The purpose of this study was to investigate and implement fuzzy decision algorithms based on unequal objectives and minimization of regret to retrieve an optimal decision in business intelligence. Another aim was to compare these two models; those have been applied in business intelligence area. The use of unequal objectives and minimization of regret methods based on the essential concept of the fuzzy decision were applied on the business intelligence model. The first method uses Saaty's approach of comparison objectives to determine the weight of the objectives, while the second method uses the regression of objectives which acts as a filter for high values by divesting them of their decisive power. In a complex business problem, we have used knowledge of experts in verbal expressions, converted these verbal expressions into linguistic variables and then used fuzzy decision making models to retrieve best decision. The implementation's results of the two methods were the same regarding to the final decision set. The first model results indicated the effect of the influential factors on the products, while the second model results showed the payoff for the influential factors and its effectives on the products.


Received on: 21.08.2018 Revised on: 15.12.2018 Accepted on: 17.12.2018 A comparative antioxidant and anticancer potential of methanolic and ethanolic extracts of leaves of Carica papaya were investigated. Both the plant extracts were prepared separately, and their anti-oxidant scavenging potential was investigated for the scavenging of superoxide, nitric oxide and hydrogen peroxide radicals using standard protocols. The anticancer property of these plant extracts was evaluated in PA-1 cell lines using tryptan blue assay. The total phenols and flavonoids contents responsible for the above said activities were estimated quantitatively. Among the two extracts, the ethanolic extract scavenged the free radicals to a greater extent when compared to the methanolic extract. Similarly, in the tryptan blue exclusion assay, the percentage of cell death was more for ethanolic extract. At high concentrations such as 50, 75 and 100 μg concentrations, the ethanolic extract showed higher cell death which was comparable to the positive drug doxrubicidin used in the present study. Both the extracts possessed considerable quantities of phenols and flavonoids. It may be concluded that the presence phytochemicals along with the phenols and flavonoids may be the reason for the antioxidant and anticancer activity observed in the present study.


In LaserMaterial Processing, an understanding of the fundamental absorption mechanisms plays a vital role in determining the optimum processing parameters and conditions. The absorptance, which characterizes how much a material absorbs, can alter during a processing application, as a result of melting, boiling, structural changes of the surface, oxidation, plasma formation, etc. To gain knowledge of these complex processes, a combination of experimental as well as of theoretical work is required. In this paper, an overview of the most common experimental methods and techniques to measure laser absorption in opaque solids, such as metals, will be presented.


The shore displacement during the Holocene in southeastern Ångermanland, Sweden, has been investigated by means of radiocarbon‐dating of isolation intervals in sediment cores from a total of nine new basins. Results from earlier investigations have been used in complement. There is a forced regression in the area from c. 9300 BP (c. 10500 cal. yr BP) until c. 8000 BP (c. 9000 cal. yr BP), on average c. 8 m/100 years, after which there is a gradually slowing regression of c. 2.5–1.0 m/100 years up to the present time. The most rapid regression occurs during the later phase of the Ancylus Lake stage, 9500–9000 cal. yr BP. There is no evidence of halts in the regression. Crustal uplift in the area since deglaciation is c. 310 m. The deglaciation of southeastern Ångermanland took place c. 9300 BP (c. 10500 cal. yr BP); this is c. 900 years earlier than the age given by clay varve dating. The shore displacement curve provides a means of estimating the difference between the clay varve time scale and calibrated radiocarbon dates, by comparison with varve‐dated altitudes of alluvial deltas of the River Ångermanalven. From c. 2500 to c. 8000 cal. BP there is a deficit in clay varves of some 300 years; further back in time this discrepancy increases significantly. The main explanation for the discrepancy is most likely lacking varves in the time‐span 8500–10200 cal. yr BP, located along the upper reaches of River Ångermanalven below the highest shore level.


This small scale study used mixed, quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate whether HeartMath practice of at least five consecutive sessions would be associated with higher psychophysiological coherence levels, decreases in negative feeling state, and increases in positive feeling state, ratings and experiences. A convenience sample of six participants, four women and two men, with a mean age of 38.3 years, recorded low, medium and high psychophysiological coherence scores achieved after each HeartMath practice session. Before and after each session, participants also rated negative feeling states involving anger, anxiety, boredom and sadness, as well as positive feeling states of contentment, peacefulness, happiness and excitement. After all five sessions, participants provided written descriptions of their experiences of the HeartMath practice. Quantitative data were analysed using non-parametric Spearman rank order correlations, Wilcoxon Z and Friedman's X 2 statistics for collective changes, as well as parametric Analysis of Variance with repeated measures for longitudinal, individual, dependent variable changes over time. Qualitative data in the form of participants' phenomenological descriptions were analysed into individual, experiential summaries and then synthesized into a group profile. Integral findings converged in consistently supporting the research hypothesis of significant changes in psychophysiological coherence, negative feeling states and positive feeling state clusters. There were also significant changes in specific, dependent variables such as increased percentages of high psychophysiological coherence, decreased feelings of sadness and increased feelings of peacefulness. Psychophysiological and emotional state findings are discussed in relation to health and sport psychology, theory and practice. Keywords : Biofeedback, physiological coherence, Quick Coherence Technique, feeling states.


The endophytic bacterium Azoarcus sp. strain BH72 is capable of colonizing the interior of rice roots, where it finds suitable physicochemical properties for multiplying and fixing nitrogen. Because these properties are poorly understood, a microtiter-plate-based screening of a transcriptional gfp (green fluorescent protein) fusion library of Azoarcus sp. grown under different conditions was performed. Monitoring of the GFP activity allowed the identification of a gene highly expressed in medium supplemented with ethanol. Sequence analysis revealed that this gene encodes a pyrrolo-quinoline quinone-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH). Inspection of the complete genome sequence of the Azoarcus sp. strain BH72 identified seven additional genes encoding putative ADH, indicating that BH72 is well equipped to survive in different environmental conditions offering various alcohols as carbon source. Analyses of these eight putative ADH showed that expression of three was induced by ethanol, of which two were also expressed inside rice roots. The fact that waterlogged plants such as rice accumulate ethanol suggests that ethanol occurs in sufficiently high concentration within the root to induce expression of bacterial ADH. Disruption of these two ADH evoked a reduced competitiveness to the wild type in colonizing rice roots internally. Thus, it is likely that ethanol is an important carbon source for the endophytic life of Azoarcus sp.


Dance floor surfaces are important environmental factors in dance activity and have been suggested to be a factor in the aetiology of dance injury. Measurement of the injury risk associated with floor surfaces is difficult as the validity of the relationship between mechanical surface measures and human–surface interactions is unclear. Dancer perceptions of the mechanical properties of floor surfaces were investigated with reference to mechanical quantification measures. Student (n = 27) and professional (n = 27) dancers completed a questionnaire investigating their perceptions of the force reduction, vertical deformation, energy restitution and overall ratings of five sample dance floors. Dance floor mechanical properties were quantified using sport surface testing apparatus, the Advanced Artificial Athlete (AAA) (Metaalmaatwerk, Netherlands). Student and professional cohort perceptions were not significantly different for 18 of the 20 perception variables. Vertical deformation was the only mechanical variable to differ between cohort perceptions. Dancers demonstrated a preference for floors with greater force reduction magnitudes than specified by European sport surface standards, suggesting that bespoke floor standards for dance may be beneficial. Considerable discrepancies were found between particular dancer perceptions and related AAA outputs, highlighting the need for further investigation of valid mechanical tests that are used to represent human–surface interactions.


Background: Respiratory illnesses such as asthma, bronchitis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are considered to be debilitating diseases. A variety of inhalation devices have been used to deliver aerosol medication to patients in the treatment of those diseases. Soft Mist Inhalers (SMIs, for example, the Spiriva Respimat) are a new generation of propellant-free inhalers. In this type of inhalation device, inhalable droplets are generated from an aqueous solution. Droplet size and velocity are two of the most substantial factors that impact the deposition of SMI aerosol medication into the patient lungs. Methods: In this study, size and velocity of droplets generated from the Spiriva Respimat inhaler were measured using phase Doppler anemometry (PDA). Measurements were taken at four locations along the centerline of the Spiriva Respimat inhaler, in addition to three cross sections (free-spray configuration). In addition, measurements were also performed at a single cross section in confined spray configurations using two separate idealized mouth cavities. Results and Conclusions: Measurements along the centerline of the aerosol mist generated using the Spiriva Respimat inhaler (6.5, 25, 100, and 125 mm downstream of the inhaler nozzle' orifice) showed that droplets at the mouthpiece have the highest velocity of 10.95 m/s, decreasing to 1.33 m/s at the 125 mm location away from the nozzle. The mean diameter D10 values ranged from 3.97 to 3.67 μm at 6.5 and 125 mm locations, respectively. In addition, of the three probability density functions (PDFs) that were tested, the log-normal PDF showed better curve fitting for the empirical data (droplet size distributions) that were measured. The effect of spray confinement using two idealized mouth cavities shows that there was a drop in the particles' velocity for both models on each axes compared with the open-air environment (free-spray configuration).


Share price is a form of public trust in the company's performance. This research uses fundamental analysis with financial ratio analysis. The Sub Residence Property Sector that has studied in the research consisted of 15 companies. In the last three years the average share price of sub-property property sector in the period 2014-2016 has increased but only one company of 15 companies that experienced an increase in share price each year. While other companies experiencing a fluctuating condition. This is the main reason why researchers do the research internally This type of research is explanatory research, with population that can be researched in property sub residence sector are 15 companies. The type of data source is the secondary data, which obtained indirectly. The type of data used in this study is time series data. Data analysis methods used is classical assumption test, correlation, determination, simple regression, multiple regression, and significance by using SPSS application. The result of research stated that ROA, ROE and EPS have influence to stock price, which means when ROA, ROE and EPS increase, then stock price will partially increase. While NPM has no effect on stock prices. Simultaneous tests show ROA, ROE, NPM, and EPS have an influence on stock prices. If ROA, ROE, NPM, and EPS increase, then stock price will increase.
Based on the results, researcher suggests that the subprojects subproperty must maintain their financial performance which includes ROA, ROE, NPM, and EPS to increase their stock price.


Background Leprosy is considered a major public health problem because of its capacity to cause permanent disabilities, with the social consequences of discrimination and stigma. In 1991, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution to eliminate leprosy by the year 2000. Egypt has achieved the WHO goal as early as 1994; however, there are still focal points, especially in Upper Egypt, which have failed to achieve the WHO goal and are reporting higher figures than the national one. Objective The aim of the study was to assess the epidemiological trend of leprosy in Egypt from 2005 to 2009. Materials and methods This is a descriptive study of the National Leprosy Control program registry in Egypt from 2005 until the end of 2009. An analysis of the cases on the basis of the prevalence rate of leprosy, new case detection rates, active case detection among contacts, type of leprosy, and grade of disability was carried out. Results The prevalence rate in the study period is less than one case per 10 000 populations at the national level; however, there were certain foci showing prevalence rate more than one case per 10 000 populations. The disease affected men more than women. Male patients (93.14%) are more common than female patients (6.86%). Multibacillary cases were more common than paucibacillary cases. Grade 2 disability showed an increase from 2005 till 2008 and a decrease in 2009. Conclusion Although Egypt has achieved the WHO goal of leprosy elimination since 1994, yet, the presence of certain foci with prevalence rate more than one case per 10 000 populations reflects the need for more efforts for early case detection.


The impressive growth of online auctions in recent years has motivated a number of studies aimed at defining and analyzing their distinctive characteristics; in particular, the literature has concentrated on those traits that distinguish online from traditional auctions. One of the most relevant, for its popularity, is the buyout option, a mechanism a seller can use to allow buyers to end an auction early by buying the good at a given "buyout price". While the existing literature has mostly focused on the relationship between buyout and risk aversion, this thesis proposes a new interpretation of the buyout as a channel through which an informed seller can convey his private information on the item on sale. Building on the main hypothesis of asymmetric information between sellers and bidders, the signaling model developed in Chapter 2 shows that, when sellers have a low discount rate, they may find it optimal to signal their information with a buyout price; in this case, higher buyout prices signal items of higher quality or items for which the expected demand is higher. Furthermore, the presence of multiple equilibria allows us to analyze the welfare effects of different levels of buyout prices, another issue that is largley unexplored by the current research.
The model developed in Chapter 2 has several empirical implications. According to the interpretation proposed, the buyout option should be used by those sellers who have better information than bidders on the goods on sale. Since we can expect the experience accumulated as a seller to be a resonable proxy of how informed the seller is on the value and the demand of the items on sale, the model predicts a positive correlation between a seller's experience and his choice of offering a buyout option. The model also predicts that bidders with higher valuations are more likely to use the buyout price to buy the object than bidders with low valuations. Finally, if different buyout prices signal different levels of quality or demand, we should observe that, for similar items, auctions that start with a higher buyout price should close at a higher price. All these implications can be tested empirically with data from online auctions. Chapter 3 presents an econometric analysis performed on data gathered from eBay; the results, obtained using two datasets with auctions for different types of objects, appear consistent with the predictions of the model. Specifically, we find a significant correlation between the buyout prices chosen by the seller and the ending prices of the auctions, which indicates that sellers are able to predict with a certain accuracy the ending price of an auction, and that they often set buyout prices accordingly. This correlation turns out to be stronger when sellers are more experienced, further supporting the hypothesis that experienced sellers are generally more informed than bidders. Moreover, the results show that experienced sellers are more likely to offer a buyout option with their auctions, and that bidders are more likely to accept the buyout price when it is offered by an experienced seller.


Modern strategic management theories try to explain why firms differ, because new sources of competitive advantage are keenly sought in the dynamic and complex environment of global competition. Two areas in particular have attracted the attention of researchers: the role of dynamic capabilities, and the firm's abilities for knowledge management. In this paper, we argue that there is a link between these two concepts, which has not been fully articulated in the literature. The aim of the paper is therefore to ascertain the conceptual connection between them as a basis for future research. Our proposed framework acknowledges and critiques the distinct roots of each field, identifies boundaries, and proposes relationships between the constructs and firm performance.


An informatics technique that can be used for improving image quality, dose prescription and delivery and other imaging services is Six Sigma. Six Sigma is a quality improvement process that strives for near perfection (99.99966%) in the organizations 'product'. This may be the appropriate dose prescription for every patient or the absence of repeated scans or artifact free examinations or the number of finalized reports completed by the end of the business day. In Six Sigma a DMAIC (Define, Measure,Analyze, Improve, Control) process is applied to systematically inspect and review quantified data (chosen by the Six Sigma team) to improve the delivered services. Patients may 'feel' unacceptable variations (a repeated exam due to noise, motion, etc) and quantified data can be used to identify instances of high dose prescriptions permitting an opportunity for improvements. Informatics enables collection of requisite data using modality, RIS (HL7) and PACS (DICOM) data to add knowledge that is actionable for improving the outcome of the delivered service. These systems provide information that are strongly interconnected in the users understanding of what is the ideal dose prescription. Understanding critical quality components and reducing variation in these actions are keys for improvements. For example, small patient size can easily result a patient not being accurately centered in a CT scanner which is (interconnected) to the dose modulation prescription. A Six Sigma approach uses statistical thinking and statistical tools. It: Defines and identifies the improvement opportunity (e.g., lower dose, improve Imaging Quality (IQ), shorten exam time, patient positioning etc.)Measures critical information that relates to performance goal (dose index or metric, added or extra scans, reduced IQ, etc). We suggest an Informatics environment for this. Analyze data to identify variation and its causes. Formulate solutions and validate root cause hypothesis prior to introducing change. Improve performance by introducing change. Verify improvements as measured by the metric — iterate improvements and gain group approval for current final solution. (technique charts, education modules, purchase technology that adds robustness to the prescription of radiation or another imaging service etc)Control and monitor variability in the chosen metric. As it relates to the skills and ability of physicists, accept the challenge of having a mistake proof process. This lecture will provide an introductory overview of Six Sigma concepts and review some practical examples from mammography, CT, and interventional fluoroscopy. Learning Objectives: 1. Understand the origin and evolution of Six Sigma and DMAIC processes. 2. Provide examples of measurement data from Informatic sources and tools Present issues and opportunities related to improving patient care using Six Sigma.


Deep convection is a key process in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, but because it acts at small scales, it remains poorly resolved by climate models. The occurrence of deep convection depends on weak initial stratification and strong surface buoyancy forcing, conditions that are satisfied in only a few ocean basins. In 2014, one of the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) global arrays was installed close to the Central Irminger Sea (CIS) and the Long-term Ocean Circulation Observations (LOCO) moorings in the central Irminger Sea. These programs' six moorings are located in the center of an area of deep convection and are distributed within a 50 km radius, thus offering detailed insight into spatial differences during the strong convection events that occurred during the winters of 2014/2015 and 2015/2016. Deep mixed layers, down to approximately 1,600 m, formed during both winters. The properties of the convectively renewed water mass at each mooring converge to a common temperature and salinity before restratification sets in at the end of winter. The largest differences in onset (or timing) of convection and restratification are seen between the northernmost and southernmost moorings. High-resolution atmospheric reanalysis data show there is higher atmospheric forcing at the northernmost mooring due to a more favorable position with respect to the Greenland tip jet. Nevertheless, earlier onset, and more continuous cooling and deepening of mixed layers, occurs at the southernmost mooring, while convection at the northern mooring is frequently interrupted by warm events. We propose that these warm events are associated with eddies and filaments originating from the Irminger Current off the coast of Greenland and that convection further south benefits from cold inflow from the southwest.


Science at the Theater: Berkeley Lab scientists discuss how cool roofs can cool your building, your city ... and our planet. Arthur Rosenfeld, Professor of Physics Emeritus at UC Berkeley, founded the Berkeley Lab Center for Building Science in 1974. He served on the California Energy Commission from 2000 to 2010 and is commonly referred to as California's godfather of energy efficiency. Melvin Pomerantz is a member of the Heat Island Group at Berkeley Lab. Trained as a physicist at UC Berkeley, he specializes in research on making cooler pavements and evaluating their effects. Ronnen Levinson is a staff scientist at Berkeley Lab and the acting leader of its Heat Island Group. He has developed cool roofing and paving materials and helped bring cool roof requirements into building energy efficiency standards.


Logging businesses play an important role in implementing forest management plans and delivering the raw material needed by forest products mills. Understanding the characteristics of the logging workforce can help forest managers make better decisions related to harvesting operations. We surveyed logging business owners across Virginia's three physiographic regions (Mountains, Piedmont, and Coastal Plain). Overall, logging businesses reported an average production rate of 761.37 t/business/week, but this varied substantially by region, with the highest production rates in the Coastal Plain (1403.55 t/business/week), followed by the Piedmont (824.69 t/business/week) and the Mountains (245.42 t/business/week). Many operations in the Mountains rely primarily on manual felling (66.6% of respondents) and these operations often have lower production rates. Across all regions, 81.7% of reported production came from operations that primarily utilized rubber-tired feller-bunchers for felling. Logging businesses were sorted based on reported production capacity and then divided into three groups (high, medium, and low production) based on total reported production. Across all regions, the majority of reported production was produced by the high production logging businesses. This was highest in the Piedmont, where the high production businesses accounted for 74.8% of total reported production.


The change in aerosol properties during the transition from the more polluted spring to the clean summer in the Arctic troposphere was studied. A six-year data set of observations from Ny-˚ Alesund on Svalbard, covering the months April through June, serve as the basis for the char-acterisation of this time period. In addition four-day-back trajectories were used to describe air mass histories. The observed transition in aerosol properties from an accumulation-mode dominated distribution to an Aitken-mode dominated distribution is discussed with respect to long-range transport and influences from natural and anthropogenic sources of aerosols and pertinent trace gases. Our study shows that the air-mass transport is an important factor modulating the physical and chemical properties observed. However, the air-mass transport cannot alone explain the annually repeated systematic and rather rapid change in aerosol properties, occurring within a limited time window of approximately 10 days. With a simplified phenomenological model, which delivers the nucleation potential for new-particle formation, we suggest that the rapid shift in aerosol microphysical properties between the Arctic spring and summer is mainly driven by the incoming solar radiation in concert with transport of precursor gases and changes in condensational sink.


The goal of this paper was to summarize three studies focused on sleep/wake disorders in blind subjects. The first study was an epidemiology survey performed in 1073 blind subjects in comparison with non-blind controls. The blind had more episodes of insomnia and free running rhythms. They also took more sleeping pills and complained of more daytime somnolence. The seriousness of the sleep disorders was related to the seriousness of the blindness. In the second study, 78 blind children were compared with seeing children. They had more insomnia and more parasomnias but there was not any more free running. Finally, polysomnography was performed in 26 free running blind subjects in comparison with 26 controls. Total sleep time and sleep efficiency were lower in the blind. Sleep latency was increased and REM sleep was disturbed (longer latency and percentage decreases). There was no difference concerning slow wave sleep. Factorial analysis showed that factors such as being born blind, having ocular prosthesis, being single or having children had no influence on sleep. Working did however have an influence.


Objectives
HIV infection has previously been associated with malnutrition and wasting; however, with the initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART), a growing number of people living with HIV (PLWH) are becoming centrally obese, with disproportionate weight accumulation around the abdominal area and fat losses in the rest of their body (periphery face, arms and legs), indicative of lipodystrophy. As a result, some PLWH may struggle simultaneously with central fat accumulation and peripheral losses, trying to balance these 2 opposite effects.

Methods
PB is a 62-year-old, African-American male infected with HIV for 12 years, receiving an NRTI regimen. Participating in the Miami Adult Studies in HIV (MASH) Cohort, PB started a 6-month nutrition intervention targeted to lower diabetes risk in prediabetic PLWH. Baseline body mass index (BMI) was 24.1 kg/m2 and waist circumference (WC) was 36.5 inches. Despite having the initial intention to lose weight, PB gained ∼12.4 lbs just a month after initiation. When questioned about the weight gain, PB revealed that he had started taking an appetite stimulant (Megace) to address the wasting on his periphery, claiming that he looked "sickly". PB stopped taking Megace after he gained >20 lbs (12.3% Wt∆) in 4 months. BMI at this time was 26.3 kg/m2 and WC was 45.5 inches, reflecting a substantially increased risk for metabolic complications. With WC increasing 9 inches and hip circumference increasing only 2 inches, it is evident that a considerable amount of the weight accumulation occurred around the waist. As can be seen, he among others in his situation, are struggling with conflicting goals by simultaneously trying to reduce central obesity and prevent peripheral losses and wasting, something that may be unique to PLWH.

Results
Despite the participant's difficulties in weight management, his fasting blood glucose (FBG) improved after the 6-month nutrition intervention, with a -14 mg/dL improvement, lowering associated risk for diabetes and cardiometabolic complications.

Conclusions
This improvement in FBG levels suggests that despite the difficulty of effective weight management in these patients, proper glucose values may still be achieved with nutrition counseling and education, thus lowering risk for diabetes and associated complications.

Funding Sources
NIGMS-RISE funding, National Institute on Drug Abuse 5U01DA040381-03 and FIU-Dissertation Funding.


This article examines the role of media in the process of religious communalization (Vergemeinschaftung), drawing on the example of the Evangelical Association of Vineyard Churches. It argues that a direct connection between media production, media use, and integration in the community is too shortsighted. Instead, the empirical study will demonstrate how different media – including those produced by various Vineyard churches – circulate in a specific milieu. It is within this milieu, with its constellation of local celebrations, Bible studies and regional events, that the members of Vineyard churches (re)construct their religious belonging in a complex interplay of face-to-face and media-based communication. In the end, the analysis highlights the multilayered role of media within and beyond the Association of Vineyard Churches and provides a contribution to the conceptual clarification of 'community'.


Members of the Cryptochiridae are small gall-crabs that live as obligate symbionts of scleractinian corals. Only two species have so far been recorded in the western Atlantic Ocean. Herein a new Cryptochiridae genus and species is described, and new information is added on the life history of cryptochirids. The new genus is characterized by having the carapace with the lowest deflection angle among the genera, and also shows the following features: thoracic sternite 4 with setules and constriction smaller than half of the width of the basis, anterior margin curved with apical row of granules; third maxilliped with subcircular exopod reaching medially the lateral margin of the ischium; pereiopod 2 with prominent distomesial and anterolateral expansion on the merus, propodus almost twice larger than dactylus; thoracic sternite 7 with complete medial suture, female pleopod 3 uniramous with longitudinal opening. Male first pleopod straight with subdistal curvature of approximately 90°. Individuals belonging to the new genus are found in galls in massive corals although this structure is cited as being characteristic of ramified corals. The long plumose setae of the maxilliped 3 suggest a filter-feeding function, but the toothless chelae suggest that they are used to gather mucus.


Analytical formulas for the power spectra of return-to-zero (RZ) optical signals generated by Mach-Zehnder (MZ) modulators are derived. Pulse duty cycles of 33%, 50%, and 67%, in conjunction with several modulation techniques, including binary ON-OFF keying (OOK), duobinary OOK, and M-ary differential phase-shift keying (DPSK), phase-shift keying (PSK), and quadrature-amplitude modulation (QAM), are considered. Spectral characteristics and bandwidth requirements of these different schemes are compared


A strip/slot hybrid arsenic tri-sulfide waveguide with a horizontal silicon dioxide slot is proposed. The waveguide exhibits an ultra-flat and low dispersion profile with four zero-dispersion wavelengths. Tuning structural parameters of the waveguide causes tailoring the dispersion. There is only a low dispersion of approximately ± 3 ps/(nm · km) over a 1035 nm bandwidth. It is shown that the waveguide has less sensitivity to the variations of the structural parameters and fabrication errors compared to silicon waveguides. Moreover, nonlinear coefficient, figure of merit, third-order dispersion and phase-matching condition in four-wave mixing are studied. This waveguide has a great potential for nonlinear applications in a wide range of wavelengths.


The book discusses basic concepts on key topics to managing a small piped water system ideally for up to 1,000 households. It presents tools that can be adapted by Community-Based Water Organizations (CBOs) for use in their operations, such as forms, checklists and procedural guidelines. Illustrative examples have also been compiled from the experiences of the district local governments, support organizations and CBOs operating in East and West Java, who participated in the Multi-Village Pooling (MVP) Project. This toolkit seeks to compile a set of ready resources for organizations supporting Indonesian CBOs and CBOs themselves, which was not previously available despite many years of rural water investment projects. The book introduces fundamental concepts in an easy to-understand way, so that a number of discussions have been simplified. This will give users a basic understanding enough to seek further resources or references or advice from experts, which is encouraged.


The phenomenon of Fano resonance is ubiquitous in a large variety of wave scattering systems, where the resonance profile is typically asymmetric. Whether the parameter characterizing the asymmetry should be complex or real is an issue of great experimental interest. Using coherent quantum transport as a paradigm and taking into account of the collective contribution from all available scattering channels, we derive a universal formula for the Fano-resonance profile. We show that our formula bridges naturally the traditional Fano formulas with complex and real asymmetry parameters, indicating that the two types of formulas are fundamentally equivalent (except for an offset). The connection also reveals a clear footprint for the conductance resonance during a dephasing process. Therefore, the emergence of complex asymmetric parameter when fitting with experimental data needs to be properly interpreted. Furthermore, we have provided a theory for the width of the resonance, which relates explicitly the width to the degree of localization of the close-by eigenstates and the corresponding coupling matrices or the self-energies caused by the leads. Our work not only resolves the issue about the nature of the asymmetry parameter, but also provides deeper physical insights into the origin of Fano resonance. Since the only assumption in our treatment is that the transport can be described by the Green's function formalism, our results are also valid for broad disciplines including scattering problems of electromagnetic waves, acoustics, and seismology.


INTRODUCTION: AXA1665 is a novel investigational amino acid (AA) composition specifically designed to impact AA imbalance, ammoniagenesis, and dysregulated anabolic activity associated with cirrhosis. METHODS: This 2-part study examined AXA1665 effects on safety, tolerability, and hepatic/muscle physiology in subjects with Child–Pugh A and B cirrhosis. Part 1 established plasma ammonia and AA concentration baselines with a standardized protein supplement. Part 2 included two 15-day domiciled periods separated by a 14-day washout. In period 1, subjects were randomly distributed to 2 groups: AXA1665 14.7 g t.i.d. (group 1) or control t.i.d. (group 2). In period 2, subjects from group 1 crossed over to control and those in group 2 crossed over to AXA1665 4.9 g t.i.d. All subjects were maintained on standard of care (standardized meals; 30-minute daily, supervised, mandatory physical activity; and daily late-evening snack). RESULTS: In parts 1 and 2, 23 and 17 participants were enrolled, respectively. Dose-dependent increases were observed in plasma concentrations of AXA1665-constituent AAs. Fasted branched-chain AA-to-aromatic AA and valine-to-phenylalanine ratios were both increased (AXA1665 14.7 g t.i.d. control-adjusted change: 44.3% ± 2.7% and 47.2% ± 3.9%, respectively; P < 0.0001). Despite provision of additional nitrogen, mean fasted plasma ammonia concentration at day 15 numerically decreased (−21.1% in AXA1665 14.7 g t.i.d. vs −3.8% in control; P > 0.05). AXA1665 14.7 g t.i.d. produced a leaner body composition and significantly decreased Liver Frailty Index at day 15 vs control (−0.70 ± 0.15 vs −0.14 ± 0.17; P < 0.05). AXA1665 was safe and well tolerated. DISCUSSION: AXA1665 has potential to mitigate core metabolic derangements associated with cirrhosis.


BACKGROUND
Controversy exists regarding the use of cement for hemiarthroplasty to treat a displaced subcapital femoral neck fracture in elderly patients. The primary hypothesis of this study was that use of cement would provide better visual analog pain scores following this procedure in an elderly patient population.

METHODS
Elderly patients (at least seventy years of age) without severe cardiopulmonary compromise who presented to one institution with a displaced subcapital femoral neck fracture were offered inclusion in the study. One hundred and sixty patients (mean age, eighty-five years) with an acute displaced femoral neck fracture were randomly allocated to hemiarthroplasty with either a cemented Exeter or an uncemented Zweymüller Alloclassic component. Clinical and radiographic follow-up was performed for two years and the outcomes were recorded by a blinded assessor. The main clinical outcome measures were pain, mortality, mobility, complications, reoperations, and quality of life measured with use of validated instruments.

RESULTS
The mean visual analog pain score at rest did not differ significantly between the groups. The total number of complications was greater in the uncemented group (sixty-three compared with twenty-eight in the cemented group). Subsidence was significantly more common in the uncemented group (eighteen compared with one in the cemented group). Intraoperative or postoperative fracture was also significantly more common in the uncemented group (eighteen compared with one in the cemented group). The mortality rate did not differ significantly between the groups at any time point (thirty-five deaths in the uncemented group compared with thirty-two in the cemented group at two years). The Oxford hip score was significantly poorer in the uncemented group at six weeks (38.8 compared with 35.7 in the cemented group), and it was also poorer or similar at later follow-up time points although the differences were not significant. There was also a trend toward poorer mobility and greater dependence on walking aids in the cemented group. The postoperative Short Musculoskeletal Function Assessment and Mini-Mental State Examination scores did not differ significantly between the groups.

CONCLUSIONS
In elderly patients (seventy years or older) without severe cardiopulmonary compromise who were treated with hemiarthroplasty for a displaced femoral neck fracture, use of a cemented Exeter implant and use of an uncemented Alloclassic implant provided a comparable outcome with regard to pain. However, implant-related complication rates were significantly lower in the group treated with a cemented implant. Trends toward better function and better mobility in the cemented group were observed. These trends reached significance in particular functional scores at some postoperative time points.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
Therapeutic Level II. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.


In magnetically confined plasmas, fluctuations in the ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) will be driven by the presence of non-thermal ion energy distributions. In a typical discharge in the GAMMA 10 tandem mirror, Alfvén-ion-cyclotron (AIC) modes are spontaneously excited due to strong temperature anisotropy. On the other hand, in fusion-oriented devices with a toroidal configuration, neutral beam (NB) injection is commonly used to create high performance plasmas. The resultant high-energy ions are trapped in local mirrors and will form velocity distributions with strong anisotropy. Especially in burning plasma experiments on JET and TFTR, fusion-product (FP) ions form non-thermal ion energy distributions in the bulk plasma and ion cyclotron emission (ICE) has been observed. The main purpose of this work is to study the relation between AIC-modes and ICEs in magnetically confined plasmas with non-thermal energy distributions. Recently, fluctuation measurements made by using ICRF antennas as pickup loops on JT-60U have been started. When the deuterium-NBs are injected into deuterium bulk plasma, magnetic fluctuations due to injected beams and FP ions are detected. Wave excitation near the ion cyclotron frequency and its higher harmonics is studied experimentally in plasmas with non-thermal ion energy distributions.


The focus of this chapter is on the grammatical expression of the unknown and its role as a force for linguistic change at different times in Germanic. The paper opens with a brief look at modern Pennsylvania German, the language spoken by ultra-conservative Anabaptist groups in North America. This language has been chosen because it offers such clear evidence of a modern Germanic language whose structural features have been shaped by the cultural preoccupations of its speakers. The second part of the paper shifts focus to the grammatical coding of human experiencers in early Germanic, in particular Anglo-Saxon and early Dutch. Here it is argued that the predilection for dative and accusative marked participants during these early times was an enactment of prevailing thinking – specifically, beliefs about the human condition that emphasized its vulnerability to external forces.


Little is known about whether the physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness levels of healthy weight children who successfully maintain a healthy weight into adulthood are different to those healthy weight children who become overweight as adults. A better understanding of these factors may provide useful insights for obesity prevention strategies, which have had limited success to date. This is of concern because overweight and obesity is increasing in prevalence in Australia and internationally in both children and adults. This prospective cohort study therefore aimed to examine the role of physical activity and fitness in healthy weight maintenance from childhood into adulthood.

Subjects were 2,053 Australian adults examined at age 26-36 years in 2004-5, who were first
examined as 7-15 year olds in 1985 as part of a national survey of the health and fitness of
Australian children. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated at both time-points from measured
weight and height (kg/m²); healthy weight was defined as a BMI less than internationally
accepted cutpoints for overweight in children, and as a BMI<25kg/m² in adults. Healthy weight
maintainers were healthy weight children who remained healthy weight as adults. Physical
activity was estimated from a questionnaire at both time-points and also from pedometers at
follow-up. Fitness was estimated from a cycle ergometer test at both time-points (9, 12 and 15
year olds at baseline). Baseline (language spoken at home, parental smoking and parental
exercise at baseline) and follow-up (smoking, occupation, education level and marital status)
sociodemographic factors, were self-reported.

•At follow-up:
o 37% of men and 59% of women were healthy weight defined using BMI cutpoints; 71% of men and 69% of women were healthy weight defined using waist circumference cutpoints
o Physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness were positively associated with being a healthy weight
o Objective measures (pedometer) of physical activity showed stronger associations with healthy weight than did cardiorespiratory fitness
o Healthy weight defined using waist circumference demonstrated stronger associations than BMI with physical activity and fitness in men

•Longitudinally:
o 35% of healthy weight boys and 65% of healthy weight girls remained healthy weight as adults
o Child and adult BMI were well correlated in females (r=0.51) and males (r=0.47); tracking was weaker in the youngest and oldest males
o Physical activity showed poor tracking from childhood to adulthood (males: r=0.06, females: r=-0.01 for self-reported activity); fitness tracked more strongly (males: r=0.24; females: f=0.27)
o The most active children were no more likely to be healthy weight maintainers than the least active (RR 0.77,95% Cl: 0.57-1.02 in males; RR 0.98, 95% Cl: 0.84-1.13 in females)
o The fittest children were no more likely to be healthy weight maintainers than the least fit children (RR 0.93, 95% Cl: 0.67-1.29 in males; RR 0.97, 95% Cl: 0.81-1.15 in females)
o There was some evidence that younger participants whose cardiorespiratory fitness increased over time were more likely to maintain a healthy weight than those whose fitness decreased (RR 2.30, 95% Cl: 1.21-4.38 in males; RR 2.66, 95% Cl: 1.46-4.84 in females)
o There was also evidence that younger participants whose fitness remained stable over time were more likely to be healthy weight maintainers than those whose fitness decreased (RR 1.77, 95% CI: 0.98-3.20 in males; RR 2.25, 95% Cl: 1.34-3.79 in females)

While some limitations were evident in this investigation, in particular measurements at only two points in time, it had many key advantages over previous studies, including its size, duration of follow-up and extensive measures of adiposity, physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness. Little previous research has investigated factors associated with maintaining a healthy weight, and no published reports have examined this relationship from childhood into adulthood. In doing so, this study has provided insights into the physical activity behaviours and cardiorespiratory fitness levels of healthy weight maintainers.

In conclusion, physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness appeared to play a minor role in the maintenance of a healthy weight from childhood to adulthood. The strongest associations were observed in younger participants. Associations with fitness were stronger than associations with physical activity, suggesting that imprecision in the physical activity measures may have resulted in an underestimation of the effects. The limited contribution of physical activity and fitness to healthy weight maintenance from childhood into adulthood must be considered in the planning of future obesity prevention strategies. There is still much to learn about the behavioural, biological and genetic characteristics of those who manage to maintain a healthy weight in the current obesity-promoting environment.


In the wake of the ongoing credit crisis, policy makers are considering whether the regulation of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives could help avert another such crisis and taxpayer-financed bailout. In particular, the Treasury Department has proposed to subject OTC derivatives to comprehensive regulation and to mandate the exchange trading and central counterparty clearing and settlement of standardized OTC derivatives. This paper explores the regulatory, operational, and economic aspects of the clearing and settlement of OTC derivatives and the likely consequences of the Treasury Plan. I contend that the proposal to mandate central counterparty OTC clearing for standardized products will not likely avert another potential crisis or failure of a large financial institution, but will likely engender significant legal and regulatory uncertainty, impede financial innovation, raise market participants' costs, and adversely impact the competitiveness of U.S. derivatives participants. To address systemic and payment system concerns, improvements in the consolidated enterprise-wide supervision and regulation of certain financial institutions (across all of their risk-taking activities) will likely prove more effective and less disruptive than new product-based regulations.


This thesis seeks to explain why the European Union ratcheted up restrictive
measures on Myanmar from 1991 until 2010, despite divergent interests of EU
member states and the apparent inability of sanctions to quickly achieve the
primary objectives of EU policy. This empirical puzzle applies the 'sanctions
paradox' to the issue of joint action in the EU. It also connects the assessment of
policy effectiveness to EU foreign policy-making. The investigation unravels this
conundrum through competitive theory testing.
The study discovers that EU foreign policy was essentially decided by the largest
member states. Since 1996, the UK has fostered a consensus among EU policymakers on a principled common policy, which would induce political reform in
Myanmar mainly via the implementation of punitive measures. Hence, noncompliance by the target with EU demands offers a credible, but insufficient
explanation of why the EU tightened its sanctions regime. US pressure on EU
policy was marginal.
The dissertation argues that a 'normative' interpretation of liberal
intergovernmentalism best solves this puzzle. The EU met domestic pressures
for action, although the measures adopted were clearly too inadequate to be
effective. Feedback on policy effectiveness did not play a significant role in EU
decision-making.
EU policy was driven by a consensus to treat Myanmar as a 'pariah' state.
Ideological motivations have largely outweighed material interests. Normative
arguments were necessary to put proposals on the common agenda; yet,
decisions ultimately involved 'cooperative bargaining' among the largest states.
Consensus building was therefore a dynamic process. The policy entrepreneur
defined its interests domestically; member states with lower preference intensity
generally refrained from opposing its leadership.
This thesis thus contributes to the liberal intergovernmental scholarship by
proposing a more comprehensive explanation for the drivers and constraints that
influence the making of European sanctions.


We study the interplay between motor programs and their timing in the brain by using precise pulses of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied to the primary motor cortex. The movement of the finger performing a tapping task is periodically perturbed in synchronization with a metronome. TMS perturbation can profoundly affect both the finger trajectory and its kinematics, but the tapping accuracy itself is surprisingly not affected. The motion of the finger during the TMS perturbation can be categorized into two abnormal behaviors that subjects were unaware of: a doubling of the frequency of the tap and a stalling of the finger for half the period. More stalls occurred as the tapping frequency increased. In addition, an enhancement of the velocity of the finger on its way up was observed. We conclude that the timing process involved in controlling the tapping movement is separate from the motor processes in charge of execution of the motor commands. We speculate that the TMS is causing a release of the motor plan ahead of time into activation mode. The observed doubles and stalls are then the result of an indirect interaction in the brain, making use of an existing motor plan to correct the preactivation and obtain the temporal goal of keeping the beat.


Aim: The objective of this research was to design and evaluate dental film containing curcumin for the topical treatment of periodontal diseases. Materials and Methods: Curcumin, hydrophobic polyphenolic compounds derived from the rhizomes of Curcuma longa, shows wide spectrum of antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties activity against a number of periodontal pathogens and hence selected for site-specific delivery in the treatment of periodontitis. Dental films were prepared by solvent-casting technique using polymers such as ethyl cellulose, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose K4M, and Eudragit RL 100 with polyethylene glycol 400 as plasticizer, and prepared films (F1-F7) were evaluated for various physicochemical parameters such as weight variation, surface pH, folding endurance, moisture loss, moisture absorption, drug content, in vitro drug release, in vitro antibacterial, and stability studies. No chemical interaction between drug and the polymer was seen as confirmed by Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy studies. Results and Discussions: In vitro dissolution studies showed an initial burst release to achieve immediate therapeutic level of drug in periodontal pocket, followed by a progressive fall and extended release of the drug with more uniformity for prolonged period of time. Formulation F7 released 98.25% of drug at the end of 168 h was considered as the optimized formulation. Release kinetics of curcumin from film followed the Higuchi diffusion model. Stability studies did not show any significant changes with respect to content and appearance. Conclusion: Good physicochemical properties were shown by the films. The study suggests that curcumin dental film is a potential drug delivery device for the topical treatment of periodontal diseases.


We extend the definition of the star product introduced by Lunin and Maldacena to study marginal deformations of N=4 SYM. The essential difference from the latter is that instead of considering U(1)xU(1) non-R-symmetry, with charges in a corresponding diagonal matrix, we consider two Z_3-symmetries followed by an SU(3) transformation, with resulting off-diagonal elements. From this procedure we obtain a more general Leigh-Strassler deformation, including cubic terms with the same index, for specific values of the coupling constants. We argue that the conformal property of N=4 SYM is preserved, in both beta- (one-parameter) and gamma_{i}-deformed (three-parameters) theories, since the deformation for each amplitude can be extracted in a prefactor. We also conclude that the obtained amplitudes should follow the iterative structure of MHV amplitudes found by Bern, Dixon and Smirnov (Less)


Title of Thesis: A TYPOLOGICAL APPROACH TO EXPLORING PATHWAYS FOR RAPISTS, CHILD MOLESTERS AND INCEST OFFENDERS Danielle Arlanda Harris, Master of Arts, 2004 Thesis Directed by: Dr Laura Dugan Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice This research assumes offense specialization and distinguishes between rape, child molestation and incest. I hypothesize that child molesters will reveal the earliest age of onset (self-reported age of first sexually aggressive behavior) when compared to rapists and incest offenders respectively. Second, I hypothesize that sexual risk factors (pornography exposure and use) will characterize a specific pathway to child molestation and non-sexual risk factors (poor peer associations and substance use) will be more relevant in rape and incest pathways respectively. A descriptive univariate analysis supports the first hypothesis and a principal components factor analysis supports the second hypothesis. Child molesters are indeed characterized by a high rate of exposure to and use of pornography and rapists are more likely than other sexual offenders to use drugs and alcohol and to have extensive criminal histories. Incest offenders are distinguished by their 'social competence' and by variables criminologists consider to be 'protective' factors.


P doping of gallium nitride by incorporation of magnesium in the layers was controlled recently. Only Popovici et al. [1] have published the results of a Raman study on p type GaN. In the present communication, we report on the interaction of the free hole gas with the axial A(1)(LO) or planar E-1(LO) phonon modes, evidenced by Raman scattering: the observed coupled phonon-plasmon mode is found very different from the corresponding one evidenced in silicon doped (n type) GaN. We compare the experimental data with the lineshape calculated within a dielectric model, using the results of electrical measurements. These results are also compared with infrared reflectivity spectra.


This paper presents a resonant LLC DC/DC-converter supplied Cascaded H-Bridge (CHB) cell for the use in a Series Hybrid Cascaded H-Bridge (SH-CHB) converter. The SH-CHB converter, which consists of CHB-cells with a dv/dt-filter and series-connected Linear Power Amplifiers (LPA), is briefly introduced and the requirements for the CHB-cells are discussed. The LLC circuit is designed for a resonance frequency of 60-70 kHz. The CHB-cells have a maximum output current of 70 A and can provide an output voltage of +/- 30 V. The resulting maximum output power is 2.1 kVA. All passive components of the resonant LLC DC/DC-converter supplied CHB-cells are PCB integrated. For the control and communication, a FPGA board is developed and a new switching frequency adaption algorithm as well as a novel start-up control strategy for the resonant LLC circuit is implemented.


The Pastoral Letters—1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus—have made an enduring contribution to understanding the role of pastors in the church. With a spirited devotion to the text, Robert Yarbrough helps unlock the meaning of these short but rich letters in this commentary.
 In keeping with the character of Pillar New Testament Commentary volumes, The Letters to Timothy and Titus offers a straightforward reading of these texts. Their primary concerns—God, salvation, and the pastoral task—remain central to Yarbrough's thorough and comprehensive exegesis. Engaging with the best scholarship and resources, Yarbrough shows how these letters are as relevant today as they were to the early Christians.


We report here an evaluation of a program for thalassemia-disease prevention, comprising education, population screening for heterozygotes, and reproductive counseling; the evaluation includes cost analysis. A preprogram survey in 1978 of 3,247 citizens in the high-risk communities (85% were high-school students) showed that 88% favored a program but that only 31% considered fetal diagnosis as an acceptable option. Screening in high school or before marriage was preferred by 56%. In a 25-month period (December 1979-December 1982), we screened 6,748 persons, including 5,117 senior high-school students, using MCV/HbA2 indices. The participation rate was 80% in the high-school group. The frequency for 13-thalassemia heterozygosity was 4.7% with 10-fold vari-ation among ethnic groups at risk; the overall frequency for all variants found was 5.4%. We surveyed 60 carriers and 120 noncarriers after screening high-school students (response rate 77%): most carriers told parents (95%) and friends (67%) the test result; and 38% of the carriers' parents (vs. 18% of the noncarriers' parents) were also screened. Carriers would ascertain their spouses' genotype (91%) and approved uniformly (95%) the high-school screening experience and its goal. We performed 11 fetal diagnoses in a 25-month interval (> 75% participation in target population) either by fetoscopy and globin-chain analysis or by amniocentesis and genomic DNA analysis; two of three affected fetuses were aborted at parental request, there was one spontaneous abortion (after fetoscopy), and seven live births. The at-risk couples claimed pregnancy would not be contemplated without the fetal-diagnosis option. We analyzed economic costs of the program: cost per case prevented is =$6,700, slightly less than cost-per-patient-treatment-year or about 4% of undis-counted treatment cost incurred in the first 25 years of life for an affected individual. These findings indicate: collective acceptance of the program, appropriate attitudes among carriers, general acceptance and efficacy of fetal diagnosis, and global cost-effectiveness.


Background Home care patients are a growing group of community-dwelling older adults with complex care needs and high health service use. Adult home care patients are at high risk for emergency department (ED) visits, which is greater on the same day as a nursing visit. Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine whether common nursing indicators modified the association between nursing visits and same-day ED visits. Methods A case-crossover design within a retrospective cohort of adult home care patients in Ontario. Results A total of 11,840 home care nursing patients were analyzed. Home care patients who received a home nursing visit were more likely to go the ED afterhours on the same day with a stronger association for visits not admitted to the hospital. Having a urinary catheter increased the risk of a same-day ED visit (OR: 1.78 (95% CI 1.15–1.60) vs. 1.21 (95% CI 1.15–1.28)). No other clinical indicator modified the association. Conclusions The findings of this study can be used to inform care policies and practices for home care nurses in the management of indwelling urinary catheter complications. Further examination of system factors such as capacity and resources available to respond to catheter related complications in the community setting are recommended.


Vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency is prevalent among pregnant women. Recommendations for adequate levels of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D and appropriate vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy differ between the Institute of Medicine and the Endocrine Society. Obstetrician-gynecologists must make clinical decisions in this environment of uncertain guidance. An online questionnaire regarding physician practice patterns for screening and supplementing pregnant women was administered to 225 randomly selected practicing obstetrician-gynecologists of whom 101 (45%) completed the questionnaire. A majority indicated that vitamin D insufficiency was a problem in their patient population (68.4%) and that most of their pregnant patients would benefit from vitamin D supplementation (66.3%). Half (52.5%) would recommend vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy to some patients, but only 16.8% to all. Only one in four (25.8%) routinely screen their pregnant patients for vitamin D status. Physicians who indicated that vitamin D status was a problem in their patient population were more likely to screen routinely (32.8% versus 9.7%, P = 0.002) and believe their patients would benefit from supplementation (91.2% versus 16.1%, P = 0.001). Opinion regarding supplementation levels and indicators of adequacy were split between the two competing recommendations, suggesting that clinical practice will likely remain variable across physicians, with uncertain public health consequences.


This thesis work presents detailed results of the application of exergy-based methods to highly dynamic, integrated aerospace systems such as hypersonic vehicle concepts. In particular, an exergy-based methodology is compared to a more traditional based measure by applying both to the synthesis/design and operational optimization of a hypersonic vehicle configuration comprised of an airframe sub-system and a propulsion sub-system consisting of inlet, combustor, and nozzle components. A number of key design and operational decision variables are identified as those which govern the hypersonic vehicle flow physics and thermodynamics and detailed one-dimensional models of each component and sub-system are developed. Rates of exergy loss as well as exergy destruction resulting from irreversible loss mechanisms are determined in each of the hypersonic vehicle sub-systems and their respective components. Multiple optimizations are performed for both the propulsion sub-system only and for the entire hypersonic vehicle system for single mission segments and for a partial, three-segment mission. Three different objective functions are utilized in these optimizations with the specific goal of comparing exergy methods to a standard vehicle performance measure, namely, the vehicle overall efficiency. Results of these optimizations show that the exergy method presented here performs well when compared to the standard performance measure and, in a number of cases, leads to more optimal syntheses/designs in terms of the fuel mass flow rate required for a given task (e.g., for a fixed-thrust requirement or a given mission). In addition to the various vehicle design optimizations, operational optimizations are conducted to examine the advantage if any of energy exchange to maintain shock-on-lip for both design and off-design conditions. Parametric studies of the hypersonic vehicle sub-systems and components are also conducted and provide further insights into the impacts that the design and operational decision variables and flow properties have on the rates of exergy destruction.


Objective: In the present study, the feasibility of a systematic record of clinical study data from marketing authorisation applications for veterinary medicinal products (VMP) and benefits of the selected approach were investigated. Background: Drug registration dossiers for veterinary medicinal products contain extensive data from drug studies, which are not easily accessible to assessors. Evidentiary value: Fast access to these data including specific search tools could facilitate a meaningful use of the data and allow assessors for comparison of test and studies from different dossiers. Methods: First, pivotal test parameters and their mutual relationships were identified. Second, a data model was developed and implemented in a relational database management system, including a data entry form and various reports for database searches. Compilation of study data in the database was demonstrated using all available clinical studies involving VMPs containing the anthelmintic drug Praziquantel. By means of descriptive data analysis possibilities of data evaluation including graphical presentation were shown. Suitability of the database to support the performance of meta-analyses was tentatively validated. Results: The data model was designed to cover the specific requirements arising from study data. A total of 308 clinical studies related to 95 VMPs containing Praziquantel (single agent and combination drugs) was selected for prototype testing. The relevant data extracted from these studies were appropriately structured and shown to be basically suitable for descriptive data analyses as well as for meta-analyses. Conclusion: The database-supported collection of study data would provide users with easy access to the continuously increasing pool of scientific information held by competent authorities. It enables specific data analyses. Database design allows expanding the data model to all types of studies and classes of drugs registered in veterinary medicine. The needs for detailed data recording and versatility of the data model must be carefully balanced. Application: The database will be used by regulatory authorities.


In this article celebrating the 50th anniversary of Terry v. Ohio, I argue that the criminal justice system is not an integrated system, but a fragmented one. One way it is fragmented, the Terry Court recognizes, is between crime control and public-order policing. Crime control has high-judicial visibility, allowing illegally-gained evidence to be excluded at trial. Public-order policing has low-judicial visibility. What happens on the street stays on the street, and rarely makes it to the courtroom. Read this way, Terry tells lawyers something uncomfortable. In a fragmented criminal justice system, there are some forms of police misconduct that the Court, and the exclusionary rule, just cannot remedy. Doing social activism through law is not enough. The Fourth Amendment lacks the resources to protect us from race-based policing.
For the most part, the race-based criticism of Terry focuses, understandably enough, on the Court's failure to engage with a race-conscious approach to the problems of race-based policing. Many of these critiques are urgent and important. However, in an attempt to place the blame for subsequent doctrinal novelties at the feet of the Terry Court, they generally embargo and explain away the Court's explicit discussion of race-based policing and the Court's references—express and implied—to the recently published Challenge of Crime in a Free Society.
To reclaim a sense of Terry's powerful engagement with race and reasonableness, I want to separate out Terry from its progeny and suggest that the Court was engaged in a conversation with the 1967 President's Commission Report, The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society. I begin by discussing the President's Commission's radical critique of race-based policing and its even more radical recommendations for reform: recommendations that have largely been ignored and unfulfilled. I then explain how Terry's approach to stop and frisk responds to race-based harassment by, not only adopting, but rendering more stringent, the President Commission's recommendations on the use of stops and frisks. I suggest that Terry's precise, rule-like approach to stop-and-frisk policing precludes its use as a device for low-level racial harassment and limits its use to investigating crimes of violence. This precision enabled the Court to tackle head-on a problem identified by both the Terry Court and the Report: the central place occupied by physical displays of police authority—often called "command presence"—to dominate racial minorities. I conclude by suggesting that critics, frustrated at the way the reasonable suspicion standard has been co-opted by a pro-police agenda, miss the Court's central regulatory claims. Three claims are particularly important: (1) that there is not one criminal justice system, but many overlapping systems; (2) that the police conduct is highly visible in minority communities; but (3) that same conduct is low visibility in the courts that are supposed to regulate their behavior. Constitutional litigation is thus a limited resource against the sort of low-visibility policing that remains separate from the process of criminal prosecution and so incapable of judicial oversight.


Studies were conducted to identify and select for superior maize
inbred lines based on their performance per 5e, and to evaluate their
performance and combining ability in all possible crosses. Performance and
heterosis of the single crosses were evaluated at two locations, in Universiti
Pertanian Malaysia, Serdang. Furthermore, some promising double cross
hybrids developed from the potential single crosses were also evaluated for
performance and for comparison with the predicted.
In general , most of the inbred lines exhibited poor performances due
to inbreeding effects after successive generations of selfing, but some were
however, found to have high potential for use in hybrid production.
Hy-58, Hy-59 and Hy-60 were identified as the best performing F1
single-cross hybrids at both locations, with grain yields of 3703.7 kg/ha, 3940.7 kg/ha and 3451.9 kg/ha, respectively, at Field 2; 5659.3 kg/ha,
572 5.9 kg/ha and 5948.1 kg/ha, respectively, at Share Farm; and 468 1.5
kg/ha, 4833.3 kg/ha and 4700.0 kg/ha, respectively, in the locations
combined. In general, hybrids that produced high yields were those formed
between inbred parents that were themselves high yielding and from
genetically diverse population sources.
High heterosis was shown by grain yield, ear weight and grain weight
per ear, moderate heterosis by number of kernels per row, ear height, plant
height and ear length, while low heterosis was shown by ear diameter,
number of kernel rows per ear, 100-grain weight and shelling percentage.
Maturity characters showed negative heterosis, indicating earliness of the
hybrids.


Thirty-seven years ago, a book called The Quiet Revolution in Land Use Control argued that states would soon take over localities' long-held power over land use regulation. In the authors' view, this quiet revolution would occur when policymakers and the public recognized that certain problems - like environmental destruction - were too big for localities to handle on their own. Although the quiet revolution has not yet occurred, this Article suggests that it will, and should, occur alongside the ever-growing green building movement. This movement presents practical and ideological challenges to our current system of regulating land use. This Article examines those challenges, which occur primarily as a result of the "locality" - the local administration and enforcement - of "traditional" land use laws such as zoning ordinances and design controls. It uses the green building example to rebut the post-quiet-revolution scholarly presumption that land use is, or should be, an inherently local function. Currently, traditional land use regulation takes place at the local level. As written and enforced, zoning and design controls laws create unnecessary conflict between the desire to live in safe, attractive, and culturally rich communities and the desire to make those communities environmentally responsible. This tension raises the question: how should our traditional land use laws change in light of growing evidence of the negative externalities of conventional construction? This Article argues that the dominant mode of land use regulation nationwide bars the reforms that environmentalists and the building industry have worked together to develop. Given the failures of local governments to facilitate green building, it argues that when the consequences of land use laws exceed local boundaries, "extra-local" regulation should be considered. Instead of either a regional or national approach, this Article takes up the quiet revolution's rallying cry that states should play a stronger role in shaping the way traditional land use laws respond to green building.


We surveyed employees at a technology company in May of 2005 about how they manage personal and household scheduling. We found that 51% of 621 respondents primarily used their digital calendar at work for managing household events. Several themes emerged as important to respondents including: a desire to have a single place for all calendar information, a need for constant access and wish to easily coordinate household schedules. Respondents' challenges in using digital calendars and the reasons some respondents use paper calendars provide insights into how digital calendars could be improved to better meet the needs of families.


IMPORTANCE
Occupational therapy students must master knowledge of occupation, yet how educators assess such knowledge has not been explored. In this study, we elucidate robust assessment practices that can help students master knowledge of occupation.

OBJECTIVE
To examine practices that educators use to assess knowledge of occupation.

DESIGN
Basic qualitative research. Using inductive and constant comparative methods, we coded 25 interviews and 82 educational artifacts for assessment practices, categorized practices as direct or indirect, and analyzed their alignments with features of robust assessments.

SETTING
Twenty-five randomly selected occupational therapy and occupational therapy assistant academic programs in the United States, stratified by geographic region and institution type.

PARTICIPANTS
Twenty-nine educators who represented selected programs.

RESULTS
We found occupation at instruction and program levels primarily in relation to practice using indirect more than direct practices. Assignments were often highly creative and experiential, yet varied in their alignments with established criteria of robust assessments.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Knowledge of occupation was often intertwined with practice-oriented learning experiences and skills; hence, it was not assessed as a distinctly indispensable learning outcome. Educators can build on current practices to design robust assessments that require students to demonstrate knowledge of occupation in practice contexts and everyday life.

WHAT THIS ARTICLE ADDS
In this study, we elucidate a continuum of prevalent educational practices used to assess knowledge of occupation; we also review best practices for robust assessments of such knowledge not only related to practice but also as a dynamic instrument of individual and societal well-being more broadly.


The study attempts to present the economic strategies of a settlement, in which employment in state
companies built upon a specifi c environmental resource (natural gas extraction) as well as the success
of an independent enterprise has signifi cantly transformed the livelihood strategies based on agriculture,
resulting in a change in lifestyle as well. The studied settlement represents the opposite model of
the villages re-peasantised after the regime change, described in the Transylvanian scholarly literature.
The study analyses the economic behaviour modes, as well as the changes in the livelihood strategies
observed in a settlement along the Kis-Kukullő (Târnava Mică) River, aiming to present the stratifi cation
of the rural society based on economic strategies. The author outlines the way in which in this multiethnic
(inhabited by Hungarians, Romanians and Romani) small settlement, the bakery which used to
function as a cooperative during socialism became a well-established company employing a signifi cant
part of the village's population, being present in important segments of the national markets, connecting
the previously isolated small settlement with new regional and national networks. He also presents
the signifi cance of the natural gas extraction activities from the point of view of livelihood strategies,
after which he presents the economic strategies built upon agricultural activities.


Global outsourcing of IT and IT-enabled services (ITES) has now become an accepted corporate strategy of a vast majority of firms around the world. The functions being offshored have increased in scope and magnitude and have climbed the value chain ladder. However, the literature has overwhelmingly focused on client-centric issues to the neglect of vendor concerns. There is a rich tradition of ranking critical issues confronting Information Systems executives, and some studies have even explored critical issues of outsourcing clients. These rankings have significant implications for both researchers and practitioners. Our study focuses on the nascent area of IT outsourcing vendors. We examine the issues from the standpoint of IT outsourcing vendors in India, currently the primary destination for IT offshoring. The results suggest that for the Indian vendors, the most critical issues are not related to cultural, language, and time-zone differences as suggested in many writings. Rather, the most critical concerns are issues dealing with work arrangements and relationships with the client, and issues related to the client's organizational readiness for offshoring. Clearly the understanding of such issues is important to the vendors, but also to the clients in order to maintain an effective dyadic relationship.


Abstract In this article, I draw attention to the way that critical security scholars have privileged governing nodes in their accounts of circulation and have consequently overlooked practices of security that are conducted between these nodal sites. As a result, the potential and actual mobilities of circulating entities (and their implications for security) have also been viewed within nodes. This has resulted in circulation being effectively reduced to lines between two or more points. I consequently call for security researchers to attend better to entities' journeys. I use the case of natural gas's movements within UK pipelines to demonstrate how such movements are productive of a variety of forms of (in)security and, in the process, highlight the role that the mobilities literature can play in bringing about a shift towards a broadened account of circulatory security.


This article investigates the sources of financial information used for decisions regarding the buying, holding and selling of ordinary shares. The results of this questionnaire‐based study indicate that the main source of information used by those who prepare annual reports is stockbroker advice, whereas users of such reports prefer communication with management. Preparers of annual reports support the notion that annual reports are a useful source of information, but users prefer the preliminary announcement. Preparers read the income statement more thoroughly, while users read the cash flow statement more thoroughly. The article also provides information on the qualitative criteria used for assessing the usefulness of accounting practices, and some comments on the importance of setting standards and the objectives of the South African Statements of Generally Accepted Accounting Practice.


Currency of information in news consumption is an important facet of information quality which involves both the journalist providing updated information and the consumer being aware of updates and changes to the news stream. We are addressing information quality and currency in online news articles from the viewpoint of news consumption with the intent of reducing the consumption effort involved in getting the most up-to-date information on a breaking news story. The goal of this research is thus to develop a web-based user interface which (1) allows users to easily and quickly see updates to news articles online and (2) blends into existing consumption patterns by integrating into news websites. We have built NARC to address these issues by providing an integrated interface which allows users to quickly perceive changes to news articles using an inline text visualization.


The detrimental effects of low compaction temperatures or aggregate segregation have been documented for at least forty years. Lower compaction temperatures are directly related to an increase in air void content, which decreases the strength of the pavement. Even with a perfect mix design, if the mix is not properly compacted in the field, the final product will not last for its intended length of time. The goals of this study were to determine what kind of problem the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) experiences with hot-mix paving, whether temperature differentials or aggregate segregation or both, the possible causes of those problems, and what WSDOT can do to fix the problem. The study found that WSDOT experiences temperature differentials on many projects and to some extent aggregate segregation (typically in longitudinal streaks). The study also found that because many factors are involved with paving operations, no one single piece of equipment or operation will guarantee that temperature differentials will not occur, but that techniques can be utilized to offset the effects of the temperature differentials. The study utilized a density profile procedure that provides a method of determining the effect of the temperature differentials in the finished product. It can locate potential areas of low density, test those areas, and provide results (via a nuclear asphalt content gauge) to determine the extent of the problem. Density differentials are a primary concern in hot-mix paving. If temperature differentials exist, but the finished pavement has a uniform density of 93% or greater for dense-graded mixes, then the pavement should serve its intended purpose for its intended length of time. The density profile procedure does not guarantee a uniform mat density, but it can be used as a quality control tool to help attain a uniform density. This could be a major step in achieving a higher quality hot-mix product.


We present microwave electrode structures suited for guiding electrons propagating in a purely electric, alternating quadrupole field. In a first experiment using a standing wave on an electrically short structure, we previously demonstrated the general concept of electron confinement in microwave fields. Here, we discuss the extension to electrically long structures supporting travelling microwave excitations. This requires a modal decomposition of the voltage patterns on the multiconductor transmission line formed by the electrodes. We show that the use of a general five-wire structure leads to the distortion of the guiding potential upon propagation due to differing modal propagation constants. This can be avoided by implementing a coupled microstrip configuration with elevated signal electrodes. With structures like these, complex geometries connecting different beam manipulation elements can be realized, enabling new forms of electron experiments with guided matter waves.


What is the just measure of Western obligations to Africa? As Africans and their supporters mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the United States and Great Britain, the question becomes increasingly salient. Calls for reparations for the evils of slavery, as well as for past colonial and current economic and political abuses, can be heard across Africa and the African diaspora. Human rights scholar Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann examines these calls for redress in Reparations to Africa. Her study analyzes the reparations movement from the perspectives of law, philosophy, political science, and sociology. While acknowledging the brutal background of the slave trade and colonialism, and the mistreatment of the peoples of Africa, Howard-Hassmann finds that the complexity of this history, along with facts of the contemporary situation, weakens the case for financial compensation, although she does recommend acknowledgment of, and apologies for, some actions. The book not only provides a bold reckoning of the root causes, both internal and external, of African underdevelopment and unrest but also suggests alternative means for restorative justice and examines the role that institutions such as the International Criminal Court can play. By including the voices of 74 African academics, diplomats, and activists interviewed by Howard-Hassmann and Anthony P. Lombardo, Reparations to Africa makes a valuable contribution to the reparations debate. In an emotionally and politically charged postcolonial environment, this book serves as a judicious guide to the search for economic justice for Africans today and into the future.


This paper reports the findings of research that explored the practices of tutors in blended learning contexts. It investigated the skills, qualities and competences, particularly emotional competences, contributing to tutor effectiveness with the exploration including analysis of learners' perceptions of their quality. A mixed methods approach was adopted to conduct a detailed exploration of eight tutors' practice with data gathered from three principal sources. Interviews with tutors explored their approaches to delivery and considered factors that impacted on quality; students' perceptions of their learning experiences were assessed using an attitude survey; an analysis of the content and communications in the virtual learning environment provided insight into tutors' online practice. The research is based at a 'post 1992' university in the north of England and within an education disciplinary area. A conceptual framework is proposed for understanding the data generated in the form of a model of the observed tutor beliefs and practices. This represents an interpretation of effective practice in a particular cultural context and this framework may also be useful in understanding other instances of blended learning. The Model has three dimensions, which include higher order 'concepts' - constructivism, care/nurture and instrumentality, together with 'lower level' factors, which are provided to operationalise the three broad conceptual areas. Further, the model suggests qualities and skills of effective tutors and tutoring in the context under investigation, which could support lecturers, course leaders and managers in delivering successful blended learning programmes.


This book describes a theory of memory representation, organization, and processing for understanding complex narrative texts. The theory is implemented as a computer program called BORIS which reads and answers questions about divorce, legal disputes, personal favors, and the like. The system is unique in attempting to understand stories involving emotions and in being able to deduce adages and morals, in addition to answering fact and event based questions about the narratives it has read. BORIS also manages the interaction of many different knowledge sources such as goals, plans, scripts, physical objects, settings, interpersonal relationships, social roles, emotional reactions, and empathetic responses.The book makes several original technical contributions as well. In particular, it develops a class of knowledge constructs called Thematic Abstraction Units (TAUs) which share similarities with other representational systems such as Schank's Thematic Organization Packets and Lehnert's Plot Units. TAUs allow BORIS to represent situations which are more abstract than those captured by scripts, plans, and goals. They contain processing knowledge useful in dealing with the kinds of planning and expectation failures that characters often experience in narratives; and, they often serve as episodic memory structures, organizing events which involve similar kinds of planning failures and divergent domains.An appendix contains a detailed description of a demon-based parser, a kernel of the BORIS system, as well as the actual LISP code of a microversion of this parser and a number of exercises for expanding it into a full-fledged story-understander.Michael G. Dyer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at UCLA. His book is included in The MIT P ress Artificial Intelligence Series.


Five microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, India and the Philippines developed and offered health protection services to microfinance clients: health education, health loans, health savings, health micro-insurance, linkages to health providers and distribution of health products. After about two years, the services were collectively reaching over 300,000 clients and are continuing to scale up. The cost to the MFI was generally low for each service (average annual net marginal cost of US$0.29 per client and average total annual cost, including allocated expenses, of $1.59 per client). Some were expected to become profitable in the near term. In addition to the financial cost of offering such services and who bears the cost, we discuss the broader benefits both to clients and to the MFIs themselves and suggest that more MFIs around the world could find similar cost-effective ways to deliver health protection services to their clients.


Whether you use your Tablet PC for work or play, this easy to follow guide gets you going quickly! Using real world scenarios that apply to teachers, students, business professionals, medical professionals, and more, Absolute Beginner's Guide to Tablet PCs shows you how to put Tablet PCs to use in real life. The book shows you the basics for getting your Tablet PCs up and running, then kicks it into high gear and shows you how to put your newfound palmtop power to use! You will also learn how to use Microsoft's new OneNote application to take, store, sort, and share notes with other users.


The effects of intravenous (i.v.) anaesthetics on nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR)-mediated transients in intracellular free Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) and currents were investigated in neonatal rat intracardiac neurons using fura-2 photometry and patch-clamp recordings. Extensive preliminary tests using fura-2 containing solutions in the presence or absence of the anaesthetics were carried out to detect any interference of these drugs with the fura-2 fluorescence signal: Using photospectrometry and a ratiometric photometry set-up to carry out a series of calibrations of the fura-2 signal revealed that ratiometric fura-2 recordings can faithfully be carried out in the presence of clinically relevant concentrations (clinical EC50) of the i.v. anaesthetics studied. In fura-2 loaded neurons, nAChR activation evoked a transient increase in [Ca2+]i, which was reversibly inhibited by the clinical EC50 of the i.v. anaesthetic thiopental. The EC50 for thiopental inhibition of nAChR induced [Ca2+]i transients was 28 µM, close to the estimated clinical EC50 of thiopental (25 µM). However, control experiments using Ca2+ -channel blockers showed that voltage-gated Ca2+ -channels (Cav) are activated by the depolarization following nAChR activation and thus indirectly contribute to increases in [Ca2+]i. When fura-2 loaded neurons were voltage-clamped at -60 mV to eliminate any contribution of voltage-gated Ca2+ channels, then thiopental simultaneously inhibited nAChR-induced increases in [Ca2+]i and peak current amplitudes. Thiopental inhibited nAChR-induced peak current amplitudes in dialyzed whole cell recordings by ~ 40 % at -120, -80 and -40 mV holding potential suggesting that the inhibition is voltage independent. Thiopental did not inhibit caffeine-induced [Ca2+]i transients, indicating that an inhibition of Ca2+ release from internal stores via ryanodine receptor (RyR) channels is unlikely. The barbiturate pentobarbital and the dissociative anaesthetic ketamine used at clinical EC50 concentrations were also shown to inhibit nAChR-induced increases in [Ca2+]i. In conclusion, thiopental and other i.v. anaesthetics may inhibit nAChR-induced currents and [Ca2+]i transients in intracardiac neurons by binding to nAChR and thereby may contribute to changes in heart rate and cardiac output under clinical conditions.


In the evolving landscape of scholarly communication, librarians not only spend countless hours educating researchers about copyright, subscription licensing, classroom use, author's agreements, and open access, but they also pay enormous subscription fees to publishers. This is potentially the reality of a system in flux, the fact of being in the middle of a change: we work for reform and enforce the current system in the same breath. Librarians tend to be risk averse, and rightly so, but this caution should not mean that librarians are pacifiers instead of change agents, that we educate while accepting publisher's models without question or action.


Koedoe has reached a milestone in its history in producing this, the 50th volume. Published annually since 1958 by the then National Parks Board and biannually since 1989, more than 845 articles have been published in the journal. There has also been one monograph, The reptile fauna of the Kruger National Park (1966), and there have been two supplementary issues, Proceedings of a symposium on the status of nature conservation in Southern Africa (1977) and Proceedings of a symposium on the Kalahari ecosystem (1984). The Scientific bibliography on the national parks of South Africa (1994) has also been published.


Sībawayhi's Kitāb devotes a large section to the analysis of different typologies of verbal valency in Arabic. This analysis is unprecedented in other linguistic traditions in both extent and depth, and largely outperforms later Arab grammarians' treatment in its peculiar concern for what would be called thematic roles or actants in contemporary linguistics, which has shown a growing interest in this matter for the last decades.Valency in the Kitāb is analyzed from a prevalent logic-semantic perspective which strikingly differs from the sharper distinction of the level of lafẓ and maʿnā, which became normative for later grammarians. In particular, Sībawayhi accurately distinguishes verbs that 'pass over' (taʿaddā) one or more objects (mafʿūl) and/or subjects/agents (fāʿil), which refers to the semantic-thematic role of the arguments rather than to their 'surface' realization as fāʿil or mafʿūl. This analysis is an interesting earliest example of the type of classification of verb classes, which has become a central issue in some contemporary lexicalist approaches to grammar. The paper presents a taxonomy of verb classes detected by Sībawayhi and a discussion of implications of such an early treatment of verbal valency for both the history of linguistics and current linguistic analyses of Arabic.


Transmission of coherent light through photonic gratings with varying Kerr nonlinearity is modeled within a coupled-mode system derived from the Maxwell equations. The incident light waves are uniformly stable in time-dependent dynamics if the photonic grating has zero net-average Kerr nonlinearity. When the average nonlinearity is weak but nonzero, light waves exhibit oscillatory instabilities and long-term high-amplitude oscillations in the out-of-phase linear gratings. We show that a two-step transmission map between lower-transmissive and higher-transmissive states has a narrow stability domain, which limits its applicability for logic and switching functions. Light waves exhibit cascades of real and complex instabilities in the multistable gratings with strong net-average Kerr nonlinearity. Only the first lower-transmissive stationary state can be stimulated by the incident light of small intensities. Light waves of moderate and large intensities are essentially nonstationary in the multistable gratings, and they exhibit periodic generation of Bragg solitons and blowup.