Negative effects of long‐transported pollutants, such as many persistent organic pollutants (POPs), on seabirds and other top predators have been documented for decades. Yet, the concentrations, and hence, the negative impacts of many POPs have recently declined in the Northern Hemisphere. However, organisms are exposed to multiple stressors and the impacts of pollution act in concert with both natural and other anthropogenic stressors. In theory, this means that even sub‐lethal POP concentrations may cause adverse effects if they co‐occur with increased levels of other stressors. We tested the multiple stress hypothesis on common eiders, a marine duck with a northern geographical distribution, by assessing the relative importance of pollution, climate (winter sea surface temperature; SSTw), and egg predation on population dynamics and viability (i.e., extinction risk) using Leslie‐matrix population models. The model was parametrized by estimating reproduction and apparent adult survival using long‐term data from a common eider population in sub‐arctic Europe. Average annual adult survival was 0.80 (coefficient of variation [CV] = 22.00%) and showed a negative, both direct and delayed, relationship with SSTw. Average clutch size was 4.41 eggs (CV = 5.12%) and varied in time showing periods of both positive and negative trends, but showed no relationship with SSTw. We based immature survival on estimates from literature: 0.52 and 0.68 for juveniles and yearlings, respectively. Our model supported the multiple stress hypothesis as changes in a single stressor did not induce extinctions, unless the magnitude of our manipulations was extreme except for egg predation. The effect of pollution was, however, increasingly negative when it co‐occurred with a warming climate and egg predation—and population viability was lowest when all the stressors occurred simultaneously.


Measurements for light scattering in an Arctic water column reveal strong gradients and variability of the order of 15 percent in depths of less than 500 meters. The region of variability appears to persist from day to day and is roughly associated with the typical hydrographic features of the region. No definite nephelocline was observed.


Low-density urban models, widely diffused in Spain until 2008, have been strongly criticized because they produce a great strain on the land, high infrastructure costs, increasing maintenance expenses, energy waste and pollution from excessive transport, time wasted commuting and more bedroom communities. To counterbalance this effect, opponents are claiming for a review of the capacity that the conventional city, with its higher population density and mixed uses, may still possess. One possibility that has been explored is the vertical extension of buildings, which capitalizes on the remaining buildable space characteristic of many older buildings, and at the same time, refurbishes the housing block and improves standards of energy efficiency, safety and accessibility. The challenge is not only technical it is clear what needs to be done and how to do it but it is also social and fiscal; in other words, how do we get organized and how do we finance such a project? The preferred construction system for vertical extensions is industrialized and uses two main materials: steel and wood. The system involves the use of two-dimensional panels and 3D pods that, once completed in the factory, are transported to the worksite, lifted by a crane and installed on the roof of the building. From refurbishing the existing building to adding the new vertical extension, the entire operation takes four months. The experience of this vision and its application in the area of the Example in Barcelona, coming soon to other central neighborhoods in Spanish cities, allows us to present our first results: the detection of over 2,000 buildings with remaining buildable space, the need to vertically extend 50 buildings and our completed projects, in some cases already inhabited, of which half a dozen are currently undergoing environmental evaluation using our own tool.


Songket motif is one of Malaysia traditional art that fill the richness of cultural heritage
that reflected in the handicraft design products. Nowadays, a lot of abstract motifs exist
that will eliminate the original motifs shape and structures. In order to collect the motifs,
segmentation technique of an image is taken into this project. Segmentation is the
intermediate level in image processing and it can be viewed as separating the image into
disjoint or non overlapping regions. A study has made in this project by applying region
or object labelling segmentation technique over the motifs. Before region labelling
technique could be applied, the scanned photos of songket motifs have gone through
preprocessing medium. The preprocessing task indicates three processes that are image
conversion, image transformation and image enhancement. After segmentation process,
extraction of motifs is performed to get the result of isolated motifs for each input
images. Then, the measurement for accuracy of using region labelling technique is made
from the observation of criteria that have been determined by from its correct segmented
motifs result and actual existed motifs. Calculations for accuracy segmented motifs are
using simple mathematical formulation in order to obtain its percentage performance.
Eventually, it is shown that region labelling segmentation technique is useful to use in
motifs segmentation and extraction. From the motifs result, a discussion is made due to
some results that are shown is unexpected. Lastly, recommendation is pointed out to
improve the technique of region labeling in segmentation of motifs.


Originally published in 1930, The Deaf Mute Howls challenged the prevailing practice of teaching deaf children to speak and read lips while prohibiting the use of sign language. Albert Ballin's sharp observations in this remarkable book detail his experiences (and those of others) at a late 19th-century residential school for deaf students and his frustrations as an adult seeking acceptance in the majority hearing society. The Deaf Mute Howls charts the ambiguous attitudes of deaf people toward themselves at this time. Ballin himself makes matter-of-fact use of terms now considered disparaging, such as "deaf-mute, " and he frequently rues the "atrophying" of the parts of his brain necessary for language acquisition. At the same time, he rails against the loss of opportunity for deaf people, and he commandingly shifts the burden of blame to hearing people unwilling to learn the "Universal Sign Language, " his solution to the communication problems of society. From his lively encounters with Alexander Graham Bell (whose desire to close residential schools he surprisingly supports), to his enthrallment with the film industry, Ballin's highly readable book offers an appealing look at the deaf world during his richly colored lifetime.


Is Appendicitis a Ticking Time Bomb? Time to Treatment and Risk of Perforation after Patients Reach the Hospital Frederick Thurston Drake Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Charles Mock Departments of Surgery, Epidemiology, and Global Health Background In the traditional model of appendicitis, time is the major driver of disease progression: luminal obstruction leads inexorably to perforation without timely intervention. This perceived association has guided clinical behavior related to timing of operation. Our objective was to evaluate whether there is an association between time and perforation after patients present to the hospital. Methods Using data from Washington's Surgical Care and Outcomes Assessment Program, we evaluated patterns of perforation among patients (≥18 years) who underwent appendectomy (2010-2011). Elapsed time was measured between presentation to the Emergency Department (ED) and Operating Room (OR) start time. The relationship between in-hospital time and perforation was adjusted for potential confounding using multivariate logistic regression. Results 9,408 adults underwent appendectomy (15.8% perforated). Mean time from ED to OR was the same (8.6 hours) for perforated and non-perforated appendicitis. In multivariate analysis, increasing time from ED to OR was not a predictor of perforation either as a continuous variable (OR 1.0 95%CI 0.99-1.01) or when considered as a categorical variable (patients ordered by elapsed time and divided into deciles). Factors associated with perforation were male sex, increasing age, 3+ co-morbid conditions, and lack of insurance. Conclusions There was no association between perforation and time in-hospital prior to surgery. These findings may reflect selection of patients for earlier intervention who are at higher risk for perforation or the effect of antibiotics begun at diagnosis, but they are also consistent with the theory that perforation is most often a pre-hospital occurrence and/or that perforation is not strictly a time-dependent phenomenon.


This study is devoted to the issues of financial management of reputational risks. The authors consider the tools for internal and external factors monitoring and analysis; identify and classify the company's stakeholders according to their influence degree; suggest the methods of determining external and internal factors influence on the company's business reputation. Besides they suggest using aggregated (net assets) and disaggregated (net liabilities) indicators of property obtained according to a zero-balance sheet as a criterion for assessing changes in the company's goodwill.


Abstract Aside from its significance in establishing the impact-mass extinction paradigm, the Chicxulub crater will probably come to exemplify the structure of large complex craters. Much of Chicxulub's structure may be 'mapped' by tying its gravity expression to seismic-reflection profiles revealing an ∼180 km diameter for the now-buried crater. The distribution of karst topography aids in outlining the peripheral crater structure as also revealed by the horizontal gradient of the gravity anomaly. The fracturing inferred to control groundwater flow is apparently related to subsidence of the crater fill. Modelling the crater's gravity expression based on a schematic structural model reveals that the crater fill is also responsible for the majority of the negative anomaly. The crater's melt sheet and central structural uplift are the other significant contributors to its gravity expression. The Chicxulub impact released ∼1.2 × 1031 ergs based on the observed collapsed disruption cavity of ∼86 km diameter reconstructed to an apparent disruption cavity (Dad) of ∼94 km diameter (equivalent to the excavation cavity) and an apparent transient cavity (Dat) of ∼80 km diameter. This impact energy, together with the observed ∼2 × 1011 g global Ir fluence in the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) fireball layer indicates that the impactor was a comet estimated as massing ∼1.8 × 1018 g of ∼16.5 km diameter assuming a 0.6 gcm−3 density. Dust-induced darkness and cold, wind, giant waves, thermal pulses from the impact fireball and re-entering ejecta, acid rain, ozone-layer depletion, cooling from stratospheric aerosols, H2O greenhouse, CO2 greenhouse, poisons and mutagens, and oscillatory climate have been proposed as deleterious environmental effects of the Chicxulub impact with durations ranging from a few minutes to a million years. This succession of effects defines a temperature curve that is characteristic of large impacts. Although some patterns may be recognized in the K-T extinctions, and the survivorship rules changed across the boundary, relating specific environmental effects to species' extinctions is not yet possible. Geochemical records across the boundary support the occurrence a prompt thermal pulse, acid rain and a ∼5000 year-long greenhouse. The period of extinctions seems to extend into the earliest Tertiary.


In late 1971, with Intel's announcement of the first processor on a chip, the staff at Beehive Medical Electronics began almost immediately to consider the advantages of using a microprocessor in a CRT terminal. Discussions evolved to serious definition of a new terminal design incorporating the following features: • Self test (as minicomputers do) • Standard hardware (capable of being customized by software changes only) • Simple implementation of polling protocols • Less random logic design • Stand-alone editing and computing capabilities


GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS OF VARIOUS BIBLICAL HEBREW TEXTS ACCORDING TO A TRADITIONAL SEMITIC GRAMMAR Richard Charles McDonald, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2014 Chair: Dr. Russell T. Fuller Although linguistic Hebraists are dissatisfied with traditional grammatical analysis, this dissertation demonstrates that traditional Semitic grammar—primarily based on Arabic grammar and grammarians—still provides the most simple, clear, and accurate description of biblical Hebrew grammar. Chapter 1 illustrates the role of Arabic grammar in the study of Biblical Hebrew grammar. From the inception of biblical Hebrew grammatical studies, Jewish scholars drew from the insights of Arabic grammar. For centuries afterwards, Jewish and Christian Hebrew grammarians followed this method. In recent decades, grammarians have turned to modern linguistic principles, leading to a misunderstanding of various points of Biblical Hebrew syntax. Chapters 2 and 3 analyze the syntax of select verses in Genesis 2 and 3, respectively. Barry Bandstra's Genesis commentary in the Baylor Press series serves as the main point of comparison between the traditional Semitic approach and the modern linguistic approach. Each chapter introduces typical categories and definitions of traditional Semitic grammar, and critiques Bandstra's analysis when it contradicts Semitic grammar. Both chapters discuss a few main grammatical issues; in these discussions, other linguistic Hebraists are taken into consideration. For example, chapter 2 argues that the terms 'nominative,' 'genitive,' and 'accusative,' are still valid grammatical categories in biblical Hebrew syntax, contra Jan Kroeze. Chapter 2 also contends that the pronoun אוּה is not a copula. Chapter 3 demonstrates that the Hebrew verb היה is not a copula but a real verb showing action, and that the energic suffixes on the imperfect do, in fact, have semantic value and do show emphasis. In chapter 4, the analysis shifts to Ruth 1. Robert Holmstedt's commentary on Ruth from the Baylor Press series serves as the point of reference. There are three main discussions in the chapter. First, the chapter outlines biblical Hebrew word order in opposition to Holmstedt's claim that the typical word order is Subject-Verb. Second, the chapter demonstrates that the masoretic accents are crucial for biblical Hebrew syntax. Third, the chapter critiques Holmstedt's theory that the particle ⚀הַ marks headless relative clauses. The remainder of the verses are utilized to highlight traditional analysis or to contradict Holmstedt. Appendix 1 outlines Geoffrey Khan's use of comparative Semitics to defend his copula pronoun theory. The excursus contends that Khan reinterprets Semitic grammar through discourse analysis, and that his copula pronoun theory cannot be substantiated. Appendix 2 differentiates between the participle as a verbal adjective (the traditional Semitic definition), and John A. Cook's placement of the participle in the class of 'adjective.' This appendix maintains that the participle cannot be included in the biblical Hebrew verbal system. Appendix 3 responds to Cook's critiques regarding the author's Arabic descriptions, the analysis of the reflexive Niphal, the use of the masoretic accents, and casus pendens.


Objective: Vitamin D status and risk factors of Vitamin D deficiency in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients in China have been seldom reported before. In this study, we aim to investigate serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] status and find the predictors of Vitamin D deficiency in predialysis patients with Stage 3–5 CKDs in Southern China. Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional study, hospitalized predialysis patients who were diagnosed of Stage 3–5 CKD and had taken measurement of serum 25(OH)D in a single center from January 2014 to June 2015 were included. Patients were divided into Vitamin D deficiency group and nondeficiency group depending on the cutoff serum 25(OH)D value of 37 nmol/L. Clinical and biochemical parameters were collected and evaluated for predictors of Vitamin D deficiency by logistic regression. Results: One hundred and fifty-two patients were included in this study, of which 87 (57.2%) were in Vitamin D insufficiency state while 60 (39.5%) were in Vitamin D deficiency state. Serum 25(OH)D levels of patients in Stage 4 and Stage 5 CKD were lower than that of patients in Stage 3 CKD (P = 0.002). It was discovered that female gender (odds ratio [OR] = 3.674; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.607–8.396; P = 0.002), serum albumin level <30.0 g/L (OR = 6.816; 95% CI, 2.634–17.633; P < 0.001), and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) <30 ml/min/1.73 m2 (OR = 4.761; 95% CI, 1.353–16.754; P = 0.015) were independent predictors of Vitamin D deficiency. Conclusions: Vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency are common in predialysis patients with Stage 3–5 CKD in Southern China. Female gender, hypoalbuminemia with serum albumin level <30.0 g/L, and severe damaged renal function with eGFR <30 ml/min/1.73 m2 are independent predictors of Vitamin D deficiency in predialysis patients with Stage 3–5 CKD.


There is a need for critical, inclusive analyses that uncover the constraints that reinforce monolingual ideologies and reject the expression of multilingual and multicultural identities that are evident in eTandem applications (ORTEGA, 2017; VOLLMER RIVERA, 2017; VOLLMER RIVERA; TESKE, 2018). One population that may be affected by these constraints are Heritage Language Learners (HLL), who make up a diverse group of learners that have varying linguistic and cultural knowledge stemming from language and cultural exposure generally stemming from a more familial and community context (POTOWSKI, 2005). Drawing on identity theory (CUMMINS, 2001, 2009), this study investigates how HLL (N = 11) construct their identities within the constraints of the dichotomous eTandem learning environment HelloTalk by examining participant-reported reflections. Vis-a-vis content analysis (KRIPPENDORF, 1989) informed by Critical Applied Linguistics (PENNYCOOK, 2001) the results showed that although some features promote collaborative relations of power, in general the design of the application fosters coercive relations of power.


With increased globalization and competition, companies are increasingly adopting unique marketing strategies to improve their performance and retain their customer base. Although organizations are familiar with the importance of customer satisfaction and loyalty, fuel stations are still not aware about this. The objective of the study is to identify the effect of implementing market activities on customer satisfaction and loyalty. A sample of 150 customers frequenting to 9 different (BPCL, HPCL, IOC and Others) fuel stations in Delhi were surveyed, using systematic sampling technique to study the different market offerings provided by fuel stations Correlation analysis results showed that banking services and petro card services are highly important and affected by the level of customer satisfaction in the fuel stations. Regression analysis results revealed that the level of customer satisfaction get positively affected with services available at fuel station. Further, factor analysis identified that contests, scratch cards, lucky draws; annual rating point permanent card and anniversary schemes affect customer loyalty. Thus, it can be said that service offerings ensure customer loyalty.


Since 2001 there has been a renewed government focus on skills development and its relationship with combating unemployment in Ghana. Technical and vocational education and training (hereinafter; TVET), delivered through public and private schools, vocational training institutes and informal apprenticeship training, continues to be seen as an important link to work. Rising concern over the large number of junior high school graduates that are unable to access further formal education and training has led politicians and policy makers to demand a National Apprenticeship Programme and ambitious plans are being put in place to move towards a more regulated, or formalised, informal apprenticeship system. This article examines these plans and argues that the government needs both to consider fully the ramifications of their proposed activities under the National Apprenticeship Programme, as well as learn from previous programmes in Ghana (and elsewhere) that have attempted to upgrade informal apprenticeships.


Many bacteria interact with target organisms using syringe-like structures called Contractile Injection Systems (CIS). CIS structurally resemble headless bacteriophages and share evolutionarily related proteins such as the tail tube, sheath, and baseplate complex. Recent evidence shows that CIS are specialized to puncture membranes and often deliver effectors to target cells. In many cases, CIS mediate trans-kingdom interactions between bacteria and eukaryotes, however the effectors delivered to target cells and their mode of action are often unknown. In this work, we establish an in vitro model to study a CIS called Metamorphosis Associated Contractile structures (MACs) that target eukaryotic cells. We show that MACs kill two eukaryotic cell lines, Fall Armyworm Sf9 cells and J774A.1 murine macrophage cells through the action of a newly identified MAC effector, termed Pne1. To our knowledge, Pne1 is the first CIS effector exhibiting nuclease activity against eukaryotic cells. Our results define a new mechanism of CIS-mediated bacteria-eukaryote interaction and are a first step toward understanding structures with the potential to be developed as novel delivery systems for eukaryotic hosts.


for Technology-Based Market Capabilities: Options that Support Competitive Advantage Barney et al. (1995) explain that technologies can increase a firm's economic value by reducing costs or differentiating products and services. Literature published 1995-2006 is analyzed to identify types of technology-based market capabilities useful in pursuit of competitive advantage. Eight types are identified: Business Intelligence, Customer Relationship Management, Data Warehouse, Electronic Data Interchange, Email, Information Technology, Knowledge Management and Web & Internet Technologies. The outcome provides a set of references for managers of information systems.


Up to 1998, the Institutes of Nursing in the United Arab Emirates have been using the traditional lecture-based teaching/learning process in their graduate-nursing program. In 1998, however, these Institutes adopted a new approach; namely, the case-based learning (CBL) for the education of their nursing students. This approach emphasizes the use of self-directed and cooperative learning that is supposed to help students increase their critical thinking (CT) level. As the students were experiencing changes in the teaching practices, it was important to determine the effect of the teaching and learning approaches on students' CT abilities, and to describe suggestions needed for improvement. Empirically, very little is known regarding the influence ofCBL on a student's CT. The question then remains, as to whether students who have undergone case-based learning, differ significantly in their CT abilities from those who studied in the traditional method. This study investigates the critical thinking skills in relation to two types of nursing educational programs: (a) the traditional teaching and (b) the case-based learning. The professed purpose of the study in hand is to measure and compare the level of critical thinking in participants from each of the two programs. The instrument of measurement guiding this study is the model developed by Facione and Facione (1998). The design has been a comparative descriptive survey. The critical thinking abilities were measured by Critical Thinking VII the CCTST, which was administered to 38 participants from the traditional curriculum and 65 from the case-based learning curriculum who agreed to participate in the study. When the scores were analyzed by using the independent sample 1test, this study found that, in general, participants from both programs performed badly on the CCTST. Nevertheless, the CBL program participants performed significantly better when compared to the traditional program participants in all aspects of the CCTST.


Courts, John Marshall famously declared, must "say what the law is." Increasingly, it seems, they are also called upon to say what the news is. When subjects of unwanted publicity sue for invasion of privacy or other torts, journalists commonly defend on the ground that the challenged disclosures were privileged as newsworthy. Traditionally, courts minimized constitutional concerns by deferring heavily to journalists' own sense of what qualified as news; that a story made the newspapers or the evening news was itself nearly conclusive evidence that the topic was of legitimate public interest and therefore beyond the control of tort law. Recently, however, courts have grown decidedly less tolerant. Driven by mounting anxiety over the loss of personal privacy generally and by declining respect for the press specifically, courts are increasingly willing to impose their own judgments about the proper boundaries of news coverage. Ironically, an emerging tool used by courts to police news outlets is journalists' own codes of professional ethics. By measuring editorial decisions against gauzy internal ethics standards, courts give the appearance of deference to the profession while, in fact, aggressively scrutinizing editorial judgments. This Article demonstrates the growing threat to press freedom posed by these emerging trends. Part I places the conflict in historical context, showing how evolving legal understandings of privacy and press freedom set the two on course for a modern collision over "newsworthiness," which was resolved initially by deferring to journalists' editorial judgment. Part II explains how recent developments - including growing resort to journalists' codes of professional ethics - have undermined judicial deference to journalism in defining the news. Part III examines the implications of the nascent resurgence of tort regulation of journalism, and Part IV concludes by suggesting ways in which courts and journalists individually might end this narrowing of news.


The effectiveness of monetary policy depends, to a large extent, on market expectations of its future actions. In a standard New Keynesian business-cycle model with rational expectations, systematic monetary policy reduces the variance of inflation and the output gap by at least two-thirds. These stabilization benefits can be substantially smaller if expectations are non-rational. We design an economic experiment that identifies the contribution of expectations to macroeconomic stabilization achieved by systematic monetary policy. We find that, despite some non-rational component in expectations formed by experiment participants, monetary policy is quite potent in providing stabilization, reducing macroeconomic variance by roughly half.


The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008/56/EC) (MSFD) requires that the European Commission (by 15 July 2010) should lay down criteria and methodological standards to allow consistency in approach in evaluating the extent to which Good Environmental Status (GES) is being achieved. ICES and JRC were contracted to provide scientific support for the Commission in meeting this obligation. A total of 10 reports have been prepared relating to the descriptors of GES listed in Annex I of the Directive. Eight reports have been prepared by groups of independent experts coordinated by JRC and ICES in response to this contract. In addition, reports for two descriptors (Contaminants in fish and other seafood and Marine litter) were written by expert groups coordinated by DG SANCO and IFREMER respectively. A Task Group was established for each of the qualitative Descriptors. Each Task Group consisted of selected experts providing experience related to the four marine regions (the Baltic Sea, the Northeast Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea) and an appropriate scope of relevant scientific expertise. Observers from the Regional Seas Conventions were also invited to each Task Group to help ensure the inclusion of relevant work by those Conventions. This is the report of Task Group 1 Underwater noise and other forms of energy. How to obtain EU publications Our priced publications are available from EU Bookshop (http://bookshop.europa.eu), where you can place an order with the sales agent of your choice. The Publications Office has a worldwide network of sales agents. You can obtain their contact details by sending a fax to (352) 29 29-42758. The mission of the JRC is to provide customer-driven scientific and technical support for the conception, development, implementation and monitoring of EU policies. As a service of the European Commission, the JRC functions as a reference centre of science and technology for the Union. Close to the policy-making process, it serves the common interest of the Member States, while being independent of special interests, whether private or national. International Council for the Exploration of the Sea Conseil International pour l'Exploration de la Mer The Mission of ICES is to advance the scientific capacity to give advice on human activities affecting, and affected by, marine ecosystems. LB -N A -2441-EN -N


Abstract. Ocean bioregions are generally defined using remotely-sensed sea surface chlorophyll fields, based on the assumption that surface chlorophyll is representative of euphotic layer phytoplankton biomass. Here we investigate the impact of subsurface phytoplankton dynamics on the characterisation of ocean bioregions. The Mediterranean Sea is known for its contrasting bioregimes despite its limited area, and represents an appropriate case for this study. We modelled this area using a high resolution regional dynamical model, NEMO-MED12, coupled to a biogeochemical model, PISCES, and focused our analysis on the bioregions derived from lower trophic levels. Validated by satellite and Biogeochemical-Argo float observations, our model shows that chlorophyll phenology can be significantly different when estimated from surface concentrations or integrated over the first 300 m deep layer. This was found in both low chlorophyll, oligotrophic bioregions as well as in high chlorophyll, bloom bioregions. The underlying reason for this difference is the importance of subsurface phytoplankton dynamics, in particular those associated with the Deep Chlorophyll Maximum (DCM) at the base of the upper mixed layer. Subsurface phytoplankton are found to significantly impact the bloom bioregions, while in oligotrophic regions, surface and subsurface chlorophyll are of similar importance. Consequently, our results show that surface chlorophyll is not representative of total phytoplankton biomass. Analysis of the DCM finds that its dynamics are extremely homogeneous throughout the Mediterranean Sea, and that it follows the annual cycle of solar radiation. In the most oligotrophic bioregion, the total phytoplankton biomass is almost constant along the year, implying that the summertime DCM biomass increase is not due to DCM photoacclimation, nor an increase of DCM production, but instead of the migration – with photoacclimation – of surface phytoplankton into the DCM.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Sezary's syndrome is a peripheral T-cell neoplasm characterized by a pruritic exfoliative or infiltrated erythroderma, lymphadenopathies, and atypical T lymphocytes in the peripheral blood. Cytogenetic studies are scarce. This study was designed to increase cytogenetic information on this disorder.

DESIGN AND METHODS
Peripheral blood samples were collected from 21 patients with Sezary's syndrome (10 men, 11 women, mean age 64 years) and analyzed by conventional cytogenetics (72-hr cultures with phytohemagglutinin). For a better characterization of multiple chromosomal rearrangements, cross-species color banding (RxFISH) was used in four cases.

RESULTS
Fifteen (71.4%) of the 21 cases showed cytogenetic aberrations, with the karyotype being complex in 14. Among the 15 patients with an abnormal karyotype, 8 presented a diploid/near-diploid karyotype and 7 a near-tetraploid karyotype. The chromosomes most frequently involved were 1, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 17. The most common structural rearrangements affected 1q, 2q, 6q23-27, and 8q22. Monosomies of chromosomes 9 and 10 and trisomies of chromosome 18 were recurrently observed. A statistical trend between abnormal and complex karyotypes, the presence of monosomy 10, the number of Sezary cells, and a decreased overall survival was observed. RxFISH technology allowed the description of 27 previously undetected chromosomal abnormalities.

INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS
Abnormal karyotypes, particularly complex karyotypes, were frequently detected in patients with Sezary's syndrome. Monosomy 10 was the most frequent recurrent cytogenetic marker (73% in abnormal cases). There was a high diversity of chromosomal breakpoints. RxFISH is a useful novel technology for redefining complex karyotypes.


This technical book explores current and future applications of solar power as an unlimited source of energy that earth receives every day. Photosynthetic organisms have learned to utilize this abundant source of energy by converting it into high-energy biochemical compounds. Inspired by the efficient conversion of solar energy into an electron flow, attempts have been made to construct artificial photosynthetic systems capable of establishing a charge separation state for generating electricity or driving chemical reactions. Another important aspect of photosynthesis is the CO2 fixation and the production of high energy compounds. Photosynthesis can produce biomass using solar energy while reducing the CO2 level in air. Biomass can be converted into biofuels such as biodiesel and bioethanol. Under certain conditions, photosynthetic organisms can also produce hydrogen gas which is one of the cleanest sources of energy.


In this paper, we examine the relationship between Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) price index and a set of three macroeconomic variables from 2001 to 2007 using Unrestricted Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model. Our analysis based on Impulse Response Function (IRF), indicate that the response of TSE price index to shocks in macroeconomic variables such as consumer price index (CPI), free market exchange rate, and liquidity (M2) is weak. In addition, generalized Forecast Error Variance Decomposition (FEVD) reveals that share of macroeconomic variables in fluctuations of TSE price index is about 12 per cent. Finally, it seems that political shocks or other economic forces can effect on TSE price index in Iran.


In this paper we study the transition from a pay-as-you-go system of Social Security pensions to an investment-based system in an economy in which portfolio returns and capital profitability are both uncertain. The paper extends earlier studies by Feldstein and Samwick that modeled the transition process in a nonstochastic environment and by Feldstein and Ranguelova that examined the implication of portfolio risk after the transition to an investment-based system has been completed. We analyze transitions to a mixed system that maintains the current 12.4 percent pay-as-you-go tax rate as well as to a system that is completely investment-based. We model intergenerational guarantees and assess the risk of such guarantees to taxpayers. We find that transitions to either a completely investment-based system or a mixed system that maintains current law benefits can be done with little additional saving in the early years (a maximum of three percent) and substantially lower combinations of taxes and saving deposits in the later years. The extra risk to retirees and/or taxpayers is relatively small, making the investment-based plans preferable to a pure pay-as-you-go system for reasonable degrees of risk aversion.


The propagation of vortex beams through weak-to-strong atmospheric turbulence is simulated and analyzed. It is demonstrated that the topological charge of such a beam is a robust quantity that could be used as an information carrier in optical communications. The advantages and limitations of such an approach are discussed.


The various methods for the synthesis of optical thin film systems with prescribed properties are reviewed. One general approach is to refine numerically the properties of an initial system. In many problems, however, the choice of a suitable starting design for refinement is not at all obvious. The present paper describes a computer program for the completely automatic design of optical thin film systems by evolution which does not require a starting design. Apart from the specification of the desired optical properties of the system, the only input data necessary are the refractive indexes of the substrate, the medium, and the thin film materials that may be employed for the construction of the coating. Optical properties that may be specified at present include transmittance, reflectance, phase changes on transmission and reflection, and the first and second derivatives of these quantities, with respect to wavenumber and angle of incidence. Several examples are given to illustrate the performance of this program. Ways are indicated in which this automatic design program can be improved further in the future.


Title: 'That's not how things work around here' Subtitle: New social and spatial frameworks for established and outsiders Maarten Hogenstijn Daniel van Middelkoop Conflicts about the division of power between groups can be found anywhere. Struggles can be fought out between the original and new inhabitants of a town, between Christians and non-Christians, native residents and foreigners, or between other local groups. Often one group is locally rooted and can be labelled as 'established'. Their adversaries can then be labelled 'outsiders'. Changes in the power relationships between established and outsider groups form the central theme researched by the authors. Established-outsider relations were researched in two towns in The Netherlands: Amerongen and Veenendaal, both in the province of Utrecht. The theoretical basis for the study is the original established-outsider theory, developed by sociologists Norbert Elias and John Scotson. They stress that division of power between groups should be central in any analysis of social divisions. Two main areas of critique made an adjustment of their theory necessary. In the original work the dynamics between groups were not sufficiently stressed and the influence of the context, in other words developments at different spatial scales, were largely ignored. Moreover, important societal changes have taken place since the theory was developed. Therefore the original theory is no longer seen as all-encompassing, but rather as a set of valuable concepts. This new approach to the theory led to a focus on conflicts. While group divisions in general seem to become more temporary and loose, people do form groups and coalitions in conflict situations. They then strive for a common goal; to keep or gain power. In order to analyse these conflicts a new analytical model was developed, which takes into account both the original established-outsider theory and the current social and spatial frameworks. This model for Analysis of Dynamics on the Power balance in Conflict Situations (ADPC model) contains four elements: the distinguishing characteristic that separates the established and the outsiders; regulations and norms; power sources; and strategies. The model was tested in Amerongen and Veenendaal and proved to be a useful analytical tool. Conflicts in both Amerongen and Veenendaal showed that the power balance can change or even turn around in favour of the outsider group. The importance of a certain power balance can also increase or decrease. Power balances are thus dynamic. The context also has a clear place in the ADPC model. A distinction between strategies within scale and strategies of jumping scale enabled careful analysis of the role of the supralocal context. Application of the model showed that local conflicts should be analysed in terms of power differences, and not in terms of group differences such as ethnicity or religion. These differences do influence the course of a conflict, but they do not form the basis.


We have combined magneto-optical Kerr effect, scanning tunneling microscopy, and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism to study the magnetic properties and the morphology of Fe nanoparticles grown on 2 ML thick Al2O3/Ni3Al(111)-(root 67 x root 67)R12.2 degrees with and without Pd seeding. The Ni3Al(111) substrate is ferromagnetic and shows two transition temperatures. The first, T-C1 = 81 +/- 3 K, is attributed to a 20-30 nm thick slightly Ni enriched region; the second, T-C2 = 240 +/- 12 K, is attributed to a much thinner and more strongly Ni enriched near interface region that contains Ni clusters embedded in the alloy matrix. The magnetic properties of the Fe cluster superlattice are strongly influenced by the superexchange coupling between Fe clusters and the underlying Ni clusters in that near interface region. Since the Ni clusters are at different distances from the oxide/metal interface, this coupling oscillates between ferro-and antiferromagnetic such that the overall magnetic moment is not increased by the Fe clusters. Pd seeding does not influence the magnetic properties of the system. The intrinsic Fe cluster properties, such as Curie temperature and easy magnetization axis, are accessed for T > T-C2. We find out-of-plane easy magnetization axes and T-C approximate to 300 K for cluster sizes above 440 atoms.


Strategic thinking is a strategic capability that helps managers to understand their ability in predicting and controlling future events and distinguishing them. Meanwhile, instead of being placed under the influence of changes, they affect the changes. Organizational culture is a factor that can result in the development of strategic thinking in organizations. The basic purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of organizational culture on the development of strategic thinking at the organizational level of Ilam Gas Refinery. Previous studies mostly used individual models of strategic thinking, while the current study addressed indigenous model of strategic thinking at the organizational level. The research sample included 168 top and middle managers and experts who were selected through simple random sampling. To collect data, Cameron and Quinn's (2006) organizational culture questionnaire and questionnaire of Golmmohammadi, Kafche, and Soltanoanah (2013) were used. Regression and structural equation came into use in data analysis and testing the research hypotheses. The results showed that organizational culture had a significant impact on the strategic thinking at the organizational level. Among the aspects of organizational culture, market's culture was a better explanation for strategic thinking which had a significant positive effect on all aspects of strategic thinking.


Beef cow-calf production, the first stage of the beef production process, occurs in every State and is economically important in most of the United States. About 35 percent of the 2.2 million U.S. farms—nearly 765,000 farms—have beef cows. About a third of these farms have fewer than 10 beef cows, more than half have fewer than 20 cows, and nearly 80 percent have fewer than 50 cows. Beef cow-calf farms are quite diverse. Beef cattle are a primary source of income for some farmers, while for many, beef cattle farming is more of a lifestyle choice. This diversity presents a unique set of challenges to policymakers. Data from USDA's 2008 Agricultural Resource Management Survey on beef cow-calf producers with 20 or more beef cows capture the diversity of U.S. beef-cow calf production. Producers are classified based on a farm typology that reflects different producer characteristics and goals. Rural residence farms have gross farm sales below $250,000 per year and farm operators who are either retired or have a primary occupation off the farm. Intermediate farms also have farm sales below $250,000 per year, but the operator's primary occupation is farming. Commercial farms have annual sales of more than $250,000. Each of these three types of farms has roughly a third of the total beef cows in the U.S., but the proportion of their total household income attributable to their cattle operations varies. Rural residence farms make up half of farms with beef cows and generate 70 percent of their gross cash farm income from cattle. However, most of their household income is from off-farm sources, like wages, salaries, or retirement income. Cow-calf production is an important source of farm income on intermediate farms, accounting for 55 percent of gross cash farm income. With less total household income than other farms, intermediate farms are the most vulnerable to the input and output price variations of beef cow-calf production. Commercial farms, comprising 13 percent of total beef cow farms, generate more than $600,000 in gross cash farm income, but only 32 percent is from cattle sales. The beef cow-calf industry is characterized by a large number of small farms, along with several large farms, on which beef cattle production is a secondary source of farm household income. This suggests that beef cow-calf production as a lifestyle choice is at least as important as earning a profit on many farms.


Email triage is the process of going through unhandled email and deciding what to do with it. This process can quickly become a serious problem for users with large volumes of email. Studies have found that people use a variety of approaches to triage their email, many of which have a social component. We believe that email clients can better support email triage by providing users with additional sorting features based on socially salient information. We present a prototype email client, SNARF (the Social Network and Relationship Finder), that aggregates social meta-data about email correspondents to aid email triage. Users can then sort their correspondents based on this meta-data, bringing emails from socially important people to the foreground.


Current interventions to improve the social, academic, and behavioral skills in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) all require teaching activities. A central component of being able to engage in and benefit from teaching activities is the ability to recognize and understand when and how teaching occurs. The emergence of an understanding of teaching as a means by which we acquire knowledge from others is a key feature of socio-cognitive development. However, it is not known whether children with ASD develop the ability to understand the fundamental concept of teaching. Understanding what children with ASD know about the concept of teaching is important in order to optimize interventions that incorporate teaching as a method of learning. This dissertation examines the understanding of teaching in children with ASD compared to typically developing children. Specifically, we investigate the two defining features of an understanding of teaching: 1) that teaching requires a knowledge difference between teacher and learner, and 2) that teaching is an intentional activity. We use a cross-sectional design to assess whether the understanding of these two components is intact or impaired in high functioning children with ASD compared to typical children individually matched on verbal ability. This study also investigates the interrelations among the understanding of teaching, theory of mind acquisition, and concurrent understanding of intention in others in this population. Our results indicate that the understanding of the two core components that underlie the concept of teaching is impaired in high functioning children with ASD, compared to matched controls. The role that intention and theory of mind play in the understanding of teaching in high functioning children with ASD is also discussed. This work has broad implications for improving teaching and teaching-based interventions for children with ASD Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Education First Advisor Douglas A. Frye


SUMMARY No animals tested were positive for feline leukaemia virus antigen and Chlamydia psittaci antibodies, but all were positive for antibodies to feline calicivirus (FCV), feline herpesvirus 1 (FHV1) and rotavirus. They had antibodies to feline parvovirus (96%), feline coronavirus (84%) and cowpox virus (2%). Antibody to feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) was found in 53% of animals, which were less likely to be infected with Haemobartonella felis, and had higher FHV antibody titres than cats without FIV. FCV was isolated from 51% cats and FHV1 and feline reovirus each from 4%. H. felis was present in 42% of animals, and antibody to Toxoplasma gondii in 62%. Clinical abnormality had a significant association with FIV and feline calicivirus infections, but sex, age, social status and feeding group had no significant association with prevalence of any parasites. Toxocara cati and Toxascaris leonina eggs were found, respectively, in 91% and 82% of animals tested.


Graph anticoloring problem is a partial coloring problem where the main feature is the opposite rule of the graph coloring problem, i.e., if two vertices are adjacent, their assigned colors must be the same or at least one of them is uncolored. In the same way, Berge in 1972 proposed the problem of placing b black queens and w white queens on a n × n chessboard such that two queens of different color cannot attack to each other, the complexity of this problem remains open. In this work we deal with the knight piece under the balance property, since this special case is the most difficult for brute force algorithms.


Significance Plastic pollution in the ocean is a rapidly emerging global environmental concern, with high concentrations (up to 580,000 pieces per km2) and a global distribution, driven by exponentially increasing production. Seabirds are particularly vulnerable to this type of pollution and are widely observed to ingest floating plastic. We used a mixture of literature surveys, oceanographic modeling, and ecological models to predict the risk of plastic ingestion to 186 seabird species globally. Impacts are greatest at the southern boundary of the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans, a region thought to be relatively pristine. Although evidence of population level impacts from plastic pollution is still emerging, our results suggest that this threat is geographically widespread, pervasive, and rapidly increasing. Plastic pollution in the ocean is a global concern; concentrations reach 580,000 pieces per km2 and production is increasing exponentially. Although a large number of empirical studies provide emerging evidence of impacts to wildlife, there has been little systematic assessment of risk. We performed a spatial risk analysis using predicted debris distributions and ranges for 186 seabird species to model debris exposure. We adjusted the model using published data on plastic ingestion by seabirds. Eighty of 135 (59%) species with studies reported in the literature between 1962 and 2012 had ingested plastic, and, within those studies, on average 29% of individuals had plastic in their gut. Standardizing the data for time and species, we estimate the ingestion rate would reach 90% of individuals if these studies were conducted today. Using these results from the literature, we tuned our risk model and were able to capture 71% of the variation in plastic ingestion based on a model including exposure, time, study method, and body size. We used this tuned model to predict risk across seabird species at the global scale. The highest area of expected impact occurs at the Southern Ocean boundary in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, which contrasts with previous work identifying this area as having low anthropogenic pressures and concentrations of marine debris. We predict that plastics ingestion is increasing in seabirds, that it will reach 99% of all species by 2050, and that effective waste management can reduce this threat.


Many viruses initiate infection through a multistep process involving host cell membrane proteins. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an important human pathogen that infects more than 185 million people worldwide and results in progressive liver disease. Recent advances have identified an essential role for tetraspanin CD81 and tight junction protein Claudin-1 in HCV entry into hepatocytes in the liver. CD81 associates with Claudin-1 and this complex is necessary for virus internalisation; defining the full length interface of this membrane protein interaction is therefore important for the design of future anti-viral therapies. Structural information is lacking for CD81: indeed, there is no high resolution structure for any full-length tetraspanin. This thesis describes an analysis of the protein-protein interaction interface between CD81 and Claudin-1 full-length proteins using a split-ubiquitin yeast assay. Also, using recombinant protein production of CD81, this thesis describes work towards successful crystallisation trials of a full length tetraspanin. CD81 homotypic and heterotypic interactions with Claudin-1 were analysed in a high-throughput format in yeast, showing that this interaction is specific and does not require other mammalian cell factors. This work demonstrates that the CD81 large extracellular loop and its first transmembrane domain are involved in the CD81-Claudin-1 interaction: a novel full length molecular model predicted interacting amino acid residues that were confirmed in vivo using yeast assays. Thermal stability assays used to investigate recombinant membrane protein found that both detergent and buffer components are vital for the stability of recombinant CD81, which shows increased thermostability in the presence of cholesteryl hemisuccinate. Using the improved protein solution environment found here, and the increased understanding of the tetraspanin interaction interface; this work paves the way for CD81 structural characterisation alone or in combination with Claudin-1.


Drawing from a combination of specific, empirical research projects with different theoretical backgrounds, a workshop discussed one methodological aspect often somewhat overlooked in African Studies: comparison. Participants addressed several questions, along with presenting overviews of how different disciplines within African Studies approach comparison in their research and naming specific challenges within individual research projects. The questions examined included: Why is explicit comparative research so rare in African Studies? Is comparative research more difficult in the African context than in other regions? Does it benefit our research? Should scholars strive to generalise beyond individual cases? Do studies in our field require an explicit comparative design, or will implicit comparison suffice? Cross-discipline communication should help us to move forward in this methodological debate, though in the end the subject matter and specific research question will lead to the appropriate comparative approach, not the other way round.


Treatment of mice with L-asparaginase from Escherichia coli resulted in a marked suppression of the immune response, as assessed both cellularly and humorally. Suppression occurred only when the enzyme was injected together with the sheep erythrocytes used as antigen. There was little or no effect when the enzyme was injected before the antigen. Simultaneous injection of asparagine prevented suppression, an indication that the effect of the enzyme was due to depletion of an amino acid probably essential for normal lymphoid cell function during antibody production.


Ab initio calculations were carried out to study the potential energy surface of (H3CHCH3)−. The 6–31G* basis set is supplemented by a set of diffuse p functions on both C and H (with a range of exponents for the latter). The binding energy of CH4 and CH3− to form the (H3CHCH3)− complex is about 2 kcal/mol, much smaller than for comparable ionic H-bonded systems involving O or N atoms. Nearly half of this interaction energy is due to correlation effects, computed at second and third orders of Moller-Plesset perturbation theory. Correlation is also responsible for substantial reductions in the energy barrier to proton transfer within the complex. This barrier is computed to be 13‒15 kcal/mol at the MP3 level, depending upon the exponent used for the H p functions.


To ensure the success of online business, it is important for the retailers to
understand their targeted customers. The aim of this study is to develop an instrument for
investigating and understanding consumer's online shopping orientations and factors that
influence attitude toward online shopping and online shopping intention. A five-level
Likert scale was used to determine attitude toward online shopping. A self-administered
questionnaire, based on prior literature, was developed, and a total of 370 post graduate
students of University Putra Malaysia were selected by random sampling and involved in
the study.
Eight components, referring to online shopping orientation and online shopping
perceived benefits, were found to explain 97 % of the variability in consumer's online
shopping orientation. They were subsequently labeled: utilitarian online shopping
orientation, hedonic online shopping orientation, fun, convenience, customer service,
homepage, wider selection and price.
The reliability of data and scale was tested by computing Cronbach's Alpha. Alpha
values were 0.874 for online shopping orientation, 0.921 for perceived benefits, and 0.853
for attitude.
These alpha values exceed the 0.80 recommended acceptable inter-items reliability
threshold, indicating a high correlation among the variables comprising the set, and
accordingly, that individual items (or sets of items) should produce results consistent with
the overall instrument. In light of this, this instrument is offered to the research community
as a tool that may be used in conducting future research related to online shopping
behavior.


The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana is known to be heavy metal-sensitive in contrast to its relative species A. arenosa and A. halleri classified as pseudometallophytes. Quantitative differences in primary root anatomy previously found between A. thaliana and the non-metallicolous (NM) and metallicolous (M) populations of the non-model Arabidopsis species necessitated further research at cellular and ultrastructural levels. Seedlings of A. thaliana, ecotype Columbia and a natural population Ratkovo, the NM and M populations of A. arenosa and A. halleri were grown on agar medium containing 10 µM (control) and 1000 µM Zn2+ for 5 days. Light microscopy confirmed the higher number of cells in the endodermal, cortical and epidermal layers and a higher incidence of additional cell tiers, the so-called middle cortex (MC) in the tolerant genotypes. Such differences were present in untreated plants and even more pronounced in plants exposed to excess of zinc (Zn). Electron microscopy of the root tissues at comparable distances from the root tip showed Casparian bands only in the radial cell walls of endodermis of A. halleri M population originating from severely (Cu, Cd and Pb) contaminated site. Casparian bands were not differentiated yet in the roots of the other species and populations, and they were not formed in the cell walls between endodermis and MC cells. In the apical cytoplasm of trichoblast bulges, autophagic vacuoles were found only in the sensitive A. thaliana and small vacuoles in the other genotypes. The enhanced concentration of Zn confirmed the higher metal sensitivity of the model species and did not substantially disturb the root cell ultrastructure of the tolerant Arabidopsis species.


White plague (WP) is a highly destructive coral disease that rapidly kills susceptible coral species by mass tissue lysis. The pathogen and underlying causes of this disease are not known. In this laboratory-based study, we examined a small coral-associated gall crab from the family Cryptochiridae in terms of a possible association with WP-like lesions. A series of experiments was conducted after observations that 2 scleractinian coral species, Diploria labyrinthiformis and Pseudodiploria strigosa, developed signs of WP-like disease within a laboratory holding aquarium and that small gall crabs were physically present in the center of each lesion. Using fragments of D. labyrinthiformis, a crab from one of the lesions was sequentially removed and placed, under controlled conditions, onto apparently healthy coral colonies, resulting in the development of similar lesions. Next-generation sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene was performed to profile the bacterial communities associated with the crab, lesions, and healthy corals. The microbiota of the crab and lesions were highly similar while that of apparently healthy colonies were significantly different. Significant differences were largely due to an increase in Alphaproteobacteria in crab and lesion communities. In particular, the Roseobacter clade had a higher relative abundance in the crab and WP-like lesions. This study suggests that the cryptochirid gall crab may be associated with development of WP-like lesions.


The Greek and the Icelandic crisis have much in common, not the least the heavy pressure from foreign countries and the hectoring from their public officials. In Iceland and in Greece this was counterproductive, hardening the opposition to any settlement. The will to reform needs to come from within, and the sooner the Troika realizes this, the easier it will be to deal with the Greek situation.


Over 20 years ago Our Common Future presented a conceptualization and explanation of the concept of sustainable development. Since then, numerous alternative definitions of the concept have been offered, of which at least some are exclusive to each other. At the same time, the role of business in the transition to sustainable development has increasingly received attention. Bringing these two trends in sustainable development together, this paper returns to the Brundtland version of the concept to examine to what extent the original principles of sustainable development are still embedded within key business guidelines, namely the UN Global Compact, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the ICC Business Charter for Sustainable Development, the CAUX Principles, the Global Sullivan Principles and the CERES Principles. The findings suggest that these business guidelines tend to emphasize environmental rather than social aspects of sustainable development, in particular to the detriment of the original Brundtland prioritization of the needs of the poorest. Furthermore, the attention to environmental aspects stresses win-win situations and has a clear managerialist focus; whereas more conceptual environmental issues concerning systems interdependencies, critical thresholds or systemic limits to growth find little attention. The normative codes and principles targeted at the private sector therefore not only add another voice to the multiple discourses on sustainable development but also contribute to a reinterpretation of the original agenda set by Brundtland towards conceptualizations of sustainable development around the needs of industrialized rather than developing countries.


Carbon nanotubes are an exciting new material with exemplary mechanical and electronic properties. Carbon nanotubes can be either metallic or semiconducting; either type has properties which rival conventional materials. The one-dimensional electronic nature of these materials leads to extreme sensitivity to the local energy landscape, a desirable property for a sensing element. Production of carbon nanotubes currently has no method of growing nanotubes with a specific electronic property, any differentiation occurs through processing a heterogenous ensemble. Recently, networks of carbon nanotubes have shown attractive properties for electronic applications. The self-selecting current path has properties averaged from the ensemble of nanotubes providing repeatability in addition to flexibility and transparency. This thesis is a study of the transport properties of thin and thick networks of singlewalled carbon nanotubes and their electrical response to oxygen adsorption in both a simple resistive geometry and as the gate layer in a nanotube-metal-oxide-silicon capacitor. The thickness of network was found to determine the electrical characteristics of the network ensemble, thin networks displaying semiconducting transport characteristics, thick networks becoming more metallic. The response of the nanotube networks to oxygen exposure was found to be dependent on UV treatment. UV-desorbed networks exhibited an increased conductance upon oxygen-exposure, adsorbed networks exhibited a decrease in conductance upon further oxygen-exposure. Thinner, more semiconducting nanotube networks exhibited a greater change in conductance upon oxygen exposure. The nanotube-metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitor also showed a greater change in flatband capacitance for thin nanotube networks. The capacitance of the nanotube device at the nanotube network flat-band voltage is shown to be influenced by both oxygen and nitrogen gases. The origin of the behaviour of the flat-band voltage is attempted to be understood and future work is suggested.


We measured the longitudinal and transverse Hall resistivities of YBa2Cu3Oy/R1−xMxMnO3 superlattices in magnetic fields to study the transport properties, in which R = La or Nd and M = Ca or Sr. The resistive transition in the magnetic field shows a thermally activated flux flow behaviour. The flux pinning ability of the superlattice is reduced when the coupling strength between YBa2Cu3Oy layers is decreased. The transverse Hall resistivity shows sign reversal for samples with strong pinning ability. The sign reversal diminishes as the pinning force is reduced. The magnetoresistance (MR) ratio, |Δρ(H) − Δρ(H = 0)|/Δρ(H), of the YBa2Cu3Oy/R1−xMxMnO3 superlattice is affected by the coupling strength of R1−xMxMnO3 layers. The peak values of the MR ratio were shifted to lower temperatures in superlattices due to the lowering of the magnetic ordering in ferromagnetic layers.


Although hospital information systems (HIS) have recently become more widely used, data stored in HIS databases are not fully utilized in clinical research. One major reason is the lack of suitable tools to utilize the stored data for clinical research. Patient eligibility criteria for clinical studies often consist of multiple conditions incorporating logical operations across multiple data tables. These are too complex to perform using the existing HIS interfaces, which were originally designed for clinical business rather than clinical research. Moreover, these criteria sometimes require importing patient lists from external data sources not stored in the HIS databases. Certainly end-user computing (EUC) is effective in satisfying these demands, but in reality, EUC is too difficult for many clinical researchers to master because it requires them to understand the complicated composition of the data tables in the HIS database. Thus, we have developed a search system to meet these needs using user-friendly interfaces. Since the objective of a clinical study is to prove a relationship between a certain purported cause and the outcome, target patients must be selected based on several items of clinical information. Patient eligibility criteria for clinical studies are usually complex, consisting of multiple conditions combined with logical "AND", "OR" and "NOT" operations as well as parentheses. It is a challenge to design user interfaces that can specify logical operations and parentheses among multiple search conditions. Our search system is designed to support set operations between the lists of search results as well as functions for loading and saving multiple lists, instead of logical operations and parentheses among search conditions. The system was developed using a middleware package for EUC, and was released in our institute. In this study, both the proposed search system and search interfaces for our institutional HIS were evaluated using application forms submitted to the Informatics Department requesting search and export of data stored in the HIS database. The requests were processed using both systems, and the results were recorded and analyzed for evaluation. Our search system fulfilled a significantly larger number of requests than the HIS interfaces (paired t-test, p<0.05).


Three hundred and seven valid non-users and 307 matched users of cervical screening were interviewed about who they would prefer to take the smear test, where it was carried out and at what time. Fifty-five per cent of non-users and 48 per cent of users had no preference as to whether the smear taker was a doctor or nurse but these previously unscreened women who did state a preference preferred a nurse. A female smear- taker was preferred by most non-users (77 per cent) and most users (60 per cent), the stronger preferences among non-users being statistically sig nificant (χ2 = 20.9, p < 0.0001). Only 2 per cent of non-users and 7 per cent of users specifically wanted a male to do the test while the remainder had no preference. Familiarity with the smear-taker was a more divided issue with 40 per cent of non-users and 42 per cent of users having no preference as to whether they knew the tester or not. The most popular place to have the test carried out was the GP surgery or health centre for all women. However, a minority of both groups requested a hospital well-woman or domiciliary service. There was little demand for a workplace service or weekend clinics from either group but 15 per cent of all women who wanted to attend on a weekday wanted an evening service. Preferences for smear-taker and location were not associated with age, social class or marital status. Service providers must take into account the needs of all women if they are to provide a service which will be suited to those women they want to use it. Above all, women need to know that there is a choice available if voluntary participation in the screening programme is to be encouraged.


We studied the geographical distribution and habitat suitability of an introduced ungulate, the aoudad (Ammotragus lervia), that is currently expanding its range in south‐eastern Iberian Peninsula. We assessed the niche of the species using Ecological Niche Factor Analysis (ENFA) on (1) environmental variables (climate and habitat type), and (2) potential aoudad landscape avoidance and human disturbance variables. We compared both niche descriptions to study the impact of human interference on niche selection of the species. ENFA models were calibrated using data on the population expanded from the original release location, in Sierra Espuña mountains, and validated using data from another free‐ranging population, originated independently in the Alicante province. The habitat suitability model for the purely environmental niche predicts a potential distribution along a SW–NE axis in the study area, following the Cordillera Sub‐Bética mountain range, being constrained by low winter precipitation, high altitude, high terrain slope, and the presence of forest. In addition to these ecological traits, roads and landscape use restricted the environmental range potentially available for the species. Since the aoudad is a potential competitor of native ungulates and a threat to endemic flora, prospects for its potential dispersion might be of great conservation value.


E‐cigarette use has exploded in the past years, especially among young adults and smokers desiring to quit. While concerns are mostly based on the presence of nicotine and flavors, pulmonary effects of propylene glycol and glycerol inhalation, the main solvents of e‐liquid have not been thoroughly investigated. In this preclinical study, mice were exposed 2 h daily for up to 8 weeks to vapors of propylene glycol and/or glycerol generated by an e‐cigarette. Lung transcriptome analysis revealed it affected the expression level of genes of the circadian molecular clock, despite causing no inflammatory response. Periodical sacrifices showed that the rhythmicity of these regulatory genes was indeed altered in the lungs, but also in the liver, kidney, skeletal muscle, and brain. E‐cigarette exposure also altered the expression of rhythmic genes (i.e., hspa1a and hspa1b), suggesting that alterations to the 'clock genes' could translate into systemic biological alterations. This study reveals that the major solvents used in e‐cigarettes propylene glycol and glycerol, not nicotine or flavors, have unsuspected effects on gene expression of the molecular clock that are to be taken seriously, especially considering the fundamental role of the circadian rhythm in health and disease.


The second number of this first volume of Science Reviews from the End of the World, is dedicated to chemistry, more specifically, charge transfer processes in transition metal complexes. While Profs. Katz and Wolcan discuss the subject focused on inorganic complexes (attached to polymers in the case of Wolcan), Profs. Murgida and Brondino et al dedicate their reviews to metalloproteins. Therefore, we could say that the areas represented in this issue are inorganic, organometallic and bioinorganic chemistry.


Summary The author discusses the conflict in Israel between the public interest in archaeological research and the religious convictions that human remains, once buried, should not be touched. The conflict is exacerbated by urban development, which, in this ancient land, necessitates rescue excavations of tombs, thus bringing the problem to a head. The article examines, first, the rules of Jewish law, which, the author contends, have made it possible to accommodate the interests of the living, and, secondly, the scientific value of the archaeological excavation of tombs, using recent examples as illustrations. The author concludes that Jewish law could be interpreted and applied more flexibly and could then be reconciled with Israeli law. However, even if such a development were not to take place, then, in keeping with democratic values, government officials and the courts would be required to follow the policies established by the legislator, a balance between the conflicting interests having already been embodied in the law.


In November of 2007, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) celebrated its fortieth birthday at a gathering of the organization's ten member states in Singapore. It was a celebration eclipsed by news of the military junta's brutal repression of protests in Burma, an ASEAN member. The task of plotting a way forward for ASEAN has been punctuated by this and other improbable events, such as the March 2008 electoral losses of Malaysia's ruling coalition and the catastrophic upheaval unleashed by Cyclone Nargis in Burma. Yet these "black swans" have unexpectedly produced opportunity for reform and democratization in the region.


Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) is preceded by a long period of subtle brain changes, occurring in the absence of overt cognitive symptoms, that need to be still fully characterized. Dynamic network analysis based on restingstate magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) is a potentially powerful tool for the study of preclinical FTD. In the present study, we employed a "chronnectome" approach (recurring, time-varying patterns of connectivity) to evaluate measures of dynamic connectivity in 472 at-risk FTD subjects from the Genetic Frontotemporal dementia research Initiative (GENFI) cohort. We considered 249 subjects with FTD-related pathogenetic mutations and 223 mutation non-carriers (HC). Dynamic connectivity was evaluated using independent component analysis and sliding-time window correlation to rs-fMRI data, and meta-state measures of global brain flexibility were extracted. Results show that presymptomatic FTD exhibits diminished dynamic fluidity, visiting less meta-states, shifting less often across them, and travelling through a narrowed meta-state distance, as compared to HC. Dynamic connectivity changes characterize preclinical FTD, arguing for the desynchronization of the inner fluctuations of the brain. These changes antedate clinical symptoms, and might represent an early signature of FTD to be used as a biomarker in clinical trials.


High coordination costs are often blamed for the low quality of public goods available to the poor. Participatory development programs have sought to lower these costs by improving trust and cooperation, but the evidence of their impact is mixed. We examine financial "self-help" groups in one of the poorest districts in India, using a unique combination of a village-randomized controlled trial and a lab-in-the-field experiment. A survey of 1,600 women before and after the intervention shows that the presence of these groups improved access to, and quality of, a critical local public good: water. Public goods games played with 184 participants in a subset of control and treatment villages indicate that cooperative norms are stronger where self-help groups were present. We find little evidence that membership leads to a convergence of tastes among group members. These results suggest that, in contrast to traditional community initiatives, self-help groups can build durable social capital in poor communities.


There seems to be a general belief among Internet users that it is a particularly democratic kind of activity. How true is this, more especially in terms of electronic publishing? The problem in seeking an answer is that 'democracy' means different things to different people. Its meaning not only varies from country to country, but even within a single country it can have different flavours. For example, a summary of the definition given in the Oxford English Dictionary might be: 'that form of government in which power resides in the people as a whole and is exercised either directly by them, or by officers elected by them. It is often used more vaguely to denote a social state in which all have equal rights, without arbitrary differences due to rank or privilege'. Other sources put it rather differently. For example, the Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought says, in summary: 'Democracy is the right of all to decide what are matters of general concern. A further criterion is the extent to which basic rights (e.g. freedom of speech) are guaranteed'.


Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is a worldwide epidemic where
infected individuals usually develop acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). HIV is
primarily spread by sexual transmission across mucosal tissue where dendritic cells (DC)
reside. DC regulate immune responses through their unique ability to capture antigen,
migrate to lymphoid tissue, and activate naive T cells. In this Thesis, we have investigated
whether HIV influences the migration of DC, thereby influencing their capacity to regulate
immune function and facilitate transport of HIV to T cell rich lymphoid tissue.
Transmigration assays demonstrated that the predominant HIV strain during primary
infection, R5 HIV-1, was chemotactic for immature DC (iDC). Addition of soluble CD4
enhanced iDC migration to R5 HIV, presumably by binding to R5 HIV and altering the
conformation to enhance binding to CCR5. Our results suggested that iDC migrated
specifically to R5 and not X4 HIV gp120, through interactions between the extracellular
loop-2 (ECL-2) domain of CCR5 with the V3 loop region of R5 gp120.
iDC prepared from HIV-infected subjects were shown to have impaired chemotaxis to
inflammatory chemokines compared with iDC from healthy individuals. Furthermore, the
level of inhibition appeared to be proportional to the severity of disease progression in HIV
infected subjects. Interestingly, chemotaxis of iDC from long-term non-progressor
individuals was similar to normal individuals, whereas migration of iDC from typical
progressors was greatly impaired. These differences did not appear to be related to the level
of CCR5 expression or patient viral load. The protease inhibitor Indinavir used in antiretroviral
therapy, limited DC trans-endothelial migration to chemokines, reduced DC-SIGN
expression and increased CD83 on iDC. The results suggested that Indinavir inhibited
proteases necessary for DC migration by adversely affecting interactions between DC-SIGN,
VLA-4 and VLA-5 and ligands on the endothelium and underlying fibronectin matrix.
A novel method has been successfully developed for amplifying rare HIV-specific CDS
cells using DC transfected with HLA antigens matching HIV-infected subjects. This has
enabled us to amplify HIV-specific CDS T cells by 10- to 60-fold. This may help us to clone
and characterise HIV-specific CDS T cells from highly exposed persistently seronegative
(HEPS) individuals.
In summary, the results in this Thesis demonstrate that R5 HIV mimics chemokines to
subvert the natural trafficking of DC. Indeed, we have shown that DC from typical
progressors have severely impaired migration. This may have serious consequences on DC
immunoregulation, compromising the immune function of these infected individuals.


This paper contributes to the ongoing debate about the meaning of slurs by developing a speech-act approach to slurring. Slurs are conceived of as illocutionary force indicating devices that may signal – in certain contexts – that an act of slurring has been carried out. Slurring is a subtype of insulting and insulting is a subtype of the class of expressive speech acts. The speech-act view of slurring explains what is missing in a number of sophisticated analyses like the truth-conditional approach by Hom and May (2013), the conventional-implicature approach by Whiting (2008, 2013), the stereotype approach by Croom (2011, 2013), the perspective approach by Camp (2013), as well as the prohibition approach by Anderson and Lepore (2013a, b), namely that slurs are used for insulting their targets. The latter approach is contrasted with the multi-act approach of Tenchini and Frigerio (this volume) that assumes two illocutionary forces associated with slurs.


This article argues that disparities girls face in the juvenile justice system can be remedied by employing equal rights analysis including the federal Equal Protection Clause, state Equal Rights Amendments, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Unlike the adult prison context, in which equal protection and Title IX have had limited success, the juvenile justice system is premised on individualized rehabilitative justice. Where differences between male and female offenders have undermined equal rights challenges in the adult arena, in the juvenile justice system differences among individual youth are acknowledged, and dispositions are driven by those individual needs. Under that individualized approach, equality means attending to the gender specific needs of girls. The article addresses the two situations in which the juvenile justice system treats girls most inequitably: development of specialized programs for boys that exclude girls, and providing girls with the same programming as boys without modification to address gender needs.


A n-sided polygonal cell-based smoothed finite element method (nCS-FEM) was recently proposed to analyze the elastic solid mechanics problems, in which the problem domain can be discretized by a set of polygons with an arbitrary number of sides. In this paper, the nCS-FEM is further extended to the free and forced vibration analyses of two-dimensional (2D) dynamic problems. A simple lump mass matrix is proposed and hence the complicated integrations related to computing the consistent mass matrix can be avoided in the nCS-FEM. Several numerical examples are investigated and the results found of the nCS-FEM agree well with exact solutions and with those of others FEM.


An investigation of factors that facilitate the utilization of research evidence among faculty, staff, and volunteers in the 4-H Youth Development Program is presented in this paper. Participants (N= 368; 86 4-H faculty, 153 staff, and 129 volunteers) represented 35 states; structural equation modeling was utilized in the analyses. Results of the path analysis explained 56% of variance in research utilization and 28% in research utilization self-efficacy. Among the factors impacting research utilization, self-efficacy played the most important role. In turn, self-efficacy for research utilization was positively influenced by participants' learning goal orientation, frequency of 4-H training during the last 12 months, education in research-related areas, and investigative career interests. In addition, 4-H staff who were exposed to research at higher levels reported higher research utilization self-efficacy. The findings reinforce the importance of fostering research utilization self-efficacy among 4-H faculty, staff, and volunteers. Among the suggestions presented are regular 4-H training opportunities and on-going exposure to program evaluation and program improvement experiences.


Many software systems have to be designed and developed in a way that guarantees that specific information remains confidential with respect to considered adversaries. Such guarantees depend on the internal information flow inside individual components and the system architecture, e.g., the deployment on hardware nodes and properties of their communication links. Therefore, we propose a novel architecture-driven approach for specifying and analyzing the confidentiality of information processed by component-based systems. It includes an architectural analysis that is able to infer leaks of confidential information from abstract architecture models, adversary models, and confidentiality specifications. Our approach supports re-usability of components and specification parts across systems as well as specifications with custom labels, e.g., accessibility of hardware and service interfaces. Additionally, our information flow specifications for components are compositional and supported by tools for non-interference verification on source code level. In two case studies, we show how our specification approach is applied and how the architectural analysis is able to detect information leaks of a system in an early design phase.


Abstract:Bolivia's current TIPNIS (Territorio Indígena Parque Nacional Isiboro Sécure) crisis has highlighted the diverse and often conflicting interpretations and applications of indigenous rights and environmental rights and how these have impacted the goals and structures of governance of the MAS party and the indigenous-based presidency of Evo Morales. Special attention will be given to environmental concerns as a core, but clearly contested, element of national development and the defense of Bolivian sovereignty. In the struggle over the construction of the road through the Isiboro Secure Indigenous Territory and National Park, which sought to link Bolivia and Brazil and ultimately provide land-locked Bolivia more ready access to the Pacific, social movements have been marshaled and mobilized both for and against the government's project. What has this meant for Bolivia's populist and social-movement-based democracy? Has this rainforest crisis been another example of an "overdose of democracy," a condition that appears to have dogged the Morales presidencies? This paper seeks to explore these, and related issues.


Emulsified zero-valent iron (EZVI) is a surfactant-stabilized, biodegradable emulsion that forms droplets consisting of a liquid-oil membrane surrounding zero-valent iron (ZVI) particles in water. This article summarizes the results obtained during the first field-scale deployment of EZVI at NASA's Launch Complex 34 (LC34) located on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, in August 2002 and presents the results of recent follow-on laboratory tests evaluating the mechanisms, which contribute to the performance of the technology. The field-scale demonstration evaluated the performance of EZVI containing nanoscale zero-valent iron (NZVI) when applied to dense, nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) trichloroethylene (TCE) in the saturated zone. Results of the field demonstration indicate substantial reductions in TCE soil concentrations (greater than 80 percent) at all but two soil boring locations and significant reductions in TCE groundwater concentrations (e.g., 60 percent to 100 percent) at all depths targeted with EZVI. Laboratory tests conducted in 2005 suggest that both NZVI particles and EZVI containing NZVI can provide significant reductions in TCE mass when used to treat TCE DNAPL in small test reactors. However, EZVI was able to reduce TCE concentrations to lower levels than were obtained with NZVI alone, likely as a result of the combined impact of sequestration of the TCE into the oil phase and degradation of the TCE with the NZVI. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


This paper develops a tractable human capital model with limited enforceability of contracts. The model economy is populated by a large number of long-lived, risk-averse households with homothetic preferences who can invest in risk-free physical capital and risky human capital. Households have access to a complete set of credit and insurance contracts, but their ability to use the available financial instruments is limited by the possibility of default (limited contract enforcement). We provide a convenient equilibrium characterization that facilitates the computation of recursive equilibria substantially. We use a calibrated version of the model with stochastically aging households divided into 9 age groups. Younger households have higher expected human capital returns than older households. According to the baseline calibration, for young households less than half of human capital risk is insured and the welfare losses due to the lack of insurance range from 3 percent of lifetime consumption (age 40) to 7 percent of lifetime consumption (age 23). Realistic variations in the model parameters have non-negligible effects on equilibrium insurance and welfare, but the result that young households are severely underinsured is robust to such variations.


The Λ(1405) resonance is studied by a chiral unitary approach, in which the reso- nance is dynamically generated in coupled-channel meson-baryon scattering. Inves-tigating the analytic structure of the scattering amplitudes obtained by the chiral unitary approach, we find two poles around the energies of the Λ(1405) coupling differently to the meson-baryon states. We reach the conclusion that the Λ(1405) resonance seen in experiments is not just one single resonance, but a superposition of these two states.


In education theory and practice, philosophy serves as an instrument of action to facilitate the process of inquiry. The implication is that philosophy which is an independent academic discipline is only required to give direction to theoretical and practical realms of education. In this case, philosophical methods, principles, theories, perspectives are used to solve an experienced problem that is perceived to overawe education either in its theoretical or practical dimension. Accordingly, Kani and Sa'ad (2015:21) argue that a philosophical research is an activity of investigation which is defined as both a scientific and an abstract search for knowledge, or any systematic enquiry that is envisaged to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories. A philosophical research in education is either a scientific or an abstract attempt which aims at finding solutions to educational questions based on a clearly identifiable technique. Hitherto, the current approach to research in philosophy of education seems to be confined to the strategies of exploring problems within the discipline of philosophy. A glaring problem is that philosophy of education and philosophy itself are two distinct disciplines and the two are neither tantamount nor proxies. Therefore, this blatant negation provides the contextual basis of this paper.


The HMG-I gene family encodes high mobility group proteins originally identified as nonhistone chromosomal binding proteins. HMG-I and -Y proteins are alternatively spliced products of the same mRNA; HMG-C is encoded by a separate gene. The HMG-I proteins function as architectural chromatin-binding proteins that bind to the narrow groove of AT-rich regions in double-stranded DNA. Recent studies indicate an important role for HMG-I proteins in regulating gene expression. Moreover, increased expression of the HMG-I, -Y, and -C proteins correlates with cellular proliferation and neoplastic transformation in several cell types and human cancers. Previous work from our laboratory has shown that HMG-I is a direct c-Myc target gene that is involved in Myc-mediated neoplastic transformation. In this report, we show that increased expression of HMG-Y or -C leads to transformation with anchorage-independent cell growth in two experimental cell lines in a manner similar to that of HMG-I or c-Myc. Moreover, Rat la cells overexpressing HMG-Y or -C form tumors in nude mice analogous to Rat 1a cells overexpressing HMG-I or c-Myc. Distant metastases developed in animals injected with cells overexpressing HMG-I or -C. Our findings suggest that the HMG-I gene family is involved in neoplastic transformation and may represent a new family of oncogenes important in the pathogenesis of several human cancers.


Two-way causation issues are the bete noire of life satisfaction research. As acknowledged in several landmark reviews, many variables routinely reported as causes or determinants of life satisfaction could equally well be consequences, or perhaps both causes and consequences (Diener, 1984; Diener, Suh, Lucas and Smith, 1999; Argyle, 2001; Frey and Stutzer, 2002). These variables include one's state of health, social support and participation, exercise, job satisfaction and satisfaction with one's partner and family life. In previous attempts to disentangle two-way causation issues, a wide variety of statistical models have been deployed. Conflicting empirical results have been reported, together with concerns about model 'goodness of fit' and model stability. In this paper we estimate five-wave structural equation models using data from large, nationally representative panel surveys in Australia, Britain and Germany. The models are based on a modified concept of Granger-causation (Granger, 1969). The main intuition behind Granger-causation is that if lagged versions of time-series variable x have statistically significant effects on time-series variable y in equations in which multiple lagged versions of y are also included, then it can be inferred that x is one cause (or 'Granger-cause') of y. We adapt Granger's approach, extending it to encompass two-way causation and panel survey data. It transpires that our Granger-style models have satisfactory fits to the panel data and are stable. Alternative models fit the data much less well. Substantively, we find that two-way causation is pervasive: all of the x variables mentioned above appear to be both causes and consequences of life satisfaction. With minor exceptions, results replicate across all three datasets, despite non-trivial differences between the measures used in the three countries. One implication is that researchers who have assumed one-way causation have seriously over-estimated the effects of x variables on LS. A second implication is that many people apparently experience multi-year gains or losses of life satisfaction rather than just recording short term fluctuations around their own normal level or 'set-point'.


Built environment research consists of cognitive and affective, as well as behavioural, components. Existing built environment research utilises either strong qualitative or, more often, strong quantitative methodologies. Aims to discuss some of the philosophical issues that would be considered when undertaking academic research into the built environment. Considers the available research options or paradigms and suggests ways in which a researcher can make an informed and sensible decision as to how to proceed. The main dimensions of the debate about the relative characteristics and merits of quantitative and qualitative methodology are outlined, developing the argument that the use of a single methodology often fails to explore all of these components. The use of a mixed methods approach is suggested to counteract this weakness and to enhance research into the built environment.


A fully open source software program for automated two-dimensional and one-dimensional data reduction and preliminary analysis of isotropic small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) data is presented. The program is freely distributed, following the open-source philosophy, and does not rely on any commercial software packages. BioXTAS RAW is a fully automated program that, via an online feature, reads raw two-dimensional SAXS detector output files and processes and plots data as the data files are created during measurement sessions. The software handles all steps in the data reduction. This includes mask creation, radial averaging, error bar calculation, artifact removal, normalization and q calibration. Further data reduction such as background subtraction and absolute intensity scaling is fast and easy via the graphical user interface. BioXTAS RAW also provides preliminary analysis of one-dimensional data in terms of the indirect Fourier transform using the objective Bayesian approach to obtain the pair-distance distribution function, PDDF, and is thereby a free and open-source alternative to existing PDDF estimation software. Apart from the TIFF input format, the program also accepts ASCII-format input files and is currently compatible with one-dimensional data files from SAXS beamlines at a number of synchrotron facilities. BioXTAS RAW is written in Python with C++ extensions.