Bullying is becoming a more prominent problem in U.S. schools every day. This Honors Project talks about not only the prominence of the problem, but the lasting effects that follow the act. This project involved two campus dialogue events. The first was the showing of a student-made documentary of the effects of bullying after the fact. The documentary included facts on bullying in U.S. schools and interviews involving UNCP students and family. The second event was a presentation or forum on bullying, how to find help, and prevention followed by a meaningful discussion on what was presented. The events overall were successful by means of getting the point across and the act of spreading awareness on the issue.


Breast cancer is a common disease affecting approximately 1 in 10 women at some time in their lives. Moreover, it is not a single disease but is characterised by distinct pathological types with different clinical outcomes. In the past decade, considerable progress has been made in understanding these different cancer subtypes at the molecular level. In particular, global gene expression studies have identified five predominant subtypes that have unique expression signatures. Unlike many other cancers, where a hierarchy of genetic mutations that leads to tumorigenesis has been identified, breast tumours have diverse genetic mutations that affect a variety of signalling pathways. The recent discovery of micro ribonucleic acids (microRNAs) and their role in tumour metastasis has opened up a whole new area of research. Although some highly successful treatments have been developed, the challenge for the future is the development of individualised therapies that are specific to each patient's tumour type.

Key Concepts:

Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease characterised by distinct pathological types with different outcomes.

Breast tumours have diverse genetic mutations that affect a variety of signalling pathways.

Breast tumours can be classified into different subgroups according to their molecular expression profiles.

It is not clear whether specific molecular pathways establish the subtype of breast cancer or whether different cell types become transformed and give rise to each tumour subtype.

Breast cancer patients would benefit from individual therapeutic regimens designed to treat their particular type of cancer.

Keywords:

mammary gland;
breast cancer;
cell of origin;
molecular classification;
individualised therapy


A herpetofaunistic survey was carried out in 2007 and 2008 in 6 vegetation types in the Municipality of Tacámbaro, state of Michoacán, México. A total of 21 amphibian species (8 families) and 58 reptile species (16 families) were registered. Species richness estimators indicated that from 85 to 91% of amphibian species, 77 to 85% of lizard species and 41 to 78% of snake species were registered. Forty-three species were registered in tropical deciduous forest, 29 in thorn forest, 17 in pine-oak forest, 13 in oak forest, 12 in pine forest, and 7 in fir forest. Of 79 species registered, 49 (62%) are endemic to México and 3 species are endemic to Michoacán. Thirty-seven (47%) species are listed in the Norma Oficial Mexicana of threatened species. The snake Leptotyphlops maximus was registered for the first time in Michoacán.


Silicon (Si) is a beneficial element for plant growth. In barley (Hordeum vulgare), Si uptake by the roots is mainly mediated by a Si channel, Low Silicon1 (HvLsi1), and an efflux transporter, HvLsi2. However, transporters involved in the distribution of Si in the shoots have not been identified. Here, we report the functional characterization of a homolog of HvLsi1, HvLsi6. HvLsi6 showed permeability for Si and localized to the plasma membrane. At the vegetative growth stage, HvLsi6 was expressed in both the roots and shoots. The expression level was unaffected by Si supply. In the roots, HvLsi6 was localized in epidermis and cortex cells of the tips, while in the leaf blades and sheaths, HvLsi6 was only localized at parenchyma cells of vascular bundles. At the reproductive growth stage, high expression of HvLsi6 was also found in the nodes. HvLsi6 in node I was polarly located at the transfer cells surrounding the enlarged vascular bundles toward the numerous xylem vessels. These results suggest that HvLsi6 is involved in Si uptake in the root tips, xylem unloading of Si in leaf blade and sheath, and intervascular transfer of Si in the nodes. Furthermore, HvLsi2 was found to be localized at the parenchyma cell layer adjacent to the transfer cells with opposite polarity of HvLsi6, suggesting that the coupling of HvLsi6 and HvLsi2 is involved in the intervascular transfer of Si at the nodes. Si translocated via the enlarged vascular bundles is unloaded to the transfer cells by HvLsi6, followed by HvLsi2 to reload Si to the diffuse vascular bundles, which are connected to the upper part of the plant, especially the panicles, the ultimate Si sink.


This paper maps and examines the provisions on anti-dumping, countervailing duties and safeguards in seventy-four regional trade agreements (RTAs). The RTAs vary in size, degree of integration, geographic region and the level of economic development of their members. The key policy concern of the paper is that the elastic and selective nature of trade remedies may lead to more discrimination, with reduced trade remedy actions against RTA partners, but a greater frequency of trade remedy actions against non-members. The adoption of RTAspecific trade remedy rules increases this risk of discrimination, with trade remedies against RTA members being abolished outright or being subjected to greater discipline. The templates used for mapping the trade remedy provisions reflect this central concern. The results of the mappings suggest the need to be vigilant about increased discrimination arising from trade remedy rules in RTAs. A number of RTAs have succeeded in abolishing trade remedies. Probit and multinomial logit model estimations suggest that these RTAs are characterized by a higher share of intra-RTA trade and deeper forms of integration that go well beyond the dismantling of border measures. A fairly large number of RTAs have adopted RTA-specific rules that tighten discipline on the application of trade remedies on RTA members. In the case of anti-dumping for example, some provisions increase de minimis volume and dumping margin requirements and shorten the duration for applying anti-dumping duties relative to the WTO Anti-dumping Agreement. In similar fashion, many of the provisions on bilateral safeguards lead to tightened discipline or reduce the incentives to take safeguard actions. Safeguard measures can be imposed only during the transition period, have shorter duration periods and require compensation if put in place. Further, retaliation is allowed if there is no agreement on compensation. RTA provisions on global safeguards require that, under certain conditions, RTA partners be exempted from multilateral safeguard actions. This conflicts with multilateral rules which require that safeguard measures be applied to all sources of imports and highlights the problem of trade diversion. A small number of RTAs give a role to regional institutions to conduct anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations and to review final determinations of national authorities. There is a theoretical presumption and some empirical evidence to suggest that this reduces the frequency of anti-dumping initiations and final determinations against RTA members. In the case of CVDs, we are unable to find major innovations in CVD rules and practice by past and present RTAs. A major reason for this may be the absence of commitments in the RTA on meaningful or significant curbs on subsidies or state aid.


THIS PAPER DISCUSSES an old and much-maligned topic: the cross-sectional relationship between the concentration of firms in the marketplace and price-cost margins. 1 Because it is hard to imagine a literature for which modern graduate students in economics are taught to have more contempt, some immediate justifications are in order. I have two. First, despite the well-known problems with this literature, it continues to affect antitrust policy. The inappropriate inferences used to justify an active antitrust policy have given way to equally incorrect inferences that have been used to justify a relaxed merger policy. Second, the alternative to cross-industry studies is to study specific industries. Indeed, the econometric analysis of individual industries has been labeled the "new empirical industrial organization. "2 Although this development is a healthy one, it is important to recall that it was the failure of studies of individual industries to yield general insights that made crossindustry studies popular. One might argue that the primary lesson from three decades of cross-sectional studies is that general principles based on simple indicators are not to be had. Nevertheless, the imprecisions


For more than three-and-a-half centuries, the scholarly infrastructure—composed of commercial publishers, learned societies, libraries, and the scholars themselves—has provided the foundation functions of certification, registration, access, preservation, and reward. However, over the last two decades, the stability of this infrastructure has been disrupted by profound changes in the technological, economic, cultural, and political climate. We examine the actions of scholars in response to this infrastructure instability through the lens of Hirschman's "exit, voice, and loyalty" framework. We describe the motivations and actions by scholars, especially those with tenure, who have chosen exit from the mainstream scholarly communication infrastructure to a proliferation of newly available alternative infrastructures. However, this option is not practical for all scholars due to the "enforced loyalty" imposed by reward systems based on metrics that are intricately tied to the traditional infrastructure. We examine the alternative of voice exercised by these scholars, combined with the threat of exit that has changed policies that are the source of dissatisfaction with the system.


Rapidly growing population and increasing amount of shipments induced by the e-commerce are two of the main reasons for the constantly rising urban freight traffic. Cities are therefore overwhelmed by a growing stream of goods and the available infrastructure, shared between people and goods traffic, often reached its maximum capacity. Phenomena such as traffic congestion, pollution and lack of space are direct consequences of this trend and their impact on the quality of life in the city is not negligible. City administrations are keen to evaluate innovative city logistics concepts and adopt alternative solutions, to overcome the challenges posed by such a dynamic environment, constrained in existing infrastructure. In this paper, a heuristic method based on the utility analysis is presented. Thanks to a modular approach accounting for stakeholders´ requirements, possible different scenarios and available technologies, the development of new city logistic concepts is supported. The proposed method is then applied to a case study concerning the city of Reutlingen (Germany). Results are presented and a brief discussion leads to the conclusion.


DURING THE FIG CONGRESS 2018, scientists, experts, researchers, public and private sector representatives active in the field of surveying will come together and share their knowledge, opinions and projects. Along with keynote speakers, there will be oral presentations, pre-events such as Reference Frames in Practice, Building Information Modelling (BIM) and a special Young Surveyors Conference. Dates: 6th to 11th May 2018; Location: Istanbul, Turkey; Theme: Embracing our smart world where the continents connect: enhancing the geospatial maturity of societies; Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com; Website: http://www.fig.net/fig 2018


Prostitution is highly contested and extensively researched yet despite the amount of research that has been carried out there has, until recently, been little focus on how people leave prostitution. Within the literature that does exist, the complexity of leaving prostitution is widely acknowledged. Exiting is seen as a process not an event, and one which is not necessarily linear, and studies recognise that those who seek to leave face multi-faceted barriers. The role of support organisations in facilitating transitions from prostitution is acknowledged but such organizations remain largely unexamined, as do the associations with faith traditions that have been noted amongst some of these organisations. The existing literature attests to the role of alternative employment in enabling women to exit and remain out of prostitution and a small number of empirical studies have begun to explore the role of micro-enterprise development and vocational skills training in the context of prostitution. The provision of alternative employment through the operation of a social enterprise, has, however, received scant attention.
This thesis contributes to understandings of the process of exiting prostitution through an exploration of the phenomenon of faith-based projects that support women to leave prostitution through the operation of social enterprises. Based on data from an internet mapping study and ethnographic research with two case studies, a project in India and a project in the US, both of which are running social enterprises, the research examines the nature of such projects; how they support women to exit prostitution; how the social enterprise models employed by these projects operate; the salience of faith in the nature and work of such projects; and the experiences of the women engaging with these projects. In doing so, this thesis contributes to knowledge in three areas: (1) exiting prostitution, (2) social enterprise, and (3) faith.


Abstract. Cropland mapping is an important inventory for food security and decision making operated by governments. Crop mapping is used to identify the croplands and their spatial distribution. For a reliable analysis and forecast for projection, multi-temporal data play a key role. Even current open and frequent optical satellite data such as Sentinel-2 and Landsat support monitoring, they are not always operational due to atmospheric conditions (rain, cloud cover, haze, etc.). On the other hand, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites provide alternative data sets compared to optical satellites since they can acquire images under all weather conditions. In this study, an annual cropland monitoring study is conducted using Sentinel-1 SAR. For the investigation, Tokat Province an agricultural region of Turkey, where the main source of income is agriculture, was selected. There are 4 different vegetation species (wheat, sunflower, sugar beet, corn) in the study area. Sentinel-1 data was used to generate time-series of each class and phenological structures of the crops. In this context, backscatter images of both vertical-vertical (VV) and vertical-horizontal (VH) polarized data, and coherence of both VV and VH were produced from Sentinel-1 data. Time-Weighted Dynamic Time-Warping (TWDTW) classification approach was used over cropland. The produced time-series are classified under different scenarios. The results showed that only coherence has provided higher accuracies about 81% compared to using only backscatter images as 49%.


The grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) population of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is increasing in numbers and expanding its range. In this scenario, the number of conflicts between humans and grizzly bears is likely to increase. Understanding how grizzly bear habitat selection is affected by concentrated high human use, such as construction projects, plays a major role in management decisions for this species. In this research, we combined bear sign data collected in 27 permanent transects during 11 years (1990-91, 1996-97, 2003-04, and 2007-11) with food habits analysis to provide a description of grizzly bear habitat use in 91km of the Cooke City Basin, Montana. Data were collected during years of mine reclamation (2003-04), highway reconstruction (2007-09), and years when no major human activities occurred (1990-91, 1996-97, and 2010-11). The main objectives of this study were to quantify grizzly bear spatial avoidance to mine reclamation and highway reconstruction activities and provide knowledge about environmental factors influencing grizzly bear habitat in the Basin. Resource selection functions were used to address these goals. Results showed that, in the Cooke City Basin, grizzly bears selected for mid-high elevation, forested, south-west facing slopes (areas where whitebark pine seeds are most abundant) and avoided areas of high tertiary road density. Mine reclamation occurred near whitebark pine forests. The estimated grizzly bear use of areas within 1 km and 2 km of reclamation epicenters decreased 83% and 52%, respectively, in years of mine reclamation. Grizzly bears did not avoid areas beyond 2 km of mine reclamation or areas within 4 km of highway reconstruction in years when these activities occurred. The lack of avoidance associated with highway reconstruction is likely explained by the fact that this occurred in the lowest elevation areas (below 2500 m) that are used less by grizzly bears. Grizzly bears use in the Cooke City Basin were mostly uninterrupted by two major construction projects. However, temporary and localized habitat loss occurred when construction was focused near whitebark forests with high bear use. Temporary habitat loss was not observed when construction occurred in areas distant from whitebark forests and used less by bears.


The aim of this study was to investigate the leisure constraints perceived by the university students according to the level of smartphone addiction. In the study, in order to determine the constraints faced by the participants Leisure Constraints Scale developed by Alexandris and Carroll (1997), adapted to Turkish by Gurbuz, Oncu, and Emir (2012) and in order to determine the level of smartphone addiction, Smartphone Addiction Scale developed by Kwon et al. (2013) and adapted to Turkish by Noyan et al. (2015), was used. Conventional sampling method was preferred for sample selection and face-to-face survey method was used for data collection. In the analysis of the obtained data, descriptive statistics, Independent Sample t-test, One-way ANOVA, Chi-square, Hierarchical and non-hierarchical clustering analysis were used. A total of 1298 volunteers participated in the study: 676 males (52.1%) and 622 females (47.9%). According to the results of the study, it was determined that there was a statistically significant difference in the subscales of leisure constraints in terms of individual psychology, lack of knowledge, lack of friends, lack of time and interest according to smartphone addiction levels. As a result; It was determined that the high-level smartphones addicted students perceived a high level of leisure constraints than the university students who had a low level of addictions.


A theoretical model of trust in WWW commerce systems is presented. Based on this model, an instrument called the Trust Scale was developed. The instrument was validated using exploratory and higher order factor analysis to identify the presence of the underlying factor, trust. In the first stage of this research, we found that trust in our WWW commerce system was lower than trust in conventional banking systems, substantiating the need for studying factors that can influence trust in WWW commerce. In the second stage, three of our four major hypotheses were validated. Our hypothesis regarding the influence of information provision on trust was substantiated. We found that information provision about the system resulted in higher trust in the system. Our hypothesis regarding the influence of task risk on trust was also substantiated. We found that trust in a system is dependent on task risk, thereby suggesting that WWW commerce systems may not be trusted for all tasks. Our hypothesis regarding the influence of an individual's Tendency To Trust, on trust in the system was not substantiated. Our final major hypothesis about the influence of trust on the willingness to use the system was substantiated. We found that individuals who had higher trust in the systems were more willing to accept and use the system, indicating that trust in the system will play a key role in ensuring adoption and continued use of WWW commerce systems.


The stated purpose of Commonwealth Climate Change Communication Conference is to 'allow in-depth discussions about education and communication approaches and methods to inform and raise awareness about climate change, and hence support the search for global and regional solutions for the impacts climate change will have on Commonwealth nations'. It aims to make a contribution to (1) changing perceptions, attitudes and behaviours through education and communication for climate change, (2) design and methodology for communicating awareness about climate change and adaptation and mitigation activity: potentials, challenges, problems, and barriers, (3) climate change communication initiatives and projects implemented across the Commonwealth by national and international stakeholders, (4) exchange of climate change information amongst government and non-government organisations within the Commonwealth, and (5) climate change, the Millennium Development Goals, and Environmental Sustainability.In this presentation we focus mainly on aims (1), (2) and (4). We first examine the Port of Spain document for its climate change sentiment and action content (Slides 2 and 3) and find the identified sentiment and action consistent with widely accepted scientific explanations of anthropogenic climate change (Slide 4). We then examine climate change uncertainty and complexity post COP 15 (Slide 5) and its impact on Port of Spain sentiment and action (Slide 6). We continue in Slides 7 and 8 to discuss Port of Spain communication strategy post COP 15 and in Slide 9 we provide some specific insights from the climate change literature to complement the general interpretation of climate change communication issues provided prior to Slide 9. We find that climate change communication is essential but that as a new art it has yet to learn much of its own trade, and that whatever the state of its own art, it is likely to face challenging systemic and sociopolitical blocks to communication.


Isokinetic testing of the musculoskeletal system is an important diagnostic method in the course of rehabilitation because it is adapted to individual and objective in measuring biomechanical parameters. Isokinetic dynamometer serves as a measurement and/or exercising device and helps user to achieve maximum force in through a range of motion, accommodating for potential pain or fatigue. Isokinetic dynamometer measures strength, torque, and generated power as well as the range of motion of the joint and distribution of strength in the range of motion. These results, as well as the relation between agonists and antagonists, acceleration time, velocity of motion reciprocity, maximum torque angle, and the fatigue/endurance index are computed and compared with standard values using software. Repeated testing shows changes in parameters in later stages, ensuring an accurate insight in the progress of rehabilitation. This paper describes the treatment of a 14-year-old boy engaged in rowing who suffered from suprapatellar pain and instability of the knee. After isokinetic testing and rehabilitation the boy resumed his sport activities.


A multifaceted look at a region defined by continuity and change. In the South today, the sight of a Latina in a NASCAR T-shirt behind the register at an Asian grocery would hardly draw a second glance. That scenario, and our likely reaction to it, surely signals something important - but what? Here some of the region's most respected and readable observers look across the past century to help us take stock of where the South is now and where it may be headed. Reflecting the writers' deep interests in southern history, politics, literature, religion, and other matters, the essays engage in new ways some timeless concerns about the region: How has the South changed - or not changed? Has the South as a distinct region disappeared, or has it absorbed the many forces of change and still retained its cultural and social distinctiveness? Although the essays touch on an engaging diversity of topics including the USDA's crop spraying policies, Tom Wolfe's novel "A Man in Full," and collegiate women's soccer, they ultimately cluster around a common set of themes. These include race, segregation and the fall of Jim Crow, gender, cultural distinctiveness and identity, modernization, education, and urbanization. Mindful of the South's reputation for insularity, the essays also gauge the impact of federal assistance, relocated industries, immigration, and other outside influences. As one contributor writes, and as all would acknowledge, those who undertake a project like this "should bear in mind that they are tracking a target moving constantly but often erratically." The rewards of pondering a place as elusive, complex, and contradictory as the American South are on full display here.


New York City launched Citi Bike, the largest bike share program in the United States, in May 2013. This study examines the first two years of Citi Bike and its role in New York City mobility. Citi Bike's station connection to public transportation hubs and station density are major factors in the system's high ridership and use. Seventy-four percent of Citi Bike stations are within a five-minute walk of a subway station entrance, providing a "last mile" solution for transit commuters. The system's greatest challenges are expanding and diversifying its customer base while also rebalancing the number of bicycles available at high-demand stations. Citi Bike has become an integral part of New York's transportation culture, even though it serves a limited geographic area. This report addresses those challenges and recommends strategies for the future.


This study looked into how Filipino males from three cultural groups-the Tagalogs, Ilonggos and Maranaws, differ in their understanding of the concepts of pagkalalaki (manhood), tunay na lalaki (real man) and ganap na lalaki (fulfilled man). Responses across the 3 cultural groups appear to be similar in terms of the biological aspects of manhood as manifested in physical attributes, strength and the ability to fulfill role expectations. Differences are more pronounced in the cultural and psycho-social realms.


Mood disorders are associated with deficits in hippocampal size and function. Neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus has been implicated in the behavioral efficacy of some antidepressants. However, the precise function of newborn hippocampal neurons in the etiology and treatment of mood disorders remains unclear. Anxiety, which is highly comorbid with mood disorders, also appears to be influenced by neurogenesis. The intricacies of this influence are poorly understood. Here, the role of neurogenesis in the pathophysiology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders is investigated in a transgenic mouse exhibiting partial suppression of hippocampal neurogenesis. This reduction is induced by hippocampal microinjection of a Cre-expressing adeno-associated virus to delete ATR, a cell cycle checkpoint kinase, from the hippocampus of adult mice. Subsequent to hippocampal ATR deletion, behavior is examined in mouse models of anxiety, depressive-like behavior, antidepressant efficacy, and susceptibility to stress. In addition, the necessity of heightened neurogenesis in exercise-induced anxiety is examined. ATR deletion resulted in an anhedonic phenotype in a sucrose drinking task but did not increase the likelihood of developing behavioral despair in the learned helplessness paradigm. Furthermore, mice lacking hippocampal ATR exhibited reduced anxiety in a number of behavioral tests. In the novelty-induced hypophagia task, the ability of chronic antidepressants to alleviate hyponeophagia was absent in ATR-deleted mice, and this effect was linked to an attenuation of the ability of chronic antidepressants to stimulate dendritic spine density. Finally, ATR deletion attenuated the neurogenic effect of voluntary wheel running, and concurrently blocked some of the anxiogenic effects of wheel running. In conclusion, neurogenesis appears to be an essential regulator of behaviors indicative of mood and anxiety disorders. These observations contribute to the body of work investigating the etiology and treatment of mood disorders for the purpose of guiding pharmaceutical drug discovery towards the eventual identification of antidepressant compounds with greater efficacy and fewer side effects. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Pharmacology First Advisor Dr. Julie A. Blendy


The doctrine of plural worlds is an ancient concept which received a new lease on life as a result of developments in astronomy in the sixteenth century. In his epic Paradise Lost, John Milton repeatedly references this idea. Milton uses the concept of plural worlds in two distinct forms: at the literal level, he invokes the possibility of plural worlds within the created universe of the poem, and on a more metaphorical level, he invokes the possibility of the existence of several distinct but overlapping worlds. This paper seeks to consider how and why Milton uses this idea in the ways he does. [


Background This study investigates the naturalistic course of panic disorder over four years and attempts to identify predictors for outcome. Method 423 DSM–III–R panic disorder patients who had taken part in an international multicentre drug trial were selected for follow-up; we were able to re-interview 367 (87%). For panic attacks, phobic avoidance and disabilities the same rating scales were administered as had been used for the clinical trials. Results While 61 % of all patients experienced at least occasional panic attacks at follow-up, few suffered from serious phobic avoidance (16.7%) or serious disabilities (work 7.9%; family 8.7%; social 13.9%). Panic attack frequency at baseline, original trial medication and continuous use of psychotropic medication during follow-up are not related to outcome, whereas longer duration of illness and more severe phobic avoidance at baseline are unfavourable. Conclusion The course of panic disorder is not uniform. Since long duration of illness and severe phobic avoidance at baseline are predictors for an unfavourable outcome, more rigorous efforts should be undertaken to detect and treat panic disorder at an early stage.


The volume of enclosed gas samples has been subjected to sinusoidal variation at a frequency of 8 cps; this volume modulation cycle is approximately adiabatic and involves temperature variations of several hundred degrees. Several emission bands of nitrous oxide in the spectral region between 3000 cm−1 and 1000 cm−1 have been investigated as a function of compression ratio for samples of pure nitrous oxide, nitrous oxide diluted with argon, and nitrous oxide diluted with various argon-nitrogen mixtures. Emission near the centers of strong absorption bands is that to be expected from a temperature-modulated blackbody provided the absorber concentration is sufficiently great to give complete absorption near the band center. For weaker bands and for strong bands with low values of absorber concentration, the effects produced by absorber concentration modulation and pressure modulation are superimposed on the effects attributable to temperature modulation. All observed effects can be interpreted on a semiquantitative basis in terms of an adiabatic modulation process.


This paper has x-rayed Nigerian agriculture and highlighted the problems that have constrained performance. To the casual observer, it would appear that Nigerian agriculture has done well in spite of the problems. After all, it is said that over 70 million Nigerians (about 70 percent of the population) derive their livelihood from agriculture.
For those of us who have the responsibility of studying and operating the system, the danger signals should be clear. The first danger signal is that the productivity of agriculture has not grown but has declined in some sectors: consequently Nigeria has been unable to feed its population. The second danger signal is that the population is growing rapidly at the rate of about 3 percent which surpasses the rate of growth of food production. The third is that our foreign exchange earning is declining such that we cannot afford to supplement local food production with imports. The three factors have combined to cause acute food scarcity which is currently felt more in spiralling food prices than in non-availability of food. This is why currently, the average salary earner spends an unduly large proportion of the monthly take-home pay on food alone.
If agricultural productivity does not increase considerably in the next decade, and our foreign exchange earning capacity continues to decline as it has done in the past two decades, while the population continues to grow at the current rate, then Nigeria will face a situation of absolute food scarcity. The giant of Africa may be forced to go cap-in-hand begging for food aid. The prospect of this occurring necessitates that action should be taken to transform Nigerian agriculture fast as we make efforts to reduce our population growth rate. Agricultural professional organisations and institutions must rise to the occasion to ensure the sustained and efficient production of food, a resource of critical importance to the security and integrity of Nigeria. Cognisant that Nigeria, the Giant of Africa, has immense human and material resources, it therefore has the potential to utilize these as envisioned "to achieve food security, produce raw materials for industry and raise the level of foreign exchange earnings" and make Nigeria "Africa's leading economy". The challenge is ours.


Facebook is an Internet and societal phenomenon. In just a few years it has claimed a significant proportion of the world's population as regular users, becoming by far the most dominant Online Social Network (OSN). With its success has come a good deal of controversy, especially over privacy. Does Facebook and its kin herald a true shift in privacy values, or despite occasional reckless revelations, are most users actually as reserved as ever? We argue it's too early to draw conclusions about society as a whole from the OSN experience to date. However, Facebook in particular brings a number of compliance risks in jurisdictions that have enacted modern Information Privacy Law.


The last population of giraffes in west Africa lives in Niger in an unprotected Sahelian region inhabited by farmers and herders. The spatial behaviour of each individual of the population (n = 63) was studied by direct observation during 15 mo. Two-thirds of the population were resident in the tiger bush in the rainy season and in the nearby area of Harikanassou, a sandy agricultural region, in the dry season. Rainy season and dry season home ranges were mutually exclusive and individual home ranges were overlapping when considering one season (rainy season: 84%; dry season: 67%). The mean size of the seasonal home ranges of these resident giraffes during the dry season (90.7 km2) was twice the mean size during the rainy season (46.6 km2). A third of the population moved 80 to 200 km in three directions, and two giraffes from an isolated group from Mali moved 300 km along the Niger River. Long distance movements of such length have never been reported before, and several explanations are proposed: previous distribution, social transmission, hydrographic network and food availability, poaching events. The giraffes in Niger do not avoid rural communities; indeed, they live in densely populated regions. Furthermore, their movements, synchronized with human activities in these regions, are representative of life conditions in the Sahel.


It may have been true once that (as the famous cartoon of the 1990s put it) "Nobody knows you're a dog on the Internet," and that (as an MCI commercial of that era declared) on the Internet there is no race, gender, or infirmity, but today, with the development of web cams, digital photography, cell phone cameras, streaming video, and social networking sites, this notion seems quaintly idealistic. This volume takes up issues of race and ethnicity in the new digital media landscape. The contributors address this topic--still difficult to engage honestly, clearly, empathetically, and with informed understanding in twenty-first century America--with the goal of pushing consideration of a vexing but important subject from margin to center. Learning Race and Ethnicity explores the intersection of race and ethnicity with post 9/11 politics, online hate-speech practices, and digital youth and media cultures. It examines universal access and the racial and ethnic digital divide from the perspective of digital media learning and youth. The chapters treat such subjects as racial identity in the computer-mediated public sphere, minority technology innovators, new methods of music distribution, digital artist Judy Baca's work with youth, Native American digital media literacy, and minority youth technology access and the pervasiveness of online health information. ContributorsAmbar Basu, Graham D. Bodie, Dara N. Byrne, Jessie Daniels, Mohan J. Dutta, Raiford Guins, Guisela Latorre, Antonio Lpez, Chela Sandoval, Tyrone D. Taborn, Douglas Thomas Anna Everett is Professor of Film Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.


Canada, Mark. Literature and Journalism in Antebellum America: lhoreau, Stowe, and Their Contemporaries Respond to the Rise of the Commercial Press. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. 212 pp. $80. Mark Canada's lucid probing of the early "sibling rivalry in American letters" between journalism and literature focuses on the reaction of six major antebellum authors to journalism. As he makes clear, both of these rival genres aspired to represent the truth of American social reality. They sought to write the epic story of the American people, but they possessed different tools and confronted distinctive limitations in their endeavors. The book's first three chapters draw an overall picture of this competition, focusing on question of finances, the hunt for audiences, the relative authority of the two genres, and the literary-narrative tools that define news and fiction. Importantly, Canada situates this rivalry in the context of the early nineteenth-century reading revolution. The United States went from print scarcity, where books were few, often read aloud to families or groups, and had sacral overtones, to one of print surpluses with widespread literacy. He notes that the rise of the daily mass press with the penny papers in the 1 830s should be seen as part of this radical transformation in the world of print. Canada explores neither literature nor journalism fully. Indeed the authors he discusses - Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry David lhoreau, Edgar Allan Poe, Rebecca Harding Davis, Herman Melville, and Emily Dickinson - are not a representative sample of antebellum literature. They did not necessarily find a mass audience in their time, instead receiving canonical treatment in ours, and indeed the growth of literature, its institutions, audience, aesthetic, and market, are largely left untouched in this volume. Subsequent chapters explore how each author sought to reveal dimensions of social reality typically ignored by the press. In subtle but often explicit ways, these authors juxtaposed their investigations into American psychological, social, or even philosophical life to that of the press. By plumbing these literary efforts and the attitudes of these authors, this book compiles a valuable catalogue of the deficiencies of antebellum journalism. Thoreau, for example, notably embraced a quiet listening to the divine eternities of nature. Those timeless truths, he felt, could only be discovered by retreating to the country and eschewing the triviality and hubbub of everyday life so avidly chronicled by the press. "We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the old world some weeks nearer to the new: but perchance the first news that will leak through into broad flapping American ears will be that the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough." In the case of Davis' novel of life in the irons mills, a new model of investigative writing exposed the impoverished and brutalized lives of America's working class, a reality ignored by a deeply compromised, conformist journalism. For Canada, the opposition of literature and news depends upon the way each form of creative cultural production integrated the details and facts of everyday life with narrative structure or plots, which in turn are guided by broader understandings of social institutions and individual psychology. …


How did Farage persuade Reckless and Carswell to ditch the Conservatives?Would UKIP ever do a deal with another party?How have three near-death experiences shaped Farage's politics? How does Nigel feel about controversial kippers and their high-profile gaffes?Twenty-one years after its formation as a single-policy protest party, and on the eve of what promises to be one of the closest, most exciting general elections in recent memory, the truly remarkable rise of UKIP and its charismatic leader, Nigel Farage, have caused nothing less than a tectonic shift in British politics. And the aftershocks are being felt far beyond the corridors of power in Whitehall...This book, written by the man who orchestrated that extraordinary rise, is not an autobiography, but rather the untold story of the journey UKIP has travelled under Farage's leadership, from the icy fringes of British politics all the way to Westminster, where it is poised to claim the popular vote.In it, he reveals for the first time exactly how, over the last few years, Farage and his supporters have ushered in a very English revolution: secretly courting MPs right under the nose of the political establishment, in the tearooms and wine bars of the House of Lords. With characteristic wit and candour, Farage takes us beyond the caricature of the beer-drinking, chain-smoking adventurer in Jermyn Street double-cuffs as he describes the values that underpin his own journey: from successful City trader to (very) outspoken critic of the European Union and champion of Britain's right to govern itself.


Abstract. Cities become increasingly populated, which calls for new approaches to ensure that cities continue being viable places for citizens to live in. The focus of these approaches should be on understanding citizens regarding their feelings, needs and behaviours. This includes an understanding of the perception of and the emotional reactions to urban structures from citizens' points of view. Following the approach of urban emotions (Zeile et al., 2005), different objective physiological and subjective self-report measures were used in an experimental study in order to capture these emotional responses and to visualize the data in an emotional map. A small sample (N = 13) of students was asked to collect positive as well as negative hot spots in a park area in the city centre of Stuttgart, i.e. spots that elicit positive or negative reactions. The results show the general potential of the park to function as a recreational area, but also identify room for improvement (e.g. concrete structures in the park). While physiological measures are useful to capture subtle emotional responses in larger areas, subjective measures seem to be more useful for understanding the reasons of the emotional responses by identifying positive as well as negative hot spots. A visualization tool introduced in this paper allows urban planners and other stakeholders (e.g. citizens, tourists) to view the results and analyse the data in an accessible way.


In this book, the latest volume in the annual series published in association with the London Business School and the Institute of Economic Affairs, some of the main issues in UK and EU utility regulation and competition policy are discussed. Topics examined include the new electricity and gas trading markets, regulating the railways, introducing competition into water, telecoms and Ofcom, opening EU gas and electricity markets, the 1998 Competition Act, EU merger policy and a general review of privatisation and regulation in Britain. Essays by expert commentators are followed in each case by comments from the relevant regulator.


A third of the world's population (2,000 million people) is infected with tuberculosis (TB). The two main control measures emphasised by WHO are improved case detection and cure. rates. High case detection level is of great importance to decrease personal suffering, risk of death and limit transmission in the community. TB is also a social disease and aspect such as the patients' health seeking behaviour affect TB Control programme. According to WHO, Malaysia is a country with intermediate burden of TB but Sabah, in East Malaysia has a notification rate of two and a half times that of the country's and contributes one third of the total cases. Two studies were conducted in West Malaysia on delay among TB patients but none in East Malaysia. This research was conducted in 2 phases. Phase 1 utilised a qualitative approach to get a better understanding of the health seeking behaviour of TB patients and those involved in their care (32 respondents). Phase 2 was conducted among 296 newly registered smear positive TB patients using a pre-tested questionnaire. It was found that 51.8% (95% CI: 45.9 - 57.8) of patients sought treatment after 30 days and the median patient time period was 60 days. By using multivariate analysis, those whose u'sual first treatment choice was a non-government health facility were twice as likely to have patient delay than those whose usual first choice was a government facility (Adjusted OR: 2.28, CI: 1.03 - 5.06). The median for doctor time period was 20 days and almost 43% of the respondents were put on treatment within 14 days after consultation with a doctor. In the multivariate analysis for doctor delay, those Who had never used government facility, had chest pain and loss of weight were twice more likely to be associated with doctor delay. A repeat visit to the first provider was associated with an approximately 4 times greater risk of doctor delay than those who did not (AOR: 3.88, CI: 1.79 - 8.39). Recommendations for improvement of current public health practice include ensuring greater awareness and adherence to existing guidelines and coritinuous health education on TB. The findings on delay can be used to develop a Quality Assurance Programme (QAP) to shorten doctor delay.


The main purposes of this paper are to identify and evaluate the oceanic mesoscale features that appear in the Atlantic Ocean eastern boundary, 20-40° N, 19-9° W, using ERS-1 (1992-1993) satellite altimeter data. The sea surface height anomalies and the eddy kinetic energy fields are calculated. High energy values, between 0.03 and 0.05 m 2 s -2, are observed with the altimeter data in the Canary region mainly in summer. These maximum values are associated with eddies located downstream of Gran Canaria and Tenerife (Canary Islands). Comparison with in situ measurements provided by the hydrographic surveys from a cruise in summer 1993 around the Canary Islands showed a good agreement. Dynamic heights relative to 300 dbar for August and the altimetric heights from ERS-1 data were averaged over 0.125° boxes for the duration of the cruise. The correlation coefficient was 0.7. Negative anomalies of the sea level calculated from ERS-1 between Cape Yubi and Cape Bojador (26.0°-27.5° N) were obtained in August 1993. Possibly these correspond with filaments from the north-west African upwelling coast. Also, the results of the altimetric data were compared with NOAA AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) sea surface temperature (SST) satellite images. A cyclonic and an anticyclonic eddy to the south-west of the island of Gran Canaria were identified during the same period in the SST images.


In "Assessing and Predicting Who Wins Federal Tax Trial Decisions," Professor Daniel Schneider uses empirical research to examine the interplay between who wins in federal tax decisions and the social backgrounds of the judges who decided the cases. While tax scholarship engages in traditional legal reasoning about tax cases, it has not empirically analyzed who wins. This article uses statistics, especially logistic regressions, to engage in such an analysis, taking judges' backgrounds into account. Professor Schneider's database consists of decisions from both the Tax Court and the district courts sitting in the Southern District of New York, the Northern District of Illinois, and the Central District of California that were rendered between 1979 and 1998. He has assembled data about both the decisions - the court where the decision was made, the year of the decision, the primary Code section at issue, and who won the case - and the social backgrounds of the judges who rendered the decisions - each judge's gender, race (for the district court judges) educational background, political affiliation, prior professional experience, and length of the judge's tenure when he rendered the decision. Some of Professor Schneider's descriptive statistics include his observations that the taxpayer won more in the Tax Court than in the district courts, before judges who had gone to more elite colleges, before judges who had sat on the bench less time when rendering the decision, and before judges who had come from a prior professional experience primarily in private practice. All of the tested variables in judges' social backgrounds were correlated with who won, with strong associations between background and the taxpayer winning occurring when a judge was a woman, had a more elite education, had a prior primary work experience in private practice, or was appointed by a Democratic president.


To determine if defects in the atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) system can cause hypertension, mice were generated with a disruption of the proANP gene. Homozygous mutants had no circulating or atrial ANP, and their blood pressures were elevated by 8 to 23 millimeters of mercury when they were fed standard (0.5 percent sodium chloride) and intermediate (2 percent sodium chloride) salt diets. On standard salt diets, heterozygotes had normal amounts of circulating ANP and normal blood pressures. However, on high (8 percent sodium chloride) salt diets they were hypertensive, with blood pressures elevated by 27 millimeters of mercury. These results demonstrate that genetically reduced production of ANP can lead to salt-sensitive hypertension.


Introduction This paper investigates the literature regarding the impact of shift work on prehospital emergency providers. While the issue of shift work has been thoroughly investigated in other health disciplines, this is not the case for the paramedic discipline, particularly in the Australian context. Objective To identify the literature available on prehospital providers regarding the effects of shift work on sleep. Method Electronic databases used were the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Ovid MEDLINE, Proquest, AMED and CINAHL. The following MeSH terms and keywords with truncation were used in the search strategy: 'shift work'; 'sleep disorder'; 'sleep deprivation'; 'circadian rhythm'; 'fatigue'; 'occupational stress'. Results The electronic databases cited 226 articles, of which nine met the inclusion criteria with another three articles sourced from references in the retrieved papers. There is a lack of literature describing the effect of shift work on sleep in the prehospital arena, with only one paper exploring paramedics in the Australian setting. These findings suggest that further work is required to examine shift hours and workforce health and safety in the prehospital setting. Conclusions Shift work can affect health and well-being on a variety of levels, both physiologically and psychologically, affecting aspects of work and personal life. Further research is warranted to prevent the issues of patient safety, work-related fatigue and the cumulative effects of shift work.


We trained a large, deep convolutional neural network to classify the 1.2 million high-resolution images in the ImageNet LSVRC-2010 contest into the 1000 different classes. On the test data, we achieved top-1 and top-5 error rates of 37.5% and 17.0%, respectively, which is considerably better than the previous state-of-the-art. The neural network, which has 60 million parameters and 650,000 neurons, consists of five convolutional layers, some of which are followed by max-pooling layers, and three fully connected layers with a final 1000-way softmax. To make training faster, we used non-saturating neurons and a very efficient GPU implementation of the convolution operation. To reduce overfitting in the fully connected layers we employed a recently developed regularization method called "dropout" that proved to be very effective. We also entered a variant of this model in the ILSVRC-2012 competition and achieved a winning top-5 test error rate of 15.3%, compared to 26.2% achieved by the second-best entry.


A comprehensive and generic medium frequency transformer (MFT) design methodology is presented in this paper, which can be applied to many transformer structures. Models were found or developed to cover all the necessary calculation, with emphasis on the balance between computation time and accuracy, leading to a fast and efficient design tool. Numerous MFT designs are available at the end with the possibility to choose the best candidate. A multi-megawatt offshore windfarm converter application was chosen to show the optimization procedure of the MFT design inside such a converter. The best potential design was retained and validated by numerous finite element simulations. This procedure was repeated for various MFT structures in order to perform a quantitative comparison of many different combinations of technological choices. This study can give insights on the best technological choices to be used for MFTs, and also shows significant differences in performance between structures.


Bourdieu's Distinction (1984) has been highly influential in sociological debates regarding cultural inequality, but it has rarely been considered a theory of aesthetics. In this article we explore empirically how the modernist framing of Bourdieu's aesthetics needs to be rethought in the context of contemporary aesthetic change. Drawing on a survey of museum visitors in Ghent, Belgium (n = 1195), we use Multiple Correspondence Analysis to analyse what aesthetic dimensions are important when people contemplate works of art. We find that the familiar Bourdieusian opposition between popular (based on beauty and harmony) and highbrow aesthetics is still important. However, the content of highbrow aesthetics has changed, now privileging 'postmodernist' dimensions over modernist ones. We can also detect another dimension that favours a socially reflexive art compared to a detachment of art from social preoccupations, which is not recognized in Bourdieu's account.


This paper provides the first analysis of a population-wide controlled field experiment for home visits checking on sick leave in the public sector. The experiment was carried out in Italy, a country with large absenteeism in the public sector, and it concerned the universe of public employees. We exploit unique administrative data from the Italian social security administration (INPS) on sick leave and work histories. We find that receiving a home visit reduces the number of days on sick leave in the following 16 months by about 12 % (5.5 days). The effect is stronger for workers who are found irregularly on sick leave (-10.2 days). We interpret our findings as a deterrence effect of home visits: workers being found irregularly on sick leave experience a decline of about 2 % of their wage in the following 12 months. Uncertainty aversion (there is no automatism in these sanctions) can play a role in these results. Our estimates suggest that home visits are cost-effective: every Euro spent for the visits involves up to 10 Euros reductions in sick benefits outlays. We estimate the marginal value of public funds (MVPF) spent on home visits at about 1.13, which is significantly lower than estimates of MVPF of income taxes in the US.


To improve the safety of sodium (Na) batteries, we first report a new solid polymer electrolyte (SPE), composed of sodium (fluorosulfonyl)(n-nonafluorobutanesulfonyl)imide (Na[(FSO2)(n-C4F9SO2)N], NaFNFSI) and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), which is prepared by a facile solution-casting method. The NaFNFSI/PEO (EO/Na+ = 15) blended polymer electrolyte exhibits a relatively high ionic conductivity of 3.36 × 10−4 S cm−1 at 80 °C, sufficient thermal stability (>300 °C) and anodic electrochemical stability (≈4.87 V vs. Na+/Na) for application in solid-state Na batteries. Most importantly, the NaFNFSI-based SPE can not only deliver excellent chemical and electrochemical stability with Na metal, but can also display good cycling and current-rate performances for the Na|SPE|NaCu1/9Ni2/9Fe1/3Mn1/3O2 cell. All of these outstanding properties would make the NaFNFSI-based SPE promising as a candidate for application in solid-state Na batteries.


The kittiwake is restricted to breeding within colonies. The effect of nesting density on the time of breeding and on breeding success was investigated, at colonies in Northeast England. Evidence exists that the female kittiwake requires stimulation from the mate, and from surrounding pairs, before breeding. The positive effect of nesting density, that is, social stimulation, is mediated through its effect on laying date, resulting in larger clutches of birds breeding at high density. There is a seasonal decline in clutch size. Nesting density has a negative effect on the number of young produced from eggs that hatch, which may be due to the negative action of accepted density dependent factors. The effect of social stimulation is not restricted to any one year, but is carried forward to the next and subsequent seasons. Birds which breed at high density return to the colony earlier in the following year, and at a more advanced stage of the pre-nuptial moult. Behavioural studies during the pre-egg laying phase have indicated that the colony, unless very small, never functions as a whole, but as a series of interacting and interlinking groups. The effect of nesting density is not one of mean colony density: the position of the nest within a colony is of importance. Although it is accepted that there are differences between recruits to high and low density areas, it is proposed that many of the subsequent differences are mediated through the effect of social stimulation on hormone secretion.


Primary work stressors and job satisfaction/dissatisfaction in Greek Junior Hospital Doctors (JHDs) are investigated to identify similarities and differences in the reports obtained from male and female hospital doctors. Participants in the study included 32 male and 28 female Greek hospital doctors who provided information through semi-structured, in-depth interviews. The findings revealed that a majority of Greek JHDs considered their profession very stressful, and that various differences were identified between male and female JHDs, with regard to perceived stress and satisfaction. The study has implications for the possible introduction of in-house stress management training programmes, both at a generic, and gender specific level. Future research aimed at increasing the individuals' coping mechanisms, and identifying environmental sources of stress are recommended. Key Words: Occupational Stressors, Job Satisfaction, Junior Hospital Doctors, Gender Differences, Qualitative Research, and Content Analysis Introduction It is widely acknowledged that work-related stress could have serious consequences as much for the individual as for the organization in which he/she works (Cooper, Dewe, & O'Driscoll, 2001; Sparks, Faragher, & Cooper, 2001). These consequences include absenteeism, depression, anxiety, and job dissatisfaction. Individuals' responses to the disturbance of equilibrium might either result in a use of one's own backup resources or a cessation of functioning altogether (Deary & Trait, 1987; Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001; Schaufeli, 1999). In a study aiming to determine doctors' job satisfaction, stress, and their interconnectness, Makin, Rout, and Cooper (1988) found that general practitioners' professional satisfaction is negatively affected by factors such as poor pay and excessive workload. Furthermore, the unpredictable and unplanned interruptions seem to be a great source of stress for doctors Research by the British Medical Association, Health Policy, and Economic Research Unit (1998) showed that, for a sample of 440 full-time Senior House Officers and General Practitioner trainees in the UK, the most common sources of stress were the long working hours, the work demands that interfere with their social and personal lives, and the extreme overload. A significant stress factor that is often overlooked is the fact that doctors, compared to other professions, are responsible for human beings rather than "objects" (Caplan, Cobb, French, Harrison, & Pinneau, 1975). Thus, omission of duties or misconduct has profound effects on human life (Antoniou, 2001; Sexton, Thomas, & Helmreich, 2000). There are many studies that suggest that the sources of stress among doctors differ not only according to type of the work, but also according to the grade and the specialty (Burbeck, Coomber, Robinson, & Todd, 2002; Coomber et al., 2002; Sutherland & Cooper, 2003). Difficulties in patient contact and social pressure and interaction with other health professionals was not associated with the grade, but with the level of workload. Face-to-face contact with patients, their relatives, and other health professionals, together with the exposure to health risks and injuries, have previously been reported as significant sources of stress (Antoniou, 2006). Furthermore, in a review of prospective studies published over 20 years, Arnetz (2001), found that perceived overload, perceived medical-school stress, emotional pressure, and stress outside of work were predictors of mental health outcomes for young doctors during their first postgraduate years. The fact that jobs involving caring for humans are particularly stressful, has given rise to a growing body of research on stress among the health care professions. As stated by Sutherland & Cooper (2003), "stress is inherent in the medical professions" (p. 12). In addition to identification of stress levels, researchers often report job dissatisfaction as a problematic theme among young doctors. …


In spite of serious external shocks and political destabilisation in part of the country, Uganda has remained a good economic performer since the late 1980s, with over a decade of high per capita growth in excess of three per cent. This study concludes that Uganda's medium to long-term success will depend on the achievements in institutional reforms, including raising the quality of the civil service, curbing corruption and implementing an effective regulatory framework. This is important as a poorly functioning public sector is both unable to uphold the rule of law, thus losing the public goodwill necessary for implementing new measures, and a burden on the private sector as it implies increased transaction costs. There is a widespread domestic and international concern that the civil strife in the Great Lakes Region might lead Uganda and its neighbours from the path of economic reform back to socio-economic instability.


In this article the authors analyze the effect of private voucher education on student academic performance using new data on Chilean students and a novel identification strategy. Most schools in Chile provide either primary or secondary education. The authors analyze the effect of private voucher education on students who are forced to enroll at a different school to attend secondary education once graduated from primary schooling—structural switches. Moreover, the data set the authors use in this article contains information on previous academic achievement and thus allows them to identify differences in students' unobservable characteristics. Using a number of propensity-score-based econometric techniques and the changes-in-changes estimation method, the authors find that private voucher education leads to small, sometimes not statistically significant differences in academic performance. The estimated effect of private voucher education amounts to about 4% to 6% of one standard deviation in test scores. In contrast, the literature on Chile based on cross-sectional data had previously found positive effects of about 15% to 20% of one standard deviation.


Employee ethical behaviors are a frequent topic of business research and a critical criterion for organizations seeking to implement socially responsible, ethical business practices. They, alongside organizational citizenship behaviors and employee green behaviors, reflect one of the three major domains of employee responsible behaviors through which organizations realize corporate social responsibility goals. In this article, we present a critical review of theoretical conceptualizations, taxonomies, and assessment of employee ethical and unethical behaviors.We consider definitional issues and situate the construct of (un)ethical employee behaviors within the current Consensus Taxonomy of Counterproductive Work Behaviors (CT-CWB). We describe the structure and major dimensions of employee ethical behaviors and evaluate the construct coverage, psychometric properties, and shortcomings of major available ethical behavior measures. We provide a brief summary of individual differences determinants of ethical behaviors. We identify important directions for future research and the critical need for more adequate measurement of (un)ethical behaviors.


Young language learners deserve a well-planned, age-appropriate, and communicative language experience - one that will develop their self-esteem and motivate them to continue learning languages in the future and prepare them for global citizenship.Early Language Learning and Teaching: A1-A2, illustrates how to use the CEFR to create a learner-centred curriculum for young language learners. By adopting a plurilingual approach to language teaching and providing increased exposure to new language learning contexts, teachers and learners can embark on a language journey filled with communicative, interactive activities which promote language use in the classroom and beyond.This book will help teachers to view the CEFR not just as a document of reference for policy development, but as an essential tool for planning and assessing early language learning in the classroom. Using the positive ´can do´descriptors for language use at the A1-A2 levels, teachers and learners will be able to identify clear learning goals which will set them on the path to life-long language learning, and allow young learners to bring their own creativity, knowledge and joy of learning into the language classroom.


The influence of salinity on survival, specific gravity, and size of eggs of the endangered Hybognathus amarus (Rio Grande silvery minnow) was studied to provide insight into factors affecting their potential dispersal and fate. Under low salinity conditions egg specific gravity declined significantly in the first hour after spawning as the perivitelline space of the egg filled with water. Egg specific gravity achieved a minimum value approximately 1 h post-spawning and remained approximately constant until hatching, which occurred near 48 h post-spawning at 20°C. Specific gravity of the egg depended on the salinity of the water surrounding the egg: hardened eggs changed rapidly in diameter and specific gravity when exposed to water of higher salinity. Size and specific gravity of H. amarus eggs also differed when the eggs were incubated in different groundwater sources. Experiments indicated that calcium chloride saline solution had a greater effect on egg specific gravity and size than did solutions of sodium or potassium chlorides. Survival of H. amarus eggs declined sharply at salinity greater than 3 (practical salinity units, PSU) and was only 5% at a salinity of 8. Habitat restoration to benefit H. amarus should consider the salinity of habitats in which eggs incubate.


A method is proposed for determining the correlated and uncorrelated parts of phase noise spectra (PNS) of two continuous wave radio signals of different frequencies, ω 1 and ω 2. The PNS of the two signals and of mixed signals are measured. The PNS are modelled as having a correlated part that is the same for both signals, except for a multiplicative factor, and uncorrelated parts, that are different for the two signals. A property of the model that the PNS of some mixing products are linear combinations of the PNS of the signals at ω 1, ω 2, and ω 1 − ω 2 is experimentally verified. The difference of the PNS at ω 1 + ω 2 and ω 1 − ω 2 is proportional to the correlated part of the PNS and is a part of auxiliary functions that are used for finding the multiplicative factor and the correlated, partly correlated, and uncorrelated phase noise at different offset frequencies. A conventional spectrum analyser was used to characterise two signal generators, a phase-coherent and a non-phase-coherent one. For the phase-coherent generator the phase noise of two signals was found to be correlated for offset frequencies below 10 Hz, partly correlated for 10 Hz–1 kHz and uncorrelated above 1 kHz.


In this article, the potential of utilizing a commercially available Electric Ducted Fan (EDF) as a negative-pressure actuator for adhesion purposes is experimentally tested. To this purpose, a novel EDF-based Vortex Actuation System (VAS) is proposed and presented from a design, development and experimental evaluation perspective. The effect of different EDF design properties and design alterations to the actuation system is analyzed, for providing novel considerations on optimizing the adhesion efficiency of such a system.


Diaphragmatic stripping or coagulation is a technique aiming to optimally cytoreduce ovarian cancer. We investigated the complications, the overall survival, and the relapse rate following this procedure. Records of 69 patients with diaphragmatic involvement who underwent debulking surgery between September 1993 and December 2001 were reviewed. A total of 69 patients underwent diaphragmatic surgery as part of cytoreductive surgery for epithelial ovarian cancer. In 17 cases, the diaphragmatic tumors were stripped from the muscle, in 22 cases coagulated, and in 30 cases stripped and coagulated. Postoperative complications were pleural effusion (41 cases, 3 needed a chest drain, 7 needed a pleural puncture, 1 needed both) and pneumothorax (4 cases, 1 needed a chest drain). In one case of bilateral pleural effusion, the patient developed pneumonia. In one case of pleural effusion on the right side, the patient needed a pleural puncture and developed a partial atelectasis of the middle lobe of the right lung. The median overall survival was 66 months in the stripping group compared with 49 months in the coagulation group. In 56 cases (81%), the patient developed a relapse, and the first site of relapse was the diaphragm in 11 cases (20%). We conclude that diaphragmatic resection is an important part of optimal debulking surgery with an acceptable morbidity.


Localized subcutaneous edema is a rare manifestation of inflammatory myopathy. In general, the incidence of malignancy in dermatomyositis is higher than that in polymyositis (PM). The association between malignancy and dermatomyositis has been established; however, it is less convincing in PM. In this article, we report on a case of malignancy-associated PM with an initial presentation of localized subcutaneous edema. A 66-year-old male patient with a history of chronic hepatitis B was presented to us with both left arm swelling and progressive proximal muscle weakness. A multi-detector row computed tomography showed prominent left arm edema, while a venography demonstrated no venous thrombosis or stenosis. A diagnosis of PM was established according to its typical symptoms, high serum creatine kinase level, positive electromyography findings, and systemic inflammatory signs. Magnetic resonance imaging of the liver revealed infiltrative hepatocellular carcinoma. After undergoing systemic corticosteroid therapy, in combination with hydroxychloroquine, the left arm edema was resolved. However, patient died from hepatocellular carcinoma three months after the date of diagnosis. It is important to recognize that hepatocellular carcinoma-associated PM may initially present itself with localized non-pitting edema. Although such localized edema may be responsive to corticosteroids, a patient's overall prognosis remains poor. We presume that PM with localized subcutaneous edema may be a predictor of malignancy, and therefore recommend a tumor survey.


The objective of this study was to determine the effect of Verticillium dahliae Kleb. on cotton yield and fiber technological properties, relationships among to disease and seed cotton yield, fiber yield and fiber technological properties and also determine susceptible and tolerant cotton varieties. The study was conducted in the Southeastern Anatolia Agricultural Research Institute's experimental area during 2004-2006. The experiment was arranged as a randomized split block design with four replications. Main plot consisted of infected and non-infected area, sub-plot consisted of varieties. In this study 10 different commercial cotton varieties were grown to test the verticillium wilt performance. The results indicated that there were significant differences among varieties for all of the investigated characteristics. Area differences were significant for all of the investigated traits except ginning percentage. The results of the non-infected area showed that there were decreasing with regard to foliar disease index (FDI), vascular disease index (VDI), vascular disease rate (VDR), first picking percentage, fiber fineness, micronaire and yellowness; while increasing with regard to seed cotton yield, fiber yield, fiber length, strength, elongation, uniformity, reflectance and spinning consistecy index. Only ginning percentage was unaffected from area differences. With planting cotton varieties in non-infected area there were 323.60 kg ha -1 increase for seed cotton yield and 114.50 kg ha -1 for lint yield. Disease led to a decrease (7.86%) in seed cotton yield and (6.73%) in fiber yield. The results of this study indicated that GW-Teks, GW-Golda and Carmen varieties were tolerant; while Maras 92, Sayar 314 and Stoneville 453 were sensitive in terms of FDI, VDI and VDR and tolerant varieties can be used as parents in Verticillium breeding programs.


The Ibero-Romance-speaking Jews of medieval Christian Iberia were linguistically distinct from their non-Jewish neighbors primarily as a result of their language's unique Hebrew-Aramaic component; preservations from older Jewish Greek, Latin, and Arabic; a tradition of translating sacred Hebrew and Aramaic texts into their language using archaisms and Hebrew-Aramaic rather than Hispanic syntax; and their Hebrew-letter writing system. With the expulsions from Iberia in the late 15th century, most of the Sephardim who continued to maintain their Iberian-origin language resettled in the Ottoman Empire, with smaller numbers in North Africa and Italy. Their forced migration, and perhaps a conscious choice, essentially disconnected the Sephardim from the Spanish language as it developed in Iberia and Latin America, causing their language—which they came to call laðino 'Romance', ʤuðezmo or ʤuðjó 'Jewish, Judezmo', and more recently (ʤudeo)espaɲol 'Judeo-Spanish'—to appear archaic when compared with modern Spanish. In their new locales the Sephardim developed the Hispanic component of their language along independent lines, resulting in further differentiation from Spanish. Divergence was intensified through borrowing from contact languages of the Ottoman Empire such as Turkish, Greek, and South Slavic. Especially from the late 18th century, factors such as the colonializing interests of France, Italy, and Austro-Hungary in the region led to considerable influence of their languages on Judezmo. In the 19th century, the dismemberment of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires and their replacement by highly nationalistic states resulted in a massive language shift to the local languages; that factor, followed by large speech-population losses during World War II and immigration to countries stressing linguistic homogeneity, have in recent years made Judezmo an endangered language.


OBJECTIVES
The objective of this study was to assess knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors surrounding healthcare-related mobile phone use and text messaging among persons at risk for or infected with tuberculosis (TB) or the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

METHODS
An anonymous survey was conducted in three groups of subjects: (1) HIV-infected persons attending an HIV clinic; (2) persons with latent TB infection at a public health clinic; and (3) persons presenting for TB, HIV, and syphilis screening at a community screening site.

RESULTS
Three hundred fifteen (n  = 315) persons responded to the survey, of whom 241 (76.5%) owned a cell phone. Cell phone owners were younger and more educated than nonowners. Transportation difficulty and forgetting appointments were cited as significant barriers by 34.2% and 39.5% of respondents, respectively. Fifty-six percent of subjects felt it would be acceptable to receive text message appointment reminders, and 33% felt that text message reminders to take medications would be acceptable. Younger age and cell phone ownership were significantly associated with acceptance of text message reminders. Black and Hispanic subjects were more likely to feel that text message reminders for appointments or medications were helpful than White subjects. Further, Black and Hispanic subjects, as well as subjects with lower educational attainment, were more receptive to healthcare-related educational text messages.

CONCLUSIONS
Cell phones and text messaging were prevalent among our subjects attending HIV and TB clinics, and subjects were generally receptive to text messaging for healthcare-related communication. Interventions that explore the potential for text messaging to improve clinic attendance, medication adherence, and health knowledge should be explored.


ARTICLE REVIEWED: Davis, M. R., McMahon, M., & Greenwood, K. M. (2005). The efficacy of mnemonic components of the cognitive interview: Towards a shortened variant for time-critical investigations. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 19, 75-93. Although police use eyewitness accounts of criminal activity as a primary investigative tool for criminal investigation, the soundness of these accounts have often been the subject of serious and contentious debate. For example, Manning and Loftus (1996) conducted research which demonstrated that not only can memories for events be distorted, but in fact memories can be implanted for events that did not occur. Loftus (2003) goes on to discuss how an interview with a witness after an event can potentially contaminate a witness's account, thus making their potential testimony worthless. Depending on needs, defense attorneys and prosecutors alike have rallied either for or against the use of eyewitness testimony because of this very notion of the potential unreliability of eyewitness accounts. Because eyewitness accounts are an integral and valuable part of any police investigation it is important to develop reliable interview techniques which will help each witness retrieve their memories about a crime as accurately as possible, without contaminating and potentially jeopardizing an investigation, and which will stand up in a court of law. During the past decade, police investigators have employed a number of special interview techniques including the Enhanced Cognitive Interview (ECI) developed by Edward Geiselman and Ron Fisher. This interview focuses on helping a witness through four general memory triggering techniques: 1) thinking about the physical surroundings and their personal emotional reactions, 2) reporting everything that comes to mind about those events, no matter how insignificant or incomplete they may be, 3) recounting the events in a variety of ways such as (i.e., beginning to end, reverse order), and 4) using different perspectives when recalling events, such as having a victim describe the criminals from their own point of view and from that of a bystander at the scene. Eyewitness researchers have found this interview to be very effective at increasing the amount of accurate information recalled by a witness. Although the effectiveness of this device has been substantiated, the practicality of its use remains questionable--even though the use of this instrument has demonstrated superior results over traditional police interview techniques. Specifically, it has been suggested that many police officers do not have time to administer the entire interview, and as a result many officers have come to shorten this interview on their own (Clifford & George, 1996, as cited in Davis et al., 2005). Evidence for the above can be garnered from comments by officers centered primarily on the fact that the change order mnemonics (recall of the event in a different order than it occurred) and change perspective mnemonics (recall of the event from a different persons perspective) were often excluded in order to save time (Kebbell, Milne, & Wagstaff, 1999). There are three primary interview techniques, the ECI a full length interview, the Structured Interview (SI), similar to the interview technique that police officers have come to use. And the Modified Cognitive Interview (MCI) the interview technique that is the subject of this research. As discussed earlier the ECI is the interview technique that has proven to be effective, however time constraints in certain situations have limited its proper use. The main difference between the MCI and the ECI is that the reverse order mnemonics and change perspectives have been replaced with free recall attempts. Given what was just discussed, Davis, McMahon, and Greenwood (2005) set out to investigate whether a shortened version of the ECI could be as effective as the original version in aiding the witness to retrieve memories of a crime. …


Objectives
To address food access and affordability challenges among low-income children and adolescents, some health care providers are prescribing fresh fruits and vegetables. However, the evaluation of these programs is limited as are descriptions of study designs and needs of the population they serve. Our objectives were to describe the development of a fruit and vegetable prescription program for pediatric patients, baseline characteristics of the study population, child dietary patterns, and household food security.

Methods
Researchers partnered with pediatricians in Flint, Michigan to offer one $15 prescription for fresh fruits and vegetables to children at every office visit. Participating vendors included the downtown farmers' market as well as a local mobile market, which accepts on-line or telephone orders for fruit and vegetable boxes delivered to homes. Following receipt of the prescription, patients (7-18 years of age) were invited to participate in the current study with one caregiver. Researchers restricted enrollment to one child per family. Caregiver-child dyads completed evaluation instruments with a trained research assistant during their pediatric office visit. In addition to completing a demographic survey, caregivers and children responded to questions about dietary patterns, food security, and food access.

Results
320 caregiver-child dyads enrolled in the study. Most of the children (mean age 12.7 ± 2.9) were African American (68%) and residents of Flint (73%). The majority of caregivers (mean age 39.7 ± 9.7) were female (91%), African American (65%), and receiving SNAP benefits (54%). Of the 277 children who completed the food screener, average intake of vegetables (0.71 cups ± 0.73) and dairy (1.3 cups ± 1.1) as well as whole grains (0.48 ounces ± 0.47) were well below current recommendations. Moreover, nearly half of caregivers who enrolled in the study (47%) reported low or very low household food security.

Conclusions
Results confirm and continue to raise deep concerns about dietary behaviors and food insecurity among children in Flint, many of whom continue to face an ongoing drinking water crisis. By addressing both access to fresh produce and food insecurity, the prescription program has the potential to improve fruit and vegetable intake.

Funding Sources
This study was supported by a grant from Michigan Health Endowment Fund.


This paper is a case study which points out how literary creation can deal with the prevailing concepts of "original" and "translation" in the culture where the literary object is produced.We are dealing with a book of poems introduced to the reader as a bilingual and posthumous edition: the Portuguese text would be the source text and its editor would have done the Spanish version. However, in the Portuguese text some non-native characteristics stand out, or it could be the case that its author wanted to conceal that the "original" was in fact a self-translation from Spanish. The creation of this poetic pseudo-original in Portuguese may be related to the role Gabino Alejandro Carriedo played in the fifties as an intercultural mediator between Portuguese and Spanish poetry. It may also show how Lusophone literature was adopted by the Spanish literary system and, therefore, an ethical challenge to its cultural identity.


Background The objective of this study was to determine whether hatha yoga is an efficacious adjunctive intervention for individuals with continued depressive symptoms despite antidepressant treatment. Method We conducted a randomized controlled trial of weekly yoga classes (n = 63) v. health education classes (Healthy Living Workshop; HLW; n = 59) in individuals with elevated depression symptoms and antidepressant medication use. HLW served as an attention-control group. The intervention period was 10 weeks, with follow-up assessments 3 and 6 months afterwards. The primary outcome was depression symptom severity assessed by blind rater at 10 weeks. Secondary outcomes included depression symptoms over the entire intervention and follow-up periods, social and role functioning, general health perceptions, pain, and physical functioning. Results At 10 weeks, we did not find a statistically significant difference between groups in depression symptoms (b = −0.82, s.e. = 0.88, p = 0.36). However, over the entire intervention and follow-up period, when controlling for baseline, yoga participants showed lower levels of depression than HLW participants (b = −1.38, s.e. = 0.57, p = 0.02). At 6-month follow-up, 51% of yoga participants demonstrated a response (⩾50% reduction in depression symptoms) compared with 31% of HLW participants (odds ratio = 2.31; p = 0.04). Yoga participants showed significantly better social and role functioning and general health perceptions over time. Conclusions Although we did not see a difference in depression symptoms at the end of the intervention period, yoga participants showed fewer depression symptoms over the entire follow-up period. Benefits of yoga may accumulate over time.


This volume captures the status of digital humanities within the Arts in South Africa. The primary research methodology falls within the broader tradition of phenomenological hermeneutics, with a specific emphasis on visual hermeneutics. Some of the tools utilised as part of the visual hermeneutic methods are geographic information system (GIS) mapping, sensory ethnography and narrative pathways. Digital humanities is positioned here as the necessary engagement of the humanities with the pervasive digital culture of the 21st century. It is posited that the humanities and arts, in particular, have an essential role to play in unlocking meaning from scientific, technological and data-driven research. The critical engagement with digital humanities is foregrounded throughout the volume, as this crucial engagement works through images. Images (as understood within image studies) are not merely another form of text but always more than text. As such, this book is the first of its kind in the South African scholarly landscape, and notably also a first on the African continent. Its targeted audience include both scholars within the humanities, particularly in the arts and social sciences. Researchers pursuing the new field of digital humanities may also find the ideas presented in this book significant. Several of the chapters analyse the question of dealing with digital humanities through representations of the self as viewed from the Global South. However, it should be noted that self-representation is not the only area covered in this volume. The latter chapters of the book discuss innovative ways of implementing digital humanities strategies and methodologies for teaching and researching in South Africa.


After introducing groundwater development and other issues, the paper analyzes China's groundwater management system and its problems, and provides suggestions for improving the system. Increasing water demand since the 1970s has resulted in severe groundwater overdraft, water level decline and water quality degradation in China, but the current management system is not able to provide an effective and efficient solution. The legislation is separate and local, the management institutions are locally designed and the key management instruments are not integrated. This is because China lacks distinct groundwater management systems, comprehensive legislation, a quality management system and capacity, as well as coordinated institutions, and clear relationships and effective links among systems. To improve groundwater management, the concept of aquifer management and an integrated groundwater management system must be developed. The existing systems need to be restructured to clarify relationships and functions. The groundwater abstraction permit system needs to be reformed to a group permit. A quality management system is required and capacity building must be strengthened.


Background: Growing evidence is showing high levels of physical inactivity and disordered eating attitudes among young females in the United Arab Emirates. This is clearly concerning, but little is known about the activity level of those with disordered eating attitudes and their dieting behavior. This study examines the female Emirati college students' disordered eating attitudes and its relation to exercise behavior. Method: A cross- sectional study using a validated and reliable questionnaire was conducted on 242 Emirati female students attending a public university in Dubai. Eating Attitudes Test- 26 (EAT26) was used to measure eating attitudes and the short International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) was included to measure physical activity level. A systematic random sampling from a list of classes in the fall 2014 semester was used for recruitment. The university's Research Ethics Committee approved the study and consents were obtained from participants. SPSS v.21 was used for data analysis. Chi-square test was used to compare frequencies. Significance level was set at 0.05. Results: The participants' mean age and standard deviation (Mean± SD) was 19 ±1.3 years. 31.4% of the participants showed disordered eating attitudes. The percentage of participants engaged in at least one concerning behavior in the past six months was 43.8%. A membership in a health club was significantly related to disordered eating attitudes ( p <0.01). A high level of physical activity was correlated with laxative use, over the counter supplements, and exercising for more than 60 minutes to control weight ( p<0.05 ). Conclusion: There is a great need for intervention programs and policies to contain the level of abnormal eating attitudes and promote healthy level of physical activity among college students.


This article takes advantage of the breach in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiation's secrecy to contribute to a new and growing collection of published scholarship on leaked proposals for international intellectual property agreements as they are being negotiated. We begin with the general provisions of the agreement, which define its relationship to the multilateral system. We then progress to analysis of some of the most important copyright, patent and data protection, and enforcement sections of the proposal, before providing some concluding observations. Our ultimate conclusion is that the U.S. proposal, if adopted, would upset the current international framework balancing the interests of rights holders and the public. It would heighten standards of protection for rights holders well beyond that which the best available evidence or inclusive democratic processes support. It contains insufficient balancing provisions for users, consumers, and the public interest.


In the football match, the changes of the cerebral cortical nerve strength of the players have a significant impact on the athletes. The football players in the random Province of China is taken as the study objects. The short-term intensity load competition, continuous high-intensity competition and recalling competition are used to test the football players. The results show that in the short-term intensity load competition, short-term high-intensity training is beneficial to players to master and improve the level of sport skills. In continuous high-intensity competition, players are subjected to high-intensity physiological and psychological load stimulation, the body's energy reserves are exhausted, and the recovery ability is reduced, which may cause fatigue. The changes of neurotransmitters in the recalling competition reflect the interaction of various related neurotransmitters released by the cerebral cortex, which plays a role in balancing and promoting the normal work of the nerve center.


The high valent MnV(O) (λmax ≈ 407 nm) and MnIV(O) (λmax ≈ 421 nm) species of a series of electron-rich and electron-deficient meso-tetra(aryl)porphyrins (aryl = phenyl, 2-chlorophenyl, 2-nitrophenyl, 2-methylphenyl, 2-bromophenyl, 2,6-dichlorophenyl 4-methoxyphenyl, 4-methylphenyl, 4-chlorophenyl and 4-pyridyl) were prepared through the reaction of their corresponding manganese porphyrins with oxone in dichloromethane at a relatively low temperature (273 K). While the high valent Mn(O) intermediates of the para-substituted porphyrins were significantly degraded under reaction conditions, the corresponding species of the ortho substituted porphyrins showed high oxidative stability up to 20 min. Interestingly, the high valent Mn(O) of the mono-ortho-substituted meso-tetra(phenyl)porphyrins were as stable as that of meso-tetra(2,6-dichlorophenyl)porphyrin. The presence of imidazole (ImH) was found to play crucial roles in the formation and reactivity of the high valent Mn(O) species. The kinetics and mechanism of the oxidation of olefins with the high valent MnV(O) porphyrin intermediate were studied and the second order rate constants were evaluated under pseudo-first-order conditions. Also, the MnIV(O) species showed a reactivity comparable with that of the corresponding MnV(O) species. The observation of a Hammet constant of ρ = −0.48 in the oxidation of para-substituted styrenes is in accord with an electrophilic mechanism.


This article contains a review of Professor Richard Nagareda's recent book, Mass Torts in a World of Settlement. Nagareda's premise is that parties have moved away from litigation and toward procedures that are more administrative in nature to resolve mass tort claims and that this move should be facilitated by putting in place a more formal structure to provide an administrative or regulatory solution. However, it is not clear that Nagareda's approach will be feasible in practice. Nor is it clear that it will provide a comprehensive solution to the problems plaguing mass tort litigation. More fundamentally, there are particular aspects of traditional litigation-based resolution of mass tort claims that are important and should not be abandoned. Much of the dysfunction with respect to mass tort claims resolution may be traced to a failure to implement litigation-based procedures, as opposed to being a result of such procedures. Accordingly, a strong case can be made that the traditional litigation-based paradigm should not be abandoned, but rather fortified.


The heat shock response continues to be layered with additional complexity as interactions and crosstalk among heat shock proteins (HSPs), the reactive oxygen network and hormonal signalling are discovered. However, comparative analyses exploring variation in each of these processes among species remain relatively unexplored. In controlled environment experiments, photosynthetic response curves were conducted from 22 to 42 °C and indicated that temperature optimum of light-saturated photosynthesis was greater for Glycine max relative to Arabidopsis thaliana or Populus trichocarpa. Transcript profiles were taken at defined states along the temperature response curves, and inferred pathway analysis revealed species-specific variation in the abiotic stress and the minor carbohydrate raffinose/galactinol pathways. A weighted gene co-expression network approach was used to group individual genes into network modules linking biochemical measures of the antioxidant system to leaf-level photosynthesis among P. trichocarpa, G. max and A. thaliana. Network-enabled results revealed an expansion in the G. max HSP17 protein family and divergence in the regulation of the antioxidant and heat shock modules relative to P. trichocarpa and A. thaliana. These results indicate that although the heat shock response is highly conserved, there is considerable species-specific variation in its regulation.