The objective of the present study was to develop a fluid flow-coupled distinct element model capable of capturing the undrained behaviour of granular soils by considering fundamental physical mechanisms that involve fluid flow and particle interaction. The method considers granular media as assemblies of ellipsoidal particles arranged on a plane and interacting by means of contact forces. Saturation effects are incorporated by assuming that particles are immersed in fluid, the flow of which is simulated as occurring through a network of conduits. The flow through conduits is according to a Hagen-Poiseuille relation; a transient solution is obtained by solving a system of differential equations. The developed fluid-flow coupled distinct element was used to conduct various numerical simulations and the mechanisms of undrained deformations were examined from a micromechanical point of view. The dissertation begins with a literature review on the undrained behaviour of granular materials as observed in laboratory experiments. A review of previous attempts to simulate undrained tests micromechanically is also presented, and the advantages and disadvantages of various methods are examined. The capability of the developed model to simulate two-dimensional fluid-flow and pressure dissipation problems is demonstrated by means of comparisons with analytical solutions. Fluid pressure dissipation problems are qualitatively compared with Terzaghi's one-dimension theory of consolidation. It is shown that transient flow problems are accurately modelled by the fluid flow network approach. Simulated compression tests were carried out to examine the effects of different confining pressures and initial densities on the macroscopic response. The results compare favorably with those commonly observed in undrained laboratory experiments. Simulated tests are analyzed from a micromechanical point of view. It is shown that macroscopic behaviour can be traced to changes in micromechanical fabric descriptors. The effects of the interparticle friction angle on the undrained behaviour of the assemblies are investigated. The undrained strength is considerably increased by increasing interparticle friction. The main mechanism found to be responsible for the development of higher strength is the tendency of the specimens to dilate during shear distortion. The effects of the principal stress direction on the macroscopic response are examined. The behaviour of initially anisotropic samples is significantly altered by the direction of the principal stresses relative to the anisotropy direction.


Background: Complex system interventions benefit from close attention to factors affecting implementation and resultant outcomes. This article describes a framework for examining these factors in process redesign (PR) and for assessing PR outcomes. Methods: Using literature scans and expert comment on draft frameworks based on the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, a team of researchers developed the PR framework for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. As a case study, an independent team of researchers in a large care system subsequently applied the PR framework to implementation of Lean-based primary care redesigns. Results: The PR framework adds 2 domains to the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, focused on relevant measures of implementation and outcomes, as well as some new constructs to the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research. Using the PR framework to guide a study of primary care PR, researchers found that the health care reform environment encouraged staff recognition of need for redesign, but physicians worried about key redesign issues, including colocation with care team partners and the competencies of the individuals assigned to manage new workflows. Team member acceptance of the redesign was also influenced by other features of the implementation process and contextual features, including the decision style of the local clinic. Conclusions: The PR framework helped guide the qualitative study and aided researchers in informing their leadership about critical issues affecting PR implementation.


This paper examines a dispute between Martin Heidegger and his former student Emmanuel Levinas concerning the nature and meaning of mitsein ('being with'), a neologism that forms a key element in Heidegger's phenomenology ('Being and Time'). I argue that the dispute provides a useful theoretical framework for rethinking the ethical dimensions of space, in the way mitsein serves as a 'receptacle' for collective being. The paper first unpacks the meaning(s) of the term in Heidegger's philosophy, and then examines the dispute in question in which Levinas accuses Heidegger of not developing an ethical underpinning to being-with; specifically with regard to fellow human beings. This 'shortcoming' opens up a field of study about the spatial dimensions between 'face-to-face' and 'side-by-side' relationships in architecture, highlighted by an examination of historical examples, most notably a poetry competition on the subject of friendship ('Certame Coronario') held in Florence Cathedral in the early 15th century. The concluding part of the paper argues that the decline in the meaning and purpose of civic and religious space in the contemporary world (the basis of collective participation in previous ages), requires us to rethink fundamentally the architectural contexts of social interaction, where questions of mitsein can be re-evaluated. A guiding reference in this investigation is Richard Sennett's book 'Together: The Rituals, Pleasures & Politics of Cooperation', that similarly argues that social bonds need to be strengthened in an age of increasing fragmentation and insularity, and that architecture is central to this 'recovery'.


The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a carbohydrate (CHO) and protein (PRO) drink consumed immediately after endurance exercise on saliva antimicrobial proteins known to be important for host defense. Eleven male runners ran for 2 hr at 75% VO2max on 2 occasions and immediately postexercise were provided, in randomized order, either a placebo solution (CON) or a CHO-PRO solution containing 1.2 g CHO/kg body mass (BM) and 0.4 g PRO/kg BM (CHO-PRO). The solutions were flavor and volume equivalent (12 ml/kg BM). Saliva flow rate, lysozyme, α-amylase, and secretory (S) IgA concentrations were determined from unstimulated saliva samples collected preexercise, immediately postexercise, and every 30 min until 180 min postexercise. CHO-PRO ingestion immediately postexercise resulted in a lower saliva flow rate than with CON at 30 and 60 min postexercise. Saliva lysozyme concentration increased immediately postexercise in both trials compared with preexercise (p< .05), and CHO-PRO ingestion immediately postexercise resulted in a higher saliva lysozyme concentration in the first hour of recovery than with CON (125% greater at 30 min, 94% greater at 60 min; p< .01). Saliva SIgA concentration decreased below preexercise concentrations 90-150 min postexercise (p< .001), with no effect of CHO-PRO. Saliva α-amylase activity was unaffected by exercise or CHO-PRO refeeding. CHO-PRO refeeding did not alter the secretion rates of any saliva variables during recovery. In conclusion, immediate refeeding with CHO-PRO evoked a greater saliva lysozyme concentration during the first hour of recovery after prolonged exercise than ingestion of placebo but had minimal impact on saliva α-amylase and SIgA responses.


Exudates were obtained  from the African pear and mango trees and also from unripe plantain and banana fruit bunches, and their keeping and functional properties as industrial raw materials were determined. Exudation from the trees was carried out by making an incision on the tree bark, while those from the unripe fruit were collected from the cutting made to severe the bunch from the stock during harvesting. Results obtained showed a yield of 20.8 and 18.6 g/tree of African pear and mango respectively after 24 h of tapping and 8.6 and 10.2 ml/kg for plantain and banana per bunch, respectively. The yield of exudates from the plantain and banana trunks was 158.5 and 120.2 ml/tree,respectively. Other results were pH: African pear, 5.35; mango, 6.05; plantain, 4.93 and banana, 6.44; phenol contents: African pear, 15.67 mg/kg; mango, 15.97 mg/kg;plantain, 12.54 mg/kg and banana, 9.40 mg/kg; tannin content: African pear, 0.32%;mango, 0.28%; plantain, 0.32%, and banana, 0.46%. The exudates were soluble in polar solvent and sparingly soluble in organic and non polar solvents and all of them had a good amount of cations for cell growth present such as calcium, potassium, magnesium and sodium. They can also be preserved using well known food preservatives. From the results, it was deduced that the exudates may become raw materials for pharmaceutical and paint industries if the machinery for their collection and preservation are established.

 Key words: Characterization, exudates, tropical trees, unripe fruits.


The origin of hydrocarbon-bearing fluid inclusions in igneous rocks remains controversial. The hydrocarbons may be of biogenic or thermogenic origin but most occurrences indicate an abiogenic origin. A variety of mechanisms have been proposed for the generation of abiogenic hydrocarbons which include a direct mantle origin, the respeciation of a magmatic fluid at low pressures and temperatures or the generation of hydrocarbons by a post-magmatic, low P-T process.
The large Devonian alkaline intrusions, Khibina and Lovozero, in the Kola Alkaline Province, northwest Russia contain abundant CH[sub]4-dominant inclusions, which consist predominantly of a low-density methane vapour. These inclusions also contain significant concentrations of higher hydrocarbons up to C[sub]6 and hydrogen. They are secondary in nature, occurring as large regular inclusions or small trails of inclusions, which follow the cleavage planes of the host minerals. They are closely associated with the late minerals magnetite, biotite, aegirine and hydrated Na/K-silicates along with occasional H[sub]2 O-dominant fluid inclusions.
A comparative study of the fluid inclusions in the nearby Devonian carbonatite intrusions, Kovdor and Sokli, shows that these intrusions are dominated by complex primary aqueous fluid inclusions. The main gas phase present is carbon dioxide. Hydrocarbons are not found at Kovdor but may be present in Sokli as small, secondary, monophase gas inclusions associated with phlogopitization and serpentinization of the mineral assemblage.
The CH[sub]4-dominant fluid inclusions in Khibina and Lovozero were trapped as secondary inclusions at low pressures and temperatures at or near the CH[sub]4-H[sub]2 O solvus around 350 °C and 0.5 to 2 kbar. Isotopic results indicate the methane is abiogenic in origin ([delta][sup]13 C [sub]CH4 < -30 %). Therefore, a post-magmatic, abiogenic process generated the CH[sub]4-dominant fluid.
The methane and higher hydrocarbons were generated via the Fischer-Tropsch reaction; nCO[sub]2 + (3n+1)H[sub]2 -> C[sub]n H[sub]2n+2 + 2nH[sub]2 O. A magmatic CO[sub]2 -rich fluid, that may be represented by the CO[sub]2 dominant fluid inclusions found in the Khibina carbonatite, reacted with hydrogen produced from hydrothermal reactions that replaced arfvedsonite, nepheline, augite and titanomagnetite with aegirine, biotite, magnetite and hydrous Na/K-silicates. The water produced by the Fischer-Tropsch reaction was recycled initiating further hydrothermal reactions setting up a cycle of alteration and hydrocarbon generation.
Fischer-Tropsch synthesis of hydrocarbons in igneous rocks linked to post-magmatic hydrothermal alteration may be a lot more widespread than previously thought. This may have implications in the future for finding, or producing further natural gas resources.


This study investigates the association between earnings management and executive compensation by examining evidence from firms in the FTSE350 Index. It questions whether CEOs manipulate earnings, particularly with regard to bonus entitlement and discusses the possible reasons for their actions. It explores whther earnings are manipulated in self-interest to reach pre-specified bonus levels and increase compensation. It also examines the extent of manipulation when bonuses are deffered or when long-term compensation is offered, The effect of non-financial measures in assessing performance is also examined, when they are used alongisde financial meaures and when giving equal or more weight.

There are many studies concerning earnings management (hereafter, EM) and executive compensation, particularly in the US, but accruals management has mostly been used to determine the extent of manipulation and real activities management has received comparatively little attention. The present study uses both discretionary accruals (hereafter, DAC) and real activities management (hereafter, RAM) which gives wider understanding of the issue.

The findings reveal that executives indulge in income-increasing earnings management through DAC and adjusting sales when company earnings approach their pre-specified minimum and target bonus levels. It is also found that executives employ income-decreasing earnings management by adjusting DAC and sales when earnings approach their pre-specified maximum bonus levels. When a deferred bonus is equal to or greater than the annual bonus, results reveal that firms engage in less income-increasing manipulation than those with less deffered bonus. In a situation where the proportion of long-term bonus is greater than short-term bonus, less income-increasing earnings management are exhibited in terms of both DAC and RAM. The use of non-financial performance measures in bonus contracts also can have a significant effect on constraining EM. The results of the present study reveal that when both financial and non-financial performance measures are used together, less income-increasing manipulation by DAC and expenses takes place. If equal or more weight is given to non-financial performance measure compared with financial measures, minimal EM takes place both in DAC and RAM.

This study cotnrols for corporate governance variables particularly related to executive compensation to assess their influence on EM. Despit increasing regulation designed to restrict manipulation of company results, the results show that stronger corporate governance rules have a minimal effect in controlling earnings management.

A major contribution of this study is that it concludes that although RAM is not widely used it has great importance in relation to executive compensation. DAC is relatively easily identified and executives may avoid detection by adopting RAM. This suggests that tests for RAM should be more extensively used. Another unique feature of this study is that the effectiveness of deferred bonus in controlling EM has not to the best of my knowledge been previously examined. Whilst other researchers have concentrated on the relationship between stock options and EM, this research additionally takes into account other forms of long-term incentive such as share incentive plan, company incentive plan etc. Another important consideration, largely unexplored by previous researchers, is the advantage of using non-financial performance measures as well as financial performance measures and the degree of weighting given to both when determining pay and bonuses.

Shareholders and other stakeholders expect pay to be limked to performance by incentives relating reward to increased company earnings and the choice of performance measures is important to achieve this. The findings of this study will be of interest to shareholders and regulators because it will assis them in undertanding how compensation characteristics are related to EM.


On 26 January 2015, the European Commission requested the Informal Company Law Expert Group (ICLEG) to consider the issue of digitalisation of company law and two members, Vanessa Knapp and Jesper Lau Hansen, were charged with producing a response on behalf of the Group. The report begins with some general observations on whether there is a need for digitalisation in the company law area, what the current issues are, the current situation and initiatives that have already been taken, what might be achieved by EU intervention in these issues and some areas outside company law which are relevant to the issue. It then presents various recommendations relating to digitalisation.


Lecture recordings are being used more and more by universities. To be able to achieve a highcoverage of recorded lectures this process needs to be automated. At the University of Münster this is being done by using Opencast in combination with fixed recording equipment in the lecture halls. The lectures are being recorded automatically and most of the video processing is automated as well. Although, not the whole work process is automated yet, there are ways to make this possible in the future by connecting a learning management system or a campus management system.


As Solid-State Drives (SSDs) become commonplace in data-centers and storage arrays, there is a growing demand for predictable latency. Traditional SSDs, serving block I/Os, fail to meet this demand. They offer a high-level of abstraction at the cost of unpredictable performance and suboptimal resource utilization. We propose that SSD management trade-offs should be handled through Open-Channel SSDs, a new class of SSDs, that give hosts control over their internals. We present our experience building LightNVM, the Linux Open-Channel SSD subsystem. We introduce a new Physical Page Address I/O interface that exposes SSD parallelism and storage media characteristics. LightNVM integrates into traditional storage stacks, while also enabling storage engines to take advantage of the new I/O interface. Our experimental results demonstrate that LightNVM has modest host overhead, that it can be tuned to limit read latency variability and that it can be customized to achieve predictable I/O latencies.


This article presents an application of the theory of prototypes to the field of inflectional morphology and especially to the treatment of exceptions. From the assumption that the handling of irregular facts is basically ruled by the same principles of categorization as the handling of regular facts, the article shows on concrete examples of German nouns - weak masculine nouns, feminine nouns with inflected e-plural and er-plural - that the principle of the motivation of inflection by other properties of lexical items (phonological, semantic, syntactic properties) also works in inflectional classes with few elements. This type of analysis leads to the hypothesis of much more complex categorial structures, which includes subcategories with very few elements, instead of the traditional dichotomy between regular and irregular or a simple continuum prototypical - non prototypical.


In this paper, an investigation of using corrugated passages instead of circular crosssection passages was achieved in conditions simulate the case in the gas turbine blade coolingusing ANSYS Fluent version (14.5) with Boundary conditions: inlet coolant air temperature of300 K with different air flow Reynolds numbers (191000, 286000 and 382000). Thesurrounding constant hot air temperatures was (1700 K). The numerical simulations was done bysolving the governing equations (Continuity, Reynolds Averaging Navier-stokes and Energyequation) using (k-ε) model in three dimensions by using the FLUENT version (14.5). Thepresent case was simulated by using corrugated passage of 3 m long, internal diameter of 0.3 m,0.01 m groove height and wall thickness of 0.01 m, was compared with circular cross sectionpipe for the same length, diameter and thickness. The temperature, velocity distributioncontours, cooling air temperature distribution, the inner wall surface temperature, and thermalperformance factor at the two passages centerline are presented in this paper. The coolant airtemperature at the corrugated passage centerline was higher than that for circular one by(12.3%), the temperature distribution for the inner wall surface for the corrugated passage islower than circular one by (4.88 %). The coolant air flow velocity seems to be accelerated anddecelerated through the corrugated passage, so it was shown that the thermal performance factoralong the corrugated passage is larger than 1, this is due to the fact that the corrugated wallscreate turbulent conditions and increasing thermal surface area, and thus increasing heat transfercoefficient than the circular case.


Regenerative medicine has opened a window for functional recovery in acute-to-subacute phase spinal cord injury (SCI). By contrast, there are still only a few studies have focused on the treatment of the chronically injured spinal cord, in which cell-based regenerative medicine seems less effective. Since the majority of SCI patients are in the chronic phase, representing a major challenge for the clinical application of cell-based regenerative medicine. Although combined therapies for the treatment of chronic SCI have attracted attention of researchers and its potential importance is also widely recognized, there had been very few studies involving rehabilitative treatments to date. In a recent study, we have demonstrated for the first time that treadmill training combined with cell transplantation significantly promotes functional recovery even in chronic SCI, not only in additive but also in synergistic manner. Even though we have succeeded to outline the profiles of recovery secondary to the combination therapy, the mechanism underlying the effects remain unsolved. In this review article, we summarize the present progress and consider the prospect of the cell-based regenerative medicine particularly combined with rehabilitative approaches for chronic SCI animal models.


Remediation of contaminated land needs to be carried out using methods that are both cost effective and minimise environmental pollution. However, the remediation option currently chosen by practitioners is often based upon limited economic information with the true environmental costs not being considered. This can result in the least sustainable option being chosen.
This study has developed a methodology to evaluate the sustainability, in terms of economic and environmental costs, for a range of treatments available for the remediation of diesel contaminated land, including bioremediation (with and without the addition of brewery spent grain), disposal to landfill and thermal treatment.
Initial laboratory investigations indicated that the use of brewery spent grain decreased the time taken for the clean-up of soil contaminated with diesel, suggesting that bioremediation augmented by the addition of this organic material was a viable option. A costing model was then developed that included all of the costs associated with the remediation options chosen. This included both direct and indirect costs. The results show that considering the indirect costs of remediation such as costs associated with delayed development the land, make bioremediation in this study an economically feasible option.
Finally environmental costs were considered with a focus on the release of carbon dioxide a known greenhouse gas. Respirometry was used to determine the volume of carbon dioxide released during the bioremediation process. This information was then combined with data collected from a range of other sources and the impact of the chosen remediation options on atmospheric greenhouse gas release was evaluated. Other environmental impacts were also determined including land and water pollution. The results indicate that bioremediation with brewery spent grain has one of the lowest environmental costs and showed that emission from pollutants such as NOx, PM1.0, PM2.5, NH3 and SO2 could contribute to the limit values in the area covered by remediation work.
The model developed in this study has indicated that the use of bioremediation with and without the use of brewery spent grain is a sustainable remediation option providing both direct and indirect economic costs are included. The results have indicated that, the strategy of using brewery spent grain to augment bioremediation
v
process promotes the re-use of by-product material, reduces waste and conserve resources. There is a need for the remediation industry to adopt similar models in order that decisions made, as to the remediation option chosen, are based upon accurate costings of their sustainability.


Snake, known as an active contour model, is an energyminimizing deformable contour that converges the boundary of an object in image. For converging object's boundary, snake is forced by internal force associated with the shape of contour and by external force invoked by the edges or the lines of the object. However the external force in traditional snake has some problems; limited capture range, sensitivity to initialization of contour, poor convergence to boundary concavities and etc. In this paper, we present new external force for solving problems above. The proposed external force is based on the virtual electric field that is made by the virtual electric charges on the boundary of the object, where the intensities or the edges of image are considered as the virtual electric charges. Also we show that the new external force by virtual electric field can be computed by convolution for fast calculation.


Ego-motion estimation is a fundamental building block of any autonomous system that needs to navigate in an environment. In large-scale outdoor scenes, 3D LiDARs are often used for this task, as they provide a large number of range measurements at high precision. In this paper, we propose a novel approach that exploits the intensity channel of 3D LiDAR scans to compute an accurate odometry estimate at a high frequency. In contrast to existing methods that operate on full point clouds, our approach extracts a sparse set of salient points from intensity images using data-driven feature extraction architectures originally designed for RGB images. These salient points are then used to compute the relative pose between successive scans. Furthermore, we propose a novel self-supervised procedure to fine-tune the feature extraction network online during navigation, which exploits the estimated relative motion but does not require ground truth data. The experimental evaluation suggests that the proposed approach provides a solid ego-motion estimation at a much higher frequency than the sensor frame rate while improving its estimation accuracy online.


Background Caregivers of children with disabilities are vital stakeholders when it comes to safeguarding the health, well-being and overall survival of the children that they care for. Caregivers, however, face many challenging conditions that make it difficult for them to optimally fulfil their caregiving role. Understanding these challenges is crucial for developing empowerment programmes for caregivers, which will ensure that children with disabilities receive comprehensive, optimal care and that caregivers experience a good quality of life. Objectives The aim of this study was to explore and describe the experiences of caregivers providing care to children with disabilities at non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in townships of Tshwane, South Africa. Method This study followed an exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design within a qualitative methodology. The population in this study included caregivers who care for children with disabilities at NGOs (n = 10). Participants for the study were selected using the purposive sampling technique. Data were collected by conducting semistructured interviews with caregivers. Data were analysed according to the six phases of thematic analysis proposed by. Results The study revealed six themes that represent the challenges experienced by caregivers, namely (1) initial impressions, (2) rendering care, (3) stress, (4) lack of outside support, (5) coping and (6) poor community recognition. Conclusion Support from the Departments of Health and Social Development and other institutions providing community rehabilitation services to townships should be provided to caregivers in order to empower them with skills and knowledge to effectively address the challenges they face so that they can render optimal care to the children they care for. Contribution Results of this study could assist in ensuring improved recognition, resilience and supportive resources for caregivers in collaboration with community based rehabilitation stakeholders in the community that would ultimately lead to improved care for children with disabilities in townships within South Africa.


Large Area Maskless Photopolymerization (LAMP) is a technology being developed to fabricate integrally-cored ceramic molds for the investment casting of turbine airfoils. In LAMP, ultraviolet (UV) light in the form of bitmap images is projected from a spatial light modulator (SLM) onto a photocurable ceramic material system (PCMS). Exposed and unexposed regions are determined through black and white portions of the bitmaps, respectively. UV light induces photopolymerization and the formation of an insoluble solidified network. Three-dimensional structures are built layer-by-layer through sequential application and curing of PCMS layers of 100 micron thickness. To date, ceramic molds fabricated using LAMP have been successfully implemented in investment casting of single-crystal turbine airfoils without internal cooling schemes. Two particularly important challenges for the fabrication of airfoil molds with internal cooling passages are: (a) fabrication of unsupported structures in the mold geometry and; (b) mitigation of internal stresses that arise during layer-by-layer build-up due to volumetric shrinkage during photopolymerization. Unsupported geometries arise in nearly every cored airfoil mold and often in a location where support structures cannot be easily removed after fabrication. Internal stresses generated by volumetric shrinkage can lead to cracking during binder burnout (BBO), sintering and casting. This thesis aims to simultaneously address these challenges through the investigation of grayscale exposure to control the degree of monomer conversion during photopolymerization of single and multiple layers. The effective intensity of the UV light incident on the monomer system can be reduced by selectively turning off pixels within the nominally "white" or "on" regions of the projected bitmaps, effectively producing an exposure with a lower light intensity. In an effort to reduce internal stresses in the mold, the grayscale exposure can be tuned to create regions of uncured or partially cured monomer within the mold geometry to reduce the connectivity between cured regions and thus reduce the net effect of volumetric shrinkage. Grayscale exposure can also be used to generate support structures with a low degree of polymerization to create a gel state beneath and surrounding the unsupported segments of the mold, which can be washed away after completion of mold fabrication. In order to successfully utilize grayscale techniques in LAMP, the cure depth must be predicted. This is accomplished through cure depth measurements at different exposure times to develop a "working curve." In addition, the degree of monomer conversion and its relation to cure depths resulting from grayscale exposure must be understood. Measurements of the degree of conversion are obtained through Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Empirical models are developed and compared to theoretical predictions. Also, the scattering length pixelation model is introduced as a technique to predict the light intensity distribution within…


Coffee Wilt Disease (CWD, Gibberella xylarioides) is a serious fungal disease that has caused losses of about $1billion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda since it re-emerged in the 1980s and 1990s. From 2000 to 2007, a regional programme, funded by the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), European Union (EU), Department for International Development (DFID), and national contributions from affected countries, with scientific collaboration by CIRAD, UCL and CABI, studied many aspects of the disease including its distribution, spread, severity, taxonomy and control. Principal findings of the Regional Programme include: i) CWD is widespread in Uganda and Ethiopia, restricted in Tanzania, and spreading in DRC. It is found too in wild forest coffee, giving rise to concern that it may weaken the genetic base of both Robusta and Arabica genomes. Measures are needed to collect and conserve this material; ii) Two fungal strains exist, one infecting Robusta and the other Arabica. The strain of the current Robusta disease outbreak is very similar to a strain isolated from DRC in 1960. The Arabica strain does not infect Robusta coffee and vice versa. The Arabica and Robusta strains are likely to be co-evolved pathogens, evolving with their respective hosts, close to their respective centres of origin. iii) CWD transmission from infected wood to adjacent uninfected seedlings was confirmed; hence leaving infected wood near uninfected trees in the field is an infection pathway. Healthy seedlings become infected by CWD when potted in soil from around infected trees. Soil can be highly infective for at least three months; at least one year without coffee is advisable to avoid re-infection; iv) Many farmers weed by machete and hoe, which may spread CWD through frequent wounds to the base of the stem. Farmers can remove diseased coffee wood from plots and may sell them as fuel - a major route of transmission that must be stopped by increased training and quarantine inspections. The programme therefore intensified training and created awareness to help in stopping this other modes of transmission for CWD; v) No Arabica tested cultivars displayed mortality less than 20%, suggesting that Ethiopian Arabica CWD could present a serious threat to production in other countries if it spread, as has happened with Robusta CWD. On the other hand, a breeding programme in Uganda has screened thousands of Robusta plants for resistance to CWD. The initial screening produced over 1,500 lines potentially resistant to the disease. Further screening and agronomic trials have reduced this to seven final candidates for release to farmers, hopefully in 2010. Screening studies in Tanzania have resulted in identification of six Robusta clones with resistance to CWD. If CWD is to be effectively controlled, a distinct, long term and proactive strategy is needed to suppress it in the future. The paper will cover a number of suggestions as to what needs to happen next. (Resume d'auteur)


Controlling the names of places, environments, and species is one way in which settler colonial ontologies delimit the intelligibility of ecological relations, Indigenous peoples, and environmental injustices. To counter this, this article amplifies the voices of Native American scholars and foregrounds a philosophical account of Indigenous naming. First, I explore some central characteristics of Indigenous ontology, epistemic virtue, and ethical responsibility, setting the stage for how Native naming draws these elements together into a complete, robust philosophy. Then I point toward leading
but contingent principles of Native naming, foregrounding how Native names emerge from and create communities by situating (rather than individuating) the beings that
they name within kinship structures, including human and nonhuman agents. Finally, I outline why and how Indigenous names and the knowledges they contain are crucial for both resisting settler violence and achieving environmental justice, not only for Native Americans, but for their entire animate communities.


The purpose of our article is to propose that compromising is a constitutive characteristic of those marketing systems that entail matters of public interest or concern. In such markets, actors design compromises as they encounter criticisms of and contending justifications for the market's products, as these refer to price, efficiency in production and use, regulatory compliance or ecological sustainability. Tests and justifications are vital in order to determine what is valuable and by which measure. As a theory framework, the economic sociology of conventions provides a basis for assessing these contests, compromises, and justifications over the issue of worth in a marketing context. Through an ethnographic study of the regulated activities of chemicals service companies supporting the upstream petroleum industry, we assess how actors evaluate and justify the market's products and services in this environmentally sensitive setting by means of tests drawing from different orders of worth: the green, the industrial and the market order. Our contributions show that by artful and pragmatic compromising around exchanges, actors in marketing systems can balance several conflicting orders of worth over the question of worth without needing to converge on an overriding institutional logic.


AbstractA series of writings describes Hellenistic philosophy as spiritual guidance. Starting from a selection of Heraclitean fragments, this essay considers whether it is possible to read pre-Socratic philosophy as spiritual guidance. Its conclusion is that one cannot talk about spiritual guidance in the case of Heraclitus since he does not accompany the scholar in his search for understanding and because his teachings are not meant to be followed strictly and diligently. Finally, Heraclitus sets the impersonal Logos as a teacher; he himself does not accept any human teachings. The only accepted learning comes through one's own experience; no-one can pass his wisdom on to anyone else. Moreover, the teachings of Heraclitus do not soothe man's grief or offer any eschatol-ogy; on the contrary, they are meant to deprive his listeners of all security. His teaching goes no further than to encourage the scholar in his own search for understanding. Only insofar as Heraclitus' teachings lead to psychic autonomy can we call them therapeutic.


This classic study offers a history of anti-Japanese prejudice in California, extending from the late nineteenth century to 1924, when an immigration act excluded Japanese from entering the United States. The Politics of Prejudice details the political climate that helped to set the stage for the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II and reveals the racism present among middle-class American progressives, labor leaders, and other presumably liberal groups.


Zinc Oxide (ZnO) thin films have been deposited onto glass substrates by economical spray pyrolysis at different substrate temperatures and concentrations of Zinc acetate used as precursor under atmospheric pressure. The filmswere characterized byXRD, optical transmittance and SEMtechniques. All the films are polycrystalline with hexagonal wurtzite structure, with caxis growth (002) perpendicular to substrate surface. At the substrate temperature of 4000C and solution concentrationof 0.2M, ZnOthin films exhibited highest crystallinity. The grain size, Zn – O bond length, dislocation density and stress of the films changes from72.26 nmto 105.33 nm., 1.9699 A0 to 1.9725A0, 1.863 x 10-4 (nm)-2 to 0.9032 x 10-4 (nm)-2and - 0.48798Gpa to 55.066 Gpa respectively. Morphological study showed surface microrods are obtained at lower concentration (0.1M). Length and diameter of surface microrods were found in the range from 1µm to 8 µm and 0.1 µm to 0.9 µm respectively. Optical band gap was found to be in the range 2.92 eV to 3.24 eV. The average transmission of the films is about 85%in the visible region.


Polymer networks are considered to be largely affected by water and chemical absorption from environment. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the hygroscopic expansion of bulk-fill composite. Material and Methods: Fifteen disks (5 in each group) with different thickness(4mm/2mm) of Tetric N-Ceram Bulk Fill composite(TB) and Tetric N-Ceram composite(TN) were made according to the manufacturer's instruction and stored in deionized water. The length of each specimen was recorded using a digital micrometer at baseline and at the end of 24 h, 1, 2, 4, 12 weeks intervals. Repeated measure ANOVA and Tukey HSD were used to determine the effect of variables. At 12 weeks, the mean hygroscopic expansion after water immersion ranged between 0. 33±0.09mm for TN to 0.41±0.07mm for TB with 2mm thickness. Repeated measure ANOVA revealed a significant increase in hygroscopic expansion over time (P<0.05). Results: The results indicated that at 24hours and 2weeks there was a significant difference among TN and TBwith 4mm thickness (p=0.007 and p=0.023, respectively). The other differences were not significant. Hygroscopic expansion affected by the type of composite and the passing of time. Conclusion: The results showed that the time taken to reach stabilization in hygroscopic expansion was shorter for TN in comparison with TB. For 2mm thickness equilibrium was attained earlier. Keywords Water; Expansion; Composites; Polymerization; Bulk-fill.


Online experiments are widely used to compare specific design alternatives, but they can also be used to produce generalizable knowledge and inform strategic decision making. Doing so often requires sophisticated experimental designs, iterative refinement, and careful logging and analysis. Few tools exist that support these needs. We thus introduce a language for online field experiments called PlanOut. PlanOut separates experimental design from application code, allowing the experimenter to concisely describe experimental designs, whether common "A/B tests" and factorial designs, or more complex designs involving conditional logic or multiple experimental units. These latter designs are often useful for understanding causal mechanisms involved in user behaviors. We demonstrate how experiments from the literature can be implemented in PlanOut, and describe two large field experiments conducted on Facebook with PlanOut. For common scenarios in which experiments are run iteratively and in parallel, we introduce a namespaced management system that encourages sound experimental practice.


Purpose: The objective of this paper is to determine the impact that the 2% of GDP allocation on Defense expenditures has on the NATO member states that have assumed this commitment. Design/Methodology/Approach: In terms of national defense industries two aspects must be taken into consideration. Employment is the first considered, as a functioning defense industry, be it through partnerships, off-set or just internal production would decrease unemployment and have a positive impact on economic growth. The second argument is that of imports and exports of armament that have increases since countries have been required not only to jump to 2% in terms of defense expenditures Findings: The empirical results show that before for member states correlation exists and positive effects on imports and exports can be observed, while for non-NATO countries that are in different partnerships in terms of security and defense with the United States, there seem to be a mixture of effects on different categories of economic activities. Practical Implications: It is the aim of this paper to show whether the 2% of the GDP allocation should be continued to all NATO member states that have yet to commit to this effort. So far findings indicate, that while results are not always positive, key advantages can be observed by applying this strategy, rather than not going forward with the commitment. Originality/value: Investing in defense and security is an innovative approach now that the EU on its own is considering requesting special allocation on the Common Defense and Security Policy for member states. It is therefore worth analyzing if investments already requested by NATO are feasible and whether duplicating efforts might or might not appear when both NATO and EU ask member states to contribute more to defense expenditures.


School administrators are choosing or required to implement instructional coaching on their campuses to improve student-learning opportunities. The school community must be aware that effective instructional coaching is job embedded, encourages teachers to become reflective practitioners, and requires time to commit to the implementation. School administrators must support instructional coaches by ensuring there is significant time allotted to provide coaches time in the classroom to observe, provide feedback, and support classroom teachers in their practice and reflection. Instructional coaches build trust and rapport with the instructional staff by implementing best-practice protocols, providing feedback, and planning the next steps. The instructional staff must be disposed to take the feedback and be willing to implement best practices and reflect upon the process. This article reflects each author's personal experiences in their roles as a school administrator, instructional coach, and classroom teacher with the distinct focus on instructional coaching from the practitioners' diverse perspectives. Current research on instructional coaching is examined and discussed. Best practices for classroom implementation of instructional coaching are reviewed. The article concludes that implementing instructional coaching in a school setting requires the school administrator to engage all stakeholders to understand the diverse perspectives of the individuals involved in the process. Implementing instructional coaching in a school setting must include the instructional process and student achievement as priorities.


We use a new real-time database for Canada to study various output gap measures. This includes recently developed measures based on models incorporating many variables as inputs (and therefore requiring real-time data for many variables). We analyze output gap revisions and assess the usefulness of these gaps in forecasting total CPI inflation and three newly developed measures of core CPI inflation: CPI-median, CPI-trim and CPI-common. We also study whether labour-input gaps, projected output gaps, and simple combinations of output gaps can add useful information for forecasting inflation. We find that estimates of excess capacity (the extent to which the economy is below potential) were probably too large around the 2008-2009 recession, as they subsequently tended to be revised down. In addition, we find that, when forecasting CPI-common and CPI-trim, some gaps appear to provide information that reduces forecast errors when compared with models that use only lags of inflation. However, forecast improvements are rarely statistically significant. In addition, we find little evidence of the usefulness of output gaps for forecasting inflation measured by total CPI and CPI-median.


In a depressed economy, with short-term nominal interest rates at their zero lower bound, ample cyclical unemployment, and excess capacity, increased government purchases would be neither offset by the monetary authority raising interest rates nor neutralized by supply-side bottlenecks. Then even a small amount of hysteresis—even a small shadow cast on future potential output by the cyclical downturn—means, by simple arithmetic, that expansionary fiscal policy is likely to be self-financing. Even if it is not, it is highly likely to pass the sensible benefit-cost test of raising the present value of future potential output. Thus, at the zero bound, where the central bank cannot or will not but in any event does not perform its full role in stabilization policy, fiscal policy has the stabilization policy mission that others have convincingly argued it lacks in normal times. Whereas many economists have assumed that the path of potential output is invariant to even a deep and prolonged downturn, the available evidence raises a strong fear that hysteresis is indeed a factor. Although nothing in our analysis calls into question the importance of sustainable fiscal policies, it strongly suggests the need for caution regarding the pace of fiscal consolidation.


Abstract: The European Court of Justice (ECJ) case law relating to the power of and the obligation on national courts to assess, of their own motion, the unfairness of contractual terms in consumer contracts under Directive 93/13/EEC has had a remarkable impact on national legal systems by introducing rules which often derogate from ordinary procedural rules and from the principles of judicial restraint and party autonomy. They also derogate from the traditional rules on contractual invalidity. This article, drawing extensively on the work of Arthur Hartkamp, summarizes the relevant legal framework on the EU level and in the Dutch and Italian legal systems and then focuses on two recent and groundbreaking judgments of the Supreme Courts of the Netherlands and Italy in order to assess the impact of the relevant EU law and to compare these judgments. With regard to the ex officio assessment of the unfairness of terms in consumer contracts, the comparison shows that the impact of EU case law has been greater in the Netherlands than in Italy, as the Italian regulation implementing Directive 93/13/EEC, unlike its Dutch counterpart, already provided explicit rules on the ex officio assessment of unfair terms by courts, similar to the rules subsequently established by the ECJ. Furthermore it emerges that the approach adopted in the Netherlands is restrictive with regard to the power of the court to raise ex officio the question of nullity. In Italy, on the contrary, that power is the characteristic unifying all forms of nullity laid down in the legal system, with the caveat that when the nullity is 'protective', as in cases of nullity provided by consumer law, the consumer can oppose the nullity (Pannon).


Those concerned with restrictions on innovative technologies and business models often decry the stultifying effects of a 'Mother, May I?' approach, whereby the innovator needs government permission to enter a market. These are worthy concerns that regulators ought to take seriously. This article focuses on a related issue, which the authors call the 'Brother, May I?' problem or the challenge of competitor control over market entry. This problem arises when would-be entrants are effectively required to obtain permission from incumbent competitors to enter or expand within a particular market. Whether it is due to a law or regulation, the decision of a financially-interested state board, or conduct by a monopolist looking to maintain its market power, new entrants to a market generally should not have to get their competitors' permission to compete. That such permission is effectively required in an increasing number of situations is inconsistent with the free-market principles that ought to guide our economic policies. Three recent appellate victories by the Federal Trade Commission — in North Carolina Dental, Phoebe Putney, and McWane — all in some way involved the need to seek the permission of competitors to enter a market, and this article addresses each case in turn.


Background Compulsory admission to psychiatric hospitals may be distressing, disruptive to patients and families, and associated with considerable cost to the health service. Improved patient experience and cost reductions could be realised by providing cost-effective crisis planning services. Methods Economic evaluation within a multi-centre randomised controlled trial comparing Joint Crisis Plans (JCP) plus treatment as usual (TAU) to TAU alone for patients aged over 16, with at least one psychiatric hospital admission in the previous two years and on the Enhanced Care Programme Approach register. JCPs, containing the patient's treatment preferences for any future psychiatric emergency, are a form of crisis intervention that aim to mitigate the negative consequences of relapse, including hospital admission and use of coercion. Data were collected at baseline and 18-months after randomisation. The primary outcome was admission to hospital under the Mental Health Act. The economic evaluation took a service perspective (health, social care and criminal justice services) and a societal perspective (additionally including criminal activity and productivity losses). Findings The addition of JCPs to TAU had no significant effect on compulsory admissions or total societal cost per participant over 18-months follow-up. From the service cost perspective, however, evidence suggests a higher probability (80%) of JCPs being the more cost-effective option. Exploration by ethnic group highlights distinct patterns of costs and effects. Whilst the evidence does not support the cost-effectiveness of JCPs for White or Asian ethnic groups, there is at least a 90% probability of the JCP intervention being the more cost-effective option in the Black ethnic group. Interpretation The results by ethnic group are sufficiently striking to warrant further investigation into the potential for patient gain from JCPs among black patient groups. Trial Registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN11501328


One hundred and nine generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) patients, referred by their General Practitioners to a clinical psychology primary care service, were assigned to either Cognitive, Behavioural, Cognitive-behavioural, Placebo or Waiting List conditions. `Stress Control' large group therapy combined didactic therapy with a workshop model and emphasised the aim of turning patients into their own `therapists' in order to enable them to deal with present and future problems. Patients were thus encouraged to view Stress Control as an `evening class' rather than `group therapy'. Measures of treatment process and outcome were obtained mainly from self-report instruments. Follow-up data were collected at six months post-treatment. At post-therapy, all active therapy conditions and, against expectation, the Placebo condition had shown significant time within treatment group change. The active therapy conditions, and to a lesser extent, the Placebo condition, were significantly different to the Waiting List condition, which, overall showed no evidence of improvement. At follow-up the active therapy condition generally enhanced therapy gains while the placebo condition maintained therapy gains. Process measures did not, with the exception of self-statement change, differentiate between the groups. Noted variable response in the main analyses was somewhat explained by various sub-group analyses. There appeared to be little benefit in dividing patients into those who experienced panic and those who did not. There was some evidence that `matching' patients to therapy, i.e. cognitive responders to cognitive therapy was of value at post-therapy although differences generally disappeared at follow-up. Synchronous change was associated with enhanced performance. Finally, attempts to predict response to Stress Control by a comparison of responders and non-responders were attempted and the results assessed in terms of clinical as opposed to statistical significance. The results of the present study are discussed with reference to other treatment outcome studies and an attempt to produce a model to account for the similar effects found across treatment conditions. The implications of these findings and some suggestions for future research for GAD and other diagnostic categories are discussed.


This report is a review of the Nordic countries systems regarding fatal occupational accidents, i.e. the reporting process, the investigation process, the registration process, the registries, and the legal statutes. The report shows that during the time period 2003-2008 the total number of fatal occupational accidents in the Nordic countries was 1243, i.e. between 1.51 to 2.49 fatal occupational accidents per 100,000 workers per year varying between countries. The report also shows that more than 93 % of these fatal accidents involved males, which reflects the predominance of men in the most dangerous branches, i.e. agriculture, construction, transport, and communication. The report concludes that in order to make data on occupational accidents more comparable among the Nordic countries and improve our common ability to identify prevention strategies, a closer collaboration in the field of occupational accident investigation and registration is needed.


This paper aims at assessing the impact of environmental regulations on the export activity of firms in China. The environmental policy we study is the so- called Two Control Zones (TCZ) policy, which has been implemented in 1998 in China. The aim of this policy was to reduce the sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions in targeted cities with particularly high air pollution. We use a data set of 265 Chinese cities for the years 1997 to 2003, and exploit variations across time, sectors and firm types to extract the causal effect of the policy on firms' performance. We indeed expect the TCZ policy to have a larger impact the heavier the pollution content of the activity and the lower the political status of the firm. In line with the political pecking order of firms that exists in China, we expect the impact of the environmental policy to be mitigated by state ownership. Our results are in line with our expectations and suggest that the TCZ policy has been effective. We find that State-owned firms are less intensively affected and thus able to export relatively more, especially in energy intensive sectors. By contrast, we see a relative decline in foreign and private firms' exports; the more the energy-use of the sector the larger the decline.


Background Since the use of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines PCV7 and PCV13 in children became widespread, invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) has dramatically decreased. Nevertheless, there has been a rise in incidence of Streptococcus pneumoniae non-vaccine serotypes (NVT) colonising the human nasopharynx. Nasopharyngeal colonisation, an essential step in the development of S. pneumoniae-induced IPD, is associated with biofilm formation. Although the capsule is the main pneumococcal virulence factor, the formation of pneumococcal biofilms might, in fact, be limited by the presence of capsular polysaccharide (CPS). Methodology/Principal Findings We used clinical isolates of 16 emerging, non-PCV13 serotypes as well as isogenic transformants of the same serotypes. The biofilm formation capacity of isogenic transformants expressing CPSs from NVT was evaluated in vitro to ascertain whether this trait can be used to predict the emergence of NVT. Fourteen out of 16 NVT analysed were not good biofilm formers, presumably because of the presence of CPS. In contrast, serotypes 11A and 35B formed ≥45% of the biofilm produced by the non-encapsulated M11 strain. Conclusions/Significance This study suggest that emerging, NVT serotypes 11A and 35B deserve a close surveillance.


In order to have antibacterial, analgesic and anti-inflammatory activity in the same molecule, 4-[1-oxo-3- (substituted aryl)-2-propenyl]-3-(4-chlorophenyl) sydnones were synthesized by condensing 4-acetyl-3-(4-chlorophenyl)sydnone with various substituted aryl aldehydes and characterized by spectral studies; 4-acetyl-3-(4-chlorophenyl)sydnone itself, was prepared by acetylation of 3-(4-chlorophenyl) sydnone. The newly synthesized compounds were evaluated for antibacterial and anti-inflammatory activities by cup plate and carrageenan induced rat paw edema methods respectively. Some of the compounds showed promising antibacterial and anti-inflammatory activities


This study quantifies global premature deaths attributable to long-term exposure of ambient PM2.5, or PM2.5-attributable mortality, by dust and pollution sources. We used NASA's Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) aerosol reanalysis product for PM2.5 and the cause-specific relative risk (RR) from the integrated exposure-response (IER) model to estimate global PM2.5-attributable mortality for five causes of deaths, namely ischaemic heart disease (IHD), cerebrovascular disease (CEV) or stroke, lung cancer (LC), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI). The estimated yearly global PM2.5-attributable mortality in 2019 amounts to 2.89 (1.38–4.48) millions, which is composed of 1.19 (0.73–1.84) million from IHD, 1.01 (0.35–1.55) million from CEV, 0.29 (0.11–0.48) million from COPD, 0.23 (0.14–0.33) million from ALRI, and 0.17 (0.04–0.28) million from LC (the numbers in parentheses represent the estimated mortality range due corresponding to RR spread at the 95% confidence interval). The mortality counts vary with geopolitical regions substantially, with the highest number of deaths occurring in Asia. China and India account for 40% and 23% of the global PM2.5-attributable deaths, respectively. In terms of sources of PM2.5, about 22% of the global all-cause PM2.5-attributable deaths are caused by desert dust. The largest dust attribution is 37% for ALRI. The relative contributions of dust and pollution sources vary with the causes of deaths and geographical regions. Enforcing air pollution regulations to transfer areas from PM2.5 nonattainment to PM2.5 attainment can have great health benefits. Being attainable with the United States air quality standard (AQS) of 15 μg/m3 globally would have avoided nearly 40% or 1.2 million premature deaths. The most recent update of PM2.5 guideline from 10 to 5 μg/m3 by the World Health Organization (WHO) would potentially save additional one million lives. Our study highlights the importance of distinguishing aerodynamic size from geometric size in accurately assessing the global health burden of PM2.5 and particularly for dust. A use of geometric size in diagnosing dust PM2.5 from the model simulation, a common approach in current health burden assessment, could overestimate the PM2.5 level in the dust belt by 40–170%, leading to an overestimate of global all-cause mortality by 1 million or 32%.


TASK channels are acid-sensitive and anesthetic-activated members of the family of two-pore-domain potassium channels. We have made the surprising discovery that the genetic ablation of TASK-3 channels eliminates a specific type of theta oscillation in the cortical electroencephalogram (EEG) resembling type II theta (4–9 Hz), which is thought to be important in processing sensory stimuli before initiating motor activity. In contrast, ablation of TASK-1 channels has no effect on theta oscillations. Despite the absence of type II theta oscillations in the TASK-3 knockout (KO) mice, the related type I theta, which has certain neuronal pathways in common and is involved in exploratory behavior, is unaffected. In addition to the absence of type II theta oscillations, the TASK-3 KO animals show marked alterations in both anesthetic sensitivity and natural sleep behavior. Their sensitivity to halothane, a potent activator of TASK channels, is greatly reduced, whereas their sensitivity to cyclopropane, which does not activate TASK-3 channels, is unchanged. The TASK-3 KO animals exhibit a slower progression from their waking to sleeping states and, during their sleeping period, their sleep episodes as well as their REM theta oscillations are more fragmented. These results imply a previously unexpected role for TASK-3 channels in the cellular mechanisms underlying these behaviors and suggest that endogenous modulators of these channels may regulate theta oscillations.


Background: The most important feature in maintaining and improving a person's esthetic appearance and self-esteem is only by an attractive smile. Smiling is the best method to influence people. The dynamic part of the face is the oral region, with tooth and gingival display during functional lip movement which is unique to an individual, people with ugly smiles develop a high risk of psychological problems. Esthetic dentistry was motivated by the growing accessibility of media and online information has been highly demanded by the patients and tooth color is also used for veneers. Aim: The main aim of this study is to assess the awareness about the esthetic veneer treatment for enhancing smiles in undergraduate dental students. Materials and method: A survey based questionnaire was done to assess the knowledge about the veneer treatment. A self designed 16 questions were framed and the responses were collected through google form app.Thedatas were statistically analysed by SPSS software. Results: Results were represented in the form of bar diagrams and 71% of the respondents are aware of veneer treatment. This study shows a high-level self-consciousness about the veneer treatment 76% of the students agreed that they can brush veneer, 63% were answered for porcelain veneer. Conclusion: The present study concluded that the undergraduate dental students are highly aware of the esthetic veneer treatment for enhancing smile.


Commencing with an analysis of lines by the Victorian poet Swinburne, this essay draws on cross-disciplinary research practices to suggest new thoughts for the consideration of poetic production and identity. It contests the prevelant belief that poetry is solely made of 'words', represented by Mallarme's famous dictum and taken up throughout twentieth-century poetic thought, most vocally by Terry Eagleton who descries the poetry of Swinburne as non-poetry, being sound without lexical meaning.
It considers the metaphor of the voice as a useful means to access the nature of poetry as it might exist beyond its words. Moving through useful etymologies in the Greek idea of poesis it draws towards the conclusion that poetry, to be classed as poetry, must seem to come into existence from nothing and that our creation of (and response to) poetry is part of a sublte understanding of something which shares useful elements with a common-sense experience of voice.
The essay followed a paper delivered to the conference Poetry and Voice at the University of Chichester. It draws on research fields not conventionally undertaken in tandem,such as design practice and notions of contemporary selfhood as well as literature and traditional theories of poetry.


This paper describes work in progress on the development of a social timeline that aims to enrich feedback for people learning music within an online community. This interface is novel because it uses multiple layers for group discussions rather than the single layer found in websites such as SoundCloud. Multilayered timelines are commonly used for audio and video editing, but have not been used for collaborative annotation of music recordings (to avoid confusion we refer to the timeline as multi-layered not multi-track which normally refers to multiple audio channels). We tabulate key features of 15 competing systems to justify our claim that the multi-layered social timeline is a novel design pattern for exchanging feedback about musical performances. 49 classical music students used a prototype of the system over five months to upload and discuss rehearsals of an ensemble piece which was then publicly performed. Data from this study is currently being analysed so only a preliminary indication of results is given.


This case study concerns the challenges for knowledge production through the curriculum of a newly merged 'Comprehensive University'. The rationalisation of South Africa's higher education system formed a crucial part of the transformation strategy proposed by the National Commission on Higher Education (1996). The subsequent Report of the Shape and Size Task Team of the Council for Higher Education (CHE 2000) proposed mergers between certain higher education institutions to create Comprehensive Universities. Their primary function would be to deliver vocational qualifications. The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) is such an institution comprising the former University of Port Elizabeth and the Port Elizabeth Technikon. The article examines the perspectives of middle management of the challenges that the merger poses for the development of the curriculum. Interviews were subjected to content analysis and compared to draw generalizations and identify contrasts. These were critically discussed to draw conclusions about the curriculum of a Comprehensive University. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 19(6) 2005:1021-1032


The Affordable Care Act includes numerous consumer protections that took effect on September 23, 2010. This issue brief examines new state action on a subset of these "early market reforms.�? The analysis finds that 49 states and the District of Columbia have passed new legislation, issued a new regulation, issued new subregulatory guidance, or are actively reviewing insurer policy forms for compliance with these protections. These findings suggest that states have required or encouraged compliance with the early market reforms, and that efforts to understand how states are responding cannot focus on legislative action alone. The findings also raise important questions regarding how states may implement the Affordable Care Act's broader 2014 market reforms, and suggest the need for continued tracking of state action.


Induction of the phase 2 response, a major cellular reaction to oxidative/electrophile stress depends on a protein triad: actin-tethered Keap1 that binds to Nrf2. Inducers react with Keap1 releasing Nrf2 for nuclear translocation and activation of the antioxidant response element (ARE), which regulates phase 2 genes. The primary sensors for inducers are certain uniquely reactive cysteine thiols of Keap1. Recombinant murine Keap1 contains 0.9 zinc atoms per monomer as determined by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry: its zinc content depends on the metal composition of the overexpression medium. Simultaneous direct measurement of bound zinc using a pyridazoresorcinol chelator and protein thiol groups using 4,4'-dipyridyl disulfide has established that (i) zinc is bound to reactive cysteine thiols of Keap1 and is displaced stoichiometrically by inducers, (ii) with these cysteines mutated to alanine, the affinity for zinc is reduced by nearly 2 orders of magnitude, and (iii) the association constant of Keap1 for zinc is 1.02 (+/-0.19) x 10(11) M(-)(1), consistent with a Zn(2+) metalloprotein. Co(2+) substitution for Zn(2+) yields an optical spectrum consistent with tetrahedral metal coordination. Coincident binding of inducers and release of zinc alters the conformation of Keap1, as shown by a profound decline of its tryptophan fluorescence and depression of fluorescence of a hydrophobicity probe. Thus, regulation of the phase 2 response involves chemical modification of critical cysteine residues of Keap1, whose reactivity is modulated by zinc binding. Keap1 is a zinc-thiol protein endowed with a delicate switch controlled by both metal-binding and thiol reactivity.


During the Polarstern cruise ANT XVIII/2 we investigated within the scope of the iron fertilization experiment EISENEX the mixing regime of the upper 150 meters of a mesoscale eddy in the vicinity of the Antarctic Polar Front (APF) at 47°S and 21°E. On the basis of hydrographic CTD and ADCP profiles we deduce the vertical diffusivity K from two different parameterizations. To investigate the vertical mixing within the eddy that might be associated with elevated shears from internal waves, we use the parameterization of Gregg (1989). To check these results we use a parameterization of mixing processes by means of coefficients of eddy mixing that are dependent on the Richardson number, which was deduced after Pacanowski and Philander (1981). Since these parameterizations bear the character of empirical functions, which base on theoretical and idealized assumptions, they were inter alia compared with Thorpe scale related diffusivities deduced from MST measurements, which supplied the first direct insights into turbulence of this ocean region.


The advance of GPS tracking technique brings a large amount of trajectory data. To better understand such mobility data, semantic models like "stop/move" (or inferring "activity", "transportation mode") recently become a hot topic for trajectory data analysis. Stops are important parts of tra- jectories, such as "working at office", "shopping in a mall", "waiting for the bus". There are several methods such as velocity, clustering, density algorithms being designed to discover stops. However, existing works focus on well-defined trajectories like movement of vehicle and taxi, not working well for heterogeneous cases like diverse and sparse trajectories. On the contrary, our paper addresses three main challenges: (1) provide a robust clustering-based method to discover stops; (2) discover both shared stops and personalized stops, where shared stops are the common places where many trajectories pass and stay for a while (e.g. shopping mall), whilst personalized stops are individual places where user stays for his/her own purpose (e.g. home, office); (3) further build stop hierarchy (e.g. a big stop like EPFL campus and a small stop like an office building). We evaluate our approach with several diverse and spare real-life GPS data, compare it with other methods, and show its better data abstraction on trajectory.


Neuroendocrine tumors are rare and arise from hormone-producing neuroendocrine cells. They can form anywhere in the body, but most develop in the digestive tract, where they are called carcinoid tumors, in the pancreas, or in the lungs. Carcinoid tumors are most commonly seen in the ileum and are typically well-differentiated. Most are characterised by an indolent course; however, duodenal neuroendocrine tumors may have a higher rate of metastasis even if well-differentiated. Many tumors do not cause symptoms, but 10% secrete excess levels of hormones, which can result in a constellation of symptoms called carcinoid syndrome. An elevated serum 5-hydroxyindole acetic acid level is specific for patients with carcinoid syndrome. Tumors in the duodenum can be visualized and biopsied via esophagoduodenoscopy, while those in the distal ileum can be visualized and biopsied on colonoscopy. Endoscopic ultrasonography can yield additional information such as which layers of the intestinal wall are involved with the lesion.

The goal of surgical therapy for carcinoid tumors is the resection of all visible disease. Here, we present a female patient who was diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumor in the first portion of the duodenum by endoscopic ultrasound and biopsy. The tumor gradually increased in size, warranting its removal. A midline incision was performed, followed by entry into the lesser sac and evaluation of the duodenum and pylorus. The gastric antrum and the first portion of the duodenum were resected with a subsequent gastrojejunostomy reconstruction.


The east-coast free-tailed bat Mormopterus norfolkensis Gray, 1839 is a threatened insectivorous bat that is poorly known and as such conservation management strategies are only broadly prescribed. Insectivorous bats that use human-modified landscapes are often adapted to foraging in open microhabitats. However, few studies have explored whether open-adapted bats select landscapes with more of these microhabitat features. We compared three morphologically similar and sympatric, molossid bats (genus Mormopterus) with different conservation status in terms of their association with vegetation, climate, landform and land-use attributes at landscape and local habitat element scales. We predicted that these species would use similar landscape types, with semi-cleared and low density urban landscapes used more than forested and heavily cleared landscapes. Additionally, we explored which environmental variables best explained the occurrence of each species by constructing post-hoc models and habitat suitability maps. Contrary to predictions, we found that the three species varied in their habitat use with no one landscape type used more extensively than other types. Overall, M. norfolkensis was more likely to occur in low-lying, non-urban, riparian habitats with little vegetation cover. Mormopterus species 2 occupied similar habitats, but was more tolerant of urban landscapes. In contrast, Mormopterus species 4 occurred more often in cleared than forested landscapes, particularly dry landscapes with little vegetation cover. The extensive use of coastal floodplains by the threatened M. norfolkensis is significant because these habitats are under increasing pressure from human land-uses and the predicted increase in urbanization is likely to further reduce the amount of suitable habitat.


This thesis documents research on two aspects of the biology of the giant crab Pseudocarcinus gigas: the development, behaviour, and rearing of the larvae; and the reproductive biology of both sexes.

Larvae were reared from hatch to juvenile crabs. The larval development of 5 zoeal and one megalopal stages were described which permitted identification of P. gigas larvae from plankton samples. Samples from different depths were sorted to obtain information on vertical migration patterns, although few P. gigas larvae were collected.

Vertical migration was further investigated in experiments which analysed the swimming response to gravity, light intensity, change in light intensity, light wavelength, change in pressure, current, temperature, and thermoclines. Response to temperature involved a feed-back mechanism that positioned larvae at temperatures optimal for growth, survival, and metamorphosis to megalopa (14-16C). Light intensity and photoperiod had little effect on survival although larvae reached megalopa most rapidly with long photoperiod and high intensity and were smaller in continuous darkness treatments. Cannibalism of stage 1 and 2 zoeas was highest with long photoperiod and low intensity.

Mycosis and epibiotic fouling of larvae necessitated trials with prophylactic treatments. Survival was highest with a broad spectrum antibiotic (oxytetracyline) while promising results were obtained with carbendazim and copper oxychloride. Suitable concentrations for indefinite baths were established by monitoring toxic effects as increased mortality, deformity, prolonged intermoult, or death during moulting.

The male reproductive tract is typical of brachyurans with ovoid, enveloped, spermatophores stored in the mid vas deferens (MVD). Males pass through three morphological stages (of chela development) and individuals from all three stages had spermatophores in the MVD. Mating pairs were never observed but patterns of limb loss indicate that mating involves female-centred competition. Females appear to mate while soft-shelled with stored sperm remaining viable for at least four years. Broods are produced annually although females occasionally skip a reproductive season, which may be associated with moulting. Several broods may be produced between moults although fecundity declines with successive broods. The hepatopancreas underwent little change in composition during gonadogenesis.

Fecundity increased with female size, although not in a simple cubic (volumetric) relationship as larger females produced larger eggs. This increase in egg size was associated with a significant, albeit small, decrease in protein and carotenoid, and an increase in moisture, while lipid appeared unaffected. Protein was used preferentially to lipid during embryogenesis. Techniques for immobilising, humanely killing, and internal imaging of crabs were employed for research on reproduction and are described.


Le Thoronet Abbey, one of the wonders of twelfth-century Cistercian architecture and still revered by architects today, nestles in a wooded valley in Provence, South of France. This book is a pictorial appreciation of the abbey, photographed by Lucien Herve in the mid-1950s and introduced by Le Corbusier. 'The pictures in this book are witnesses to the truth,' says Le Corbusier of Herve's photographs of the Romanesque abbey. Herve's exquisite study presents the building throughout the course of a day, depicting the changing play of light and shadow on its stone vaulted exterior and interior. Highly textured and almost abstract in quality, his photographs reveal how the abbey is defined as much by light as by the conventions of Romanesque architecture, to communicate the intense spirituality of the Cistercian monastic order. Arranged according to the canonical hours of prayer, Herve's photographs are complemented by quotations from the psalms and the saints. An essay by Father Samuel of the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Sept-Fons provides a profound insight into the Cistercian monastic order, while the renowned state-of-the-art architect John Pawson contributes a personal appreciation of this fine example of Cistercian architecture.


A key legacy of the Asian financial crisis of 1997–1998 is a sustained drop-off in the investment rates of East Asian countries that were hardest hit by the crisis. We first review the stylized facts of investment in those countries, and then explore and evaluate the various possible explanations for the decline in investment. In our empirical analysis, which expands upon Park and Shin (2009) by updating the data to include 2005–2008, we investigate the extent to which the investment rates of Asian countries can be explained by the underlying fundamental determinants of investment such as gross domestic product (GDP) growth and demographic variables. We also empirically revisit the various hypotheses put forth to explain the investment drop-off, in particular competitive pressures from the People's Republic of China and heightened risk and uncertainty. Our analysis yields two main findings: (i) some evidence of overinvestment in the precrisis period but (ii) very little evidence of underinvestment in the postcrisis period. The results suggest that investment rates are currently more or less at appropriate levels despite their postcrisis decline. The salient policy implication is that quantitatively boosting investment may be less important for future growth than enhancing the investment climate.


Recent studies have shown that the uplift of the Moroccan Atlas Mountains resulted from a combination of crustal shortening and mantle thermal processes in the interior of the African plate. Within this framework, to gain insight into the dynamics of these processes in recent times, we investigated the nature and rates of the Quaternary deformation in a case field area, namely, the northern Ouarzazate Basin, which contains the best dated records of fan and fluvial terrace deposits of the Atlas system. The area selected is in the southern orogenic front of the High Atlas, where thrusts and fault-related folds have affected a sequence of dated, stepped terraces to varying degrees. Based on cosmogenic nuclide surface exposure dating, we have calculated slow neotectonic deformation rates for the past ~250 ky. We have measured the local rates of structural uplift, yielding 0.2 mm/y in areas of the northern third of the Ouarzazate Basin. We have estimated slip rates at 0.09-0.15 mm/y for the most active fault within the basin. We also document that recent shortening rates (~0.1 mm/y during the last ~250 ky) almost double the average rates from the deformation onset (~0.04 mm/y since the Middle Miocene). These results raise the point of the possible relations between such increases in the deformation rates and the erosional denudation of the Ouarzazate Basin since it became externally drained in the late Pliocene or early Quaternary times.


The process of European constitutionalisation is met with extensive scepticism in current national legal and political spheres and in broader circles of public opinion across Europe. By shedding light on these concerns, this book reveals a widespread misunderstanding of constitutional federalism, which permeates the Member State courts, popular media, and many academic communities. A failure to address confusion over this fundamental concept is leading us towards impoverished development of the EU's 'Second Constitution', and even ensuring that the role of both domestic and international European courts in enriching the constitutionalisation process is overlooked and undervalued. In a bid to avoid such consequences, this book explores how federalism and further constitutionalisation - rightly understood in a dialogue of the European courts - may actually change this process and allow a clearer advance toward Europe's Second Constitution for, but also with, the people of Europe.


Prenatal maternal stress affects offspring phenotype in numerous species including humans, but it is debated whether these effects are evolutionarily adaptive. Relating stress to adverse conditions, current explanations invoke either short-term developmental constraints on offspring phenotype resulting in decelerated growth to avoid starvation, or long-term predictive adaptive responses (PARs) resulting in accelerated growth and reproduction in response to reduced life expectancies. Two PAR subtypes were proposed, acting either on predicted internal somatic states or predicted external environmental conditions, but because both affect phenotypes similarly, they are largely indistinguishable. Only external (not internal) PARs rely on high environmental stability particularly in long-lived species. We report on a crucial test case in a wild long-lived mammal, the Assamese macaque (Macaca assamensis), which evolved and lives in an unpredictable environment where external PARs are probably not advantageous. We quantified food availability, growth, motor skills, maternal caretaking style and maternal physiological stress from faecal glucocorticoid measures. Prenatal maternal stress was negatively correlated to prenatal food availability and led to accelerated offspring growth accompanied by decelerated motor skill acquisition and reduced immune function. These results support the 'internal PAR' theory, which stresses the role of stable adverse internal somatic states rather than stable external environments.


The Government of the Republic of Serbia has set its European integration as one of the most important foreign policy objectives. The entire process of creation and promotion of contractual relations with the European Union is based primarily on securing political and other conditions for an unimpeded process of EU accession, including the establishment and promotion of regional cooperation in Western Balkans. These objectives are the main areas of activity of the European Union Sector of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.


Mobile devices outnumber desktop and laptop computers three to one worldwide, yet little information is available for designing and developing mobile applications. Mobile Design and Development fills that void with practical guidelines, standards, techniques, and best practices for building mobile products from start to finish. With this book, you'll learn basic design and development principles for all mobile devices and platforms. You'll also explore the more advanced capabilities of the mobile web, including markup, advanced styling techniques, and mobile Ajax. If you're a web designer, web developer, information architect, product manager, usability professional, content publisher, or an entrepreneur new to the mobile web, Mobile Design and Development provides you with the knowledge you need to work with this rapidly developing technology. Mobile Design and Development will help you: Understand how the mobile ecosystem works, how it differs from other mediums, and how to design products for the mobile context Learn the pros and cons of building native applications sold through operators or app stores versus mobile websites or web apps Work with flows, prototypes, usability practices, and screen-size-independent visual designs Use and test cross-platform mobile web standards for older devices, as well as devices that may be available in the future Learn how to justify a mobile product by building it on a budget


One of the key issues associated with using of composites in various applications is their tensile behavior. The tensile behavior of a composite material is strongly influenced by the properties of its constituents and their distribution. This paper focuses on gaining some insights into the tensile process of pure and hybrid woven composite reinforced with brittle and ductile yarns. For this purpose, mesoscale finite element simulations were performed to detect the tensile response within three types of composites: i.e, a brittle fiber reinforced composite, a ductile fiber reinforced composite and a brittle/ductile fiber reinforced composite. The numerical predictions were then compared with the experimental observations and the results were discussed to give some insights into the reinforcing mechanisms in the composites. Based on the results it can be concluded that this finite element model is a reliable tool in the prediction of the tensile behavior of pure and hybrid composite materials.


There are competing demands for fresh water. Farms look to it as an irrigation source, cities rely on it for drinking water, and fisheries (and fishermen) depend on it for instream flow. When the United States Bureau of Reclamation ("Reclamation") subsidizes the costs of providing fresh water for irrigation in agricultural production, such subsidization can result in tiered water pricing. With tiered pricing, farms pay the government less per unit than other water users. This tiered pricing can distort the water marketplace in a manner that encourages wasteful irrigation practices and leaves insufficient water instream for fisheries. The dispute over Reclamation irrigation subsidies may now be moving from the domestic to the international arena. The 1994 World Trade Organization Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures ("WTO Subsidies Agreement") provides that one WTO member country may impose countervailing measures against another WTO member country that makes a "financial contribution" that is specific to "certain enterprises."1 The WTO Subsidies Agreement further provides that "government revenue . . . otherwise due [that] is forgone" can qualify as a "financial contribution" and that governments must be paid "adequate remuneration" for goods provided.2 This article assesses the potential applicability of the WTO Subsidies Agreement's foregone revenue and adequate remuneration provisions to Reclamation irrigation subsidies, with an initial focus on such applicability to Reclamation's Central Valley Project ("CVP") in California.


Objective To determine whether patient outcomes differ between general internists who graduated from a medical school outside the United States and those who graduated from a US medical school. Design Observational study. Setting Medicare, USA. Participants 20% national sample of data for Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries aged 65 years or older admitted to hospital with a medical condition in 2011-14 and treated by international or US medical graduates who were general internists. The study sample for mortality analysis included 1 215 490 admissions to the hospital treated by 44 227 general internists. Main outcome measures Patients' 30 day mortality and readmission rates, and costs of care per hospital admission, with adjustment for patient and physician characteristics and hospital fixed effects (effectively comparing physicians within the same hospital). As a sensitivity analysis, we focused on physicians who specialize in the care of patients admitted to hospital ("hospitalists"), who typically work in shifts and whose patients are plausibly quasi-randomized based on the physicians' work schedules. Results Compared with patients treated by US graduates, patients treated by international graduates had slightly more chronic conditions. After adjustment for patient and physician characteristics and hospital fixed effects, patients treated by international graduates had lower mortality (adjusted mortality 11.2% v 11.6%; adjusted odds ratio 0.95, 95% confidence interval 0.93 to 0.96; P<0.001) and slightly higher costs of care per admission (adjusted costs $1145 (£950; €1080) v $1098; adjusted difference $47, 95% confidence interval $39 to $55, P<0.001). Readmission rates did not differ between the two types of graduates. Similar differences in patient outcomes were observed among hospitalists. Differences in patient mortality were not explained by differences in length of stay, spending level, or discharge location. Conclusions Data on older Medicare patients admitted to hospital in the US showed that patients treated by international graduates had lower mortality than patients cared for by US graduates.


Letters have long been read as primary sources for biography and history, but their performative, fictive, and textual dimensions have only recently attracted serious notice. In this book, William Merrill Decker examines the place of the personal letter in American popular and literary culture from the colonial to the postmodern period. After offering an overview of the genre, Decker explores epistolary practices that coincide with American experiences of space, settlement, separation, and reunion. He discusses letters written by such well-known and well-educated persons as John Winthrop, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abigail and John Adams, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, Henry David Thoreau, Samuel Clemens, Henry James, and Alice James, but also letters by persons who, except in their correspondence, were not writers at all: indentured servants, New England factory workers, slaves, soldiers, and Western pioneers. Individual chapters explore the letter writing of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson, and Henry Adams--three of America's most ambitious, accomplished, and theoretically astute letter writers. Finally, Decker considers the ongoing transformation of letter writing in the electronic age. |Using letters written by John Winthrop, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abigail and John Adams, and others, this book examines the place of the personal letter in American popular and literary culture from the colonial to the postmodern period. Decker explores epistolary practices that coincide with American experiences of space, settlement, separation, and reunion.


Foreign direct investment in developing countries has got a bad reputation in some popular discussions where it is set tantamount to first world's postcolonial exploitation of the raw materials and cheap labour from the third world, associated with pictures of leaking oil fields and collapsing factories. While this does happen, data show that FDI in developing countries increasingly flows to medium- to high-skilled manufacturing sectors rather than to resource-intensive and low-skilled sectors. And as skill levels needed by FDI increase, so do wage levels (ILO 2007, Coniglio et al. 2015). Accordingly, many emerging economies have built their success to a considerable degree on FDI flows to cover their enormous need for investments. The trick here is to attract "Quality FDI" that links foreign investors into the local host country economy. The current KCG Policy Paper provides evidence-based suggestions of how developing countries may attract Quality FDI successfully.


BACKGROUND: The upper and lower lips represent the most important functional and aesthetic anatomical structures of the lower segment of the face. Given the complex functions of these structures, reconstruction of labial defects presents a challenge for plastic surgeons. METHODS: Thirty patients with full-thickness lower lip defects underwent lip reconstruction according to the extent of the defect after tumor resection. RESULTS: Six (20%) patients presented lesions of up to 30% of the total lip surface that required primary closure. Eighteen (60%) patients had lesions of 30-80% of the total area of the lower lip that were repaired using a myomucosal flap; in 14 of these patients, bilateral skin flaps were also used due to cutaneous involvement associated with the resection. Five (16.6%) patients had lesions on the lower lip that were adjacent to the oral commissure; therefore, they underwent reconstruction using an Abbe-Estlander flap with a myomucosal flap and bilateral skin flaps. One (3.5%) patient had a lesion covering 90% of the lower lip that was reconstructed using the Webster-Bernard technique and a tongue flap. CONCLUSIONS: Here, we present a simplified, systematic, and literature-based strategy for planning lower lip reconstructions that employs effective and reproducible techniques, which can be used for training resident physicians in the treatment of complex lower lip lesions according to the extent of tissue loss, thereby yielding appropriate aesthetic and functional results.


Labeled data for imitation learning of theorem proving in large libraries of formalized mathematics is scarce as such libraries require years of concentrated effort by human specialists to be built. This is particularly challenging when applying large Transformer language models to tactic prediction, because the scaling of performance with respect to model size is quickly disrupted in the data-scarce, easily-overfitted regime. We propose PACT ({\bf P}roof {\bf A}rtifact {\bf C}o-{\bf T}raining), a general methodology for extracting abundant self-supervised data from kernel-level proof terms for co-training alongside the usual tactic prediction objective. We apply this methodology to Lean, an interactive proof assistant which hosts some of the most sophisticated formalized mathematics to date. We instrument Lean with a neural theorem prover driven by a Transformer language model and show that PACT improves theorem proving success rate on a held-out suite of test theorems from 32\% to 48\%.


This report explores the role of women in STEM and the challenges they face, looking at areas of gender inequality, exploring potential causes of this inequality and offering solutions. Women's reluctance to step into leading roles, their tendency to suffer from "imposter syndrome" and their career breaks as a result of motherhood, are just some of the contributory factors holding them back, as well as the outdated, sexist attitudes they sometimes have to face in the workplace.In recognition of Ada Lovelace Day, we hope this report is thought provoking and provides an incentive to become involved in helping us achieve "the tipping point". #ChampioningWISreport