Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan. By Edmund Morris. (New York: Random House, 1999. Pp. xx, 874. $35.00) Well into The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (1979), Edmund Morris paused to appraise TR's early book about The Naval War of 1812: "Its merits are as simple as those of any serious piece of academic writing: clarity, accuracy, and completeness backed by massive documentation" (p. 154). Yet TR's approach failed to satisfy Morris, who said, "There is something almost inhuman about the young author's refusal to swashbuckle, taste the triumphs of victory and the pain of defeat, and dramatize character where well he might." (p. 154-155). That is, Roosevelt chose to be a historian rather than a novelist or a screenwriter. In Dutch, whose dust jacket boasts that the book is "the only biography ever authorized by a sitting president - yet written with complete interpretive freedom," Morris, a middle-aged author (b. 1940), invented a narrator, "Edmund Morris" (b. 1912, in Chicago), to follow Ronald Reagan around up to the 1980s, when the "authorized biographer," Edmund Morris, could take over. The resulting almost 900-page "Memoir of Ronald Reagan" is buttressed by several hundred acknowledgements ("co-contributors"), almost fifty archival collections, and one hundred fifty pages of notes. More than three dozen of these notes purport to document various fictional characters Morris scatters through his text. Dutch devotes about one hundred thirty pages to the Illinois and Iowa years, about two hundred to Hollywood and Reagan's pitchman work for General Electric, less than a hundred to California politics and the long road to the White House, and about two hundred fifty pages to his presidency. An Epilogue recounts Reagan's post-presidential years and his acknowledgment of Alzheimer's Disease. Dutch's subtitle explains much about this odd book, which might better be called, "My Life with Ronald Reagan." For it is the frustrated "authorized biographer's" failure to have something new to say about Reagan's personality that apparently drove Morris to the narrative strategies that have aroused such controversy since the book's publication in late 1999. These include unlikely chapters devoted to a literary review of Reagan's high school papers and unpublished college short stories, a dialogue with a Hollywood screenwriter, "Four Short Scenarios" crosscutting between Reagan's House Un-American Activities Committee testimony and the breakup of his marriage to actress Jane Wyman, an extended analysis of a 1958 Reagan speech to the California Fertilizer Association, and a montage of seemingly undigested excerpts from Morris's "author's notes" during 1987 and 1988. "Edmund Morris" makes his debut during Dutch's account of Reagan's Illinois upbringing, about which Gore Vidal once wrote, "This story has been told so much that it now makes no sense at all" [Vidal, United States (1993), p. 986]. Building on the detective work of others, and on his subject's two autobiographies, "Morris" casts a scornful eye on rural Illinois, dubbing Reagan's birthplace, Tampico, "then as now, a home for the homely" (p. 13), suggesting that such surroundings helped produce "the immense insularity of Dutch's personality" (p. 22). The author notes President Reagan's lack of interest in the details of his origins, then launches into the tale of "Edmund Morris" - sent off to an English prep school, afflicted with polio, returned to "a lakeside house in Ravinia," then taken to Grand Detour, IL, all so that he could be driven to Dixon and shown Lowell Park, site of the teen-age Reagan's exploits as a Rock River lifeguard. …


Finland is the nineth country in terms of per capita GNP and the eleventh in terms of per capita furniture spending at a world level. Finnish furniture industry is less oriented to exports than the European average. CSIL Market Research Finland Furniture Outlook analyzes through updated furniture statistics, useful indicators and through tables, graphs and maps the German furniture market. It is structured as follows: Overview of Furniture industry in Finland: executive summary and updated furniture statistics (value and trends of production, consumption, imports and exports), forecasts for the furniture industry in Finland for the coming years; Productive Factors (consumption and imports of wood-based panels, forest resources, imports of woodworking machinery); Furniture Production by segment (upholstered furniture, non-upholstered seats, bedroom furniture, kitchen furniture, furniture for dining and living rooms, office furniture, furniture parts); Demand Determinants (population, per capita GDP, households, disposable income, private final consumption expenditure, building permits and international tourism); Furniture Consumption by segment (upholstered furniture, non-upholstered seats, bedroom furniture, kitchen furniture, furniture for dining and living rooms, office furniture); Detailed tables of furniture imports and furniture exports of Finland by segment (upholstered furniture, non-upholstered seats, bedroom furniture, kitchen furniture, furniture for dining-living room, office furniture, parts of furniture, parts of seats) and by main countries and geographical area of origin/destination; Furniture Market potential in Finland (size of the market, performance, furniture consumer spending, market openness, import penetration); Top furniture companies . A list of top manufacturers and distributors operating in Finland are provided as well as international Furniture Fairs, Furniture Association and Professional Furniture magazines are also listed. CSIL Market Research Finland Furniture Outlook is part of the Country Furniture Outlook Series of reports (issued by CSIL since the 1990's), covering at present 70 countries. The report is carried out by CSIL experts that have been working for over 30 years in the field of furniture industry analysis.


The ability of different forms of aerobic exercise to reduce intraocular pressure (lOP) has been reported. This investigation studied the effects on lOP due to physical exercise on a short-term basis. Thirteen adult subjects enrolled in an aerobic dance class were measured once a week, before and after a one-hour exercise session, for lOP, systolic, and diastolic blood pressures. A second group consisted of five adults taking a relaxation therapy class. The same measurements were collected from these subjects. For both groups, measurements were obtained over five weeks. Results from two factor analysis of variance for each individual group showed no significant decrease in lOP or blood pressures at the p < .05 level. It was therefore concluded that neither short term exercise programs such as aerobic dancing nor relaxation therapy could alter lOP or blood pressures significantly under the conditions existent in this study.


Potato plays a very significant role in the agriculture economy. It is most important tuber crop in Chhattisgarh. The present study was conducted in Northern hills zone of Chhattisgarh. Two districts were selected and one block from each selected districts was selected. Further, clusters of villages from each selected block were selected and finally, a sample of 100 potato growers comprising 40 marginal, 32 small, 17 medium and 11 large farmers were selected with the help of probability proportion criteria from selected villages. Tabular analysis was used to achieve the objectives. The study revealed that the overall cost of potato cultivation was ` 47408.91/ha. The major cost component was labour cost. The cost of producing one quintal of potato was ` 625.56. It was also observed that cost of cultivation, cost of production, gross returns, net returns, yield and marketed surplus of potato was increasing with the increases in the size of holdings land. The gross returns and net returns from potato cultivation were found to be ̀ 92766.74 and ̀ 45357.83, respectively. The overall input-output ratio was 1:1.96. The overall yield of potato was 75.71 qtl./hectare. Out of this, 97.37 per cent was marketed surplus. Majority of potato was marketed through wholesaler followed by retailer, village trader and only about one per cent was marketed through consumer directly.


The various different occurrences of -er in the morphology of German (e.g. in agentive and instrumental nouns, in comparatives, iteratives and intensifiers) are generally treated as being homonymous. In other words, just as in the case of full lexemes (e.g. Kiefer(knochen) 'jaw bone' vs. Kiefer(baum) 'fir tree'), it is assumed that different suffixes exist and that it is merely coincidental that they have an identical phonetic realisation. As far back as Germanic, the source of this identity-of-form has been taken to lie in reduction of the final syllable, whereby the process of phonological reduction has created identical suffixes from ones that were previously formally distinct. Our aim is to illustrate that in the case of nominal -er forms, there is good reason not to attribute identity of form simply to the 'blind application' of phonological rules. On the one hand, there are various aspects of the historical development which simply cannot be accounted for by recourse to phonological rules. This will be made clear through analysis of historical grammars and related literature. On the other hand, those categories that are formed with -er share common grammatico-semantic features. This too is often hinted at in the historical grammars and may be corroborated by an analysis of the grammatical features involved. Our findings thus motivate the following claim: The emergence of identical forms is not coincidental. Rather, alongside phonological rules, the emergence of identical forms is driven by more global principles of structure-formation, in particular by the principle of 'one form = one function'. Instead of different -er suffixes, there is in fact just one suffix which symbolises the iterative feature structure common to the -er marked categories.


After more than a decade working with graphene there is still a preoccupying lack of commercial devices based on this wonder material. Here we report the use of high-quality solution-processed graphene sheets to fabricate ultra-sharp probes with superior performance. Nanoprobes are versatile tools used in many fields of science, but they can wear fast after some experiments, reducing the quality and increasing the cost of the research. As the market of nanoprobes is huge, providing a solution for this problem should be a priority for the nanotechnology industry. Our graphene-coated nanoprobes not only show enhanced lifetime, but also additional unique properties of graphene, such as hydrophobicity. Moreover, we have functionalized the surface of graphene to provide piezoelectric capability, and have fabricated a nano relay. The simplicity and low cost of this method, which can be used to coat any kind of sharp tip, make it suitable for the industry, allowing production on demand.


Olfaction: a Speechless Sense? - The Role of Literal and Figurative Language Olfaction is still the less investigated of the sensory modalities. This also reflects the fact that olfaction is the most subjective and emotional sensory modality and the one with the fewer relationships with verbal language. Since metaphors are cognitive bridges between perception and language, in principle they might be more effective in giving voice to olfaction, the "speechless sense". However, research in this fascinating field is still in its infancy, and the linguistic and psychological results are still scarce and contradicting. Key Words: Cross modal interactions, Language, Metaphor, Olfaction, Perception, Synaesthetic metaphors.


"Fintech" is a rapidly expanding segment of the financial market that is receiving much attention from investors and increasing regulatory scrutiny. While the attention is rising, very little is known about the performance of these lending sources on the outcomes of small businesses that make use of them. The Federal Reserve's 2015 Small Business Credit Survey has data on the experiences of business owners with this new funding source and can provide some useful insights into this expanding sector, if compositional differences among the businesses that get bank loans, those that get fintech loans, and those that are denied credit are accounted for. We apply an inverse-probability-weighted regression adjustment and inverse-probability weighting from the treatment effects literature to adjust for compositional difference. We find: (1) online borrowers have characteristics that make them very much like the businesses who were denied credit, (2) the results for online lenders are hard to distinguish from either receiving no financing or receiving a bank loan, and (3) bank borrowers are more satisfied than online borrowers who are more satisfied than businesses who were denied credit. These results should inform the policy discussion on fintech and point to the need for clearer results on the effectiveness of online lenders to small businesses.

https://www.clevelandfed.org/~/media/content/newsroom and events/publications/working papers/2017/wp 1701 is fintech good for small business borrowers.pdf


Abstract. We conducted a comprehensive field campaign to explore the optical characteristics of mineral dust in Dunhuang farmland near the Gobi Desert of northwest China during spring of 2012. The day-to-day and diurnal variations of dust aerosol showed prominent features throughout the experiment, primarily attributable to frequent dust events and local anthropogenic emissions. The overall average mass concentrations of the particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 10 µm (PM10), light scattering coefficient (σsp, 670), absorption coefficient (σap, 670), and single-scattering albedo (SSA670) were 113 ± 169 µg m−3, 53.3 ± 74.8 Mm−1, 3.2 ± 2.4 Mm−1, and 0.913 ± 0.05, respectively, which were comparable to the background levels in the southern United States but smaller than those in the eastern and other northwestern Chinese cities. The anthropogenic dust produced by agricultural cultivations (e.g., land planning, plowing, and disking) exerted a significant superimposed effect on high dust concentrations in Dunhuang farmland prior to the growing season (i.e., from 1 April to 10 May). Strong south valley wind and vertical mixing in daytime scavenged the pollution, and the weak northeast mountain wind and stable inversion layer at night favorably accumulated the air pollutants near the surface. In the afternoon (13:00–18:00 LT, local time), mean SSA670 was 0.945 ± 0.04 predominantly from dust particles, whereas finer particles and lower SSA670 values ( ∼  0.90–0.92) were measured at night, suggesting the potential influence by the mixed dust pollutants. During a typical biomass burning event on 4 April 2012, σap, 670 increased from  ∼  2.0 to 4.75 Mm−1 and SSA670 changed from  ∼  0.90 to  ∼  0.83, implying remarkable modification of aerosol absorptive properties induced by human activities. The findings of this study would help to advance an in-depth understanding of the interaction among dust aerosol, atmospheric chemistry, and climate change in a desert source region.


Fluorescent emitters in diamond are considered to be a valuable resource for fields such as quantum communication, quantum photonics, and biological imaging. In this paper, we report a wide range of narrow bandwidth ( ~ 1.5 nm) spectral emission lines arising from different color centers at room temperature. The defects were created by chemical vapor deposition of thin diamond films grown on silica substrates seeded with nanoparticles of diamond and nickel. These fluorescent lines also possess single or few centers photon statistics. We correlate the zero-phonon lines, observed using confocal microscopy, with previously identified nickel-related centers which have been observed in high-pressure high-temperature diamond, with a Si/Ni complex and silicon vacancy defects. We compare our findings with recent results demonstrating single-photon emission in diamond associated with nickel-related centers to clarify and summarize previous studies concerning this specific dopant. The great variety of emission lines observed in the synthesized material, mainly associated with nickel-related centers, could be an important resource for applications relying on the presence of several emitters of single photons in the same sample. Moreover, the possibility of mass production of these centers in nanodiamonds in colloidal suspension may provide an important resource for biomarking and microscopy.


This paper discusses the features of using a small tool to shape the working surfaces of compact disk-shaped active elements. The results of measuring the fine-structure error are presented. An algorithm is presented for numerically modelling the wave-front distortions of a beam transmitted through an arbitrary number of elements that contain fine-structure error, along with the results of the modelling.


This study assessed the water quality of the Elm Fork Watershed with regards to the herbicide Atrazine. Atrazine is a potential environmental endocrine disruptor and carcinogen. Overall, concentrations were lower than the four-quarter drinking water average of 3 µg/Lthe Maximum Contaminant Level set by the USEPA. However, three creek stations had four-quarter average concentrations greater than 3 µg/L, and virtually all samples exceeded the 0.1 µg/L standard set in Europe [1,2]. Statistically significant differences in concentrations were detected between the 27 sampling stations and areas of high concentrations were identified. However correlations between Atrazine concentrations and land-use and precipitation were not statistically significant. Further analysis with more detailed data should be conducted before any relationships are discarded.


Background neuropeptide S (NPS) and its receptor NPSR1 act along the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis to modulate anxiety, fear responses, nociception and inflammation. The importance of the NPS-NPSR1 signaling pathway is highlighted by the observation that, in humans, NPSR1 polymorphism associates with asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, panic disorders, and intermediate phenotypes of functional gastrointestinal disorders. Because of the genetic complexity at the NPSR1 locus, however, true causative variations remain to be identified, together with their specific effects on receptor expression or function. To gain insight into the mechanisms leading to NPSR1 disease-predisposing effects, we performed a thorough functional characterization of all NPSR1 promoter and coding SNPs commonly occurring in Caucasians (minor allele frequency >0.02). Principal Findings we identified one promoter SNP (rs2530547 [−103]) that significantly affects luciferase expression in gene reporter assays and NPSR1 mRNA levels in human leukocytes. We also detected quantitative differences in NPS-induced genome-wide transcriptional profiles and CRE-dependent luciferase activities associated with three NPSR1 non-synonymous SNPs (rs324981 [Ile107Asn], rs34705969 [Cys197Phe], rs727162 [Arg241Ser]), with a coding variant exhibiting a loss-of-function phenotype (197Phe). Potential mechanistic explanations were sought with molecular modelling and bioinformatics, and a pilot study of 2230 IBD cases and controls provided initial support to the hypothesis that different cis-combinations of these functional SNPs variably affect disease risk. Significance these findings represent a first step to decipher NPSR1 locus complexity and its impact on several human conditions NPS antagonists have been recently described, and our results are of potential pharmacogenetic relevance.


Fluorescent properties of indocyanine green (ICG) for hepatic tumor identification and features have been recently studied. The aim is to review the published data on the use of ICG enhanced fluorescence surgery during liver resection. A systematic search of literature was performed using MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane and Web of Science libraries. For all eligible studies, the following data were extracted: study design, number of cases, management of indocyanine green (dose, time and method of administration), type of surgery, outcome variables, false positive and accuracy value, if reported. For statistical analysis, it was considered significant P<0.05, when published. 19 articles were fully analyzed and data were extracted. A total of 718 cases were globally analyzed as study group. No side effects of ICG were reported in any articles. 12 prospective observational, 1 randomized and 2 case-control studies were found. Three case reports and one experimental on animal model were also included. Detection of superficial lesions, segmental staining, biliary anatomy investigation (biliary leakage detection, biliary tree anatomy) were the main clinical application of fluorescence liver guided surgery. The overall quality of the data currently available is limited but the role of fluorescence guided liver surgery seems promising.


The degree to which ethnic differences in left ventricular structure among hypertensive adults are independent of clinical and hemodynamic factors remains uncertain. We assessed whether left ventricular mass and geometry differ between black and white hypertensives after accounting for differences in such factors. Our study group comprised 1060 black and 580 white hypertensive participants free of valvular or coronary disease in a population-based cohort. Blood pressure was measured during a clinic visit and echocardiography was performed using standardized protocols. After controlling for clinical and hemodynamic parameters (cardiac index, peripheral resistance index, and pulse pressure/ stroke index), both left ventricular mass and relative wall thickness were higher in blacks than whites (173.9±30.9 versus 168.3±24.3 grams, P =0.006, and 0.355±0.055 versus 0.340±0.055 grams, P <0.001). Similarly, the adjusted risk of having left ventricular hypertrophy, whether indexed by height2.7 or by body surface area, was greater for blacks than for whites (odds ratio: 1.80; 95% CI: 1.29 to 2.51; and odds ratio: 2.50; 95% CI: 1.58 to 3.96, respectively), and this was also true for concentric geometry (odds ratio: 2.28; 95% CI: 1.22 to 4.25). Further adjustment for relatedness in this genetic epidemiological study did not attenuate these differences. Our findings confirm the strong association between black ethnicity and increased left ventricular mass and relative wall thickness in hypertensive adults and demonstrate that these differences are independent of standard clinical and hemodynamic parameters. Whether such differences relate to distinct ambulatory pressure profiles or an ethnic propensity to cardiac hypertrophy requires further investigation.


Standard sparse representations, applied independently to a set of overlapping image blocks, are a very effective approach to a wide variety of image reconstruction problems. Convolutional sparse representations, which provide a single-valued representation optimised over an entire image, provide an alternative form of sparse representation that has recently started to attract interest for image reconstruction problems. The present paper provides some insight into the suitability of the convolutional form for this type of application by comparing its performance as an image model with that of the standard model in an impulse noise restoration problem.


Background: Racial disparities have been reported in breast cancer care, yet little is known about disparities in access to gene expression profiling (GEP) tests. Given the impact of GEP test results, such as those of Oncotype DX (ODx), on treatment decision-making for hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer, it is particularly important to assess disparities in its use. Methods: We conducted a retrospective population-based study of 8,784 patients diagnosed with breast cancer in Connecticut during 2011 through 2013. We assessed the association between race, ethnicity, and ODx receipt among women with HR+ breast cancer for whom NCCN does and does not recommend ODx testing, using bivariate and multivariate logistic analyses. Results: We identified 5,294 women who met study inclusion criteria: 83.8% were white, 6.3% black, and 7.4% Hispanic. Overall, 50.9% (n=4,131) of women in the guideline-recommended group received ODx testing compared with 18.5% (n=1,163) in the nonrecommended group. More white women received the ODx test compared with black and Hispanic women in the recommended and nonrecommended groups (51.4% vs 44.6% and 47.7%; and 21.2% vs 9.0% and 9.7%, respectively). After adjusting for tumor and clinical characteristics, we observed significantly lower ODx use among black (odds ratio [OR], 0.64; 95% CI, 0.47-0.88) and Hispanic women (OR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.45-0.77) compared with white women in the recommended group and in the guideline-discordant group (blacks: OR, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.20-0.78, and Hispanics: OR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.23-0.85). Conclusions: In this population-based study, we identified racial disparities in ODx testing. Disparities in access to innovative cancer care technologies may further exacerbate existing disparities in breast cancer outcomes.


This article evaluates the bankruptcy court's ill-defined obligation to consider public policy issues during the confirmation of Chapter 11 plans of reorganization. This consideration is mandated by 11 U.S.C. 1123 and 1129(a)(5), which provide that the management of a reorganized entity must be consistent with public policy. At present, proper application of these provisions is poorly described in case law. Accordingly, this article address two primary issues: (1) what public policy concerns should be considered when confirming a plan of reorganization; and (2) what procedure should a bankruptcy court adopt when addressing such issues? After an initial discussion of potential public policy topics of interest, this article proposes the implementation of a burden shifting system to be utilized in applying 1123 and 1129(a)(5). The proposed framework benefits the bankruptcy system by: (1) creating a methodology to apply the public policy provisions of the Bankruptcy Code; and (2) reconciling apparent contradictions between the Bankruptcy Code and the current operation of bankruptcy courts.


This paper discusses the principles and practices of a joint programme of MA Design and Design Management studies at a UK-based university that has encouraged students from
different design disciplines to develop a community of practice (COP). It describes the structure of the current MA programmes and how a series of staff initiatives in response
to financial and organisational necessity has led to conditions conducive for the emergence of a communities of practice.

A community of practice is defined by Wenger and Synder (1999, p.139-140) as a group of people informally bound together by shared expertise or a particular interest.
Developing a COP can be a means to generate new ideas, methods and processes (Schlager, Fusco, & Schank, 2002). Building a community of practice is a vital ingredient
in the development of a design professional operating in a post-disciplinary design era in which complex problems stretch across traditional disciplines and cultures
(Moggridge, 2007).

The paper begins by providing a background to the growth and expansion of postgraduate education in the institution and proceeds to describe the structure and delivery of its programmes. It highlights learning opportunities created by teaching staff to facilitate the development of a community of practice. It concludes by presenting a number of challenges faced by programmes in maintaining conducive environments for
COP to foster in view of proposed growth.


SUMMARY This paper describes pounding damage sustained by buildings and bridges in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Approximately 6% of buildings in Christchurch CBD were observed to have suffered some form of serious pounding damage. Almost all of this pounding damage occurred in masonry buildings, further highlighting their vulnerability to this phenomenon. Modern buildings were found to be vulnerable to pounding damage where overly stiff and strong 'flashing' components were installed in existing building separations. Soil variability is identified as a key aspect that amplifies the relative movement of buildings, and hence increases the likelihood of pounding damage. Pounding damage in bridges was found to be relatively minor and infrequent in the Christchurch earthquake.


The North Carolina Woman's Right to Know Act represents the crossroads of the Supreme Court's First Amendment, informed consent, and abortion-related jurisprudence. The Act requires physicians to perform an obstetric ultrasound, verbally convey specific information regarding ultrasonographic findings, and communicate a host of other information to patients seeking abortions. The purported goal of the Act is to ensure that physicians obtain appropriate informed consent from such patients. By compelling a physician to convey this information, the State violates the physician's First Amendment rights. Indeed, the State may not compel an individual to convey the State's ideological message. Further, any statute that mandates that an individual speak alters the content of that speech and is, therefore, subject to strict scrutiny. Pursuant to current United States Supreme Court precedents on compelled and content-based speech, the relevant portions of the Act are unconstitutional. Further, the claim made by the Act's proponents that the speech involved is commercial speech, subject to a lesser degree of First Amendment scrutiny, fails under the Court's commercial speech precedents. The State may reasonably regulate the medical profession by mandating that physicians obtain informed consent and convey limited, truthful information to patients. However, the Act's extensive and one-size-fits-all approach to informed consent is not a reasonable regulation of medical practice. What is left, therefore, is an unconstitutional attempt by the State to infringe on the First Amendment rights of physicians providing abortions in North Carolina.


Jurassic dolerite intrusions ot the Hobart district,
Tasmania, have been examined geologically and gravimetrically
in order to determine their form. The dolerite intrudes flat lying
shallow marine Permian and continental Triassic rocks.
A major problem was the resolution of more recent faulting
superimposed upon Jurassic structures.
The intrusions are the result or a limited series of
injections (four or five). Each individual intrusion has an
irregular flattened trumpet shape. Synchronous intrusions
have interconnected to produce a cross-wave pattern in which
each hollow represents the site or one or more massive feeders.
The feeders are basically dykes up to a mile across, although
some are pipe-like extensions or wedges from dykes, and most
are related to pre-existing faults.
Sheets have been initiated above feeder wedges at a point
where effective intrusion pressure (about 7x10,gm/cm2) has
exceeded the load pressure. Dislocation by fracturing was
followed by hydrostatic intrusion. The actual form of the
sheets, termed chonoliths, is determined at any place by any previous and concomitant fracturing. Fractures are controlled
by rock heterogeneities, plastic confining beds, fluid
content and distance from the feeder, or proximity of the
tree surface. Each sheet is about l,000-1,500 feet thick.
Initial intrusions are normally placed low in the
sedimentary column, while later intrusions generally found a
higher level. Ultimately a lava plateau could be produced
if the magma supply was adequate, although no evidence exists
for this feature in Tasmania.
Extreme products of differentiation are to be found
only in those parts of the intrusion ad3acent to, or above,
a feeder. There is no evidence of assimilation within the
area.


In a long-term continuous cropping experiment at Los Banos, Philippines, three rice (Oryza sativa L.) crops were grown each year with the goals of maximum annual grain production and high N use efficiency. Our objective was to identify the factors responsible for the restoration of yields occurring after 1991. From 1968 to 1991, grain yields declined at an annual rate of 1.4 to 2.0%. From 1991 to 1995, dry season (DS) yields in the highest N treatment increased to within 80 to 100% of the simulated yield potential; yields in the unfertilized control did not increase. Increased solar radiation, increased N rate, and improved timing of N applications accounted for the restoration of yields in the DS. Wet season yields increased in fertilized and unfertilized plots due to greater solar radiation, improved timing of N applications, and increased soil N supply due to dry fallow periods in three years. Residual benefits of soil aeration were short-term. Reducing preplant N fertilizer and increasing the number of split applications had a greater effect on increasing yield than the increase in the amount of N applied. Our results provide evidence that N deficiency caused the yield decline before 1991. However, the actual processes that caused a decline in soil N supply or plant N uptake remain to be determined. It is possible to sustain high yields and high N use efficiency if fertilizer regimes are updated regularly to maintain the congruence between crop N demand and the N supply from soil and fertilizer.


: Why study the Middle Ages? The answers this question yields concern more than simply medievalists: they generate reflections regarding the usefulness of science or intellectual engagement in any given society. Answering the question includes critical reflection on periodization in general and, in particular, on the public ' s understanding of what is termed (for better or worse) ' the Middle Ages ' . The relevance of studying the period has been justified in many ways. It allows, for example, a comparison of social dynamics and the gathering of insights into the role of religion. Equally, it enables investigation of modes of rule and the organization of communities. Ultimately, it enables us to better understand modernity itself. Yet while many arguments concern a better understanding of the contemporary world, they do not necessarily justify the necessity of incorporating medieval com-parisons. The current consensus (at least in French medieval studies) is to study the Middle Ages as a society in its own right. There is an additional understanding that the specific problems raised by this period should be placed in a broader chronological and spatial context. These critical reflections invite deeper considerations, which are, in turn, useful in developing our sense of democracy, our understanding of society, and in the development of a historical science that is conscious of the current tendencies to ' re-politicize ' history. This chapter argues that this leads to invaluable insights into the workings of any discipline concerned with the perception of time and change.


Self-assembly of complex, non-periodic nanostructures can only be achieved by using anisotropic building-blocks. The building blocks need to have at least four bonds pointing in separate directions [J. Comput. Theor. Nanosci. 3, 391 (2006)]. We have previously presented a method for the synthesis of such building-blocks using DNA-functionalized gold nanoparticles. Here, we report on the progress in the experimental realization of this scheme. The first goal, in a process to make programmable self-assembly building-blocks using nanoparticles, is the production of dimers with different DNA-functions on the two component particles. We report on the fabrication of anisotropically functionalized dimers of nanoparticles of two different sizes. As a result of their anisotropy, these demonstrator building blocks can be made to assemble into spherical structures.


In December 1987 a group of published novelists, poets, and journalists met in Vienna to participate in the Wheatland Conference on Literature. The writers presented papers addressing their common experience-that of being exiled. Each explored different facets of the condition of exile, providing answers to questions such as: What do exiled writers have in common? What is the exile's obligation to colleagues and readers in the country of origin? Is the effect of changing languages one of enrichment or impoverishment? How does the new society treat the emigre? Following each essay is a peer discussion of the topic addressed. The volume includes writers whose origins lie in Central Europe, South Africa, Israel, Cuba, Chile, Somalia, and Turkey. Through their testimony of the creative process in exile, we gain insight into the forces which affect the creative process as a whole. Contributors. William Gass, Yury Miloslavsky, Jan Vladislav, Jiri Grusa, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Horst Bienek, Edward Limonov, Nedim Gursel, Nuruddin Farah, Jaroslav Vejvoda, Anton Shammas, Joseph Brodsky, Wojciech Karpinski, Thomas Venclova, Yuri Druzhnikov


The project was unique as it had 2 academic partners bringing separate expertise. The advantages of having two Academic Partners, Northern Irealnd Centre for Food and Health and Loughry, have been enormous for both the company and Joanne Beirne, the knowledge carrier. Overall the project has been a good learning experience for all involved and now at the end, the company has a new product range and a unique selling point into the UK. This Fusion Project involved those steps from concept to development through to the food service and retail launch of a range of "hidden vegetable" products, whilst at the same time developing the functional foods capability and introducing vegetable processing capacity at the company. The first part of the project, to develop a range of hidden veg products, was completed in the first 2 quarters of the project. Due to a strategic change within the company, vegetable processing capability was no longer a priority. Therefore the 3rd and 4th quarters of this project have been dedicated to developing the functional foods capability of the company. The 12 month time scale for this project worked well for all involved. It was particularly beneficial to the company as it enabled a quick turn around and launch to fill a gap in the market.


Political arguments frequently use history for justification. Invariably, however, such efforts are less about taking the past on its own terms than the desire to make symbolic historical references that resonate with modern audiences in order to achieve particular political objectives, whether liberal or conservative. American politics today provides a good example of this practice, particularly in the invocation of the doctrine of nullification and secession as legitimate constitutional options supposedly sanctioned in the thought of such Federal Framers as James Madison. This essay explains why Madison emphatically rejected the attempt by a single state to nullify national laws, while still entertaining the theoretical possibility of secession — though with a crucial caveat missing from today's advocates. Perhaps most significant, this essay recovers the doctrine of interposition as a legitimate constitutional tool in the hands of an engaged and vigilant citizenry.


Who Are We Talking About? Asian-Australian Women Writers: An Overview ...the compulsion to explain, the inevitable positioning of yourself as deviant vis-a-vis the normal, remains -- especially for those migrants marked by visible difference. Ien Ang, `On Not Speaking Chinese.'(1) Although the clash of cultures is inevitable, at the moment it's ruptures that are the most interesting, rather than easy sliding into a falsely imposed communion. Pat Hoffie(2) The growing awareness of Asia and Asians in Australian society has been complemented by the work of scholars researching Asian-Australian feminism and `Australian' literature. Asian-Australian women, previously a little-heard (but by no means silent) group, are slowly gaining a critical and public profile. In many Western countries, women of Asian descent reject their exclusion from, and misrepresentation in society. They face a misinformed or stereotypical valuation of their work and themselves, and sometimes resistance from their own communities to their representations or sentiments. This sort of repression is gradually breaking down. Meanwhile, contemporary Asian women are supposed to consider themselves lucky, having a `freedom' in their lives their predecessors did not have. A Chinese-American poet, Ping Wang, addresses this issue of `freedom' in one of her poems and echoes the ironic question: `So what are you still angry about?'(3) -- a question that presupposes that Asian women's rights have already been `won.' This article presents an overview of contemporary Asian-Australian women's writing -- inevitably incomplete given the state of research and commentary in the area -- and discusses the mediating discourses involved in this area of study. It concludes with a list of annotated references for further reading in the area of Asian-Australian women's literature. In drawing from various works and spaces of production, the article fulfills several goals. It opens up a focussed examination of the term `Asian,' and begins to deconstruct the term's often monolithic connotations, as well as questioning the construct `Australian.' My delineation of a body of literature called `Asian-Australian women's writing' invites critique and will, hopefully, generate further discussion. The sites from which these women write and the ways in which they place themselves suggest intriguing links and fissures in the formation of their identities. The varied social and cultural influences on these texts, along with the extra-textual factors that are described, mediate and modulate the various readings that can be made of Asian-Australian women's work. The flow of talk of `ethnic,' `migrant' and `multicultural' writers is muddied always by exactly which title is bestowed upon whom. What are the criteria for each of these categories? Different critics or academics have different definitions. Attempts to pin these terms to some sort of comprehensive `meaning' ask for contradiction. Andrew Riemer, for example, resents the label and its part in distancing and seemingly separating his work from where he wants it to be -- in the dominant arena.(4) Riemer's position is shared, in part, by George Papaellinas who writes: `I have never understood the political worth of contesting the undeniable, historical chauvinism of Anglocentric Australian society with counter-chauvinism, by separatism.'(5) Papaellinas asserts that attempts to modify Australia's currently narrow publishing and reading practices are relatively unproductive. He alludes to the dilemma apparent in reconstructions of a `national' literature: are the hierarchies that made the previous canon exclusionary still in place? If so, how can any ensuing listing be `better' in terms of equity of representation? Other commentators claim multiculturalism and ethnicity as empowering and valuable classifications and identifications, albeit with some reservations about being able to control representations of themselves; as Ang states: `if I am inescapably Chinese by descent, I am only sometimes Chinese by consent. …


The shortage of available land for housing within established urban areas is a challenging contemporary issue. This paper examines the strategic need and opportunity to return degraded land to higher order end land uses and the obstacles presented by the planning system when remediation and rehabilitation is involved. The opportunity to overcome these obstacles is exemplified by the rehabilitation of a former clay quarry and brick manufacturing plant in Melbourne, Australia.
Over 50 years ago, when Austral Bricks opened a quarry and brick manufacturing operation at Scoresby, east of Melbourne, the site was over an hour away from the nearest residential area. Now, the 58 ha site sits within a growing urban community. Many such legacy sites have been identified as potential opportunities for contributing to the supply of urban residential land to meet growing demands. In reality, conversion of former industrial land can be challenging and requires an integrated approach to be successful.
After ceasing operation at Scoresby, Austral Bricks envisaged rehabilitating the site for residential use, a transformation that would create a beneficial opportunity to meet growing demand for new and affordable housing. In 2004, Austral Bricks asked Golder Associates Pty Ltd (Golder) to create and implement a strategy to transform the quarry site by re-creating a natural landform suitable for development as a premier new residential neighbourhood incorporating natural habitat and high environmental standards. The strategy would include filling the quarry pits and remediating on-site waste. In developing a sustainable solution, Golder worked closely with the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to gain permission to reuse over 1,000,000 m3 of site-derived waste (predominately soil and bricks) as engineered fill in the quarry pits. Remediating on-site waste eliminated transportation costs and allowed the project to move away from the traditional method of battering the sides of the pits which would have rendered them of little use to the community for a considerable time. The integrated approach included town and environmental planning, geotechnical engineering, environmental remediation engineering, community consultation and ecology. In late 2009, the project received the Victorian Department of Primary Industries 'Strzelecki Award', which recognised 'overall excellence and innovation in sustainable earth resource development in a large resource development operation'. The project also received a Commendation from the Planning Institute of Australia for sustainable development.
Environmental, social and economic drivers for post-mine planning end uses are not exclusive to existing urban areas. As our urban centres expand, populations demand a wide range of amenities and facilities within easy reach. Typically this has been assumed to be a return to some sort of 'natural' landform or naturalistic state. However, post mine end uses offer a wider range of opportunities that can contribute to improved quality of life, including passive and active recreational facilities and infrastructure including food, water and energy provision.


We report simultaneous transmission of six spatial and polarization modes, each carrying 40 Gb/s quadrature-phase-shift-keyed channels over 96 km of a low-differential group delay few-mode fiber. The channels are successfully recovered by offline DSP based on coherent detection and multiple-input multiple-output processing. A penalty of <;1.2 dB is achieved by using 6 × 6 feed-forward equalizers with 120 taps each. The 6 × 6 impulse-response matrix fully characterizing the few-mode fiber is presented, revealing the coupling characteristics between the modes. The results are obtained using mode multiplexers based on phase plates with a mode selectivity of >;28 dB.


The urge to adjust curricular and pedagogical contents of what texts of literature teach to learners of a foreign language, notably English, implies an understanding of the concept of global literary canon. Global or world literature then entails a literature that does not abide by the rigidity of the borders, which imprison texts within the local confinements of national identity traits. It is rather a process which allows the circulation of texts across national borders for the purpose of forming one huge hybrid culture that mixes various literary flavors. In an era of globalization and while the very notion of Western canon seems obsolete and out dated, there still exists some sort of discrimination among the texts allowed to enter the global literary canon. Some literary texts are considered not exotic enough or too exotic to meet the expectations of a wide and translational readership. For that reason, a great number of texts is deliberately marginalized and dropped from the canon confirming then the Western monopole operating upon the marketing and publishing houses. In this view of things, the present paper addresses the particular status of the Algerian literature in French within the global literary canon. It, also, aims to analyze its resistance to translation as major obstacle to its circulation and, thus, invisibility.


This paper looks at patterning in multiple themes in written English. Adopting a view of theme in declarative SVO clauses which extends up to the grammatical subject and its non-restrictive postmodifications, and building on an earlier study by Smits (2002), it uses corpus data to identify three major patterns, labeled "stepwise", "focalizing" and "grounding". All three patterns are used by advanced learners of English in their writing, but the stepwise pattern is significantly overused while the others are underused. In light of the relevance of these patterns for writing text conforming to the C levels of the Common European Framework of Reference, the paper argues for the development of study and exercise material making use of data from learner corpora.


Extracted from text ... TABLE 1 25
Natural deaths in South African prisons per 1, 000 prisoners
TABLE 2 29
HIV prevalence rates
TABLE 3 30
Projected HIV prevalence in the South African prison population
LIST OF TABLES
The publication of this monograph has been made possible with the generous
support of the following donors: European Union, USAID and the US
Embassy in Pretoria, and the Ford Foundation.
Special thanks to the Institute for Security Studies for confronting the issue of
HIV/AIDS in prison in the face of both apathy and controversy. The initial
research was begun with the encouragement of Suzanne Berry, ..


The focus of this study is on black markets which provide an important segment of the parallel economy. These markets operate in disequilibrium,search and information costs become very important.Trafficking in drugs taken as case, to explore both theoretically and empirically. The problem, studied some twenty years back has been accentuating gradually world over. It is still a pressing problem of our civilization which needs to be tackled immediately and this requires a clear understanding of the problem and based on that,effective policy formulation and enforcement.We find that psycho-physiological dependence in abusers make their economic budget constraint 'redundant' thereby leading to completely inelastic demand schedules.Increasing cost of Police surveillance yields diminishing returns in terms of deterrence.There are secondary crimes as a result.By using developments in other human sciences, study opens the road leading to more realistic economic theory.


Precise mediastinal staging of non-small-cell lung cancer is extremely important, as mediastinal lymph node metastases generally indicate unresectable disease. Reliance on computed tomography (CT) and positron-emission tomography (PET) alone to stage and determine resectability is limited by false-positive results. Whenever possible, pathologic confirmation of metastases is desirable. Mediastinoscopy and transbronchial fine-needle aspiration are widely established but imperfect modalities. Endoscopic ultrasound fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) has emerged as a diagnostic and staging tool because of its safety, accuracy, and patient convenience. We reviewed 13 prospective studies evaluating the comparative performance of EUS for staging lung cancer. We conclude that EUS is a valuable staging modality. Further studies of the role of EUS compared to other modalities such as integrated PET/CT and endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) are forthcoming.


This contribution builds upon a former paper by the authors (Lipps and Betz 2004), in which a stochastic population projection for East- and West Germany is performed. Aim was to forecast relevant population parameters and their distribution in a consistent way. We now present some modifications, which have been modelled since. First, population parameters for the entire German population are modelled. In order to overcome the modelling problem of the structural break in the East during reunification, we show that the adaptation process of the relevant figures by the East can be considered to be completed by now. As a consequence, German parameters can be modelled just by using the West German historic patterns, with the start-off population of entire Germany. Second, a new model to simulate age specific fertility rates is presented, based on a quadratic spline approach. This offers a higher flexibility to model various age specific fertility curves. The simulation results are compared with the scenario based official forecasts for Germany in 2050. Exemplary for some population parameters (e.g. dependency ratio), it can be shown that the range spanned by the medium and extreme variants correspond to the s-intervals in the stochastic framework. It seems therefore more appropriate to treat this range as a s-interval covering about two thirds of the true distribution.


s of all GIDR Working Papers are available on the Institute's website. Working Paper No 121 onwards can be downloaded from the site. All rights are reserved. This publication may be used with proper citation and due acknowledgement to the author(s) and the Gujarat Institute of Development Research, Ahmedabad. © Gujarat Institute of Development Research First Published October 2018 Price Rs. 100.00


Background: Large number of pharmaceutical companies manufactures antiepileptic drugs in India. The price variations among the marketed drugs are wide. Aims: The present study was aimed to find the cost of different oral antiepileptic drugs available in Indian market as monotherapy, combination therapy and number of manufacturing companies for each, to evaluate difference in cost of different brands of same dosage of same active drug by calculating percentage variation of cost. Methods and Materials: Cost of a drug being manufactured by different companies, in the same strength and dosage forms was obtained from "Indian Drug Review" Vol. XXI, Issue No.4, 2014 and "Current Index of Medical Specialties" July-October 2014. The difference in the maximum and minimum price of the same drug manufactured by different pharmaceutical companies and percentage variation in price was calculated. Results: The percentage price variation noted of long-established drugs was – Phenytoin (50mg): 140%, Carbamazepine (100mg): 1033%, Phenobarbital (30mg) : 730%, Valproic acid (300mg) : 420%. Newer drugs –Levetiracetam (250mg): 75%, Lamotrigine (25mg): 66%, Topiramate (50mg): 108%, Zonisamide (100mg): 19%. Combination drugs – Phenobarbital + Phenytoin (30+100) mg: 354.55%. Conclusion: The percentage price variation of different brands of the same commonly used long-established oral antiepileptic drug manufactured in India is very wide. The formulation or brand of Antiepileptic drugs (AED's) should preferably not be changed since variations in bioavailability or different pharmacokinetic profiles may increase the potential for reduced effect or excessive side effects. Hence, manufacturing companies should aim to decrease the price variation while maintaining the therapeutic efficacy.


Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) have chronic anovulation and hyperandrogenism and frequently have abnormalities in their lipid profiles and insulin/insulin-like growth factor axis that increase their lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease. Normal ovulatory women may have polycystic ovaries on ultrasonography and yet lack the clinical features of PCOS. To further explore whether ovulatory women without clinical/biochemical hyperandrogenism but with polycystic appearing ovaries (ov-PAO) have subclinical features of PCOS, we prospectively characterized 26 ov-PAO women and matched them by age and body mass index to 25 ovulatory women with normal appearing ovaries (ov-NAO) and to 22 women with PCOS. After an overnight fast, all women had baseline endocrine and metabolic assessments. In addition, a subset of each group of women underwent GnRH-agonist (leuprolide acetate 1 mg s.c.) testing, ACTH stimulation, and an insulin tolerance test (ITT). At baseline, ov-PAO and ov-NAO women had similar endocrine profiles (LH, LH:FSH, androstenedione, and DHEAS). Compared with ov-NAO, 31% of ov-PAO women had reduced glucose responses after insulin (K(itt)), suggesting mild insulin resistance, and 35% had high density lipoprotein levels below 35 mg/dL, a level considered to represent significant cardiovascular risk. After GnRH-agonist, ov-PAO women had response patterns in LH, total testosterone, and 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17-OHP) that were intermediate between ov-NAO and women with PCOS. Ovarian responses were above the normal range in 30-40% of women with ov-PAO. In ov-PAO, peak responses of LH after leuprolide correlated with triglyceride levels (P < 0.05) and peak responses of 17-OHP correlated inversely with Kitt values (P < 0.05). No significant differences were noted with ACTH testing. In conclusion, occult biochemical ovarian hyperandrogenism may be uncovered using GnRH-agonist in ovulatory women with ov-PAO, while adrenal responses remain normal. Subtle metabolic abnormalities may also be prevalent.


This thesis examines risk premia in mid-term electricity futures traded in the Nordic electricity market Nord Pool using a time series of 8 years worth of data. Using OLS and quantile regression the relationship between the forward premium and several economic and physical conditions are examined. The reservoir levels and the basis are found to have a significant relationship with the forward premium both in the OLS and the quantile regression models. The volatility of the spot price is found to have negative effects on forward premia below the median and a positive effect on forward premia above the median, indicating that the effect of volatility on forward premia is highly dependent on the quantile being modelled. The OLS coefficient for volatility is very close to zero indicating that the effect on the mean is not significant. The effects of all the considered variables are considerably larger in the tails indicating that their impact may be larger than estimated in the OLS model, though the results are uncertain. Evidence is also found to support the notion that market efficiency is increasing as forward premia have decreased over time. Parameters are less significant when analyzing only the most recent data. In addition forward premia have decreased and open interest in the futures has increased in the last portion of the data sample. This suggests that speculative interest has increased and investors have gained experience.


There has been enormous growth in the size and number of environmental NGOs, (non governmental organizations), in recent years. This has happened, mainly because of a generally slow or in some cases, negative response, by governments towards an escalating global environmental crisis. This book examines how NGOs have grown in importance to a point where they now act as key bargainers and agents within the emerging field of world environmental politics. By linking local and global issues, NGOs are able to highlight ecological issues of importance and promote social learning. The authors use four case studies, including the Great Lakes water negotiations, the ivory trade ban and Antarctic environmental protection, to illustrate the breadth of NGO activity and the diversity of their politics. The case studies also demonstrate how NGOs have to face tough environmental choices and how they often move outside the traditional structures of world politics when governmental action is insufficient in addressing environmental issues.


This paper describes an exploratory pilot study on the usefulness for designers of three lighting manufacturers' websites. All three websites contain sections that are specifically directed at professional lighting designers. This study's first objective is to investigate whether designers experience the websites' content as conducive to the generation of new product ideas. Second, this study hopes to ascertain whether designers perceive the websites as an information source which they could habitually turn to for inspiration. Accordingly, this study addresses both the designer's physical attitude (i.e., the usability driven) toward the websites, as well as the cognitive and emotive aspects of a designer's information seeking and use. To obtain this, we requested the designers to produce their own lighting design concepts while taking guidance and inspiration from the websites. The resulting design proposals formed the departure point for interviews and designers' self-reflection, and revealed the experiences of designers with the websites based on the information and inspiration found or wished for. This exploration revealed that the designers prefer the role of co-developer to the role of user. In addition, being able to contribute directly to the website content was perceived as adding greater value to the website.


We study optimal disclosure of variety by a multi-product firm with random costs. In our model there are two varieties that are horizontally differentiated and differ in overall quality, but buyers cannot distinguish between them without labels. The equilibrium prices for labeled varieties are increasing functions of the absolute value of the cost differential and do not reveal which variety is cheaper to produce. Nondisclosure is most common when there is moderate uncertainty about the relative input cost, not too much idiosyncrasy in consumer valuations, and not too much difference in quality across varieties. Although mandatory disclosure of variety benefits consumers, it decreases expected welfare when relative input cost variability is large and quality asymmetry is small. The cheaper variety tends to be oversupplied (undersupplied) when disclosure is voluntary (mandatory). Competition among multi-product firms that source inputs in the same upstream market may not lead to more disclosure."


ABSTRACT On 1 January 1995, the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (Dispute Settlement Understanding; DSU) entered into force. Since 1998, negotiations to review and reform the DSU have taken place (DSU review), however without yielding any result so far. The DSU review exercise has only attracted limited academic interest to date. This lack of interest in Members' proposals and negotiations is rather astonishing, particularly if judged in the light of the general explosion of literature on the World Trade Organization (WTO), including on its dispute settlement system. Whereas even single adjudicating decisions such as the rulings in the Shrimp/Turtle or the Bananas cases have each become the subject of countless contributions, the efforts of the entire WTO community to make the DSU evolve further have long been neglected. Only recently, a certain academic interest in these negotiations and in the submitted proposals can be noticed. The over-emphasis of the DSU literature on rulings and recommendations, and the parallel lack of interest in the political discussions on the DSU, is questionable from both an analytical and a practical perspective. From the analytical point of view, it creates a general perception in which the role of the adjudicating bodies tends to be chronically overstated and where the intergovernmental, memberdriven character of the WTO is largely overlooked. Practically, such a distorted assessment may lead to policy recommendations or actions which are out of tune with political realities and which may undermine the sustainability of the system. The DSU review negotiations, albeit unsuccessful so far, have brought forth a variety of proposals in the last seven years. These submissions are supposed to contribute to improvements and clarifications of the mechanism. Not only is the DSU review of interest in its own right, but it also offers a reflection of the experience that WTO Members have gathered in 10 years of dispute settlement practice. In doing so, the discussions are revealing with regard to the general degree of satisfaction of Members with the system. They can also serve as an indicator for problems or tensions in the mechanism and for changes in the position of certain Members in and towards the system. Finally, the DSU review discussions assist us in establishing some hypotheses on the future evolution of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. This chapter seeks to contribute to the DSU literature by retracing the negotiating process in its context and by analyzing the main reasons why the negotiations have failed so far. Part 1 analyzes the negotiations that have taken place between 1997 and 2004. In Part 2, the reasons for the failure to bring the negotiations to a successful conclusion so far will be discussed, based on a brief presentation of major proposals. Part 3 presents some elements of a "DSU Review in practice", ie practical steps that Members and adjudicating bodies have undertaken to adapt DSU practice to changing circumstances and requirements without modifying the text of the DSU. Part 5 concludes with the following. The last chapter offers some conclusions from the preceding analysis.


Static analysis (SA) tools that find bugs by inferring programmer beliefs (e.g., FindBugs) are commonplace in today's software industry. While they find a large number of actual defects, they are often plagued by high rates of alerts that a developer would not act on (unactionable alerts) because they are incorrect, do not significantly affect program execution, etc. High rates of unactionable alerts decrease the utility of static analysis tools in practice.
 We present a method for differentiating actionable and unactionable alerts by finding alerts with similar code patterns. To do so, we create a feature vector based on code characteristics at the site of each SA alert. With these feature vectors, we use machine learning techniques to build an actionable alert prediction model that is able to classify new SA alerts.
 We evaluate our technique on three subject programs using the FindBugs static analysis tool and the Faultbench benchmark methodology. For a developer inspecting the top 5% of all alerts for three sample projects, our approach is able to identify 57 of 211 actionable alerts, which is 38 more than the FindBugs priority measure. Combined with previous actionable alert identification techniques, our method finds 75 actionable alerts in the top 5%, which is four more actionable alerts (a 6% improvement) than previous actionable alert identification techniques.


Currently, one of the most valuable assets in the hands of India is the human resource with the largest percentage of the young generation. But it can turn out to be a major threat for India in the time to come, in the form of a great proportion of the elderly population and as per the current status, very less percentage of senior citizens are covered under any formal pension scheme, and the rest is financially dependent over the family members. Here Reverse Mortgage Product can play a great role in working as an potential option of post-retirement financial needs as it allows senior citizens to get money at the time when they may not be eligible for any other loan because it is the ownership of the House Property that matters the most and not the financial soundness of the borrower. Also, the gradual changes in India's way of thinking and living due to globalization, technological advancement, improved literacy, higher degree of urbanization, etc., reflect being more aware and concern about post-retirement social and financial independence in the long-run rather than having the only option of bequest of the title of the house property (the giant asset, a great number of senior citizens possess as their life time earnings and savings) and here RML gets a substantial act to perform.


Abstract Helicopters are used for numerous wildlife management and research purposes, but can alter wildlife behaviour and influence baseline data collection. We investigated reactions of GPS-collared moose Alces alces and brown bears Ursus arctos to short-term helicopter approaches by researchers. Moose responded with up to 10 times greater movement rates for up to two hours following a helicopter approach and moved into more rugged terrain. Brown bears decreased their speed and remained within similar habitat types and terrain. The movements were influenced only about two hours and did not influence the size of the activity areas. Contrary to our predictions, brown bears responded with a somewhat calmer response than moose, illustrating response differences in large herbivores and carnivores. This difference in response might be because brown bears are actually less disturbed than moose by direct helicopter approaches or because of a difference in tactical behaviour between brown bears and moose following disturbance. Researchers and managers should thus be cautious in using knowledge from one species to predict or perceive disturbance response in another species or taxa.


Everyone experiences failure at some point in their lifetime. Entrepreneurs, especially, have a high incidence of failure, with estimates that over sixty percent fail within six years. Yet, a high percentage of failed entrepreneurs recover and persevere to start another business. Sometimes, they even become " serial entrepreneurs " who start many businesses. How do entrepreneurs recover from failure and have success? This research focuses on the failed entrepreneur, and I investigate aspects of how and why some failed entrepreneurs recover and start a new business. My research focuses on characteristics of the failed entrepreneurs themselves, and how certain attributes might differentiate between failed entrepreneurs who recover successfully versus those who do not. Based upon fundamental theories of human behavior and recent inquiries that have influenced the entrepreneurship literature, I draw upon research about entrepreneurs' personal 2 competencies that stand out as predictors of venture persistence and success, specifically, (1) domain-specific self-efficacy (2) emotion regulation, (3) practical intelligence, and (4) self-leadership, to propose a path to recovery when failure occurs. I suggest that these areas of research may enhance our knowledge of how and why failed entrepreneurs recover from failure. In addition, I investigate how characteristics of the immediate context or environment support or discourage subsequent startup. I interview and survey failed entrepreneurs, beginning with a list of firms from a Bay Area business consulting firm that helps failed companies " work out " of their business. Other contact sources include small business development centers, personal contacts, university entrepreneurship centers, and two populations of healthcare workers in the southern United States. Results of this study include entrepreneurial self-efficacy fully mediating the effects of both practical intelligence and emotion regulation on subsequent venture success, as well as partial mediation of support from social contacts on success. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Although research has been conducted on future success of successful entrepreneurs, as far as I can determine, no other academic researcher has attempted to understand and empirically demonstrate the future success of failed entrepreneurs.


It is proposed that the process of nonlinear optical phase conjugation can be utilized to compensate for channel dispersion and hence to correct for temporal pulse broadening. Specifically, a four-wave nonlinear interaction is shown to achieve pulse renarrowing. Spectral bandwidth constraints of the input pulse are presented for typical phase-conjugate interaction parameters.


Trust in political institutions is one of the key elements which make representative democracies work. Trust creates a connection between citizens and representative political institutions. Democratic governments which enjoy a large degree of trust also tend to have higher degrees of legitimacy and policy efficacy. In Europe's multi-level governance structure, it is imperative to understand the determinants of trust in the institutions of the European Union. With the increasing salience of the European Union, are domestic proxies still a key determinant of evaluating its institutions? Are there differences across the institutions and across the member states? We demonstrate that country-level corruption levels are what drives the relationship between domestic and European institutional trust. The majority of the variation in trust in the institutions of the European Union is, however, driven by individual-level predictors. We also find that individuals across Europe evaluate the institutions of the European Union through a single attitude dimension of political trust rather than through separate evaluations.


This paper explores topic aspect (i.e., subtopic or facet) classification for collections that contain more than one language (in this case, English and Chinese), and investigates several key technical issues that may affect the classification effectiveness. The evaluation model assumes a bilingual user who has found some documents on a topic and identified a few passages in each language on specific aspects of that topic that are of interest. Additional passages are then automatically labeled using a k-Nearest-Neighbor classifier and local (i.e., result set) Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA). Experiments show that when few manually annotated passages are available in either language, a classification system trained using passages from both languages can often achieve higher effectiveness than a similar system trained using passages from just one language. Using this experimental framework, this paper answers three technical research questions: whether the normalized cosine similarity measure is better than the more common unnormalized cosine similarity measure (yes), whether the number of retained LSA dimensions (which was heuristically chosen) is appropriate (yes), and whether partial corrections of the translated training examples in the LSA space can yield an improvement over no correction (no).


Japan's Momoyama period (1573-1615) was brief but dramatic, witnessing the struggles of a handful of ambitious warlords for control of the long-splintered country and then the emergence of a united Japan. It was an era of dynamic cultural development as well, for the daimyos commissioned innovative artworks to proclaim their newly acquired power. One such art was a ceramic ware known as Oribe, which, appearing mysteriously and suddenly, rose to prominence for use in the tea ceremony. Boldly painted and displaying playful new shapes, these dashing wares matched the extroverted world of the warlords. Similar stylistic and technical inventiveness characterized painting, lacquerware and textiles of the period. In this volume, 11 essays by leading scholars and about 200 catalogue entries present outstanding examples of all these extraordinary works and examine the social and cultural contexts in which they were created.


Aims Many children and young people use the internet for playing games and to help with homework, but for some their use of the internet is excessive. Families have asked whether a connection between ADHD and Internet Addiction is known. We aim to answer this question. Methods Searches of PUBMED and EMBASE were carried out using keywords "ADHD", "Internet addiction" and "pathological Internet use". All studies identified as relevant were reviewed independently by the two researchers. Results Internet Addiction or Problematic Internet Use (PIU) is excessive computer use that interferes with daily life. It has been discussed extensively as a diagnosis but is not currently included in DSM-V. The reward mechanism is thought to be a behavioral addiction similar to gambling. Excessive and addictive internet use and computer game playing is increasingly a problem with the studies reviewed reporting a prevalence of 2 to 20% in young people. In ADHD, Internet Addiction is one of a range of co-morbidities, along with depression, anxiety, personality disorder, eating disorders, sleep disorders and tic disorders. Whether web based activities appeal to the short attention of ADHD suffers or whether excessive Internet use may cause inattention, remains to be elucidated. In Internet Addiction, co-morbid conditions including depression, hostility, substance abuse disorder and social anxiety disorder are identified with ADHD being a common and consistent association. Those with Internet addiction were found to have less control over time and more impulsivity. Conclusion For the majority the internet is a useful and stimulating way to discover and explore the world however for some children and young people their use becomes pathological. Children and young people today often have access to a range of electronic devices meaning internet use can quickly become problematic. The studies reviewed demonstrate a clear association between ADHD and problematic internet use. Families who present to clinic and identify internet use as a primary problem, along with those with an ADHD diagnosis should have this newly emerging condition considered along with screening for the associated co-morbidities.


Background Malnutrition among children in South Africa is a substantial public health problem. Especially young children are vulnerable and exposed to malnutrition. Children suffering from malnutrition develop many shortand long-term health-consequences. Effective preventative work against this issue is crucial in order for malnutrition to diminish among the children in South Africa. Aim The aim was to describe how the preventative work against malnutrition is being performed among children aged zero to six in South Africa. Method The method used in this study was a qualitative descriptive study with six semi-structured interviews. Interviews were performed with registered nurses and researchers. The interview-data was analyzed based on a grounded theory through substantive coding where the most relevant codes where found, studied and concluded in the results. Results The results showed that both the registered nurses and researchers considered socioeconomic-factors and lack of knowledge about nutrition to be the most important causes for malnutrition among children, and also impacted heavily on the preventative work. It was found that more effective preventative work is needed, but for this to work it needs to be adapted to the social context in the country. Conclusions The preventative work against malnutrition must be able to break through socioeconomic barriers like poverty, misguided cultural beliefs about nutrition, lacking food security and the fact that many mothers to children are HIV positive, which also is strongly connected to malnutrition among young children. Education about nutrition must be further developed and reach out to more people in the country.


This document describes RTP retransmission for source-specific
multicast (SSM) architectures with unicast feedback. RTP payload
format for retransmissions has been defined in RFC 4588, whereas the
RTP profile an RTP receiver could use to issue RTP Control Protocol
(RTCP) feedback messages and the format of these feedback messages
have been defined in RFC 4585. RFC 5760 defines the operation for SSM
architectures with unicast feedback. First, we document potential
issues that could arise when providing a retransmission service using
RTP retransmission (RFC 4588 and RFC 4585) for RFC 5760 architectures
based on rules described in the relevant RFCs. We then present
solutions that allow to avoid unnecessary feedback suppression,
provide enhanced retransmission services and address congestion
control for retransmission in an SSM environment. These solutions
specify certain rules that apply to the distribution source, feedback
target(s), retransmission source(s) and RTP receivers.


Background:
Changes in therapeutic radiography have promoted the development of a consultant practitioner role in clinical practice. Clinical duties that were once performed by the clinical oncologist are now being shared in some trusts by Consultant Therapeutic Radiographer (CTRs) who are experts in their scope of practice. The first CTR was appointed in 2003, yet an evaluation of the role has remained limited.

Aims:
The thesis examines the CTR role, through the perspectives of medical, nursing, therapeutic staff and key stakeholders by means of a qualitative inquiry, with the intention to explore professional and organisational impact.

Methods:
A collective case study approach was adopted to facilitate the examination of the CTR role, using the Dimensions of Impact Framework (Gerrish et al., 2011). A three-phased research design was employed. Phase one of the study utilised a focus group with CTRs (n=4) as a scoping exercise to understand the current state of the CTR role in clinical practice. Phase two consisted of six case studies and utilised individual semi-structured interviews with CTRs (n=6) and interviews with medical, nursing and therapeutic staff (n=18) to gain a thorough view of the CTR role from their perspectives. Document analysis was also conducted using the CTR job descriptions to discern similarities or differences and examine whether the job descriptions provided the opportunity to demonstrate professional and organisational impact. In the analysis of the Phase two, data were mapped against the Dimensions of Framework to identify the perceived professional and organisational impact of the CTR role. Finally, Phase three utilised semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders (Society and College of Radiographers, NHS England and Health Education England) (n=6), to explore their views on the CTR role and on the themes derived from the six case studies

Results:
The themes identified under perceived professional impact were: professional outcomes, working relationships and identity. The themes identified under perceived organisational impact were: service targets, perceived patient experience and power.
In addition, two further themes were identified: challenges of the role and future prospects of the role were also indicated. The main challenges noted were: lack of medical knowledge; lack of time for research; increased workload; meeting the expectations of the role; medico-legal implications and financial implications. The future prospects for the role were: more engagement with the consultant practice domains (such as the research domain); increase the CTR numbers and specialities; and develop CTR's medical knowledge; further promote the CTR role, and have a responsibility for prescribing the radiotherapy treatment.

Conclusions and recommendations
This original piece of research has provided a detailed examination of the perceived organisational and professional impact of the CTR role. It has also identified a number of challenges and considerations for the future. Recommendations for clinical practice and policy include: conduct a national evaluation to capture the impact of the CTR role, further promote the role, develop a detailed job plan, undertake a review of educational and training of the CTR; and ensure adequate clinical support and mentoring. The addition of the concepts of power of and identity to the Gerrish et al., (2011) Dimensions of Impact Framework within this research needs testing in different professional and organisational contexts.

Overall the knowledge generated from the participants' perceptions of the CTR role presented in this thesis contributes to the literature on capturing perceived impact and provides new perspective on, and representations of, power and identity.


Telephone interviews were conducted with more than 900 adolescents aged 12 to 18 as part of a multimillion dollar, statewide, antitobacco advertising campaign. The interviews addressed two primary questions: (1) Do counter-advertising campaign attitudes directly affect antismoking beliefs and intent in a manner similar to those of conventional advertisements? and (2) Can advertising campaign attitudes have a stronger effect on beliefs and intent for adolescents with prior smoking behavior and for adolescents exposed to social influence (i.e., friends, siblings, or adult smoker in the home)? The authors' findings show that advertising campaign attitudes, prior trial behavior, and social influence all directly affect antismoking beliefs and that advertising campaign attitudes interact with prior trial behavior to strengthen antismoking beliefs. The results indicate that attitudes related to the campaign, prior trial behavior, and social influence directly influence intent, and advertising campaign attitudes interact with social influence and prior trial behavior to attenuate adolescent intent to smoke. In addition, the effect of advertising campaign attitudes in attenuating social influence and prior trial behavior effects on adolescent intent to smoke persists even when the authors account for strongly held beliefs about smoking. The authors discuss implications for countermarketing communications and the design and understanding of future antismoking campaigns.


The small polyamine putrescine (1,4-diaminobutane) is ubiquitously and abundantly found in all three domains of life. It is a precursor, through N-aminopropylation or N-aminobutylation, for biosynthesis of the longer polyamines spermidine, sym-homospermidine, spermine, and thermospermine and longer and branched chain polyamines. Putrescine is also biochemically modified for purposes of metabolic regulation and catabolism, e.g. N-acetylation and N-glutamylation, and for incorporation into specialized metabolites, e.g. N-methylation, N-citrylation, N-palmitoylation, N-hydroxylation, and N-hydroxycinnamoylation. Only one example is known where putrescine is modified on a methylene carbon: the formation of 2-hydroxyputrescine by an unknown C-hydroxylase. Here, we report the functional identification of a previously undescribed putrescine 2-hydroxylase, a Rieske-type nonheme iron sulfur protein from the β-proteobacteria Bordetella bronchiseptica and Ralstonia solanacearum. Identification of the putrescine 2-hydroxylase will facilitate investigation of the physiological functions of 2-hydroxyputrescine. One known role of 2-hydroxyputrescine has direct biomedical relevance: its role in the biosynthesis of the cyclic hydroxamate siderophore alcaligin, a potential virulence factor of the causative agent of whooping cough, Bordetella pertussis. We also report the functional identification of a putrescine N-hydroxylase from the γ-proteobacterium Shewanella oneidensis, which is homologous to FAD- and NADPH-dependent ornithine and lysine N-monooxygenases involved in siderophore biosynthesis. Heterologous expression of the putrescine N-hydroxylase in E. coli produced free N-hydroxyputrescine, never detected previously in a biological system. Furthermore, the putrescine C- and N-hydroxylases identified here could contribute new functionality to polyamine structural scaffolds, including C-H bond functionalization in synthetic biology strategies.


Freedman and Engert focus on the changing pattern of lending and borrowing in Canada in the past thirty to forty years, including the types of financial instruments used and the relative roles of financial institutions and financial markets. They examine how borrowing mechanisms have changed over time and consider the challenges facing the Canadian financial sector, including whether our financial markets are in danger of disappearing because of the size and pre-eminence of U.S. financial markets. Some of the trends examined here include syndicated lending, securitization, and credit derivatives, a form of financial engineering that has become increasingly important in the last few years. They also study bond and equity markets to determine whether Canadian capital markets have been hollowed out or abandoned by Canadian firms and conclude that the data do not provide much support for that view.


C reactive protein (CRP) concentrations were measured serially in 38 patients after cardiac transplantation. Three of 28 patients (11%) had raised values before transplantation. After transplantation, most patients showed rises in CRP concentrations associated with transplant surgery which became normal by day 7. Thereafter, 75/274 samples (28%) from 18/38 patients (47%) had raised CRP values. Most of the rises in CRP concentration were associated with infection (78%), which in most cases was bacterial. No correlation was found between CRP values and acute cardiac rejection assessed histologically on serial endomyocardial biopsy.


Critical management scholars have emphasised that organizations' attempts to regulate employees' identities can prompt the reproduction or transformation of self-identity. The emotional consequences of identity regulation, however, remain largely unexamined. This paper explores the experiences of eight management consultants in the British office of a global consulting firm over several months. Interviews and observations were analysed according to the principles of interpretative phenomenological analysis. The results of the study highlight consultants' identification with an organizationally inspired elite discourse alongside high levels of commitment and the presence of a counter-intuitive yet significant status anxiety. Drawing on psychological and sociological theories that connect identity and anxiety, this article suggests that the continual promotion of an elite identity within the consulting firm leaves many of the consultants feeling acutely anxious about their status.


Site F2 in the Timna Valley, Israel, is a small copper smelting site of 'primitive' technology, dated by its excavator to the Pottery Neolithic (sixth to fifth millennium bce). This early date challenges the common view of the beginning of smelting technology in the Levant and has been contested by various scholars since its publication. In this study, we present results of archaeointensity experiments conducted on slag fragments from the site. The slag yielded an excellent ancient geomagnetic value (64.1 ± 1.1 μT) that, when compared to the Levantine master curve, suggests an age not older than the second millennium and most probably between the 13th and 11th centuries bce. In addition to demonstrating the applicability of geomagnetic archaeointensity experiments to independent dating of slag, we discuss the implications of the current results for the socio-historical picture of the Timna Valley, and in particular for the way in which technological developments were previously modelled in the archaeometallurgical research on the region.


Exponential development into ICT and Web technology has had significant effect upon business & infrastructure distribution structures of the current global economy. Electronic -Hospital Management Systems (EHMS) offer benefits of streamlined procedures, efficient compliance & tracking, quality patient service, strict cost containment and expanded efficiency. Healthcare Insurance Portability & Accountability Act ( HIPAA) provisions, that have established standard of healthcare sector in management of medical reports as well as protection of patient details. The research focused on identifying success metrics for Hospital Information Systems (HIS), summing up current widely accepted guidelines & procedures such as Health Level Seven (HL7) requirements for shared communications communication, HIS elements, etc. For several customized variants of E-HMS Systems & HIS upon marketplace, a basic module edition of E-HMS was meant to offer simple understanding to analysts and business specialists. Throughout numerous positive research articles discussed in the study, the performance indicators & difficulties presented through positive adoption of E-HMS have been highlighted.


Coxiella burnetii is a bacterium that causes Q fever, a zoonosis that affects large numbers of both humans and animals. From 2007 to 2010, large outbreaks of Q fever were observed in a rural area in the Netherlands. In 2009, field studies were started to investigate if C. burnetii DNA can be detected in aerosols on and in the near vicinity of Q fever affected farms. In 2010, these studies were continued in two areas studied in 2009, in the provinces of Noord-Brabant and Zuid-Limburg, to investigate if C. burnetii DNA was still present in aerosols in these areas. In both areas, the C. burnetii DNA content in aerosols obtained in 2010 seemed to have declined in comparison to data of the same locations visited in 2009. These data are in agreement with the observed reduction in the number of reported Q fever cases in 2010 in comparison to 2009. Possible explanations for this decline could be the start of a mandatory vaccination campaign for small ruminants in 2009 and the culling of pregnant animals on Q fever affected farms that started at the end of 2009. This data will be used in future investigations, in which we will combine molecular detection and typing methods for C. burnetii in aerosols with mathematical modelling to get more insight in the transmission of C. burnetii via aerosols and track (individual) sources for C. burnetii infection.


As part of her role as DTI sponsored Research Fellow in the Department of Design and Technology at King Alfred's College, Jose Chambers has been observing our students at work with tutors. Being an English graduate who became involved with Communications Studies thanks to an interest in problemsolving approaches, her perspective on our work has been very welcome for its freshness and clarity. A group of our students has recently been studying design in action by visiting in pairs the design and product development departments of various companies. They have also had available to them the Design Council's two sets of videos, 'Designers Talking' and 'Living by Design', which give some excellent insights into the world of professional designers.


The development of low-cost, compact, high-power and broadband superluminescent
 light-emitting diodes is an important research subject for a wide range of
 applications. We describe how self-assembled quantum-dot structures can provide an
 efficient means of realizing such devices utilizing a number of their unique physical
 properties. Such quantum dot superluminescent diodes are leading to a revolution in
 the development of broadband emitters for widespread medical, biological and
 telecommunications applications.


In this paper, we propose an algorithm to construct a spatiotemporal statistical shape model (SSM) of the brain surface of a human embryo. Our model is based on level sets and the model is constructed independently for each Carnegie stage (CS), in which feature space is constructed by spatially-weighted principal component analysis (PCA). The statistics of the shape variation were calculated under the assumption of q-Gaussian distribution to reduce the risk of over tting for datasets of small sizes. To de ne the statistics of the shape distribution of the intermediate CS, we consider 18 interpolation methods, which are the combinations of three average interpolations (linear, B-spline and information geometry) and six covariance interpolation (rotation, af ne-invariant, log-Euclidean, information geometry, Wasserstein geometry and tensor B-spline) techniques, which are exhaustively compared in the experiments. We also propose a method to allow interpolation between distributions with a mixed number of dimensions, i.e., the rank of the covariance matrix. The SSM was constructed and evaluated using 60 sets of brain labels acquired from human embryos from the Kyoto collection. We found that the best interpolation method was a combination of the linear average interpolation method with an information geometry–based covariance interpolation method. We also found that use of the q-Gaussian distribution and selection of the number of dimensions are effective methods for improving the performance of the spatiotemporal SSM of the human embryo.


This paper explains the functioning of "blockchain technology" and critically assesses its potential role in improving services in banking, contracts, and database systems. Comparing blockchain to the current best practice technology in these fields reveals several barriers to successful commercial implementation: Blockchain technology involves costly redundancies and irreversibility, faces serious scaling problems and significant barriers to complying with regulations, and is a security liability unless secured with its own freely trading currency. A survey of the state of the blockchain industry shows that in eight years since blockchain technology was invented, it has had no commercial applications other than digital cash. The paper concludes that a blockchain is a peculiar engineering design whose only advantage is in removing third party intermediation to allow for the creation of digital cash, and is unlikely to offer economic advantages for any commercial problem other than the one it was specifically engineered to solve.


During the Second World War, the FDR administration placed the FBI in charge of political surveillance in Latin America. Through a program called the Special Intelligence Service (SIS), 700 agents were assigned to combat Nazi influence in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. The SIS's mission, however, extended beyond countries with significant German populations or Nazi spy rings. As evidence of the SIS's overreach, forty-five agents were dispatched to Ecuador, a country without any German espionage networks. Furthermore, by 1943, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover shifted the SIS's focus from Nazism to communism. Marc Becker interrogates a trove of FBI documents from its Ecuador mission to uncover the history and purpose of the SIS's intervention in Latin America and for the light they shed on leftist organizing efforts in Latin America. Ultimately, the FBI's activities reveal the sustained nature of US imperial ambitions in the Americas.