For the first time, we apply the wavelet coherence methodology on biofuels (ethanol and biodiesel) and a wide range of related commodities (gasoline, diesel, crude oil, corn, wheat, soybeans, sugarcane and rapeseed oil). This way, we are able to investigate dynamics of correlations in time and across scales (frequencies) with a model-free approach. We show that correlations indeed vary in time and across frequencies. We find two highly correlated pairs which are strongly connected at low frequencies - ethanol with corn and biodiesel with German diesel - during almost the whole analyzed period (2003-2011). Structure of correlations remarkably changes during the food crisis - higher frequencies become important for both mentioned pairs. This implies that during stable periods, ethanol is correlated with corn and biodiesel is correlated with German diesel mainly at low frequencies so that they follow a common long-term trend. However, in the crisis periods, ethanol (biodiesel) is led by corn (German diesel) even at high frequencies (low scales), which implies that the biofuels prices react more rapidly to the changes in their producing factors.


Inheritance studies have previously been undertaken at the South African Sugar Association Experiment Station (SASEX) under irrigated conditions. Since most sugarcane is grown in South Africa under dryland (raingrown) conditions, heritability estimates were calculated under these conditions in this study and compared to those previously obtained under irrigated conditions. A sugarcane population consisting of 12 crosses, 32 offspring in each cross, and their parents were planted in the first two selection stages of the SASEX selection programme to ascertain which stage provided the most useful information when selecting parent cultivars. Data collected from Stage 2 was more reliable than data collected from Stage 1. Variance components, narrow and broad sense heritabilities, correlations among traits, and clonal repeatabilities between seasons were determined for 11 sugarcane traits at Stages 1 and 2. These traits studied included: stalk population; stalk diameter; stalk height; cane mass; dry matter % cane; fibre % cane; brix % cane; brix % dry matter; purity; pol % cane; and ers % cane. Narrow sense heritabilities of the sugarcane traits were estimated by mid-parent offspring regression . Alternative heritability estimates were obtained through restricted maximum likelihood (REML) analysis of the unbalanced North Carolina design II at Stage 2. Although narrow sense heritabilities determined by mid-parent-offspring regression were comparable with those previously determined at SASEX and by other workers, REML was more efficient than regression. Use of REML enabled additive and non-additive genetic variance components to be estimated by allocating degrees of freedom to treatments and the interactions between the different treatments. Heritability estimates varied for different traits and compared favourably with those obtained under irrigated conditions and by other workers. Additive genetic variance was more important than non-additive genetic variance for some characters, but not for stalk population, cane mass, and dry matter % cane, for which both variances were important. Selection of parent cultivars for all sucrose-related traits, fibre % cane, and stalk diameter should be as successful under raingrown as under irrigated conditions, provided that the environmental variation is determined efficiently under raingrown conditions. Environmental correlations were observed between some traits, particularly between the yieldrelated traits, and may have influenced heritability estimates for those traits determined by mid-parent offspring regression. Stalk diameter, fibre % cane, and brix % dry matter were


With the rapid economic development and growing population, Bangladesh is one of the most environmentally vulnerable countries in the world. In this country, news reporting of environmental issues is vibrant and vigorous, although it attracts scant scholarly attention. In fact, environmental journalism in this South Asian country is one of the least studied topics in the area of journalism research. The current study attends to this country and examines news sources in two newspapers in Bangladesh, focusing on their coverage of river systems and climate change in 2009 and 2015. This study explores various sources, such as politicians, bureaucrats, activists, and citizens, and the patterns of emphasis in the news by using these sources to understand the framing of river degradation and climate change. The aim here is to illustrate the journalists' influence in defining these environmental problems against various news sources and social actors. The qualitative analysis reveals an emphasis on political and bureaucratic sources in 2009 and on expert and citizen sources in 2015. Additionally, the analysis also demonstrates that the journalists—as actors in defining the reality—have exerted 'influence' on accentuating environmental concerns by shifting their source emphasis over time from politicians and bureaucrats to experts and citizens. Through this emphasis, they uphold the discourse of environmental justice in varied contexts.


Leviticus 19 was constructed as a true table consisting of two columns and five rows. The columns are inverted parallels; one is ordered from positive to negative and the other from negative to positive. The rows are ordered according to the degree of God's connection to the specific laws. The five by two table is based on the author's reading of the Exodus 20 Decalogue as five consecutive pairs according to the division into ten Words that appears in the MT. This arrangement of the Decalogue is "quoted" in Leviticus 19.


Welfare Privatization: A New Arena of Class Struggle CLAIMING THAT THE PRIVATIZATION OF SERVICES INCREASED THEIR COST-EFFECTIVENESS and efficiency, the United States Congress authorized the privatization of a wider range of welfare services than ever before through the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act or PRWORA. State and local governments could now offer contracts to for-profit and nonprofit private agencies for eligibility determination and welfare-to-work case management services for Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF). Formerly known as Aid to Families with Dependent Children, TANF provides public assistance to low-income families, most of which are headed by women. Since t996, multibillion-dollar companies, including defense contractor Lockheed Martin, and nonprofit agencies, such as Catholic Charities, aggressively pursued contracts for welfare services. By 1999, Maximus, Inc., had become one of the leading welfare contractors, with contracts in almost every state in the U.S., including welfare-to-work contracts in 11 states (Cooper, 1998; Hartung and Washburn, 1998; Zullo, 2000: 1-3; Maximus, 1999; Murray, 1999). This takeover of welfare services by private agencies sparked considerable opposition from labor unions, welfare recipients, and community groups, who point to examples in which privatization increased welfare expenditures, lowered service quality, reduced public accountability, and eliminated good union jobs (Reese, Giedraitis, and Vega, 2005). In this article, we examine the concerns of community and labor groups over welfare privatization in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and their efforts to resist it and to improve the delivery of welfare services. This case is of particular interest because welfare privatization was carried out so fully there. Our research is based on a combination of sources, including newspaper articles, organizational literature, and interviews with activists and local policymakers. In most U.S. cities where welfare privatization took place, it was carried out by local officials and affected only a portion of the TANF caseload. In this case, in 1997 state officials contracted out to private agencies the administration of TANF cash aid eligibility as well as welfare-to-work case management for Milwaukee County's entire program, known there as Wisconsin Works (W-2); the county's Private Industry Council was given oversight of these agencies (AFSCME, 1998a). State officials claimed that privatization was justified because public employees were performing below the state's required standards. Union leaders, however, claim that the county's relatively high error rate was partly due to its higher-than-average caseloads and the implementation of a new computer system; they contend that the county was targeted for welfare privatization because it was home to the vast majority of the state's welfare recipients and was a Democratic stronghold in a conservative state (AFSCME District Council 48 staff, 2002; AFSCME District Council 48 official, 2002; AFSCME Local 594 official, 2001; Smith-Nightengale and Mikelson, 2000: 4). Multimillion-dollar contracts for W-2 services were given to two for-profit agencies, Maximus and YW Works (an affiliate of YWCA), and three nonprofit private agencies, Opportunities Industrialization Center of Greater Milwaukee, United Migrant Opportunity Services, and Goodwill Industries' Employment Solutions. (1) The largest contract went to Employment Solutions, run by Will Martin, a former aide to Wisconsin's then-Governor Tommy Thompson (Schultze, 2000d). The Wisconsin Policy Institute boasted that privatization saved the state at least $10.3 million over the first two years of operation (Flaherty, 1998; Elke, 1998). Most of these savings resulted from the dramatic decline in welfare caseloads, which were partly due to the implementation of new welfare rules, tougher work requirements, and favorable labor market conditions. …


Purpose : To assess the effect of pattern drafting and free-hand cutting technique on apparel fit. Methodology : The study employed a cross-sectional descriptive survey was considered adequate for this study as it has the advantage of soliciting respondent's views on the nature of the situation as it existed at the time of a study (Creswell, 2012; Mugenda, 2008). The design is an efficient way of collecting information of a large group of people within a short time using questionnaires. The survey design was deemed appropriate for this study as it has the advantage of seeking the views of informal dressmakers and tailors on the use of pattern drafting and free-hand cutting in apparel construction. It allowed for the use of both quantitative and qualitative techniques in the study. This paved way for better understanding of a phenomenon under study. The use of these methods offered the opportunity to have in-depth information and also the weakness in one method is compensated for by the strength in another method (Creswell, 2012). Results : Pattern drafting scored higher than free-hand cutting. Concerning how measurements were being taken, it was realized that there was great disparity between the two groups in the way measurements were taken and recorded. The group using pattern drafting scored good (75%), while the group using free-hand cutting had a low score of 34%. In other words, they showed very poor skills in taking measurement in all the apparel sewed. The implication is that measurement taking was a great problem that needed to be addressed as far as the use of free-hand cutting method is concerned. Proper taking and recording of measurement for future references was not part of their style. Standing position of clients during measurement taking was not given the proper concern. Unique Contribution to theory, practice and policy : The study recommended more vocational training on pattern drafting to increase the accuracy in dress crafting. Additionally, the study advocated for IDTA to enact policy to incorporate pattern drafting and other methods of apparel construction into the training curriculum of apprentices to develop interest in the use of these methods right from the onset.


This research study aimed to explore the impact on individuals of becoming physically disabled through being victims of crimes of violence. The study begins with a literature review related to issues of disability and to victims of crime. The main focus of the research, however, was to gather information regarding the experiences and needs of persons disabled through being victims of crime and to establish the rehabilitation and trauma counselling services that they have had access to. An exploratory, descriptive, research design guided the study. A purposive sampling procedure was used to identify twenty persons known to the Durban branch of the Association for the Physically Challenged, which provides services to physically disabled persons. Individual, face-to-face interviews were held with the respondents, using a semi-structured interview schedule. Interviewer observations were also undertaken in the process. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used in analysing the results, from which conclusions and recommendations were drawn. The study findings indicate that the majority of persons had become severely disabled through being victims of crimes of violence. The majority of respondents were young when they became disabled, and were mostly single persons who experienced a high degree of dependence on others for various types of assistance, particularly their families and friends. The respondents also experienced a variety of unmet needs as both disabled persons and as victims of crimes of violence, through a lack of and/or inaccessibility to services. Disability, as seen within the context of the "social model", emphasises the role of a disabling environment in contributing to the meaning of disability. Resulting from the findings, it is proposed that social workers are ideally placed to foster empowerment initiatives of disabled persons and victims of crime through facilitating their active involvement in directing services that are both accessible and relevant to their needs.


Cellular invasion is the gateway to metastasis, which is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Invasion is driven by a number of chemical and mechanical stresses that arise in the tumor microenvironment. In vitro assays are needed for the systematic study of cancer progress. To be truly predictive, these assays must generate tissue-like environments that can be experimentally controlled and manipulated. While two-dimensional (2D) monolayer cultures are easily assembled and evaluated, they lack the extracellular components needed to assess invasion. Three-dimensional (3D) cultures are better suited for invasion studies because they generate cellular phenotypes that are more representative of those found in vivo. This feature article provides an overview of four invasion platforms. We focus on paper-based cultures, an emerging 3D culture platform capable of generating tissue-like structures and quantifying cellular invasion. Paper-based cultures are as easily assembled and analyzed as monolayers, but provide an experimentally powerful platform capable of supporting: co-cultures and representative extracellular environments; experimentally controlled gradients; readouts capable of quantifying, discerning, and separating cells based on their invasiveness. With a series of examples we highlight the potential of paper-based cultures, and discuss how they stack up against other invasion platforms.


We report the first direct turbulence observations in the Samoan Passage (SP), a 40 km wide notch in the South Pacific bathymetry through which flows most of the water supplying the North Pacific abyssal circulation. The observed turbulence is 1000 to 10,000 times typical abyssal levels —strong enough to completely mix away the densest water entering the passage—confirming inferences from previous coarser temperature and salinity sections. Accompanying towed measurements of velocity and temperature with horizontal resolution of about 250 m indicate the dominant processes responsible for the turbulence. Specifically, the flow accelerates substantially at the primary sill within the passage, reaching speeds as great as 0.55 m s−1. A strong hydraulic response is seen, with layers first rising to clear the sill and then plunging hundreds of meters downward. Turbulence results from high shear at the interface above the densest fluid as it descends and from hydraulic jumps that form downstream of the sill. In addition to the primary sill, other locations along the multiple interconnected channels through the Samoan Passage also have an effect on the mixing of the dense water. In fact, quite different hydraulic responses and turbulence levels are observed at seafloor features separated laterally by a few kilometers, suggesting that abyssal mixing depends sensitively on bathymetric details on small scales.


Greenhouse study was carried out to evaluate β-carotene and sugar accumulation in carrot tap roots, at harvest, after treatment with different fertilizer levels either separately or in combination with two commercial bio-stimulants, ComCat® and Kelpak®. Four fertilizer levels included standard recommended NPK level (100%) as well as 50%, 25% and 0% of standard. Foliar application of bio-stimulants was according to recommendations by the manufacturers. Treatments were replicated five times in complete randomized block design. Translocation of sugar was followed by labelling leaves with U-14C-glucose. Both βcarotene and sucrose content increased more or less linearly with increasing fertilization, but most significant increase was observed when carrots were treated with combination of ComCat® at 50% of standard fertilizer rate. In the case of sucrose this was in concert with a significant increase in the translocation of radio-activity from the leaves to the roots where ComCat® was applied in combination with higher fertilizer regimes. Glucose and fructose levels fluctuated rather inconsistently. Kelpak® had no effect on β-carotene content and had inhibitory effect on sucrose content.


Macroeconomics: This course aims to familiarize students with key analytical concepts and key analytical tools in macroeconomic analysis and related policies. The course addresses central macroeconomic questions that have arised in the period between the first oil price shock and the current Great Recession in which GDP the unemployment rate has systematically evolved above full-employment levels. Upon completion, students must be able: (i) to understand fundamental theoretical issues underlying the relationship of some critical macroeconomic variables such as GDP, inflation, unemployment, etc; (ii) to interpret the reasons for, and the effects of, demand and supply-side policies; (iii) to deal with appropriate data and elaborate brief country-specific reports characterizing the macroeconomic situation of any economy. Public Finance: Public Finance, or equivalently Public Economics, focuses on the study of the effects of government actions on economic activity. It aims at predicting the effects of these actions and at providing guidance on the choice among different alternatives. By restricting attention on a relatively small number of topics, the objective of the course is to illustrate how economic analysis emerges as an extremely helpful instrument in the design and evaluation of public policy. Introduction to Data Analysis: The course main objective is to provide a solid foundation of statistics for the analysis of economic data. Some of the most popular methods for data analysis will be reviewed. Even if the focus of the course is on the application of these methods, mathematical details will be included to help to properly evaluate the tools presented. Econometrics: The course covers basic tools of econometric analysis for the measurement and testing of economic relationships. Special emphasis is placed on the applications and limitations of regression models.


Growth and zinc uptake of the hyperaccumulator species Thlaspi caerulescens J. & C. Presl and the non-hyperaccumulator species Thlaspi ochroleucum Boiss. & Heldr. were compared in solution culture experiments. T. caerulescens was able to tolerate 500 mmol m−3 (32.5 g m−3) Zn in solution without growth reduction, and up to 1000 mmol m−3 (65 g m−3) Zn without showing visible toxic symptoms but with a 25% decrease in dry matter (DM) yield. Up to 28 g kg−1 of Zn in shoot DM was obtained in healthy plants of T. caerulescens. In contrast, T. ochroleucum suffered severe phytotoxicity at 500 mmol m−3 Zn. Marked differences were shown in Zn uptake, distribution and redistribution between the two species. T. caerulescens had much higher concentrations of Zn in the shoots, whereas T. ochroleucum accumulated higher concentrations of Zn in the roots. When an external supply of 500 mmol m−3 Zn was withheld, 89% of the Zn accumulated previously in the roots of T. caerulescens was transported to the shoots over a 33 d period, whereas in T. ochroleucum only 32% was transported. T. caerulescens was shown to have a greater internal requirement for Zn than other plants. Increasing the supply of Zn from 1 to 10 mmol m−3 gave a 19% increase in the total DM of this species. liven the shoots from the 1 mmol m−3 Zn treatment which showed Zn deficiency contained 10 times greater Zn concentrations than the widely reported critical value for Zn deficiency to occur in many other plant species. The results obtained suggest that strongly expressed constitutive sequestration mechanisms exist in the hyperaccumulator T. caerulescens, which detoxify the large amount of Zn present in shoot tissues and decrease its physiological availability in the cytosol. Both T. caerulescens and T. ochroleucum had constitutively high concentrations of malate in shoots, which were little affected by different Zn treatments. Although malate may play a role in Zn chelation because of the high concentrations present, it cannot explain the species specificity of Zn tolerance and hyperaccumulation.


In wealthy countries, philanthropy is conspicuous back on stage. It appears in new forms, worldwide. As a result, scholarly attention for philanthropy is growing. Philanthropic goals refer to persons, groups and communities who, in most cases, are not personally known to the giver. In research, however, philanthropic motivations of individuals are usually measured by socio-psychological scales which presuppose direct interactions. Measuring philanthropy could therefore be improved by incorporating a sociological frame of reference as well. As a starting point, this article presents a preliminary version of the philanthropy scale that has been tested in the panel survey of the Giving in the Netherlands (GIN) study. The results are discussed in terms of shortcomings and challenges for further research.


The American Bar Association's ("ABA") practice of requiring students to purchase the Model Rules of Professional Conduct is exploitative and unethical. The ABA uses its role in training lawyers to create a situation which all but requires law students and bar applicants to purchase the organization's own Model Rules. The fact that the Model Rules constitute a substantial revenue stream for the ABA is due less to lawyers' desire to brush up on Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which are not laws, than to the ABA's direct role in approving law schools and its indirect role in licensing lawyers.

Law schools must maintain ABA-approved status to remain in business. The ABA Standards for Approval of Law Schools require that students take a course in legal ethics. Not only must law students take a course in legal ethics, but those courses must also include instruction in the ABA's ethics rules. Furthermore, nearly all jurisdictions require bar applicants pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination ("MPRE") to become a licensed lawyer. The MPRE is based substantially on the Model Rules. The ABA has thus used its role in training lawyers to create a situation that essentially requires law students and bar applicants to purchase the organization's own Model Rules.

The ABA's decision to make its ethics rules a commodity, spanning twenty years, together with the National Conference Bar Examiners ("NCBE") desire to nationalize testing by using the Model Rules, cultivates the dangerous view that testing checks for those inclined to unethical behavior. In light of the ABA's successful efforts to wring even more revenue from financially-burdened law students, the creation of an essay examination in ethics sounds less like a call to renewed professionalism than a pitch for another product for the NCBE to sell to state bar examiners. It is a bureaucratic culture's last-gasp effort, one that should be rejected firmly and finally.


Dawkins' hypothetical materialist fantasies concerning evolution amount to little more than evolutionary fairy tales, and yet they are accepted as soundly established 'science' by many. One such story is that the giraffe's neck gradually evolved, the neck becoming longer millimeter by millimeter over a long time period. The fairy tale account suggested by Darwin and still often repeated in text books is that of the fact that giraffes need to browse on higher tree branches during droughts, thus natural selection 'favours' long necks. This is now known to be false.  Dawkins confidently asserts that the "good guess" that giraffes evolved gradually from an okapi-like ancestor is "supported by fossil evidence", this is also false.  In fact the physiology of the giraffe indicates the flawed nature of Dawkins' account of a materialist evolution through the mechanisms of random mutation 'filtered' by natural selection. The fact of the dramatic coordinated and interrelated nature of the various features which support the giraffe's long neck indicates that there is no way this situation could, nor is there any evidence that it did, come about through natural selection.


Contributions to Law, Philosophy and Ecology: Exploring Re-Embodiments is a preliminary contribution to the establishment of re-embodiments as a theoretical strand within legal and ecological theory, and philosophy. Re-embodiments are all those contemporary practices and processes that exceed the epistemic horizon of modernity. As such, they offer a plurality of alternative modes of theory and practice that seek to counteract the ecocidal tendencies of the Anthropocene. The collection comprises eleven contributions approaching re-embodiments from a multiplicity of fields, including legal theory, eco-philosophy, eco-feminism and anthropology. The contributions are organized into three parts: 'Beyond Modernity', 'The Sacred Dimension' and 'The Legal Dimension'. The collection is opened by a comprehensive introduction that situates re-embodiments in theoretical context. Whilst closely bound with embodiment and new materialist theory, this book contributes a unique voice that echoes diverse political processes contemporaneous to our times. Written in an elegant and accessible language, the book will appeal to undergraduates, postgraduates and established scholars alike seeking to understand and take re-embodiments further, both politically and theoretically.


Almost every commentary on the history of the selection of federal judges presumes that there was some prior golden era in which national political leaders focused primarily on the merit of individual nominees and were not unduly swayed by partisan politics or ideology. Numerous constitutional scholars — and national leaders — have therefore roundly criticized the modern day judicial selection process, citing unprecedented delays and a low percentage of approval of federal court nominees as evidence that the system has broken down. They have argued that the ways in which senators, as well as presidents, have handled lower court nominations in the modern era have deviated from how the nation's first chief executives and the first few Senates handled such nominations. Yet, there is one glaring omission in almost all commentaries on disputes over judicial selection over the past few decades — the absence of any substantiation of an earlier, so-called golden era, in which there actually was general deference within the Senate to presidents' nominations to federal district and appellate judgeships. Even the classic work on federal judicial selection by the late Kermit Hall begins its analysis of federal judicial selection in 1825, disregarding nearly forty years of prior practices in the field and reinforcing the received but unsubstantiated assumptions about how judicial nominations to lower courts fared beforehand.This Article is the first to make a serious comprehensive historiography of federal judicial selection from 1789-1861 in the United States. Following six years of archival and secondary source research, we identified each of the lower court nominations made by presidents from George Washington through James Buchanan and then tracked the Senate's actions on each of their nominations through both archival and secondary sources. Further, we identified the criteria employed in the first seven decades of judicial nominations as well as the outcomes of, and grounds for, the Senate's proceedings for all of these nominations. We believe that the results of this unprecedented study are significant because they provide a window into an era of early federal judicial selection that has been virtually ignored by both commentators and national political leaders. While we identified some antiquated practices, such as several of the earliest presidents' judicial nominees actually declining judgeships after the Senate had confirmed their nominations, we found other patterns of practice that are similar to contemporary developments. Among the most significant of these latter patterns are the facts that: every antebellum president took political considerations into account in making nominations; all antebellum presidents, with the exception of William Henry Harrison, had most of their judicial nominations confirmed by the Senate; and three antebellum presidents — George Washington, Martin Van Buren, and James Polk — enjoyed 100% of their judicial nominations confirmed by the Senate. Yet, political parties, particularly in times of divided government, often split along party lines in judicial confirmation proceedings, and several judicial nominations in the antebellum period failed because of opposition based on the particular nominees' ideologies or past political decisions. In short, there was no golden era of judicial nominations but rather different eras in which politics, in different ways, shaped federal judicial selection.


Based on results of preliminary screening of leaves and rhizomes of ginger species, leaves of Etlingera species were selected for study. Leaves of five Etlingera species were assessed for total phenolic content (TPC), and for antioxidant, antibacterial and tyrosinase inhibition activities. Highest TPC, ascorbic acid equivalent antioxidant capacity (AEAC) and ferric reducing power (FRP) were found in leaves of E. elatior. Leaves of E. maingayi, with the lowest TPC, AEAC and FRP, had the highest ferrous ion chelating (FIC) ability and lipid peroxidation inhibition (LPI) activity. FIC ability of E. maingayi and E. fulgens was much higher than that of young leaves of Camellia sinensis. All Etlingera species studied showed high LPI activity superior to that of young leaves of C. sinensis.
TPC and AEAC of leaves of E. elatior and E. maingayi were 7–8 times higher than those of rhizomes. Ranking of TPC and antioxidant activity of the different plant parts of E. elatior was in the order: leaves > inflorescences > rhizomes. Leaves of highland populations of Etlingera species displayed higher values of TPC and AEAC than those of lowland counterparts. Leaves of Etlingera species exhibited antibacterial activity against Gram-positive bacteria. Three out of five species displayed strong tyrosinase inhibition activity. Leaves of Etlingera were found to be non-cytotoxic to normal liver and kidney cells. The overall score and ranking were of the order: E. elatior > E. rubrostriata > E. fulgens > E. littoralis > E. maingayi.
Leaves of 21 other ginger species belonging to eight genera and three tribes were screened for TPC and AEAC for comparison with those of the five Etlingera species. Compared to Etlingera of the tribe Alpineae, the other ginger species of the same tribe such as Alpinia and Elettariopsis had lower values. Species of Boesenbergia, Curcuma, Hedychium, Kaempferia and Scaphochlamys (tribe Hedychieae) and species of Zingiber (tribe Zingibereae) had much lower values.
Effects of five different drying methods on the phenolic content and antioxidant properties of leaves of Alpinia zerumbet, Etlingera elatior, Curcuma longa and Kaempferia galanga were assessed. Thermal drying methods resulted in drastic declines in TPC, AEAC and FRP with minimal effects on FIC ability and LPI activity. Of the non-thermal drying methods, significant losses were observed in air-dried leaves. Freeze-drying resulted in significant gains in TPC, AEAC and FRP for A. zerumbet and E. elatior leaves.
Six compounds were isolated from E. elatior leaves and identified as 3-O-caffeoylquinic acid, 5-O-caffeoylquinic acid (chlorogenic acid), 5-O-caffeoylquinic acid methyl ester, isoquercitrin, quercitrin and (+)-catechin. This is the first report of caffeoylquinic acids (CQA) including chlorogenic acid (CGA) in Zingiberaceae. CGA, isoquercitrin and quercitrin, the major compounds, showed DPPH radical scavenging ability but no antibacterial and tyrosinase inhibition activities.
Content of CQA of E. elatior, E. fulgens and E. rubrostriata leaves was significantly higher than leaves of Ipomoea batatas, and comparable to flowers of Lonicera japonica. CGA found only in leaves of E. elatior and E. fulgens was significantly higher in content than L. japonica, the commercial source.
From leaves of four Etlingera species, highest diversity of essential oil was found in E. rubrostriata. Composition of essential oils in E. elatior and E. fulgens were very different despite having very similar aroma and morphology. Leaves of E. maingayi had the highest yield of essential oils comprising mainly fatty acids that inhibited Gram-positive bacteria.
A protocol to produce a CGA standardized extract from leaves of E. elatior has been optimized. Freeze-drying of leaves followed by extraction with ethanol, and fractionation using Diaion HP-20 and Sephadex LH-20 yielded an extract with ~40% w/w purity.


We investigate a system governed by a fractional diffusion equation with an integro-differential boundary condition on the surface. This condition can be connected with several processes such as adsorption and/or desorption or chemical reactions due to the presence of active sites on the surface. The solutions are obtained by using the Green function approach and show a rich class of behaviors, which can be related to anomalous diffusion.


This paper focuses on forecasting quarterly energy prices of commodities, such as oil, gas and coal, using the Global VAR dataset proposed by Mohaddes and Raissi (2018). This dataset includes a number of potentially informative quarterly macroeconomic variables for the 33 largest economies, overall accounting for more than 80% of the global GDP. To deal with the information on this large database, we apply a dynamic factor model based on a penalized maximum likelihood approach that allows to shrink parameters to zero and to estimate sparse factor loadings. The estimated latent factors show considerable sparsity and heterogeneity in the selected loadings across variables. When the model is extended to predict energy commodity prices up to four periods ahead, results indicate larger predictability relative to the benchmark random walk model for 1-quarter ahead for all energy commodities. In our application, the largest improvement in terms of prediction accuracy is observed when predicting gas prices from 1 to 4 quarters ahead.


Canada's rich, diverse literary heritage has long attracted widespread recognition, and in recent years Canadian writers have won nearly every major international literary award. The breadth and sophistication of Canada's literature demands precisely the kind of critical reflection that W.H. New's comprehensive Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada now offers to readers. This up-to-date reference book brings together 300 leading Canadianists to look at literature in Canada from a variety of perspectives. In over 2000 entries, acknowledging Canada's cultural plurality, the Encyclopedia discusses literature in English and French, and also in such other languages as Yiddish, Spanish, Haida and Cree; authors and their work; related literary and social issues; professional institutions that play a role in the lives of Canadian writers; and the major historical and cultural events that have shaped Canada. The unique richness of this work is also reflected in the breadth of other entries. Among them are commentaries on humour and satire, genre (including radio drama and the long poem), social history, film, television and popular culture, literary awards, language, critical theory, the oral literatures of the First Nations, petroglyphs, the publishing industry, journalism, gender, race, religion, region, myth, and class. Extensive cross-referencing, a cultural chronology, supplementary index, and suggestions for further reading make this encyclopedia the most complete and accessible reference guide to Canadian literature in print. Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada will be an essential resource for scholars, writers, and readers for years to come.


Many distance bounding protocols appropriate for the RFID technology have been proposed recently. Unfortunately, they are commonly designed without any formal approach, which leads to inaccurate analyzes and unfair comparisons. Motivated by this need, we introduce a unified framework that aims to improve analysis and design of distance bounding protocols. Our framework includes a thorough terminology about the frauds, adversary and prover, thus disambiguating many misleading terms. It also explores the adversary's capabilities and strategies, and addresses the impact of the prover's ability to tamper with his device. It thus introduces some new concepts in the distance bounding domain as the black-box and white-box models, and the relation between the frauds with respect to these models. The relevancy and impact of the framework is finally demonstrated on a study case: Munilla-Peinado distance bounding protocol.


This paper analyzes the interactions between the protocol stack (TCP/IP or iWARP over 10-Gigabit Ethernet) and its multicore environment. Specifically, for host-based protocols such as TCP/IP, we notice that a significant amount of processing is statically assigned to a single core, resulting in an imbalance of load on the different cores of the system and adversely impacting the performance of many applications. For host-offloaded protocols such as iWARP, on the other hand, the portions of the communication stack that are performed on the host, such as buffering of messages and memory copies, are closely tied with the associated process, and hence do not create such load imbalances. Thus, in this paper, we demonstrate that by intelligently mapping different processes of an application to specific cores, the imbalance created by the TCP/IP protocol stack can be largely countered and application performance significantly improved. At the same time, since the load is a better balanced in host-offloaded protocols such as iWARP, such mapping does not adversely affect their performance, thus keeping the mapping generic enough to be used with multiple protocol stacks.


Hyperpigmented skin lesions are common presentation of Indian patients. It causes cosmetic disfigurement, as well as has immense psycho social impact. Most of the lesions are diagnosed clinically but some of them are difficult to diagnose because of overlapping features. To form basic dermoscopic guidelines to approach a hyperpigmented lesion. LPP and EDP demonstrate brownish background with bluish gray hue and brown to gray globules, which is also seen in PCD with superimposition of brown globules. Linear cristae cutis and sulci cutis forms a special clue in AN. Frictional melanosis displays bluish gray globules with patulous follicles with plugs and perifollicular scaling. Patulous follicular opening with whitish yellow excrescences on pseudopigment network is seen in seborrheic melanosis. PDL displays peri-follicular brown globules with no vasculature changes or scales. Melasma shows prominent brown background with reticular or reticulo-globular pigment pattern. Exogenous ochronosis demonstrates grayish brown globules with obliteration of follicular openings. Brown polygonal globules with scales along skin lines and over the globules are noted in CRP. Hub and spoke pattern of pigmentation is a feature of macular amyloidosis. Hyperpigmented pityriasis versicolor demonstrates accentuated pigment network with scaling in diffuse or perifollicular or along skin lines seen. Dermoscopic diagnosis should be based on amalgam of all parameters identified in a given lesion and not in isolation. Dermoscopy is of great importance for assessment of hyperpigmentation disorders in dark-skinned patients as they may clinically look similar due to the natural brownish background.


We present and solve a model for the vortex configuration of a disordered quantum Hall bilayer in the limit of strong and smooth disorder. We argue that there is a characteristic disorder strength below which vortices will be rare and above which they proliferate. We predict that this can be observed tuning the electron density in a given sample. The ground state in the strong-disorder regime can be understood as an emulsion of vortex-antivortex crystals. Its signatures include a suppression of the spatial decay of counterflow currents. We find an increase of at least an order of magnitude in the length scale for this decay compared to a clean system. This provides a possible explanation of the apparent absence of leakage of counterflow currents through interlayer tunneling, even in experiments performed deep in the coherent phase where enhanced interlayer tunneling is observed.


Objectives: Stair climbing (SC) as daily activity is assessed with different SC-tests, but none directly measures ground reaction force over several steps. The Leonardo Mechanograph Stair A has five steps and four force sensors. This study aimed at investigating the reliability of the Stair A test for force, power and time to SC. Methods: 55 healthy participants (age: 48±14 years) were five times tested during SC with self-chosen and fast speed. 30 participants were examined for test-retest-reliability, calculated with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The variability was examined with the coefficient of variation (CV). To determine potential associations between SC and jumping performance or daily activity, squat and countermovement jumps were additionally performed and the International physical activity questionnaire (IPAQ) was completed. Results: The inter-visit ICCs of self-chosen and fast SC were good to excellent 0.63-0.77. The intra-visit ICCs were excellent after three trials (0.78-0.88). The CVs for SC with self-chosen speed were lower (2.1-6.6%) than those for fast SC (4.9-10.8%). There were no significant correlations between SC and jump parameters and only moderate correlations with the IPAQ. Conclusion: The Stair A is a reliable tool for the assessment of SC.


The three of us have all experienced how lack of caring skills have led to challenges in the professional practice. We have witnessed the negative consequences this may have for young individuals in social arenas. On the other hand, we have witnessed how young individuals, who have been met with understanding, gain a stronger perception of self, which positively changes their trajectories in life. In our interviews, we met three young people, from different backgrounds with both negative and positive narratives about themselves. This made us wonder about which factors affected their self-perception, and how positive relations can create positive prospects for the future.  The purpose of this professional paper is to pass on the young people's voices to those, who are interested in what happens when young people have positive and negative experiences in different social arenas, and how the lack of attention from professional caregivers impact their lives.


Considerable multi-planar breast movement has been reported during jumping, yet the effect of breast support on landing kinematics and kinetics during vertical jumping has not been investigated. Preliminary research has suggested alterations in running kinematics and kinetics can occur as a result of differing magnitudes of breast movement. Examining relationships between breast movement and the vertical jump landing strategy will increase our understanding of the breast support implications for larger-breasted athletes during sport and exercise. The aim was to assess relationships between multi-planar breast kinematics and landing strategy during vertical jumping.Twelve larger-breasted (UK breast cup sizes D to E) active females (mean (SD): age 24 (4) years, height 1.66 (0.07) m, body mass 69.58 (12.26) kg) completed six maximum effort non-consecutive two-footed vertical countermovement jumps in an everyday bra (low support) and a sports bra (high support) on a force platform (1000 Hz; Kistler, Switzerland). Three-dimensional relative breast kinematics and sagittal plane kinematics were monitored using eight infrared Oqus cameras (200 Hz; Qualisys, Sweden). In both breast support conditions multi-planar breast kinematics during the first half of the jump were correlated to kinetic variables and sagittal plane kinematics during the landing phase.Multi-planar breast displacement, velocity and acceleration were significantly lower in the high support condition (p < 0.017). Jump height (mean 0.27 m in both conditions) was not affected by breast support. Increased vertical breast displacement during the first half of the jump decreased the mediolateral ground reaction force upon landing (r = -0.508, p = 0.022). Increases in anterioposterior breast kinematics related to increased thorax, thigh and knee flexion at initial contact (r = 0.564 to 0.607; p < 0.04). It could be speculated that when participants felt less supported they attempted to increase their base of support on landing, subsequently increasing stability. Increased flexion on landing with increased breast movement may be a strategy selected to reduce landing forces. Results suggest participants may have consciously employed a more flexed and stable landing strategy when breasts were less supported by increasing joint flexion and reducing mediolateral ground reaction forces. This may have been a pre-planned landing strategy or a result of increased breast kinematics during the first half of the jump. Future research should investigate the performance implications of this altered landing strategy on subsequent movements, although high breast support for larger-breasted athletes during jumping is recommended to reduce breast kinematics.


Between Copernicus and Galileo is the story of Christoph Clavius, the Jesuit astronomer and teacher whose work helped set the standards by which Galileo's famous claims appeared so radical, and whose teachings guided the intellectual and scientific agenda of the Church in the central years of the Scientific Revolution. Though relatively unknown today, Clavius was enormously influential throughout Europe in the late 16th and early 17th centuries through his astronomy books - the standard texts used in many colleges and universities, and the tools with which Descartes, Gassendi and Mersenne, among many others, learned their astronomy. James Lattis uses Clavius's own publications, as well as archival materials, to trace the central role Clavius played in integrating traditional Ptolemaic astronomy and Aristotelian natural philosophy into an orthodox cosmology. Although Clavius strongly resisted the new cosmologies of Copernicus and Tycho, Galileo's invention of the telescope ultimately eroded the Ptolemaic world view. By tracing Clavius's views from medieval cosmology to the 17th century, Lattis illuminates the conceptual shift from Ptolemaic to Copernican astronomy and the social, intellectual and theological impact of the Scientific Revolution.


As the scope of logics of action and change continues to increase and powerful research tools are developed, it becomes possible to model larger and more complex scenarios. Unfortunately the scenarios become harder to read and difficult to modify and debug with increasing size and complexity. These problems have been overlooked in the action and change community due to the fact that only smaller toy problems are considered. Sound modeling methodology is as essential as the primitives of the modeling language. The object-oriented paradigm is one structuring mechanism that alleviates these problems and provides a systematic means of scenario construction. The topic of this paper is to demonstrate how many ideas from the object orientation paradigm can be used when reasoning about action and change, we show this by integrating the technique directly in an existing logic of action and change without any modification to the underlying logical language or semantics. 1


One of the fundamental limitations on all analog electronics circuits is the noise generated by the individual transistors. This project is a design of a system to allow laboratory measurements of the noise output by MOSFET transistors, of either N-channel or P-channel devices. The system currently extends frequency response to roughly 10 MHz with the possibility of a higher bandwidth amplifier easily extending this much farther. In addition, the system allows the tester to easily and accurately set the bias current flowing in the test transistor, helping to show the effects of changing the transcond uctance.


The Battle of Hastings in 1066 is the one date forever seared on the British national psyche. It enabled the Norman Conquest that marked the end of Anglo-Saxon England. But there was much more to the Normans than the invading army Duke William shipped over from Normandy to the shores of Sussex. How a band of marauding warriors established some of the most powerful kingdoms in Europe - in Sicily and France, as well as England - is an improbably romantic idea. In exploring Norman culture in all its regions, Leonie V Hicks places the Normans in the context of early medieval society. Her comparative perspective enables the Norman story to be told in full, so that the societies of Rollo, William, Robert Guiscard and Roger are given the focused attention they deserve. From Hastings to the martial exploits of Bohemond and Tancred on the First Crusade; from castles and keeps to Romanesque cathedrals; and from the founding of the Kingdom of Sicily (1130) to cross-cultural encounters with Byzantines and Muslims, this is a fresh and lively survey of one of the most popular topics in European history.


ABSTRACT There has been a prolific production of research papers on workplace learning (WPL) during the last two decades. Several reviews of the field discuss the development of themes, the use of foundational terms and some different models and frameworks have been developed. The purpose of this article is to analyse the recent development of the field of WPL, as presented in research literature, and to evaluate the potential of international survey data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) to contribute to this development. Our study is organised in three stages. Firstly, we summarise the main topics and trends emerging from recent literature on WPL. Secondly, we analyse how peer-reviewed publications using data from the OECD PIAAC survey have contributed to WPL. Thirdly, we compare and discuss the different contributions and make some suggestions as to how PIAAC survey data might be used to further develop our understanding of WPL.


Haemopoietic activity in Aplastic anemia (AA) is significantly reduced and is generally attributed to failure of Haemopoietic stem cells (HSC) within the bone marrow. The extent to which Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) are involved in the functional restriction of HSC is largely unknown. To understand this, the physical and functional properties of AA MSC were studied in vitro. MSC were characterised by their phenotype and ability to form adherent stromal layers. The functional properties of AA MSC were assessed through proliferative, clonogenic and cross¬over culture assays. Results show several alterations in the physiological and functional status of MSC in AA. Although AA MSC presented typical morphology and distinctive mesenchymal markers, stromal formation was significantly reduced; furthermore, their proliferative and clonogenic capacity was markedly decreased and ability to sustain haemopoiesis was also reduced as assessed by total cell proliferation and clonogenic ability of HSC. It was concluded that the biological characteristics of AA MSC are different from those of control MSC and their in vitro haemopoiesis-supporting ability significantly weaker. The second aim of this study was to identify serum proteins that change expression in untreated AA patients compared to Anti-thymocyte globulin treated patients and healthy controls that might be useful in understanding and monitoring of AA. Serum was profiled using SELDI¬TOFIMS, detecting a number of differentially expressed protein peaks. A combined strategy of chromatographic fractionation, ID gel electrophoresis, passive elution, trypsin digestion and MALDI-TOFIMS or LC-MS/MS analysis, formally identified six discriminatory peaks, further validated with Western blot and ELISA. They include acute phase response proteins: Haptoglobin, Transthyretin, Alpha-l-aeid glycoprotein and Apolipoprotein Al as well as Apolipoprotein Cl and C3 and represent novel disease- and therapy- associated AA biomarkers. Inflammatory biomarkers in AA serum are consistent with immune-mediated pathology of AA and suppressive action of Anti-thymocyte globulin, and can potentially be used for disease detection, diagnosis and monitoring.


The EU Drinking Water Directive sets a range of standards for metals and related substances in drinking water, many of which are concerned with health protection. A number of these standards are very stringent and require compliance to be assessed at the point of use. Because of the difficulties associated with monitoring, historic practices in many countries have concentrated on the quality of water within the distribution network. As a result, the magnitude of problems with some metals and related substances in drinking water is not fully appreciated in all European countries, and the extent and nature of corrective actions differ widely.

This Best Practice Guide on Metals Removal From Drinking Water By Treatment describes drinking water standards and regulations, and explains the impact of a range of water treatment processes on metal levels in drinking water. Its objectives are to provide a basis for assessing the extent of problems and to identify appropriate water treatment options. The Guide provides a reasoned guide to selection of key water treatment processes. Each chapter focuses on a specific water treatment process and has been written by experts in that particular process.

Best Practice Guide on Metals Removal From Drinking Water By Treatment provides practice-based knowledge for water engineers and scientists in large and small water utilities, regulatory agencies, health agencies and local municipalities (from cities through to small rural communities). It also supports university level teaching in degree schemes that relate to water management.

This title belongs to Best Practice Guides on Metals and Related Substances in Drinking Water .

This Guide is one of a series produced by the International Water Association's Specialist Group on Metals and Related Substances in Drinking Water. The series is an up-to-date compilation of a range of scientific, engineering, regulatory and operational issues concerned with the control and removal of metals from drinking water

ISBN: 9781843393849 (Print)

ISBN: 9781780400686 (eBook)


Licensed medicines available in the U.K. for treating Atlantic salmon infested with sea lice, dichlorvos, azamethiphos, and hydrogen peroxide, can only be administered by bath application. Adverse reactions have been reported to bath treatments including mortalities, inappetance, reduction in growth and reduced louse sensitivity to dichlorvos. The physical constraints of bath treatments are examined and improvements recommended. Oxygen saturation was adequate during treatments but declined rapidly when the tarpaulin was removed. A chemical marker dispersed uniformally both horizontally and vertically in a cage within 5 mins of dispensing indicating dispersal of a medicine is rapid and adequate during treatment. The range in enclosed volumes in 86 treatments was 46 to 146% of theoretical, suggesting potential toxicity due to high concentrations at low volumes and the risk of reduced sensitivity at high volumes. Residual concentrations of hydrogen peroxide varied from 50 to 400 ppm from 5 to 15 mins after the tarpaulin was removed. Water exchange should be encouraged by aerating the cage and flushing at the end of treatment.


Motivated by the study of blood flow in the coronary arteries, this paper examines the flow of an incompressible Newtonian fluid in a tube of time-dependent curvature. The flow is driven by an oscillatory pressure gradient with the same dimensionless frequency, α, as the curvature variation. The dimensionless governing parameters of the flow are α, the curvature ratio δ0, a secondary streaming Reynolds number Rs and a parameter Rt representing the time-dependence of curvature. We consider the parameter regime δ0<Rt<1 (Rs and α remain O(1) initially) in which the effect of introducing time-dependent curvature is to perturb the flow driven by an oscillatory pressure gradient in a fixed curved tube. Flows driven by low- and high-frequency pressure gradients are then considered. At low frequency (δ0<Rt<α<1) the flow is determined by using a sequence of power series expansions (Rs=O(1)). At high frequency (δ0<Rt<1/α2<1) the solution is obtained using matched asymptotic expansions for the region near the wall (Stokes layer) and the region away from the wall in the interior of the pipe. The behaviour of the flow in the interior is then determined at both small and intermediate values of Rs. For both the low and high frequency cases, we find the principal corrections introduced by the time-varying curvature to the primary and secondary flows, and hence to the wall shear stress. The physiological application to flow in the coronary arteries is discussed.


Abstract. Polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) play an important role in polar ozone depletion, since they are involved in diverse ozone destruction processes (chlorine activation, denitrification). The degree of that ozone reduction is depending on the type of PSCs, and hence on their occurrence. Therefore PSC characterization, mainly focused on PSC-type discrimination, is widely demanded. The backscattering (R) and volume linear depolarization (δV) ratios are the parameters usually used in lidar measurements for PSC detection and identification. In this work, an improved version of the standard NASA/Micro Pulse Lidar (MPL-4), which includes a built-in depolarization detection module, has been used for PSC observations above the coastal Antarctic Belgrano II station (Argentina, 77.9° S 34.6° W, 256 m a.s.l.) since 2009. Examination of the MPL-4 δV feature as a suitable index for PSC-type discrimination is based on the analysis of the two-channel data, i.e., the parallel (p-) and perpendicular (s-) polarized MPL signals. This study focuses on the comparison of coincident δV-profiles as obtained from ground-based MPL-4 measurements during three Antarctic winters with those reported from the space-borne lidar CALIOP (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization) aboard the CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation) satellite in the same period (83 simultaneous cases are analysed for 2009–2011 austral winter times). Three different approaches are considered for the comparison analysis between both lidar profile data sets in order to test the degree of agreement: the correlation coefficient (CC), as a measure of the relationship between both PSC vertical structures; the mean differences together with their root mean square (RMS) values found between data sets; and the percentage differences (BIAS), parameter also used in profiling comparisons between CALIOP and other ground-based lidar systems. All of them are examined as a function of the CALIPSO ground-track distance from the Belgrano II station. Results represent a relatively good agreement between both ground-based MPL-4 and space-borne CALIOP profiles of the volume linear depolarization ratio δV for PSC events, once the MPL-4 depolarization calibration parameters are applied. Discrepancies between CALIOP and MPL-4 profiles in vertical layering structure are enhanced from 20 km up, likely due to a decrease of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for both lidar systems at those altitudes. Regarding the results obtained from the mean and the percentage differences found between MPL-4 and CALIOP δV profiles, a predominance of negative values is also observed, indicating a generalized underestimation of the MPL-4 depolarization as compared to that reported by CALIOP. However, absolute differences between those δV-profile data sets are no higher than a 10 ± 11% in average. Moreover, the degree of agreement between both lidar δV data sets is slightly dependent on the CALIPSO ground-track overpass distance from the Belgrano II station. That is, small discrepancies are found when CALIPSO ground-track distance is as close as far from the ground-based station. These results would indicate that MPL-4 depolarization observations would reflect relatively well the PSC field that CALIOP can detect at relatively large distances from the ground-based station. As a consequence, PSC properties can be statistically similar, on average, over large volumes, and hence the present weak disagreement found between both the lidar δV data sets can be likely dominated by small spatial PSC inhomogeneities along the CALIPSO separation from the station. This statement is based on the fact that Belgrano II is a station located well inside the stable Antarctic polar vortex, allowing determined thermodynamic conditions leading to a very low variability in the PSC field, and in their properties.


There are two major differences between Japan and the United States in the way saving is calculated in their national accounts. First, depreciation in Japanese national accounts is based on historical costs, which leads to an understatement of true depreciation and hence an overstatement of net saving. Second, government capital formation is not included in U.S. saving. This article adjusts the official Japanese saving numbers by evaluating depreciation at replacement costs and excluding government capital formation from saving. Doing so significantly reduces the apparent gap between the national saving rates of the two countries. Since 1970 Japan's national saving rate has been declining to the stationary U.S. rate. This trend, however, has been reversed in recent years. In contrast, Japan's wealth-to-income ratio (excluding land), after declining in the late 1950s, has been rising toward the U.S. ratio and has reached the U.S. level in 1987.


Despite there is an operating social support system for families, social workers are affected by factors that limit the effectiveness of their activities in working with families whose children are taken into temporary custody. The article aims to uncover what hinders social worker to carry out effective work in providing social services to families whose children are in temporary custody (care). A qualitative study was carried out in January - February, 2015. The data were collected through documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews. For document analysis 5 custody cases were taken from a department of The State Child Rights Protection and Adoption Service. Using semi-structured interview four social workers from Social services center were interviewed. The workers worked with the families of those child who were in temporary custody (one social worker worked with the two cases). The research data showed that the awareness of the research participants about social work effectiveness is limited to its individual components. While these components putting together you can get a broad definition of social work effectiveness, the research participant themselves do not operate such a concept. The research date reveals that the micro-level factors influencing effectiveness of social workers activities in working with families whose children are in temporary custody are as follows: absents of parental motivation to seek changes and unfavorable environment as well as negative community approach to social risk families. Macro level factors limiting social work effectiveness working with the families at social risk lie in the system of the social services. Inadequate management of social work, limited social worker's access to resources necessary to restore family functions, excessive workloads for social workers are essential factors limiting social work effectiveness. The research participants pointed out that their activity would be more effective if they could work in a system closely collaborating not only with the client's environment but also with a local community, institutions, working in a team and using different and numerous resources in a family helping process. This means that it is not enough for social workers just to intervene into micro level, but it is very important to target an intervention to mezzo and macro levels initiating changes in a community and social services system. The responsibility for social work effectiveness have to take not only social workers, but also representatives from municipalities and different ministries as well as politicians.


Speech rhythm in terms of durational variability of different levels of phonetic intervals can vary between speakers. The present article examines the role of syl- labic intensity characteristics in rhythmic variability. Mean and peak intensity variability across syllables (stdevM, varcoM, stdevP, varcoP, rPVIm, nPVIm, rPVIp, nPVIp; henceforth: intensity measures) were investigated as a function of speaker in a database where within-speaker variability was strong (BonnTempo) and another database designed to examine between-speaker rhythmic variability (TEVOID). It was found that the intensity measures varied significantly between speakers in both databases. Semiautomatic speaker recognition based on duration measures (%V, ∆V(ln), ∆C(ln), ∆Peak(ln), ∆Syll(ln) and nPVISyll) and intensity measures using multinomial logistic regression and feedforward neural networks was carried out for the two databases. Results showed that intensity measures contained stronger speaker specific information compared to measures based on durational variability of phonetic intervals. In addition, effects of the recognition algorithms (speaker rec- ognition using multinomial logistic regression was significantly better than neural networks for BonnTempo) and data normalisation procedures (z-score normalised data was significantly better than non-normalised data in TEVOID) were discov- ered. This means that syllable intensity characteristics play an important role in between-speaker rhythmic differences and possibly in speech rhythm variability in general.


The present edition of Jenkins Fantasias for four, five and six viols is based on British Library manuscripts. Though not a scholarly edition, the parts have been carefully corrected and have been read several times for errors. It is presented with the blessing of Andrew Ashbee who edited the Faber editions of same, and this edition uses his and Meyer's numbering system so parts may be compared easily. A great deal of credit is due Mr. Ashbee for consulting so many sources and for his immense knowledge of Jenkins and his times. My thanks are due to Atlanta viols players who have helped proof read the website editions: Emily Stevenson, Paul Miller, Marian Burge, Stephen Morris, Greg Armijo, Susan Patterson, Pam Woodcock, Jorg Voss, Brian Bishop and Joyce Clinkscales. Special thanks are due Joyce, Librarian of the Emory Heilbrun Music and Media Library, for her help in obtaining microfilms of the original manuscripts. The present edition is presented in the spirit of the several copyists who felt that Jenkins's music should be available to as many people as possible, for their immense musical enjoyment and to spread around the genius of the composer John Jenkins. What better way to do this in modern times than by the internet? Martha Bishop, July 2010 Instructions for Printing


The two input Griffiths-Jim acoustic beamformer is analysed in the frequency domain using a Wiener type formulation. Unlike previous solutions the approach here is to look at the problem of non-minimum phase acoustic transfer functions which are encountered in many real filtering problems. The polynomial transfer function approach gives an elegant way of obtaining the frequency response of the beamformer and gives new insight to the problem in general.


Potentially unwanted programs (PUP) such as adware and rogueware, while not outright malicious, exhibit intrusive behavior that generates user complaints and makes security vendors flag them as undesirable. PUP has been little studied in the research literature despite recent indications that its prevalence may have surpassed that of malware. In this work we perform the first systematic study of PUP prevalence and its distribution through pay-perinstall (PPI) services, which link advertisers that want to promote their programs with affiliate publishers willing to bundle their programs with offers for other software. Using AV telemetry information comprising of 8 billion events on 3.9 million real hosts during a 19 month period, we discover that over half (54%) of the examined hosts have PUP installed. PUP publishers are highly popular, e.g., the top two PUP publishers rank 15 and 24 amongst all software publishers (benign and PUP). Furthermore, we analyze the who-installs-who relationships, finding that 65% of PUP downloads are performed by other PUP and that 24 PPI services distribute over a quarter of all PUP. We also examine the top advertiser programs distributed by the PPI services, observing that they are dominated by adware running in the browser (e.g., toolbars, extensions) and rogueware. Finally, we investigate the PUP-malware relationships in the form of malware installations by PUP and PUP installations by malware. We conclude that while such events exist, PUP distribution is largely disjoint from malware distribution.


Fourteen patients with the syndrome of inappropriate secretion of antidiuretic hormone (SIADH) have been treated with demethylchlortetracycline (demeclocycline) 1200 mg daily. In 12 patients the underlying lesion was malignant. The serum sodium returned to normal (greater than 135 mmol/l) in all patients after a mean of 8.6 days (SD +/- 5.3 days). Blood urea rose significantly from the pretreatment level of 4.2 +/- 2.3 mmol/l to 10.1 +/- 5.1 mmol/l at ten days (P less than 0.001). The average maximum blood urea was 13.4 +/- 6.8 mmol/l. In four patients the urea rose above 20 mmol/l, and in two of these demecyocycline was discontinued because of thie rise. The azotaemia could be attributed to a combination of increased urea producation and a mild specific drug-induced nephrotoxicity. Discontinuation of demeclocycline in six patients led to a fall in serum sodium, in one case precipitously, and return of the urea towards normal levels. Demeclocycline appears therefore to be an effective maintenance treatment of SIADH, and the azotaemia that occurs is reversible and probably dose dependent.


The study is concerned with generating recommendations for the development of e- learning strategy at the School of Engineering at Tripoli University in Libya. They are based on the identified barriers to the successful e-learning implementation in the institution after the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the
questionnaires developed using SmartSurvey software package. The barriers were classified in three main categories: technical, cultural and mismanagement. These barriers were compared with those from Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries (as close culture) and UK (as international culture and developed country).
Then a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) model for the diagnostic of the current stage of e-learning performance in the institution is developed. The user-centred design and action research approach are used for the design, development and implementation of an e-learning package for
a module studied by Year 4 students from School of Engineering at Tripoli University. The e-learning packages played a supporting role in the delivery of the chosen module therefore the blended learning approach contributed to the improvement of the quality for the teaching and learning processes.
A novel I-CUBE model which can be used for the development of teaching and learning activities in a digital era is proposed. The sources of information for the proposed model are: quantitative and qualitative analysis of the stakeholders answers; conclusions for the (SWOT) analysis; researcher's reflections of the design, development and implementation of the e-learning package, study of the relevant educational publications and researcher's personal experience. There are several common opinions about the factors influencing the successful e-learning implementation so it is possible to make correlations between the
stakeholders' points of view and to construct the surfaces which are included in the I-CUBE model.
A set of institutional, pedagogical and technological recommendations for the development of e-learning strategy in the School of Engineering at Tripoli University are formulated. These are derived from the analysis of barriers and SWOT model related to the successful e-learning implementation in Libyan Higher Education Institutes (LHEIs). Also the aspects included in the proposed novel I-CUBE model for the development of teaching and learning activities, the researcher's personal experience as a student and lecturer at Tripoli University and as a PhD student at the University of Huddersfield in UK are also considered. The implementation of these recommendations will enable the enhancement of students' learning experience and staff satisfaction through technology-based education addressing the flexible and diverse learning community's needs.


Distributed research infrastructures embrace resources, services, and users. From those, services display the highest churn rate. The reasons are twofold. First, new versions or new services emerge, gain popularity, and have to be provisioned by infrastructure operators. Secondly, the demand to make research reproducible inclines the users to share the software they used to obtain their results. Coming to grips with these high churn rates is not easy, but has the potential to speed-up scientific discovery. In this paper we will describe an extensible Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution conceived to facilitate seamless exchange, evolution, and deployment of software services in distributed environments. In opposite to ordinary SaaS solutions, the portfolio of the software services in our approach is extensible. We implemented means for users and developers to make their services readily available in the distributed infrastructure with minimal overhead. In this process, not only the actual software is made available but also the knowledge of how to install and configure it is conveyed, thus running instances of the new service can be provided right away. We will share the experience gained during the implementation of the extensible SaaS solution for DARIAH-DE research infrastructure. It was used to provision on-demand instances of software used in digital humanities. Subsequently, the same solution was reused in a completely different context to provide on-demand instances of UNICORE Grid middleware for training and testing purposes. The operation of our extensible SaaS, yielded additional requirements and extensions. In particular, the need for monitoring and measuring the resource usage were identified and addressed. The presented insights can help to address the problem of exchange and provision of scientific software. Other distributed infrastructures can incorporate them to improve the scalability, maintainability, user-friendliness, and sustainability of their platforms.


Modes of light that contain topological defects such as screw dislocations can be focused into optical traps with interesting and useful properties. The way in which the intensity distribution within helical modes of light varies with topological charge is discussed, and new scaling predictions for their radial profiles that are consistent with experimental observations are introduced.


Twelve free access and non-profit providers of legal information from across the common law world have collaborated to produce an automated international citator for case law and legal scholarship, access to end-users free of any user charges. This context imposes constraints on project development: only modest grant funding for development; open source plus purpose-developed software; no significant editorial input to develop application data, only automation; very limited maintenance funds; and no user charges or advertising revenue. The LawCite citator is the principal output to date of the LawCite Project, developed by the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) for the consortium of participating legal information institutes (LIIs). LawCite currently contains index records of the citation histories of almost five million cases, law journal articles, law reform documents and treaties. The citator is international, containing citation records in significant numbers from court decisions in 75 countries (primarily but not exclusively from common law countries).The purpose of this paper is to explain how the components of the LawCite project work, in some technical detail, and to outline the applications that have already resulted (both the citator and others), and future applications that are planned and possible. Our goal is for the LawCite project to play a key role in future global development of free access to legal information, provided collaboratively by free access providers across the globe.The LawCite project has developed and uses 3 main databases in an iterative fashion to produce its applications (the citator and other applications). They are: (i) The Citations database (basic information related to a citation); (ii) The Series database (information about each series of law reports, law journals, treaties, or law reform reports recognised by LawCite); and (iii) The Document database (an XML record for each recorded case or journal article). Oracle Berkeley DB (database software) is used for data mining and markup, and for construction of the Citations and Series databases. The Series and Document databases are used to generate the Citations database. The Series database is manually updated periodically. The Document and Citations databases are recreated automatically during each iteration of the data mining and 'unmining' processes. Raw citation lists are gathered from participating LII and non-LII data sources by the Citation Miner. Once collected, these are analysed, combined and normalised by the "Unminer" and from the combined list, the LawCite databases are generated. These databases are used both by the LawCite Citator as well as for the markup of text. The article explains these processes.The article concludes with a brief account of the citator from the user perspective, other outputs from the project (the publicly accessible LawCite Automated Markup Tool, and the markup tools used by LIIs), and potential future applications (informing policy debates through citation information; data visualisation of citation flows; and contextual ranking).


In this thesis a new approach for single molecule detection and analysis is explored. This approach is based on the combination of two well established methods, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) and total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM). In contrast to most existing fluorescence spectroscopy techniques, the subject of primary interest in FCS is not the fluorescence intensity itself but the random intensity fluctuation around the mean value. Intensity fluctuations are induced by thermal noise in a minute observation volume, which is in classical FCS the confocal volume of a confocal microscope. E.g. FCS is commonly utilized to investigate diffusion. In this case, diffusing fluorescent molecules entering or leaving the observation volume cause intensity fluctuations, which are analyzed by calculating the temporal autocorrelation of the observed signal. The autocorrelation is a measure for the self-similarity of a signal and contains information about the average fluctuation strength and duration. The confocal observation volume, i.e. the measurement volume that is actually seen by the detector is approximately given by the product of the optical transfer function with the fluorescence exciting intensity distribution of a focused laser beam. To achieve a high signal-to-background ratio a small observation volume is absolutely essential, first of all because the background from e.g. scattered light increases with the size of the observation volume. Second, a small volume assures for a small average number of fluorophores inside the observation volume and therefore for a high fluctuation amplitude i.e. FCS signal. This thesis proposes and discusses an alternative to confocal FCS specially conceived for measurements on surface-bound molecular systems, such as biological receptors or immobilized enzymes. In contrast to confocal FCS, fluorescence is excited within an evanescent field generated by total internal reflection (TIR) of a laser beam at the interface between a microscope coverslip and the sample. This is achieved by focusing the laser beam off-axis at the back focal plane of a high NA oil-immersion objective. The collimated beam that emerges from the objective is incident at an oblique angle at the coverslip-sample interface and totally internal reflected. In contrast to confocal FCS, the generated observation volume is completely confined to the surface and background fluorescence as well as scattered light from the bulk is efficiently suppressed. Our method, called objective-type TIR-FCS in the following, features an increased collection efficiency compared to existing techniques that combine evanescent wave excitation and FCS. Existing techniques use total internal reflection on the surface of a prism to generate an evanescent field. This leads to a configuration where the choice of objectives is limited to air or water-immersion objectives. In our system we use a high NA oil-immersion objective, specially conceived for TIR applications, which collects light efficiently. The collection efficiency is further enhanced by a naturally occurring change of the emission properties of fluorophores close to interfaces between dielectric media. The presence of the interface favors emission into the optically denser medium so that about 60% of the emitted light can be collected. These factors, together with a reduced observation volume lead to a very sensitive method with a high potential for applications in single molecule detection and analysis. The performance of the proposed method was experimentally shown for measurements on molecules subject to Brownian motion and binding to modified coverslips. In particular, it was experimentally shown that objective-type TIR-FCS features high signal-to-background ratio on a single molecule level. In this thesis, concise derivations of analytical expressions for autocorrelation functions for diffusion and most important, the case of ligands reversibly binding to a single and localized binding site are presented. The derived model allows for the quantitative determination of binding rates for a single receptor. We strongly believe that the application of these results in the context of investigations of receptor-ligand binding kinetics will allow for deeper understanding of cellular signaling. Moreover, this thesis discusses the applicability of the proposed method in enzymology. Enzymes, as most proteins are subject to continuous changes of their structure or conformation. These conformational changes are correlated with the function of the enzyme. In the discussed example the enzyme catalyzes an oxidation where the product is fluorescent but the substrate is not. The function of the enzyme i.e. the recurring product formation leads to observable intensity fluctuations. Since function and conformational states are correlated, conformational fluctuations can be investigated by means of FCS as was already shown for confocal FCS. A technique closely related to FCS is fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy (where lifetime refers to the mean lifetime of the electronic excited state). Whereas in FCS the relaxation after random deviations from thermal equilibrium is investigated, relaxation of excited fluorophores towards their electronic ground-state is investigated in lifetime spectroscopy. The technique is used for e.g. discrimination between fluorophores with different lifetimes. Lifetime spectroscopy combined with imaging is used in many domains of life-science, including microarray reading and medical diagnostics. In preliminary work we developed a novel approach to perform lifetime imaging that is based on a multiplexing technique. The proposed method requires no mechanical scanning stage and only a single-point detector. Furthermore, noise is reduced under certain circumstances if the signal is low. Characteristics of this technique as well as advantages and disadvantages are shortly discussed.


ABSTRACT The change of one's habitual living conditions in favor of institutionalized living in a retirement home can be a stressful event. Therefore, the question arises: How does entry into a retirement home affect attitudes toward one's life and aging and toward retirement homes? In order to answer this question, we used longitudinal data from 53 older individuals who were surveyed before and after entry into a retirement home. The data revealed that attitudes toward one's life and aging changed negatively and attitudes toward retirement homes changed positively; however, there are gains and losses in both attitudes.


ABSTRACT Supporting the development of small tourism businesses has been seen by policy-makers as a valuable means of alleviating poverty in South African townships. This perspective has been endorsed by several "responsible" tourism businesses and academics. Following a literature review, this paper reports the findings of an empirical study that examined the practices of 80 micro-business owners and the factors that shape their behaviour in two South African townships. In spite of significant visitor numbers, it finds that their narrow social networks, the imbalances of power between them and intermediaries such as travel agencies and tour operators, ideas of Ubuntu and Umona, and complex family and ethnic ties all represent barriers that prevent them from developing their businesses and sharing in the material gains available through tourism. This analysis has important implications for local policy-makers and those advocating responsible tourism. For the former, it suggests a cessation of current initiatives in favour of greater regulation and alternative forms of investment. For the latter, it implies a need to reassess the utility of advocating responsible tourism to consumers in a context where they do not understand the dynamics which fashion what is on offer or the implications of their choices.


The emergence of online influencers, the explosion of video content, and the massive amount of movie collections have served as an advertising vehicle for the fashion industry. This trend has created the need for automated methods that recognize people's outfit in such image and video collections. However, existing computer vision solutions for fashion recognition require an enormous amount of labeled data for training, which is prohibitively expensive. In this work, we propose an approach to build clothing recognition models for real-world scenarios. Our approach exploits images from the Amazon Catalog as training data. By using the catalog data as an additional training source, we boost the recognition accuracy on the challenging real world images of the DeepFashion dataset achieving stateof-the-art performance. We introduce the first dataset for clothing recognition in movies. In this scenario, we find that the use of catalog data for training becomes even more crucial, as it provides an accuracy boost of 10%.


In Companions in Geography Mario Cams explores the early 18th century mapping of Qing China, one of the largest scientific projects of the early modern world and shaped by the collaboration between European missionaries and Qing officials.


State policies affect the qualifications of beginning teachers in numerous ways, including regulating entry requirements, providing incentives for graduate degrees, and subsidizing preparation programs at public universities. In this paper we assess how these policy choices affect student achievement, specifically comparing traditionally prepared with alternative-entry teachers; in-state traditionally prepared with out-of-state traditionally prepared teachers; teachers beginning with undergraduate degrees with those beginning with graduate degrees; and teachers prepared at in-state public universities with those prepared at in-state private universities. Using school fixed effects to analyze data from North Carolina, we find that: Teach For America corps members are more effective than traditionally prepared teachers; other alternative-entry teachers are less effective than traditionally prepared instructors in high school mathematics and science courses; and out-of-state traditionally prepared teachers are less effective than in-state traditionally prepared teachers, especially in elementary subjects where they constitute nearly 40 percent of the workforce.


Abstract In the Saoura Valley (Ougarta Basin, Saharan Algeria), the lower–upper Famennian part of the essentially shally Marhouma Formation is characterized by deep-water facies and includes horizons rich in ammonoids (goniatites and clymeniids) and blind to eye-reduced phacopide trilobites. They are also rich in small-sized and smooth rhynchonellide brachiopods, investigated here for the first time in order to detail their post-Kellwasser recovery. Rhynchonellides clearly predominate in the brachiopod assemblages (representing 90% of the whole assemblage, with 10 species) composed otherwise of athyridides, orthides and spiriferides. Rhynchonellides are mostly represented by relatively flat leiorhynchids and rozmanariids consistent with poor oxygenation on the sea floor. One new species is described (Evanidisinurostrum saouraense sp. nov.); four genera, previously known only from the south-eastern margin of Laurussia, are reported for the first time from the northern margin of Gondwana: the leiorhynchid Sphaeridiorhynchus and the rozmanariids Leptoterorhynchus, Pugnaria and Novaplatirostrum.


A one-dimensional model has been developed to simulate water quality in a complex multi-channel estuarine system. The model utilizes a Lagrangian reference frame for transport computations. Governing equations for water quality variables are based on the first order kinetic principles and utilize the interconstituent relationships derived from the recent literature. Based on a flow field generated by an independent unsteady-state hydrodynamic model, the model performs advective and diffusive steps of mass transport. Changes in masses of constituents due to decay, growth and biochemical transformation are simulated. A preliminary evaluation of the model was accomplished by applying it to simulate dissolved oxygen balances in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in California. The initial study focused on a reach of San Joaquin River near the City of Stockton where dissolved oxygen concentrations were affected by waste water discharges. Results of this application and future areas of research are discussed.


ABSTRACT In the most recent feminist movement in South Korea, women challenged misogynist discourses in various ways. They made vicious comments about those who created and disseminated misogynistic discourses. They also strongly demanded a revision of misogynistic texts and boycotted cultural products in which women were described inappropriately. Against this backdrop, the present study examines misogynistic paratexts of translations published in South Korea to show how gender ideology could affect the reception and revision of paratexts and how closely translations and paratexts could be interrelated in a feminist context. The paratexts examined in this article are (1) a translator's postface, (2) a subtitled trailer, (3) transcreated movie posters, and (4) promotional web-texts for a localised mobile game. These paratexts were strongly criticised and revised in a way that reflected particular gender perspectives. The article concludes with brief discussion about paratext-readers, paratext-creators, and relations between paratexts and translations.


Key Points Macrophage function is modulated by the surrounding ECM protein collagen. A high collagen density makes macrophages more immunosuppressive. Collagen could affect the immunosuppressive nature of tumor-associated macrophages. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) support tumor growth by suppressing the activity of tumor-infiltrating T cells. Consistently, TAMs are considered a major limitation for the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy. However, the molecular reason behind the acquisition of an immunosuppressive TAM phenotype is not fully clarified. During tumor growth, the extracellular matrix (ECM) is degraded and substituted with a tumor-specific collagen-rich ECM. The collagen density of this tumor ECM has been associated with poor patient prognosis but the reason for this is not well understood. In this study, we investigated whether the collagen density could modulate the immunosuppressive activity of TAMs. The murine macrophage cell line RAW 264.7 was three-dimensionally cultured in collagen matrices of low and high collagen densities mimicking healthy and tumor tissue, respectively. Collagen density did not affect proliferation or viability of the macrophages. However, whole-transcriptome analysis revealed a striking response to the surrounding collagen density, including the regulation of immune regulatory genes and genes encoding chemokines. These transcriptional changes were shown to be similar in murine bone marrow–derived macrophages and TAMs isolated from murine tumors. Strikingly, coculture assays with primary T cells showed that macrophages cultured in high-density collagen were less efficient at attracting cytotoxic T cells and capable of inhibiting T cell proliferation more than macrophages cultured in low-density collagen. Our study demonstrates that a high collagen density can instruct macrophages to acquire an immunosuppressive phenotype. This mechanism could reduce the efficacy of immunotherapy and explain the link between high collagen density and poor prognosis.


Control of biomolecular transport is essential to the advancement of nanokinematic systems whether for molecular cargo delivery in sensing or assembly processes, or as a means to interface micro-electro-mechanical systems with the nanoscale regime. Actin-myosin and nanotubulekinesin systems represent two protein-based systems being explored as basic building blocks for realization of linear and rotary biomolecular motors based on biological nanoscale transport phenomena. While macroscopic electromotility assays have been documented in the literature, harnessing this biological nanokinematic system to achieve spatially addressable transport of cargo on the micrometer scales of an integrated chip surface is of significant interest. In this work, we undertake a fundamental exploration of the interaction of microscale localized electric fields with the nanoscale actin-myosin motility assay. Electric fields established with arrays of integrated electrode structures under the assayed surface are used to experimentally characterize the effect of these local fields on nanoscale linear biomolecular motor filament alignment, direction of motion, and assay ambient. Fluorescence techniques are used to optically observe actin motion in assay and determine field effects on the actin-myosin system. This paper will describe our current results in this research. These results will contribute to the understanding of the governing electro-mechanics of the actin-myosin molecular transport system that can serve as a framework for the control of nanoscale biomolecular motors from within a microelectronic environment.