One hundred years ago, a group of African-American women assembled in Charleston, South Carolina under the name of the United Order of Tents of J.R. Giddings and Jollifee Union. The only organization of its kind, the United Order of Tents is a secret society comprised and operated solely by African-American women. The Order traces its roots back to the operations of the Underground Railroad in Norfolk, Virginia. The founder of the organization, Annetta M. Lane, assisted slaves during their escape from the South through their journey on the Railroad. After emancipation, Annetta Lane and United Order of Tents co-founder, Harriett Taylor, recognized a need for African-American women to join together for strength and security in the new free world. To this end, the United Order of Tents was created. The founding members viewed the Order as a 'tent of salvation' amidst the turmoil of Reconstruction and intended to uplift the African-American community through mutual-aid and personal betterment. In 1913, the Charleston chapter of the United Order of Tents convened under a similar benevolent mission and has continually served the community for a century. In 1956, the Charleston chapter embedded the organization's history in the city's landscape with the purchase of 73 Cannon Street. The mid-nineteenth century single house served as the headquarters of the Order for fifty-six years. Since the Order's acquisition, the property fulfilled the multi-faceted needs of the organization serving as a meetinghouse, a stage for the members' sacred rituals, office and managerial space, a fundraising events venue, and an income-producing property. In the summer of 2012, the building and its services were extricated from the Order due to a city enforced public nuisances code, locally recognized as 'demolition by neglect.' Presently, the tents are operating out of scattered venues across the city. This disjunction threatens the historic relationship between 73 Cannon Street and the United Order of Tents. The circumstances surrounding the Order's building attracted attention in the local preservation consciousness. This interest served as the impetus for this investigation on identity and place. This thesis uncovers the historic narratives embedded within the structure of 73 Cannon Street and, consequently, reveals a relatively untold history of a group of African American women. Additionally, this study illustrates the power of architecture to serve as a vessel for identity and memory and to enrich the surrounding community. This study concludes with recommendations for preserving both the historic building and historic organization in order to maintain the sense of place at 73 Cannon Street.


Process Variation (PV) may cause accuracy loss of the analog neural network (ANN) processors, and make it hard to be scaled down, as well as feasibility degrading. This paper first analyses the impact of PV on the performance of ANN chips. Then proposes an in-situ transfer learning method at system level to reduce PV's influence with low-precision back-propagation. Simulation results show the proposed method could increase 50% tolerance of operating point drift and 70%∼00% tolerance of mismatch with less than 1% accuracy loss of benchmarks. It also reduces 66.7% memories and has about 50 × energy-efficiency improvement of multiplication in the learning stage, compared with the conventional full-precision (32bit float) training system.


To assist the Department of Industry Mineral
Reconnaissance Program (DIMRP) limited research
has been undertaken to provide guidelines on new
geophysical prospecting systems, field techniques
and general exploration methodology.
A short study has been made of the ground
VLF resistivity (VLF-R) method to assess its
potential for mineral prospecting and geological
mapping. Field trials confirm that the method is
well suited for mapping broad mineralised zones,
flat lying conductors of limited lateral extent, or
abrupt changes in conductivity associated with
geological contacts. In resistive terrains the method
offers distinct operational advantages over galvanic
resistivity methods. The principal disadvantages of
the technique relate to interpretational ambiguities
associated with the complex behaviour of surface
impedance at VLF and the fact that the operator
has no effective control over the depth of investigation.
Theoretical model studies show that too
small and too large a penetration can both result
in non-detection of a resistive target, but that
excessive penetration will not seriously affect the
resolution of conductive targets.


Abstract U.S. military veterans have been heavily impacted by the opioid overdose crisis, with drug overdose mortality rates increasing by 53% from 2010–2019. Risk for overdose among veterans is complex and influenced by ongoing interaction among physiological/biological, psychological, and socio-structural factors. A thorough understanding of opioid-related overdose among veterans, one that goes beyond simple pharmacological determinism, must examine the interplay of pain, pain treatment, and stress, as well as psychological and social experiences—before, during, and after military service. Comprehensive efforts to tackle the overdose crisis among veterans require interventions that address each of these dimensions. Promising interventions include widespread naloxone distribution and increased provision of low-threshold wrap-around services, including medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) and holistic/complementary approaches. Interventions that are delivered by peers – individuals who share key experiential or sociodemographic characteristics with the population being served – may be ideally suited to address many of the barriers to opioid-related risk mitigation common among veterans. Community care models could be beneficial for the large proportion of veterans who are not connected to the Veterans Health Administration and for veterans who, for various reasons including mental health problems and the avoidance of stigma, are socially isolated or reluctant to use traditional substance use services. Interventions need to be tailored in such a way that they reach those more socially isolated veterans who may not have access to naloxone or the social support to help them in overdose situations. It is important to incorporate the perspectives and voices of veterans with lived experience of substance use into the design and implementation of new overdose prevention resources and strategies to meet the needs of this population. Key messages U.S. military veterans have been heavily impacted by the opioid overdose crisis, with drug overdose mortality rates increasing by 53% from 2010–2019. The risks for overdose that veterans face need to be understood as resulting from an ongoing interaction among biological/physiological, psychological, and social/structural factors. Addressing drug overdose in the veteran population requires accessible and non-judgemental, low threshold, wraparound, and holistic solutions that recognise the complex aetiology of overdose risk for veterans.


Since August 2007, the global economy has been subject to a sharp and adverse financial shock, with re-pricing of risk and higher cost of funds. This article argues that this shock is a consequence of an unsustainable period of global economic growth involving very large external imbalances. These imbalances – large current account surpluses in many emerging markets matched by current account deficits (CADs) in a number of advanced economies – contributed to an unsustainable cheapening of credit and increased risk-seeking behaviour by financial markets. The development of the imbalances can be explained by financial underdevelopment in many emerging markets, together with particular savings and investment dynamics across the surplus and deficit countries. These factors established 'Bretton Woods II', a global macro-financial dynamic that tied the deficit and surplus economies together in a co-dependent relationship. The current credit crisis appears to mark the limits of this relationship. However, the precise nature of any subsequent adjustment in global imbalances is not immediately clear.


In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a novel technique to optically generate high-chip-count, phase-coded direct-sequence (DS) ultrawideband (UWB) signals for multiple-access UWB communications. In the proposed system, a lightwave from a laser source is phase-modulated by a Gaussian pulse train. The phase-modulated lightwave is then sent to a polarization modulator, to modulate the polarization state of the lightwave by a code pattern. The polarization-coded optical signal is then converted into a biphase-coded DS-UWB signal by a polarization-dependent frequency discriminator. The key device in the proposed system is the frequency discriminator, which is implemented using a length of polarization maintaining fiber (PMF) and a polarizer. A 127-chip, biphase-coding DS-UWB that has a data rate of 26.46 Mb/s and a chip rate of 3.36 Gb/s is experimentally generated. A multiuser UWB-over-fiber system is then proposed and a two-user system is demonstrated, in which the encoding is performed experimentally and the decoding is performed by numerically calculating the correlation between the coded UWB signal and the signature sequence. The signal of each user is well recognized. An effective two-user UWB-over-fiber system based on the DS-UWB technology is thus demonstrated.


PafA, the prokaryotic ubiquitin-like protein (Pup) ligase, catalyzes the Pup modification of bacterial proteins and targets the substrates for proteasomal degradation. It has been reported that that M. smegmatis PafA can be poly-pupylated. In this study, the mechanism of PafA self-pupylation is explored. We found that K320 is the major target residue for the pupylation of PafA. During the self-pupylation of PafA, the attachment of the first Pup to PafA is catalyzed by the other PafA molecule through an intermolecular reaction, while the formation of the polymeric Pup chain is carried out in an intramolecular manner through the internal ligase activity of the already pupylated PafA. Among the three lysine residues, K7, K31 and K61, in M. smegmatis Pup, K7 and K31 are involved in the formation of the poly-Pup chain in PafA poly-pupylation. Poly-pupylation of PafA can be reversibly regulated by depupylase Dop. The polymeric Pup chain formed through K7/K31 linkage is much more sensitive to Dop than the mono-Pup directly attached to PafA. Moreover, self-pupylation of PafA is involved in the regulation of its stability in vivo in a proteasome-dependent manner, suggesting that PafA self-pupylation functions as a mechanism in the auto-regulation of the Pup-proteasome system.


Abstract
Teaching Assistants – the development of a profession?
In 2003 a national agreement between government, employers and workforce unions introduced significant changes to the school workforce. A key outcome was a significant increase in the number of Teaching Assistants (TAs), who could take on some aspects of the work of teachers. However, there is very little empirical data about TAs, most of what is available is based upon limited datasets. Most previous analyses presume that they are an homogenous group, thus ignoring the possibility that there may be important differences in the types of TA and their deployment. The research reported in this thesis documents the history of TAs and explores their current role. It is argued that a typology of TA roles can be derived, which can help their future deployment in schools and form the basis for the development of a career pathway specific to TAs.
The national agreement was to lead to a new ‗professionalism' (DfES 2003) and this research provides new empirical analysis which specifically explores the extent to which TAs have become ‗professional' in the light of these reforms. In pursuing this objective the concept of professionalism in relation to TAs is critically appraised by examining the views of TAs and the teachers and CPD leaders they work with. It is argued that these perspectives on professionalism and professional status impact upon how schools deploy TAs. It is also argued that these perspectives lead to specific patterns of remuneration and working conditions which are different from those anticipated by orthodox labour market theory. A proposition supported by analyses of TAs' pay and job satisfaction. This thesis identifies that there has been an uncoupling of the factors normally associated with pay and satisfaction at work, leading to a mutually reinforcing relationship between pay and satisfaction which generates inertia and has the effect of negatively disadvantaging TAs in employment.


Community participatory planning is a crucial component of urban planning but there is no effective public participation in the Chinese planning decision-making process, which brings up social conflicts and planning failures. As more urban redevelopment are launched in China and social media becomes more prevalent, crowdsourcing may change the participatory dynamic. This research started from the interaction of crowdsourcing and community participation. By defining crowdsourcing as an out sourcing peer-problem solving process, this research conducted 80 interviews in four communities (Danwei Housing, gated community, urban village, suburban village), studied two cases, and explored the existing community participatory regime, crowdsourcing's application and influences on Chinese community participatory planning. It is found that different entities' focus topics mis-match during participation. By using the three fold analytic framework of information flow/incentive structure/power structure, this research further shows that the incentive structure and power structure are to some extent not aligned, resulting in ineffective information exchange. Crowdsourcing, however, can enhance weak connections by providing technical support, changing incentives and power structures. Moreover, crowdsourcing's application in urban planning is found to be a spectrum: crowd to none, crowd to one and crowd to crowd. Different types of crowdsourcing has different influences on the civic participation ladders, which consist of the ladders of civic awareness, strategy and outcome. These three ladders associate with each other, revealing the holistic picture of Chinese public participation. Crowdsourcing helps move up the awareness ladder the most and also enables the move up on strategy ladder and forces the government to move up the outcome ladder. Crowdsourcing is an emerging concept and obtains a great potential in planning area. This research provides a new lens for understanding crowdsourcing's application and influence in participatory planning in China and also calls for exploration. Thesis Supervisor: Lawrence J. Vale Thesis Readers: Tunney F. Lee, Jinhua Zhao


Abstract A sterile liverwort inclusion in a piece of Miocene amber from the Dominican Republic is described and assigned to the extant genus Lejeunea. The inclusion resembles a complex of extant American Lejeunea species (L. angusta, L. aphanes, L. cladogyna, L. urbanii) that share autoecy, a small size, and ovate to obovate leaf lobes with rounded apices. A definite assignment to one of these species is impossible due to inacessibility of several diagnostically relevant characters such as perianths and oil bodies. The inclusion is clearly different from the extinct Lejeunea palaeomexicana; hence at least two different Lejeunea species occured in the Miocene of Middle America.


This thesis examines contemporary jurisdictional arrangements and how new and
shifting forms of them impact the ability to map political and socio-political
configurations, including the analytical and disciplinary tools used to examine them, into
explicitly defined locations. More specifically, it asks how the jurisdictional
arrangements found in modern Europe affect mainstream International Relation's core
enabling conditions – most critically, that an international realm exists, that it is
jurisdictionally different and clearly separable from domestic realms, and that it therefore
requires its own conceptualization. The thesis contends that IR's ability to assume those
things rests on a particular resolution to a "jurisdictional problematique" – on a specific
answer to a "Who decides what, where, how, and over whom" question. While that
resolution normally comes in a sovereignty-based form, sovereignty is determined to be
merely one possible resolution and therefore simply one jurisdictional type.
In that regard, the thesis challenges IR's answer based on a thick examination of the
European Union's (EU) political structures (e.g. its institutional rules, programs, policies,
and the like) as well as its socio-political relationships (e.g. European citizenship). It
considers four potential changes, and therein four jurisdictional possibilities in their own
right – breakdown, maintenance, stratification, and blurring. The thesis determines that
blurring best captures the complexities, variability, and the potentially conflicting and
overlapping arrangements constitutive of Europe's jurisdictional environment. It also
demonstrates that blurring is a distinct, jurisdictional alternative to sovereignty – a
complex, process-based, but nonetheless operationalizable answer to the "Who decides
what, where, how, and over whom" question. Those European findings are then placed
into a wider perspective to illustrate global, jurisdictional variability. The thesis
concludes by developing what blurring specifically and jurisdictional variability more
generally entail for how one descriptively, analytically, and disciplinarily approaches
modern political and socio-political life and thought. It determines that the question
based, empirically sensitive foundations underpinning jurisdiction offer better ways to
approach those issues than those typically used by IR – ways that better bring together
theory and practice, that offer more appropriate and useful analytical procedures, and that
help rethink disciplinary divisions in more sensible and efficacious ways.


The importance of universities as knowledge hubs is increasing due to knowledge production via research and teaching. An emerging aspect of knowledge management literature is the study of the knowledge requirements of universities. In particular, the transformation from knowledge creation to knowledge sharing has proved to be important in the university context and is subject to cultural differences. For example, previous research has indicated that a physician's Tacit Knowledge Capacity (TKC) is affected by social software and social media. This creates opportunities to carry out new research on different occupations that have an intense TKC. As part of this research, a survey was conducted in order to assess the TKC of lecturers in both Germany and North Cyprus. These are two countries that have universities providing knowledge management programmes. The research determined the TKC in both countries and compared the two in order to determine if cultural factors affect the TKC of the profession. Through this research, the authors aimed to contribute to the ongoing research on the knowledge requirements of universities that will enable them to be knowledge intensive institutions. The Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at Near East University, which has 2200 students and 20 chairs, was compared with the Faculty of Business and Economics at the Technische Universität Dresden, which has 2800 students and 23 chairs. The study was carried out to provide an intercultural comparison, which is currently lacking in the Knowledge Management field. The research findings have highlighted the factors influencing the transfer and the accumulation of tacit knowledge.


Aims: The present study is to investigate the synergistic effect of lapatinib and luteolin in the inhibition of the growth and proliferation of breast cancer cells, as well as the underlying mechanisms.
Methods: Human breast cancer cell line BT474 was cultured in vitro. The cells were incubated with different concentrations of luteolin and/or lapatinib. MTS assay was used to test the proliferation of the cells. Flow cytometry was used to identify cell cycle. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to measure the expression of ERBB1 and ERBB2 mRNA. Western blotting was employed to determine the protein expression of ERBB1 and ERBB2. The phosphorylation of AKT, ERK1/2 and H2A.X, and the expression of Caspase 8 and PARP were also determined using Western blotting.
Results: Lapatinib, luteolin or the combination of both inhibited the proliferation of BT474 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Luteolin and lapatinib synergistically induced the apoptosis of BT474 cells. Combination of luteolin and lapatinib inhibited the expression of ERBB1 and ERBB2 mRNA and protein in BT474 cells. Combination of lapatinib and luteolin reduced the phosphorylation level of AKT and ERK1/2 in BT474 cells.
Conclusion: The present study demonstrates that synergistic use of luteolin with lapatinib inhibits the growth of breast cancer cells, possibly by inducing apoptosis via the deactivation of AKT and ERK signaling pathways.


Body condition score has been considered an indirect measure of nutritional status and nutrition has been demonstrated to interact with reproduction. Adiponectin and leptin, because of its insulin sensitising actions and their association with body condition could be potential regulators of metabolism during the transition from pregnancy to lactation. The work described in this PhD project was designed to investigate the role of metabolic, body condition, and dietary factors in regulation of productive and reproductive performance in dairy cows, with particular regard to glucose homeostasis and adipokines. A special focus was directed to circulating adiponectin and its association with metabolic and hormonal status, and reproduction. Interestingly, adiponectin was found to be present in bovine milk at concentrations similar those of plasma. Body condition score, GH, insulin, leptin, and adiponectin showed a potential to modulate glucose homeostasis and reproductive output. Results from this study demonstrated a negative effect of long-term moderately elevated insulin concentration on reproductive performance. Additionally, BCS at calving and ΔBCS are determinant factors influencing postpartum reproductive recovery and they should be basic components of farming monitoring schemes. Although further investigation is needed to address the proposed negative relationship between adiponectin and GH, and to identify other dietary factors that may modulate circulating adiponectin, data from this study support regulatory roles of adiponectin in metabolism and reproduction. Moreover, adiponectin holds great promise to serve as a putative target molecule that integrates metabolism, reproduction and feeding behaviour. More importantly, hypoadiponectinemia could be another alternative mechanism that contributes to poor fertility in dairy cows. The incorporation of this new knowledge into the development of better nutritional strategies is a key point that is being considered to improve the welfare, and reproductive and productive performance in dairy cows.


Background: Spina bifida is one of the most challenging and partially preventable congenital diseases that can be prevented with adequate amounts of folic acid (FA) intake before conception and throughout the first few months of pregnancy. Knowledge about the adequate timing and duration of FA intake is critical for prevention.
Methods: A questionnaire-based, cross-sectional study was conducted to assess spina bifida and FA awareness among female students at King Khalid University (KKU), Abha, Saudi Arabia. The study included three groups: health-college female students (HCS), non-health-college female students (NHCS), and KKU female employees (others). These three groups were attendants at the Spina Bifida Awareness Week that was held at KKU in March 2017.
Results: There were 1,366 participants, of whom 11% were HCS, 59% were NHCS, and 30% were "others". Across all tested domains (i.e., spina bifida awareness, FA intake time and duration, diseases prevented by folic acid intake, and food rich in folic acid), it was found that statistically significant differences existed. The results showed a highly significant lack of knowledge towards the aforementioned domains in both the NHCS and "others" groups. Marital status and number of children were independent variables and showed statistically significant differences in knowledge toward the tested domains.
Conclusion: In Saudi Arabia, more attention should be paid to educate women of childbearing age on the importance of FA intake in preventing spina bifida. These results indicate how FA intake awareness should be embedded in junior-high and secondary school curricula to further educate females on the importance of FA.


Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a heterogeneous neurodegenerative disorder, with a clinical presentation combining extrapyramidal, cerebellar, autonomic or pyramidal symptoms. There are two major subtypes: MSA-P, with a clinical predominance of parkinsonism, and MSA-C, with a clinical predominance of cerebellar symptoms. Although various factors have been proposed to predict survival in MSA, including age at onset and several phenotypic features,1 the terminal/end of life events have never been systematically studied. We present our results from a study on the causes of death in a series of pathologically confirmed, definite MSA cases.

All patients registered with the University of Miami/NPF Brain Endowment Bank (UM/BEB) donation programme with a diagnosis of neuropathologically confirmed, definite multiple system atrophy (MSA; n = 21) were included in this study. Pertinent information was gathered by two prospectively filled questionnaires used as part of the UM/BEB's recruitment process: (a) the UM/BEB Parkinson's disease registry form, a 128-item, self-administered questionnaire on demographics, environmental exposures, personal and family history, comorbid conditions, activities of daily living, clinical and treatment details; and (b) the "agonal state" form, a 25-item questionnaire on events covering the 48 h before death completed by the treating doctor/nurse. For comparisons, each MSA case was closely matched for age at disease onset (±2 years) and sex with a Parkinson's disease brain donor by an investigator blinded to the disease status and clinical information. Medical, hospital and hospice …


An experiment to evaluate the effect of cacao pods waste as bioactive compost on growth of jati (Tectona grandis L f) seedlings . The research was conducted in greenhouse and laboratory forestry faculty Tadulako University, from February until April 2014. This study used experimental method by Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with four treatmeants.i.e: M0 (control), M1 (soil+compost cacao pods 1:1), M2 (soil+compost cacao pods 1:3) and M3 (soil+compost cacao pods 1:3). Each treatments was replicated six times, so there were 24 unit. The result of the experiment showed that the cacao pods compost significantly affect plant high, leaves count , and roots length but not significant effect on stem diameter. In addition the results of the study also showed that the control gave the best growth of jati seedlings comparing the other. This might be caused by the compost still decomposition processing.
Key words: Compost Cacao Pods, Growth Jati Seedlings, Decomposition


Background and Objectives: Fresh leachate has a low pH and high amounts of BOD and COD which are mainly constituents with low weight molecular such as volatile fatty acids ( acetic and propionic acids) .Management and treatment of leachate is an important subject in sanitary landfill operation and performance.Th objective of this study is determining the efficiency of the integrated coagulation –flocculation and ozonation processes in fresh leachate treatment of Tabriz city. Materials and Methods: Quantitive parameters of pH, BOD5, COD , alkalinity and TSS were studied based on standard methods.The study emphasizes of COD and TSS leachate removal.Alum , ferric chloride and PAC had been used as coagulants. Results : Results indicated the superiority of Ferric chloride at the dosage of 1 g/l in pH 10 ,which reduced 34% of COD and 54% of TSS.in the stage of ozonation the leachate sample coagulated by ferric chloride was treated by 3 g/h ozone gas at optimum pH and after 39 hours ozonation about 51% of COD and 18.2 % of TSS were reduced. Conclusion: This study clearly indicates that there would be need to apply biological treatment (after coagulation – flocculation ) and ozonation , various advanced oxidation processes and / or other treatment methods for further reduction of COD in leachate and meeting discharge standards.


The consumption capital asset pricing model is the standard economic model used to capture stock market behavior. However, empirical tests have pointed out its inability to account quantitatively for the high average rate of return and volatility of stocks over time for plausible parameter values. Recent research has suggested that the consumption of stockholders is more strongly correlated with the performance of the stock market than the consumption of non-stockholders. We model two types of agents, non-stockholders with standard preferences and stock holders with preferences that incorporate elements of the prospect theory developed by Kahneman and Tversky (1979). In addition to consumption, stockholders consider fluctuations in their financial wealth explicitly when making decisions. Each agent faces idiosyncratic shocks to his labor income as well as aggregate shocks to the per-share dividend but markets are incomplete and agents cannot hedge consumption risks completely. In addition, consumers face both borrowing and short-sale constraints. Data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics are used to calibrate the labor income processes of the two types of agents. Our results show that in equilibrium, agents hold different portfolios. Our model is able to generate a time-varying risk premium of about 6% while maintaining a low risk free rate, thus suggesting a plausible explanation for the equity premium puzzle reported by Mehra and Prescott (1985).


Traditional public transport systems are most often insufficient to provide a good transport service to everyone. Especially, it is not always possible for elderly and disabled persons to use the regular system consisting of timetabled services operating along fixed routes. Normally there is some specific service, often called paratransit, offered to these groups of customers. Such transport services provide better service to these customers, but to a higher cost. This thesis considers planning and evaluation of public transport services that are based on the concept of a dial-a-ride service. This kind of service is suitable for elderly and disabled and often operated as a door-to-door service, where customers are served on demand and rides are coordinated via a call-center. The thesis is divided into two parts. In the first part, a modeling system for simulation of dial-a-ride services is presented. It can be used as a tool to study how different ways of operating a dial-a-ride service, affect the performance and efficiency of the service. This system is used to evaluate how algorithmic changes, based on ruin-and-recreate methods, can improve the replanning of already inserted requests, and thereby improve the scheduling. The modeling system is also used to examine the effects of using zone-based distance estimates instead of true, addressbased, distances when computing the schedules. The results show that only small differences are found. The second part of the thesis concerns an extension to dial-a-ride services. By combining a dial-a-ride service with a fixed route service, an integrated dial-a-ride service is created, where some part of each journey may be carried out by the fixed route service. An exact mathematical formulation of this problem is presented and it is shown that the formulation is strengthened by valid inequalities, variable substitution and subtour elimination constraints. Simulations of an integrated service are also performed to analyze and evaluate how the attractiveness and operating costs of the service depend on how the demand responsive service is operated.


Objective The sacroiliac joint can be a primary source of pain or part of multifactorial syndromes. As there is no single historical, physical examination-based, or radiological feature that definitively establishes a diagnosis of sacroiliac joint pain, diagnostic blocks are regarded as the gold standard. The primary aim of this randomized trial was to compare the posteroanterior approach with the classic oblique approach for sacroiliac joint injection based on an assessment of procedure times and patient-reported pain outcomes in subjects scheduled for fluoroscopically-guided sacroiliac joint injections. Methods Thirty patients were randomized into 2 groups of 15 patients each. The endpoints measured included the total length of procedure time, fluoroscopic time, needling time (length of time the needle was maneuvered), and pre- and postprocedure visual analogue scale pain scores. Results The posteroanterior approach was significantly shorter in terms of procedure time (p=0.03) and needling time (p=0.01) than the oblique approach. Adjusting for body mass index, the mean procedure and needling times were significantly shorter in the posteroanterior group than in the oblique group. Conclusion This study of the posteroanterior approach for fluoroscopic-guided sacroiliac joint injection observed shorter times for fluoroscopy, needling, and the overall procedure than were recorded for the widely prevalent oblique approach. This may translate to lower radiation exposure, lower procedural costs, and enhanced ergonomics of fluoroscopicallyguided sacroiliac joint injections.


This paper introduces FastPass, an architecture that thwarts flooding attacks by providing destinations with total control over their upstream network capacity. FastPass explores an extreme design point, providing complete resistance to directed flooding attacks. FastPass builds upon prior work on network capabilities and addresses the oft-noted problem that in such schemes, a sender must first get one packet through with no protection against DoS. FastPass provides cryptographic availability tokens to senders that routers verify before expiditing their delivery. We present two variants of the tokens. The first uses light-weight public key cryptography and is practical in high-speed routers with modest hardware additions. The second uses a symmetric hashchaining scheme and is easily implemented in software. In sharp contrast to prior systems, our evaluation shows that hosts using FastPass can quickly communicate regardless of the size of the attack directed against the nodes.


Queensland society, like many others across the world, is experiencing immense social change. These changes are at many levels including political, social, cultural and economic change and society is increasingly more diverse and complex. We are more enmeshed in global networks through trade, migration, diplomacy and travel. Societal institutions are challenged by these quick changes, and the challenge is for societies to adapt quickly and effectively to them.

While these social processes have created opportunities for some, it has caused disadvantage for others. The four key areas where disadvantage is experienced are:

• Lack of power over resources.
• Lack of power over decision-making.
• Lack of power over relationships.
• Lack of lack of power over information.

There are many factors that cause disadvantage. One that is often overlooked is social exclusion, which may be a result of barriers of culture, ethnicity, race, language and religion.

Queensland is a diverse state with, at the time of the 2006 Census, 17.9% of Queenslanders being born overseas. (ABS 2006). Furthermore, one in three people had at least one parent born overseas. The key languages spoken at home were Mandarin, Italian, Cantonese, Vietnamese and German.

While not all ethnic communities face the same levels of disadvantage or difficulties in settlement, there is a strong evidence base to indicate that some people from culturally diverse backgrounds, particularly refugees, face great disadvantage. Some of the areas in which culturally diverse communities have faced disadvantage include finding jobs (in the labour market), in housing, in communication, education and training, and in accessing services and experiences of racism (DIMIA 2003, Beer and Foley 2003, Jupp et al. 1991, Babacan and Gopalkrishnan 2005).

Overcoming disadvantage requires a sound understanding of conceptual and practical issues. It involves developing strategies that work. Workers and community leaders are often faced with very complex social problems, sometimes without much support or resources. They engage with their communities in different ways to bring about social change.

This guide is intended as a short road map about key concepts in addressing social disadvantage, and practice strategies that may be used to organize communities, advocate on social issues and to bring about institutional change (policy, program change and service delivery).

Section 1 of the guide (chapters 1- 11) covers the key conceptual issues, frameworks and ethical issues of human service work. Section 2 of the guide (chapters 12-18) focuses on methods of achieving structural change. Section 3 of the guide (chapters 19-29) focuses on practice issues.

We hope you will find the book helpful in your work.


Psychologists typically measure beliefs and preferences using self-reports, whereas economists are much more likely to infer them from behavior. Prediction markets appear to be a victory for the economic approach, having yielded more accurate probability estimates than opinion polls or experts for a wide variety of events, all without ever asking for self-reported beliefs. We conduct the most direct comparison to date of prediction markets to simple self-reports using a within-subject design. Our participants traded on the likelihood of geopolitical events. Each time they placed a trade, they first had to report their belief that the event would occur on a 0–100 scale. When previously validated aggregation algorithms were applied to self-reported beliefs, they were at least as accurate as prediction-market prices in predicting a wide range of geopolitical events. Furthermore, the combination of approaches was significantly more accurate than prediction-market prices alone, indicating that self-reports contained information that the market did not efficiently aggregate. Combining measurement techniques across behavioral and social sciences may have greater benefits than previously thought.


The central allocative decision confronting a judge in a nuisance dispute should not concern the identity of the initial entitlement recipient but rather the identity of the more efficient chooser - the litigant who can more efficiently allocate the entitlement. We show that liability rules can produce four basic allocations which differ centrally in the ways in which courts delegate to litigants the authority to ultimately allocate the entitlement. Two classes concern "single chooser" rules that vest (in the absence of an agreement to the contrary) the allocative decision solely in one of the litigants. The other two classes concern a new type of rule, "dual chooser" rules, that allow either party to veto the transfer of an entitlement. Dual-chooser rules are more than a theoretical curiosity both because they exist in our current law and because at times they produce systematically greater allocative efficiency than either type of single-chooser rule. Two heads are sometimes better than one. A central result of the paper is that in choosing among different liability rules allocative concerns can be decoupled from distributive concerns. There exist an infinite number of liability rules which produce each of the four basic allocations, but every rule within a particular class divides differently between the litigants the expected value of the allocation. To successfully decouple, courts should at times impose "call option," "put option," "Pay or be Paid," and "Pay or Pay" rules.


Incentive/disincentive clauses (I/D) are designed to award payments to contractors if they complete work ahead of schedule and to deduct payments if they exceed the completion time. A previously unanswered question is, "Did the costs of the actual work zone impacts that were avoided justify the incentives paid?" This report answers that question affirmatively based on an evaluation of 20 I/D projects in Missouri from 2008 to 2011. Road user costs (RUC) were used to quantify work zone impacts and included travel delays, vehicle operating costs, and crash costs. These were computed using work zone traffic conditions for partial-closure projects and detour volumes and routes for full-closure projects. Conditions during construction were compared to after construction. Crash costs were computed using Highway Safety Manual methodology. Safety Performance Functions produced annual crash frequencies that were translated into crash cost savings. In considering an average project, the percentage of RUC savings was around 13% of the total contract amount, or $444,389 of $3,464,620. The net RUC savings produced was around $7.2 million after subtracting the approximately $1.7 million paid in incentives. In other words, for every dollar paid in incentives, approximately 5.3 dollars of RUC savings resulted. I/D provisions were very successful in saving RUC for projects with full-closure, projects in urban areas, and emergency projects. Rural, non-emergency projects successfully saved RUC but not at the same level as other projects. The I/D contracts were also compared to all Missouri Department of Transportation contracts for the same time period. The results show that I/D projects had a higher on-time completion percentage and a higher number of bids per call than average projects. But I/D projects resulted in 4.52% higher deviation from programmed costs and possibly more changes made after the award. A survey of state transportation departments and contractors showed that both agreed to the same issues that affect the success of I/D contracts. Legal analysis suggests that liquidated damages is preferred to disincentives, since enforceability of disincentives may be an issue. Overall, in terms of work zone impact mitigation, I/D contracts are very effective at a relatively low cost.


The capacity of headwater streams to transform and retain organic matter and nutrients during base flow conditions has been largely demonstrated in the literature. Yet, most solute export occurs during storms, and thus, it becomes essential to understand the role of in-stream processes on regulating solute concentrations and exports during storm flow conditions. In this study, we explored patterns of solute supply, solute demand, and resulting in-stream solute retention for a number of individual storms from two Mediterranean streams (intermittent and perennial) that together encompassed a wide range of hydrological conditions. Our results indicate that >70% of the individual storms were chemodynamic (i.e. solute concentrations either increased or decreased with increasing discharge) at the two sites and for both dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nitrate (NO3-). At the perennial stream, DOC and NO3- concentrations did not show any clear pattern of storm response during both dry and wet periods, though deviations from chemostasis were generally larger for those events showing higher concentrations during storm flow. At the intermittent stream, DOC and NO3- showed positive divergences from chemostasis during the wet period. In this site, DOC showed no clear pattern of storm response during the dry period, while many storms showed low NO3- concentrations compared to chemostasis, suggesting either limited NO3- sources or in-stream retention. At the two streams, in-stream biogeochemical demand during individual storms was either similar or higher than during base flow conditions for both DOC and NO3-. In-stream NO3- demand resulted in substantial whole-reach retention during storms (up to 40%), indicating that in-stream biogeochemical processes substantially reduced downstream flux of terrestrial NO3- inputs during storm events. Conversely, whole-reach DOC retention was relatively low during storms (< 10%), suggesting little ability to regulate DOC export and an energy subsidy to downstream ecosystems during storms. This study indicates that in-stream biogeochemical demand during storms can counterbalance solute supply to some extent, and stresses the importance of considering the potential role of in-stream processes on shaping stream solute export during storms.


The importance of martyrdom for the spread of Christianity in the first centuries of the Common Era is a question of enduring interest. In this innovative new study, Candida Moss offers a radically new history of martyrdom in the first and second centuries that challenges traditional understandings of the spread of Christianity and rethinks the nature of Christian martyrdom itself. Martyrdom, Moss shows, was not a single idea, theology, or practice: there were diverse perspectives and understandings of what it meant to die for Christ. Beginning with an overview of ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish ideas about death, Moss demonstrates that there were many cultural contexts within which early Christian views of martyrdom were very much at home. She then shows how distinctive and diverging theologies of martyrdom emerged in different ancient congregations. In the process she reexamines the authenticity of early Christian stories about martyrs and calls into question the dominant scholarly narrative about the spread of martyrdom in the ancient world.


In order to improve the current injection in GaN-based blue vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) a dielectric aperture is generally used in combination with an indium–tin-oxide (ITO) layer on the top intracavity p-contact layer. The most straightforward way to realize this introduces a depression of the structure near the optical axis and we show, by using a two-dimensional (2D) effective index method and a three-dimensional (3D) coupled-cavity beam propagation method, that this typically results in optically anti-guided structures with associated high optical losses and thus very high threshold gains. Remarkably, the threshold gain reduces with increased negative guiding, which is due to improved lateral confinement and reduction of lateral leakage. Still, moderately positively guided designs should be preferred to avoid the detrimental effect of lateral leakage and high diffraction loss. To ensure positive index guiding, we propose to planarize the structure or introduce an elevation near the optical axis by additional processing, with an associated reduction in threshold material gain from 6000 to 2000 cm-1 for the studied structures.


Sexual activity is a multifaceted activity, involving complex interactions between the nervous system, the endocrine system, the vascular system and a variety of structures that are instrumental in sexual excitement, intercourse and satisfaction. Sexual function has three components i.e., desire, arousal and orgasm. Many sexual dysfunctions can be categorized according to the phase of sexual response that is affected. In actual clinical practice however, sexual desire, arousal and orgasmic difficulties more often than not coexist, suggesting an integration of phases. Sexual dysfunction can result from a wide variety of psychological and physiological causes including derangements in the levels of sex hormones and neurotrensmitters. This review deals with the biology of different phases of sexual function as well as implications of hormones and neurotransmitters in sexual dysfunction


Professor Colleen Chien recently developed an innovative and important model that relies on a patent's "after-acquired" characteristics to predict the chances that the patent will be involved in litigation. This comment critiques Professor Chien's model by identifying certain weaknesses, including that its dataset is limited to 1990 patents and its sample size may be too small to be sufficiently representative, as well as a number of endogeneity concerns. Additionally, we seek a more precise definition of data regarding the patent owner, further categorization of reexamination data, and research into the timing of transfer. Finally, we question her policy recommendations given these weaknesses and propose areas of further inquiry.


It is generally accepted today that our solar system has undergone a phase during which the orbits of the giant planets became very unstable. In recent years, many studies have identified traces of this event and have provided reasonable justification for this occurrence. The magnitude (in terms of orbital variation) and the timing of the instability though (early or late with respect to the dispersal of the gas disk) still remains an open debate. The terrestrial planets seem to set a strict constraint: either the giant planet instability happened early, while the terrestrial planets were still forming, or the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn had to separate from each other impulsively, with a large enough `jump' in semimajor axis (Brasser et al. 2009; Kaib and Chambers 2016) for the terrestrial planets to remain stable. Because a large orbital jump is a low probability event, the early instability hypothesis seems to be favored. However, the asteroid belt would also evolve in a different way, assuming different instability amplitudes. These two constraints need to match each other in order to favor one scenario over the other. Considering an initially dynamically cold disk of asteroids, Morbidelli et al. (2010) concluded that a comparably large jump is needed to reconstruct the current asteroid belt. Here we confirm the same conclusion, but considering an asteroid population already strongly excited in eccentricity, such as that produced in the Grand Tack scenario (Walsh et al. 2011). Because the asteroids existed since the time of removal of the gas disk, unlike the terrestrial planets, this constraint on the width of the giant planet jump is valid regardless of whether the instability happened early or late. Hence, at this stage, assuming an early instability does not appear to provide any advantage in terms of the probabilistic reconstruction of the solar system structure.


The chapter focuses on the problem of meaning determination of German idioms that consist of at least two words and contain a body part term as a constituent. Such so-called "somatisms" make up a considerable part of the phrasemes in German and English. What do these terms in idiomatic somatisms designate? Addressing this question, we examine two controversial issues in current cognitive linguistic research: (i) Are the meanings of bodily expressions in somatisms arbitrary? (ii) To what extent are the meanings of somatisms and of their somatic constituents grounded in human bodily experience? By analyzing selected examples of phrasemes containing Finger on the basis of substantial corpus data, answers to these questions are provided.


The present study explores efforts to identify the most appropriate competitive strategy relative to multinational biotech pharmaceutical enterprises' strategy selection. The research uses the analytic network process (ANP) technique combining both qualitative and quantitative information to construct a hierarchical model involving interactions among various criteria for competitive-strategy selection. The most important finding shows that the most suitable competitive strategy for multinational enterprises (MNEs) is differentiation strategy. The weighted calculations reveal important criteria: an external environment analysis reveals that the three most important criteria affecting FDI competitive strategy are population size, per capita income, and healthcare and medical insurance systems; a core competency analysis reveals that the three most important criteria affecting competitive-strategy selection of FDI to China are capability in collaborating with local partners, possession of high-quality research personnel with R&D capability, and possession of a strong brand.


Linguistics, as a social science, should have something to teach us about humans as social beings. However, modern grammatical theories regard languages as autonomous systems, so these theories are little concerned with speakers and hearers, their interactions, and their relationship to the world around them. Further, these theories tend toward excessive concern with methodology and the properties of linguistic systems, neglecting, in fact, the languages themselves and those who use them in everyday life. Even the shift toward cognitive approaches, promising for their new insights into the brain, still misses an equally important aspect of language, namely a framework which would account for the social activity by which speakers build linguistic structures in order to meet the requirements of communication. Based on a wide range of languages, Hagege's work sheds light on the human language building activity. He argues that the conscious and unconscious 'signatures' of human nature are written everywhere in language. The study of these signatures gives insight into basic characteristics of human beings, tends to re-humanize linguistics, and stresses the importance of language as a dynamic activity as opposed to a self-contained system.


Agricultural practices that reduce soil degradation and improve agricultural sustainability are needed particularly for tropical/subtropical soils. No-tillage planting causes minimal soil disturbance and combined with crop rotation may hold potential to meet these goals. Soil enzyme activities can provide information on how soil management is affecting the potential to perform the processes in soils such as decomposition and nutrient cycling. Soil enzyme activities were investigated in a split-plot experiment (3 replications) where tillage (no till and conventional) was the main plot and crop rotation (soybean/wheat, S/W; maize/wheat, M/ W or cotton/wheat, C/W) was the subplot. The experiment was established in 1976 in southern Brazil. Soil samples were taken at 0-5, 5-10 and 10-20 cm depths in 1997 and 1998. The 0-5 cm layer under NT system showed increases up 68% for amylase, 90% for cellulase, 219% for arylsulfatase, 46% for acid phosphatase, and 61% for alkaline phosphatase. There were significant correlations of soil enzyme activities with total organic C, and C and N microbial biomass. These results showed that NT increased microbial activity and that soil enzyme activity is a sensitive indicator of alteration soil quality by management.


Cultured skin fibroblasts were examined from two probands with type II (lethal) osteogenesis imperfecta. One proband had a single base mutation which converted the glycine codon at position alpha 1-244 in the alpha 1(I) chain of procollagen I into a cysteine codon whereas the other had a similar mutation that converted the glycine codon at position alpha 2-787 of the alpha 2(I) chain into a cysteine codon. Both mutations produced post-translational overmodification of procollagen I. The Cys alpha 1-244 mutation, however, had a minimal effect on the thermal stability or secretion of the protein whereas the Cys alpha 2-787 mutation markedly decreased the thermal stability and, apparently as a result, essentially none of the mutated protein was secreted. The results provide clear exceptions to two previous generalizations about the position-specificity of glycine substitutions in procollagen I.


In recent years, the power of American judges to make social policy has been significantly broadened. The courts have reached into many matters once thought to be beyond the customary scope of judicial decisionmaking: education and employment policy, environmental issues, prison and hospital management, and welfare administration--to name a few. This new judicial activity can be traced to various sources, among them the emergence of public interest law firms and interest groups committed to social change through the courts, and to various changes in the law itself that have made access to the courts easier. The propensity for bringing difficult social questions to the judiciary for resolution is likely to persist. This book is the first comprehensive study of the capacity of courts to make and implement social policy. Donald L. Horowitz, a lawyer and social scientist, traces the imprint of the judicial process on the policies that emerge from it. He focuses on a number of important questions: how issues emerge in litigation, how courts obtain their information, how judges use social science data, how legal solutions to social problems are devised, and what happens to judge-made social policy after decrees leave the court house. After a general analysis of the adjudication process as it bears on social policymaking, the author presents four cases studies of litigation involving urban affairs, educational resources, juvenile courts and delinquency, and policy behavior. In each, the assumption and evidence with which the courts approached their policy problems are matched against data about the social settings from which the cases arose and the effects the decrees had. The concern throughout the book is to relate the policy process to the policy outcome. From his analysis of adjudication and the findings of his case studies the author concludes that the resources of the courts are not adequate to the new challenges confronting them. He suggests various improvements, but warns against changes that might impair the traditional strengths of the judicial process.


An invasive insect, hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA), has initiated widespread hemlock decline and mortality in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP). Riparian hemlock mortality impacts on vegetative and aquatic systems of first-order, headwater streams were evaluated. Reference sites for this study were representative of the best available conditions within the GSMNP, with initial stages of HWA presence. Impacted sites were defined as areas with over 90 percent hemlock mortality. Impacted streams had decreased canopy coverage and increased light availability. Residual red maple, yellow birch, and sweet birch capitalized on the loss of hemlock, with increases in relative basal area and species importance values. Rosebay rhododendron responded with increased density and height at impacted sites, thereby preventing woody regeneration. Since long-term regeneration and post-mortality canopy recruitment are limited, alterations of vegetative composition and structure in the stream riparian zone are expected. A seasonal assessment (Sept. 2009 – March 2010) of aquatic impacts revealed increased diurnal variation in stream temperature and exhibited cooler temperatures during the colder months than reference streams. Impacted streams exhibited greater amounts and larger size classes of large woody debris (LWD). Higher concentrations for several nutrients, including silicon, sodium, potassium, magnesium, chlorine, and copper were detected in impacted streams than detected in reference streams. Impacted streams were characterized by higher pH and increased acid neutralization capacity, while reference streams exhibited nitrate concentrations three times higher than impacted stream concentrations. Reference streams were experiencing the initial stage of HWA-induced defoliations, increasing stream nitrate concentrations, while impacted sites had levels suggesting nitrate concentrations have returned to pre-infestation levels. A seasonal assessment of macroinvertebrates found species diversity, abundance, and taxa richness were not affected by hemlock mortality. Impacted streams had a lower density of Chironomidae and Ephemeroptera when compared to reference streams, while Pleuroceridae snails were virtually eliminated at impacted stream sites. Reference streams were dominated by the collector/filter functional feeding group (FFG), while impacted streams were dominated by the scraper FFG. Hemlock mortality induced by the presence of HWA has resulted in short-term impacts to vegetative and aquatic dynamics in stream riparian areas of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.


(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) Stephen G. Covell, Japanese Temple Buddhism: Worldliness in a Religion of Renunciation Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2006, 256 pp. $25.00 paperback, ISBN 978-0-8248-2967-4. THE DEATH of Japanese Buddhism is well attested. A list of causes usually includes one or more of the following: the temple certification (terauke seido ...) of the Tokugawa period; the widespread attacks on Buddhist temples (haibutsu kishaku ...) in the early Meiji period; the attempts, both internal and external, to purge Buddhism of its supposed superstitious trappings at the turn of the last century; and the popular view of contemporary Buddhism encapsulated in pejorative expressions such as "funerary Buddhism" (soshiki Bukkyo ...) and "profiteering monks" (marumoke bozu ...). Indeed, Buddhism in Japan has been continually bound up in a modernist narrative of decline that has persisted to the current day and has, along with other factors such as the post-war successes of Japanese New Religions, meant an almost complete lack of attention paid to contemporary forms. While dominant memes such as "new Kamakura Buddhism" have received extended critical review, twentieth-century Japanese Buddhism has been almost entirely neglected by scholars, both in Japan and the West. Enter Stephen Covell's excellent study of post-war Japanese Tendai-to my knowledge, the first full-length treatment of a contemporary Japanese Buddhist sect in either English or Japanese. As the subtitle suggests, a central theory of the book is that contemporary Tendai is caught up in a bind between the "traditional" image of themselves as world-renouncing monks-as seen, for example, in the use of mountain ascetic (kaihogyo ...) imagery in sectarian promotion-and the daily activities of temples promoting this-worldly benefits and conducting funerals. We are presented, then, not with a dead tradition but rather one very much alive and trying to maintain its doctrinal ideals while remaining relevant to the secular lives of parishioners, and, as Covell makes clear, temple priests. The main narrative thread of Temple Buddhism is not decay, but tension-a tension that provides a fascinating variety of materials with which to think not only about Japanese Buddhism, but also about questions in the study of religion more generally. By eschewing the premise that contemporary Buddhism in Japan is not "really Buddhist," Covell is able to fruitfully explore a number of significant issues confronting not only Tendai but all of the Buddhist sects. These issues include the economic effects of land reform measures after World War Two, urbanization, shifting demographics, shrinking families, institutional structures imposed by the Religious Corporations Law (shukyo hojinho ...), changes in community organization, the rise of the funeral industry, and new patterns of religious affiliation and expression. As such, we are provided with a number of subjects not commonly covered in the study of Buddhism, including questions of taxation, formalization of fees for religious services, issues surrounding temple families, concerns over priestly training and succession, and attempts to redefine temple affiliation. Space does not permit a detailed summary of all the chapters, but I would like to touch on a couple of topics in the book that add new dimensions to our understanding of contemporary Tendai. In Chapter Three, Covell details Tendai's "Light Up Your Corner Movement" (ichigu o terasu undo ...), a movement initially founded by priests in Tokyo to spread Tendai teachings but was later adopted by sect leaders to promote Tendai identity, strengthen parishioner involvement, and combat what were seen as the social ills of modernization. Similar to popularizing activities started by all the major sects in the 1960s and 1970s, such movements were mobilized in part to combat what was seen as the threat posed by the New Religions and to respond to the needs of an increasingly industrialized and commercialized society. …


For over half a century, we have been in the thrall of the double-helicaln structure of DNA, which, in an instant, revealed that information can be transferred between generations by a simple rule, A pairs with T, G pairs with C. In its beautiful simplicity, this structure, along with the table of codons worked out in the following decade, had entranced us into believing that we can fully understand the information content of a DNA sequence, simply by treating it as text that is read in a linear fashion. While we have learned much based on this assumption, there is much we have missed. Far from a passive tape running through a reader, genomes contain information that appears in new forms which create regions with distinct behavior. Some are "gene rich", some mobile, some full of repeats and duplications, some sticking together across long evolutionary distances, some readily breaking apart in tumor cells. Even protein-coding regions can carry additional information, taking advantage of the flexible coding options provided by the degeneracy of the genetic code. The chapters in this volume touch on one or more of three interconnected themes: information can be implied, rather than explicit, in a genome; information can lead to focused and/or regulated changes in nucleotide sequences; information that affects the probability of distinct classes of mutation has implications for evolutionary theory.


Computational real algebraic geometry studies various algorithmic questions dealing with the real solutions of a system of equalities, inequalities, and inequations of polynomials over the real numbers. This emerging field is largely motivated by the power and elegance with which it solves a broad and general class of problems arising in robotics, vision, computer aided design, geometric theorem proving, etc. The following survey paper discusses the underlying concepts, algorithms and a series of representative applications. This paper will appear as a chapter in the "Handbook of Discrete and Computational Geometry" (Edited by J.E. Goodman and J. O''Rourke), CRC Series in Discrete and Combinatorial Mathematics.


A strand of political economy literature expects democratic governments to be more effective than their authoritarian peers in the management of catastrophic situations (famines, pandemics). The ongoing COVID 19 pandemic offers an interesting setting to test this expectation, in particular to explore whether democracies are more preventive and therefore massify SARS-CoV-2 testing. Analyzing data from 85 countries, the more democratic a country is, not necessarily the more tests it runs. The relationship is rather curvilinear, best described by a U, with low and high levels of democracy associated with the massification of testing, and medium levels associated with low testing. Besides testing democracies and non-testing authoritarianisms, there are testing authoritarianisms —basically rentier states— and non-testing democracies; anocracies tend to be non-testing. The variance in testing seems to be also partially explained by GDP per capita and government effectiveness, but surprisingly unrelated to the length of the pandemic in a country.


recount is a resource of processed and summarized expression data spanning nearly 60,000 human RNA-seq samples from the Sequence Read Archive (SRA). The associated recount Bio-conductor package provides a convenient API for querying, downloading, and analyzing the data. Each processed study consists of meta/phenotype data, the expression levels of genes and their underlying exons and splice junctions, and corresponding genomic annotation. We also provide data summarization types for quantifying novel transcribed sequence including base-resolution coverage and potentially unannotated splice junctions. We present workflows illustrating how to use recount to perform differential expression analysis including meta-analysis, annotation-free base-level analysis, and replication of smaller studies using data from larger studies. recount provides a valuable and user-friendly resource of processed RNA-seq datasets to draw additional biological insights from existing public data. The resource is available at https://jhubiostatistics.shinyapps.io/recount/.


After locating accounting and auditing within a broadly conceived contracting paradigm which includes relational as well as discrete transactions, the paper analyses three economics-based contractual theories. Two of these theories are concerned with the security design problem which is the contractual basis of various financial instruments such as debt and equity. Given the assumption of costly state verification, the paper explains why financial reporting and auditing are especially important to outside equity holders because although debt-with-costly-bankruptcy can, under very restrictive circumstances, eliminate the need for output verification, a revenue sharing security such as outside equity is highly sensitive to the monitoring technology. However, since security design alone cannot explain the richness and variety of accounting and auditing institutions, the paper contends that contracting parties have a more general problem of contractual completion which requires flexibility in the determination of accounting numbers and an adjudicating audit process. The paper argues that although accounting and auditing are best initially understood within a relational rather than discrete contracting framework, the accounting infrastructure has an interactive relationship with the market for securities which generates informational demands from market participants.


We have investigated which T cell subclass defined by cytolysis with monoclonal anti-Lyt-1.2 and anti-Lyt-2.2 antibodies is required to adoptively transfer the ability to reject skin grafts. B6.Thy-1.1 spleen cells immune to graft antigens were fractionated with antibody plus C' and transferred to adult thymectomized, irradiated, bone marrow- reconstituted (ATXBM) B6.Thy-1.2 hosts that were simultaneously grafted with BALB.B skin. We found that when the ATXBM hosts were used 6 wk after irradiation and marrow reconstitution, both Lyt-1-depleted and Lyt-2-depleted immune spleen cells could transfer the ability to promptly reject skin grafts. However, such ATXBM recipients of Lyt-2- depleted cells that had rejected skin grafts were found to contain graft-specific CTL that were largely of host (B6.Thy-1.2) origin. When ATXBM hosts were used for the experiment 1 wk after irradiation and marrow reconstitution, no host-derived graft-specific CTL could be detected. However, graft rejection occurred in recipients of anti-Lyt-1- or anti-Lyt-2 plus C'-treated immune cells and specific CTL were generated from spleen cells of both groups. Thus, in the absence of a host-derived response, adoptively transferred immune Lyt-2+ cells, either resistant to, or that escaped from, antibody plus C' treatment, are able to expand in response to the antigenic stimulus provided by the graft. A more complete elimination of specific T cell subclasses is therefore needed to assess the relative contribution of a particular subset to the graft rejection process.


The knowledge of the epidemiology of parasitic infections in stray and domestic animals, especially of its incidence and prevalence, is fundamental to adopting effective prophylactic measures. Stray dogs play an important role in environmental contamination favoring the transmission cycle of zoonotic agents. Among the parasitic infections that affect humans, Giardia duodenalis is the most common intestinal protozoa and was designated as a re-emerging infectious disease. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of G. duodenalis in dogs siezed by the Center for Control of Zoonoses (CCZ) of the city of Lages, Santa Catarina, Brazil using two diagnostic techniques. In 357 stool samples analysed, the prevalence of G. duodenalis cysts was 5.3% (19/357) and 4.8% (17/357) detected by floatation and sedimentation techniques, respecttively. No correspondence between gender and age was found among the methods used for analyzing the infected dogs in this study. Our data suggested that two diagnostic techniques should be used in a complementary way to ensure that false negatives are not neglected.


This article explores the interaction between health, autonomy and empowerment in the South African context. It considers social and structural factors impacting on health-related lifestyle 'choices', assesses the protection and enhancement of health-related autonomy in South African law and critically analyses elaborations on individual autonomy, in health-related contexts, by South African courts. The article ultimately argues for a more substantive legal conception of individual autonomy that reflects human interdependence and acknowledges the links between lifestyle choices conducive to health and the material dimensions of socio-economic empowerment.


Context. Virtual reality is getting closer and closer to being realized with new technologies emerging. This will lead to new ways to experience interactive worlds such as games. In order to keep the highest immersion possible new ways of interaction are needed. Objectives. In this thesis a control method using motion tracking devices such as the PlayStation Move and the Microsoft Kinect is examined as a method of interaction. This is then compared to the use of a gamepad in a prototype first person puzzle game without a virtual reality device. The aim is to discover how it affects the experience in terms of ease of use, immersion and fun factor as well as how it affects the efficiency of the player when completing the same in-game tasks. With this information it's hoped to get an indication of how viable motion controls can be in a first person game and as a theoretical interaction method for virtual reality. Methods. To compare the control methods user studies are conducted with eight participants who play the prototype game using the two control methods and complete test chambers where their effectiveness is recorded. They are then interviewed to learn what they thought about the control methods and the experience. Results. Results consisting of time and points from the test chambers and answers from the interviews are compiled and analyzed. Conclusions. Analyzing the results of the user studies it is concluded that using motion controls rather than a traditional gamepad decreases the effectiveness of completing in-game tasks. There is an indication that motion controls increases the fun factor and immersion of the experience overall. The motion controls examined needs some getting used to and higher precision in order to be as effective as a gamepad but developing motion controlled games with the limitations in mind can give benefits such as higher immersion and fun factor.


The present study was conducted to analyze the production and marketing system of Khasi Mandarin in Eastern Himalayas of India. The data was collected through pre-tested schedule by personally interviewing the farmers selected through multistage sampling technique. The objectives were studied using analytical tools like semi log exponential function, marketing cost, marketing margin, price spread and marketing efficiency analysis using Acharya's and Shepherd's approach The results of the study revealed that the compound growth rate of area (-1.42%) and production (-0.36%) of Khasi mandarin was negative and had badly affected the Khasi mandarin cultivation in the study area. However, the positive growth rate of productivity (1.08%) was responsible for maintenance of production at a decent level. The marketing efficiency estimated by using both Acharya's approach and Shepherd's approach was found highest in ChannelI (Producer Retailer – Consumer) followed by channel-II (Producer – Merchant wholesalers– Retailers – Consumers) and channel –III (Producer – Pre-harvest contractors – Wholesalers – Retailers – Consumers), respectively. The producer's share in consumer's rupee was also maximum in channel-I (50.43%) followed by channel-II (36.55%) and channel-III (20.38%). It was found that price spread was maximum in channel III (` 5080.00) followed by channel II (` 3820.00) and channel I (` 2537.50).


Pollen morphology of 16 genera and 101 species from the Myrtaceae tribes Backhousieae, Melaleuceae, Metrosidereae, Osbornieae and Syzygieae was surveyed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and light microscopy (LM). The most common pollen type observed in these tribes was parasyncolpate with arcuate or angular colpi, and a rugulate exine pattern. There was little size variation in observed pollen, except for larger pollen in tribe Melaleuceae. All Metrosideros pollen grains had apocolpial islands, as well as all Callistemon species viewed by LM. Choricarpia of tribe Backhousieae had pollen with a distinctive exine pattern. Dicolporate pollen were observed in two tribes, Metrosidereae (Tepualia) and Syzygieae (Acmena), and may be of systematic value. The dicolporate grains of these two genera were also easily distinguishable from each other by using size and pollen side shape as diagnostic characters. Two pollen types were observed within the genus Melaleuca, and a number of pollen types were observed within the species-rich genus Syzygium.


Abstract The development of the Czech countryside differs in many ways from trajectories typical for Eastern and Central European rural areas in the last 25 years. In our article, we discuss the nature of the 'Czech exceptionalism', with reference to three examples, namely population development, the dynamics of rural/agricultural labour markets and rural governance. Firstly, we describe the major driving forces behind rural development in Czechia over the past 25 years and how these forces are reflected in the academic discourse. Secondly, we argue that an important feature of rural regions in Czechia is their population growth combined with a rapid labour market transformation and a low social importance of agriculture. All these changes are interpreted as a shift towards multifunctionality of rural areas rather than as a general trend towards post-productivism; indeed, this is because large parts of rural areas remain economically based on industrial production. The ongoing transformations have been reflected only partially in an academic discourse. In conclusion, we argue that there is a need to re-examine the use of EEC as a concept framing the position of sociology in rural research.


This dataset covers a Nationally Representative Sample of the Barbados population. It measures all main aspects of living conditions and reports consumption based poverty rates. The survey was executed between February 2016 and January 2017 (12 full months of fieldwork).


Macroeconomic models often assume that the choices of all the diverse agents in one sector—consumers for example—can be considered as the choices of one "representative" standard utility maximizing individual whose choices coincide with the aggregate choices of the heterogeneous individuals. My basic point is that the reduction of the behavior of a group of heterogeneous agents even if they are all themselves utility maximizers, is not simply an analytical convenience as often explained, but is both unjustified and leads to conclusions which are usually misleading and often wrong. First, such models are particularly ill-suited to studying macroeconomic problems like unemployment, which should be viewed as coordination failures. Furthermore these models, instead of being a hive of activity and exchange, are frequently, ones in which no trade at all takes place. And this is just the beginning of a list of problems with this approach. Finally I will consider more positive alternatives to the representative individual approach—approaches that focus on heterogeneity of agents may and interaction between individuals. It is clear that the "representative" agent deserves a decent burial, as an approach to economic analysis that is not only primitive, but fundamentally erroneous.


In the field of intelligent transportation, many factors can affect the tracking results of moving vehicles in the video, such as background complexity, illumination change, occlusion, scale transformation and so on. In order to solve the drift problem and improve the tracking accuracy in the vehicle target tracking process, this paper proposed an improved vehicle target tracking algorithm based on MDNet. By combining the instance segmentation method with the MDNet algorithm, the background and vehicle targets can be distinguished remarkably, which enhance tracking performance greatly. The proposed tracking algorithm is evaluated on the OTB dataset. We compared the tracking result of our method with eight mainstream target tracking algorithms. The experimental results illustrate outstanding performance. The target tracking accuracy and tracking success rate of our algorithm achieve good performance in many cases.


The Zimbabwe economy reached a peak in 1997 when the Gross Domestic Product rose (GDP) to Z$25 billion (1990 dollars) and exports exceeded US$3.4 billion. Employment was above 1.4 million. Since the late 1990s, with the political crisis caused by the land reform, there has been accelerating declines in GDP. The result has been a significant deterioration in Zimbabwe's human rights record, a breakdown in the rule of law, a furthering of Zimbabwe's economic collapse, and a negative impact throughout southern Africa. The government of Zimbabwe is facing a wide variety of difficult economic problems as it struggles with an unsustainable fiscal deficit, an overvalued official exchange rate, hyperinflation in million percent, and bare store shelves. However, the current economic crisis has lead to the emergence of women entrepreneurs. These groups of women are closing the gap in terms if basic products supply in Zimbabwe.The current paper analyses these opportunistic entrepreneurs, their source of capital and how they manage the day to day pressures while they are involved in their business. The first part of this paper provides the key rationales of this contribution in regard to the current economic situation existing in Zimbabwe. The second part explains the concept of entrepreneurship and the characteristics of entrepreneurs. Finally a strategic framework for an effective and efficient entrepreneurial spirit is developed in order to assist these Zimbabwean opportunistic entrepreneurs to sustain their ventures.


The high abundance of transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) in marine and freshwater greatly affects particle dynamics. TEP act as glue for colliding particles and form the matrix in aggregates, thereby altering aggregation dynamics. We studied the sinking behavior of freshly produced, particle‐free TEP and of aggregates composed of TEP and latex spheres in a laboratory using water collected from Santa Barbara Channel, California. Particle‐free TEP ascend and accumulate in the surface layer of a settling column at an average velocity of 1.6 x 10−4 cm s−1. The estimated density of TEP ranges from 0.70 to 0.84 g cm−3. TEP also transported latex spheres of 45.6 and 1.82 µm in diameter and a density of 1.05 g cm−3 to the surface layer. We describe a simple model illustrating the role of TEP for the vertical transport of solid particles. The densities and relative proportions of TEP, solid particles, and interstitial water within an aggregate determine its sinking or ascending velocity. High ratios of TEP to solid particles retard the sinking of aggregates, prolonging their residence time in the surface ocean. Our results demonstrate that TEP can provide a vehicle for the upward flux of biological and chemical components in the marine environment, including bacteria, phytoplankton, carbon, and reactive trace elements.


The protection of individuals and property has been the responsibility of males throughout the ages. In the early civilisations the heads of families regulated the behaviour of their members. Later with the development of extended family systems and communities a male or a number of males were chosen to ensure the safety of the group. In other words, there was always a male at the head of the family or group and it was under the leadership of either the father (patria potestas), the familial patriarch (parens familiae) or the head of the community (parens comuniae) that strict behavioural codes were enforced (Brown, Esbensen & Geis 1998:177).


Why review the same case twice? That's perhaps the most fundamental question posed by Jason Iuliano and Ya Sheng Lin's study of what I call "Plenary Repeaters," or cases that have resulted in multiple full merits rulings in the Supreme Court following certiorari. Drawing on Iuliano and Lin's research, this response essay argues that a full explanation of Repeaters would recognize both that granting cert in one iteration of a case can increase the odds of a later grant in that case (interdependence) and that some legal issues are posed in only a small number of cases (infrequency). In addition, this essay collects evidence on recent "Summary Repeaters," or cases that are Repeaters by virtue of summary rulings following certiorari, as well as on the expertise of attorneys who participate in Repeaters at the cert stage. Both Plenary and Summary Repeaters shed light on features of the Court's constrained power to set its own agenda and so complicate depictions of the Court as a "reactive" institution. The factors that generate Repeaters thus offer avenues for additional research.


We compare sorting and hashing for implicit graph search using disk storage. We first describe efficient pipelined implementations of both algorithms, which reduce disk I/O. We then compare the two algorithms and find that hashing is faster, but that sorting requires less disk storage. We also compare disk-based with in-memory search, and surprisingly find that there is little or no time overhead associated with disk-based search. We present experimental results on the sliding-tile puzzles, Rubik's Cube, and the 4-peg Towers of Hanoi.


The dissertation describes Pd-catalyzed formal 1,3-diaza-Claisen rearrangement and the design and development of cationic 1,3-diaza-Claisen rearrangement. Our previous work has shown that isocyanates react with azanorbornenes and azabicyclo[2.2.2]octenes under thermal conditions to afford zwitterionic intermediates that undergo a thermal 1,3-diaza-Claisen rearrangement to give both ureas and isoureas. However, some azanorbornenes and azabicyclooctenes failed to rearrange or proceeded in low yields. To address these challenging substrates for the thermal 1,3-diaza-Claisen rearrangement, we have developed a Pd-catalyzed formal 1,3-diaza-Claisen rearrangement. Interestingly, under Pd-catalyzed condition, both isocyanates with electron-withdrawing groups and isocyanates without electron-withdrawing groups react with azanorbornenes and azabicyclo[2.2.2]octenes to provide ureas as the only products in high yields. More importantly, the reactions that failed under thermal conditions were all successful under Pd-catalysis. In addition to azanorbornenes and azabicyclo[2.2.2]octenes, other ring systems were also investigated. Pd catalysis has broadened the scope of tertiary allylic amines that react with isocyanates to afford 1,3-diaza-Claisen rearrangement products. In the presence of p-TsCl and NEt3, allylaminopropyl benzyl ureas were initially dehydrated to form protonated carbodiimides whose presence was confirmed by the infrared absorption frequency at 2100 cm which is the characteristic band of –N=C=N-; then the in situ generated protonated carbodiimides were poised for further cationic 1,3diaza-Claisen rearrangement to afford synthetically challenging guanidines. The effect of acid on the rearrangement was ascertained by the fact that no rearrangement product was observed by simply heating free base carbodiimide 3.10 in benzene at reflux. Other dehydration reagents, such as Tf2O, Ts2O, MsCl were also investigated, and none of them provide satisfactory results. A selection of allyamino benzyl ureas with different tether length, substituents, or in varied ring systems, were synthesized to explore the scope of this methodology. This methodology works best at allylaminopropyl benzyl ureas, and the substituents on the benzyl group does not seem to affect the reaction rate in a significant way.


Multifunctional nanocomposite materials recently emerged as a powerful concept because they offer to combine physical properties of different inorganic materials. Besides the simple combination of physical properties, the real challenge is to provide high control of the structure of nanocomposites (i.e. the spatial arrangement of the two entities, interface or separating distance, etc.). In this case, synergy between the two entities may be favoured in order to dramatically enhance the physical properties. Herein, we report on a multifunctional hybrid nanocomposite material consisting of a zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod array decorated with iron oxide (Fe3−δO4) nanoparticles through a 1,4-phenylenebis(phosphonic acid) (PBA) linkage. We report on an original, easy to process, and versatile preparation method based on self-assembly mediated by specific interactions between metal oxides and phosphonic acid groups. This strategy allows grafting irreversibly Fe3−δO4 nanoparticles to ZnO nanorod arrays while preserving the pristine crystal structure of both inorganic entities. The structure and physical properties of such hybrid nanocomposites were investigated by means of a large panel of characterisation techniques: SEM, TEM, FTIR, XPS, SQUID and PL. The assembly mechanism was studied by varying several experimental parameters, such as the concentration of the ligand solution and nanoparticle suspension as well as the reaction time of ZnO arrays in the aforementioned suspensions. Finally, we show for the first time that the ZnO/PBA/Fe3−δO4 nanocomposite displays enhanced magnetic and optical properties as a result of dual synergy. We show unambiguously that a ZnO nanorod array acts as a very efficient anisotropic scaffold which favours unidirectional dipolar interactions and enhances the in-axis collective magnetic properties of Fe3−δO4 nanoparticles (a 10-fold increase of the coercive field in comparison to the same magnetic nanoparticles in the powder state). ZnO nanorods also benefit from Fe3−δO4 nanoparticles by enhancement of their optical properties in the visible range (a 2-fold increase of PL intensity with respect to bare ZnO nanorods) which we propose to result from photon energy transfer.


Aims: Since the decree of September 5th 2001, French toxicologists have had to confirm drug screening in drivers by gas-chromatography (GC) and mass-spectrometry (MS). Furthermore, the French Society of Analytical Toxicology (SFTA) has advocated the determination of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) at 0.5 µg/L in whole blood, since its Cannabis Consensus past on June 13th, 2013. Because of this new analytical target, we had to develop a new method. Our first choice was to use our GC/tandem-MS however we decided to analyse the samples on this instrument alongside our GC/single quadrupole-MS, and validated on both without difficulties. Methods: The extraction method consisted of those from the SFTA's recommendations with some modifications: a smaller blood volume, another derivatisation reagent. The calibration was composed of a blank blood sample and six blood samples, spiked with cannabinoid standards from 0.3 to 100 µg/L (THC and its two main metabolites). Extracts were analysed with a SHIMADZU QP-2010SE GC-single quadrupole-MS equipped with J&W Ultra 1 column (12 m x 0.20 mm x 0.33 μm) after splitless injection and in SIM mode. Validation was performed with ARLENDA ENOVAL software. Results: For THC, the lower limit of quantification (LLQ) was 0.5 µg/L and the detection limits were 0.2 µg/L, with the ion pair 386/389 m/z. Conclusion: Determining the most appropriate method parameters were the key to this success. Using a calibrator lower than LLQ can be considered as unusual but without it, mathematical model and LLQ were of a lower quality. After this validation, we decided to establish the method as a routine method. After one year of using this method, the Shewhart chart for THC is still good. This method is robust, satisfies the requirements (for THC metabolites too) and costs less. This finding allows us to focus our most sensitive equipment on more demanding analyses.


Many of the dinosaur-bearing bone beds in the Hell Creek Formation of the Dakotas and Montana involve multiple species preserved in the upper Hell Creek Formation. In contrast, the Concordia Hadrosaur Site is monospecific with respect to dinosaurian taxa and is situated in the lower Hell Creek Formation in a lithostratigraphic unit we associate with the Little Beaver Creek Member. This member consists of organic-rich sandstones, siltstones, and claystones that are distinctive within the Hell Creek Formation based on their uniformly fine grain size, purplish color, and presence of highly lignitic shale rather than coal. Similar lignitic deposits occur at other marine-terrestrial boundaries of the Fox Hills-Hell Creek Formations in the Little Missouri and Missouri River valleys. The bone bed at the Concordia Hadrosaur Site (CHS) is associated with an extensive coastal swamp rather than a localized fluvial subenvironment such as river channel, floodplain, or abandoned channel. The bone bed itself lies at the transition from an extensive swamp (represented by highly organic mudstones) to a more fluvially dominated, distributary environment characterized by variegated mudstones, siltstones, and channel sandstones. The thirty meters of exposed section at the Concordia site include the top of the Fox Hills Formation and lower parts of the Hell Creek Formation. We identify marine silts, muds, and sands, coastal dune sands, coastal swamp muds and silts, and fluvial sands and silts. The sediments are indicative of the marine-terrestrial transition from upper shoreface and foreshore environments to a complex system of coastal dunes, swamps, and distributary channels that formed during the progradation of the Hell Creek sediments into the Cretaceous Fox Hills seaway. Locally, grain size and organic fraction varied due to differences in the proximity to distributary channels, supply of organic material, and water depth. Despite the concentration of bones dominated by a single species in the CHS bone bed, the high clay fraction of the bone bed matrix, combined with the fact that the lowest part of the bone bed has the greatest clay fraction, indicates that the bones were not introduced by way of a high-energy, catastrophic event, such as a flood. Rather, the bones accumulated in an area of quiet standing water. Although preliminary examination of the bones is consistent with this depositional interpretation, it does not necessarily provide direct support for it.


Several animal studies have brought the cholinergic hypothesis of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) into question. In addition, recent clinical studies have shown that the number of neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles does not yield a conclusive diagnosis of AD. A reassessment of risk factors involved in AD development has led to findings that atherosclerosis is associated with dementia. The present study is a clinical analysis, through the use of case studies, of the relationship between atherosclerosis severity, based on autopsy results, and AD severity, based on scores from cognitive tests and fu nctional assessments, as well as autopsy results. The age of AD onset as it relates to atherosclerosis has also been examined. The age of participants at AD onset occurring with atherosclerosis has been determined both through examination of medical records and interviews with family members. This is an ongoing study. Unfortunately, no results supporting a relationship between atherosclerosis and AD have yet been found; however, future results may indicate a relationship.