The legal definition of patentable intellectual property (IP) is rapidly evolving, with passionate proponents of both strong IP protections and increased open access to IP. The discussion in this opinion piece relates to the debate under way in the biotechnology industry, but it mirrors similar debates in other industry sectors. Since the late 1970s and early 1980s, gene patenting--a subset of biologic or deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) patents--has been deemed strategic to the commercial success of U.S. biotechnology companies, such as Genentech and Amgen (Cook-Deegan 2008). This strategic industry dependency on gene patents, however, is now in legal jeopardy. On March 29, 2010, Judge Robert W. Sweet, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, ruled that the patents for a test for mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes held by Myriad Genetics of Salt Lake City, Utah, were invalid (Association for Molecular Pathology et al. v. United States Patent and Trademark Office et al., No. 09-Civ-4515 [SDNY]). The Myriad Genetics patents were invalidated by Judge Sweet on both composition claims and method/ process claims. Drawing on "long-recognized principles of molecular biology and genetics," Judge Sweet ruled that the Myriad Genetics patents were "improperly granted" because they involved a "law of nature ('composition claims')." Because the "claimed comparisons of DNA sequences are abstract mental processes ('method/ process claims'), they also constitute unpatentable subject matter." He also held that the notion that isolating a human gene makes it patentable is "a 'lawyer's trick'" that "circumvents the prohibition on the direct patenting of the DNA in our bodies but which, in practice, reaches the same result." Judge Sweet's decision is potentially devastating to a multibillion-dollar biotechnology industry constructed upon the foundation of solid intellectual property rights; 18.5 percent of the human genes complement that is currently patented (Jensen and Murray 2005) is at risk of being invalidated. Since Myriad Genetics intends to appeal this decision, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (and likely the U.S. Supreme Court) will eventually decide whether gene tests can be effectively patented separately from the gene itself. The plaintiffs in the Myriad Genetics case, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation of New York's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, argued that 15 claims under seven BRCA gene patents (Myriad Genetics 2010) stifled biomedical research by preventing scientists from accessing patented materials or methods they need for further genetic studies (Stiglitz and Sulston 2010). The result, the plaintiffs argued, was that the difficulty of getting approval from holders of exclusive gene patents stifles work on developing multigene diagnostic tests. The Tragedy of the Anticommons In making their argument in this case, the plaintiffs invoked the notion of the "tragedy of the anticommons," a conceptual mirror image of the "tragedy of the commons." The "tragedy of the commons" occurs when multiple people, acting independently of each other and solely and rationally in their own self-interest, deplete a public resource even when it is apparent to all involved in the activity that it is not in anyone's long-term self-interest to do so (Hardin 1968). The solution to this paradox, at least for Garrett Hardin, the concept's originator, is to grant private property rights of exclusion, creating a market-based, ownership-centered approach to regulate the use (and help ensure the long-term existence) of the finite resource. Conversely, the "tragedy of the anticommons," a neologism coined by Michael Heller (1998), refers to a public resource that is underused or made unavailable for public benefit because it is too encumbered by private interests. In the field of biomedical research, the anticommons is a result, ironically, of a policy intended to encourage firms to undertake high-risk pharmacological and biotechnology research (Heller and Eisenberg 1998). …


A partition $\mathcal{P}$ of a weighted graph $G$ is $(\sigma,\tau,\Delta)$-sparse if every cluster has diameter at most $\Delta$, and every ball of radius $\Delta/\sigma$ intersects at most $\tau$ clusters. Similarly, $\mathcal{P}$ is $(\sigma,\tau,\Delta)$-scattering if instead for balls we require that every shortest path of length at most $\Delta/\sigma$ intersects at most $\tau$ clusters. Given a graph $G$ that admits a $(\sigma,\tau,\Delta)$-sparse partition for all $\Delta>0$, Jia et al. [STOC05] constructed a solution for the Universal Steiner Tree problem (and also Universal TSP) with stretch $O(\tau\sigma^2\log_\tau n)$. Given a graph $G$ that admits a $(\sigma,\tau,\Delta)$-scattering partition for all $\Delta>0$, we construct a solution for the Steiner Point Removal problem with stretch $O(\tau^3\sigma^3)$. We then construct sparse and scattering partitions for various different graph families, receiving many new results for the Universal Steiner Tree and Steiner Point Removal problems.


Abstract Growth styles of shelf-margin clinoforms are reliable but understudied predictors of sand- and sediment-budget partitioning into and across the shelf. Three discrete clinoform-growth styles were recognized, including (1) strongly progradational shelf-margin clinoforms with low growth-trajectory angles (Gct,), low aggradation to progradation ratios (A/P), low clinoform heights (Hc), and long clinoform length (Lc); (2) mixed progradational and aggradational shelf-margin clinoforms with moderate Gct, moderate A/P, intermediate Hc, and moderate Lc; and (3) strongly aggradational clinoforms with high Gct, high A/P, high Hc, and short Lc. In the South China Sea dataset considered, strongly progradational shelf-margin clinoforms exhibit flat progradational and at times a mildly aggrading stacking patterns, whereas mixed progradational and aggradational clinoforms display stacking patterns with significant progradation and aggradation. Strongly aggradational shelf-margin clinoforms are dominated by aggradational stacking patterns. Each clinoform-growth style therefore represents a specific stratal stacking pattern, providing an important tool for approaching a model-independent methodology in sequence stratigraphy. In the study dataset, strongly progradational and strongly aggradational shelf-margin clinoforms are fronted by sand-prone submarine fan systems with high sand–shale ratios and mud-dominated mass-transport systems with low sand–shale ratios, respectively. Mixed progradational and aggradational clinoforms are associated with mixed sand–mud submarine canyon systems with moderate sand–shale ratios. Additionally, strongly progradational clinoforms partitioned great volumes of sediment into deep-water areas, as reflected by high rates of shelf-edge progradation and apparent toplap. Strongly aggradational clinoforms, in contrast, stored great volumes of sediment on the shelf itself, as indicated by high rates of shelf-edge aggradation and very thick clinoform topsets. Gct and Hc therefore increase linearly with sediment volumes partitioned into the shelf, but decrease linearly with sand- and sediment-budget partitioning into deep-water areas, given a constant sediment-supply condition. Growth styles of shelf-margin clinoforms are thus good predictors of source-to-sink sand- and sediment-volume partitioning into and across the shelf, assisting greatly in developing a more dynamic stratigraphy.


INTRODUCTION
Erectile dysfunction (ED) and lower urinary tract symptoms suggestive of benign prostatic hyperplasia (LUTS/BPH) are common in aging males and frequently occur together. Tadalafil has demonstrated efficacy in treating both conditions.

AIM
The study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of tadalafil 5 mg once daily vs. placebo over 12 weeks in treating both LUTS/BPH and ED in sexually active men. We also assessed relationships of baseline disease severity and prostate specific antigen (PSA) to outcomes.

METHODS
Data were pooled from four multinational, randomized studies of men ≥45 years with LUTS/BPH, with analyses restricted to sexually active men with ED. Randomization (baseline) followed a 4-week placebo run-in; changes from baseline were assessed vs. placebo using analysis of covariance.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), IPSS subscores, Quality-of-Life Index (IPSS-QoL), BPH Impact Index (BII), and International Index of Erectile Function-Erectile Function (IIEF-EF) Domain score were used in this study.

RESULTS
Tadalafil (N = 505) significantly improved total IPSS vs. placebo (N = 521); mean changes from baseline were -6.0 and -3.6, respectively (P < 0.001). Improvements in IIEF-EF Domain score (tadalafil, 6.4; placebo, 1.4) were also significant vs. placebo, as were the IPSS storage and voiding subscores, IPSS-QoL, and BII (all P < 0.001). No significant impact of baseline ED severity or PSA category on IPSS response was observed (interaction P values, 0.463 and 0.149, respectively). Similarly, improvement in IIEF-EF Domain score was not significantly impacted by baseline LUTS/BPH severity or PSA category (interaction P values, 0.926 and 0.230, respectively). Improvements in IPSS and IIEF-EF Domain score during treatment were weakly correlated (r = -0.229). Treatment-emergent adverse events were consistent with previous reports.

CONCLUSIONS
Tadalafil was efficacious and well tolerated in treating ED and LUTS/BPH in sexually active men with both conditions. Improvements in both conditions were significant regardless of baseline severity. Improvements in the total IPSS and the IIEF-EF Domain score were weakly correlated.


Summary Many observers have proposed new regulatory content, specifically macro prudential regulatory powers, which would vary prudential standards over time to rein in financial system risks before they become too inflated. Others have pointed to problems in the existing structure of regulation, especially the need to divest the Fed of its day-to-day authority over regulation and supervision. The Fed should be removed from the day-to-day micro supervision and regulation to avoid its politicization, which threatens the independence of monetary policy and the effectiveness of regulation. The macro prudential regulator (whether the Federal Reserve (Fed) or a council of regulators) should develop a formal modeling framework for measuring systemic financial risk, which it would defend publicly. That model would describe how time-varying financial risk is measured, and how moments of high risk are identified. The framework would delineate how minimum capital requirements, provisioning requirements, and reserve requirements would respond to significant perceived increases in system-wide risk. The existence of such a framework would help make macro prudential regulation credible. Monetary policy should also be rules-based. The Fed should formally adopt as a benchmark some specific inflation target and a Taylor Rule associated with that target. If the Fed were charged with both monetary policy and macro prudential regulation, it would be unnecessary and counterproductive for it to use the fed funds rate as a tool to deal with systemic financial risk, as doing so would weaken the accountability of both monetary policy and macro prudential policy; macro prudential policy should be implemented through time-varying minimum capital and liquidity standards for banks. Higher prudential regulatory standards should be imposed on larger, more complex financial institutions. Those standards should be set by the micro prudential regulator (not the Fed) on the basis of clear formulae and should reflect the fact that complexity is a continuum. The rules governing the resolution of large failed financial institutions should be reformed to make it easier for large institutions to fail, and thus prevent abuse associated with too-big-to-fail bailouts and the moral-hazard problems they engender. It is inappropriate to create a new discretionary resolution authority over nonbank financial institutions that would be placed in the hands of the Fed or any other regulatory agency. Doing so would encourage rather than avoid too-big-to-fail bailouts. The proper approach to reforming resolution policy for large banks and nonbank financial institutions has two parts: (1) reform of the U.S. bankruptcy code to make it more effective in managing nonbank financial institutions' failures, and more credible in imposing losses on stockholders and long-term debtholders of failed financial institutions, and (2) the establishment of legally binding agreements among regulators – starting with an agreement between the U.S. and the U.K. – that would clarify crossborder claims on failed institutions' assets by subsidiaries located in different countries.


During the Last Glacial Maximum, the global sea level was 120-140 m below the present one and the shore line of the Laptev Sea was situated several 100 km further north. Remains of the former periglacial shelf landscape are preserved in the recent Laptev Sea coastal lowlands and the New Siberian Islands. This is also the case for the region near Mamontovy Klyk in the Lena-Anabar coastal area. In that region, ice super-saturated permafrost deposits, so-called Ice Complexes (IC), are found widely distributed. During the Late Pleistocene, when the IC has formed, NE-Siberia was dominated by strong continental climate and no extent glaciations occurred. According to various analyses, the ICs in the coastal lowlands are assumed to be products of mainly nival-eolian processes in nearby mountains and hills.The ice content of these deposits up to 160 weight-% (compared to dry mass) makes it very sensible for regional and global climatic changes. With the beginning of the Holocene, the IC was influenced by thermokarst. Thermokarst expresses as expansive surface subsidence due to ground ice thawing. Additionally, thermo-erosion evolves due to action of running water, occurring at coastal, river or valley sites during the warm season. Both processes lead to fast rearrangement of sediments and are an important factor in periglacial relief generation and landscape evolution. Connected to the process of thermokarst and thermo-erosion is the release of organic carbon into the ocean or the atmosphere, stored in formerly frozen and recently thawing paleo-soil deposits as well as fast coastal erosion of ice-rich shores.Nowadays, a complex tundra landscape exists in the investigation area, composed of Late Pleistocene accumulation structures and Holocene thermokarst and thermo-erosional features.Remote sensing is an important instrument for up-scaling our field data. Our attempt is, to quantify periglacial landscape units in the investigated area in NE Siberia using Landsat-7 satellite data from 2000. A classification of these periglacial landscape units is possible, mainly because of differences in vegetation, soil moisture and relief position, determined in the field and from digital elevation models.The spatial distribution of thermokarst can be analysed within a GIS and calculations regarding spatial coverage can be done. Using digital elevation models, it is possible to calculate the volumes of the investigated features. The results of this research are estimations of quality, quantity and distribution of extensive thermokarst and thermo-erosional processes for the investigated region at the Laptev Sea coast.


The article presents the building of an event-centric model for the computational representation of crisis events using an ontology encoded in the Web Ontology Language (OWL). The work presented here is done in collaboration with the Leaders and Crisis Management in Ancient Literature. A Comparative Approach (LACRIMALit) project, (2022–2025) hosted at the Institute for Mediterranean Studies/Foundation for Research and Technology (IMS-FORTH). A key outcome of the project is the LACRIMALit ontology that aims principally at the semantic annotation of ancient Greek historiographical texts in open access via Perseus Digital Library. The ontology will facilitate reasoning on and across these documents and enable their semantic querying. The tagset of annotations, concepts, relations, and terms of the ontology will be both human and machine readable, extensible and reusable. The annotated corpus of texts to be produced will be available for sophisticated queries based on the concepts and relations, defined by the ontologies. This will considerably improve the string-based querying of the texts in their present digital format. This article presents the principles of conceptualization of the domain in the three dimensions: domain knowledge (mainly classes illustrated with some individuals), linguistic dimension (terms, proper names, definite descriptions), and references.


Objective: Neuroprotective effect of naringenin against carbaryl toxicity was studied in mouse neuroblastoma cell line. Materials and Methods: Mouse neuroblastoma cells (Neuro 2A) obtained from National Center for Cell Sciences, Pune, India were either exposed to carbaryl or pre-treated with naringenin (a flavonoid prepared from grape fruit) before their exposure to carbaryl. Results were analyzed using MTT [3-4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenltetrazolium bromide] assay for cell viability, FACS (fluorescence assisted cell sorting) analysis for apoptotic and necrotic cell populations, DCFH-DA (2`,7`-dichlorofluorescin-diacetate) assay for Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) visualization, JC-1 staining for determining mitochondrial membrane potential and real-time PCR for quantifying pro and anti-apoptotic gene expression. Results: Exposure to naringenin resulted in better survival of Neuro 2A cells which were subsequently subjected to carbaryl toxicity. Treatment with naringenin was found to reduce the oxidative stress by decreasing the ROS and was found to maintain the integrity of mitochondrial membrane potential. It was also found to downregulate pro-apoptotic genes (BAX and Caspase-3) while upregulating anti-apototic gene (Bcl2). Conclusion: The results of this pilot study underline the potential of naringenin in treating carbaryl induced neurotoxicity and further studies are warranted to establish the effect of naringenin in vivo conditions.


Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the UK, accounting for more than a third of all deaths, with atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD) being the commonest type of CVD. Recently, it has become recognised that in addition to traditional cardiovascular (CV) risk factors such as dyslipidaemia, hypertension, smoking, and diabetes, inflammation plays an important role in the development and progression of atherosclerosis. A concept has emerged that atherosclerosis to some extent can be viewed as a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease in which the adaptive immune system is targeted against vascular self-antigens modified by hypercholesterolaemia, involving both the innate and adaptive immune response. Much work has been done in determining how the immune system is involved, however relatively little is known about natural killer (NK) cells – an important component of the innate immune system which acts against virally infected cells and neoplastic transformation. In addition NK cells possess cytolytic ability and provide an early source of immunoregulatory cytokines. Recently, there has been increasing evidence to support a role for NK cells in the development of atherosclerosis.

The work in this thesis examines NK cell function with the aim of determining whether any changes in the function of this immune cell could have a role in the development of CVD. In order to do this, we chose two patient populations at high CV risk and compared NK cell subsets and function to healthy controls. Firstly, 66 patients with dyslipidaemia on a variety of lipid lowering treatments attending a lipid clinic, and secondly 143 patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) including 11 with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) on hospital haemodialysis (HD). It is known that CVD is the leading cause of death in patients with CKD, and in ESRD patients have a 20-100 fold risk of premature CV death compared to age matched controls from the general population. The increased CV risk results from additional risk factors that are unique to this patient population, but in particular, these patients have an immune dysfunction that is not completely understood and a resultant inflammatory state.

We determined T-cell, NKT-cell, and NK cell subsets from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) by flow cytometry. We then isolated NK cells from PBMCs and assessed NK cell function using a 51-Chromium release assay. These results were then correlated with clinical and laboratory results. In the patients with dyslipidaemia, we did not find any correlations between lipid levels and NK cell numbers, subsets, or cytoxicity. The presence of statin therapy or any other lipid lowering treatment did not result in a reduction in NK cell cytotoxicity. In the CKD patient group, we found a correlation between NK cell cytotoxicity and creatinine, although this did not retain significance after multivariate analysis. Interestingly, we also found a correlation between NK cell cytotoxicity and serum phosphate level, which did remain significant after multivariate regression. We are the first to report a relationship between phosphate and NK cytotoxicity. This is an interesting finding as there is increasing evidence supporting a role for hyperphosphataemia in CVD and increased mortality in both the general population and particularly in patients with ESRD. Phosphate has been shown in some studies to be an independent predictor of inflammation, and may provide the link between the high risk of CVD and CKD.

The next part of this thesis was an in vitro study of membrane cholesterol in NK cells.
The cell membrane supports cholesterol-rich microdomains termed "lipid rafts", which concentrate receptors and signal transduction molecules to facilitate high efficiency signal transduction. Statins have a number of pleiotropic effects which have been explained by reduced production of isoprenoid intermediates, and depletion of cell membrane rafts. This study aimed to investigate the effects of membrane cholesterol manipulation on NK cell function, and specifically, whether the actions of statins on NK cells are due to depletion of membrane cholesterol or inhibition of isoprenylation. The NK92MI cell line was used. Cells were either cholesterol loaded, or cholesterol depleted using statins, and NK cell function assessed using a 51-Chromium release assay. Cholesterol was successfully incorporated into the membrane and rafts and was concentration dependent. The addition of cholesterol to statin treated cells restored the cholesterol content in the cell membrane and in rafts. NK cell cytotoxicity decreased with statin treatment in correspondence with raft levels, however in contrast with the increased raft levels of cells which were cholesterol loaded, NK cytotoxicity was also decreased. Measurement of active Ras (a small G-protein that is localised by isoprenylation in membrane rafts when activated), showed that statin treatment reduced Ras within the raft which was not rescued by the addition of cholesterol, suggesting that statins deplete membrane cholesterol and rafts as well as inhibiting isoprenylation. Replenishment of membrane cholesterol restores non-isoprenylated, raft-associated proteins, but does not correct the functional effects of statins.

The final part of this thesis aimed to evaluate the relationship between NK cells and potential CV risk biomarkers in these two patient populations at high risk of CVD. High sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), pentraxin-3 (PTX-3), adiponectin, and soluble ST2 (sST2) levels were determined by ELISA, and correlated with NK cell numbers, phenotype, and function, as well as other routine biochemical and haematological parameters. We were not able to determine any definite relationships between the biomarkers studied and NK cell function, although there was an association between PTX-3 and NK cytotoxicity that was only found in inflamed (hsCRP>2mg/L) patients.

In conclusion, these studies have provided further insight into the role of NK cells in a group of patients that have not previously been studied: patients with a range of CKD, in addition to patients with dyslipidaemia. This study is the first to associate NK cell cytotoxicity with serum phosphate levels which may have clinical implications. Further studies are needed to clarify whether other immune abnormalities occur in the context of hyperphosphataemia, and the causes and consequences of this. We have also demonstrated that statins deplete membrane lipid rafts as well as inhibit isoprenylation, suggesting a novel dual mechanism of action which merits further investigation.


Objectives: The prevalence of herbal medicines is drastically increasing among patients with chronic diseases like diabetes mellitus due to its difficulty in adhering to therapeutic regimens and lifestyle changes, without considering its consequences of concomitant uses. The aim of this study was to explore the prevalence, attitude, awareness and consequences of simultaneous use of herbal medicines with allopathic anti-diabetic drugs. Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted among Type 2 diabetes using pre-structured questionnaire consisting socio-demographic details and herbal use characteristics. Patients with type 1 diabetes, gestational diabetes and those rely only on anti-diabetic herbal products were excluded. Descriptive statistics and multivariatelogistic regression were employed to analyze data. Results: A total of 470 patients responded, 340 tried herbal plants along with allopathic drugs. The herbal users were mostly females (54.89%) and from rural background (62.55 %) (P= 0.011). The herbal use was higher among 40 to 55 age group, having a duration of diabetes less than one year (P=0.001). About 34 herbal plants identified, Guava (17.6%) and Bitter-gourd (12.9%) were most commonly used and families, friends, neighbors (32.60%) were their herbal information providers. About 67% of patients reported satisfactory with herbal use but only 35% patients informed their doctors about the concomitant use. Among herbal users, 25% of patients reported hypoglycemia and a negligible patient reported about such occurrence. Conclusion: This study identified high prevalence of herbal use with modern treatment. Hence, patients as well as health providers must be educated about potential risks and benefits of herbal treatment.


The paper examines the controversial issue of the legal qualification of the information stored on a cloud computing system, and the tension that is likely to arise between the intellectual property regime of protected material flowing through the cloud-platforms and the legal protection of the privacy of cloud consumers, who are more and more relying on such kind of technology as a means of distributing and accessing to protected data. On the cloud, the conflict between the two legal schemes, and the two legal rights, appears to be much more serious than it was in the pre-digital area, given the peculiar generative nature of the information stored on the cloud: in fact, the duty to control that the usage rights gained by the end user are not violated, encourages a systematic control over the users activities, that leads to surveillance and monitoring practices by means of which the service-providers collect an enormous amount of a specific type of personal meta-data, or secondary data, directly stemming from the primary data of information protected by IP rights, and more specifically directly deriving by the use that consumers make of the accessed intellectual property data. Three are the control points examined, related to technological protection measures arranged by the providers restricting access to protected material, secondly restricting the usage of it, and thirdly relating to self-help protection measures, assuring adequate reaction against violations of the first two protection parameters, by means of arbitrary cancellations or eventual locking out of users who are intended to create or distribute by the means of the cloud certain kinds of contents or formats. We will at first focus on the impact of the access measures on the intellectual property regime with specific regards to the European digital copyright and the US fair use doctrine , secondly on the repercussions of the usage controls on the privacy standards. On the one side, the arrangement of access control points enables the providers, and through the cloud providers, also the IP holders to "opt out those parts of the copyright system they dislike" [1] . Furthermore, the centralized structure of the cloud platforms and the verticalization of the digital interaction between users enable the providers to act not only as processors of the protected material, but also as controllers of the amount of personal information directly arising from it, profiling cloud-consumers on the basis of their intellectual inclinations, habits and preferences, in that what some doctrine has defined as a big database of intention. Ultimately, through the lenses of intellectual property right's safeguard, it becomes clear how in the cloud the right to privacy is jeopardised in the moments of monitoring and surveillance, which determine the loss of control over the personal metadata. However, another wider significance of privacy directly related to the liberty of self-determination is shown to be affected. In fact the overprotection of works through technical protection measures, obscures the horizon of personal decisional possibilities, by extinguishing fair usages and free possibilities of developing content (collective works, derivative works). [1] J. H. REICHMAN (a cura di), A Reverse Notice and Takedown Regime to Enable Public Interest Uses of Technically Protected Copyrighted Works , 22 Berkeley Tech. L. J. 981, 988, 995 (2007), 1023.


Increasing attention is being paid to the importance of trust in organizations generally, and schools in particular, as an essential ingredient of improvement and effectiveness. The role of trust in leadership and in leaders' interactions with subordinates has been especially emphasized. In a study of the emotions of teaching that included data concerning teachers' recollections of emotionally positive and negative interactions with their colleagues, teachers made almost no explicit references to trust as a source of positive emotion among their colleagues. In other words, in their lateral relations with colleagues, trust was absent or taken for granted. However, what teachers did report as one of the strongest sources of negative emotion with their colleagues was evidence of the opposite of trust--betrayal. The present paper draws on this interview-based study with 50 Canadian teachers in 15 elementary and secondary schools to examine the nature and effects of betrayal among colleagues in teaching. It documents three forms of betrayal: competence, contract, and communication betrayal. Betrayal in teaching is significant not only in a moral sense, but also because its consequence is to lead to teachers to avoid conflict and interaction with each other, and thereby insulate themselves from the opportunities for learning and constructive disagreement. The paper concludes by arguing that if schools are going to become stronger professional learning communities, they must seek not only to establish trust in teaching, but also to avoid the causes of pervasive betrayal.


Introduction:Vertigo is usually of benign nature but can be a precursor of a very fatal outcome. Many patients with multiple vascular risk factors and seemingly benign isolated episodes of vertigo have occasionally been seen to develop an ischaemic event (stroke) by various researchers .As the bulk of vertigo patients (nearly 80%)are treated by otolaryngologists ,some of these patients with constitutive risk factors could be at actual risk of stroke, so early identification of such patients becomes necessary .
Methods & Results: This is a retrospective study of 92 stroke patients admitted in SHMS hospital, Srinagar(2009 -2011) who were reviewed and enquired for any history of true vertigo episodes prior to or at onset of stroke .Study included 64 male patients and 28 female patients with about 65%of the patients falling in the age group of 51-70 years. History of transient ischaemic attacks were reported in 9 patients while vertigo(single and multiple episodes ) was seen in 24 patients prior to stroke in this study. Conclusion: Vertigo should be regarded a precursor of stroke in patients with multiple vascular risk factors and they should be evaluated for veretebrobasilar insufficiency by MRI/MRA at an earliest so that preventive measures can be adopted in time.


Great deal of research has shown that catalytic and non-catalytic thermal decomposition (pyrolysis and oxidation) of chlorinated alkanes and alkenes results in the formation of heavier cyclic chlorinated pollutants. Central to these processes is the Diels-Alder addition/cyclisation of small chlorinated carbon chains and the successive replacement of hydrogen atoms in cyclic compounds by chlorine atoms at high temperatures. Polychlorinated benzenes, dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/F) are formed during the heterogeneous reactions of propene on fly-ash in the presence of air and HCl between 623-673 K. Formation of PCDD/F from thermal oxidation of polychlorinated phenol has been demonstrated to proceed at a rate 100 times faster than the competing de novo pathway. High temperature pyrolysis of 1,3-hexachlorobutadiene concludes in the production of hexachlorobenzene (C6Cl6) and other highly chlorinated cyclic hydrocarbons. Along the same line of enquiry, experimental results have explained that unsaturated aliphatic hydrocarbons such as acetylene are readily converted to hexachlorobenzene, hexachlorobutadiene and other heavier perchlorinated species in the presence of cupric oxide and HCl under post combustion conditions.

Taylor et al. observed the pyrolysis of hexachloropropene to occur readily, even at temperatures as low as 700 K to yield CCl4, C2Cl4, C2Cl6 and C3Cl4 (tetrachloroallene). At higher temperatures (up to 1223 K), distinct molecular growth was observed with reaction products including C4Cl6 (1,3-hexachlorobutadiene), C6Cl6 (hexachlorobenzene), C6Cl8 (1,3,5-octachlorohexatriene), C8Cl8 (octachlorostyrene), possible other isomers of C6Cl8, C8Cl8 and four isomers of C12Cl8. Cl displacement of CCl3 radicals was observed to be the overriding origination pathway for conversion of C3Cl6 into C2Cl4, CCl4 and C2Cl6. At higher temperatures, C3Cl3 recombination accounted for about 80 % of experimental yields with C3Cl5 recombination responsible for formation of the remainder. In the present study, we report the reaction and activation enthalpies for reactions involved in the pyrolytic decomposition of C3Cl6 to synthesise C6Cl6. Our results will help in providing an insightful understanding of one of the major routes to the formation of chlorinated cyclic persistent organic pollutant (POP) species from the combustion of hydrocarbon precursors. Thermochemical and kinetic parameters presented herein will be useful in building a robust kinetic model that could satisfactorily describe formation of cyclic chlorinated compounds from the degradation of small aliphatic moieties.


Background: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a significant global health burden. Approximately 25 percent of HNSCC cases are caused by human papillomavirus (HPV). These particular cancers of viral aetiology have been found to have distinct characteristics in regards to presentation, treatment and prognosis. Current advances in vaccinology have the capability to drastically decrease the incidence of HPV-positive HNSCC.

Methods: A literature review was undertaken through MEDLINE/PubMED/Ovid databases. The terms "HPV," "HNSCC," "carcinogenesis," "treatment," "prognosis" and "vaccine" were searched. Only studies published in English were considered with 65 articles selected and analysed. Preference was given to studies published in the last ten years.

Results: The incidence of HPV-positive HNSCC is increasing. Infection with HPV can result in cancer through the expression of oncogenic proteins which disrupt normal cellular turnover. Aggressive treatment is often undertaken causing significant morbidity in many patients. A proportion of patients die from this disease, suggesting that these cancers have a considerable impact on society.

Conclusion: Human papillomavirus is an infectious agent that is likely transmitted through skin-to-skin contact. The virus integrates into the DNA of the host with the high oncogenic risk genotypes, HPV 16 and 18 being strongly linked to HPV-positive HNSCC development. Prevention through vaccination against these genotypes is currently an option for all individuals. The cervical cancer vaccines immunise non-exposed females against HPV 16 and 18. Vaccination of both males and females will prevent HPV-positive HNSCC.


Plant-produced proteins of pharmaceutical interest are beginning to reach the market, and the advantages of transient plant expression systems are gaining increasing recognition. In parallel, the use of virus-like particles (VLPs) has become standard in vaccine design. The pEAQ-HT vector derived from the cowpea mosaic virus – based CPMV-HT expression system has been shown to allow the production of large amounts of recombinant proteins, including VLPs, in Nicotiana benthamiana. Moreover, previous work demonstrated that a tandem fusion of the core antigen (HBcAg) of hepatitis B virus (HBV) could direct the formation of core-like particles (CLPs) in plants.
The work presented here demonstrated that the tandem core system is better suited for the plant-based production of CLPs presenting foreign antigens than SplitCore technology. It was shown that tandem core technology allows the plant-based production of CLPs which are suitable for the presentation of antigens either via chemical coupling or through antibody-antigen interactions. Of particular significance was the successful display of single domain antibody fragments of camelid origin (nanobodies, or VHH). The resulting "tandibody" particles, as they are named here, can bind to their cognate antigen to yield CLPs covered in the antigen of interest. Furthermore, it was shown that target antigens can be attached to CLPs via a fusion partner, raising the possibility of the development of a universal generic antigen-display platform.
In addition to the transient expression work on HBcAg, lines of stably transformed N. benthamiana were created which constitutively expressed human gastric lipase (hGL), an enzyme of medical importance. In the future, this approach could be used to create transgenic plants constitutively expressing a universal tandibody, thus obviating the need for infiltration.


Geza Vermes, translator and editor of "The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls" and worldwide expert on the life and times of Jesus, tells the enthralling story of early Christianity and the origins of a religion. The creation of the Christian Church is one of the most important stories in the development of the world's history, yet one of the least understood. With a forensic, brilliant re-examination of all the key surviving texts of early Christianity, Geza Vermes illuminates the origins of a faith and traces the evolution of the figure of Jesus from the man he was - a prophet in the tradition of other Jewish holy men of the Old Testament - to what he came to represent: a mysterious, otherworldly being at the heart of the official state religion of the Roman Empire. "Christian Beginnings" pulls apart myths and misunderstandings to focus on the true figure of Jesus, and the birth of one of the world's major religions. Reviews: "A beautiful and magisterial book". (Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, "Guardian"). "An exciting and challenging port of call, sweeping aside much of the fuzzy thinking and special pleading that bedevils the study of sacred scripture ...courteously expressed and witty". (Diarmaid MacCulloch, "The Times"). "A challenging and engaging book that sets out to retrace the route by which a Jewish preacher in 1st-century Israel came to be declared as consubstantial and co-equal with the omnipotent, omniscient only God". (Stuart Kelly, "Scotsman"). "A major contribution to our understanding of the historical Jesus". ("Financial Times"). "A very accessible and entertaining read". ("Scotland on Sunday" Books of the Year). "A magnum opus of early Christian history and one of the year's most significant titles". ("Bookseller").


Over 100 samples were collected off the west coast of North America during 1991–1993 to determine the relation between wind-driven upwelling and nearshore concentrations of dissolved silicate (Si), phosphate (P), and cadmium (Cd). Highly enriched in deep water offshore, these constituents are sensitive indicators of upwelling. Coastal water was sampled from the shore in January and June 1992 at 12 sites distributed between 36° and 48°N latitude. In January the composition of nearshore water along this transect was fairly uniform: 5–15 μmol/kg for Si, 0.5 to 1.0 μmol/kg for P, and 0.1–0.3 nmol/kg for Cd. In June, elevated concentrations of Si (30 μmol/kg), P (2.0 μmol/kg), and Cd (0.6 nmol/kg) revealed a region of intense upwelling between 38° and 40°N. The pattern is broadly consistent with meridional gradients in coastal upwelling calculated from the long-term mean of alongshore winds compiled from ship reports. Nearshore water was also collected biweekly to monthly at two sites 3 km apart near San Francisco Bay (37.5°N) during 1991–1993. The variability seen in the time series suggests that the composition of nearshore water integrates the effect of alongshore winds over timescales of several weeks. Seasonal variations in Si (5–50 μmol/kg), P (0.5–2.5 μmol/kg), and Cd (0.1–0.8 nmol/kg) concentrations were consistent with upwelling during spring and summer. Maximum Si, P, and Cd concentrations reached in May 1991 were consistent with advection to the very nearshore region from a depth of about 300 m relative to a vertical profile at a distance of 200 km from the coast. Nearshore Si, P, and Cd concentrations were reduced relative to 1991 in 1992, and, to a lesser extent, in 1993 due to weaker upwelling linked to the warm phase of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation. During periods of weaker upwelling or downwelling, variations in P, Si, and Cd concentrations became uncoupled. There is a good correlation between the coastal Cd time series near San Francisco Bay (37.5°N) and a second order polynomial function of the upwelling index of Bakun [1975] at 36°N, filtered with a 30-day running mean (r2 = 0.71, n = 39). The index is a daily estimate of coastal upwelling calculated from 6-hourly mean atmospheric pressure distributions at 36°N. From this function and a record of daily upwelling indices, we infer a range of annually averaged coastal Cd concentrations of at least 0.3–0.5 nmol/kg since 1967. Cd/Ca ratios in shells of foraminifera from San Francisco Bay suggest that average coastal Cd concentrations 3500–4500 years ago were at the upper end of this range.


Water on Mars exists at the poles and in the subsurface. It has interacted with crustal rocks, providing geomorphological, geochemical, and mineralogical insights into Mars' geological history and inferences about its biological potential. The roles of water are revealed through studies of altered materials using orbiting-spacecraft imagery and spectroscopy, instruments mounted on rovers, and laboratory measurements on Martian meteorites.


Abstract Adequate knowledge about consumptive use of water (actual evapotranspiration, ET) by wheat on a regional scale is a prerequisite in the intensively irrigated region of western Uttar Pradesh, India. Satellite observations supplemented with routine meteorological data provide a unique capability to estimate actual evapotranspiration over large areas needed for irrigation management and water balance. The surface energy balance algorithm for land (SEBAL) was applied to time series of MODIS level 3 data of reflectance and surface temperature measurements for estimation of actual ET on a pixel-by-pixel basis. Results showed that satellite observations with meteorological information could yield satisfactory estimates of spatially distributed ET in wheat. Actual ET estimates of wheat were found to be lower during the early crop growth period than during the peak crop growth and senescence stages. Remotely sensed estimates from SEBAL match the expected differences in ET values between open water bodies and wheat. The possible reasons for the large deviation in actual ET estimation using the MODIS sensor are the coarse resolution (1 km) of thermal bands and the lack of sunshine hours data to accurately estimate solar radiation as input. However, the free availability of standard MODIS products enables operational use for end-user applications related to agricultural water management.


The paper puts it focus on the activities of university researchers to organize the top-down urban planning and bottom-up community design with the theme of disaster in Koto-delta. Moreover, comparative and analysis of statistical data of Koto-delta for half a century show the necessary conditions for considering the disaster prevention planning. Koto-delta is the most dangerous area for disaster in Tokyo. Takayama presented the Koto Cross Disaster Prevention Belt Conception, after studying his laboratory, became the foundation of the current planning. While disaster prevention bases and public facilities have increased the disaster prevention performance of the area, the aging and unused facilities are now a problem. Otani and Sato aimed to improve the community by cooperative rebuilding of residents, but the discussion was difficult, and maintenance did not proceed. The statistical data shows that the safety of the area improved, but in addition to the failure of social mix due to large-scale development, the loss of regional landscape and diversity due to the promotion of detached rebuilding, the resilience is decreasing.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the extent of occupational exposure to blood in medical students, details of the circumstances surrounding the incidents and the subsequent experiences of the student.

DESIGN
Prospective cohort study.

SETTING
Tygerberg Hospital, the Health Sciences Faculty of the University of Stellenbosch during a 15-week period from 4 February to 19 May 2002.

SUBJECTS
One hundred and thirty-six student interns (SIs), i.e. final-year medical students.

METHOD
All Sis received a questionnaire and a letter motivating them to participate in the study and explaining the procedure. Regular class meetings enabled continuous motivation and ongoing update. In the case of an incident during the 15-week period, the SI filled in the form and placed it in a sealed drop-off box.

OUTCOME MEASURES
Specific focus on the preceding events and the situation in which the incidents occurred (department, time of day, procedure performed, and whether the student was on call), exposure to HIV (patient's retroviral status), use of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) (whether used, when initiated), and the consequences of the exposure (emotional, on sexual behaviour during the window period, and on career choice).

RESULTS
During the 15-week period, 19 incidents were reported; the majority occurred while students were on call, almost half occurred after hours, and a disproportionate number occurred in three departments.

CONCLUSIONS
Occupational blood exposure is a very real problem and poses a significant risk. SI suggestions should be considered in improving the prevention and management of such incidents.


Friction plays a key role in causing slipperiness as a low coefficient of friction on the road may result in slippery and hazardous conditions. Analyzing the strong relation between friction and accident risk on winter roads is a difficult task. Many weather forecasting organizations use a variety of standard and bespoke methods to predict the coefficient of friction on roads. This article proposes an approach to predict the extent of slipperiness by building and testing an expert system. It estimates the coefficient of friction on winter roads in the province of Dalarna, Sweden using the prevailing weather conditions as a basis. Weather data from the road weather information system, Sweden (RWIS) was used. The focus of the project was to use the expert system as a part of a major project in VITSA, within the domain of intelligent transport systems


Cell surface molecules of eukaryotic cells have been considered to be integrated into the membrane bilayer by a transmembrane protein sequence. The Thy-1 antigen of rodent thymocytes and brain was the first eukaryotic membrane molecule for which biochemical data clearly suggested membrane integration via a nonprotein tail. Direct evidence is now presented showing that a glycophospholipid structure is attached to the carboxyl-terminal cysteine residue and that 31 carboxyl-terminal amino acids predicted from the Thy-1 complementary DNA sequence are not present in the mature glycoprotein. These experimental results raise questions concerning signaling across a cell membrane since antibodies to Thy-1 can stimulate T lymphocytes to release lymphokines and undergo cell division.


To mitigate the regulator losses associated with bank failures, efforts are usually made to dispose of failed bank assets quickly. However, this process usually precludes due diligence examination by acquiring banks, leading to problems of asymmetric information concerning asset quality. this paper examines two mechanisms that have been used for dealing with these problems, "put guarantees," under which acquiring banks are allowed to return assets to the regulatory authority for liquidation, and "loss-sharing arrangements," under which the acquiring banks keep all assets under their control to maturity and are then compensated by the regulatory authority for a portion of asset losses. The analysis is conducted in a Hart-Moore framework in which the removal of certain assets from the banking system can reduce their value. Changes in the relative desirability of the two guarantee mechanisms during economic downturns are shown to depend on the credibility of the regulatory authority. When the regulatory authority enjoys credibility, a downturn favors the loss-sharing arrangement, while when the regulatory authority lacks credibility, the impact of a downturn is ambiguous.


Abstract. Cloud optical thickness (COT) is one of the most important parameter for the characterization of cloud in the Earth radiative budget. Its retrieval strongly depends on instrument characteristics and on many cloud and environment factors. Using coincident observations from POLDER/PARASOL and MODIS/AQUA in the A-Train constellation, geographical distributions and seasonal changes of COT are presented, in good agreement with general cloud climatology characteristics. Retrieval uncertainties mainly associated to sensor spatial resolution, cloud inhomogeneity and microphysical assumptions are discussed. Comparisons of COT derived from POLDER and MODIS illustrate that as the primary factor, the sensor spatial resolution impacts COT retrievals and statistics through both cloud detection and sub-pixel cloud inhomogeneity sensitivity. The uncertainties associated to cloud microphysics assumptions, namely cloud phase, particle size and shape, also impact significantly COT retrievals. For clouds with unambiguous cloud phase, strong correlations exist between the two COTs, with MODIS values comparable to POLDER ones for liquid clouds and MODIS values larger than POLDER ones for ice clouds. The large differences observed in ice phase cases are due to the use of different microphysical models in the two retrieval schemes. In cases when the two sensors disagree on cloud phase decision, COT retrieved assuming liquid phase is systematically larger. The angular biases related to specific observation geometries are also quantified and discussed in particular based on POLDER observations. Those exhibit a clear increase of COT with decreasing sun elevation and a decrease of COT in forward scattering directions due to sub-pixel inhomogeneities and shadowing effects, this especially for lower sun. It also demonstrates unrealistic COT variations in the cloudbow and backward directions due to inappropriate cloud optical properties representation and an important increase of COT in the sun-glint directions in case of broken cloud.


This article describes the brutalisation of the bodies of Tutsi and Jewish victims in 1994 and during the Second World War, respectively, and contrasts the procedures adopted by killers to understand what these deadly practices say about the imaginaries at work in Rwanda and Poland. Dealing with the 'infernalisation' of the body, which eventually becomes a form of physical control, this comparative work examines the development of groups and communities of killers in their particular social and historical context. Different sources are used, such as academic works, reports from victims' organisations and non-governmental organisations, books, testimonies and film documentaries.


In recent years several countries have introduced reforms to user fees; a growing number of countries are also introducing basic health care free at the point of use. In many cases, the focus has been on making health care more accessible for priority groups, particularly pregnant women and young children.
However, despite the high interest in user fee removal, there are many information gaps on the current status of user fees in low-income countries, particularly for those interested in carrying out international comparisons. This paper presents a useful snapshot of some patterns in this changing area of health financing from 49 countries in Africa and Asia.


Although the kinetic chlorophyll fluorescence signals are rich in information, most of the chlorophyll fluorescence related studies deal only with the quantum yield of primary photochemistry (Fv/Fm). JIP-test based OJIP fluorescence transient analysis is relatively a new technique to investigate the environmental stress responses of photosynthetic organisms. In the present study, the deleterious effects of ultraviolet (UV) radiation on the photosynthetic machinery were probed by the JIP-test in Euglena, one of the most potent organisms for the future space stations. The cells were exposed to a series of UV-C doses and immediately after exposure, survival percentage was determined with Neutral Red staining, and the chlorophyll fluorescence was measured using AquaPen AP-C 100 fluorometer. Resultant OJIP transients were analyzed according to JIP-test, and several functional and structural parameters were derived to explain the PSII behavior. Results indicated that the UV-C induced inhibition of electron transport is severely affected due to higher sensitivity of dark reactions after QA, represented as ψo, the electron transfer probability, than of the light dependent reactions, represented as φPo, the trapping probability. The performance index (PIABS) of PSII, which is a combination of the indices of three independent parameters, decreased markedly in exponential manner in response to UVC. Results illustrate the advantage of using a number of fluorescent parameters over the use of one parameter, often the Fv/Fm.


Long-term stability, global coverage and high resolution are characteristics that make the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) radio occultation (RO) technique well-suitable to serve as anchor measurements for observing the Earth's atmosphere. The concept of occultation soundings utilizes a receiver placed on a low Earth orbit to measure the accumulated atmospheric contribution along the limb in terms of a phase delay. A high sampling rate allows to reconstruct profiles of geophysical parameters through an inversion process of occultation signals. However, such measurements require a careful processing in order to provide accurate retrievals in the neutral atmosphere. The following development describes specific aspects in radio occultation methodology implemented in the retrieval chain from phase data to profiles of dry pressure and dry temperature. Independent retrievals from near-real time measurements are compared with occultation products provided by official processing centers to demonstrate reliability of the solution. The region within the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) is particularly represented by a low uncertainty being within 0.5% (K). A comparison with radiosondes shows a significant contribution of a water vapor term in the lower troposphere that comes from the dry air assumption in occultation profiles of pressure and temperature. Radiosonde measurements reproduced to refractivity profiles show very high agreement with occultation soundings, which is generally below 5%. A superior accuracy of RO refractivity is observed in the upper troposphere, where retrievals are consistent with radiosondes


THE INVISIBLE CONSTITUTION. Laurence H. Tribe. Oxford University Press, 2008. Pp. 278. $19.95. Perhaps no academic is more closely associated with the idea of an "invisible" constitution than Harvard Law School's Laurence H. Tribe. Through his public advocacy, scholarship, legal advocacy, and teaching, Tribe has made great strides in instantiating the idea of the legitimacy of the Constitution that the courts enforce in place of the one the people ratified. His latest book is intended to explain the contours of this Constitution, lay out some fanciful metaphors useful in applying "law" in this way, and advocate further extension of Tribe's analysis. Geoffrey R. Stone's "Editor's Note" summarizes the book by saying, "As Tribe notes, the visible constitution 'floats in a vast and deep - and, crucially, invisible - ocean of ideas, propositions, recovered memories, and imagined experiences.'" Stone adds, "Indeed, as Tribe demonstrates, many of our most fundamental constitutional principles are not only not stated in the text of the Constitution, but cannot even be inferred from the visible Constitution in any of the usual ways we interpret texts."2 One might conclude from all of this that "many of our fundamental constitutional principles" are not really constitutional at all. He might ask how the "we" of Stone's unselfconscious statements came to enunciate, let alone ratify, them.3 But that is not Tribe's rhetorical style. Rather, Tribe's point is, in my understanding, that if the Constitution does not itself say that the Constitution is in English, that the symbols composing the document are symbols used in written English, and that the meaning of the words used in the Constitution may be determined in the ways commonly accepted by speakers of English, then external authority must be employed in reading the Constitution. Having elicited the unavoidable concession that the Constitution is an artifact of a particular culture, outside of which it would be nothing more than incomprehensible marks on a page, Tribe feels free to conduct a philosophical seminar in which his preferred policy outcomes become "our" Constitution. (Of course, Tribe presents these ideas far less directly than I do, but this is what his argument comes to.) Careful observers will recognize that this precis of The Invisible Constitution describes much of the constitutional history of the past thirty years. Tribe kicks off his tome with a description of his recent experience as a fifth-grade acquaintance's show-and-tell exhibit.4 The young man took Tribe to class to speak as one who teaches about the Constitution, advises people in foreign countries on establishing constitutions, and argues cases in the Supreme Court.5 As Tribe describes it, this session ended with his authence's fascination with the idea that there should be a dispute about the legitimacy of the Twenty-Seventh Amendment.6 If the subject could mesmerize pre-pubescents, Tribe reasoned, why not develop it at length for a more mature audience?7 Hence, this book.8 Tribe divides his work into five parts, each consisting of numerous subdivisions. The first, apdy enough, is entitled "Beyond the Visible."9 Early in the first part Tribe asks, "What is in the Constitution [that officials are] sworn to uphold? How can we (or they) tell? Would reading it carefully suffice to provide the answers? Would reading it suffice even to get much of a clue? This book should help with such questions."10 Well, yes, it should. But does it? Tribe continues, "For starters, everyone knows the United States of America has a written Constitution."11 Taking up the issue of the Twenty-Seventh Amendment -proposed by Congress to the states in 1789, but unratified until 1992- Tribe posits that it is controversial even what is included in the written document.12 Tribe adduces Justice Antonin Scalia's (to judge by Tribe's account, apparently capricious) statement that the TwentySeventh Amendment did not become part of the Constitution upon the thirty-eighth state's ratification, in illustration of Tribe's own point that there is not general agreement even as to what the written Constitution is. …


"When you ask my sons where they are from they will answer, 'I'm Cuban, but I was born in McAllen, Texas.'"--Maria Luisa Salcines, born in Guantanamo, Cuba, who came to the United States in 1963. Between 1960 and 1995 over one million Cubans arrived in the United States--almost 10 percent of the island's population. Many came in the dead of night with only the clothes on their backs. Though it is less than 100 miles from Cuba to the tip of Florida, the journey was often a dangerous and unpredictable voyage in makeshift boats. The "Golden Exiles" who escaped Fidel Castro's revolutionary government between 1959 and 1962 were probably the best-educated and wealthiest large group of immigrants ever to arrive in the United States. These immigrants who had been doctors, lawyers, bankers, business owners, and college professors in Cuba quickly established a community that remains a powerful political and economic force, and one that embraces the new Cuban immigrants who continue to arrive today. A whole generation of Cuban Americans has grown to adulthood in the United States. Many left the island as young children and have assimilated into American life. Others yearn for a life in Cuba they can only imagine from the stories their grandparents tell. These stories--full of longing and hope--are the heart of The Cuban American Family Album. Interviews, excerpts from diaries and letters, newspaper accounts, profiles of famous Cuban Americans, and remarkable pictures from real family albums tell a poignant yet exuberant story of a beautiful blending of Cuban and American traditions. The result is a vibrant picture of a distinctive and important American community."


In this article, we examine an argument that proponents of cost-benefit analysis have offered as a linchpin of the case for cost-benefit: that this technique is neither anti- nor pro-regulatory, but is a neutral tool for evaluating public policy. In making this argument, these observers have often invoked the use of cost-benefit analysis to support previous regulatory decisions as a sign that this technique can be used to support as well as to undermine protective regulation. As we demonstrate, however, the fact is that cost-benefit analysis would have stood as an obstacle to early regulatory successes. We have compiled three case studies in coming to this conclusion: the removal of lead from gasoline in the 1970s and 1980s, the decision not to dam the Grand Canyon for hydroelectric power in the 1960s, and the strict regulation of workplace exposure to vinyl chloride in 1974. The technique would have gotten the answer wrong in all three cases. Each case study illustrates, in a different manner, the damage that cost-benefit analysis could have done in the past, had it played the central role that is proposed for it today. The problems with cost-benefit analysis of regulations lie deep within the methodology; it would have done no better a generation ago than it does now.


There is an ongoing, unsolved debate as to whether iron supplementation, often used by elite athletes, is really necessary or not. A preliminary question that needs an answer is whether the existence of sports anaemia is supported by facts or whether it is fiction. Whether iron should be prescribed to athletes depends on the answer to this preliminary question.

The human body contains approximately 3–5 g of iron. The daily loss of 1–2 mg is replaced by dietary iron (8 mg/day for adult men, and 18 mg/day for adult women) absorbed within the small intestine1 by duodenal enterocytes. Since iron is transported around the body in a redox inactive form, it must be bound to a monomeric glycoprotein known as transferrin, which maintains the iron in a soluble, non-toxic form2. Bound to transferrin, iron is transported in the bloodstream to be released into a variety of cells through specific, cell surface receptors: transferrin receptor 1 (TfR1), commonly found on red blood cells, other erythroid-lineage cells, hepatocytes, monocytes and the blood-brain barrier, or transferrin receptor 2 (TfR2), expressed predominately on liver cells3. The transferrin-transferrin receptor (Tf-TfR) complex undergoes endocytosis, allowing iron to be released from transferrin and transported across the endosomal membrane by protein divalent metal transporter 1 (DMT1)4. Once inside the cell, iron is incorporated into iron-containing proteins, and excess intracellular iron is converted into ferritin, a stored form of iron.

Iron performs many important roles that are directly relevant to an athlete's performance. It is not surprising that a significant loss of this metal commonly occurs with exercise. Despite this, the body has no innate mechanism to replace the iron losses due to physical activity; thus, a sufficient dietary intake is essential for athletes in periods of heavy training. The mechanisms involved in exercise-induced iron loss are mainly gastrointestinal bleeding, haematuria, sweating and haemolysis5–7, with inflammation and hormone activity also being relevant, according to the more recent research in this field8. During exercise visceral blood flow can be reduced by more than 50%, due to increased sympathetic nervous system activity, in function of exercise intensity9, with possible necrosis and mucosal bleeding of the gastrointestinal tract10,11. Repeated episodes of training and competition induced blood loss through the gastrointestinal tract may, therefore, contribute to iron deficiency and anaemia within athletes1. Sweating, which is mainly a mechanism of thermoregulation and thus essential during exercise, is also a mechanism by which the body may lose iron and athletes exercising for prolonged periods in multiple training sessions in the heat may incur a cumulative debt, which could ultimately affect body iron status12. Haematuria may be the consequence of mechanical trauma in the glomerulus or of haemolysis6. Furthermore, the movement of the bladder during running may cause bleeding due to microscopic lesions of the interior wall13. Interestingly, McInnis and colleagues6 suggested that the intensity of exercise is the causal mechanism underlying haematuria, since renal blood flow is decreased proportionally to exercise intensity, resulting in an increased filtration fraction and glomerular filtration rate. Haemolysis has been reported during a range of exercise modalities such as swimming, cycling and resistance training14. During non-weight bearing activities, the haemolysis might result from the compression of the blood vessels caused by vigorous contraction of the muscles involved in the activity14. However, haemolysis is due primarily to impact forces resulting from foot-strike15. Haemolysis induces iron loss as a consequence of the destruction of the red blood cell membrane and consequent release of both haemoglobin (Hb) and iron into the surrounding plasma. Since free iron is a poison, its oxidative potential is limited by haptoglobin, a glycoprotein with strong affinity for free Hb which is able to "clean up" the lost contents of haemolysed red blood cells16. When the free Hb concentration in plasma rises, there is a decline in serum haptoglobin levels: this blood profile is common in runners. Interestingly, Miller and colleagues17 found a force-dependent relationship between heel-strike and the degree of haemolysis experienced during running. Indeed, significantly greater changes in serum haptoglobin and plasma free Hb levels were noted during downhill running when compared to an uphill run of equivalent duration and gradient. In accordance with these findings, Telford and colleagues15 showed that an acute, 1 hour session of continuous running at 75% peak VO2max, was responsible for a four-fold increase in the levels of plasma free Hb when compared to a session of cycling of equivalent intensity and duration. After accounting for factors such as circulatory stress, the authors concluded that heel-strike was the major cause of haemolysis during running. Thus, it is possible that a force-dependent relationship between heel-strike and haemolysis may be directly affected by the type of ground surface that the athlete trains on, and the intensity at which the session is conducted since these variables affect the impact force upon heel-strike. However, research in this field is lacking. Furthermore, little is known about the effect of such a stimulus over the course of multiple training sessions, but it has been suggested that a chronic haemolytic stimulus (i.e. consecutive training sessions) might have a cumulative effect on haemolysis and iron deficiency15.

With respect to the many points mentioned above, it is very important to consider the research by Lippi and Guidi18 published in this issue of Blood Transfusion. Indeed, their study is the first that demonstrates that an ultramarathon run is not associated with significant muscle injury, but also that it does not induce clinically significant variations in Hb, haematocrit, red blood cell count, as well as serum potassium. The research confirmed a significant and acute post-exercise decrease in serum haptoglobin, due to a certain degree of haemolysis during the long-distance run, although the concentration of the protein always remained below 0.5 g/L, suggesting that the degree of red blood cell injury might be considered very modest or even clinically negligible. Of note, they found a significant reduction of mean corpuscular volume, as previously observed by Banfi and colleagues in rugby players19, accompanied by an increase of the mean corpuscular Hb concentration. It was suggested that there may be a compensatory mechanism involving a shift of intracellular water outside of the red blood cell to counterbalance the loss of fluid.

Before concluding, two more laboratory tests must be remembered, namely serum transferrin receptor (sTfR) and red blood cell protoporphyrin. The sTfR accurately reflects the demands of bone marrow for iron (i.e., high sTfR concentrations indicate iron-deficient erythropoiesis) and this parameter, especially the sTfR/log(ferritin) index, is less variable than the measurement of ferritin alone20. However, investigations on the influence of physical activity on sTfR expression are limited. In accordance with previous studies, Schumacher et al. found that ferritin concentrations declined after exercise tests in 39 individuals; in contrast, sTfR was unaffected by a 45-minute constant-speed running test at 70% VO2max and decreased only during incremental exercise challenges to the point of exhaustion. Taking the different extracellular fluid shifts into account (haemoconcentration during the exhaustive test and haemodilution during the aerobic test), the investigators concluded that sTfR reflects exercise-induced changes in iron metabolism more reliably than does serum ferritin, which is also influenced by factors other than iron stores21. The hypothesis that iron availability is not limiting for red blood cell production despite reduced concentrations of serum ferritin during exercise is further supported by the observation that free red blood cell protoporphyrin concentrations remain unchanged during intensive training22. The final step of haem biosynthesis is the insertion of ferrous iron into protoporphyrin which depends critically on the availability of iron as a substrate; the first step of haem biosynthesis, the formation of 5-aminolaevulinate, is also subject to regulation by iron. No operational limitation of haem biosynthesis according to the availability of iron in erythrocytes has been demonstrated in athletes.

In conclusion, there is no evidence that iron supplementation increases athletic performance, except in individuals in whom iron deficiency is established. In athletes with low serum ferritin concentrations without anaemia, iron supplementation might be useful; moreover, determination of sTfR or red blood cell-free protoporphyrin concentrations may identify those in whom iron administration is likely to be beneficial. Serum ferritin concentrations should be monitored in conditioned athletes, and physiological decreases in serum ferritin during the early stages of training should be taken into account when individuals are examined and before any decision to give iron is made. Important risk factors contributing to the development of an iron deficiency status are young-adolescent age, female sex, vegetarian diet and Helicobacter pylori infection. Because most studies have shown no beneficial effect of iron supplementation on performance, the uncontrolled use of iron should be avoided. Thus, our answer to the initial question is that we believe that sports anaemia does not exist. Some athletes are anaemic and consequently must be diagnosed and treated.


Food allergy is a condition with significant social and economic impact, and a topic of intense concern for scientists and clinicians alike. Worldwide, over 220 million people suffer from some form of food allergy. According to estimates by the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology, the prevalence of food allergy has doubled in the last ten years, and in Europe the number of people suffering from food allergies currently exceeds 17 million. Furthermore, an increasing number of severe life-threatening reactions in children have been linked to food allergies. Elucidating incriminated immunological mechanisms of food hypersensitivity reactions ensures an accurate diagnostic and therapeutic approach of food allergy.

 This paper summarizes the pathological mechanisms involved in food allergy pathogenesis, along with hypotheses that could explain the increased prevalence of food allergy.


In this paper, the author explores the ambiguities and inconsistencies in the Supreme Court of Canada's latest articulation of the balance to be struck in copyright law. She considers whether the balancing of interests is to be approached by courts based on, or independently of, the balance struck in the legislation. She argues that the identified interests of 'creators', 'users' and the public should be understood in a textured way, and that the interests of 'owners' should neither be forgotten nor conflated with those of creators of works.


Intermediate to advanced technique coverage, updated for C# 2012 and .NET 4.5This guide is geared towards experienced programmers looking to update and enhance their skills in writing Windows applications, web apps, and Metro apps with C# and .NET 4.5. Packed with information about intermediate and advanced features, this book includes everything professional developers need to know about C# and putting it to work. Covers challenging .NET features including Language Integrated Query (LINQ), LINQ to SQL, LINQ to XML, WCF, WPF, Workflow, and Generics Puts the new Async keyword to work and features refreshers on .NET architecture, objects, types, inheritance, arrays, operators, casts, delegates, events, strings, regular expressions, collections, and memory management Explores new options and interfaces presented by Windows 8 development, WinRT, and Metro style apps Includes traditional Windows forms programming, ASP.NET web programming with C#, and working in Visual Studio 2012 with C#Professional C# 2012 and .NET 4.5 is a comprehensive guide for experienced programmers wanting to maximize these technologies.


Perturbations to water, both by ions and confining media, have been the focus of numerous experimental and theoretical studies. Yet, several open questions remain, including the extent to which such perturbations modify the structural and dielectric properties of the liquid. Here, we present a first-principles molecular dynamics study of alkali cations in water (Li+, Na+, and K+) as well as of water and LiCl and KCl solutions under confinement within carbon nanotubes (CNTs) of small diameter (1.1-1.5 nm). Our simulations support the view that the water structure is only modified locally in the presence of cations. We found that molecular polarizabilities are fingerprints of hydrogen bonding modifications, which occur at most up to the second solvation shell for all cations in bulk water. Under confinement, we found that the overall value of the molecular polarizability of water molecules near the surface is determined by the balance of two effects, which are quantitatively different in CNTs of different radii: the presence of broken hydrogen bonds at the surface leads to a decrease in the polarizabilities of water molecules, while the interaction with the CNT enhances polarizabilities. Interestingly, the reduction in dipole moments of interfacial water molecules under confinement is instead driven only by changes in the water structure and not by interfacial interactions. As expected, confinement effects on water molecular polarizabilities and dipole moments are more pronounced in the case of the 1.1 nm CNT.


The grassland region of the northern Great Plains was divided into six broad subregions by application of an avian indicator species analysis to data obtained from 582 sample plots censused during the breeding season. Common, ubiquitous species and rare species had little classificatory value and were eliminated from the data set used to derive the avian associations. Initial statis- tical division of the plots likely reflected structure of the dominant plant species used for nesting; later divisions probably were related to foraging or nesting cover requirements based on vegetation height or density, habitat heterogeneity, or possibly to the existence of mutually similar distributions or shared areas of greater than average abundance for certain groups of species. 'Knowledge of the effects of grazing, mostly by cattle, on habitat use by the breeding bird species was used to interpret the results of the indicator species analysis. Moderate grazing resulted in greater species richness in nearly all subregions; effects of grazing on total bird density were more variable.


P versus NP is considered as one of the most important open problems in computer science. This consists in knowing the answer of the following question: Is P equal to NP? This question was first mentioned in a letter written by John Nash to the National Security Agency in 1955. A precise statement of the P versus NP problem was introduced independently in 1971 by Stephen Cook and Leonid Levin. Since that date, all efforts to find a proof for this problem have failed. OTHER-L is a problem of deciding given a solution y of an instance x in a language L whether x has another solution different of y. The class OTHER-NP contains those languages OTHER-L where L is in NP. Another major complexity class is NP-complete. To attack the P versus NP question the concept of NP-completeness has been very useful. We show a previous known OTHER-NP language which is NP-complete. If any single NP-complete problem can be solved in polynomial time, then every NP problem has a polynomial time algorithm. Therefore, if P = OTHER-NP, then P = NP. Moreover, we show OTHER-SAT and OTHER-3SAT are complete for OTHER-NP. Furthermore, we prove OTHER-SAT is NP-complete as well. Finally, we demonstrate the existence of a trivial OTHER-L language that is not only in OTHER-NP, but it is also in P where L is NP-complete.


This entry addresses two fundamental characteristics of rules. The first concerns the degree of precision, detail, or complexity they embody: how finely are different sorts of behavior to be distinguished? A second aspect of legal commands concerns when a given level of detail is provided -- at the time of promulgation ("rules") or subsequent to individuals' actions, in the context of an adjudication ("standards"). These aspects of rules are considered from a perspective that focuses upon information costs and dissemination: different sorts of legal commands involve differing costs of formulation and application by private parties (deciding upon their own conduct) and adjudicators, and the character of laws also influences how well parties actually will understand the law and conform their conduct accordingly. The discussion encompasses related questions involving the role of precedent, the evolution of the law over time, legal uncertainly, and accuracy in adjudication. This entry also addresses the separate problem of how changes in legal rules should apply to prior behavior or pre-existing investments -- issues of retroactivity and transition.


The classical modeling of radiation by accelerated charged particles in pulsars predicts a cutoff in photon energy at around 25 GeV. While this is broadly consistent with observations, the classical treatment is not self-consistent, and cannot be extended to explain the rare high-energy detections of photons in the 100s of GeV range. In this paper we revisit the theoretical modeling of high-energy radiation processes in very strong electromagnetic fields, in the context of both single particles and collective plasmas. There are no classical constraints on this description. We find that there is indeed a critical energy of around 50 GeV that arises naturally in this self-consistent treatment, but rather than being a cutoff, this critical energy signals a transition from radiation that is classical to a quasiquantum description, in which the particle is able to radiate almost its total energy in a single event. This new modeling therefore places pulsar radiation processes on a more secure physical basis, and admits the possibility of the production of TeV photons in a self-consistent way.


Current ovarian stimulation regimens for IVF are complex and not without risk. Increasing our knowledge of the physiology of follicle development and dominant follicle selection may enable the design of less complex, safer and cheaper ovarian stimulation regimens for IVF. Decremental serum FSH concentrations during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle are required for single dominant follicle selection. Only the most mature follicle will continue its development due to increased sensitivity for stimulation by FSH. FSH stimulation becomes insufficient for less mature follicles and remaining cohort follicles will therefore go into atresia. The number of days during which FSH is above the threshold for stimulation of follicle development is limited, resulting in a narrow FSH window. More medium sized and large pre-ovulatory follicles and increased oestradiol output can be induced by the administration of small doses of exogenous FSH during the mid- to late follicular phase, preventing the physiological decrease in FSH stimulation. Intervention with decremental serum FSH concentrations in combination with gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonists to prevent a premature rise in serum LH may induce ongoing growth of multiple follicles sufficient for IVF. The benefits and risks of these minimal hyperstimulation protocols require further evaluation.


A recently proposed class of models attempts to learn latent dynamics from high-dimensional observations, like images, using priors informed by Hamiltonian mechanics. While these models have important potential applications in areas like robotics or autonomous driving, there is currently no good way to evaluate their performance: existing methods primarily rely on image reconstruction quality, which does not always reflect the quality of the learnt latent dynamics. In this work, we empirically highlight the problems with the existing measures and develop a set of new measures, including a binary indicator of whether the underlying Hamiltonian dynamics have been faithfully captured, which we call Symplecticity Metric or SyMetric. Our measures take advantage of the known properties of Hamiltonian dynamics and are more discriminative of the model's ability to capture the underlying dynamics than reconstruction error. Using SyMetric, we identify a set of architectural choices that significantly improve the performance of a previously proposed model for inferring latent dynamics from pixels, the Hamiltonian Generative Network (HGN). Unlike the original HGN, the new HGN++ is able to discover an interpretable phase space with physically meaningful latents on some datasets. Furthermore, it is stable for significantly longer rollouts on a diverse range of 13 datasets, producing rollouts of essentially infinite length both forward and backwards in time with no degradation in quality on a subset of the datasets.


Since the time humans have developed speech, storytelling has been a crucial part of society. Its values lie in the ability to communicate potential dangers about the world to generating laughter and tears as a form of entertainment. A central theme in stories that continues to reoccur over the course of history is the story of the hero. Carl Jung theorizes that the hero is an archetype in the collective unconscious, which explains humans' innate inclinations towards heroes. Throughout history, the forms of storytelling have evolved due to technological and intellectual advancements. In modern times, film has risen as the leading modality for storytelling. The central theme of heroes continues to reoccur in this modality and is testified by the dominance of action hero movies in the box office. The purpose of this paper is to develop a model that details how to craft a compelling action hero movie based on empirical psychological research. The paper defines a compelling action hero movie as a movie with an action hero protagonist that maximizes narrative transportation, persuasion and enjoyment. By dissecting the construction of the film into its plot, character/diction, theme, melody and spectacle, the paper develops the PCTMS-NTPE Model that maximizes narrative transportation, persuasion and enjoyment in each aforementioned components. The beneficiaries of this paper are filmmakers and individuals who want to understand the inner psychological mechanics of a compelling action hero movie.


In this paper, we analyze perceptions and determinants of households9 participation in a randomized experiment on water quality testing and information in southern Ghana. Beneficiary households assessed the components of the intervention including its relevance and adequacy in improving understanding of water quality issues. Motivating and constraining factors to participation in the randomized experiment are also assessed. We also estimate the correlates of participation in the intervention. Social and economic benefits derived from the intervention based on perceptions are compared with impacts of the intervention using an instrumental variable approach. We found evidence that subjective analysis estimates of the effects of the intervention are higher than the objective analysis estimates. Households generally perceived the intervention to be relevant in improving their understanding of water quality issues. However, there are differing opinions based on random assignment into either child or adult treatment groups on most- and least-liked attributes of the intervention, and also motivating and constraining factors affecting participation in the intervention. The factors that statistically and significantly influenced participation in the intervention include educational attainment, ethnicity, religious denomination and marital status of the household heads, in addition to the location of residence.


When software engineers collaborate, they frequently use whiteboards or paper for sketching diagrams. This is fast and flexible, but the resulting diagrams cannot be interpreted by software modeling tools. We present FLEXISKETCH TEAM, a tool solution consisting of a significantly extended version of our previous, single-user FLEXISKETCH tool for Android devices and a new desktop tool. Our solution for collaborative, model-based sketching of free-form diagrams allows users to define and re-use diagramming notations on the fly. Several users can work simultaneously on the same model sketch with multiple tablets. The desktop tool provides a shared view of the drawing canvas which can be projected onto an electronic whiteboard. Preliminary results from an exploratory study show that our tool motivates meeting participants to actively take part in sketching as well as defining ad-hoc notations.


Since fillers do not play a central role in the grammar of a language, they are often neglected in language description. This is especially true of research on under-documented, endangered languages, and even more so at early stages of research on them, because there are so many "important" aspects of grammar to which researchers need to pay their full attention. This paper gives a preliminary account of the filler in Sliammon Salish. The Sliammon filler has relevance to the description of a seemingly unrelated part of the Sliammon grammar, i.e. the identification of certain morphemes as clitics, as opposed to affixes. The filler does not occur within the (morphological) word domain; therefore, if this filler occurs between a morpheme and a word, then that morpheme must be a clitic or another word, not an affix. This heuristic use of the filler in Sliammon underscores the importance of collecting natural textual material since fillers do not occur in elicited sentences. Keywords: hesitation filler; placeholder; clitic; proclitic; enclitic; mobile clitic


This study was conducted to determine prevalence of ectoparasites of ruminants of Muzaffarabad District, AJK. Samples were collected from the cattle of Tehsil and district Muzaffarabad of Azad Kashmir. The research activities were carried out during the period from July 2015 to December, 2015. In current study a total of 100 ruminants including 34 buffalos, 41 goats, 9 sheep and 16 cows were randomly selected for ectoparasitic infestation. Animals both the indigenous and cross bred were selected randomly. Cattle were carefully examined through handy assessment, palpation and parting the hairs beside their normal direction for the exposure of ectoparasites. Samples were picked from various organs of the body of the individual cattle via hand picking. Forceps was used during collection of samples at the point of attachment of ticks in the body of cattle to protect normal body organs such as the parts of mouth and appendages of the ectoparasites. Before assemblage of samples relevant data such as age, sex, nutritional condition, breed was recorded. Samples were well-maintained in 70% alcohol, uncontaminated, well-stopper vials made up of glass. Vials were categorized accurately. The seasonal ectoparasitic infestation during the study was higher in summer season than winter. Monthly highest prevalence of ectoparasites was during July and lowest during December. The highest prevalence recorded in month of July that was 41%. In August prevalence rate was 32%, 28% in September, 23% in October, 16% in November and 7% was recorded in December. The present study revealed that widespread occurrence of ectoparasites in ruminant in study area, and major ectoparasites identified were ticks, lice and mites. It is concluded that ectoparasites are prevalent in the cattle causing losses to cattle health and economy.


Personal belief exemptions (PBEs) from mandated school vaccinations have risen in California over the past decade. Disease outbreaks in the state are thought to be associated with clusters of intentionally unvaccinated children. However, no previous studies have quantified the clustering of PBEs within California schools. This study employs measures from the residential racial segregation literature to assess the extent of and trends in exposure of California kindergarteners to PBEs at school. Using data from the California Department of Public Health, we calculate exposure and isolation indices for the state and by county. Results indicate that more than 20,000 kindergarteners in California attend schools with epidemiologically worrisome rates of PBEs. Trends point to increased exposure over time, but not increased concentration of children with PBEs within schools. Schools with a high prevalence of intentionally unvaccinated children are epidemiologic "hotspots" and should be the focus of policy and programmatic interventions.


With the approach of the fiftieth anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, Matthew Adler's continuous prioritarian social welfare economic theory provides an interesting new resource for advocates of public defense reform. Adler argues for a moral decision-making procedure in large-scale policy settings that prioritizes the interests of the less well-off. This essay identifies some key steps in Adler's analysis, highlights several avenues for critique and further development of his arguments, and begins to explore the doctrinal development of the right to counsel as an instantiation of his inequality-averse approach to moral decision-making.


After a decade of toxic political debates and a policy bonfire, there is an opportunity to forge a stable and compelling policy on climate change that could be supported by both sides of politics. Abipartisan approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions is within reach. This policy roadmap builds on the Coalition's current climate policies while maintaining direction towards the long-term target. Its recommendations are designed to ensure both environmental credibility and the predictability essential to attract investment in clean technology. An economy-wide carbon price remains the ideal climate policy. But pragmatism and urgency demand a practical, next-best approach. Grattan's assessment of Australia's climate change options against a range of criteria indicates that none is perfect. Trade-offs are needed for a policy that both major parties can live with, and that will achieve the commonly agreed objective. The roadmap allows a Coalition government to modify its Safeguard Mechanism so that it no longer merely prevents emissions from going up, but drives them down in line with agreed targets – and via steps that are consistent with its political constraints. Equally, it shows how a future Labor government could take the Coalition's policy framework and move to its preferred emissions trading model. Government should take three steps. First, it should tighten the emissions limits ('baselines') of the Safeguard Mechanism in line with Australia's agreed targets. This forces our largest emitters to make significant reductions in their emissions. Next, it should auction tradeable permits that allow businesses to emit above the baselines, but within the target trajectory to 2030. This step ensures that reductions are achieved at lowest possible cost. The third step is to expand the Safeguard Mechanism to cover more emitters while reducing baselines to zero. Businesses covered by the scheme will then have to hold permits for all their emissions. This final step, which should be taken within a decade, creates the structure to deliver tougher future targets at low cost. With bipartisan agreement that Australia must move to a low-emissions economy, this report aims to provide a clear and workable plan for how to get there.


PurposeUnder Saudi Vision 2030, there is a forthcoming raise of support to small- or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from the current 20 per cent of GDP to 35 per cent; thus, SMEs' access to finance is becoming easier. At the same time, the cosmetics retail industry is expected to rapidly grow further in the next few years, on account of the already mounting demand and easy availability of cosmetics through online channels. The purpose of this study is to explore the use of beauty Instagram influencers in advertising as a tool to increase competitiveness for SMEs.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory research design was used and in-depth interviews were conducted to get a better understanding of female Saudi young adults' perceptions with regards to trust towards Instagram influencers, electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and advertising.FindingsSMEs can benefit greatly from eWOM in their quest for competitiveness. Therefore, when a beauty influencer on Instagram advertises a product to SMEs followers this leads to increased awareness and purchase intention. The findings indicated that the participants are quite sceptical when receiving reviews or promotion from beauty influencers on social media, as they rarely regard them as authentic. Moreover participants seem to trust influential beauty Instagrammers when they had a positive experience with the influencer before. Trust, honesty and authenticity were important factors that increase the impact of eWOM.Originality/valueThis paper offers an in-depth understanding of the use of Instagram advertising and eWOM in a rapidly developing industry and explores these as key communication pathways for modern SMEs in their effort to achieve resilience and competitiveness.