Using two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study examines two sets of relationships between attitudes, religiosity, and first sex among adolescents. First, I estimate the effects of religiosity and attitudes about sex on the likelihood of engaging in first sex. Then, I estimate the effect of having sex on subsequent religiosity and attitudes. The findings are consistent with past research that finds attitudes are a significant predictor of sexual activity. The effect of religiosity on first sex is mediated by attitudes about sex. Regarding reciprocal effects, having sex for the first time has a significant effect on later attitudes, but not religiosity. This study highlights the importance of going beyond traditional, recursive models that consider only one side of a causal relationship.


Devices and Methods for Electro-Physical Transport of DNA Across Cell Membranes Quentin T. Aten Department of Mechanical Engineering, BYU Doctor of Philosophy A novel method for charged macromolecule delivery, called nanoinjection, has been developed at Brigham Young University. Nanoinjection combines micro-fabrication technology, mechanism design, and nano-scale electrical phenomenon to transport exogenous DNA across cell membranes on a nano-featured lance. DNA is electrically accumulated on the lance, precision movements of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) physically insert the lance into cell, and DNA is electrically released from the lance into the cell. Penetration into the cell is achieved through a two-phase, self-reconfiguring metamorphic mechanism. The surface-micromachined, metamorphic nanoinjector mechanism elevates the lance above the fabrication substrate, then translates in-plane at a constant height as the lance penetrates the cell membranes. In-vitro studies indicate no statistical difference in viability between nanoinjected and untreated mouse zygotes. Pronuclear nanoinjection experiments on mouse zygotes, using microinjection as a control, demonstrate integration and expression of a nanoinjected transgene, and higher rates of zygote survival and pup births than the microinjection control. A new compliant mechanism analysis method, the minimization of potential energy method (MinPE method) is presented to model the equilibrium position of compliant mechanisms with more degrees of freedom (DOF) than inputs, such as a fully-compliant nanoinjector. The MinPE method position and force predictions agree with the method of virtual work and non-linear finite element analyses of under-actuated and underconstrained compliant mechanisms. Additionally, a performance-based comparison is made between quadratic shell finite elements elements and 3-D quadratic solid elements for modeling geometrically non-linear spacial deflection of thinfilm compliant mechanisms. The comparison's results suggest the more computationally efficient quadratic shell elements can be used to model spatially deforming thin-film compliant mechanisms. Finally, this dissertation presents preliminary results for a proposed method of DNA transfer called cytoplasm-to-pronucleus nanoinjection. By placing a DNA coated lance into the cytoplasm of a mouse zygote and applying a voltage pulse of sufficient magnitude and duration, pores may open in the pronuclear membranes and DNA may be electrophoretically repelled from the lance. If effective, this process could result in transgenes without having to visualize and physically penetrate into the pronucleus. While embryo survival has been demonstrated under a variety of injection conditions, further study is needed to increase the process' consistency, and to determine if cytoplasm-to-pronucleus nanoinjection can generate transgenic animals.


Traditionally, the teaching role has been one of nurturing and developing students' potential.
However, teachers' work today comprises a complex mix of various factors that include teaching; learning new information and skills; keeping abreast of technological innovations and dealing with students, parents and the community. These are demanding roles and there are growing concerns about teacher well-being and competence. In particular, teachers are experiencing increasing levels of attrition, stress and burnout. This study investigated the relationship between burnout and competence for a sample of mid-career teachers in primary and secondary schools in Queensland. The results break new ground in reporting a negative association between the MBI subscale Depersonalization and competence that may be attributed to a distancing mechanism in difficult human interactions. Overall, the findings of this study hold implications for teacher training courses and the well-being and competence of teachers.


Abstract The 2008 Wells, Nevada, earthquake represents the largest domestic event in the contiguous United States outside of California since the October 1983 Borah Peak earthquake in southern Idaho. We present an improved catalog, magnitude complete to 1.6, of the foreshock–aftershock sequence, supplementing the current U.S. Geological Survey Preliminary Determination of Epicenters catalog with 1928 well‐located events. To create this catalog, both subspace and kurtosis detectors are used to obtain an initial set of earthquakes and associated locations. The latter are then calibrated through the implementation of the hypocentroidal decomposition method and relocated using the Bayesloc relocation technique. We additionally perform a finite‐fault slip analysis of the mainshock using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) observations. By combining the relocated sequence with the finite‐fault analysis, we show that the aftershocks occur primarily up‐dip and along the southwestern edge of the zone of maximum slip. The aftershock locations illuminate areas of postmainshock strain increase; aftershock depths, ranging from 5 to 16 km, are consistent with InSAR imaging, which shows that the Wells earthquake was a buried source with no observable near‐surface offset. Electronic Supplement: Description of methods and figures of relocated aftershocks, interferograms, residuals, transformations, and seismic station locations.


Cancer progresses through the spread of invasive malignant cells causing normal cells to decrease in proportions. The main reasons for these phenotypes are genetic mutations, but surrounding cells and microenvironments add to the inclination towards certain phenotypes. Game theory is a series of mathematical analyses that allow for the prediction of situations based on the outcomes of interactions between "players". The game theory can be applied to biological situations in the sense that they can attempt to predict the proportions of the phenotypes of cells after biological. The purpose of this experiment was to determine if interactions between cells had an effect on the phenotypic outcomes using the game theory. In this experiment, game theory was used to assess the interactions between three cell phenotypes usually found in cancer. The three defined cells were autonomous growth cells, invasive and motile malignant cells, and cells that performed anaerobic glycolysis. Based on preset variables in the payoff matrix, analytical equations were deduced that allowed for the analysis of the proportion of autonomous growth and malignant cells in a tumor. AnyLogic was also used to simulate the interactions between cancerous and normal cells. It was found that malignant phenotypes were more likely to appear in a tumor that contained high amounts of the phenotype of glycolytic cells. Inversely, autonomous growth cells were seen to decrease as the increase of glycolytic cell phenotypes was exhibited. This experiment could be elaborated on by increasing the number of phenotypes that interact within a tumor to add more applicable results to the real world. Mihir Paithane, Student Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Center at Mills E. Godwin High School


A section of cast iron water main pipe contained a hole approximately 6.4 x 3.8 cm (2.5 x 1.5 in.). The pipe was laid in clay type soil. Examination revealed severe pitting around the hole and at the opposite side of the outside diam. A macroscopic examination of a pipe section at the hole area showed that the porosity extended a considerable distance into the pipe wall. Metallographic examination revealed a graphite structure distribution expected in centrifugally cast iron with a hypoeutectic carbon equivalent. Chemical analyses of a nonporous sample had a composition typical of cast iron pipe. Chemical analyses of the porous region had a substantial increase in carbon, silicon, phosphorus, and sulfur. The porous appearance and the composition of the soft porous residue confirmed graphitic corrosion. The selective leaching of iron leaves a residue rich in carbon, silicon, and phosphorus. The high sulfur content is attributed to ferrous sulfide from a sulfate reducing bacteria frequently associated with clay soils. Reinforced coal tar protective coating was recommended.


The aim of this research, undertaken in 2009-2011, was to identify ways of overcoming the barriers faced by managers of New Zealand's light and heavy vehicle fleets in attempting to implement fuel efficiency as part of their normal way of doing business. It included a review of best practice documents, interviews and meetings with fleet managers and key stakeholders, and case studies. A strong link can be found between fuel efficiency and safety. Many of the ways of improving them are the same: managing speed, anticipating the situation ahead, reducing aggressive driving, checking tyre pressures, vehicle maintenance and reducing the amount of travel. The common feature of fuel efficiency programmes and the successfully implemented fuel efficiency and safety management practices is the adoption of evidence-based practice. The report provides a model based on what worked best for the case study fleets and others who have been successful in improving fuel efficiency and safety. The report recommends a number of ways to assist fleets with the adoption of evidence-based practice for saving fuel, improving productivity, improving safety and reducing emissions, eg awareness raising, the use of incentives, encouraging the appointment of fuel champions in fleets, and providing advice and training.


Background: Pathological cardiac hypertrophy is a worldwide problem and an independent risk factor that predisposes the heart to failure. Enhanced activity or expression of the sodium proton exchanger isoform 1 (NHE1) has been implicated in conditions of cardiac hypertrophy. Induction of cGMP has previously been demonstrated to reduce NHE1 activity and expression, which could be through the expression of heme oxygenase isoform 1 (HO-1), a stress-induced enzyme that shows cardioprotective properties. In our study, we aimed to investigate the role of inducing HO-1 in a cardiac hypertrophy model that expresses active NHE1 to determine whether HO-1 could protect against NHE1 induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. Methods: H9c2 cardiomyocytes were infected with the active form of the NHE1 adenovirus in the presence and absence of protoporphyrin (CoPP). Which was used to induce HO-1. Protein and mRNA expression of HO-1 were invested in H9c2 cardiomyocytes in the presence and absence of the expression of the active form of the NHE1 adenovirus. The effects of HO-1 induction on NHE1 protein expression and cardiomyocyte hypertrophic markers were measured respectively by western blotting and analyzing the cell surface area of H9c2. Results: Our results showed a significant decrease in HO-1 mRNA expression in cardiomyocytes expressing active NHE1 (74.84 ± 9.19 % vs. 100 % normal NHE1 expression, p<0.05). However, we did not see any changes in NHE1 protein expression following HO-1 induction. A trend towards decrease in cardiomyocyte hypertrophy was observed in H9c2 cardiomyoblasts infected with the active form of NHE1 following stimulation with HO-1 (NHE1, 154.93 ± 14.87 % vs. NHE1 + CoPP, 109 ± 16.44 %). Conclusion: In our model, HO-1 maybe a useful means to reduce NHE1 induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, although the mechanism by which it does that requires further investigation.


The point-like X-ray source HLX-1 is the brightest known ultraluminous X-ray source and likely the strongest intermediate-mass black hole candidate. HLX-1 is hosted in the S0 galaxy ESO 243-49, but offset with respect to the nucleus, and its optical counterpart was identified with a massive star cluster. In this paper, we study, through N-body/smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations, the scenario where ESO 243-49 is undergoing (or just underwent) a minor merger with a gas-rich low-mass late-type galaxy. The simulations suggest that the observed star formation rate (SFR) in ESO 243-49 is a consequence of the interaction and that the companion galaxy already underwent the second pericentre passage. We propose that the counterpart of HLX-1 coincides with the nucleus (and possibly with the nuclear star cluster) of the secondary galaxy. We estimate that, if the minor merger scenario is correct, the number density of X-ray sources similar to HLX-1 is ≈10−6 Mpc−3.


Third party tracking allows companies to identify users and track their behaviour across multiple digital services. This paper presents an empirical study of the prevalence of third-party trackers on 959,000 apps from the US and UK Google Play stores. We find that most apps contain third party tracking, and the distribution of trackers is long-tailed with several highly dominant trackers accounting for a large portion of the coverage. The extent of tracking also differs between categories of apps; in particular, news apps and apps targeted at children appear to be amongst the worst in terms of the number of third party trackers associated with them. Third party tracking is also revealed to be a highly trans-national phenomenon, with many trackers operating in jurisdictions outside the EU. Based on these findings, we draw out some significant legal compliance challenges facing the tracking industry.


There is empirical evidence of media influence on parliamentary agenda, especially when media coverage privileges conflict framing of reality and negativity. This article addresses the impact of media presence (traditional and social media) and NGOs on European parliamentary discussions about violent conflicts in the Middle East and their role during phases of escalation and pacification. The authors content analysed 7,633 minutes from debates involving the Syrian (from January 2011 to June 2015) and Israeli–Palestinian (from March 2006 to June 2015) conflicts, from the European Parliament (N = 2,541), the German Bundestag (N = 2,138), the UK House of Commons (N = 2,514) and the French Assemblée Nationale (N = 440). Conflict-related paragraphs were filtered and analysed. Using the multilingual and cross-validated dictionary adapted to conflict and media analysis created by INFOCORE, they measured the presence of media and actors as well as the inclusion of conflict-key concepts within parliamentary discussions. Findings revealed that social media (when compared to traditional media and NGOs) are the main actors quoted in parliamentary minutes when they refer to violent conflicts and that this attention varies over time and is driven by focusing events. The presence of traditional and social media as well as NGOs in the debates was significantly different depending on the parliament studied and the conflict under consideration. The authors found empirical evidence supporting the claim that such concepts as limited violence, crisis, assistance and pacification are correlated with the presence of media and NGOs.


The thermal performance of solar parabolic dish systems is greatly influenced by the wind around the system. To achieve higher operating temperatures, larger dish structures are used to increase the concentration ratio, however, the air flow around the structure affects the convective heat loss from the receiver. Previous studies investigating the effect of heat losses from the cavity receiver have treated it as a separate entity decoupled from the reflector. However, the interaction between wind and the dish structure can affect the local air speed at the cavity inlet and thus the heat loss as well. In order to investigate the flow behavior, a three dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was used to predict the steady-state flow around the parabolic solar dish at different operating conditions. The CFD model was subsequently validated with experimental data collected from wind tunnel testing for the dish at different pitch angles and with varying wind speeds. The results support the assertion that the flow characteristics near the cavity receiver aperture depend strongly on the orientation of the dish structure and this needs to be taken into account when analyzing the performance of parabolic dish systems.


Abstract. Fluvial bed-load transport is notoriously unpredictable, especially near the threshold of motion where stochastic fluctuations in sediment flux are large. A general statistical mechanics framework has been developed to formally average these fluctuations, and its application requires an intimate understanding of the probabilistic motion of individual particles. Laboratory and field observations suggest that particles are entrained collectively, but this behavior is not well resolved. Collective entrainment introduces new length and time scales of correlation into probabilistic formulations of bed-load flux. We perform a series of experiments to directly quantify spatially-clustered movement of particles (i.e., collective motion), using a steep-slope 2D flume in which centimeter-scale marbles are fed at varying rates into a shallow and turbulent water flow. We observe that entrainment results exclusively from particle collisions and is generally collective, while particles deposit independently of each other. The size distribution of collective motion events is roughly exponential and constant across sediment feed rates. The primary effect of changing feed rate is simply to change the entrainment frequency, although the relation between these two diverges from the expected linear form in the slowly-driven limit. The total displacement of all particles entrained in a collision event is proportional to the kinetic energy deposited into the bed by the impactor. The first-order picture that emerges is similar to generic avalanching dynamics in sandpiles: avalanches (collective entrainment events) of a characteristic size relax with a characteristic timescale regardless of feed rate, but the frequency of avalanches increases in proportion to the feed rate. The transition from intermittent to continuous bed-load transport then results from the progressive merger of entrainment avalanches with increasing transport rate. As most bed-load transport occurs in the intermittent regime, the length scale of collective entrainment should be considered a fundamental addition to any probabilistic bed-load framework.


Many languages have general or "light" verbs used by speakers to describe a wide range of situations owing to their relatively schematic meanings, e.g., the English verb do that can be used to describe many different kinds of actions, or the verb put that labels a range of types of placement of objects at locations. Such semantically bleached verbs often become grammaticalized and used to encode an extended (set of) meaning(s), e.g., Tamil veyyii 'put/place' is used to encode causative meaning in periphrastic causatives (e.g., okkara veyyii 'make sit', nikka veyyii 'make stand'). But do general verbs in different languages have the same kinds of (schematic) meanings and extensional ranges? Or do they reveal different, perhaps even cross-cutting, ways of structuring the same semantic domain in different languages? These questions require detailed crosslinguistic investigation using comparable methods of eliciting data. The present study is a first step in this direction, and focuses on the use of general verbs to describe events of placement and removal in two South Asian languages, Hindi and Tamil.


As cloud computing is gaining popularity, many application owners are migrating their applications into the cloud. However, because of the diversity of the cloud environments and the complexity of the modern applications, it is very challenging to find out which cloud environment is best fitted for one's application.
In this dissertation, we design and build systems to help application owners select the most suitable cloud environments for their applications. The first part of this thesis focuses on how to compare the general fitness of the cloud environments. We present CloudCmp, a novel comparator of public cloud providers. CloudCmp measures the elastic computing, persistent storage, and networking services offered by a cloud along metrics that directly reflect their impact on the performance of customer applications. CloudCmp strives to ensure fairness, representativeness, and compliance of these measurements while limiting measurement cost. Applying CloudCmp to four cloud providers that together account for most of the cloud customers today, we find that their offered services vary widely in performance and costs, underscoring the need for thoughtful cloud environment selection. From case studies on three representative cloud applications, we show that CloudCmp can guide customers in selecting the best-performing provider for their applications.
The second part focuses on how to let customers compare cloud environments in the context of their own applications. We describe CloudProphet, a novel system that can accurately estimate an application's performance inside a candidate cloud environment without the need of migration. CloudProphet generates highly portable shadow programs iv to mimic the behavior of a real application, and deploys them inside the cloud to estimate the application's performance. We use the trace-and-replay technique to automatically generate high-fidelity shadows, and leverage the popular dispatcher-worker pattern to accurately extract and enforce the inter-component dependencies. Our evaluation in three popular cloud platforms shows that CloudProphet can help customers pick the best-performing cloud environment, and can also accurately estimate the performance of a variety of applications.


We present a model of quasi-phase-matched continuous-wave optical parametric oscillators that accounts for self-induced heating of the photorefractive crystal and modal interaction through pump depletion. The model allows the temperature and therefore the refractive index of the nonlinear medium to vary in the radial and longitudinal dimensions as a result of local absorption of the optical power. We consider the effect of this nonuniform index on single-mode and multimode operation. For a single signal–idler pair we observe thermal lensing, bulk tuning, and modal distortion. For multiple pairs of signal and idler we demonstrate and discuss other phenomena, including spatially dependent modal competition.


A comparison of two similar types of back alley spaces: Back Drainage Space (BDS) in Yangon and Back-lane in Singapore, is conducted to find out if there are any relationships between their spatial development and lessons that can be learned from the precedent case in Singapore. Commonalities and differences of the back alley are identified by comparing the historical urban context of their formation and development in British colonial cities. The findings suggest that the back alley spaces in both cities, despite divergent circumstances and development after independence, possess common traits as interstitial space between public and private, with a unique way of spatial management based on informal, mutual agreement, which suggests some useful ideas when considering the role of these spaces in the redevelopment of Yangon in the near future.


We analyze the aggregate markup of a small-open economy, Belgium, using a firm-level dataset that includes all non-financial, private firms. The dataset covers the period 1980-2016 and merges the annual firm accounts over three periods when firms faced different reporting thresholds for the key variables we use. After harmonizing the data, we find that for the median firm the revenue share of service intermediates doubles, to some extent at the expense of in-house employment. As this general patterns holds true for the vast majority of firms and all sectors of the economy, we need to control for it in the calculation of our firm-level markup estimates. We document increasing markups in the overall economy throughout the first fifteen years of our sample, 1980-1995, and a continued rise in manufacturing until the early 2000s. In the remaining years, the aggregate markup, although cyclical, remained relatively stable. These patterns are driven by the dynamics in the sales-to-expenditure ratio, with only a small role for changes in the technology parameters. Two decompositions illustrate that the aggregate pattern masks systematic dynamics at the sector and firm level. We find that in periods where the aggregate markup rises—for the full economy or for one of the major sectors—it is almost entirely due to the within component, i.e. firm-level markup growth. In periods where the aggregate markup is stable, the average hides a strong process of reallocation. Firms or sectors with high markups increase their market share, which raises the aggregate markup, but this is dominated by a negative correlation between changes in market share and markups, which depresses the aggregate.


TEACHERS' IMPACT ON PSYCHOSOCIAL TREATMENT FOR LATINO YOUTH WITH ADHD Margaret Grace, M.S. Marquette University, 2018 The current study examined the impact of teacher engagement in psychosocial treatment for Latino youth with ADHD and their families. Participants included sixty-one Latino youth, along with their primary caregiver and teacher. Results revealed that teachers were equally engaged in treatment regardless of the source of the referral to treatment, a finding which is encouraging as it indicates that teachers were motivated to work with their students and families. Additionally, results indicated that referral source and specific aspects of teacher engagement in treatment were related to certain child and parent/family treatment outcomes. Of note, several aspects of teacher engagement in treatment were related to maternal satisfaction with treatment and follow-up analyses identified referral source as a significant predictor of maternal satisfaction with treatment. These findings indicate that higher quality teacher intervention implementation, characterized by greater adherence to intervention components and higher-quality relationships, is related to enhanced child and parent treatment outcomes in the Latino population. Clinical implications and directions for future research also are discussed.


There is a high drop-out rate in distance courses. One of the reasons for this is that students miss the informal and collegial contact with other students that is otherwise provided in on-campus courses. The presented study is based on an assumption that if students could be encouraged to give each other more personal online feedback, the students would also take initiatives to informal and collegial contact via collaboration tools. The presented experiments demonstrate that a combination of specially designed assignments during distance courses will highly increase the amount of spontaneous feedback between students.


This chapter considers over a century of clinical experience to examine the encapsulated yeast Cryptococcus, to identify the highlights of its maturation in identifying, understanding, diagnosing, and managing this major emerging fungal pathogen. In the areas of pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of cryptococcosis, there are myriad events to report. A study conducted in 1998 demonstrated that cryptococcus could demonstrate morphological flexibility in that under certain environmental conditions the yeasts produce hyphae and spores without a mating reaction; in other words, some cryptococcal strains were found to have the ability to haploid fruit, and thus a new part of the life cycle of cryptococcus was identified. Another study introduced the rigorous methodology of comparative, randomized trials into antifungal therapy and particularly cryptococcosis. This study validated the efficacy of combination antifungal therapy for cryptococcosis, and represented a major starting point not just for cryptococcosis but also for other invasive fungal infections. This study initially provided much of the infrastructure for understanding the management of cryptococcal meningitis. The first large outbreak of cryptococcosis was associated with cows and mastitis in the 1950s, probably related to direct inoculation with contaminated fomites. The history of cryptococcosis has been dynamic and continues to evolve. From its humble beginnings as single case reports to its model system status in molecular studies for fungal pathogenesis, it has become a sophisticated complex organism for study and management.


This paper demonstrates repair strategies when place feature of the special moras in Japanese (the second half of a long vowel, moraic nasals, and the first half of a double consonant) fail to be specified in a usual manner. I posit three repair processes based on the observations of marked environments (loanwords, a word game called Sakasa Kotoba, blending): (i) over-application of regular structures in core lexicon, (ii) irregular structures that are produced through The Emergence of the Unmarked (TETU), and (iii) game-specific structures. I illustrate that even in marked environments, repair processes make outcome structures as unmarked as possible with these strategies. Based on the observations in the marked environments (mainly from Sakasa Kotoba), I further discuss the process of morification and underlying representations of special moras.


In order to satisfy the different requirements of provable data possession in cloud computing, a multi-function provable data possession (MF-PDP) is proposed, which supports public verification, data dynamic, unlimited times verification, sampling verification. Besides, it is security in RO model and it is verification privacy under half trust model and can prevent from replacing attack and replay attack. The detail design is provided and the theory analysis about the correct, security and performance are also described. The experiment emulation and compare analysis suggest the feasibility and advantage.


This paper explores the design preferences of virtual communities in two cultural groups – the U.S. and China. The design preferences studied are web design, tools used and types of virtual communities preferred. Content analysis was employed to study twenty of the most popular Chinese and U.S. virtual communities. The study found that there are differences in the preference for the type of virtual communities and the tool used by Chinese and U.S. communities. The findings challenge aspects of website design across these cultural groups thought to be dissimilar based on prior research. Implications for research and practice are also discussed.


Purpose: To compare the real-time visualization of vitreoretino-choroidal structures using full-depth imaging (FDI) spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and swept-source (SS)-OCT. Methods: Foveal scans using both FDI SD-OCT (Heidelberg Spectralis) and SS-OCT (Topcon Deep Range Imaging-OCT-1) were obtained in 40 normal eyes, 40 eyes with macular pathologies, and 40 eyes with glaucoma. Full-depth imaging SD-OCT images were obtained by manually enhancing the vitreoretinal interface first and then the choroid while averaging each OCT B-scan 100 times. Swept-source-OCT images were obtained by averaging each B-scan 96 times. After masking and randomly mixing the original OCT images, two independent physicians graded visualization of the premacular bursa, interdigitation zone line, and chorioscleral boundary, and also sharpness of choroidal structures. Results: A real-time full-depth image of vitreoretino-choroidal structures was successfully achieved with FDI SD-OCT in 118 cases (98.3%) and with SS-OCT in 45 cases (37.5%, P < 0.001). Full-depth imaging SD-OCT imaging was superior to SS-OCT imaging in visualizing the anterior border of the premacular bursa in 109 eyes (90.8%), with average grading of 1.63 ± 0.53 for the FDI SD-OCT and 0.39 ± 0.52 for the SS-OCT (P < 0.001). Swept-source-OCT was similar to FDI SD-OCT in visualizing the chorioscleral boundary in 108 eyes (90.0%), with average grading of 1.81 ± 0.39 for the SS-OCT and 1.78 ± 0.38 for the FDI-OCT (P = 0.566). The visualization of the interdigitation zone line was identical in the 2 imaging instruments (P = 1.000). The sharpness of the choroidal structures was greater with SS-OCT than with FDI-OCT (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Manual double-enhancing FDI technique using SD-OCT provided a good compromise between vitreous and retinochoroidal structures visualization in real time during scanning procedure. In contrast, SS-OCT imaged well details of choroidal sublayers. Appropriate OCT technology and software should be selected according to its application in clinical settings.


The T-box family transcription factor, T-bet, has recently been identified as a possible master regulator in T helper 1 (TH1) immune responses through the transactivation of the gene for interferon-γ (IFN-γ). Two studies now look at the effect of T-bet deficiencies. Szabo et al. found that the absence of T-bet expression in mice profoundly attenuated production of IFN-γ by natural killer and CD4+ T cells and also shifted the cytokine profile of CD4+ T cells toward that of a TH2 phenotype. Surprisingly, IFN-γ expression by CD8+ T cells was not affected. Finotto et al. observed that T-bet-deficient mice develop spontaneous airway inflammation resembling acute and chronic forms of human asthma. T-bet expression is also reduced in airway tissue from asthmatic patients, which suggests that dysregulation of this transcription factor might contribute to airway hyper-responsiveness in humans. S. J. Szabo, B. M. Sullivan, C. Stemmann, A. R. Satoskar, B. P. Sleckman, L. H. Glimcher, Distinct effects of T-bet in TH1 lineage commitment and IFN-γ production in CD4 and CD8 T cells. Science 295, 338-342 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text] S. Finotto, M. F. Neurath, J. N. Glickman, S. Qin, H. A. Lehr, F. H. Y. Green, K. Ackerman, K. Haley, P. R. Galle, S. J. Szabo, J. M. Drazen, G. T. De Sanctis, Laurie H. Glimcher, Development of spontaneous airway changes consistent with human asthma in mice lacking T-bet. Science 295, 336-338 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Information-Centric Networking (ICN) is a recent paradigm that claims to mitigate some limitations of the current IP-based Internet architecture. The centerpiece of ICN is named and addressable content, rather than hosts or interfaces. Content-Centric Networking (CCN) is a prominent ICN instance that shares the fundamental architectural design with its equally popular academic sibling Named- Data Networking (NDN). CCN eschews source addresses and creates one-time virtual circuits for every content request (called an interest). As an interest is forwarded it creates state in intervening routers and the requested content back is delivered over the reverse path using that state. Although a stateful forwarding plane might be beneficial in terms of efficiency and resilience to certain types of attacks, this has not been decisively proven via realistic experiments. Since keeping per-interest state complicates router operations and makes the infrastructure susceptible to router state exhaustion attacks (e.g., there is currently no effective defense against Interest Flooding attacks), the value of the stateful forwarding plane in CCN should be re-examined. In this paper, we explore supposed benefits and various problems of the stateful forwarding plane. We then argue that its benefits are uncertain at best and it should not be a mandatory CCN feature. To this end, we propose a new stateless architecture for CCN that provides nearly all functionality of the stateful design without its headaches. We analyze performance and resource requirements of the proposed architecture via experiments.


A challenging problem in symbolic execution is to solve complex mathematical constraints such as constraints that include floating-point variables and transcendental functions. The inability to solve such constraints limit the application scope of symbolic execution. In this paper, we present a new method to solve such complex math constraints. Our method combines two existing: meta-heuristic search and interval solving. Conceptually, the combination explores the synergy of the individual methods to improve constraint solving. We implemented the new method in the CORAL constraint-solving infrastructure, and evaluated its effectiveness on a set of publicly-available software from the aerospace domain. Results indicate that the new method can solve significantly more complex mathematical constraints than previous techniques.


This paper aims to discuss the construction of teenage pregnancy as a social problem. It also seeks to present and analyze the data of the qualitative phase of the research study Teenage Pregnancy: A Multicentric Study of Young People, Sexuality and Reproduction in Brazil (GRAVAD study) undertaken in four Brazilian capitals: Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador. The data indicate the indissoluble character of the articulation between social class and gender in the understanding of the phenomenon of teenage pregnancy. Among girls from the middle class we observe alterations in their management of their school projects and course, which, until that point, were processed in a linear manner. The same does not occur among girls from lower income groups whose irregularity in school life is independent of motherhood. Among the young men there are no significant changes, since middle class boys not interrupt their school projects or courses, and boys from lower income groups enter the work force precociously, and this is not a direct consequence of teenage fatherhood.


In the field of genre studies, the acknowledgement is probably the least studied section of the research article or research report. The three main specific objectives of this study are (a) to identify the structure of acknowledgements written by postgraduate students at the Faculty of Education UiTM, (b) to identify the obligatory and optional moves that help to realize the structure of those acknowledgements, and (c) to examine gender differences in the display of gratitude in those acknowledgements. A contextual analysis that involves qualitative and quantitative approaches were used for the study that involved collection and analysis of a corpus of masters dissertation acknowledgements (MDAs) written by Malay and Bumiputera postgraduate students at the Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi MARA. The following models were adopted as analysis models: Al-Ali's (2006:37) modified Generic Structure of English Dissertation Acknowledgements written by non-native Arab writers which was
modified from Hyland's (2004:308) Generic Structure of Dissertation Acknowledgements; and Mingwei & Yajun's (2010:103-104) analysis of linguistic features in masters and PhD
acknowledgements which was adopted from Hyland & Tse (2004). The findings of the study revealed that the acknowledgement structure of MDAs at the Faculty of Education UiTM has the same structure as the model by Al-Ali (2006). While maintaining the model by Al-Ali (2006), a modified generic structure of MDAs that is representative of the discourse community of postgraduate students at the Faculty of Education, UiTM is proposed. In the case of gender differences, the results of the study indicated that there are differences across gender in terms of the presence of the moves/steps in the structure of acknowledgement and linguistics patterns in the thanking acts and authorial choice. The results of this study proves that the acknowledgement is in itself a genre with a specific communicative purpose written based on
the accepted norms of the society and the academic culture of a particular discourse community; and that it is vital that students are to be made aware of the writing conventions of this genre
especially non-native speakers of the language as to aid their understanding of the writing processes and the workings of academic writing. This study recommends that future works
should be done with a larger national corpus with special investigations into the patterns and variations of generic structure, linguistic features and grammatical structures across academic
levels, race and ethnicities, as well as gender.


There is often a conflict between conservationists and the users of natural resources. This is just as much the case in marine management as it is on land. In order to practise ecosystem based fisheries management (EBFM), as mandated by law, we must address this conflict and find a system of management that protects both the ecosystems and those that exploit them for food production. This can only be done by increased understanding of the systems, both through empirical research and by developing tools, such as models that allow us to investigate trade-offs and alternative management strategies. Ecosystem models are becoming a popular tool for management strategy evaluation (MSE), as well as to explore ecosystem dynamics in the marine environment. This thesis examines aspects of the utility of the Atlantis ecosystem modelling framework, by:
• testing its ability to capture ecosystem dynamics in southern Australian waters, especially in and around marine protected areas, which are data rich areas;
• assessing the effects of alternative parameterisations and spatial structures within the model; and
• using it to assess possible impacts of various fishing management regimes.

Preliminary examinations in the first chapter of the thesis describe the results of simulations using a relatively simple model domain. The main findings of these examinations indicate that mesopelagic fish have the potential to form a critical link in south Australian ecosystems, possibly acting as a keystone species in the system. The ecosystem model is then further developed in subsequent chapters, with a new modelling approach introduced for managing the spatial scale in models. A telescoping technique is explained that allows a large spatial domain to be modelled with a fine scale spatial structure where warranted and a coarse scale used to represent areas with fewer data available for parameterisation. This approach is an innovative extension of previous spatial resolution concepts that extends well beyond the range of scales previously considered. The implementation of this approach means the modelling framework is appropriate for exploring finely resolved spatial questions (e.g. around spatial management). This new capability is then used to test the results of the preliminary findings of the simple model, with additional model structures and parameterisations also compared to examine how the model structure may influence results. This examination reveals that spatial structure, as well as the way that trophic connectivity is parameterised, plays an important role in determining the importance of different species within the modelled ecosystem. The telescoping approach is also used to explore the further management issue of the effectiveness of no-take zones for providing increased yield outside of the protected area. This examination indicates that although no-take zones may help preserve biodiversity within the protected area, they are not sufficient to ensure sustainable fishing within the wider ecosystem context.
This thesis describes the benefits and appropriate utilisation of large, end-to-end ecosystem models, while also highlighting the limitations that must be acknowledged and taken into account. End-to-end ecosystem models cannot and should not be used as absolute predictors of ecosystem dynamics under perturbation. However, they are useful for informing on qualitative impacts that may arise from various ecosystem processes and uses. Furthermore, the work presented here demonstrates that the parameter set chosen for a model will have significant impact on model output, highlighting the importance of empirical research to provide high quality data to furnish ecosystem models.


Abstract This paper investigates the role of local governments' efficiency on exports in China. We argue that firms located in provinces characterized by high governmental efficiency export more due to a positive productivity effect that lowers transaction costs. The analysis builds on NBS firm-level data that covers a representative sample of Chinese establishments. We find a positive correlation between provincial governments' efficiency and Chinese firm's exports. Moreover, we are able to show that the positive link between firm size and exports is magnified by governmental efficiency. Larger firms export more and this relationship is much stronger in provinces with more efficient provincial governments.


Exploring how concurrent programming can be assisted by language-level techniques, Introduction to Concurrency in Programming Languages presents high-level language techniques for dealing with concurrency in a general context. It provides an understanding of programming languages that offer concurrency features as part of the language definition.The book supplies a conceptual framework for different aspects of parallel algorithm design and implementation. It first addresses the limitations of traditional programming techniques and models when dealing with concurrency. The book then explores the current state of the art in concurrent programming and describes high-level language constructs for concurrency. It also discusses the historical evolution of hardware, corresponding high-level techniques that were developed, and the connection to modern systems, such as multicore and manycore processors. The remainder of the text focuses on common high-level programming techniques and their application to a range of algorithms. The authors offer case studies on genetic algorithms, fractal generation, cellular automata, game logic for solving Sudoku puzzles, pipelined algorithms, and more. Illustrating the effect of concurrency on programs written in familiar languages, this text focuses on novel language abstractions that truly bring concurrency into the language and aid analysis and compilation tools in generating efficient, correct programs. It also explains the complexity involved in taking advantage of concurrency with regard to program correctness and performance.


This paper examines a specific set of pre-war Taiwanese philosophers, called the Sit-chûn scholars. Sit-chûn means "existence" in Hokkien and was a frequently discussed notion by these scholars in defying Japan's colonial assimilation. Armed with Western ideas, the Sit-chûn scholars were devoted to thought resistance against assimilation, which ended up building Taiwan's cultural subjectivity under Japanese rule (1895−1945). I first present a large body of literature and introduce the overlooked tradition of Taiwanese philosophy that was long regarded as taboo during Chiang's dictatorship (1949–1987). Next, based on Liao's (1988) characterization, I argue that the thought resistances of the 1920s are not separate incidents, but systematic responses to cultural and political crises during this period. I then examine some works by Lin Mosei, Liao Wen Kwei, and Tseng Tien-tsung to clarify my point. Finally, a comparative analysis between the Sit-chûn scholars and other East Asian philosophers of the early 20th century is offered.


Evidence suggests that Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) is highly prevalent amongst young males involved in the criminal justice system; however effective psychological treatment options for people with the disorder is limited. This thesis therefore explores psychosocial factors implicated in the development of the disorder, with the view to identify specific treatment targets for psychotherapeutic interventions. In the first instance, a systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to examine the efficacy of Mentalization Based Therapy (MBT), a psycho-dynamically informed intervention. MBT was originally developed to treat people with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), yet to date no meta-analysis has evaluated the efficacy of MBT alone. Furthermore, emerging evidence suggests that MBT can be effective for people with ASPD, however at present, there are insufficient studies to examine the effectiveness of the approach with this population. Therefore, MBT was examined with the view to assess treatment outcomes for adolescents with emerging BPD and adults diagnosed with BPD. In accordance with the specific inclusion criteria, five primary articles were retained and analysed. In relation to the MBT group, there was a significant improvement in symptoms. Furthermore, effect sizes for other problems (anxiety, depression, suicidal attempts/self-harm) were found to be large to very large. When considering interpersonal functioning, interestingly, analysis revealed no effect favouring either the treatment or control group. Regarding impairment, a large and significant effect size was found in favour of the control group. Overall, adolescents derived greater benefit from the treatment when compared to adults. Limitations relate to the number of available studies in this review. In order to identify treatment targets for psychotherapeutic interventions, an empirical study explored the relationship between mentalizing capability, attachment style and schema as predictors of ASPD in 79 men recruited from a Young Offenders Institution (YOI). The results confirmed that anxious attachment style and specific Early Maladaptive Schema (EMS) domains relating to Disconnection & Rejection (mistrust-abuse); Impaired Autonomy & Performance (dependence), and Impaired Limits (entitlement) are associated with ASPD in young male offenders. Inferential analyses confirmed that intellectual functioning did not influence performance on any measures. Main limitations relate to the cross-sectional nature of the study and sample size. Following this theme, a single case study relating to the assessment and treatment of a young male with ASPD and comorbid diagnoses was undertaken using a firesetting offence focused treatment programme. Formulation, treatment progress and outcomes are discussed; and recommendations for further work are provided. Thereafter, a critical appraisal of the Revised Adult Attachment Scale (RAAS; Collins, 1996), a measure utilised in the empirical study was conducted. Consideration is given to the utility of the RAAS, particularly within forensic populations. The RAAS was found to be a reliable and valid measure for use with undergraduate, general, and clinical populations. Further research relating to the application within forensic populations is needed to test the reliability and validity of the tool with offenders. Finally, the thesis discusses limitations of the methodologies used and highlights how the overall aim of this thesis was achieved.


Amplified multiwavelength optical communication networks are prone to substantial saturation induced power fluctuations when a channel is turned on or rerouted. This perturbs amplifier gains at other wavelengths. The effects of addition and/or dropping of wavelength channels due to network reconfigurations or line failures in a multiwavelength network comprising eight concatenated Pr/sup 3+/-doped fluoride fiber amplifiers (PDFFAs) have been studied theoretically. A large-signal numerical model which incorporates time variation effects and the downstream and upstream propagation of signal, pump and amplified spontaneous emission has been used. In an eight channel WDM network the loss of channels will cause very fast power excursions of the surviving channels. The necessary speed of the link control circuit for surviving channel protection has been investigated.


The article deals with issues of decision making with regard to motivation of employees and managers. In an introductive and theoretical part, attention is devoted to analysing opinions on motivation, motivating, and decision making. The motivation is understood as a dynamic phenomenon, full of many facts, positive and negative, subjective and objective, constant (static, invariable) and variable (changing dynamically). The decision making is understood as process of postulating decision-making premises, conditions, restrictions and defining criteria, non-compromising consideration of positives, negatives, possibilities and impossibilities, chances and obstacles of every accepted solution, and determining the 'best' methods of achieving the 'best' solution. In the methodology part of paper, the most interesting result of testing assumption about the multi-criteria content and multiplicative effect in decision making, applied in motivating employees, are presented. This searching is done on the basis of our questionnaire survey performed on the sample of 1,946 respondents in the turn of 2012/2013. The assumption about the multi-criteria content and multiplicative effect in decision making applied in motivating employees was confirmed also by paper mentions the most significant findings established with regard to chosen hypotheses (assumptions). In an application part, acquired results and used inspirational opinions of several other authors formed the basis for creation of verbal and graphical model of motivational decision making, or the model of motivating perceived with regard to the decision making process. The model characterises motivational decision-making as multi-content and multi-criteria process able to bring qualitative multiplications and synergies. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.26.5.8727


Noun bias in children's early vocabulary development is a long-held belief. The present study intended to examine the correlation between the input features like frequency and positional saliency in infant-directed speech and the noun bias characteristic of infants in their early child lexical development. To this purpose, the utterances of ten Persian children aged 1;4 and their caretakers at a kindergarten in Isfahan, Iran, were transcribed for twelve sessions. Persian language with its SOV order that gives much importance to verbs compared to nouns can make noun bias hypothesis of infants unstable. The results demonstrated a positive correlation between the frequency of nouns and verbs in Persian caretakers' utterances and the lexical development of children on age of 1;4. The transcriptions also identified a significant noun bias in the utterances of Persian children. Therefore, the lexical items in adult utterances can predict the initial lexical repertoire of infants. It can be inferred that nurture and the utterances heard by children might play a significant role in child vocabulary development.


Text generation tasks, including translation, summarization, language models, and etc. see rapid growth during recent years. Despite the remarkable achievements, the repetition problem has been observed in nearly all text generation models undermining the generation performance extensively. To solve the repetition problem, many methods have been proposed, but there is no existing theoretical analysis to show why this problem happens and how it is resolved. In this paper, we propose a new framework for theoretical analysis for the repetition problem. We first define the Average Repetition Probability (ARP) to characterize the repetition problem quantitatively. Then, we conduct an extensive analysis of the Markov generation model and derive several upper bounds of the average repetition probability with intuitive understanding. We show that most of the existing methods are essentially minimizing the upper bounds explicitly or implicitly. Grounded on our theory, we show that the repetition problem is, unfortunately, caused by the traits of our language itself. One major reason is attributed to the fact that there exist too many words predicting the same word as the subsequent word with high probability. Consequently, it is easy to go back to that word and form repetitions and we dub it as the high inflow problem. Furthermore, we extend our analysis to broader generation models by deriving a concentration bound of the average repetition probability for a general generation model. Finally, based on the theoretical upper bounds, we propose a novel rebalanced encoding approach to alleviate the high inflow problem and thus reducing the upper bound.
 The experimental results show that our theoretical framework is applicable in general generation models and our proposed rebalanced encoding approach alleviates the repetition problem significantly in both the translation task and the language modeling task. The source code of this paper can be obtained from https://github.com/fuzihaofzh/repetition-problem-nlg.


We match data on the daily newspaper coverage of a sample of Italian listed companies with Nielsen data on the monthly amount of advertising that a given company has purchased on a given newspaper. Controlling for newspaper and company fixed effects, we show that newspaper coverage of a given company is positively related with the amount of ads purchased on that newspaper by that company. We also find that coverage of a company is higher the day after a press release, but especially so on newspapers where more ads are purchased. This result on press releases is robust to controlling for ownership links between newspapers and companies, and –more generally- controlling for time invariant features of each company-newspaper pair, i. e. for (company × newspaper) fixed effects. Moreover, coverage is correlated with past day absolute return and trading volume, and this relationship appears to be steeper for those newspapers where more ads are purchased.


Ronald Reagan achieved magical accord with the American people, attuning them to his moral vision of a nation made up of optimistic individualists, tough yet God-fearing, blessed with a special destiny. In Reagan's America, Pulitzer Prize winning author and historian Garry Wills seeks to understand Reagan's appeal through understanding his audience, the Americans who found in him everything they wanted to believe about themselves. An authoritative biography and a fascinating cultural history, Reagan's America reveals how this savvy, charismatic leader restored a nation's fading sense of innocence and faith in itself.


COMPUTATIONAL MODELING OF S-THIOLATION REACTION: TOWARD DISCOVERING THE ENZYMATIC MECHANISMS OF ENDOGENOUS HNO FORMATION Elena V. Ivanova, B.S. Marquette University, 2017 S-nitrosothiols (RSNOs) have long been proposed as potential sources of the elusive endogenous nitroxyl (HNO) via S-thiolation reaction with thiols. It is however not clear how S-thiolation can compete with the trans-S-nitrosation pathway commonly observed in vitro. Based on the insights into the highly unusual, antagonistic chemical nature of RSNO molecules, we hypothesize that, while difficult in vitro, S-thiolation could easily lend itself to enzymatic catalysis. To explore this possibility, we adopted a bottom-up computational approach that aims to identify possible catalytic mechanisms able to steer the RSNO + thiol reaction toward HNO production. Inspired by recent discovery of small bioactive HSNO molecule and its involvement in HNO production, we first study HSNO molecule and its subsequent isomerization reactions that can possibly lead to other potentially bioactive small molecules or reactive intermediates that can undergo S-thiolation reaction. Then, we mapped out the profile of the uncatalysed Sthiolation reaction that suggests that the most difficult step of S-thiolation is the R'SH to RSNO proton transfer, and that the reaction proceeds through unusual highly polar zwitterionic species R'SS(R)N(H)O that further decomposes yielding HNO and disulfide RSSR'. Therefore, facilitating the proton transfer and stabilizing this zwitterionic intermediate could lead to dramatic acceleration of this reaction. Further, we identified the required arrangements of amino acid residues using theozyme ('theoretical enzyme') modeling. These calculations showed that several of these putative active site models can drop the energetic barrier for S-thiolation/HNO formation to less than 10 kcal/mol. An extensive search in the RCSB protein data bank yielded over 600 structures that match one of these successful theozyme models. Remarkably, among these proteins we found DJ-1 protein known to be involved in RSNO-related processes. Furthermore, full-scale modeling of S-thiolation between an incoming RSNO and DJ-1 Cys106 using a hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics approach have shown that the reaction can be indeed efficiently catalyzed by the His126–Glu18 dyad, a prediction whose relevance to the DJ-1/RSNO biochemistry presents an intriguing question to the experimentalists.


In a previous editorial (Recher 2002), I expressed an opinion that the opportunity should have been taken at the 1993 Conservation Biology meeting in Queensland to establish an Australasian Society for Conservation Biology. In my view, a local society would be preferable to supporting an Australasian branch of the North American Society of Conservation Biology. Mack et al. (2002) disagreed and encouraged us to support the Society for Conservation Biology's initiative to establish a regional branch. They also said that Pacific Conservation Biology should be supported as a regional journal and "expanded to reflect work being conducted throughout the region rather than its present focus on Western Australia". The last comment surprised me and I decided I needed to review the origin and content or scope of papers we have been publishing in Pacific Conservation Biology. It would be unfortunate if the journal did have a Western Australian focus, especially as my accepting Western Australia as part of the Pacific Region requires some creative geography. Such a review, I felt, would also identify subject areas and regions where we needed to make a greater effort to encourage papers for the journal.


This study explores to what extent the SCAMPER (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Rearrange) technique combined with animal adaptation ideas learned through form and function analogy activities can help fourth graders generate creative ideas while augmenting their inventiveness. The sample consisted of 24 fourth grade students (14 female, 10 male) ages 9-10 at a suburban Midwestern elementary school. A repeated-measures design involving all participants alternately in the two conditions measured students under each treatment condition. In the experimental condition, students used SCAMPER charts with animal adaptation ideas to generate ideas to improve a product using limited materials; in the control condition, they used simple SCAMPER charts to improve a product with limited materials. A scoring rubric was designed to assess the utilization of the SCAMPER chart and students' inventiveness. Paired t-tests were used to compare each student's average score in the control condition to the experimental condition. Students' inventiveness scores showed a statistically significant difference with a p-value of .003. The resulting Cohen's d was 0.64, a medium effect size, favoring the experimental condition. In contrast, student scores for completing the two types of SCAMPER charts favored the simpler control condition's chart. However, student products completed under the experimental condition showed more complexity and originality. Journal of STEM Arts, Crafts, and Constructions Volume 1, Number 2, Pages 48-66. The Journal's Website: http://scholarworks.uni.edu/journal-stem-arts/


ABSTRACT Released on the 70th anniversary of Partition, Gurinder Chadha's film Viceroy's House, which is narratively and stylistically constructed in the fashion of heritage cinema, chronicles the last days of the empire in India and is said to provide a 'British Asian perspective' on Partition. This article addresses the debate that followed the release of the film and, in particular, the analysis focuses on the interplay between Partition, diaspora, and representations of the imperial past. Through the analysis of the film's structure and narrative, the article discusses its representation of British India and argues that, notwithstanding its potential to unsettle traditional representations of the empire of period dramas, the film's glamorous depiction of the British rulers ultimately feeds into the contemporary wave of colonial nostalgia.


Nature has a large repertoire of animals that take advantage of naturally abundant polarization phenomena. Among them, the mantis shrimp possesses one of the most advanced and elegant visual systems nature has developed, capable of high polarization sensitivity and hyperspectral imaging. Here, we demonstrate that by shifting the design paradigm away from the conventional paths adopted in the imaging and vision sensor fields and instead functionally mimicking the visual system of the mantis shrimp, we have developed a single-chip, low-power, high-resolution color-polarization imaging system. Our bio-inspired imager captures co-registered color and polarization information in real time with high resolution by monolithically integrating nanowire polarization filters with vertically stacked photodetectors. These photodetectors capture three different spectral channels per pixel by exploiting wavelength-dependent depth absorption of photons. Our bio-inspired imager comprises 1280 by 720 pixels with a dynamic range of 62 dB and a maximum signal-to-noise ratio of 48 dB. The quantum efficiency is above 30% over the entire visible spectrum, while achieving high polarization extinction ratios of ∼40 on each spectral channel. This technology is enabling underwater imaging studies of marine species, which exploit both color and polarization information, as well as applications in biomedical fields.


Introduction: Researches show that medical professionalism is threatened and it is needed a proper educational intervention. Hidden curriculum plays a very important role of transmission of professional values. Most of expert curriculum planners found that the effects of the hidden curriculum of education from the educational dimensions, in particular, in transmission of values and norms is far more powerful than the obvious curriculum. Methods: In this qualitative content analysis, 15 students individually and 9 students in one group were selected in Bushehr University of Medical Sciences and semistructures interview was done. Participants of this study were medical students, nursing and midwifery students, operating room and anesthesia students in Bushehr University of Medical Sciences. Data were analyzed by using content analysis in seven steps. The accuracy of data was confirmed from various methods. Conclusion: After coding and categorizing the obtained data, the students mentioned to the three main themes as the hidden curriculum role in transition of professional characteristic. These three main roles were "communication", "principles, laws and regulations" and "supportive atmosphere". Results: Inappropriate organizational structure in the health system created some serious obstacles in the paths of professionalism. Based on the findings, some factors were considered as facilitating professionalism. They included having a good relationship, having encouragement and support system, and having the rules facilitate professionalism and organizations as well as organizational and managerial failures of Ministry of Health, educational system and lack of attention to the hidden curriculum in the transfer of professionalism were considered as inhibitors.


The geopolitics of the Strait of Hormuz is one of the main and continuous factors in the Iran-Oman relationship. Iran and Oman are respectively located on the north and south coasts of the Strait. This factor requires them to maintain good-neighborly relations regardless of what happens at the regional or international levels. Iran and Oman assume that there is a close connection between the security of the Strait of Hormuz and their own security. This point strengthens their motivation to maintain a close and friendly relationship. The two countries are aware of the fact that geographical factors are not subject to change. Their geographical proximity via the Strait of Hormuz, Oman's relative remoteness from the Arab world and the geopolitical and geostrategic importance of the Strait have required Iran and Oman to maintain a good, neighborly relationship with one another. On that basis, and despite the fact that Oman has always had close relations with the United States and recently developed its ties with Israel, its friendly relationship with Iran has largely remained intact. This paper seeks to examine the role of the Strait of Hormuz in the relations between Iran and Oman from a historic, economic, strategic and security perspective.


For many antidepressants, the issue of brand-name versus generic has no practical significance. Elavil was first marketed almost a half century ago, and its patent has long expired. It lives on, however, but as generic amitriptyline. Today, only a few antidepressants are still fully protected by patents, namely, Cymbalta (2010), Lexapro (2012), and Pristiq (2022) for major depressive disorder (MDD); and Seroquel (2011) and Symbyax (2017) for bipolar depression.


This paper concerns the novel concept of an Interactive Dynamic Intelligent Virtual Sensor (IDIVS), which extends virtual/soft sensors towards making use of user input through interactive learning (IML) and transfer learning. In research, many studies can be found on using machine learning in this domain, but not much on using IML. This paper contributes by highlighting how this can be done and the associated positive potential effects and challenges. An IDIVS provides a sensor-like output and achieves the output through the data fusion of sensor values or from the output values of other IDIVSs. We focus on settings where people are present in different roles: from basic service users in the environment being sensed to interactive service users supporting the learning of the IDIVS, as well as configurators of the IDIVS and explicit IDIVS teachers. The IDIVS aims at managing situations where sensors may disappear and reappear and be of heterogeneous types. We refer to and recap the major findings from related experiments and validation in complementing work. Further, we point at several application areas: smart building, smart mobility, smart learning, and smart health. The information properties and capabilities needed in the IDIVS, with extensions towards information security, are introduced and discussed.


Software development processes, as a means of ensuring software quality and productivity, have been widely accepted within the software development community; software process modeling, on the other hand, continues to be a subject of interest in the research community. Even with organizations that have achieved higher SEI maturity levels, processes are by and large described in documents and reinforced as guidelines or laws governing software development activities. The lack of industry-wide adaptation of software process modeling as part of development activities can be attributed to two major reasons: lack of forecast power in the (software) process modeling and lack of integration mechanism for the described process to seamlessly interact with daily development activities.
This dissertation describes a research through which a framework has been established where processes can be manipulated, measured, and dynamically modified by interacting with project management techniques and activities in an integrated process modeling environment, thus closing the gap between process modeling and software development.
In this research, processes are described using directed graphs, similar to the techniques with CPM. This way, the graphs can be manipulated visually while the properties of the graph can be used to check their validity. The partial ordering and the precedence relationship of the tasks in the graphs are similar to the one studied in other researches (Delcambre94) (Mills96). Measurements of the effectiveness of the processes are added in this research. These measurements provide bases for the judgment when manipulating the graphs to produce or modify a process.
Software development can be considered as activities related to three sets: a set of tasks ($\tau$), a set of resources ($\rho$), and a set of constraints ($\gamma$). The process, P, is then a function of all the sets interacting with each other: P = $\{\tau, \rho, \gamma$). The interactions of these sets can be described in terms of different machine models using scheduling theory. While trying to produce an optimal solution satisfying a set of prescribed conditions using the analytical method would lead to a practically non-feasible formulation, many heuristic algorithms in scheduling theory combined with manual manipulation of the tasks can help to produce a reasonable good process, the effectiveness of which is reflected through a set of measurement criteria, in particular, the make-span, the float, and the bottlenecks. Through an integrated process modeling environment, these measurements can be obtained in real time, thus providing a feedback loop during the process execution. This feedback loop is essential for risk management and control.


This paper describes measurements on transmission interference filters for the far infrared (100–800 μ region). The reflection layers of these filters are metallic mesh. The measured coefficients of finesse, ten to sixty, are comparable with the values which can be obtained for interference filters in other spectral regions. Peak-transmission values up to 0.9 were reached. From these measurements the absorptivity of the single grids has been determined. Measurements on a variable spacing interference filter showed that the finesse is proportional to the square of the wavelength in accordance with theoretical predictions for interference filters constructed with reflection layers of one-dimensional wire gratings.


Background : Fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption, and physical activity (PA), are thought to be some of the most important protective factors that can improve long-term health quality of life. Many epidemiological studies indicate, in fact, that F&V consumption and PA are health-promoting and are correlated with the beneficial effects and positive outcomes such as preventing some chronic diseases. Evidence, however, indicates that large proportions of adolescents are not consuming the minimum servings of F&V as recommended by experts and a high percentage of them have sedentary habits. Objective and method : The purpose of this research was to investigate knowledge and behaviors in a sample of secondary school, (250), and university students, (200), referred to F&V consumption and PA. The instrument used for the survey was a questionnaire containing 19 items with multiple choice answers. Data were codified, descriptive analysis and ÷2 tests were computed through Openstat and Statistica software. Results : Only 24,2% of the individuals identified welfare as including healthy eating, and this attitude seemed to be associated with the students' families educational level. Educational level was also positively associated with the awareness of the importance of a healthy diet for well-being and with PA practice. The percentage of students having knowledge of the expert recommendations on PA and eating guidelines about F&V consumption was about one third of the entire population. Students who met the expert recommendation for daily servings of fruit and vegetables were 27,8%, while only 17,8% practiced regular PA. The principal source of information was university/school, (48,0% and 57,0%). Conclusions : Healthy dietary and PA habits are far from the optimal in our sample of students. Because of the importance for the prevention of many diseases and long term health, there is a need for interventions that target the youth and promote correct dietary habits and avoidance of physical inactivity. In particular, F&V intake and PA practice should be implemented by means of educational interventions in opportune settings, especially targeting schools, families and communities


Despite the important contribution of the midbrain periaqueductal gray (PAG) to endogenous pain suppression systems, little is known about the neuroanatomical basis of its functional organization. In a previous study of the distribution of the endogenous opiate leucine-enkephalin (ENK) in the PAG (Moss, M. S., E. J. Glazer, and A. I. Basbaum (1983) J. Neurosci. 3: 603–616), we found that immunoreactive ENK-containing neurons and terminals are clustered in discrete populations. In this study we have extended our analysis of the neurochemical organization of the PAG by using immunocytochemistry to map the distribution of two non-opiate peptides that produce potent analgesia when administered at central gray levels: substance P (Sub P) and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP). Immunoreactive Sub P neurons and terminal fields are clustered in discrete populations throughout the PAG. The distribution pattern of these populations changes at different rostral-caudal levels of the PAG. For example, there is a ventral-to-dorsal shift in the location of Sub P-like immunoreactivity from the caudal to the rostral PAG. Few immunoreactive Sub P neurons are found in the nucleus raphe dorsalis although moderately dense terminal field staining is present. The staining pattern of immunoreactive VIP is totally different from that of Sub P. Regardless of the rostral-caudal level examined, VIP- containing neurons are found tightly clustered in the subependymal neuropil of the ventromedial PAG. Only a few immunoreactive VIP- containing neurons are found in the ventral PAG or nucleus raphe dorsalis. The striking differences between the distribution of Sub P- and VIP-like immunoreactivity in the PAG indicates that the neural circuitry underlying pain suppression by Sub P and VIP may also differ.


This thesis addresses a largely unexplored territory in second language motivation research. Its focus was to account for unusual persistence, effort and success among learners acquiring additional language(s) in conjunction with a sacred or special text. More specifically, the project sought to identify the factors, mechanisms and conditions that contributed to exceptionally high motivation for SLA. The guiding theoretical frameworks were Ushioda's Person-in Context relational theory and Dornyei's L2 Motivational Self System. A qualitative research approach was employed which included a series of in-depth interviews with 20 highly successful language learners. The findings confirmed both Ushioda's and Dornyei's theories. The Person-in-Context relational theory was helpful in understanding the significant role of the wider socio-religious context in which learners lived their lives. In addition, the three core components of the L2 Motivational Self System (Ideal L2 Self, Ought-to L2 Self and the language learning environment) shed light on these important components in the informants' learning trajectories. The research identified an ideal self in the form of a spiritual vision core to the informants' identities. In addition, the L2 vision was identified as inseparable corollary that enabled informants to achieve their spiritual vision. The third key component in the motivational matrix was the sacred text. However, beyond ideal selves, participants envisioned a shared ideal future grounded in imagined faith communities with concerns for broader societal well-being. The shared ideal future took form in the informants' imagination, not only within their lifetime, but beyond, extending to an 'ultimate' environment. The thesis includes implications for motivational researchers, language teachers and learners.


Intensities of UV radiation are usually measured at horizontal surfaces, as e.g. for the internationally standardized and used UV index (UVI). To specify the relevant UV exposure of the human body, or parts of its surface, the characterization of irradiances on inclined surfaces typical for the human body is needed. Therefore, an instrument was built to record, within two minutes, erythemally weighted irradiances in 27 directions and, simultaneously with a second radiometer, on the horizontal surface. By the end of this study more than 3000 measuring days at five different locations could be completed. The data provide a statistical base for the calculation of average UVI values on inclined surfaces at the five locations in Bavaria. The ratio of the irradiance on the inclined surfaces to the irradiance of the horizontal surface reaches its maximum of about 1.7 in winter on the mountain Zugspitze and 1.4 in Munich. The UVI values also were combined with a virtual surface model of the human body and by this UV exposure of the human body could be visualized.


Intimate Enemies is the first book to explore conflicts in Chiapas from the perspective of the landed elites, crucial but almost entirely unexamined actors in the state's violent history. Scholarly discussion of agrarian politics has typically cast landed elites as "bad guys" with predetermined interests and obvious motives. Aaron Bobrow-Strain takes the landowners of Chiapas seriously, asking why coffee planters and cattle ranchers with a long and storied history of violent responses to agrarian conflict reacted to land invasions triggered by the Zapatista Rebellion of 1994 with quiescence and resignation rather than thugs and guns. In the process, he offers a unique ethnographic and historical glimpse into conflicts that have been understood almost exclusively through studies of indigenous people and movements.

Weaving together ethnography, archival research, and cultural history, Bobrow-Strain argues that prior to the upheavals of 1994 landowners were already squeezed between increasingly organized indigenous activism and declining political and economic support from the Mexican state. He demonstrates that indigenous mobilizations that began in 1994 challenged not just the economy of estate agriculture but also landowners' understandings of progress, masculinity, ethnicity, and indigenous docility. By scrutinizing the elites' responses to land invasions in relation to the cultural politics of race, class, and gender, Bobrow-Strain provides timely insights into policy debates surrounding the recent global resurgence of peasant land reform movements. At the same time, he rethinks key theoretical frameworks that have long guided the study of agrarian politics by engaging political economy and critical human geography's insights into the production of space. Describing how a carefully defended world of racial privilege, political dominance, and landed monopoly came unglued, Intimate Enemies is a remarkable account of how power works in the countryside.


Intermodal dispersion (IMD) in a two-core fiber can cause significant pulse distortion or even pulse splitting. In this paper, by solving the generalized coupled nonlinear Schrodinger equations, we study the possibility of suppressing the effects of IMD with Kerr nonlinearity in a two-core fiber. We discover that, in the anomalous dispersion regime, when the IMD is sufficiently small and the linear coupling between the two cores is sufficiently strong, an input pulse power larger than the soliton power can prevent the pulse from broadening and splitting. The maximum IMD that can be balanced by nonlinearity increases with the input power. Our study shows that a proper balance of the group-velocity dispersion, the IMD, and the nonlinearity in a two-core fiber can maintain the integrity of the pulse over a long distance.


In this work, we study approximation algorithms based on semidefinite programming (SDP) for which the performance guarantee involves a non-local analysis, and in some instances a non-local SDP relaxation.
We examine two such approaches. The first of these is inspired by recent work of Arora, Rao and Vazirani on Sparsest Cut. Using a geometric intuition similar to theirs, we give an algorithm for coloring 3-colorable graphs which is nearly identical to that of Blum and Karger, and finds a legal coloring which uses roughly O(n0.2130) as opposed to the original O(n0.2143 ) guarantee in that paper.
The second approach makes use of SDP hierarchies, on which prior work has yielded mostly negative results. Using this method, we give an algorithm for coloring 3-colorable graphs which finds a legal O( n0.2072)-coloring.
As an additional application of this approach, in 3-uniform hypergraphs containing an independent set of size γn (for any constant γ > 0), we describe an algorithm which finds an independent set of size nWg2 using the Θ(1/γ2)-level of an SDP hierarchy. We also present integrality gaps for this hierarchy which imply improved performance guarantees as one uses progressively higher-level SDP relaxations.


In Kenya, VAT collection faces various major challenges and issues which seem not to have been addressed by the various Tax and Administrative reforms that have been undertaken by the Revenue Agency for the last one decade. During this period, Domestic VAT revenue performance has mainly remained below 100%.1t is currently the worst performing Tax head with a revenue performance shortfall of about five billion in the first quarter of the financial year 2011/2012. It is argued that declining VAT productivity in Kenya could be caused by structural problems which tax reforms have failed to address and that the tax is yet to find its position in Kenya's tax system as the tax of the future. This study therefore sought to establish how the internal factors influence domestic VAT collection in NairobiKenya. This study was a descriptive survey and was conducted in Nairobi's Domestic Taxes department offices. The target population was the 662 technical staff stationed in Domestic Taxes Department (DTD) Nairobi, classified into top management, senior management, Middle management and Operative staff. A sample population of 67 respondents was obtained using stratified sampling method to get the respective number of respondents in each stratum. The respondents from each stratum were selected using simple random sampling. Data was collected using a semi structured questionnaire which was pre-tested for reliability and validity during a pilot test. Collected data was checked for errors of omission and commission. The data collected was classified, measured and analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis. Software Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 12.0 was used in data analysis. Sixty (60) out of the sample population of 67 responded. The study found out that majority of the revenue administration staff were university graduates. In additional all the staff had undergone induction, refresher, or desk training and job experience played a significant role in enhancing the collection of domestic VAT. DTD had moderate administrative policies which somehow facilitated the enhancement of domestic VAT collection in NairobiKenya. However, the number of staff managing domestic VAT collection was not sufficient to ensure that VATwas effectively and efficiently collected. All factors of organizational structure were influential in enhancing VAT collection at DTD -Nairobi. Further, DTD did not have sufficient defaulter information and nor could the information be availed in time to ensure effective and efficient VAT enforcement, leading to low follow up of the VAT defaulters and subsequent low VAT performance. There was inefficiency in the provision of support services used for domestic VAT collection. The study recommended that DTD administration should review the administrative policies, increase the staff managing domestic VAT collection, improve the VAT defaulter information system, introduce staff development programmes and enhance provision of Support services especially the VAT management information system and transport of technical staff to the taxpayers' locations. Further research should be conducted to evaluate why DTD enforcement measures have failed to enhance domestic VAT collection performance and the influence of external factors on domestic VAT collection performance.


The banana plant forms an adventitious root system that is dependent on soil physical, chemical and biological properties to function efficiently. A pot experiment demonstrated that increasing soil compaction was able to significantly reduce the weight of banana roots and shoots. However, in the presence of Radopholus similis the effects of soil compaction were obscured, due to the significant reduction in root weight caused by the nematode. The use of a basic set of soil quality indicators that can be readily used by farmers, was linked to soil nematode indicators to determine relationships between soil properties. In a survey of banana fields in North Queensland, different diameter root classes were affected differently by changing soil properties. Banana roots greater than 5 mm diameter were positively correlated with aggregate stability and negatively correlated with soil bulk density. Banana roots less than 1 mm were positively correlated with electrical conductivity. Specific interactions between soil properties become apparent as crop production systems become more uniform. This allows farmers to prioritise management options to improve the most deficient soil health indicators. The addition of organic amendments is one possible method of correcting degrading soils. The use of amendments with high carbon contents, such as grass hay, banana trash and lucerne hay, were able to significantly suppress R. similis in the roots of banana plants relative to untreated soil. Due to banana production being located near environmentally sensitive areas there is an increasing need to monitor and modify soil management practices. However, this needs to be linked with a framework that allows the integration of all soil components with a system to allow continual improvement in soil management to allow banana production to have minimal impact on the surrounding environment.


A myriad of reasons explain the performance of business ventures; one of these is the possession or lack of skill in managing the financial affairs of those ventures.  While the lack or deficiency of it may be detrimental to larger enterprises, the effect could be much more disadvantageous to small or micro enterprises.  This study assesses the financial skills of fish vendors in Pasil, the main fish distribution and trading center in Cebu City, Philippines. This study used simple random sampling to obtain 123 respondents and adopted a 95% level of confidence on statistical tests. Findings show that vendors possess low level financial skills as indicated by a significant number of vendors who do not record nor keep record of transactions, do not monitor profit and loss, and have deficient cash management practices.  Furthermore, most vendors are confined to high interest loans.


ABSTRACT Black carbonate lithoclasts, along with blackened peloids, ooids, skeletal fragments, and entire limestone beds are found in the shallow subtidal, intertidal, and supratidal zones of modern and ancient carbonate environments. They are often associated with pedogenic features such as root-traces or caliche. The blackening is due to impregnation of the sediment by dissolved, colloidal, or finely particulate organic substances in an anoxic and alkaline environment or microenvironment. The organic matter is derived from decayed algae and/or decayed or burnt higher terrestrial plants. Iron sulfides contribute to the blackening, especially in samples containing algal matter. A complex interplay of adsorption of organic matter on carbonate-crystal surfaces, neomorphism, and microcrystalline cementation in the vadose or freshwater phreatic zones is thought to fix the organic matter and make the black coloration relatively resistant to oxidation. Black pebbles form through reworking of the preferentially cemented and blackened sediment by coastal erosion. They are mostly relics because the less-consolidated host sediment is washed away. Black pebbles may thus be valuable indicators of ancient coastal and terrestrial environments.


In this paper we investigate the problem of learning a preference relation i~om a given set of ranked documents. We show that the Bayes's optimal decision function, when applied to learning a preference relation, may violate transitivity. This is undesirable for information retrieval, because it is in conflict with a document ranking based on the user's preferences. To overcome this problem we present a vector space based method that performs a linear mapping from documeats to scalar utility values and thus guarantees transitivity. The learning of the relation between documeats is formulated as a classification problem on pairs of documents and is solved using the principle of structural risk minimization for good generalization. The approach is extended to polynomial utility functions by using the potential function method (the so called "kernel trick"), which allows to incorporate higher order correlations of features into the utility function at minimal computational costs. The resulting algorithm is tested on aa example with artificial data. The algorithm successfully learns the utility function underlying the training examples and shows good classification performance.


As part of a wider research project on the history of competition law and its enforcement in Australia from 1973 to 2003, the authors interviewed the four Chairmen who guided the Trade Practices Commission and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over this period, in order to get their views of their role in its history. Given the untimely death on July 27 2005 of Bob McComas, the second Chairman who held office for three years from February 1985 to February 1988, it was thought fitting to publish a brief record of parts of the interview with him (which took place on 24 January 2005), in which Bob discussed the background, agenda, legacies and disappointments of his term in office. He was contemplating writing his memoirs, and so he had thought in detail about many of the issues raised during the interview. He regarded himself as significantly different from the other three Chairmen, and made no apologies for his relatively non-litigious approach to preserving the competitive process in Australian markets.


Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are a key part of manufacturing economies. However, the move towards globalisation of supply can potentially be harmful to SMEs, which, because of their size and lack of internal resources, often lack the capability to add value to their products and differentiate themselves in the marketplace. Networks are seen as a key method by which SMEs can acquire "know how" on the external environment as well as in collaborating to supply customers to overcome these constraints.

However, there is a lack of clarity in the literature on the appropriate type of network to support specific outcomes in SMEs. Nor is there an understanding of the specific characteristics, which define a network's internal dynamic. Without an understanding of network typologies and characteristics it is difficult to effectively support existing networks or seek to develop new ones. This research therefore, focuses on providing an understanding of network typologies and network processes to inform SME network policy and to provide practical help to facilitators of networks in forming and then supporting SMEs in meeting their network objectives.

The research takes a longitudinal approach, examining two SME manufacturing networks in the West Midlands region of the UK over a two-year period as well as a Control Group of non-networking firms for comparison. The networks are from the Vertical Supply Chain and Industrial District traditions. The emphasis is on seeking to establish the impact of networking on new processes and new products in the SMEs as well as the external facilitation process.
A Case Study approach was undertaken tracking SME activity and obtaining rich insights into the way SMEs behave in networks. A Questionnaire was administered at three stages (start, middle and end) to establish Performance Indicators and to then register changes in performance in the SMEs to reflect on network activity. A version of the Questionnaire was then utilised within a regional sample of SMEs for comparison.

The results show that networks support SMEs in learning from others, in sharing ideas, in gaining information on trends, in benchmarking and in assisting in process improvements. The research describes a typology for assessing networks and describes two new distinct network types, a Closed Strategic Network of SMEs from the Supply Chain tradition and an Open Social Network from the Industrial District tradition. A series of "Characteristics" including, Purpose, Trust, Compatibility, Equity and Entrepreneurial and Collaborative Behaviour have been identified. The Typologies, Characteristics and Performance Indicators can be used to systematically help in support of existing networks and in developing new ones. These Typologies, Characteristics and Performance Indicators, have been incorporated into a Three- Stage Networking Model. The research defines the types of facilitation needed at distinct stages of development in the Model and also identifies how SMEs then make partnership arrangements (in dyadic relationships) to transfer to a business relationship external to the network.