We study ffort and risk-taking behaviour in an economy with a continuum of principal-agent pairs where each agent exerts costly hidden effort. When the industry productivity is uncertain, agents have motivations to match the industry average effort, which results in contractual externalities. Contractual externalities have welfare changing effects when the information friction is correlated and the industry risk is not revealed. This is because principals do not internalize the impact of their choice on other principals' endogenous industry risk exposure. Relative to the second best, if the expected productivity is high, risk-averse principals over-incentivise their own agents, triggering a rat race in effort exertion, resulting in over-investment in effort and excessive exposure to industry risks relative to the second best. The opposite occurs when the expected productivity is low.


Internationalisation is not limited to manufacturing. It also extending to innovation as firms spread their research and development (R&D) across the globe. Firms are increasingly dependent on interaction with foreign partners and competitors, and they are becoming more reliant on locations abroad for innovation. Rapidly developing countries, such as India and China, are also entering the scene through competition based on low-cost and high-skilled labour. This book analyses Finlands position in the globalisation of innovation and the changing division of labour in R&D. It provides new insights into the global innovation activity of large Finnish firms, the present and future advantages and disadvantages of Finland as a location for R&D, and the involvement of Finnish firms in strategic alliances as an increasingly important mode of internationalisation. The book also assesses developments in Finland from the viewpoint of Indian and Chinese firms.


textabstractIntroduction: In the European internal market consumers have a wide choice of products that become increasingly available through cross-border shopping. Sometimes sellers frustrate consumers" contractual expectations by delivering goods that are not of satisfactory quality. To guarantee a minimum level of consumer protection, EC Directive 1999/44 requires that goods must be in conformity with the contract of sale.1 This rule applies regardless of whether the seller behaved negligently. In cases of non conformity consumers have a choice of different remedies for breach of contract by the seller, such as repair or replacement or price reduction. The Directive has been presented as a significant step towards creating an internal consumer market, which would be impeded by fragmented and heterogeneous consumer protection rules. It may be followed in the future by further harmonization initiatives in the field of consumer sales law.
From an economic perspective, two sets of questions arise. First, it may be asked whether legal intervention is necessary to guarantee quality in markets for consumer goods. The standard economic answer to this question is that legal rules may cure market failures, in particular problems of asymmetric information. However, any legal intervention must be justified by a benefit-cost analysis to enhance economic efficiency and avoid counterproductive effects. Consumer protection should be increased only up to the point where its marginal cost equals its marginal benefit. Moreover, market failures should not be replaced by government failures, which lead to outcomes that are worse than those of imperfect markets. Second, Law and Economics scholars have critically analyzed the question relating to the best level of government for designing regulatory responses to market failures. Should rules of consumer protection be enacted at the European level or should regulatory action be taken by the Member States? The economic analysis of federalism and regulatory competition provides several useful insights that are also relevant for discussing the desirability of harmonization of consumer sales law to further market integration.


Some critics of John Stuart Mill understand him to advocate the forced assimilation of people he regards as uncivilized and to defend toleration and the principle of liberty only for civilized people of the West. Examination of Mill's social and political writings and practice while serving the British East India Company shows, instead, that Mill is a tolerant imperialist: Mill defends interference in India to promote the protection of legal rights, respect and toleration for conflicting viewpoints, and a commercial society that can cope with natural threats. He does not think the principle of liberty is waived for the uncivilized or that the West should forcibly reshape them in its own monistic image. Mill's tolerant imperialism reflects a tension between liberty and moral development that also surfaces when Mill thinks about the scope of government in civilized societies.


The new Mn(II), Fe(III), Co(III), Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II) solid complexes of newly synthesized Schiff base ligand (E)-4-Chloro-NÂ'-(l-C4-hydroxy-1- methyl-2-Oxo-1,2-dihytroquinoin-3-yl)ethylidene) benzohydrazide were synthesized, and characterized on the basis of elemental analysis, magnetic susceptibility, FTIR,1H NMR spectra, mass spectra, X-ray powder diffraction and UV visible spectral data. Form the analytical data the stiochitometry of metal complex has been found to be the 2:1 ligand to metal ratio. Therefore the complexes may be formulated as [M(L2)], where M=Mn(II), Fe(III), Co(III), Ni(II), Cu(II), and Zn(II). On the basis of spectral data octahedral geometry has been assigned to the Mn(II), Fe(III), Co(III), Ni(II), Zn(II), complexes, while Cu(II) complex has distorted octahedral geometry. The ligand and their metal chealets have been screened for their antibacterial activity using the Agar cup method at fixed concentration of 1% against microbial strains, Eschershia coli, Salmonalla typhi, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis. The antibacterial screening of ligand and itÂ's complexes illustrates that all the ligands and complexes seems to be inert towards the E. coli. The compexes show higher activity than ligand against Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis. Antifungal activity of ligand and complexes were tested in vitro against fungi that is Aspergillus niger, Penicilium chrysogenum, Fusarium moniliforme, Aspergillus flavus by poison plate method using potato dextrose agar medium at fixed (1%) concentration. Ligand does not show fungal activity but itÂ's complexes show better activity in Co(III) complex show higher activity than other complexes. It suggests that the incorporation of metal ion in the ligand results in increasing the antimicrobial activity. X-ray diffraction data suggests monoclinic structure of. Co(III) complexes. Where Mn(II), Fe(III) and Zn(II) complexes show triclinic nature.


The Kuh-e Dalneshin area lay close to the northern margin of the Arabian continent during Mesozoic and Palaeogene times. Recent mapping has shown that, except perhaps in the late Cretaceous, it was inactive until it collided with Central Iran in the Miocene: the collision, represented by a Neogene mélange zone in the NE, resulted in the Zagros orogeny, and is expressed in the shelf sediments by folding, parallel faulting and a possible arcuate sinistral shear. In the late Cretaceous, a localized deepening of the shelf dates from the Cenomanian. A narrow trough in the W subsided to abyssal depths in the Turonian. Following a period of faulting, a more wide spread subsidence affected the shelf in the Coniacian and Santonian: autochthonous cherts and associated sediments accumulated. Basaltic volcanics were erupted in the NE part of this basin, and Permian to Cenomanian neritic exotic blocks were derived presumably from an uplift at the shelf edge. The rocks from the outer edge of this basin slid westwards over their autochthonous counterparts, probably in the Campanian, accompanied by further gliding of masses of earlier Mesozoic cherts, which had previously been emplaced on the continental margin. A sheet of mantle peridotite, partly serpentinized and enclosing neritic and metamorphic exotics, in turn slid into the basin. Shelf sedimentation was renewed in the late Campanian or Maestrichtian, but the transgression did not reach the area until the Eocene. The derivation and emplacement of the allochthonous rocks in the late Cretaceous are still imperfectly understood: alternative models are discussed, one involving gliding from an aborted spreading ridge along the continental margin, the other more conventionally based on subduction processes. A preference is expressed for the former.


This study aimed to explore the perspective of multidisciplinary staff on the process of becoming and working as a practice development unit (PDU). PDUs are reported as positive initiatives within health care. It is important to understand the process of becoming a PDU and the ongoing effects of the process to the staff working within the unit. This project engaged with multidisciplinary staff working on six PDU units throughout the north-west of England. Data collection was in two phases: a self-completion questionnaire distributed to all staff within the PDUs (n = 625, 28.2% response rate) followed by 17 semi-structured telephone interviews. The majority of questionnaire respondents (n = 114, 64%) indicated that they would recommend PDU accreditation to other units. The main themes arising from the project focus on accreditation having a positive influence on multidisciplinary team working, evidence-based practice and improving opportunities for professional development. Issues were raised during the interviews regarding the increased development of staff leading to high turnover, the high workload involved in leading the accreditation and the inequitable involvement of professions in the process. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


There is a strong connection between culture and parenting. What is acceptable in one culture is frowned upon in another. This applies to behavior after birth, encouragement in early childhood, and regulation and freedom during adolescence. There are differences in affection and distance, harshness and repression, and acceptance and criticism. Some parents insist on obedience; others are concerned with individual development. This clearly differs from parent to parent, but there is just as clearly a connection to culture. This book includes chapters on China, Colombia, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Brazil, Native Americans and Australians, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, Cuba, Pakistan, Nigeria, Morocco, and several other countries. Beside this, the authors address depression, academic achievement, behavior, adolescent identity, abusive parenting, grandparents as parents, fatherhood, parental agreement and disagreement, emotional availability and stepparents.


Decentralisation and equity are key goals of the
South African health sector. Yet
decentralisation typically threatens the
equity of health care financing. This chapter maps
the public funding of non-hospital Primary Health Care services across local government
areas in four provinces. It also calculates measures of deprivation for each district
municipality to indicate need for health services. the
equity of financing of Primary Health
Care in relation to need is then evaluated and the
equity of health care financing from
different public sector sources is compared. This study reveals that the
funding of Primary Health Care is extremely inequitable both
across and within provinces. Local Government funding is the
least equitable funding
source, inversely related to need. Provincial funding does little to correct inequities and in
some cases exacerbates the
picture. Without intervention the
country-wide financing of
the standard Primary Health Care package, proposed by the
national Department of Health,
will prove impossible. A national mechanism is therefore required to manage the
financing
of decentralised health care and correct inequities in the
fragmented funding of Primary
Health Care. A system of targets for provincial budgets, using deprivation indices, is
proposed.


We present an analysis of anisotropic hyperelasticity, specifically transverse isotropy, that obtains closed-form expressions for the eigendecompositions of many common energies. We then use these to build fast and concise Newton implementations. We leverage our analysis in two separate applications. First, we show that existing anisotropic energies are not inversion-safe, and contain spurious stable states under large deformation. We then propose a new anisotropic strain invariant that enables the formulation of a novel, robust, and inversion-safe energy. The new energy fits completely within our analysis, so closed-form expressions are obtained for its eigensystem as well. Secondly, we use our analysis to rehabilitate badly-conditioned finite elements. Using this method, we can robustly simulate large deformations even when a mesh contains degenerate, zero-volume elements. We accomplish this by swapping the badly-behaved isotropic direction with a well-behaved anisotropic term. We validate our approach on a variety of examples.


Disk images play a critical role in multi-tenant datacenters. In this paper, the first study of its kind, we analyze operational data from the disk imaging system that forms part of the infrastructure of the Emulab facility. This dataset spans four years and more than a quarter-million disk image loads requested by Emulab's users. From our analysis, we draw observations about the nature of the images themselves (for example: how similar are they to each other?) and about usage patterns (what is the statistical distribution of image popularity?). Many of these observations have implications for the design and operation of disk imaging systems, including how images are stored, how caching is employed, the effectiveness of pre-loading, and strategies for network distribution.


Phospholipase B (PLB) is known to be a virulence factor of Candida albicans. It
hydrolyzes phospholipids and deranges constituents of host cell membranes which
are likely to be involved in host cell invasion. The aims of the study are to clone and
sequence the PLB genes of non-albicans Candida species and to assess the timedependent
PLB gene expression of C. albicans, C. knrsei and C. tropicalis under the
hyphal induction condition. Three pairs of degenerate primers designed from the
conserved regions of PLBl genes of C. albicans, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and
other hngi were used to amplifL DNA fragments of the PLB genes from C. krusei, C.
parapsilosis and C. tropicalis by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) approach.
Arnplicons of approximately 5 10 bp were successfully obtained from the ATCC type
strains of C. krusei, C. parapsilosis and C. tropicalis as well as a C. tropicalis
clinical blood isolate, by using the first primer pair that targeted the 5' proximal end
region of the putative PLB gene. The second and third pairs of degenerate primers
amplified hgments corresponding to the 3' proximal end region of the putative PLB
genes from the ATCC strains as well as clinical isolates of C. parapsilosis and C.
tropicalis. These PCR products were cloned into E. coli vectors and subjected to
DNA sequencing. The deduced amino acid sequences of these cloned partial open
reading frames (ORFs) exhibited significant homology of about 60-70% identity
with known fungal PLB genes. Sequence analysis showed that these putative PLB
homologues and five other known PLBs are contained in a cluster of PLB family of
proteins in which the amino acid sequences are more conserved towards the carboxyl
terminus. Attempts to clone the hll length gene sequences of the non-albicans
Candida using inverse PCR and RACE (Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends) were
futile. Using a simple phospholipase assay, varying levels of enzyme activity for the
extracellular phospholipase was demonstrated in cultures of C. albicans, C. krusei,
and C. tropicalis ATCC strains as well as C. parapsilosis and C. tropicalis clinical
blood isolates. C. albicans produced significantly higher extracellular phospholipase
relative to the other Candida species used in this study. C. glabrata and C.
parapsilosis ATCC cultures showed undetectable extracellular phospholipase
activity. In order to assess the PLB gene expression at mRNA level, semiquantitative
RT-PCR approach was undertaken. The PLB gene expression time
course analysis showed that there were significant differences in gene expression
level over the 24 hours duration for cultures of C. albicans. Both the yeasts and
hyphae forms expressed PLB gene at the mRNA level. PLB gene expression was
undetectable in C. h e i , C. tropicalis ATCC and C. tropicalis clinical blood
isolates in both the yeast and pseudohyphae forms. The results of this study strongly
suggest that PLB is not a significant virulence determinant of non-albicans species.
However, the data generated here would provide the vital groundwork for elucidating
the instrinsic functional role of PLBs in the virulence and pathogenesis of the
albicans and non-albicans Candida species.


This study examines the effect on the stock returns of the major banks in Australia from the publicly announced changes in official interest rates during the period 1990 to 2005. Previous studies of such effects have reported inconclusive and mixed results. US evidence suggests that banking stocks are generally negatively (positively) impacted by increases (decreases) in official interest rates. We find, somewhat unexpectedly that Australian bank stock returns are not negatively impacted by the announced increases in official interest rates. Furthermore, banks apparently experience net-positive abnormal returns when cash rates are increased, which is consistent with dividend valuation theory that suggests if income effects dominate, then stock returns need not be negatively impacted. We explain our findings by the fact that Australian banks, which operate in a less competitive and concentrated banking environment compared to the US, are able to advantageously manage earnings impacts when cash rate changes are announced. JEL Classification: E52, E58, G21


This research evaluates the unorthodox proposition that organisational development proceeds through the Darwinian processes of variation, selection and inheritance acting upon a non-genetic replicating code. This new replicator represents the fundamental unit of cultural transmission and was termed by evolutionist, Richard Dawkins, as the meme. The memetic position re-introduces many often neglected, sometimes shunned, evolutionary arguments into social and organisational debate by providing a naturalistic and plausible hereditary element upon which socio-cultural adaptation operates. The popularity of the neologism 'meme' initially grew through rather ad-hoc non-scientific usage on the Internet. For some time, this geekish tendency has tarnished the idea of memetics and impeded serious academic investigation into the subject. A more rigorous philosophical treatment has been provided by Daniel Dennett who has argued that, while a science of memetic cladistics may be both desirable and feasible, it remains unlikely. On the other hand one of Dawkins' most famous critics, Mary Midgley, heralds dark forebodings that one-day memes may be given actual credence. The present study necessitated the adaptation of conventional genealogical and taxonomic methods, for novel application in confirming congruence between actual organisational phylogeny and hereditary traits. One specific requirement was to develop a means of identifying, capturing and codifying such traits as meme strips for phenetic analysis. In order to handle the computational complexity inherent in the phenetic reconstruction algorithms, proprietary software had to be produced. This was extensively tested upon meme strips generated through simulated evolution. Western Christian denominational families provided a source of empirical evidence and demonstrated that the methods could be successfully applied to real organisational forms. A theological phylogeny was reliably reconstructed thereby upholding the hypothesis of cultural descent with modification based on a memetic replication. Further support for the claim was made in conjunction with the rendering of a facilities management market landscape. More importantly however, the results coming from this research suggest that the potential for formulating a science of memetics may be significantly greater than in Dennett original consideration.


In this article, divergent positions of the Ottoman Empire and its policies, the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, the Turkish provincial administration and Müslim and zimmi (non-Muslim) subjects, and the process of their interrelations and interactions are to be exarnined. Internal and external factors of the period were quite determinant. The sources of this work are the relevant archival documents obtained from of the Ottoman Archive of Prime Ministery (İstanbul) and mostly belong to the second half of the eighteenth century, a note-vvorthy turning point in the socio-politic history of Cyprus under the Turkish rule.


The digital age has seen the rise of service systems involving highly distributed, heterogeneous, and resource-integrating actors whose relationships are governed by shared institutional logics, standards, and digital technology. The cocreation of service within these service systems takes place in the context of a paradoxical tension between the logic of generative and democratic innovations and the logic of infrastructural control. Boundary resources play a critical role in managing the tension as a firm that owns the infrastructure can secure its control over the service system while independent firms can participate in the service system. In this study, we explore the evolution of boundary resources. Drawing on Pickering's (1993) and Barrett et al.'s (2012) conceptualizations of tuning, the paper seeks to forward our understanding of how heterogeneous actors engage in the tuning of boundary resources within Apple's iOS service system. We conduct an embedded case study of Apple's iOS service system with an in-depth analysis of 4,664 blog articles concerned with 30 boundary resources covering 6 distinct themes. Our analysis reveals that boundary resources of service systems enabled by digital technology are shaped and reshaped through distributed tuning, which involves cascading actions of accommodations and rejections of a network of heterogeneous actors and artifacts. Our study also shows the dualistic role of power in the distributed tuning process.


Secure raw material supply is one of the most important topics for industry. Growing economies such as China, India, Brazil and others increase the global demand and in the same time the competition for resources. In order to undertake appropriate actions the most important raw materials should be identified. The aim of this study was to identify the most important raw materials for Lithuanian economy in terms of economic importance, supply and environmental risks. The methodology used in the study relies on three sustainability dimensions accordingly expressed by three indicators: Economic Importance (Economic dimension); Supply Risk (Social dimension); Environmental Country Risk (Environmental dimension). The methodology used to define these indicators on imported resources for Lithuanian industry was adapted from report on critical raw materials for European Union (Report of the Ad-hoc Working Group on defining critical raw materials 2010) published by European Commission in June 2010. Critical raw materials are considered to be economically important and the subject to a higher risk of supply interruption. All materials investigated in this study were combined into five groups: chemicals, metals, building materials, paper, paperboard and wood, other materials. Only the imported raw materials were selected for further analysis. The significance of raw material import was considered as important according to the ratio of production and consumption of certain material. After the analysis of statistical information about raw materials import in Lithuania and the actual countries of origin of these resources twenty one raw material was selected for further investigation. According to the results of assessment the list of critical raw materials for Lithuania was indentified. Results of the investigation showed that top five materials in terms of economic importance, supply and environmental country risks for Lithuanian economy are: crude oil, natural gas, sulphur, caustic soda, cast iron. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.erem.60.2.1308


The Discovery of Islands consists of a series of linked essays in British history, written by one of the world's leading historians of political thought and published over the past three decades. Its purpose is to present British history as that of several nations interacting with - and sometimes seceding from - an imperial state. The commentary presents this history as that of an archipelago, expanding across oceans to the Antipodes. Both New Zealand history and the author's New Zealand heritage inform this vision, presenting British history as oceanic and global, complementing (and occasionally criticising) the presentation of that history as European. Professor Pocock's interpretation of British history has been hugely influential in recent years, making The Discovery of Islands a resource of immense value for historians of Britain and the world.


Data from a wide variety of igneous rock types show that the ratio of potassium to uranium is approximately 1 X 104. This suggests that the value of K/U ≈1 X 104 is characteristic of terrestrial materials and is distinct from the value of 8 X 104 found in chondrites. In a model earth with K/U ≈ 104, uranium and thorium are the dominant sources of radioactive heat at the present time. This will permit the average terrestrial concentrations of uranium and thorium to be 2 to 4.7 times higher than that observed in chondrites. The resulting models of the terrestrial heat production will be considerably different from those for chondritic heat production because of the longer half-life of U238 and Th238 compared with K40


Neuronally expressed auxilin and ubiquitously expressed cyclin-G-dependent kinase (GAK) are homologous proteins that act as cochaperones to support the Hsc70-dependent clathrin uncoating of clathrin-coated vesicles. GAK was previously shown to be essential in mouse during embryonic development and in the adult. We have now engineered an auxilin knockout mouse. Mutant mice had a high rate of early postnatal mortality and surviving pups generally had a lower body weight than wild-type pups, although they had a normal life span. GAK was up-regulated as much as 3-fold in the brains of both surviving neonates and adult mutant mice. An increased number of clathrin-coated vesicles and empty cages were present at knockout synapses both in situ and in primary neuronal cultures. Additionally, clathrin-mediated endocytosis of synaptic vesicles in knockout hippocampal neurons was impaired, most likely due to sequestration of coat components in assembled coats and cages. Collectively, our results demonstrate the specialized role of auxilin in the recycling of synaptic vesicles at synapses, but also show that its function can be partially compensated for by up-regulation of GAK.


Biopharmaceuticals are highly complex molecules and also require high quality for safety and efficacy in human uses. For well-characterized products, the desired level of quality should be monitored and controlled during the manufacturing processes. A series of workflow for analytical characterization should be applied for product quality throughout those processes. In this chapter, several analytical techniques are introduced for assessing characteristics of biopharmaceuticals focusing on monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Analytical characterization for primary structure was performed by mass spectrometry (MS), and assessment of post-translational modifications (PTMs) was done by conventional approaches. The analytical assessments were also done by multi-attribute method (MAM) approach using mass spectrometer (MS), and the performance of MAM was compared to conventional approaches.


Breastfeeding practices in Lebanon fall short of international recommendations: despite high breastfeeding initiation, exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) rates are almost nil at 4-5 months. In the Lebanese context, health services are expected to have a large contributing role on early breastfeeding practices. This research aimed at identifying Lebanese stakeholders' perceptions of barriers to recommended early breastfeeding initiation and EBF till 6 months in the context of health services as well as the political dynamics around existing policies that if implemented would address these health system barriers.
A review of systematic reviews of the effectiveness of health services interventions to promote and support breastfeeding initiation and exclusivity revealed that a package of complementary interventions would be most effective. It would include applying maternity ward changes according to the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, facilitating the formation of lay support groups, and tailoring education and support to the setting and needs of the population.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 59 Lebanese stakeholders in early breastfeeding. The framework approach was used for analysing data. Health services barriers included suboptimal antenatal preparedness to breastfeeding, detrimental hospital practices, medicalisation of childbirth, health professionals' knowledge and attitudes towards breastfeeding and aggressive marketing by breast milk substitutes companies. The socio-cultural context was depreciative of breastfeeding. Using the principles of stakeholder analysis, implementation of key policies endorsed by the Lebanese government was found to be hindered by the Ministry of Public Health's weak governance and commitment, the weak engagement of key international organisations and professional associations compounded by the financial interests of strong stakeholders in the health care system offered by breast milk substitute companies.
Key recommendations include the need for further commitment from government, grassroots advocacy to shift the culture towards demanding appropriate early breastfeeding practices, and implementation of several health services related programmes.


This report presents the results from the SERPENT project collaborative research with StatoilHydro at the
Asterix deep-water exploration oil well, drilled from the Transocean Leader in the Norwegian Sea. The
study was designed to investigate seabed disturbance resulting from the drilling activities at Asterix and the
effects of these activities on the benthic environment and megafaunal organisms.
The ROV Magnum 018, was used to take eight video transects of at least 100m in length which were used
to assess visually the extent of drill cuttings and to determine megafaunal densities. Also a series sediment
samples were collected using ROV operated push cores at 50, 80 and 100m from the well to determine
heavy metal concentrations, total organic matter and particle size distribution.
Comparison of these methods suggested disturbance was variable depending on heading but suggested
complete coverage of the seabed up to 60m from the well and partial coverage to 100m. Analysis of the
sediment showed elevated Barium concentration in surface sediments at all sample locations, decreasing
with distance and with depth sections. At the site closest to the well mean particle size increased in
comparison to the background sediment. These physical changes were associated with significant
reductions in megafaunal abundance and changes in the megafaunal community structure, with very few
animals observed in a 50m radius of the well. Small ophiuroids were extremely abundant at the site
reaching up to 20m-2. Similar to the megafauna, their numbers were reduced by the disturbance event and
density was significantly reduced within 80m of the well.
Details of a short documentary film made by StatoilHydro about the SERPENT collaboration on board the
Transocean Leader are also given here.


Monotheism, the idea that there is only one true God, is a powerful religious concept that was shaped by competing ideas and the problems they raised. Surveying New Testament writings and Jewish sources from before and after the rise of Christianity, James F. McGrath argues that even the most developed Christologies in the New Testament fit within the context of first century Jewish "monotheism." In doing so, he pinpoints more precisely when the parting of ways took place over the issue of God's oneness, and he explores philosophical ideas such as "creation out of nothing," which caused Jews and Christians to develop differing concepts and definitions about God.


Autonomous vehicles (AV), one of the transportation industry's biggest innovations of the past few decades, bring the promise of safer roads and significantly lower vehicle-related fatalities. While many studies have found largely positive consumer opinions regarding operating and owning such a vehicle, older adults (55+) tend to express concerns about the safety and operational risks of a vehicle with unknown capabilities. To investigate how older adults and AVs may interact, we conducted an improv-style enactment-based partic-ipatory design pilot study. We found that initial concerns about trust and safety can be diminished through training and repetitive successful vehicle operation. Additionally, our participants provided insights into the AV design considerations, needs, and interactions for older adults. These findings add to the collective body of autonomous vehicle research by demonstrating that the needs of this growing population, who may benefit significantly from access to AVs, should be considered by manufacturers.


Mom Zard (beeswax) is an animal source of origin medicine which is secreted by wax glands of honey bees. Since ancient periods Unani physicians have been using it as medicinal purpose orally as well as topically as a base of Qairooti (oil+beeswax), Zamad (paste) and Marham (ointment). Ibn-e-Sina (Avicenna) stated that Mom Zard has mainly talyeen (aperient), tahleel-e-auram (resolution of inflammations) and indemal (healing) properties. The effects of mom zard can be attributed to the presence of palmitate, palmitoleate and oleate esters and triacontanyl palmitateto cerotic acid. The aim of this paper is to highlight the pharmacological actions and therapeutic applications of the Mom Zard as per descriptions in Unani literatures.


The use of computing technologies to support workflows related to the planning and development of a municipality dates back to the late 1950s. The main boosts of computing technologies and applications, Geographic Information System (GIS) and Geographic Information Technology (GIT), in relation to a planning and decision-making context, became evident when the use of Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) started in the 1980s.

Collaboration is an important part of many tasks involving people from different organizations, in which maps often play a central role in informing and improving debates and facilitating the decision-making process. It allows diverse stakeholders to share and view maps or spatial images interactively over the Web in real-time, among other platforms. The geospatial collaboration technology not only provides an effective solution to decision makers, but also facilitates scientific and public debates with real-time geospatial information. More recently, some efforts have been made using open map services to develop simple map-sharing applications. However, little has been done on designing and developing such online open source tools in the context of municipal planning and management. Further, a literature review indicates the lack of scientific publications on empirical studies of their practical applications.

Web-based PPGIS applications, among others, have now been widely recognized as an efficient and integral part of sound planning and development processes to support public participation. However, GIS alone cannot make the planning process more participative. Demands for Web-based PPGIS tools, integrated with other information and computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) tools, have rapidly become increasingly important for supporting collaborative participation during a decision-making process. Therefore, the establishment of public participation in GIS-based applications is an optimistic step taken by the researchers that are progressively working on municipal planning projects that incorporate public participation.

The main aim of this research is to provide a Collaborative PPGIS (Co-PPGIS) to enhance public participation in municipal planning related workflows. A research prototype has been developed and its usability is evaluated by adopting the evaluation criteria for the research prototype, as only proper testing will demonstrate whether the prototype is usable or the Co-PPGIS design framework is successful in meeting end-users' requirements.


Two methods of SiO2 substrate cleaning are compared. One method, the SiO2 surface are intentionally hydroxylated with a mixture of hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide during cleaning, while the other method uses acetone, isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and water to clean the surface sequentially with the aid of ultrasonic agitation. A super-hydrophilic surface with contact angle less than 10o is obtained by intentionally hydroxylating the surface. The contact angles for both surfaces after the phenyltrichlorosilane (PTCS) treatment increased significantly to more than 75o. The hole mobility of these devices are 3 x 10-3 cm2/Vs. However, the transfer characteristics of the organic field effect transistor (OFET) over time are drastically different. Intentionally hydroxylating the SiO2 surface yields very little shift of threshold voltages (less than 5 V) over 4 weeks. The OFET characteristics for the organic solvent cleaned SiO2 surface disappeared after a week. It seems that hydroxylating the SiO2 surface before application of PTCS significantly prolongs the lifetime of the OFET devices.


Quality is a subjective term and means different things to different people. However there is general agreement that beef quality needs to be consistent, and needs to be improved. Furthermore, there is agreement that it will become an increasingly important factor in consumer decision making (Henchion et al., 2014). Informed by quality theory, this paper seeks to determine the relative importance of quality attributes from a consumer perspective through undertaking a systematic review of the literature on consumer attitudes to different beef quality attributes.


Surface articulation is a critical issue for interior architecture, and this paper sees the wall as a point of intersection where art and structure may converge and collide. A place of experimentation and a site of performance, built volumes and surface embellishments blur and reinforce edge conditions and ornament as embellishment and essential structure merge.
This paper explores a sculptural relief Copper Crystals (1965) constructed by Jim Allen for the ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) House (1964) situated at 61 Molesworth Street in Wellington, New Zealand. Following the building's failure, due to a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, the sculptural relief survived a five thousand tonne demolition. Construction, size and position of the work have contributed to its survival, partly because the relief shifted from surface activation to structural member. This paper investigates the relief as it protrudes from the surface of the building's interior.
Surface, layer and structure extend beyond the planar, producing a range of complicated effects. Visible and invisible incrustations, geometric forms and structural matrices, transform and become linked to depth, substance, mass and thickness (Papapetros, 2013). The demarcation of the essential and inessential is blurred, and the perception of ornament as dangerous during earthquakes is subverted. This paper focusses on material mediation and points to new ways of interrogating the materiality and functionality of surface and places over time.


BACKGROUND
This study was undertaken to evaluate the long-term smoking cessation efficacy of varying doses of transdermal nicotine delivery systems 4 to 5 years post-quit day.

METHODS
A follow-up study was conducted 48 to 62 months after quit day among patients who were enrolled in the Transdermal Nicotine Study Group investigation. The latter study included group smoking cessation counseling and randomized assignment to 21, 14, or 7 mg nicotine patches or placebo patches. Seven of nine smoking cessation research centers participated in the long term follow-up investigation.

RESULTS
The self-reported continuous quit rate among patients originally assigned 21 mg (20.2%) was significantly higher than rates for patients assigned 14 mg (10.4%), 7 mg (11.8%), or placebo patches (7.4%). Log rank survival analysis found no difference in relapse rates after 1 year postcessation. Smokers under age 30 years were significantly less likely to be abstinent at long term follow-up compared to smokers > or = 30 years of age (3 vs 13%, respectively). Mean weight gain in confirmed continuous quitters was 10.1 kg in men and 8.0 kg in women. Of the 63 continuous abstainers surveyed, 30 respondents (48%) reported that they no longer craved cigarettes, and no individual reported daily craving for cigarettes.

CONCLUSIONS
Nicotine patch therapy with 21 mg/day patches resulted in a significantly higher long-term continuous abstinence rate compared to lower dose patches and placebo. Relapse rates among the various treatment conditions were similar after 1 year postcessation.


PURPOSE
Emergency nursing covers a broad spectrum of health care from trauma surgery support to preventive health care. The purpose of this study is to identify the core literature of emergency nursing and to determine which databases provide the most thorough indexing access to the literature cited in emergency nursing journals. This study is part of the Medical Library Association's Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section's project to map the nursing literature.

METHODS
Four key emergency nursing journals were selected and subjected to citation analysis based on Bradford's Law of Scattering.

RESULTS
A group of 12 journals made up 33.3% of the 7,119 citations, another 33.3% of the citations appeared in 92 journals, with the remaining 33.3% scattered across 822 journals. Three of the core 12 journals were emergency medicine titles, and 2 were emergency nursing titles from the selected source journals. Government publications constituted 7.5% of the literature cited.

CONCLUSIONS
PubMed/MEDLINE provided the best overall indexing coverage for the journals, followed by CINAHL. However, CINAHL provided the most complete coverage for the source journals and the majority of the nursing and emergency medical technology publications and should be consulted by librarians and nurses seeking emergency nursing literature.


Peer tutoring (PALS) is an instructional strategy where peers act as "instructional agents" for fellow students. In this study, 10 high school biology students participated in a ten day peertutoring intervention to determine whether peer tutoring would 1) facilitate student academic success, 2) enhance student focus as well as engagement in biology class, and 3) favorably affect students' behavior in class leading to fewer offtask behavioral problems. Baseline data included scores on academic tasks, student surveys, student reflection journal entries, teacher observation field notes, and behavior checklists. Similar data types were collected for ten days after peer-tutoring was initiated. Student scores on most academic tasks were higher after peertutoring, with the exception of scores on the unit assessment. More students completed homework after peer-tutoring. After peer-tutoring, off-task behavior in class was reduced. Most students "agreed strongly" that working with peers led to greater understanding, better focus on task, and more enjoyment in studying biology.


ChAndio, F. A., C. Yi, A. A. TAgAr, i. A. MAri, C. ArslAn, d. M. Cuong and h. FAng, 2013. Effect of loading rate on mechanical characteristics of wheat and rice straw. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 19: 1452-1458 This study was designed to evaluate mechanical characteristics of wheat and rice straw keeping in view the importance of straw application in the field. Technical data about mechanical properties of straw such as bending strength shearing energy and young's modulus still need to update. These properties were evaluated on three internodes positions (n1, n2 and n3) down from ear at average moisture content of 18.10%. Three loading rates (15, 20 and 25 mm min-1) were employed by TMSPro machine with computer program for data acquisition and a steel plate was fabricated for holding straw at different internode's position. some other physical parameters like length, diameter and cross sectional area were also measured for the determination of mechanical properties. Results showed that when loading rate increased, bending strength of wheat and rice straw decreased from 23.93 to 7.49 and 15.99 to 7.17 MPa respectively, shearing energy increased from 124.28 to 265.44 and 111.69 to 215.44 mJ respectively, and young's modulus varied from 1.20 to 0.22 and 0.72 to 0.20 GPa respectively. The bending strength and young's Modulus of wheat straw were significantly higher (p<0.05) than those of rice straw whereas the shearing energy had significantly effect of loading rate on rice and wheat straw (p<0.01). It was concluded that more energy can be saved by harvesting and threshing machines with decreasing the loading rate on wheat and rice straw toward the first, second and third internode's positions which will be helpful in designing of wheat and rice straw equipment, harvesting machines and tillage implements.


Purification of biodiesel prior to utilizing it as an alternative fuel is an essential industrial practice. Low glycerol content is one of the important pointers needed for passing the EN 14214 and ASTM D6751 international biodiesel standards. In this study, choline chloride (ChCl) as salt and ethylene glycol and 2,2,2-Trifluoroacetamide as hydrogen bond donors (HBDs) were employed to synthesize two ammonium salt-non glycerol based Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES). The physical properties of the synthesized DESs were measured and analyzed. These DESs were utilized to remove all the free glycerol from the palm oil-based biodiesel. The results indicated that all the tested DESs were able to remove all free glycerol successfully. The Central Composite Design (CCD) of the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to to experiment design and optimization of total glycerol removal using ethylene glycol-based DESs and 2,2,2-Trifluoroacetamide-based DESs. The maximum total glycerol removal by ethylene glycol-based DESs was obtained at 0.66 ethylene glycol mole fraction and at DES/biodiesel molar ratio of 3 with removal efficiency of 23.85% as well as by 2,2,2-Trifluoroacetamide-based DESs at 0.60 2,2,2-Trifluoroacetamide mole fraction and at DES/biodiesel molar ratio of 2.93 with removal efficiency of 29.29%. The reusability of these DESs for removing free glycerol and total glycerol content from palm oil-based biodiesel was also investigated. This study proves that both ammonium salt-non glycerol based DESs can be successfully employed to remove the glycerol from palm oil-based biodiesel.


The Ushuaia Hornblendite (Tierra del Fuego): petrography, geochemistry and geochronology. Petrographic descriptions and geochemical and geochronological data are given for the so-called Ushuaia Hornblendite, a complex of mesocratic and melanocratic hydrated rocks that crops out in the vicinity of the city of Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego. The complex consists mainly of hornblendites and hornblendite-piroxenites, diorites, gabbros, syenites and monzodiorites. The mineralogy of the most representative specimen shows that it is composed of hornblende and diopside as essential minerals, with biotite and potassic feldspar as minor constituents, and sphene, apatite, and opaque minerals (mainly magnetite, ilmenite, pyrite and chalcopyrite) as accessories. Alteration processes include albitization, epidotization, chloritization and carbonatization, that represent substantial chemical changes that would affect any chemical classification of the rocks. Nevertheless, it is considered that the parental magma was of calc-alkaline Andean Type, related to the Andean Batholith, produced during regional subduction, and not in any way to an ophiolitic sequence. The calc-alkaline geochemistry is attributed to partial melting. In fact, the magma did not derive from primary mantle melts but came from evolved and contaminated mantle fluids that ascended toward crustal levels, thus favouring an assimilation process, in a magmatic arc setting. Potassium-argon whole-rock dating of one hornblendite sample gave an age of 113 ± 5 Ma


Abstract In this paper we introduce the research plan for the preparation of a searchable electronic repository of the earliest extant legal oaths from medieval Poland drawing on the expertise in historical corpus-building developed for the history of English. The oaths survive in the overwhelmingly Latin land books from the period between 1386 and 1446 for six localities Greater Poland, in which the land courts operated: Poznań, Kościan, Pyzdry, Gniezno, Konin and Kalisz. A diplomatic edition of the oaths was published in five volumes by Polish historical linguists (Kowalewicz & Kuraszkiewicz 1959–1966). The edition is the only comprehensive resource of considerable scope (over 6300 oaths from the years 1386–1446) for the study of the earliest attestations of the Polish language beyond glosses. Recognising some limitations, but most of all its unparalleled coverage of the coexistence of Latin and the vernacular, the ROThA project embarks on transforming the edition into an open up-to-date digital resource. We thus aim to facilitate research into the history of Polish and Latin as well as of the legal system and the related social and linguistic issues of the period.


BACKGROUND & AIMS
Little is known about substitutions that mediate resistance of hepatitis C virus (HCV) to direct-acting antivirals (DAAs), due to the small number of patients with treatment failure in approval studies. It is important to identify resistance patterns to select effective salvage treatments.

METHODS
We performed a comprehensive analysis for resistance-associated substitutions (RASs) in HCV genes (nonstructural protein [NS]3, NS5A, NS5B) targeted by DAAs. We compared NS3, NS5A, and NS5B sequences from 626 patients in Europe with DAA failure with sequences from 2322 DAA-naïve patients, infected with HCV genotypes 1 to 4. We considered RASs to be relevant if they were associated with DAA failure in patients or conferred a greater than twofold change in susceptibility compared with a reference strain in in vitro replicon assays. Data were collected on pretreatment status, DAA regimen, the treatment initiation date and duration, and virologic response. Patients who received at least 4 weeks of antiviral treatment were included in the analysis.

RESULTS
RASs in NS3 associated with simeprevir or paritaprevir failure include R155K and D168E/V. In addition, several RASs were specifically associated with failure of simeprevir (Q80K/R in patients with genotype 1a or 4) or paritaprevir (Y56H in combination with D168V in patients with genotype 1b). Y93H in NS5A was the RAS most frequently associated with failure of daclatasvir, ledipasvir, or ombitasvir in patients with genotype 1b infection, and L31M was associated with failure of daclatasvir or ledipasvir, but not ombitasvir. RASs in NS5A were heterogeneous among patients with HCV genotype 1a or genotype 4 infections. In patients with HCV genotype 3, Y93H was associated with resistance to daclatasvir, but no RASs were associated with ledipasvir failure, pointing to a limited efficacy of ledipasvir in patients with genotype 3. Among patients failed by sofosbuvir-containing regimens, L159F was enriched in patients with genotype 1b (together with C316N) or genotype 3 infection, whereas the RAS S282T was rarely observed.

CONCLUSIONS
We compared RASs in NS3, NS5A, and NS5B among patients failed by DAA therapy. Theses varied with the HCV genotype and subtype, and the different drug classes. These findings might be used to select salvage therapies.


Comprehending Cults, Second Edition, provides a sociological interpretation of the phenomenon of new religious movements. While the author does not offer an apologia for cults--in either a religious or a sociological sense--he does attempt to replace suspicion and misinformation with a greater knowledge of the facts (as best we know them) and a measure of sympathetic understanding. Completely revised and updated in this second edition, the book examines all aspects of cults, while striving to delineate the very real limits of our knowledge. In addition to dealing with the troublesome aspects of the subject, including issues of violence, sexuality, and brainwashing, the author also considers the possibility that new religious movements are a source of spiritual satisfaction to their members. Offering up-to-date social science research about contemporary religious cults, Comprehending Cults, Second Edition, is ideal for undergraduate sociology of religion and new religious movements courses.


On the basis of the model of the current flow through a single fibre, changes in the electric charge density over the myocardium are described. With the use of relevant analytic formulae, supported with numerical calculations, the distribution and time dependencies of electric potentials on the surface of the thorax have been determined. The results obtained are compared with empirical data. A strong correlation between the theoretical predictions and the experimental data has been obtained. The model in question permits examination of instantaneous potentials resulting from electrical activation of particular segments of the cardiac muscle.


CONTEXT
Mutations in ANKH cause the highly divergent conditions familial chondrocalcinosis and craniometaphyseal dysplasia. The gene product ANK is supposed to regulate tissue mineralization by transporting pyrophosphate to the extracellular space.

OBJECTIVE
We evaluated several family members of a large consanguineous family with mental retardation, deafness, and ankylosis. We compared their skeletal, metabolic, and serological parameters to that of the autosomal recessive progressive ankylosis (ank) mouse mutant, caused by a loss-of-function mutation in the murine ortholog Ank.

PARTICIPANTS
The studied patients had painful small joint soft-tissue calcifications, progressive spondylarthropathy, osteopenia, mild hypophosphatemia, mixed hearing loss, and mental retardation.

RESULTS
After mapping the disease gene to 5p15, we identified the novel homozygous ANK missense mutation L244S in all patients. Although L244 is a highly conserved amino acid, the mutated ANK protein was detected at normal levels at the plasma membrane in primary patient fibroblasts. The phenotype was highly congruent with the autosomal recessive progressive ankylosis (ank) mouse mutant. This indicates a loss-of-function effect of the L244S mutation despite normal ANK protein expression. Interestingly, our analyses revealed that the primary step of joint degeneration is fibrosis and mineralization of articular soft tissues. Moreover, heterozygous carriers of the L244S mutation showed mild osteoarthritis without metabolic alterations, pathological calcifications, or central nervous system involvement.

CONCLUSION
Beyond the description of the first human progressive ankylosis phenotype, our results indicate that ANK influences articular soft tissues commonly involved in degenerative joint disorders. Furthermore, this human disorder provides the first direct evidence for a role of ANK in the central nervous system.


Enzymes are involved in nearly all biological processes, catalyzing reactions with exceptional selectivity and efficiency. Knowledge of reaction mechanisms, whereby a substrate is converted to product through one or more intermediates, is essential for unravelling an enzyme's role in metabolism. The most used analytical methods for the study of enzyme function include UV–visible fluorescence spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance, and isothermal calorimetry. However, these methods have several limitations that need to be overcome for the detection of transiently populated intermediate states. Recently, mass spectrometry has proven to be an efficient and sensitive method for studying the structural changes occurring at both the protein and substrate level during enzymatic turnover. Chapter 8 will focus on how mass spectrometry has been successfully applied to several unique systems for the elucidation of enzyme reaction mechanisms, kinetic isotope effects, binding constants and catalysis-linked dynamics.


Southern Europe has been experiencing an accelerated intensification of agricultural systems in the last decades with consequent environmental effects. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of agricultural land use in two small-medium river basins in the South of Portugal, regarding: (i) water quality and stream habitat; (ii) fish fauna; and (iii) soil. Sampling included fish captures, water, and soil sample collection. Hydromorphological habitat features were also assessed. Land use was quantified at the basin and local scales. Results showed that the most negative effects were associated with intensive, heavily irrigated, fertilized, and pastured local systems, mostly represented at the basin scale by olive groves, irrigated crops, and pastures. Conversely, local agricultural intensity did not prove to be a threat to the integrity and quality of the soil, seeming to ensure the sustainability of the local uses and their systems. Negative effects were observed on water quality and instream habitat and degradation of riparian vegetation, resulting in fish assemblages' impoverishment. This study contributes to a comprehensive approach to the effects of agricultural land use, highlighting the need to integrate the results of different natural resources to efficiently support policy and decision makers toward a sustainable agriculture, water management, and land use planning.


A method of selecting civil engineering faculty members is proposed to enhance their professional advancement. Each small to moderately large civil engineering program has been advised to select one, two, or a few areas of specialization rather than selecting one or two faculty members from each of the many disciplines housed under the civil engineering umbrella. This requires each specialist to contribute to undergraduate education outside his or her area of spcialization. An approach to assuring that this is effectively accomplished is also proposed. Graduate education and research can be more effectively pursued within these concentrated areas having four to six faculty members with similar or complimentary backgrounds and research interests. The recommended approach is expected to improve stability of graduate programs, assure opportunity for professional growth and development of civil engineering faculty members, and provide for sound undergraduate civil engineering education.


Policymakers worldwide are drawing key lessons from recent debates on the role of fiscal policy in the recovery of advanced economies. Interestingly, in the late 1990s, facing the collapse of their economies, many emerging market economies addressed some of the focal issues currently discussed, such as the timing of fiscal adjustments, the need of fiscal impulses and their scope, the effectiveness of fiscal instruments along the cycle and the thresholds above which public-debt would hamper economic growth. In this paper, we present some evidence from Colombia suggesting that fiscal consolidation may have important effects on the behavior of the macroeconomy. Using structural nonlinear impulse response functions, we find that a fiscal policy that reduces the structural fiscal deficit, decreases the Government currency mismatch and deepens the local fixed-rate public bond market results in stronger reactions of output to Government expenditure shocks and in greater responses of market interest rates to monetary policy shocks


The Olympic Movement (OM) is in an identity crisis. Recent Olympic Games (OG) in Sochi, Rio de Janeiro, and Pyeongchang have highlighted current problems, revealed grave violations of Coubertinian key values, and led to increased distrust among onlookers and observers. In the age of global networking, increasing media power, and digital transformation OM must renew itself as soon as possible from scratch, otherwise it threatens even greater damage to its image and an unprecedented break with the Olympic idea (OI). The media play a major role in the dissemination of information, the resulting opinion, and image shaping of today's modern OG. Hence, the background coverage of three international high-quality newspapers, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Neue Zurcher Zeitung (NZZ), and The New York Times (NYT), was analyzed overall 127 days, before, during, and after Rio Summer Olympics, by using the method of qualitative content analysis and a special, developed analysis grid. The results rarely show positive newspaper representations and assessments on important subjects like, for instance, Brazilians as hosts, host city Rio de Janeiro, organization of OG, or International Olympic Committee (IOC). Specific Olympic values and basic principles, according to Coubertin, Lenk, or Olympic Charter, are marred in print media communication.


This dissertation concerns the changing role of fashion in the context of modern cities. In approaching this process, the research investigates the media discourse based on representations of fashion by cities and of cities by fashion. Moreover, this research focuses on fashion understood as a multidimensional phenomenon that aims to provide an explanation of urban spaces through fashion terms, actions, and garments. Additionally, cities are considered from the cultural geography approach that highlights the cultural component of urban spaces expressed in social and cultural practices in physical reality. Following this idea, it is suggested here that fashion today not only participates in the urban life as its significant component but also creates city images and representations of urban lifestyle through the fashion paradigm. In other words, fashion redefines urban spaces; at the same time, urban spaces are interpreted as a stage for fashion processes.
By integrating in social research the fields of urban studies and fashion studies, this dissertation offers the discussion considering the fashion phenomenon not only as an urban phenomenon of modern reality. On the one hand, such discussion concerns the re-conceptualization of urban phenomena by the fashion influence; on the other hand, it relates the re-contextualization of fashion in a city. The empirical focus is based on the media context of fashion magazines in which variety of possibilities to represent fashion and cities lead to promising interpretations and analysis. The idea of representation specifies the ways of constructing the notion of urban space as fashionable space and the notion of fashion as placed in the urban context.


Migration patterns to and from Australia are becoming complex with migration programmes increasingly targeted towards meeting the needs of the labour market and regional development. This paper provides an analysis of the permanent and temporary movements of people to and from Australia in the last three years and their impact on the skilled labour supply in Australia. The paper also provides an analysis of occupational mobility of permanent immigrants. The results are consistent with previously published results of initial downward occupational mobility among immigrants. The consequence of this is wastage of skills which the country can least afford in times of reported skills shortages. Skills wastage can be minimised by making available to newly arrived immigrants appropriate programmes for recognising previously acquired qualifications and occupational licenses; updating occupation-specific skills; and providing up-to-date information on the labour market and its operation. In this respect, the TAFE system in Australia is uniquely placed to play a key role.


The European Water Framework Directive 2000/60 has established a new legislation for sustainable management of water resources and protection of their relevant eco-systems. The primary objective of the Directive which is the achievement of acceptable water quality through the implementation of rational water resources management plans presupposes the planning and implementation of a national water policy. The hydrologic regime in Greece corresponds to other Mediterranean countries of the European Union due to the inadequate availability of water resources and the Mediterranean hydroclimatic conditions. Water demands in several areas of Greece are not satisfactorily covered, while these regions experience an "endemic" shortage of water that appears to be critical. This situation needs an immediate confrontation. The "best institutional and policy practice" for water management appears to be urgently required, along with the creation of a lasting network of institutional research policy for enhancing the productivity of water, at national and local levels.


The Reissner-Mindlin plate models thin plates. The condition numbers of finite element approximations of these plate models increase very rapidly as the thickness of the plate goes to 0. A Balancing Domain Decomposition by Constraints (BDDC) Deluxe method is developed for these plate problems discretized by Falk-Tu finite elements. In this new algorithm, subdomain Schur complements restricted to individual edges are used to define the average operator for the BDDC Deluxe method. It is established that the condition number of this preconditioned iterative method is bounded by C(1 + log H h ) if t, the thickness of the plate, is on the order of the element size h or smaller; H is the maximum diameter of the subdomains. The constant C is independent of the thickness t as well as H and h. Numerical results, which verify the theory, and a comparison with a traditional BDDC method are also provided.


The classic guide to understanding and controlling one of the most common and frustrating behavioral problems. Based on years of counseling, psychologists Jane B. Burka and Lenora M. Yuen offer a probing, sensitive, and sometimes humorous look at the problem that troubles everyone. Revealing the reasons we put off tasks-fears of failure, success, control, separation, and attachment-the authors outline a practical, tested program to overcome procrastination. Candid and understanding, is a must-have today for anyone who puts everything off until tomorrow.


Abstract The paper shows that the digital proportional-integral-plus (PIP) controller formulated within the context of non-minimum state space (NMSS) control system design methodology is directly equivalent, under certain non-restrictive pole assignment conditions, to the equivalent digital Smith predictor (SP) control system for time delay systems. This allows SP controllers to be considered within the context of NMSS state variable feedback control, so that optimal design methods can be exploited to enhance the performance of the SP controller. Alternatively, since the PIP design strategy provides a more flexible approach, which subsumes the SP controller as one option, it provides a superior basis for general control system design. The paper also discusses the robustness and disturbance response characteristics of the two PIP control structures that emerge from the analysis and demonstrates the efficacy of the design methods through simulation examples and the design of a climate control system for a large horticultural glasshouse system.


Calculations are performed to study the noise in the detector plane of an optical data-storage system with Fourier-transform holograms, caused by noise in the storage material. The signal-to-background ratio (SBR) and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the output signals in the detector plane are defined and calculated. Exact solutions are obtained by assuming gaussian-probability densities for amplitude and phase noise in the storage material.


Schools face important policy tradeoffs in monitoring and managing student behavior. Strict discipline policies may stigmatize suspended students and expose them to the criminal justice system at a young age. On the other hand, strict discipline acts as a deterrent and limits harmful spillovers of misbehavior onto other students. This paper estimates the net impact of school discipline on student achievement, educational attainment and adult criminal activity. Using exogenous variation in school assignment caused by a large and sudden boundary change and a supplementary design based on principal switches, we show that schools with higher suspension rates have substantial negative long-run impacts. Students assigned to a school that has a one standard deviation higher suspension rate are 15 to 20 percent more likely to be arrested and incarcerated as adults. We also find negative impacts on educational attainment. The negative impacts of attending a high suspension school are largest for males and minorities.


The two chevron notched specimen geometries for rock Mode I fracture toughness measurement, CB and SR, recommended by the ISRM have several disadvantages, such as very low loads required to initiate failure, complicated loading fixtures, difficult to be developed for rock mixed mode fracture testing, relatively large amounts of intact rock core needed for the test and complex specimen preparation for the SR geometry. The cracked chevron notched Brazilian disc (CCNBD) and the cracked straight through Brazilian disc (CSTBD) specimen geometries overcome these problems and they are believed to be ideal geometries for rock fracture investigations.

The general case for the cracked Brazilian disc fracture problem is when the specimen is loaded diametrically with the crack inclined at an angle to the loading direction. Different combinations of Mode I and Mode II fracture intensities can be obtained simply by changing this angle and the loading fixture still remains as simple as for a normal Brazilian test.

A special superimposition technique is developed to theoretically solve the stress intensity factor (SW) values for the CSTBD fracture problem with the help of dislocation and complex stress function methods. This evaluation can generate accurate SIF results for the problem with any crack length a(a/R) = 0.05-0.95, while the mixed mode SIF solution for a>0.60 has not been reached by previous researchers. The relative theoretical SW solution for the
corresponding CCNBD fracture problem (single or mixed fracture modes) is obtained by using Bluhm's slice model proposed for general crack problems.

Numerical calibrations for Mode I fracture problems of the CSTBD and the CCNBD specimens have been conducted by using 194 different specimen geometries and the results prove the correctness of the theoretical evaluations. The valid CCNBD geometrical range for a valid rock Mode I fracture toughness test is numerically investigated and then experimentally validated based on 40 different CCNBD geometries by using 42 different rocks. Experimental
studies on the minimum specimen size requirement for a valid CCNBD rock Mode I fracture toughness test are also carried out and the approximate critical criteria is given. The great advantages of using the CCNBD specimens for rock fracture toughness measurement have been investigated and the documentation for recommending the CCNBD specimen geometry to the ISRM as the third suggested method for rock Mode I fracture toughness test is presented. The rock Mode I fracture toughness values are then related to rock conventional properties for the purpose of prediction.

Rock cutting mechanics is analyzed by probabilistic fracture mechanics and Weibull's distribution model is found to better express the characteristics of rock cutting performance parameters. Some initial predictions for these parameters based on this mode are then presented.


Our study object is the Russian Internet economy, i.e. economic activities of companies relying on the Russian-language segment of the World Wide Web. The purpose of this study is to classify businesses engaged in the national Internet economy and measure its size (as a share of GDP) using official statistics. The analysis of international approaches used for such studies allowed us to classify these according to the following criteria: the direct impact of the Internet on the economy, indirect economic impact of the Internet, and its indirect impact on the social sphere. To assess the size of the Russian Internet economy we used the approaches applied by international organizations (OECD, BCG, McKinsey) for the analysis of the direct impact of the Internet on the economy [BCG (2014), McKinsey (2011), OECD (2014), etc.]. The authors singled out three sectors within the Internet economy: the sector of ICT infrastructure and its maintenance; the sector of companies doing business purely on the Internet, and the sector of companies combining an online and offline business. To assess the share of the Internet economy in GDP using the production approach we first defined the above sectors in accordance with All-Russian Classification of Economic Activities (OKVED) Rev. 1.1 and subsequently calculated gross value added (GVA) for each sector. For this purpose, the GVA data calculated by Federal Service of State Statistics (Rosstat) was disaggregated while the share of the GVA contributed by the third sector companies (i.e. combining an online and offline business) was assessed using the results of special surveys and Rosstat data. To measure the size of the Internet economy using the expenditure approach we focused on consumer spending on goods bought through the Internet, ICT equipment and Internet access as well as institutions' expenditure for ICT equipment, fixed capital investment of enterprises engaged in Internet activities, public sector ICT spending, net exports of ICT goods and services. According to our estimates obtained by two methods such as the production approach and expenditure approach, the share of the Internet economy in GDP in 2014 amounted to 2.7 and 2.6%, respectively. Future studies would require a more detailed definition and description of the Internet-related economic activities on the basis of OKVED2 with subsequent calculation of GVA for appropriate companies as well as development of statistical tools for collecting data on household spending


A single screen video installation made specifically for the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin. The work has subsequently been shown at the Kroller Muller Museum, Netherlands and at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. The work developed new methods in the use of narrative in the representation of post conflict trauma. The work referenced testimony from the Saville Inquiry and questioned how the use of such eye-witness testimony is subsequently remembered and fictionalised. The work sought to develop and extend the potential of works like Ghost Story, 2007 to contribute to the representation of post-conflict Northern Ireland in the absence of a formalised process of reconciliation whereby survivors are able to articulate their stories. A review of current mainstream cinema production of films that dealt with the major incidents from the recent history of Northern Ireland, including Hunger, 2008 dir. Steve McQueen and Bloody Sunday, 2002 dir. Paul Greengrass, underpinned the research. These films make use of conventional character driven plotlines while additional research into other forms of dealing with testimony and the aftermath of violence such as Bear in Mind These Dead, Susan McKay, Faber and Faber, 2008, forefront the experience of individual forgotten survivors. Through the use of voiceover the work places the voice of an unknown survivor at the core. The work simultaneously questions the reliability of the eyewitness testimony as the words oscillate between apparent fact and fiction. The Visitor proposes a fusion of documentary and fiction as a means of providing new methods of representing events that are often open to being misremembered or disputed.


Abstract A number of recent works have focused on the personal experiences of kamikaze pilots, but very little has been published in English on the Japanese government's effort to "kamikazefy" the civilian population in the final year of the Asian PacificWar (1937-45). To illustrate this effort, this article employs images taken from the author's personal collection of over 2,500 Japanese wartime publications (predominantly periodicals). In early 1945, the Japanese government announced a "fight to the death for the home islands," in which civilian "home-front warriors" would fight alongside troops in the event of an Allied invasion. Civilian combatants were expected to follow the "no surrender" policy hammered into Japanese servicemen and to emulate the kamikaze pilots' spirit of supreme sacrifice. The article begins with a brief discussion of the ideology behind kamikazefication, inviting comparisons with suicide missions in other times and places. Historical context is further established by an overview of media accounts of Japanese suicide missions in the Asian PacificWar, beginning with the mission carried out at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. An analysis of media reportage shows how members of suicide missions were glorified and made into role models for all Japanese, even women and children. Servicemen who died for their country were enshrined at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. The article concludes by suggesting reasons why civilians, even those who died fighting in the war, have not been similarly honored.


The evolutionary transition from hermaphroditism (combined sexes) to dioecy (separate sexes) is associated with whole genome duplication (polyploidy) in several flowering plant genera. Moreover, there is evidence for transitions in the opposite direction, i.e. a loss of dioecy with an increase in ploidy. Here, we review evidence for these associations, synthesize previous ideas on the mechanism underlying the patterns and explore alternative pathways. Specifically, we examine potential ecological and genetic mechanisms, differentiated by whether ploidy or gender (functional sex expression of the plant) changes are the primary cause and whether the effect is direct or indirect. An analysis of 22 genera variable for both ploidy and gender indicates that gender monomorphism (hermaphroditism, monoecy) is more common among diploid than polyploid species, whereas gender dimorphism (dioecy, gynodioecy, subdioecy) is more frequent among polyploid species. The transition from diploid hermaphroditic to polyploid gender-dimorphic taxa may arise directly through changes in gender as a result of genome duplication through genomic rearrangements or homeologous recombination, or changes in gender may result in increased unreduced gamete production leading to polyploid formation. Alternatively, the transition may occur through the indirect effects of genome duplication on mating system and inbreeding depression, which favor selection for unisexuality, or habitat shifts associated with unisexuality may simultaneously cause increased unreduced gamete production. Novel mechanisms for transitions in the opposite direction (from dioecy to hermaphroditism with increase in ploidy) include disruption of genetic sex determination and the benefits of reproductive assurance. We highlight key questions requiring further attention and promising approaches for answering them and better clarifying the genesis of sexual system polyploidy associations. See also the sister article focusing on animals by Wertheim et al. in this themed issue.


The isomerization and oligomerization of 1-hexene was studied over ZSM-5 catalyst under sub- and supercritical conditions within a down-flow fixed bed reactor in the temperature range of 220−250 °C and pressure range 10−70 bar. The catalyst activity and the product selectivity were found to be dependent on the operation conditions. Reactions were carried out over beds with 10 and 0.5 g catalyst, the smaller bed being used to simulate coking in the top layer of the larger bed. The conversion of 1-hexene over the 10 g bed of catalyst was in the range 83−99%, depending upon the operating conditions and was stable during the test period. An increase of the reaction temperature from 220−250 °C led to higher selectivity toward oligomerization, as did increases in reaction pressure in the range 10−70 bar. The amount of coke deposited on the catalysts decreased from 18.8 wt % at 235 °C and 10 bar in the subcritical region to 10.4 wt % at 235 °C and 40 bar in the supercritical region. DRIFTS showed that deposited coke is mainly polyolefinic. Nitrogen sorption showed that following initial shallow pore filling over shorter contact times, the pore mouth subsequently became blocked and coke mainly formed on the outside of the zeolite crystallites. When operating with 0.5 g catalyst, some deactivation occurred under subcritical conditions, although not under supercritical conditions. It appeared that with the smaller catalyst mass oligomers were retained within the pore structure of ZSM-5. The results of the study demonstrate that adjustment of the operating temperature and pressure can be used to tune the product selectivity of the reaction and the total amount of coke deposited upon the catalyst is reduced by operating under supercritical conditions.


The IEEE 802.15.4 (also known as Zigbee) is a new wireless personal area network (PAN) standard designed for wireless monitoring and control applications. The Zigbee standard is based on CSMA-CA for contention based medium access. In this paper a study of the Adaptive backoff exponent (BE) management of CSMA-CA for 802.15.4 is presented. The BEs determine the number of backoff slots that the device shall wait before accessing the channel. The power consumption requirements make CSMA-CA use fewer BEs which increase the probability of devices choosing identical BEs and as a result, wait for the same number of backoff slots in some cases. This often leads to degradation of system performance at congestion scenarios, due to higher number of collisions. This paper addresses the problem by proposing an adaptive mechanism to the current implementation of the backoff exponent management, based on a decision criterion. As a result of the implementation, potential packet collisions are reduced. The results of NS-2 simulations are presented, indicating an overall improvement in network performance.


Large carnivores are keystone species but represent economic costs to hunters. In Sweden, carnivore territories generally overlap with hunting areas, and as a result, conflicts occur because of the competition for prey. The wolf, lynx, and brown bear are protected species by law but are hunted when authorities allocate license hunting quotas. The aim of these quotas is to limit carnivore numbers. We estimate a hedonic model using ordinary least squares to address the effect of large carnivore occurrence on hunting lease prices by accounting for the presence of license hunting quotas for predators. This result is compared with the least absolute deviation estimations, which reduce the influence of outliers in the survey data. To isolate the effect of carnivores on hunting lease prices, we use snow depth and forest productivity as proxy variables for game harvest in the absence of carnivores. Our results show that lynx and wolf presence reduce hunting lease prices, but lynx presence shows higher significance and robustness. Based on median regressions, the marginal implicit price of an additional wolf territory is about 15% larger than that of an additional lynx territory. In contrast, we found no conclusive evidence that bear abundance directly affects hunting lease prices, but regulated bear hunting is found to have a positive and significant impact on hunting leases, suggesting indirect positive net benefits of increased brown bear abundance.


The goal of this paper is to present an efficient implementation of an explicit matrix inversion of general square matrices on multicore computer architecture. The inversion procedure is split into four steps: 1) computing the LU factorization, 2) inverting the upper triangular U factor, 3) solving a linear system, whose solution yields inverse of the original matrix and 4) applying backward column pivoting on the inverted matrix. Using a tile data layout, which represents the matrix in the system memory with an optimized cache-aware format, the computation of the four steps is decomposed into computational tasks. A directed acyclic graph is generated on the fly which represents the program data flow. Its nodes represent tasks and edges the data dependencies between them. Previous implementations of matrix inversions, available in the state-of-the-art numerical libraries, are suffer from unnecessary synchronization points, which are non-existent in our implementation in order to fully exploit the parallelism of the underlying hardware. Our algorithmic approach allows to remove these bottlenecks and to execute the tasks with loose synchronization. A runtime environment system called QUARK is necessary to dynamically schedule our numerical kernels on the available processing units. The reported results from our LU-based matrix inversion implementation significantly outperform the state-of-the-art numerical libraries such as LAPACK (5x), MKL (5x) and ScaLAPACK (2.5x) on a contemporary AMD platform with four sockets and the total of 48 cores for a matrix of size 24000. A power consumption analysis shows that our high performance implementation is also energy efficient and substantially consumes less power than its competitors.


Mass animal migrations represent large movements of biomass, energy, and nutrients with predictable patterns and important ecosystem-level consequences. Diel vertical migration (DVM) in aquatic systems, the daily movement of organisms from deeper depths during the day to shallower depths in the water column at night, is widespread in freshwater and marine systems. Recent studies, however, suggest partial migration behavior, whereby only some portion of a population migrates, is the rule rather than the exception in a range of migratory fauna, including those that undergo DVM. Hypotheses to explain why partial migrations occur complicate traditional views on DVM and challenge conventional theories. I address intraspecific variation in DVM behavior of an aquatic omnivore, Mysis diluviana, to test several long-standing assumptions about benthic-pelagic DVM in Mysis. I evaluated the extent of partial DVM and several potential drivers within a Lake Champlain Mysis population. I used traditional net-based field observations, a novel deep-water video camera system, and a laboratory experiment, to compare distributions, demographics, abundance estimates, hunger-satiation state, and feeding behavior, of migrant and non-migrant Mysis across multiple seasons, habitats, and different times of the day. Findings from my dissertation suggest Mysis partial DVM is common, and is associated with body size and demographic differences among individuals. Partial DVM behavior, however, did not correspond to strong differences in feeding preference or hunger-satiation state of individuals. My results contribute toward a more comprehensive understanding of migration theory and mysid biology, by including the often overlooked, but important, benthic habitat component of DVM studies, and fills in several ecological knowledge gaps regarding a key omnivore in many deep lake food webs across North America where Mysis serve as both predators and prey to many organisms.


Previous research suggests that international volunteer service may have both positive and negative effects on host organizations. Applying a capacity-building perspective, this study uses semistructured interviews to ask staff in hosting organizations to identify the main outcomes of short-term volunteer service. These views were compared with perspectives of staff from matched organizations that do not host international volunteers. Findings suggest that international volunteers may increase organizational capacity by supplying extra hands, providing technical and professional skills, contributing tangible resources, and enhancing intercultural understanding. Volunteers may also challenge organizations as they absorb staff time and resources. Staff members from both types of organizations identify individual and institutional variables that may affect the quality of these outcomes, including volunteers' language capacity and the intensity of the service placement.


The paper outlines basic concepts of the system for indoor climate monitoring being currently developed in a four-year project. The project concentrates on building system of sensors, the related infrastructure for communication between these sensors and the server for centralized data storage and processing. The components of the planned system are highly modular for adjustment to specific requirements of given collection. The project's aim is to provide basis for remote monitoring of indoor climate and environment of exhibitions and depositories of museums, galleries, archives, etc. situated in historical buildings like castles, chateaus, town halls, where the protection of the building limits measures for indoor climate optimization. Finally the expected outcomes envisage the development of specialized sensors mainly for pest control and development of portable version of data sensing units for supervision of environmental parameters of collection during transport.


Celebrating 100 years of musical outreach As we approach the 100-year anniversary of many of the Norwegian symphony orchestras, we also mark 100 years of outreach, the effort to introduce symphonic music to new audiences. Today, every fourth audience member at a professional symphony orchestra concert is a child or a young person, largely because of outreach. This article outlines the significant, but less investigated historical development of outreach. The article will also discuss the different concepts of concerts that have developed over the years, and suggest a proper terminology to describe the unique experiences that outreach has to offer. Although there has been no lack of good will concerning these concerts, there has been a striking need for historical perspective, classification and terminology that can further our ability to understand, criticize, evaluate and develop the possibilities of outreach. In its last part, the article reviews some of the challenges faced today by orchestras wishing to introduce symphonic music to new listeners.


When children are placed out of the home, state child protective service departments continue to voice their desire to place these children with relatives rather than in traditional foster care. Research has shown the positive impact kinship placement can have for the child; however, there is no consistent way kinship caregivers are supported once the child is placed in their care. This article will show mental health and child welfare workers how the theory of ambiguous loss can be applied in a group format to provide support for kin guardians to address the feelings of loss they face within themselves and the children they care for.


Customization and customer-driven manufacturing are both explicitly based on end-customer relations and customer requirements. The impact of these aspects on internal operations is relatively well known and can be investigated using time phasing and decoupling points. These tools are however rarely used for analyzing purchased material. Based on the time phased product structure, items are categorized according to three criteria: driver, uniqueness, and make/buy. Purchased items can thus be identified using the last criteria and then driver and uniqueness are used as a point of departure for categorizing purchased material. The approach hence provides a platform for development of supplier relations based on the customer requirements which is the core theme of the method for customer-driven purchasing.


Abstract : This article uses transaction costs to predict the probability of incurring a cost breach in a major defense acquisition program (MDAP). As transaction costs are not explicitly measured for MDAPs, the authors use estimates of systems engineering and program management (SE/PM) costs as a share of overall program costs as a proxy for transaction costs. Using survival analysis, a new approach to predicting cost breaches, they also found that an increased share of SE/PM costs in initial program estimates can help predict future cost breaches.


OBJECTIVE
To quantify acute immunologic and metabolic responses of beef heifers following topical administration of transdermal flunixin meglumine (TDFM) at various times relative to bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV1) and Mannheimia haemolytica challenges.

ANIMALS
32 beef heifers (mean body weight, 170 kg).

PROCEDURES
Heifers were assigned to 1 of 4 groups. Heifers in the control group did not receive TDFM, whereas 1 dose of TDFM (3.3 mg/kg) was topically applied to heifers of groups A, V, and B at -144, -72, and 0 hours. All heifers were inoculated with 1 × 108 plaque-forming units of BHV1 in each nostril at -72 hours and with 1.18 × 106 CFUs of M haemolytica intratracheally at 0 hours. Vaginal temperature was recorded and blood samples were collected for quantification of select immunologic and metabolic biomarkers at predetermined times from -144 to 360 hours.

RESULTS
Mean vaginal temperature was similar between group A and the control group. Mean vaginal temperatures for groups V and B were generally lower than that for the control group following BHV1 and M haemolytica challenges, respectively. Mean neutrophil oxidative burst capacity and L-selectin expression at 0 hours were significantly decreased for group V relative to the other groups. Other biomarkers did not differ among the groups at any time.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Results suggested that topical administration of TDFM to beef cattle effectively alleviated pyrexia without adverse effects on acute immunologic or metabolic responses when TDFM was administered at the same time as, but not before, respiratory pathogen challenge.


"Therapeutic Drug Monitoring: Newer Drugs and Biomarkers" features timely topics such as the monitoring of classical and newer drugs, pharmacogenomics and the application of biomarkers in therapeutic drug monitoring. This reference also discusses the limitations of current commercially available immunoassays for therapeutic monitoring. It presents new and sophisticated techniques used for proper determination of blood levels and the clinical utility of therapeutic drug monitoring of contemporary drugs. Written by leading international experts and geared toward clinical pathologists, toxicologists, clinical chemists, laboratory professionals and physicians, this book is an essential resource on the current practice of therapeutic drug monitoring in improving patient safety. It includes both the technical and clinical issues associated with therapeutic drug monitoring. It discusses the utility of therapeutic drug monitoring of newer drugs such as antiretroviral agents, anticonvulsants, antidepressants etc. It provides up-to-date information on issues in pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine with emphasis on therapy with warfarin, certain anticancer drugs and antidepressants. It covers important content on the limitations of commercially available immunoassays (chemical tests) for therapeutic drug monitoring and additional analytical techniques.


The development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques has defined modern neuroimaging. Since its inception, tens of thousands of studies using techniques such as functional MRI and diffusion weighted imaging have allowed for the non-invasive study of the brain. Despite the fact that MRI is routinely used to obtain data for neuroscience research, there has been no widely adopted standard for organizing and describing the data collected in an imaging experiment. This renders sharing and reusing data (within or between labs) difficult if not impossible and unnecessarily complicates the application of automatic pipelines and quality assurance protocols. To solve this problem, we have developed the Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS), a standard for organizing and describing MRI datasets. The BIDS standard uses file formats compatible with existing software, unifies the majority of practices already common in the field, and captures the metadata necessary for most common data processing operations.