliation, rejection by family and/or community and when upon return in the country of origin victims could be subjected to degrading treatment due to unavailability of social and medical assistance. In light of Rantsev v. Cyprus and Russia case, I develop an argument under Article 4 that states cannot send victims to those countries which do not meet the positive obligations standard as established in the case. Article 8 could be relevant, first, when the level of feared harm in the country of origin does not reach the severity of Article 3 but is sufficiently grave to be in breach of the right to private life and engage the non-refoulement principle, and second, when the victim has developed social ties within the receiving state and the removal will lead to their disruption.


Until late in the nineteenth century, few guidebooks acknowledged the presence of women as travelers-although women had been traveling around the world for centuries. Women's accounts of their journeys, distinct from those of male travelers, began to appear more frequently in the early nineteenth century, and Egypt was a popular destination. Women had more time to watch and describe; they were more dependent on the Egyptian staff; they spent time both in the harems of Cairo and with the women they met along the Nile. Some of them, like Sarah Belzoni, Sophia Poole, and Ellen Chennells, spoke Arabic. Others wrote engagingly of their experiences as observers of an exotic culture, with special access to some places no man could ever go.From Eliza Fay's description of arriving in Egypt in 1779 to Rosemary Mahoney's daring trip down the Nile in a rowboat in 2006, this lively collection of writing by over forty women travelers includes Lady Evelyn Cobbold, Isabella Bird, Winifred Blackman, Norma Lorimer, Harriet Martineau, Florence Nightingale, Amelia Edwards, and Lucie Duff Gordon.


It is well-known that a galaxy's environment has a fundamental influence in shaping its properties. We study the environmental effects on galaxy evolution, with an emphasis on the environment defined as the local number density of galaxies. The density field is estimated with different estimators (weighted adaptive kernel smoothing, 10th and 5th nearest neighbors, Voronoi and Delaunay tessellation) for a Ks < 24 sample of ∼190,000 galaxies in the COSMOS field at 0.1 < z < 3.1. The performance of each estimator is evaluated with extensive simulations. We show that overall there is a good agreement between the estimated density fields using different methods over ∼2 dex in overdensity values. However, our simulations show that adaptive kernel and Voronoi tessellation outperform other methods. Using the Voronoi tessellation method, we assign surface densities to a mass complete sample of quiescent and star-forming galaxies out to z ∼ 3. We show that at a fixed stellar mass, the median color of quiescent galaxies does not depend on their host environment out to z ∼ 3. We find that the number and stellar mass density of massive (>1011 M ⊙ ?> ) star-forming galaxies have not significantly changed since z ∼ 3, regardless of their environment. However, for massive quiescent systems at lower redshifts (z ≲ 1.3), we find a significant evolution in the number and stellar mass densities in denser environments compared to lower density regions. Our results suggest that the relation between stellar mass and local density is more fundamental than the color–density relation and that environment plays a significant role in quenching star-formation activity in galaxies at z ≲ 1.


The creation of a programming language calls for guiding principles that point the developers to goals. This article spells out the three basic principles behind the 20-year development of Racket. First, programming is about stating and solving problems, and this activity normally takes place in a context with its own language of discourse; good programmers ought to formulate this language as a programming language. Hence, Racket is a programming language for creating new programming languages. Second, by following this language-oriented approach to programming, systems become multi-lingual collections of interconnected components. Each language and component must be able to protect its specific invariants. In support, Racket offers protection mechanisms to implement a full language spectrum, from C-level bit manipulation to soundly typed extensions. Third, because Racket considers programming as problem solving in the correct language, Racket also turns extra-linguistic mechanisms into linguistic constructs, especially mechanisms for managing resources and projects. The paper explains these principles and how Racket lives up to them, presents the evaluation framework behind the design process, and concludes with a sketch of Racket's imperfections and opportunities for future improvements.


Sequential consistency (SC) is arguably the most intuitive behavior for a shared-memory multithreaded program. It is widely accepted that language-level SC could significantly improve programmability of a multiprocessor system. However, efficiently supporting end-to-end SC remains a challenge as it requires that both compiler and hardware optimizations preserve SC semantics. While a recent study has shown that a compiler can preserve SC semantics for a small performance cost, an efficient and complexity-effective SC hardware remains elusive. Past hardware solutions relied on aggressive speculation techniques, which has not yet been realized in a practical implementation. This paper exploits the observation that hardware need not enforce any memory model constraints on accesses to thread-local and shared read-only locations. A processor can easily determine a large fraction of these safe accesses with assistance from static compiler analysis and the hardware memory management unit. We discuss a low-complexity hardware design that exploits this information to reduce the overhead in ensuring SC. Our design employs an additional unordered store buffer for fast-tracking thread-local stores and allowing later memory accesses to proceed without a memory ordering related stall. Our experimental study shows that the cost of guaranteeing end-to-end SC is only 6.2% on average when compared to a system with TSO hardware executing a stock compiler's output.


The overarching purpose of the research was to examine workplace bullying among nurses who work in North Carolina hospital. The research examines the influence of individual factors, individual characteristics and organization factors on physical health, mental health and intent to leave position in nurses who were bullied. In particular, this study explored the influence of resilience on physical health, mental health and intent to leave in nurses who have experienced bullying. In this sample, 64 of 160 (40%) of nurses experienced workplace bullying. Linear regression analysis indicated nurses who are bullied have a lower average scores in mental health measures (p<0.001), and are more likely to leave their unit (p<0.001). Multiple regression models revealed that nurses who experienced severe bullying and had high levels of resilience their intention to leave their unit was elevated as compared to others. The mediation results from the path analysis using Mplus reveled resilience was not a mediator of bullying on physical health, mental health or intent to leave.


Intricate networks of signals define the boundaries that develop between groups of developing cells and later tissues, as they diverge during differentiation. Studying the seed pod of Arabidopsis, Ferrándiz et al. now identify some of the signals that differentiate valve cells from margin cells. A negative interaction between the FRUITFULL and SHATTERPROOF genes ensures that cells in a narrow strip along the edge of the valve acquire characteristics such that a particular zone of the seed pod (the dehiscence zone) can break to release seeds. Dehiscence, as well as lignification, which is also regulated by FRUITFULL, are important agronomic traits. Ferrándiz, C., Liljegren, S.J., and Yanofsky, M.F. (2000) Negative regulation of the SHATTERPROOF genes by FRUITFULL during Arabidopsis fruit development. Science 289: 436-438. [Abstract] [Full Text]


During the 1980s, the history of the social survey method in the UK and the US evoked significant scholarly attention; however, this has waned in recent years. Drawing on this historical literature, I review the origins and development of the social survey to its current ubiquity in serving the information needs of modern societies. Two pivotal moments set the direction for this history: first, the publication of Charles Booth's Life and Labour of the People of London in the late nineteenth century, which inspired numerous further studies to replicate his approach; second, World War II, which provided the applied research opportunity that established the social survey as an indispensable tool in public policy. Although historians acknowledge the growth of survey research in the post-war era, there has been limited discussion of the trends that shaped this expansion. I identify the processes of institutionalisation, professionalisation and economisation as setting the course for social survey methods during this period. The emergence of historical reflection on the survey method in the late twentieth century responded to a new transitional moment in its history. Commentators argued for a greater integration of theory in empirical findings to enable the survey to continue to function effectively in the production of "argumentative knowledge" (Philip Abrams, in Bulmer 1985:x), which is central to its critical social function. I argue for the value of methodological history to enable the survey method, and its practitioners, to reflectively appraise the idiosyncrasies of its development, current practices and future prospects.


Dehiscence bone defects, frequently observed on dental implants placed in periodontitis-affected alveolar bone or extraction sockets were treated with β-tricalcium phosphate (β –TCP) and chitosan membrane for guided bone regeneration, and the new bone formation on the treated sites were studied. Beagle dogs were used for the experiment. First to fourth mandibular premolars were extracted, and the post extraction alveolar bone surface was planed. After 8 weeks of healing, 3 by 4mm dehiscence defects were created using straight fissure burs. Total of 16 oxidized titanium surface implants were placed on the bone defects of the subjects, two on each side. Control sites were treated with implants only. Experimental Group 1 sites were treated with implants and chitosan membrane. Experimental Group 2 sites were treated with implants, β-TCP and chitosan membrane. Experimental Group 3 sites were treated with implants, β-TCP, autogenous bone and chitosan membrane. The animals were sacrificed 12 weeks after implant placement, and the specimens from the treated sites were histologically studied with following results. Limited amount of new bone formation was observed in control group with unexposed membrane. Slightly greater amount of bone formation was observed on sites treated with β-TCP+membrane or autogenous bone+ β-TCP+membrane compared to control group. Remnants of chitosan membrane and β-TCP encapsulated with connective tissue were observed during experimental periods. These results suggest that further studies are needed on membrane rigidity and infection control for space maintenance underneath the membrane and bone substitutes in the treatment of dehiscence defects.


Transnational historiography, which emerged in the 1990s, covers historical phenomena that transcend the boundaries of the nation-state, analyzing the processes of circulation, transformation and hybridization of scientific ideas and practices across national frontiers. When scientific knowledge flows between different countries, the ideas that emerge in one particular national context adapt to the new local contexts of their hosts, with their particular cultural, social, political and scientific traditions. In psychology, the transnational approach provides a productive theoretical framework capable of going beyond the traditional US-centered perspective that has dominated the historiography of psychology since the mid-20th century. This US-based historiography has, for example, interpreted the historical influence of I. P. Pavlov in terms of two main factors: his methodological contribution—the conditioned reflex—and the existence of a behaviorist tradition in the receptor psychology community. However, a more global analysis questions the need for these two elements and, at the same time, offers insights into the conditions that facilitated or hindered the flow of Pavlovian science beyond the United States. Thus, for example, between 1903 and 1970 the dissemination and appropriation of the Pavlovian science of conditioned reflexes took two different routes: in America, scientific aspects and factors dominated; whereas elsewhere, politics prevailed over science. This happened in countries such as China, Cuba, and Spain, with dictatorial regimes at different ends of the political spectrum, where Pavlov's work arrived under the auspices of government programs to modernize scientific and clinical institutions. Once Pavlov's ideas had been introduced through reform programs in each country, they were accepted or rejected depending on whether the sign of the regime in question converged with the ideology prevailing in the Soviet Union, which it did in China and Cuba, but not in Spain. In these countries, where psychology did not have strong institutional roots and behaviorism was not a dominant approach, Pavlovian ideas found a receptive audience among health professionals-doctors, psychiatrists, and clinical psychologists - keen to embrace new ideas and treatments for mental disorders. Thus, from a transnational perspective, the global repercussion of Pavlov's ideas went far beyond the strictly methodological sphere.


Purpose: The purpose of this case report is to discuss how the various placements of glaucoma drainage implants relate to corneal decompensation. Method: A 58-year Hispanic female presented for evaluation of decreased vision in the left eye for 2 years. This is a case report of a patient who underwent a secondary surgery to replace the anterior tube shunt implantation with a posterior shunt implantation following development of severe corneal decompensation. Results: Glaucoma tube shunt implants inserted into the ciliary sulcus of pseudophakic eyes shield the cornea offering protection against decompensation and avoid the risk of posterior segment complications. Conclusions: Placement of glaucoma drainage implants into the ciliary sulcus in pseudophakic patients with shallow anterior chambers, abnormal irido-corneal anatomy, or those at risk for corneal decompensation is a safe and effective method of not only lowering the intraocular pressure but also protecting the cornea against decompensation. As primary eye care providers, optometrists need to know the various treatment options and adverse effects associated with each procedure.


In 2011, Joanne Fraill, a juror, was imprisoned for eight months because she chatted on Facebook with a co-accused from the trial that she participated in.1 Fraill's case prompts questions about how social media affect courts, legal regulators and lawyers, as well as important legal principles. Those important legal principles are: (1) public confidence in the judiciary and the courts; (2) public confidence in the legal profession; (3) open justice; and (4) the right of an accused to a fair trial.

This thesis offers an analysis and conclusions on those issues. It examines case law, legislation, academic articles and internet materials on social media.

It is found that some Australian courts and legal regulators would benefit from doing more to adapt their procedures and rules to social media. The extent to which Australian courts and legal regulators adapt their procedures and rules to social media can have significant repercussions on the important legal principles considered.

This thesis provides Australian courts, the judiciary, legal regulators and lawyers with information and recommendations about their social media use that may assist them. The author believes that this is the first scholarly work to consider the impact that social media has had upon all of these stakeholders, and the first scholarly work in this area to recommend appropriate actions to maintain or possibly increase confidence in the judiciary, the courts and the legal profession, improve open justice and ensure that accused receive fair trials, despite the possibility that jurors may use social media inappropriately.


Computer Aided Learning, known more widely with the generic name of e-learning, has become a powerful tool with lots of potentialities within educational field. Even though, one of the main critics that it receives is that in most cases the implemented courses follows a "one size fits all" approach, which means that all students receive the same content in the same way being unaware of their particular needs. This problem is not due only to the absence of direct interaction between student and tutor, but also because of the lack of an appropriate instructional design. There are several approaches which deal with this issue and look for adapt the teaching process to students. One could say that in the top of those approaches the Adaptive and Intelligent Educational Systems are situated, which merges the functionalities of two approaches: the Adaptive Educational Hypermedia Systems and the Intelligent Tutoring Systems. Nevertheless, after an extensive literature review, a major inconvenience is still found for this kind of systems and particularly for their reference models: or they are too simple, including just a few functionalities; or they are too complex, which difficult their design and implementation. Considering this panorama, the main objective of this dissertation thesis was the definition of a reference model trying to reach such an elusive equilibrium, in such a way that allows the design of courses which adapt themselves in an intelligent and effective way to the progress and characteristics of each student but without being too complex. Another important feature is that this model integrates Learning Objects, promoting this way flexibility and reusability. In order to achieve this general objective, three sub-models were considered: a domain model, a student model and a tutor model. The first one serves to structure the knowledge domain and was defined using the notion of learning goal and a flexible multilevel schema with optional prerequisite operations. The second one aids to characterize students and considered personal, knowledge and psycho-cognitive information. The third one may be considered as the hearth of the system and defines the adopted adaptive functionalities: sequencing and navigation, content presentation, assessment, and collaborative support. With the aim of clarify the three sub-models, as well as all their components and relationships, an instantiation example was also presented. Such an instantiation was called Doctus, an authoring tool for adaptive courses. Doctus was not only helpful to exemplify the setup of the referece model as a whole, but also to refine sub-models and several procedures envolved. As final part of the dissertation, the implementation and preliminary validation of Doctus was performed. This was done with 51 subjects, teachers from different formation levels. The obtained results in this stage were outstanding, all the adaptive functionalities were well evaluated and all of those polled felt enthusiastic about counting with a tool for helping them in their teaching practices considering students as particular individuals.


This article examines the users' awareness and satisfaction with biodiversity information that was being provided by their respective information systems. The study was conducted among biodiversity databases user communities in Tanga, Morogoro, Dar es Salaam and Coast regions of Tanzania. Mixed research design was used in which techniques such as questionnaires, observation, interviews and focus groups' discussions were employed to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. The key findings indicate that the majority of the respondents were not aware of the existence of biodiversity information in their institutions. The respondents who seemed to be aware of its existence opined that biodiversity information which was being dispensed by their information systems was relevant but not updated and adequate for planning and decision-making. The article incorporates some recommendations on how the situation may be improved to enhance access and use of the biodiversity information in Tanzania.


We review the main features and results of thermal leptogenesis within the type I seesaw mechanism, the minimal extension of the Standard Model explaining neutrino masses and mixing. After presenting the simplest approach, the vanilla scenario, we discuss various important developments of recent years, such as the inclusion of lepton and heavy neutrino flavour effects, a description beyond a hierarchical heavy neutrino mass spectrum and an improved kinetic description within the density matrix and the closed-time-path formalisms. We also discuss how leptogenesis can ultimately represent an important phenomenological tool to test the seesaw mechanism and the underlying model of new physics.


The scope and enforcement of intellectual property (IP) laws are becoming salient, for the first time, to a wide cohort of U.S. and international communities. National and international legislation, including the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), have generated protests online and in the streets by people who are concerned about the expansion of IP rights. Common to each of these proposals was an expansion in the use of criminal sanctions to deter IP violations. Many copyright owners and the associations that represent them support criminal enforcement of IP, including the use of imprisonment, to combat the threat of increased IP piracy on the internet and throughout a globalized economy. Others, including a heterogeneous coalition of scholars, activists, and internet based companies like Google and Wikipedia, fear that using criminal sanctions to protect IP will expand already overgrown rights and chill valuable expressive and inventive behavior.


This article presents the results of a poll made among the members of the editorial and advisory boards of Valuation Studies. The purpose is to overview the topic that is the remit of the new journal. The poll focused on three questions: 1. Why is the study of valuation topical? 2. What speci!c issues related to valuation are the most pressing ones to explore? 3. What sites and methods would be interesting for studying valuation? The answers to these questions provided by sixteen board members form the basis of the article. Based on these answers, it identi!es a number of themes concerning the study of valuation, elaborating on the rationale for attending to valuation, the conceptual challenges linked to this, and the speci!c issues and sites that deserve further attention.


Current trends indicate the number of qualified sports officials continues to dwindle. Therefore, this research sought to better understand reasons for initial entry, continuation, and potential discontinuation with officiating, while also identifying problematic issues, and potential solutions. Content analysis was utilized to examine five open-ended online survey responses from 2,485 referees. The results indicate that Enjoyable Affiliation (58%) and Remuneration (14%) were key to referees becoming involved in officiating. Those two themes, Enjoyable Affiliation (75%) and Remuneration (14%), were also identified as important to retaining officials. Physical Limitations were mentioned by 58% of the respondents regarding why they plan to discontinue. In terms of the most problematic issues, referees most frequently indicated Abuse (42%) and Administrative Issues (20%). Lastly, findings suggest the best ways to recruit and retain officials are to Provide Mentors and Training (32%), Market to Young People (23%), and Increase Pay (19%). Practical implications and strategies that include attracting more women, underrepresented ethnicities, and young people into sports officiating are provided.


Extensive developments in the area of industrial biotechnology over past few years have signified the importance of citric acid as one of the most known organic acid, applied mainly as flavoring, emulsifying, cleaning, and chelating agent. It also plays a major role in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Citric acid is produced by various microorganisms such as Aspergillus niger, Penicillium restrictum, Trichoderma viride, Mucor piriformis, A. awamori. A. niger is one of the most commonly used source for citric acid production under submerged fermentation conditions. A.niger was isolated from rotten onion, coconut, and lemon and was grown in supplemented Potato Dextrose Broth (PDB) at 30°C for 7 days. Best source for isolation of A.niger amongst these sources was analyzed by observation of optical density. Subsequently, production of citric acid using A.Niger on variable sugar sources was carried under Nitrogen and phosphorus limitation. Three different production media for citric acid production were used,Cane Molasses, Czapek Dox and Orange peel media. Effect of variation of pH in the range of 1-5 and temperature in the range of 200 to 500C over production of citric acid in cane molasses, Czapek Dox and Orange peel was estimated. Quantitative estimation of citric acid produced under varying environmental parameters in submerged culture condition was done using titration method and it was observed the best production media for citric acid production using A.nigerwas Cane molasses media at the pH 1 and temperature 20 ° C. K e y w o r d s Citric acid, Aspergillusniger, Submerged fermentation, Czapek dox, Cane molasses, Orange peel, titration, Optical density, pH and temperature.


Information technology governance ITG is one of the top challenges of managers today and culture in different level can have an important role while implementing IT governance. This is a new and significant issue, which has not been investigated deeply. This paper sets out to provide a systematic review of the literature, focusing on the role of culture in IT governance. The literature review findings are categorized through the lens of IT governance's five focus areas which are IT strategic alignment, IT value delivery, Risk management, IT resource management and Performance measurement. This study contributes to the field of IT governance by reviewing and discussing the existing literature on the role of culture on IT governance. This literature review resulted that there are few research studies in this topic and many of the IT governance focus areas are not covered regarding the role of culture in these IT governance areas.


We show how to engineer enhanced skew scattering and gaplike openings in the surface state of three-dimensional topological insulators using only nonmagnetic impurities. Enhanced skewscattering off nonmagnetic impurities is obtained as a finite size effect of the scattering potential. Intimately related to the generated skew scattering is the emergence of a gaplike density of electron states locally around the impurities and surrounded by sharp resonances, with an extended energy gap appearing in engineered impurity structures.


This highlight article focuses on the rapidly emerging area of electrocatalytic metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) with a particular emphasis on those systems displaying intrinsic activity. Three electrocatalytic conversion processes are discussed, including CO2 reduction, the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), as well as a selection of other relevant examples. The scope of our discussion encompasses aspects of MOF structure that are key to their function, performance characteristics such as stability and selectivity, together with methods for interfacing MOFs with surfaces. Key challenges that have emerged are highlighted in addition to opportunities that are relevant to the field in the design of more stable, selective and robust electrocatalysts for a range of industrial processes.


Young people's lives are increasingly shaped by digital technologies. While significant digital divides and participation gaps remain, an increasing number of young people around the globe participate in and contribute to the digitally networked environment in many forms, ranging from creative expression on social media to interactive gaming and collaboration. This spotlight explores young people's digital engagement through the lens of the digital economy and seeks to gain an initial understanding of youth's practices, motivations, skills, pathways, and modes of value creation as they interact with a digital environment in which the boundaries between the commercial and personal spheres, between work and play, are often blurring. The spotlight summarizes key insights from a trans-Atlantic exploratory research collaboration between Youth and Media at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the Nordic Centre for Internet and Society at BI Norwegian Business School. In addition to sketching building blocks toward a framework, the paper brings together three essays that explore in different application contexts both the opportunities and challenges that surface when young people engage with and participate in the digital economy.


Natural convection with Soret and radiation effects in a binary fluid saturating a horizontal porous layer under the influence of magnetic field is investigated. Adopting the Rosseland approximation for the radiative flux, the onset of instability is studied using the linear stability analysis. The result shows that the radiation absorption parameter delayed the onset of instability with higher values leading to greater stabilization of the system. The Soret parameter has significant effect on convective instability and this is discussed. In the absence of the magnetic field, the effects of the results obtained are more significant. Effects of other governing parameters are quantitatively discussed.


When and how might the term genocide appropriately be ascribed to the experience of North American Indigenous nations under settler colonialism? Laurelyn Whitt and Alan W. Clarke contend that, if certain events which occurred during the colonization of North America were to take place today, they could be prosecuted as genocide. The legal methodology that the authors develop to establish this draws upon the definition of genocide as presented in the United Nations Genocide Convention and enhanced by subsequent decisions in international legal fora. Focusing on early British colonization, the authors apply this methodology to two historical cases: that of the Beothuk Nation from 1500–1830, and of the Powhatan Tsenacommacah from 1607–77. North American Genocides concludes with a critique of the Conventional account of genocide, suggesting how it might evolve beyond its limitations to embrace the role of cultural destruction in undermining the viability of human groups.


We evaluate recent inflation-targeting using Brazilian data and also consider the framework of the macroeconomic model of adaptive learning blended with a cognitive psychology approach. We suggest that forecasters interpret the inflation target as an anchor, and adjust to it accordingly. As current inflation increases above the target level, a central bank loses credibility, and forecasters start the adjustment from the top because they expect an even higher future inflation. Then, they move back to the core target within a range of uncertainty, but the adjustment is likely to end before the core is reached, as predicted by the psychological theory of anchors. After calibrating the model, we find an asymptotic equilibrium of a 6.1 percent inflation rate, which overshoots the announced target inflation core of 4.5 percent. This example casts doubt on the very justification for inflation targeting, which is unlikely to succeed when private forecasters rely on anchoring heuristics.


Many commentators and observers believe that the time is right and the sector is ready for a national debate in the UK on the nature of the doctorate, given the multiple drivers for change, multiple agendas at work, and the multiple stakeholders with an interest in both the debate and the outcome. This discussion paper is designed to help frame and inform such a debate, which will not only bring together the major stakeholder groups in a shared conversation, but also provide opportunities for members of the academic community to contribute to the discussion via a series of national workshops and meetings.


This paper presents a simple general equilibrium model involving trips from residential areas to a central business district, along with modal choice between cars and public transit. Using a calibrated numerical model, we investigate the relative merits of ownership and use taxes. The proposed model is used to evaluate traffic control policies in Singapore and can be used in other Asian countries. We compare full internalisation of congestion externalities to optimal tax outcomes for the different tax types. In our framework, use taxes restore Pareto optimality since congestion damage rises with more trips. Ownership taxes only partially internalise congestion externalities. However, in terms of revenue-raising ability, the marginal excess burdens in the neighbourhood of optimal taxes are typically lower for ownership taxes than use taxes.


Large multilayer neural networks trained with backpropagation have recently achieved state-of-the-art results in a wide range of problems. However, using backprop for neural net learning still has some disadvantages, e.g., having to tune a large number of hyperparameters to the data, lack of calibrated probabilistic predictions, and a tendency to overfit the training data. In principle, the Bayesian approach to learning neural networks does not have these problems. However, existing Bayesian techniques lack scalability to large dataset and network sizes. In this work we present a novel scalable method for learning Bayesian neural networks, called probabilistic backpropagation (PBP). Similar to classical backpropagation, PBP works by computing a forward propagation of probabilities through the network and then doing a backward computation of gradients. A series of experiments on ten real-world datasets show that PBP is significantly faster than other techniques, while offering competitive predictive abilities. Our experiments also show that PBP provides accurate estimates of the posterior variance on the network weights.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Observed by more than 1.5 billion Muslims, Ramadan is one of the most celebrated religious rituals in the world. We investigate stock returns during Ramadan for 14 predominantly Muslim countries over the years 1989-2007. The results show that stock returns during Ramadan are almost nine times higher and less volatile than during the rest of the year. No discernible difference in trading volume is recorded. We find these results consistent with a notion that Ramadan positively affects investor psychology, as it promotes feelings of solidarity and social identity among Muslims world-wide, leading to optimistic beliefs that extend to investment decisions. JEL Classifications: G12, G14


Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused infection in 168,000 cases worldwide in about 148 countries and killed more than 6,610 people around the world as of March 16, 2020, as per the World Health Organization (WHO). Compared to severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome, there is the rapid transmission, long incubation period, and disease containment is becoming extremely difficult. The main aim of this systematic review is to provide a comprehensive clinical summary of all the available data from high-quality research articles relevant to the epidemiology, demographics, trends in hospitalization and outcomes, clinical signs and symptoms, diagnostic methods and treatment methods of COVID-19, thus increasing awareness in health care providers. We also discussed various preventive measures to combat COVID-19 effectively. A systematic and protocol-driven approach is needed to contain this disease, which was declared as a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, by the WHO.


A numerical analysis of solute transport in two spatially heterogeneous fields is carried out assuming that the fields are composed of ensembles of one-dimensional non-interacting soil columns, each column representing a possible soil profile in statistical terms. The basis for the analysis is the flow simulation described in Part II (Jensen and Refsgaard, this issue), which serves as input to a transport model based on the convection-dispersion equation. The simulations of the average and variation in solute concentration in planes perpendicular to the flow direction are compared to measurements obtained from tracer experiments carried out at the two fields. Due to the limited amount of measurement data, it is difficult to draw conclusive evidence of the simulations, but reliable simulations are obtained of the mean behaviour within the two fields. The concept of equivalent soil properties is also tested for the transport problem in heterogeneous soils. Based on effective parameters for the retention and hydraulic conductivity functions it is possible to predict the mean transport in the two experimental fields.


This article traces the historiography of the romantic yet poorly understood mistress, friend and political ally of Simón Bolívar: Manuela Sáenz Aizpuru de Thorne (1797–1856). It highlights two opposing schools of interpretation on Sáenz: the 'bad girl' and 'heroine' schools. Nationalism and the cult of Bolívar (especially among Venezuelan and Ecuadorean authors), have combined with the later influence of revolutionary socialist and feminist ideas to ensure the predominance of the latter and, thus, of an heroic-mythic view of Sáenz. Yet scholars' efforts to recover the historical woman have challenged this view and, above all, paved the way for a more nuanced, gender-conscious understanding of Sáenz's role and significance.