The Modern Olympic Games symbolize the struggle between man's ideals and the reality within which he must live. (1) The torch took about a year to design to the specifications that would keep it burning on its varied journey around the world, said David Hill, vice president of corporate identity and design for Lenovo, the computer manufacturing firm that designed the torch and a main sponsor of the torch relay. (2) The torch relay and its representation in the media offers an invaluable focused case study through which to examine politics and journalism. As the global mega event par excellence, the Olympic Games command attention around the world, not just in the two weeks of the Games themselves but for several months beforehand. Two media themes are often prominent during the build up: the view (often justified) that the Games cost far too much and the fear (usually unwarranted) that the facilities will not be ready. Often, too, other global political themes--environmental concerns, regional tensions, treatment of indigenous minorities, disparities of wealth, human rights--become condensed onto coverage of the Olympic Games. This period of months before the Games begin is often a challenging one for the press office of the Organising Committee. The context in which these developments occur has shifted during the last few decades. The Olympic Games provide ground on which symbolic struggle takes place between nations, and images of power and competence are at stake. From 1948 to 1988, this symbolic struggle was dominated by Cold War politics. Since 1988, the city has challenged the nation as the symbolic focal point. The Olympic Games, like other mega events, have been utilised as a means of advertising a city as a modern dynamic venue for business and as a an attractive and exotic destination for tourists. These goals may or may not fit neatly with the political priorities of the host nation. For example, the balance of tradition and modernity, stability and change, heritage and innovation, may well be cast differently at city and at state levels. The formation of the news agenda, gate keeping, agenda setting, framing and constructing the news have been extensively examined by media analysts for decades are well known to be complex processes in which power and influence are unevenly distributed. The rise of digital communications media and the Internet is seen by some as allowing a more heterogeneous range of voices to be heard; yet, existing media organisations remain clearly dominant. News is the site of a continuing struggle over meaning, perspective, and interpretation. In the case of Beijing, many groups and individuals will be seeking to push the issue of human rights to the forefront of the agenda. Motives will vary, some caring passionately about sport, some disinterested; some engaged in the future of China, others simply anti-communist by conviction; some campaigners on human rights around the world, others focusing exclusively on China. As in the case of previous Games such as Moscow in 1980, some had been campaigning for a boycott as soon as the site was chosen, in advance of any specific issue such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Given that many nations, including the USA and UK, can be accused of some human rights violations, and that comparisons need to take size and history into account, the issue is not as simple as it may appear. The human rights issue will, however, be a significant part of the symbolic battle around the build up to the Olympic Games. The first site of struggle in the build up to an Olympic Games is often the very concept of "politics" and its relevance to sport. The insistence that politics should be kept out of sport varies in intensity according to circumstances--the very people who thought the anti-apartheid movement was illegitimately bringing politics in sport, were prominent among those calling for a boycott of the Moscow Olympic Games. …


Problem Statement: Curriculum development involves the process of planning, setting up and running courses. The knowledge about designing syllabi, making choices of content and materials and assessing student performances plays an important role in curriculum development. Syllabus design is one aspect of curriculum development. It covers the kind of materials that are adopted and the ways they will be exploited for the classroom teaching. Choosing a syllabus is a major decision in language teaching. Therefore, it should be made as conscientiously and with as much information as possible. Purpose of Study: The purpose of the study is to examine the syllabus designs used in the three preparatory schools of the three universities in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and make suggestions on how to improve these syllabus designs. Methods: A qualitative research method was used in this study. An interview schedule was used to collect data. The study was conducted with 27 participants from the preparatory schools of the three universities in the TRNC. The data were broken into categories followed by thematic coding. Findings and Results: The findings show that two universities are still using the traditional product-oriented approach (in other words, the grammarbased syllabus design), while one university is using a process-oriented approach with a skill-based syllabus design. Conclusions and Recommendations: The integrated syllabus design seems to be the most beneficial design type, as it involves the use of language skills,


Certain kinds of grammatical markers show heightened propensities for turnover cross-linguistically. Some, like negatives, are widespread, while others, such as distributives, are rarer. Several factors might underlie these propensities. Most cycles involve two sets of processes: grammaticalization and renewal. Grammaticalization processes, which can result in phonological erosion, semantic generalization and abstraction, and pragmatic weakening, are generally driven by frequency. The resulting form/function mismatches can trigger renewal, stimulated by expressive need and the availability of resources for new markers. These factors are first investigated in negative, demonstrative, pronominal, reflexive, and distributive cycles from languages of the Iroquoian family, indigenous to eastern North America. Another potential factor, language contact, is then explored, with examples from languages indigenous to western North America.


We investigate the effects of food imports on the prevalence of obesity in selected LAC countries. Cross sectional data for 25 selected LAC countries for the year 2002 were collected. Regression analyses with a semi-log functional form were developed to investigate whether food imports and other socio-economic variables influenced the prevalence of total population, male and female obesity. Total obesity model had an adjusted R2 of 0.72. Total food imports and gross national product per capita negatively influenced the prevalence of total obesity in net food importing countries (NFICs) whereas the total number of television sets had a positive effect. NFICs had a lower prevalence of obesity. For female obesity the equation had an adjusted R2 of 0.52. Food imports negatively influenced the prevalence of female obesity in NFICs, whereas gross national income per capita and the total number of television sets had positive effects. For male obesity, the equation had an adjusted R2 of 0.83 and the variables affecting the prevalence of obesity were similar but this time domestic food production had a positive effect. The sign for net food imports were similar in all equations indicating that individuals in NFICs had lower prevalence of obesity.


Allergic fungal rhinosinusitis (AFRS) is a type of hypersensitive inflammatory response that causes chronic, recurrent, and noninvasive hypertrophic sinus disease. The aim of this paper is to report the latest information and development in the diagnostic conundrum that allergic fungal rhinosinusitis can present. A literature review was conducted of PubMed English language search of current diagnostic criteria for allergic fungal rhinosinusitis, from 1951 to 2017. The diagnosis of allergic fungal rhinosinusitis needs to be considered in all patients with severe chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis. Patients often have asthma and complain of thick 'wallpaper glue' like nasal secretions that can also often be seen on nasal endoscopy. CT scanning often shows heterogeneity and MRI scanning may also help to identify cases. The diagnostic role of total and fungus-specific IgE in AFRS requires further prospective evaluation. The role of genetic and immunological testing in AFRS requires developing as diagnostic tools. The diagnosis is therefore often a clinical one supported by investigations such as radiology


Previous research has indicated that young people with low self-control who engage in substance misuse are more likely to commit crimes and continue to offend. The current literature on substance misuse and offending has been criticised for focusing on risk and causal relationships, at the detriment to understanding the lived experience of offending. The current study explored the lived experience of 6 young people aged 16-18, labelled as 'high risk' and 'chronic substance mis-users' in a North West Youth Offending Service (YOS). Young people were interviewed and transcripts analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Three super ordinate themes emerged, 1. Conflicting boundaries, 2. Search for belonging and 3. Poverty of experiences. Young people experienced an 'inevitable' draw in offending behaviour and substance misuse whilst simultaneously describing dissatisfaction with their life circumstances. The authors provide systemic recommendations that challenge the medical model of 'addiction' used to shape young people's substance misuse services. Delegates are invited to engage in wider discussions in how we offer developmentally appropriate service for this marginalised group.


Humans are able to perform a myriad of sophisticated tasks by drawing upon skills acquired through prior experience. For autonomous agents to have this capability, they must be able to extract reusable skills from past experience that can be recombined in new ways for subsequent tasks. Furthermore, when controlling complex high-dimensional morphologies, such as humanoid bodies, tasks often require coordination of multiple skills simultaneously. Learning discrete primitives for every combination of skills quickly becomes prohibitive. Composable primitives that can be recombined to create a large variety of behaviors can be more suitable for modeling this combinatorial explosion. In this work, we propose multiplicative compositional policies (MCP), a method for learning reusable motor skills that can be composed to produce a range of complex behaviors. Our method factorizes an agent's skills into a collection of primitives, where multiple primitives can be activated simultaneously via multiplicative composition. This flexibility allows the primitives to be transferred and recombined to elicit new behaviors as necessary for novel tasks. We demonstrate that MCP is able to extract composable skills for highly complex simulated characters from pre-training tasks, such as motion imitation, and then reuse these skills to solve challenging continuous control tasks, such as dribbling a soccer ball to a goal, and picking up an object and transporting it to a target location.


It has been said that it is narcissistic for an international legal scholar to reflect on the role of the academic within the international legal profession. Yet international law is simultaneously constituted by and constitutes the community of international lawyers who engage with it. The relationship is 'co-constitutive', meaning on the one hand that it is the community of international lawyers who come to create, interpret and render operative the international law with which they engage in their professional practice; and simultaneously, that certain argumentative rules pervade the international legal discipline, generating background ideas that come to constitute, or at least structure, the professional vocabularies of all international lawyers. This Chapter presents some reflections on the specific function of the international legal academic, and how our teachings come to structure the international law profession more generally, consider the extent to which the metaphor of a grammar common to international lawyers, which enables the creation and justifies the validity of international legal rules, constitutes the role of the international legal academic, using the metaphor of the grammarian. It will explore the international legal profession as a wider 'community' of practice, bound by interpretive canons or even a shared episteme rather than by a mere shared object of engagement. It will engage with so-called 'activist' scholarship that is mindful of its law-creative (normative) potential and seeks to take full advantage of it, acknowledge the social reality of international legal scholars being in constant engagement with practitioners, governmental officials, international judges. This Chapter will conclude with a few thoughts on how Koskenniemi's famous call for a 'culture of formalism' can serve to acknowledge that the use of the international legal vocabulary is fundamentally a choice. Understanding the parameters of that choice can, above all, better understand and situate the role of the international legal scholar within the wider phenomenon of international law, and give rise to a wider ethic of responsibility on the part of international lawyers.


The rich world's borders increasingly seem like a battleground where a new kind of 'threat' is fought back – the so-called 'illegal migrant'. At Europe's southern frontiers, sea patrols, advanced surveillance machinery and fencing keep migrants out, much like at the US, Israeli or Australian borders. Such investments have created a dense web of controls that displaces the border both inward and outwards, into the borderlands beyond it. This article, building upon recent border studies and ethnographies of illegality, explores Europe's migration controls by focusing on their temporal aspects. In the borderlands, it shows, irregular migrants are not only subjected to extended periods of waiting, as migrants often are; they also face an active usurpation of time by state authorities through serial expulsions and retentions. The ways in which migrants' time is appropriated reveal a complex economics of illegality, complementing existing 'biopolitical' perspectives on Europe's borders.


This paper explores the manner in which two hospices--one located in Denmark and one in Australia--negotiate and determine the boundaries of volunteer workers vis-à-vis paid staff. A comparative case study approach was used to juxtapose organisations with similar activity fields located in different welfare state systems, i.e. a social democratic welfare state and a liberal welfare state. This study involved non-participant observation of volunteers at work and unstructured interviews with volunteers, staff and management in the hospices (n = 41). Data were collected between August 2012 and February 2013. Data were managed using NVivo and analysed thematically. A key finding is that volunteers in the Danish hospice were excluded from all direct care work due to the effective monopoly of the professional care providers, whereas the Australian volunteers participated in the provision of care to the extent that risk could be eliminated or mitigated to an acceptable level. The findings suggest two different models of the roles of volunteers in tension with professional care providers. Both models recognise that volunteers add to the level of care delivered by the organisations and allow for a discussion that moves away from the normative discussions of 'not taking somebody's job', while also recognising that volunteers must be more than just the 'nice extra' if they are to be of any real value to the organisation and to care receivers.


The controlled manipulation of silicon at the nanometer scale will facilitate the fabrication of new types of electronic devices. The scanning tunneling microscope (STM) can be used to manipulate strongly bound silicon atoms or clusters at room temperature. Specifically, by using a combination of electrostatic and chemical forces, surface atoms can be removed and deposited on the STM tip. The tip can then move to a predetermined surface site, and the atom or cluster can be redeposited. The magnitude of such forces and the amount of material removed can be controlled by applying voltage pulses at different tip-surface separations.


Based on research in Pakistan and the English city of Bristol, this article examines the increasingly common practice of transnational marriages between British-born Pakistanis and Pakistani nationals, in which the latter normally migrate to join their spouses in the UK. Informants and the literature stress the risks faced by women in marriage, and these may be heightened by the increased distance between migrant brides' natal and marital homes in transnational marriages. The challenges faced by migrant husbands in the culturally unusual position of moving to join their wives have, however, received far less attention. These are examined in terms of cultural models of marriage and migration, asymmetry in expectations of marital 'adjustment' and compromise, masculinity and the position of the uxorilocally resident son-in-law (ghar damad). It is suggested that this approach, which recognises the relational character of gender, has much to contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of transnational marriages, including insights on marriages that have ended with the husband's violence or desertion.


The general structure of the mammalian neocortex is remarkably similar across different cortical areas. Despite certain cytoarchitectural specializations and deviations from the general blueprint, the principal organization of the neocortex is relatively uniform. It is not known, however, to what extent stereotypic synaptic pathways resemble each other between cortical areas, and how far they might reflect possible functional uniformity or specialization. Here, we show that frequency‐dependent disynaptic inhibition (FDDI) is a generic circuit motif that is present in all neocortical areas we investigated (primary somatosensory, auditory and motor cortex, secondary visual cortex and medial prefrontal cortex of the developing rat). We did find, however, area‐specific differences in occurrence and kinetics of FDDI and the short‐term dynamics of monosynaptic connections between pyramidal cells (PCs). Connectivity between PCs, both monosynaptic and via FDDI, is higher in primary cortices. The long‐term effectiveness of FDDI is likely to be limited by an activity‐dependent attenuation of the PC–interneuron synaptic transmission. Our results suggest that the basic construction of neocortical synaptic pathways follows principles that are independent of modality or hierarchical order within the neocortex.


Phenolic compounds are plant secondary metabolites playing important roles in plant resistance. Their chemical structure is based on at least one aromatic ring bonded to one or more hydroxyl groups. They are mainly synthetized from amino acid phenylalanine which is converted to cinnamic acid. Phenolics are one of the largest and most diverse groups of plant active substances. These compounds take part in the regulation of seed germination and cooperate in regulating the growth of plants, also taking part in defence responses during infection, excessive sun exposure, injuries and heavy metal stress. One of the most important features of phenolic compounds is antioxidant activity which is closely related to their chemical structure. The aim of this review is to discuss the role of phenolic compounds in the interactions of plants with various stress factors, both biotic and abiotic with special attention to their antioxidant properties.


Wind is the dominant environmental factor affecting wildland fire intensity and spread.
Previously, fire analysts and managers have relied on local measurements and site-specific
forecasts to determine how winds influence fire. The advancements in computer hardware,
increased availability of electronic topographical and experimental data, and advances
in numerical methods for computing winds, have led to the development of new
tools capable of simulating wind flow. Several numerical models have been developed
for fire prediction and forecasting. Modelling wind in physics-based models like Fire
Dynamics Simulator (FDS) has been shown to produce promising results, but at an inordinate
cost. Because of the high computational expense, physics-based models are not
suitable for operational use. Little research has been conducted to improve the computational
speed of these models. The current study intends to decrease the computational
cost of physics-based fire simulations and improve physics-based models by including
more complicated driving winds.
Physics-based wildfire simulations are driven by inlet boundary conditions which model
the atmospheric boundary layer. Various inlet conditions, such as the 1/7-powerlaw or
the log law models with artificial turbulence (e.g. the synthetic eddy method, [SEM])
can be used as an inlet to generate a statistically steady wind field for a fire simulation.
The power-law inlet is the default inlet condition used in FDS where the wind develops
turbulence as it sweeps through the domain, and is often used with wall-of-wind type
methods. The log-law inlet generates a log wind profile similar to Atmospheric Boundary
Layer (ABL). Development of techniques for imposing inlet conditions and initial conditions
for flow simulations have been topics of interest for the past few decades. Current
inlet and initial conditions requires time in a scale order of 100s of CPU hours, for generating an appropriate condition to start a fire simulation, hence resulting in increased
computational expense. A novel nesting method has been implemented, which involves
two regions : penalisation and blending, named as the PenaBlending method. The initial
conditions of the fire simulations in FDS are set to the initial condition prescribed by an
external model or simulation. This is achieved by a one-way coupling method. External
wind data, for which u,v,w can vary in space and time, can be obtained. The precursor
data can be generated either from any reduced wind model such as Windninja, which
gives terrain modified wind data, or by using analytical methods such as generating logarithmic
windfield using Matlab. These external data can be introduced into the FDS domain
through a penalization region at the inlet/outlet. A blending region has also been
implemented near the specified inlet/outlet which allows a smooth mixing of a precursor
wind field to that in the simulation domain. This new inlet condition allows complicated
terrain modified temporally and spatially varying wind fields, obtained from precursor
simulations or any other models, to be implemented relatively easily in the FDS domain.
To test the implementation of this method, a flat terrain is considered in the current study.
However, this method could also be used for complicated terrain structures, as a part of
future studies. The PenaBlending method provides appropriate flow conditions with reduced
computational effort (up to ~ 80%), to start a fire simulation, and, hence, reduces
the computational expense of physics-based models.
The results obtained using the PenaBlending method have been compared with that obtained
using the existing inlet conditions of FDS, like the SEM method, wall-of-wind
method and mean-forcing methods, using the 1/7 power-law or log-law inlets. To test
these three methods, a set of fire simulations have been conducted and tested against the
PenaBlending method. It was found that the results of the PenaBlending methods agree
well with that of existing methods, with small variations for both the wind and fire cases.
FDS 6.6.0 (the version used in this study) requires a very fine grid to obtain grid convergence.
This is not feasible in the case of a large-scale simulation because of very high
computation cost. FDS 6.2.0, with a reaction-rate-limiter combustion model, needs less
fine grids to obtain grid convergence. Therefore, this combustion model is re-introduced into FDS 6.6.0, providing an option of choosing between two different combustion models,
as a part of this study. For all the simulations, the reaction-rate-limiter combustion
model has been used. The simulations are carried out in a neutral-atmospheric stability
condition. However, the PenaBlending method can apply any general driving wind, and
the effect of atmospheric stability, could be included, as part of future studies. The PenaBlending
method could be extended in conjunction with Monin-Obukhov Similarity
Theory (introduced in FDS 6.6.0) to model fire in various atmospheric stability conditions.


Many international treaties come into force only after a minimum number of countries have signed and ratified the treaty. Minimum participation constraints are particularly frequent in the case of environmental treaties dealing with global commons, where free-riding incentives are strong. Why do countries that know they have an incentive to free-ride accept to "tie their hands" through the introduction of a minimum participation constraint? This article addresses the above issues by modeling the formation of an international treaty as a three-stage non-cooperative coalition formation game. Both the equilibrium minimum participation constraint and the number of signatories—the coalition size—are determined. This article, by showing that a non-trivial partial coalition, sustained by a binding minimum participation constraint, forms at the equilibrium, explains the occurrence of minimum participation clauses in most international environmental agreements. It also analyses the endogenous equilibrium size of the minimum participation constraint.


With the change of government in Serbia in October 2000, a number of antisemitic Christian right-wing organizations appeared on the political scene. Examines the Dignity Patriotic Movement (Otacastveni Pokret Obraz), whose conservative ideology is largely based on the religious teachings of Bishop Velimirovic (1881-1956) and includes antisemitic conspiratorial themes which became popular after the NATO bombings in 1999. Characteristically for the new Christian Right, the Obraz has connections with the Orthodox Church, the army, and the mainstream Right (including the President), which give the movement a certain respectability. Some themes and ideas of the Christian Right are evinced in the mainstream media. The position of the Serbian Church toward antisemitism is ambivalent. It has tabooed any mention of Velimirovic's antisemitism and at the same time is reluctant to canonize him as a saint, despite recurring calls for such action.


This paper contains the most important findings of researching the preferences of dwelling buyers regarding dwellings on which the former owner installed a photovoltaic system(PV system). These preferences are determined using a discrete choice model on stated preference data of dwelling buyers in the Eindhoven region. The most important conclusions are that a PV system is on average highly appreciated by dwelling buyers and that this appreciation is relatively larger by dwelling buyers that live in more urban/central neighborhoods.


A software architecture is one of the first steps towards a software system. A software architecture can be designed in different ways. During the design phase, it is important to select the most suitable design of the architecture, in order to create a good foundation for the system. The selection process is performed by evaluating architecture alternatives against each other. We investigate the use of continuous simulation of a software architecture as a support tool for architecture evaluation. For this purpose, we study a software architecture of an existing software system in an experiment, where we create a model of it using a tool for continuous simulation, and simulate the model. Based on the results from the simulation, we conclude that the system is too complex to be modeled for continuous simulation. Problems we identify are that we need discrete functionality to be able to correctly simulate the system, and that it is very time-consuming to develop a model for evaluation purposes. Thus, we find that continuous simulation is not appropriate for evaluating a software architecture, but that the modeling process is a valuable tool for increasing knowledge and understanding about an architecture.


The long-term consequences of torture are complex, multidimensional, and pervasive. Torture leaves indelible scars in the mind, body, and cultural world of survivors, compromising their health and well-being. A clearer understanding of biological, psychological, and socio-cultural mechanisms underlying these difficulties is emerging. Research findings on pain are relevant for those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and its associated chronic pain. Rehabilitation programs require crossdisciplinary knowledge and expertise, including of complementary therapies. This article explores the use of complementary therapies in which psychotherapy, in concert with either physiotherapy or bodywork, is offered. Case studies illustrate its application and potential benefits. The clinical experience in controlled circumstances suggests the thesis that complementary therapies advance the psychological and physical healing process.


Reasoning about the physical world requires models that are endowed with the right inductive biases to learn the underlying dynamics. Recent works improve generalization for predicting trajectories by learning the Hamiltonian or Lagrangian of a system rather than the differential equations directly. While these methods encode the constraints of the systems using generalized coordinates, we show that embedding the system into Cartesian coordinates and enforcing the constraints explicitly with Lagrange multipliers dramatically simplifies the learning problem. We introduce a series of challenging chaotic and extended-body systems, including systems with N-pendulums, spring coupling, magnetic fields, rigid rotors, and gyroscopes, to push the limits of current approaches. Our experiments show that Cartesian coordinates with explicit constraints lead to a 100x improvement in accuracy and data efficiency.


Marine radiocarbon (14C) is a widely used tracer of past ocean circulation, but very few high-resolution records have been obtained. Here, we report a time series of carbon isotope abundances of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in surface seawater collected from the Newport Beach pier in Orange County, within the Southern California Bight, from 2005 to 2010. Surface seawater was collected bimonthly and analyzed for Δ14C, δ13C, and salinity. Results from May 2005 to November 2010 show no long-term changes in δ13C DIC values and no consistent variability that can be attributed to upwelling. Δ14C DIC values have lowered from ~34‰ to about ~16‰, an 18‰ decrease from the beginning of this project in 2005, and is consistent with the overall 14C depletion from the atmospheric thermonuclear bomb pulse at the end of the 1950s. Δ14C DIC values, paired with salinity, do appear to be suitable indicators of upwelling strength with periods of upwelling characterized by more saline and lower DIC Δ14C values. However, a similar signal was not observed during the strong upwelling event of 2010. These results were obtained in the Southern California Bight where upwelling is fairly weak and there is a complex oceanographic circulation in comparison with the remaining western USA coastline. It is therefore likely that the link between DIC Δ14C, salinity, and upwelling would be even stronger at other sites. These data represent the longest time series of Δ14C data from a coastal Southern California site performed to date. Copyright Information:


In this thesis we develop a mathematical model describing the migration and trapping of CO2 when injecting it in a deep saline aquifer. Both the migration and trapping processes are inherently complex, spanning multiple spatial and temporal scales. We develop a upscaled mass transfer model for these processes within vertically averaged formulations. This model is applied to a benchmark problem designed to highlight important questions about the long term fate of the injected CO2. In the developed model the effect of dissolution trapping is included. When considering dissolution trapping we distinguish between dissolution due to equilibration between mobile CO2 and brine as CO2 drains a region with pure brine, and dissolution due to density driven convective mixing. Using the developed model we have studied the plume migration with and without the effect of convective mixing and looked at the influence the value of the dissolution rate has on the tip velocity. Our results shows that the value of the dissolution rate has a great impact on the tip velocity. We find that the tip velocity has two characteristic values depending on the dissolution rate.


The Thesis studies Virtual Reality Drawing and its application to architecture. It covers the evolution of different thesis goals, from a more technically intensive approach to the now experimental method of research. It also covers a short background about Virtual Reality's history, my personal history with drawing, old projects remodelled for VR, or redrawn in VR. The research includes an insight to VR drawing – 2D / 3D drawing elements such as line, shape, shade, etc. and then compared to their VR counterparts. Also included are VR architecture drawings and the video of the process and the analysis of how the process informs architecture. The data gathered from these will be guidelines for VR art that shall be used to make the final pieces – the Game (contains images / text / data) and the Final VR DrawingSpace


Media can influence people directly and indirectly through presumed influence on others. This study examined the direct and indirect pathways of media influence. The direct pathway started from the perceived effects of media on self, to anxiety of self, and to behavioral intentions of self. The indirect influence started from the presumed effects of media on others, to others' anxiety, to others' behaviors, and to behavioral intentions of self. A survey was conducted regarding the effects of blog messages about fishery contamination associated with the Fukushima nuclear accident ( N = 306). Both influence pathways were effective, but the direct influence was stronger than the indirect influence. The relationship between participants' intentions to change their behaviors and their presumptions about others' behavioral changes was reciprocal, and the effect of the former on the latter was greater than the opposite.


Handheld Augmented Reality commonly implements some variant of magic lens rendering, which turns only a fraction of the users real environment into AR while the rest of the environment remains unaffected. Since handheld AR devices are commonly equipped with video see-through capabilities, AR magic lens applications often suffer from spatial distortions, because the AR environment is presented from the perspective of the camera of the mobile device. Recent approaches counteract this distortion based on estimations of the users head position, rendering the scene from the user's perspective. To this end, approaches usually apply face-tracking algorithms on the front camera of the mobile device. However, this demands high computational resources and therefore commonly affects the performance of the application beyond the already high computational load of AR applications. In this paper, we present a method to reduce the computational demands for user perspective rendering by applying lightweight optical flow tracking and an estimation of the users motion before head tracking is started. We demonstrate the suitability of our approach for computationally limited mobile devices and we compare it to device perspective rendering, to head tracked user perspective rendering, as well as to fixed point of view user perspective rendering.


The spatially resolved wavefront aberrations of four types of ophthalmic lens are measured with a custom-built apparatus based on a Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor and specially designed positioning stage. The wavefront aberrations of the progressive addition lenses (PALs) are compared. The results show that the distribution depends much on the design philosophy, although the average values of root mean square in the entire measurement areas have no significant difference. It is feasible to evaluate the optical performance through the wavefront analysis of PALs, but how to meet the customized visual needs of patients and how to minimize the unwanted aberrations in some special zones are important points that should be taken into account.


Poverty levels have been diminishing in Mexico since the late 90's, although several regions still show high levels of poverty, and they are extremely high in some rural areas. This paper have addressed the issue of the linkages between sectoral growth (urban/rural) and poverty levels. It was found that although both types of growth impacted negatively on poverty levels in Mexico, rural growth seems to have a higher power in improving consumption per capita of the poorest among the poor people. Moreover, the only inter-sector linkage found was the one that connects rural growth with urban poverty for those people above the food -poverty line but below the moderate poverty line. Exploring plausible channels, we have found that rural growth enhances equality of income distribution at total and urban levels, while urban growth does exactly the opposite. But this is still a general equilibrium effect. Thus, we further explored labor market issues. We found that rural growth impacted positively on labor demand for unskilled worker: on this base, ceteris paribus it is better for poverty alleviation to have rural growth. We have also explored the issue of relative prices, although no impact of rural/urban growth was found here. Everything seems to be driven by the real exchange rate behavior. The share of agriculture in total income is relatively more important for poor people in rural areas, and most of the food poor people live in rural areas. This may be at the root of our findings.


L'invasion de la mer (The Invasion of the Sea), Verne's last novel to be published during his lifetime, would appear to be a paradoxical vision of French colonial involvement as it chronicles the attempts of the French army occupying Tunisia and Algeria to capture Tuareg leaders bent on pushing the French out of the Maghreb on the one hand, and thwarting an environmentally disastrous French project on the other. L'Invasion de la mer (The Invasion of the Sea) is a complex, if not melancholic vision of the limits of French expansionism, however. The real-life French army geographer François-Elie Roudaire and his backer, Ferdinand de Lesseps, seem to fascinate Verne the most. Roudaire's actual plans for the canal Verne writes about failed miserably but at the end of the novel, a tumultuous earthquake allows the "Saharan Sea" to be completed, kills the Tuareg leader and gives the victory to the French despite all their blunders. That Verne gives his final laurels to a failed inventor rather than flag-waving general serves as a wistful fin-de-siècle coda to what had been such innocently exuberant adventures at the start of his century.


This paper studies why multinational firms often share ownership of a foreign affiliate with a local partner even in the absence of government restrictions on ownership. We show that shared ownership may arise, if (i) the partner owns assets that are potentially important for the investment project, and (ii) the value of these assets is private information. In this context shared ownership acts as a screening device. Our model predicts that the multinational's ownership share is increasing in its productivity, with the most productive multinationals choosing not to rely on a foreign partner at all. This prediction is shown to be consistent with data on the ownership choices of Japanese multinationals. JEL-Classification: F23, L20.


The relationship between β-amyloid deposition and memory deficits in early Alzheimer's disease is unresolved, as past studies show conflicting findings. The present study aims to determine the relative contribution of regional β-amyloid deposition, hippocampal atrophy and white matter integrity to episodic memory deficits in non-demented older individuals harbouring one of the characteristic hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease, i.e. with β-amyloid pathology. Understanding these relationships is critical for effective therapeutic development. Brain magnetic resonance imaging and [(11)C]Pittsburgh Compound B-positron emission tomography scans were obtained in 136 non-demented individuals aged over 60 years, including 93 healthy elderly and 43 patients with mild cognitive impairment. Voxel-based correlations were computed between a memory composite score and grey matter volume, white matter volume and β-amyloid deposition imaging datasets. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were then performed using values extracted in regions of most significant correlations to determine the relative contribution of each modality to memory deficits. All analyses were conducted pooling all groups together as well as within separate subgroups of cognitively normal elderly, patients with mild cognitive impairment and individuals with high versus low neocortical β-amyloid. Brain areas of highest correlation with episodic memory deficits were the hippocampi for grey matter volume, the perforant path for white matter volume and the temporal neocortex for β-amyloid deposition. When considering these three variables together, only hippocampal volume and temporal β-amyloid deposition provided independent contributions to memory deficits. In contrast to global β-amyloid deposition, temporal β-amyloid deposition was still related to memory independently from hippocampal atrophy within subgroups of cognitively normal elderly, patients with mild cognitive impairment or cases with high neocortical β-amyloid. In the pre-dementia stage of Alzheimer's disease, subtle episodic memory impairment is related to β-amyloid deposition, especially in the temporal neocortex, and independently from hippocampal atrophy, suggesting that both factors should be independently targeted in therapeutic trials aimed at reducing cognitive decline.


Hair samples from two healthy teenagers were sent under assumed names to 13 commercial laboratories performing multimineral hair analysis. The reported levels of most minerals varied considerably between identical samples sent to the same laboratory and from laboratory to laboratory. The laboratories also disagreed about what was "normal" or "usual" for many of the minerals. Most reports contained computerized interpretations that were voluminous, bizarre, and potentially frightening to patients. Six laboratories recommended food supplements, but the types and amounts varied widely from report to report and from laboratory to laboratory. Literature from most of the laboratories suggested that their reports were useful in managing a wide variety of diseases and supposed nutrient imbalances. However, commercial use of hair analysis in this manner is unscientific, economically wasteful, and probably illegal. ( JAMA 1985;254:1041-1045)


Econometrics often deals with data under, from the statistical point of view, non-standard conditions such as heteroscedasticity or measurement errors and the estimation methods need thus be either adopted to such conditions or be at least insensitive to them. The methods insensitive to violation of certain assumptions, for example insensitive to the presence of heteroscedasticity, are in a broad sense referred to as robust (e.g., to heteroscedasticity). On the other hand, there is also a more specific meaning of the word `robust`, which stems from the field of robust statistics. This latter notion defines robustness rigorously in terms of behavior of an estimator both at the assumed (parametric) model and in its neighborhood in the space of probability distributions. Even though the methods of robust statistics have been used only in the simplest setting such as estimation of location, scale, or linear regression for a long time, they motivated a range of new econometric methods recently, which we focus on in this chapter.


The interaction between HIV-1 protease and reversible inhibitors was studied by surface plasmon resonance biosensor technology. The steady-state binding level and the time course of association and dissociation could be observed by measuring the binding of inhibitors injected in a continuous flow of buffer to the immobilized enzyme. Fourteen low molecular weight inhibitors (500-700 Da), including the four clinically used HIV-1 protease inhibitors (indinavir, nelfinavir, ritonavir, and saquinavir), were analyzed. Affinities were estimated as B(50) values from a series of sensorgrams at different concentrations of inhibitors. These values were found to be correlated with inhibition constants (K(i)) determined by an enzyme inhibition assay (r(2) = 0.84, logarithmic values). Dissociation rates were estimated at a single saturating concentration of the inhibitors as t(1/2,obs), but these values did not correlate with K(i) (r(2) = 0.26, logarithmic values). Indinavir had the highest affinity (B(50) = 11 nM) and the fastest dissociation (t(1/2,obs) = 500 s) among the clinically used inhibitors while saquinavir had a lower affinity (B(50) = 25 nM) and the slowest dissociation rate (t(1/2,obs) = 6500 s). Since these two inhibitors have similar K(i) values, the differences in dissociation rates reveal important characteristics in the interaction that cannot be obtained by the inhibition studies. The biosensor data are expected to be of greater in vivo relevance since the experiments were performed in a buffer more similar to physiological conditions.


This paper discusses the different roles of researchers, urban authorities and civil society groups in developing partnerships that address both environmental management and development. It draws on discussions at a workshop which brought together teams from six countries involved in research on this theme. It begins by describing the Local Agenda 21 and stakeholder partnershipsdeveloped in Jinja, Uganda and then discusses the experiences of the different teams in developing partnerships. The paper highlights how much the local context and broader political settings influence the set of roles the research teams take on, and ends with recommendations directed at urban authorities, researchers and civil society leaders.


In the surface mining industry, the Equipment Selection Problem involves choosing an appropriate fleet of trucks and loaders such that the long-term mine plan can be satisfied. An important characteristic for multi-location (multi-location and multi-dumpsite) mines is that the underlying problem is a multi-commodity flow problem. The problem is therefore at least as difficult as the fixed-charge, capacitated multi-commodity flow problem. For long-term schedules it is useful to consider both the purchase and salvage of the equipment, since equipment may be superseded, and there is the possibility of used pre-existing equipment. This may also lead to heterogeneous fleets and arising compatibility considerations. In this paper, we consider two case studies provided by our industry partner. We develop a mixed-integer linear programming model for heterogeneous equipment selection in a surface mine with multiple locations and a multiple period schedule. Encoded in the solution is an allocation scheme in addition to a purchase and salvage policy. We develop a solution approach, including variable preprocessing, to tackle this large-scale problem. We illustrate the computational effectiveness of the resulting model on the two case studies for large sets of equipment and long-term schedule scenarios.


This mixed design research doctorate seeks to explore the rationale for a selected
sample of English schools that are introducing Mandarin Chinese as a new language,
specifically, investigating the teaching goals and teaching methods that were applied.
It also focuses on pupils' views based on their personal learning experiences. This
research starts with an overview of the research into the teaching and learning of
Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language, globally, which was then narrowed down to
the context of introducing Mandarin Chinese into the educational curriculum in
England within the context of the relevant teaching approaches.
The methodological approach of the research combined quantitative and qualitative
methods. Interviews were conducted with two Head Teachers and five Heads of
foreign language departments in order to investigate the rationale for a sample of
schools deciding to introduce Mandarin Chinese and the current situation of teaching.
Interviews with five Teachers of Mandarin Chinese were carried out to gather data in
order to investigate teachers' experiences in teaching Mandarin Chinese as a foreign
language abroad. Additionally, data was collected through classroom observations, in
total 59 lessons were observed to gather in-depth data to investigate teaching methods
and teachers' interaction with pupils during day-to-day practice. Data was also
collected through a questionnaire survey sent to 84 pupils who participated in
Mandarin Chinese language classes from a sample of five schools, which represented
pupils' views about the teaching and learning of Mandarin Chinese.
Qualitative and quantitative data analyses revealed a range of factors that may
contribute to the promotion of Mandarin Chinese in schools in England, for example,
the impact on the global context; the schools' needs and pupils' professional
development requirements. There are two teaching goals identified in this research:
GCSE Chinese examinations and Asset Languages test. Teachers employed different
teaching methods to meet various requirements for different teaching aims. The
findings revealed several problems and challenges existing in current teaching and
learning, such as school funding; teachers' professional training; a shortage of
suitable instructional materials; administrative infrastructures; and progression and
continuity amongst others. Pupils' feedback regarding their learning experiences
showed that pupils had a positive attitude towards learning Mandarin Chinese;
however, their motivation was affected by their teachers' teaching methods and
attitudes towards teaching Mandarin Chinese.
This is not a not a comparative study, however, through different data gathered from
GCSE and non-GCSE classes, the author commented on the differences in teachers
and pupils' experiences and opinions about teaching and learning Mandarin Chinese,
as well as exploring their perceptions and reactions by investigating their experience
of participating in and reflecting on this research.


Supraglacial lakes play an important role in establishing hydrological connections that allow lubricating seasonal meltwater to reach the base of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Here we use new surface velocity observations to examine the influence of supraglacial lake drainages and surface melt rate on ice flow. We find large, spatially extensive speedups concurrent with times of lake drainage, showing that lakes play a key role in modulating regional ice flow. While surface meltwater is supplied to the bed via a geographically sparse network of moulins, the observed ice-flow enhancement suggests that this meltwater spreads widely over the ice-sheet bed. We also find that the complex spatial pattern of speedup is strongly determined by the combined influence of bed and surface topography on subglacial water flow. Thus, modeling of ice-sheet basal hydrology likely will require knowledge of bed topography resolved at scales (sub-kilometer) far finer than existing data (several km).


St. George's Bay lies south of Port au Port Peninsula on the west coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The Carboniferous Bay St. George subbasin extends beneath the bay and onshore to the southeast. The subbasin is an extension of the Magdalen Basin, a Carboniferous basin with probable resource potential, part of the broader Maritimes Basin. The onshore geology of the subbasin is relatively well understood. Marine datasets from the less well known offshore portion include high-resolution bathymetry, aeromagnetic data, shallow and industry wells, and both shallow and deeper (conventional) two-dimensional seismic data. Quaternary features were previously documented in inner St. George's Bay where the surficial cover is thick. In the outer part of the bay, bedrock ridges are draped by iceberg-turbated glaciomarine mud and moraines. Beneath this cover, reinterpreted palynological analyses in the A-36 well reflect only Visean Codroy Group. The uppermost Codroy Group of this well may correlate with nearby red sandstones from shallow marine bedrock drill cores; however, younger Carboniferous rocks may also be present. Reflectors mapped using conventional seismic data mark the base Codroy Group and the top of a salt unit in the Codroy Group. Salt-cored anticlines and synclines are associated with halokinesis, and with a fault system with both dip-slip and dextral-slip components. Multibeam bathymetry and the second vertical derivative of the magnetic field delineate the folds as curvilinear, en echelon, and, in some cases, doubly plunging. Beneath the subbasin, seismic and aeromagnetic data indicate Proterozoic basement blocks and an offshore extension of the early Paleozoic Romaines Brook Fault. The Carboniferous structures suggest an environment of dextral transtension that reactivated early Paleozoic structures aligned with pre-existing weaknesses in basement.


Loss of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) function reduces chloride secretion and increases sodium uptake, but it is not clear why CFTR mutation also results in progressive lung inflammation and infection. We previously demonstrated that CFTR-silenced airway cells migrate more slowly during wound repair than CFTR-expressing controls. In addition, CFTR-deficient cells and mouse models have been reported to have altered sphingolipid levels. Here, we investigated the hypothesis that reduced migration in CFTR-deficient airway epithelial cells results from altered sphingolipid composition. We used cell lines derived from a human airway epithelial cell line (Calu-3) stably transfected with CFTR short hairpin RNA (CFTR-silenced) or nontargeting short hairpin RNA (controls). Cell migration was measured by electric cell substrate impedance sensing (ECIS). Lipid analyses, addition of exogenous glycosphingolipids, and immunoblotting were performed. We found that levels of the glycosphingolipid, GM1 ganglioside, were ~60% lower in CFTR-silenced cells than in controls. CFTR-silenced cells exhibited reduced levels of activated β1-integrin, phosphorylated tyrosine 576 of focal adhesion kinase (pFAK), and phosphorylation of Crk-associated substrate (pCAS). Addition of GM1 (but not GM3) ganglioside to CFTR-silenced cells restored activated β1-integrin, pFAK, and pCAS to near control levels and partially restored (~40%) cell migration. Our results suggest that decreased GM1 in CFTR-silenced cells depresses β1-integrin signaling, which contributes to the delayed wound repair observed in these cells. These findings have implications for the pathology of cystic fibrosis, where altered sphingolipid levels in airway epithelial cells could result in a diminished capacity for wound repair after injury.


For many years the primary function of the Research Committee of the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Minerologists was to organize a symposium concerned with the most pertinent problems in sedimentary geology. This year (1955) the main theme centered on the characteristics of near shore deposition, particularly aimed toward recognition of ancient shorelines. The chairman that year was Dr. Henry W. Menard of the Navy Electronics Laboratory. Committee members selected the topic for the symposium, aided in selection of the speakers, and often participated in the program. The plan was to ask each speaker to present his paper in twenty minutes. Following the formal presentation a discussant, who has had opportunity to examine certain parts of the paper, was asked to comment. This approach led to some lively and focussed comments which benefited the entire presentation and is very interesting to read in that context. Papers included: Continental terrace sediments in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, Sediments of the eastern Mississippi Delta, Sandless coastal terrain of the Atchafalaya Bay area, Louisiana, Sediment zones bordering the barrier islands of central Texas coast, Dynamic geology of the modern coastal region, northwest Gulf of Mexico, Particle size distribution in nearshore sediments


ABTRACT—Coelophysis bauri is a small theropod dinosaur from the Late Triassic of the southwestern United States. The Whitaker (= Ghost Ranch) quarry, which preserves hundreds to perhaps thousands of individuals, has led to many hypotheses about its behavior and feeding strategies. The beam theory allows for a quantitative approach to reconstruction of the feeding mechanism of Coelophysis. The Coelophysis mandible behaves as a simple lever, similar to that of Varanus komodoensis, and thus is more inclined to produce slashing bites. The middentary region of the Coelophysis mandible has the greatest labiolingual strength, suggesting that this would have been the region most important to live prey capture. Comparisons of the juvenile and adult specimens of Coelophysis bauri show remarkable similarities in the relative mandibular strengths, suggesting juveniles would have been apt predators. Further study of the biomechanics of theropod dinosaurs such as Coelophysis bauri may lead to a better understanding of how they lived and behaved.


This study compared the efficacy of antibiotic impregnated beads with conventional intravenous antibiotics in the treatment of open fractures. A randomized prospective study was designed and conducted during a 29-month period. Sixty-seven patients with 75 open fractures were treated similarly, with the exception of the method of antibiotic administration, and were followed up for at least 1 year after injury. Infection occurred in two of 24 (8.3%) fractures treated with antibiotic beads alone and in two of 38 (5.3%) fractures treated with conventional intravenous antibiotics. In an unanticipated nonrandomized third cohort group, patients received antibiotic beads and intravenous antibiotics administered for nonorthopaedic reasons or limb threatening injury, or both. Two of 13 (15.4%) fractures in this high risk group became infected. Infection ultimately resolved in all fractures treated with antibiotic beads alone or antibiotic beads in conjunction with conventional intravenous antibiotics. This study was unable to achieve statistical significance; however, the data suggest antibiotic beads may be useful in preventing infection in open fractures. Thus, a larger multicenter randomized prospective study of isolated open fractures, eliminating other variables, is justified.


Further evidence of the anticancer effects of aspirin have emerged from a series of new meta-analyses reporting that an aspirin a day reduces deaths from cancer (odds ratio 0.85, 95% CI 0.76 to 0.96) and the incidence of cancer (0.76, 0.66 to 0.88), and can even help prevent the spread of existing adenocarcinomas (hazard ratio for subsequent metastasis 0.45, 0.28 to 0.72). The evidence looked strongest for colorectal cancer but extended to a range of other types, including other gastrointestinal cancers and breast cancer. The new analyses strengthened previously weak evidence for an anticancer effect in women. The authors began with 51 randomised trials of daily aspirin at any dose for the primary or secondary prevention of vascular disease. A reduction in cancer deaths emerged after five years of treatment, a reduction in incidence emerged after three. Aspirin was associated with more serious bleeds than the control treatments, but only during the first three years. Bleeding risk seemed to fall away after that, and so did the vascular benefits, leaving just aspirin's beneficial effects on cancer risk. In one analysis, major extracranial bleeds looked less lethal among adults taking aspirin than among controls (case fatality 8/203 v 15/132, odds ratio 0.32, 0.12 to 0.83). Should we all be taking an aspirin a day to protect ourselves from cancer? It's still too early for that, says a linked commentary (doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61654-1). These analyses, though impressive, were confined to trials of daily aspirin and had to exclude two of the biggest—the Women's Health Study and the Physicians Health Study—because they tested an aspirin every other day instead. Neither of these trials reported a lower risk of cancer or cancer death among participants taking aspirin.


This work describes art patronage in 16th-century Italy. For example, it was the time when Julius II and Bramante embarked upon rebuilding St Peter's; Paul III commissioned Michelangelo to paint the "Last Judgement"; and Sixtus V and Domenico Fontana transformed the urban fabric of Rome. Other great projects included Borromeo and Pellegrino Tibaldi introducing the ideals of the Counter-Reformation in an ambitious programme of religious architecture in Milan; the centre of Venice being dramatically remodelled by the city's government and Jacopo Sansovino; wealthy Venetian patricians building beautiful villas in the Veneto from designs by Pallado, and commissioning their altarpieces and portraits from artists of the calibre of Titian and Tintoretto. At the same time, Giulio Romano built and decorated the Palazzo del Te for Federigo Gonzaga and, perhaps in the most famous partnership of all, Vasari gave visual expression to Cosimo I's ambition in an enormous programme of building and embellishment that established Florence as a centre of artistic excellence. The book is not only concerned with the famous: it also includes less well-known patrons - the guilds and confraternities that were such an important feature of urban life in the Renaissance, the women whose Christian piety lay behind the decoration of many chapels in Rome and Venice, the wealthy bankers and traders who prospered in every Italian city and the new religious orders who zealously promoted Church reform in their churches, altarpieces and fresco cycles. Her, Dr Hollingworth also examines how the patrons acquired their wealth, and how they spent it, why they invested in so much art and what factors governed their choice of themes and styles. She also discusses what process of design and construction and the complex relationships between artist, patrons, agents and advisers. Above all, she explores the impact of political and religious change on the development of 16th-century art and demonstrates the extent to which patrons controlled the final appearance of their projects.


Exposure diversity is a relatively new and as yet to be explicitly formulated objective of contemporary media policy. While it holds certain potential — in particular in the messy digital space characterized by abundance and exponentially increased user choices — it comes with certain risks too. The role of public service media in ensuring exposure diversity is an underexplored yet important topic of media policy and law. This article introduces the special section on public service media and exposure diversity in the International Journal of Communication and outlines the key motivation behind it. It briefly presents the main contributions and a summary of their arguments, as well as the red line that holds them together.


The developing spinal cord follows morphogenic gradients that emanate from the floor plate and notochord. One of the signals is Sonic hedgehog (Shh). Shh does more than direct morphogenesis because it is also required for survival of the neuroepithelium. Thibert et al. (see the Perspective by Guerrero and Ruiz i Altaba) show that the receptor for Shh, known as Patched, stimulates apoptotic cell death in the absence of Shh. Thus, refinement of spinal cord architecture results from a balance of morphogenic and apoptotic signals negotiated through signaling by Shh and its receptor Patched. C. Thibert, M.-A. Teillet, F. Lapointe, L. Mazelin, N. M. Le Douarin, P. Mehlen, Inhibition of neuroepithelial Patched-induced apoptosis by Sonic hedgehog. Science 301, 843-846 (2003). [Abstract] [Full Text] I. Guerrero, A. Ruiz i Altaba, Longing for ligand: Hedgehog, patched, and cell death. Science 301, 774-776 (2003) [Summary] [Full Text]


Abstract Alcohol consumption in post-communist Kazakhstan remains at high levels and episodic heavy drinking, characteristic of the spirits-drinking regions of the former USSR, is still the national drinking style. Reported levels of alcohol-related harm are rising but assessment of trends in levels of consumption and harm is hindered by the disruption to data collection in the post-independence period and the continuing poor availability of public information. There is evidence however that changes in the republic's ethnic profile are connected with a downward trend in overall consumption rates, though changes in lifestyles may be leading to more drinking amongst women and young people. The numbers undergoing treatment for alcohol problems are greater than ever before. Alcohol problems are still perceived as entrenched and non-urgent, but in the present climate of greater stability and prosperity they are beginning to attract more attention from government. Underlying policy trends will depend on the overall direction of Kazakhstan's political and cultural development. This article assesses drinking patterns and related problems in Kazakhstan, and examines government responses and policies. The article is based on documentary research, visits to organisations and interviews.


Qualitative researchers have long used ethnographic methods to make sense of complex human activities and experiences. Their blessing is that through them, researchers can collect a wealth of raw data. Their challenge is that they require the researcher to find patterns and organize the various themes and concepts that emerge during the analysis stage into a coherent narrative that a reader can follow. In this article, the authors introduce a technology-enhanced data collection and analysis method based on clipped audio files. They suggest not only that the use of appropriate software and hardware can help in this process but, in fact, that their use can honor the participants' voices, retaining the original three-dimensional recording well past the data collection stage.


The Arabian Nights and Orientalism in Resonance was especially commissioned to celebrate the tercentenary of the first Western edition of The Arabian Nights. This volume marries Western and Japanese perspectives on The Arabian Nights to provide a fascinating study of how this literary phenomenon brought about a unique and rich cross-cultural fertilization. The volume is divided into three sections: the first part deals with narrative motifs and styles; the second part examines the 'Nights' from a comparative point of view and the third part unfolds the relationship between the written text and its pictorial representation. Extensively illustrated throughout, The Arabian Nights and Orientalism in Resonance will be of interest to scholars of the Middle East as well as anyone who has ever fallen under the spell of Scheherazade's stories.


The Oslo agreements proposed a two-state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict: a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza existing alongside Israel. However, the refugees' right of return and claims to land and property expropriated by Israel during the 1948 were removed from the equation, although they represent the core issues in the conflict. Based on the territorial divisions that preceded the 1967 war, or the 'green line', the agreements implicitly rendered the 1948 war and its consequences for the majority of the Palestinian population a non-negotiable historical reality. In a manner of speaking, the crowning of the 'state' (PA) dethroned the nation. In this paper, I review these processes in which refugees have been dismissed, and relegated as relics of an unredeemable past and not as subjects of history in the past-present and whose participation is fundamental in seeking a resolution to the conflict. Based on anthropological research in the region, I argue that, despite the passage of time, refugees continue to hold on to their rights and dream of return, albeit reshaped by the contingencies of exile. I conclude by suggesting that the Israeli state and society must take political, legal and practical responsibility for the refugee problem. This implies that the right of return, decolonization and de-Zionization are inseparable processes.


Quasi-Bayesian inference, in which we can use an objective function such as generalized method of moments (GMM), M-estimators, or empirical likelihoods instead of log-likelihood functions, has been studied in Bayesian statistics.However, existing quasi-Bayesian estimation methods do not incorporate Bayesian semiparametric modeling such as Dirichlet process mixtures. In this study, we propose a semiparametric quasi-Bayesian inference with Dirichlet process priors based on the method proposed by Hoshino and Igari (2017) and Igari and Hoshino (2017), which divide the objective function into likelihood function and objective function of GMM.In the proposed method, auxiliary information such as population information can be incorporated in a GMM-type function,whereas the likelihood function is expressed as infinite mixtures.In the resulting Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm, the GMM-type objective function is considered in the Metropolis Hastings algorithm in the blocked Gibbs sampler. For illustrative purposes, we apply the proposed estimation method to the missing data analysis with nonignorable responses, in which the missingness depends on the dependent variable.We show the performance of our model using a simulation study.


Abstract. A novel automated enclosure for protecting solar-tracking atmospheric instruments was designed, constructed, and successfully tested under various weather conditions. A complete automated measurement system, consisting of a compact solar-tracking Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer (EM27/SUN) and the enclosure, has been deployed in central Munich to monitor greenhouse gases since 2016 and withstood all critical weather conditions, including rain, storms, and snow. It provided ground-based measurements of column-averaged concentrations of CO2, CH4, O2, and H2O throughout this time. The enclosure protects the instrument from harmful environmental influences while allowing open-path measurements in sunny weather. The newly developed and patented cover, a key component of the enclosure, permits unblocked solar measurements while reliably protecting the instrument. This enables dynamic decision regarding taking measurements, and thus increases the number of data samples. This enclosure leads to a fully automated measurement system, which collects data whenever possible without any human interaction. In the long term, the enclosure will provide the foundation for a permanent greenhouse gas monitoring sensor network.


Fossils are the only remaining evidence of the majority of species that have ever existed, providing a direct window into events in evolutionary history that shaped the diversification of life on Earth. Phylogenies underpin our ability to make sense of evolution but are routinely inferred only from data available from living organisms. Although extinct taxa have been shown to add crucial information for inferring macroevolutionary patterns and processes including ancestral states, paleobiogeography and diversification dynamics, the role that fossils play in inferring the tree of life itself is controversial. Since the early years of phylogenetic systematics, different studies have dismissed the impact of fossils due to their incompleteness, championed their ability to overturn phylogenetic hypotheses or concluded that their behavior is indistinguishable from that of extant taxa. Here we show paleontological data has a remarkable effect in phylogenetic inference. Fossils often have higher levels of topological influence than extant taxa, while inducing unique topological rearrangements. Previous studies have proposed a suite of explanations for the topological behavior of fossils, such as their retention of unique morphologies or their ability to break long branches. We develop predictive models that demonstrate that the possession of distinctive character state combinations is the primary predictor of the degree of induced topological change, and that the relative impact of taxa (fossil and extant) can be predicted to some extent before any analysis. Our results bolster the consensus of recent empirical studies by showing the unique role of paleontological data in phylogenetic inference, and provide the first quantitative assessment of its determinants, with broad consequences for the design of taxon sampling in both morphological and total-evidence analyses.


The purpose of this research project is to develop a nutraceutical, chocolate based confectionary product which will provide benefits other than that of traditional chocolate. We felt like there is a need to produce some innovative confection other than traditional chocolates. The nutraceutical chocolate bar which we have manufactured is more nutritious and healthy due to its rare ingredients which also makes it a unique nutraceutical chocolate bar. The raw materials required for the preparation of this bar like moringa and quinoa along with fruits like kiwi, pineapple, apricots and nuts like almonds, cashew nuts, peanuts and desiccated coconut are procured from market. For the standardization of formulation, 4 test samples were prepared of different proportions of raw materials, among which the T4 was selected by sensory panelist based on organoleptic evaluation. The bar is further packed into the aluminum foil wrappers. The approximate nutritional values obtained by analysis are particularly as, Protein 5.19 gm, Fat 29.15 gm, Carbohydrate 37.28 gm Fiber 22.8 gm. The storage conditions are studied at variable temperature conditions and recommended to be as below 200C in cool, dark and dry place. The well packed bars were studies for the duration of 3 month to determine its shelf life.


Free-ranging koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) were monitored by means of radio-relocation in the area of Blair Athol Coal Mine and surrounding properties. Daytime tree use, home range and diet of these koalas was determined in spring and autumn, as was the leaf moisture composition of potential fodder species. Koalas used on average 93 (male koalas) and 56 (female koalas) trees during the period of observation, occupying home ranges of 135 and 101 ha respectively. Mean sightings per tree were 1.19 for both males and females and home-range sizes were not significantly different between sexes or seasons. Koalas were observed returning to previously used daytime roosting trees infrequently (<12%). Although koalas were observed roosting in trees of the species that they ate, proportional species representation in the diet of these koalas during spring and autumn did not accurately reflect concurrent observations of their daytime tree-roosting behaviour. Koalas were observed to utilise non-fodder species for daytime roosting, and patterns of daytime tree use and diet selection varied between individuals inhabiting adjacent communities within the site. Leaf moisture of tree species represented in koala diets was greater in autumn than spring.


Endogenous retroviral sequences provide a molecular fossil record of ancient infections whose analysis might illuminate mechanisms of viral extinction. A close relative of gammaretroviruses, HERV-T, circulated in primates for ~25 million years (MY) before apparent extinction within the past ~8 MY. Construction of a near-complete catalog of HERV-T fossils in primate genomes allowed us to estimate a ~32 MY old ancestral sequence and reconstruct a functional envelope protein (ancHTenv) that could support infection of a pseudotyped modern gammaretrovirus. Using ancHTenv, we identify monocarboxylate transporter-1 (MCT-1) as a receptor used by HERV-T for attachment and infection. A single HERV-T provirus in hominid genomes includes an env gene (hsaHTenv) that has been uniquely preserved. This apparently exapted HERV-T env could not support virion infection but could block ancHTenv mediated infection, by causing MCT-1 depletion from cell surfaces. Thus, hsaHTenv may have contributed to HERV-T extinction, and could also potentially regulate cellular metabolism. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.22519.001


This conceptual paper suggests how politeness theory by P. Brown and S. Levinson (1987) - well known in anthropological and linguistic literatures -can contribute to the study of role relations in computer-mediated communication. Politeness, phrasing things so as to show respect and esteem for the face of others, occurs throughout social interchange. The paper reviews politeness theory and enumerates specific linguistic indices of politeness. It then discusses how recognition of the central role of face-work in social interchange can enhance understanding of why and where emotion-work might occur in CMC, how such emotion-work (in the form of politeness) can be reliably observed and quantitatively measured at a linguistic level of analysis, and how the distribution of politeness phenomena is systematically related to variables of interest in CMC research - such as status, cohesion, impersonality, friendship, and communicative efficiency.


In this paper, we evaluate adaptive sound localization algorithms for robotic heads. To this end we built a 3 degree-of-freedom head with two microphones encased in artificial pinnae (outer ears). The geometry of the head and pinnae induce temporal differences in the sound recorded at each microphone. These differences change with the frequency of the sound, location of the sound, and orientation of the robot in a complex manner. To learn the relationship between these auditory differences and the location of a sound source, we applied machine learning methods to a database of different audio source locations and robot head orientations. Our approach achieves a mean error of 2.5 degrees for azimuth and 11 degrees for elevation for estimating the position of an audio source. The impressive results highlight the benefits of a two-stage regression model to make use of the properties of the artificial pinnae for elevation estimation. In this work, the algorithms were trained using ground truth data provided by a motion capture system. We are currently generalizing the approach so that the training signal is provided online based on a real-time face detection and speech detection system.


The ground pearl, Eurhizococcus brasiliensis (Wille) (Hemiptera: Margarodidae), is the most important grapevine pest in Brazil. Its seasonal occurrence and distribution on the roots of the different development stages were determined to allow better monitoring of this insect and better targeting of its vulnerable life stages. Yellow cysts (after the first nymphal moult) showed the lowest density in October, followed by a gradual increase towards August. White cysts (cysts with enclosed pre-pupal males or females) occurred from August to December, with a peak in November. Mobile females (adult females emerging from the white cysts) were found from August to December, with a peak in August. Parthenogenetic females that remain in the ruptured white cysts for egg laying were present from August to April, with a peak in November. Mobile nymphs (first instar) were also found from August to April, with a peak in December. Yellow cysts were most abundant at depths of 0 to 25 cm. The horizontal survey showed that cysts occurred mostly on the trunk below the ground (trunk of the rootstock), and that almost all occurred in an area of 20 cm width around the trunk. These results provide important information for better monitoring of this pest and to develop better methods for and timing of chemical control.


Abstract. Gel particles such as the polysaccharidic transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) and the proteinaceous Coomassie stainable particles (CSP) play an important role in marine biogeochemical and ecological processes like particle aggregation and export, or microbial nutrition and growth. So far, effects of nutrient availability or of changes in nutrient ratios on gel particle production and fate are not well understood. The tropical ocean includes large oxygen minimum zones, where nitrogen losses due to anaerobic microbial activity result in a lower supply of nitrate relative to phosphate to the euphotic zone. Here, we report of two series of mesocosm experiments that were conducted with natural plankton communities collected from the eastern tropical North Atlantic (ETNA) close to Cape Verde in October 2012. The experiments were performed to investigate how different phosphate (experiment 1, Varied P: 0.15–1.58 μmol L−1) or nitrate (experiment 2, Varied N: 1.9–21.9 μmol L−1) concentrations affect the abundance and size distribution of TEP and CSP. In the days until the bloom peak was reached, a positive correlation between gel particle abundance and Chl a concentration was determined, linking the release of dissolved gel precursors and the subsequent formation of gel particles to autotrophic production. After the bloom peak, gel particle abundance remained stable or even increased, implying a continued partitioning of dissolved into particulate organic matter after biomass production itself ceased. During both experiments, differences between TEP and CSP dynamics were observed; TEP were generally more abundant than CSP. Changes in size distribution indicated aggregation of TEP after the bloom, while newly formed CSP decomposed. Abundance of gel particles clearly increased with nitrate concentration during the second experiment, suggesting that changes in [DIN] : [DIP] ratios can affect gel particle formation with potential consequences for carbon and nitrogen cycling as well as food web dynamics in tropical ecosystems.


The use of the technique of Fourier transform spectroscopy for the measurement of Raman scattering has recently been demonstrated; it was shown to be a viable method despite the absence of many of the advantages the FT measurement procedure has for infrared absorption spectra. Comparisons of the relative advantages of interferometry vs. dispersive spectroscopy for observing Raman spectra have been given previously. In our preliminary attempts to implement this technique on a Bomem DA3-02 spectrometer, several results were obtained which may be of interest to others contemplating such a step. In particular, we investigated the relative advantages of a photomultiplier and a silicon avalanche photodiode for detection of Raman spectra excited in two different spectral regions.


The centuries surrounding 2200 B.C.E. (the year commonly used to mark the transition between the second and third phases of the Early Bronze Age) were transformative times in the Aegean. At some locations, development continued and accelerated; in many places, however, several societal characteristics and supraregional traits seem to have been abandoned. Life continued through these changes, but it appears to have been altered and simplified. In this review of previous research on the period, the geographic focus is on the northeastern Peloponnese, and the interpretative focus is on the human dimension behind the events. This case study explores the framework of resilience theory—and the new questions it stimulates—to form a better understanding of the actual composition of the changes and their complexity. For archaeology, a focus on resilience could be a focus on human creativity in dealing with life through continually changing circumstances. We argue, therefore, that resilience theory offers a compelling way to map and understand the cultural change documented in the archaeological record of the Mediterranean.


Abstract. Since the 1980s several spaceborne sensors have been used to retrieve the aerosol optical depth (AOD) over the Mediterranean region. In parallel, AOD climatologies coming from different numerical model simulations are now also available, permitting to distinguish the contribution of several aerosol types to the total AOD. In this work, we perform a comparative analysis of this unique multi-year database in terms of total AOD and of its apportionment by the five main aerosol types (soil dust, sea-salt, sulfate, black and organic carbon). We use 9 different satellite-derived monthly AOD products: NOAA/AVHRR, SeaWiFS (2 products), TERRA/MISR, TERRA/MODIS, AQUA/MODIS, ENVISAT/MERIS, PARASOL/POLDER and MSG/SEVIRI, as well as 3 more historical datasets: NIMBUS7/CZCS, TOMS (onboard NIMBUS7 and Earth-Probe) and METEOSAT/MVIRI. Monthly model datasets include the aerosol climatology from Tegen et al. (1997), the climate-chemistry models LMDz-OR-INCA and RegCM-4, the multi-model mean coming from the ACCMIP exercise, and the reanalyses GEMS and MACC. Ground-based Level-2 AERONET AOD observations from 47 stations around the basin are used here to evaluate the model and satellite data. The sensor MODIS (on AQUA and TERRA) has the best average AOD scores over this region, showing a relevant spatio-temporal variability and highlighting high dust loads over Northern Africa and the sea (spring and summer), and sulfate aerosols over continental Europe (summer). The comparison also shows limitations of certain datasets (especially MERIS and SeaWiFS standard products). Models reproduce the main patterns of the AOD variability over the basin. The MACC reanalysis is the closest to AERONET data, but appears to underestimate dust over Northern Africa, where RegCM-4 is found closer to MODIS thanks to its interactive scheme for dust emissions. The vertical dimension is also investigated using the CALIOP instrument. This study confirms differences of vertical distribution between dust aerosols showing a large vertical spread, and other continental and marine aerosols which are confined in the boundary layer. From this compilation, we propose a 4-D blended product from model and satellite data, consisting in monthly time series of 3-D aerosol distribution at a 50 km horizontal resolution over the Euro-Mediterranean marine and continental region for the 2003–2009 period. The product is based on the total AOD from AQUA/MODIS, apportioned into sulfates, black and organic carbon from the MACC reanalysis, and into dust and sea-salt aerosols from RegCM-4 simulations, which are distributed vertically based on CALIOP climatology. We extend the 2003–2009 reconstruction to the past up to 1979 using the 2003–2009 average and applying the decreasing trend in sulfate aerosols from LMDz-OR-INCA, whose AOD trends over Europe and the Mediterranean are median among the ACCMIP models. Finally optical properties of the different aerosol types in this region are proposed from Mie calculations so that this reconstruction can be included in regional climate models for aerosol radiative forcing and aerosol-climate studies.


Abstract The study focuses on the offshore Guyana–Suriname–French Guiana region. It draws from seismic, well, gravimetric and magnetic data. They indicate that the continental break-up along the western margin of the Demerara Plateau took place during the Callovian–Oxfordian, associated with the Central Atlantic opening, and accommodated by normal faults. The continental break-up in the SE offshore Guyana accommodated by strike-slip faults was coeval. The continental break-up along the NE and eastern margins of the Demerara Plateau took place during the late Aptian–Albian, associated with the opening of the Equatorial Atlantic, and accommodated by dextral strike-slip and normal faults, respectively. Different spreading vectors of the Central and Equatorial Atlantic required development of the Accommodation Block during the late Aptian/Albian–Paleocene in their contact region, and in the region between the Central Atlantic and its southernmost portion represented by the Offshore Guyana Block, which were separated from each other by the opening Equatorial Atlantic. Its role was to accommodate for about 20° mismatch between the Central and Equatorial Atlantic spreading vectors, which has decreased from the late Aptian/Albian to Paleocene down to 0°. Differential movements between the Central and Equatorial Atlantic oceans were also accommodated by strike-slip faults of the Guyana continental margin, some active until the Paleocene. Supplementary material: Extended methods and discussion chapters are available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18875


Recent evidence suggests that HIV may be involved in a major incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) related both to HIV pro-inflammatory changes and to viral affection of haematological system. Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) have changed the treatment of VTE; however, co-administration with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) should be considered with caution, because of potential drug–drug interactions. We report 3 cases of HIV-infected patients successfully treated with edoxaban while on HAART. A 63-year-old man while on HAART with emtricitabine/rilpivirine (as hydrochloride)/tenofovir disoproxil for 10 years with undetectable HIV RNA started edoxaban for recurrent VTE on October 2018. The second case is a 62-year-old man who had been on HAART with emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil and raltegravir for 10 years. In November 2018, edoxaban was started for acute DVT. The third case is  a 60-year-old man who was diagnosed with HIV infection, pulmonary embolism and DVT in November 2018. He started HAART with emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil and dolutegravir and edoxaban. Edoxaban plasma levels were in the expected therapeutic range (10–39 ng/mL): 33 ng/mL for patient 1, 24 ng/mL for patient 2 and 10 ng/mL for patient 3. The patients did not report any haemorrhagic or thrombotic adverse events during the clinical follow-up and HIV RNA remained undetectable. Edoxaban is minimally metabolized by Cytochrome P450 3A4 (< 10%) and is transported via P-glycoprotein (P-gp). Our patients were on HAART with drugs that are metabolized predominantly by cytochrome P450 and that do not affect the P-gp pathways, co-administration was safe at the full dose.


In the substantial body of research on gender differences in the initiation of negotiation, the findings consistently favor men (Kugler et al., 2018). We propose that this research itself is gendered because negotiation research has traditionally focused on masculine negotiation contexts. In the current study, we replicate the gender effect in initiating negotiations (favoring men) and provide an empirically based selection of "masculine," "feminine," and "neutral" negotiation contexts, which can be used for future negotiation research. We show that the negotiation context shapes gender differences such that in specific social contexts, women tend to have even higher initiation intentions compared to men. Negotiation contexts generally seem to differ regarding their affordance to negotiate. We offer a possible explanation for gender effects on initiation intentions by uncovering the mediating role of expectancy considerations across all negotiation contexts, especially in masculine contexts, and instrumentality considerations in specific masculine and feminine contexts.


Design and modification of interfaces, always a critical issue for semiconductor devices, has become a primary tool to harness the full potential of halide perovskite (HaP)-based optoelectronics, including photovoltaics and light-emitting diodes. In particular, the outstanding improvements in HaP solar cell performance and stability can be primarily ascribed to a careful choice of the interfacial layout in the layer stack. In this review, we describe the unique challenges and opportunities of these approaches (section 1). For this purpose, we first elucidate the basic physical and chemical properties of the exposed HaP thin film and crystal surfaces, including topics such as surface termination, surface reactivity, and electronic structure (section 2). This is followed by discussing experimental results on the energetic alignment processes at the interfaces between the HaP and transport and buffer layers. This section includes understandings reached as well as commonly proposed and applied models, especially the often-questionable validity of vacuum level alignment, the importance of interface dipoles, and band bending as the result of interface formation (section 3). We follow this by elaborating on the impact of the interface formation on device performance, considering effects such as chemical reactions and surface passivation on interface energetics and stability. On the basis of these concepts, we propose a roadmap for the next steps in interfacial design for HaP semiconductors (section 4), emphasizing the importance of achieving control over the interface energetics and chemistry (i.e., reactivity) to allow predictive power for tailored interface optimization.


This work reports on the design and measured performance of a single-ended upconverter at Ka-band. The upconverler uses a 6.5x3[im2 GalnP/GaAs HBT as the nonlinear mixing element. The LO is injected into the emitter of the 1IBT, the IF is applied to the base, and the RF is extracted from the collector. This topology utilizes all three ports of the transistor and avoids the need for a diplexer or other method of combining or separating the signals. The IF, LO, and RF frequencies are 3.6 GHz, 26.5 GHz, and 30.1 GHz respectively. The measured conversion loss was less than 2dB at the center of the band while the third order intercept point was -2dBm. These results were obtained with an LO power of only -2dBm. The overall chip size is 3.7x2.5mm2.


Current work tests an ecological extension of Ellen's (2000a) neighborhood projection thesis which explains individual-level moving behavior in response to neighborhood racial composition. It posits that residents anticipate future erosions in local services and amenities based on current and expected future racial composition. The ecological extension tested here anticipates declines in relative neighborhood status and neighborhood residential stability where the population is more predominantly African American initially, or becomes more African American over a decade, or is initially surrounded by more predominantly African American neighborhoods. All three of these race effects have generated mixed results in earlier studies. Looking at a decade of change (1990 to 2000) for two mid-Atlantic central cities (Baltimore (MD) and Philadelphia (PA)), results in both cities confirmed that relative status was more likely to decline if adjoining neighborhoods were more predominantly African American initially, or if the neighborhood was becoming more predominantly African American during the period. The impacts of racial composition on stability changes were neither uniform across cities nor uniformly adverse. At least for neighborhood changes in status, results support the proposed extension of Ellen's model to the neighborhood level, and underscored the spatial externalities arising from nearby populations of color.


The thesis of this paper is that there is no historical precedent for Europe's monetary union (EMU). While it is possible to point to similar historical experiences, the most obvious of which were in the 19th century, occurred in Europe, and had "union" as part of their names, EMU differs from these earlier monetary unions. The closer one looks the more uncomfortable one becomes with the effort to draw parallels on the basis of historical experience. It is argued that efforts to draw parallels between EMU and monetary unions past are more likely to mislead than to offer useful insights. Where history is useful is not in drawing parallels but in pinpointing differences. It is useful for highlighting what is distinctive about EMU.


Cloud detection/screening is a fundamental step in satellite data analysis. For the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) and its successor ICESat-2, clouds can significantly affect the accuracy of the surface elevation retrievals. This paper proposes a new method for cloud screening in support of the ICESat-2 mission with focus on the polar ice sheet regions. The method utilizes the apparent surface reflectance (ASR) at the backscattering direction as the cloud screening test. The basis of this method is that clouds produce a strong signal by significantly decreasing the ASR. We show that depending on the height and microphysics of the cloud, the ASR decreases 8%-17% for clouds with an optical depth of 0.1 and 57%-85% for clouds with an optical depth 1.0. Data from ICESat's 1064-nm channel is used to demonstrate the feasibility of the method. It is shown that cloud detectability is a function of surface reflectance variability. Generally, the smaller the surface reflectance variability, the more accurate is cloud detection. Unlike ICESat, which used a 1064-nm laser, ICESat-2 adopts a 532-nm photon counting system for its laser altimeter. With both modeling studies and results from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), we demonstrate that the ASR variability is much smaller for the 532-nm channel than that for the 1064-nm channel. Hence, the 532-nm channel is better suited for cloud screening than the 1064-nm channel.