Separation of ownership and control in large publicly owned firms has induced potential
conflicts between the interests of managers and shareholders (Berle and Means, 1932).
This is due to inconsistency between managers and shareholder's goals. This divergence
of managers' and shareholders* objective may lead to acute conflict of interest in
decisions making regarding the strategic orientation of the firm. Therefore, one key
purpose of the board is to reduce the negative potential of the agency problem through
monitoring, representation and oversight responsibilities. Thus, the current study aims to
contribute in determining board characteristics of acquiring firms, which may response to
the agency problem. The current study examines the difference on board characteristics
between acquiring and non-acquiring firms and the associations between these
characteristics and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) ownership.
Three characteristics of board of directors are examined: board size, proportion of outside
directors and dual leadership (separation of the CEO and Chairman's roles). Based on a
sample of 62 acquiring and 62 non-acquiring firms (as control companies) in Malaysia
over a period of 1999-2000, the study finds that only board size is significantly difference
between acquiring and non-acquiring firms. In addition, the proportion of outside
directors is negatively associated with the company type. This indicates that less number
of outside directors on the board when the company acquires target company.
Furthermore, the study reveals that board size and outside directors is negatively
correlated with the percentage of shares owned by CEO. Finally, the study shows that
CEO ownership is affected if the number of independent non-executive director more
than non-executive director. These findings suggest that acquiring firms with larger
percentage of shares owned by CEO and small number of board members and also small
number of outside directors represented on the board would lead to greater agency
problems. Therefore, in order to mitigate these problems the number of independent nonexecutive
directors representing on the board should be increased at least to one third of
the total members of directors on the board as suggested by Malaysian Code on
Corporate Governance (MCCG).


The WA State Government endorsed the implementation of a trial period in which driver demerit points for offences relating to speeding, drink driving and the non-use of restraints are doubled during prescribed holiday periods. The approach was based on a successful program that has operated in New South Wales since 1997. The Road Safety Council, over the past few years, has been very successful in raising awareness among the general community about the key factors contributing to road trauma, namely speed, drink driving, the non-use of restraints and fatigue. Public education, combined with active enforcement of speed, drink driving and restraint use can be very effective in reducing road trauma where the penalty levels act as a sufficient deterrent. In deciding to trial the Double Demerits initiative, it was hoped that the initiative would enhance the deterrent effect of these key factor penalties by focusing on those times of the year when the greater volume of traffic increases the risk of crashes. The single focus "Big Three" double demerits message (ie. with the emphasis on speeding, drink driving and non-use of restraints) was designed to complement WA Police Service operations during these long weekend and holiday times. The primary objective of the evaluation was to examine the impact and effectiveness of the Double Demerits initiative in changing road user behaviour, and thereby (as a consequence of improved behaviour), reducing the number and / or severity of road crash events. The aim of this paper is twofold – firstly, to present the methodology used to evaluate the trial of double demerits legislation in Western Australia, and secondly, the paper will present the outcomes of the evaluation and will draw conclusions in terms of the effectiveness of Double Demerits legislation in reducing road trauma in Western Australia during critical long weekend and holiday periods.


Artist Linda MacNeil's outstanding works in contemporary jewelry are shown in exquisite detail. Nearly 200 pendants, neck collars, and necklaces are shown, along with matching earrings in an exquisite exploration of MacNeil's celebrated works in hand-fashioned glass gems and metalwork. An essay by Suzanne Ramljak, curator, art historian, and editor of Metalsmith magazine, summarizes the artist's career and contributions to the worlds of jewelry design and glass art. A foreword by Helen W. Drutt English, art historian, collector, and gallery owner, introduces readers to MacNeil's role in the current craft movement. Portraits of owner-patrons of MacNeil's work model pieces they own, illustrating the important marriage between wearer and the art object. This book is a tribute to the artist, and an inspiring portfolio for collectors and designers.


As the populations of Western, so-called "first-world" countries grow; so too do the pressures for the funding, purchasing, and provision of high-quality health care for their citizens.  The drive to purchase and monitor outcomes, as opposed to simply accounting for outputs, has grown in strength in New Zealand and elsewhere, as a means of ensuring greater accountability for spending and ensuring every dollar invested in health care has some positive, downstream impact.  This paper, based on a small qualitative research study, explores a specific model of purchasing for outcomes, namely the Te Pou Matakana (TPM) model of Whānau Ora commissioning. We explore how commissioning as a particular model for purchasing services has fared in terms of delivering for Whānau Ora. The paper provides a brief history of Māori health provider development, as a means of establishing the roots of the TPM commissioning approach. We then explore in greater detail the commissioning approach unique to this case study site before presenting the study itself, our data collection methods, results, and analysis of those results. The paper concludes that in the New Zealand context, commissioning as a purchasing model has benefited from alignment with Whānau Ora principles, to the extent that an Indigenous model of commissioning is apparent in the TPM commissioning approach.


Recently, researchers have investigated the influence of composers' native speech prosody on the variability of rhythmic patterns found in their music. The normalized pairwise variability index (nPVI) provides a relative criterion for comparing the contrastiveness of successive durations in language and music. This study extends prior research by assessing rhythmic relationships in Latino-inspired and traditional Western art music written by six composers whose native languages are either stress-timed (Copland, Glinka, Liszt) or syllable-timed (Ponce, Villa-Lobos, Albeniz). After analysis of 529 musical themes representing 52 works, results suggest that Latino and Western prosodic associations transcend the vernacular. With the exception of Glinka, non-Latino composers typically used more contrastive rhythmic patterns in their standard repertoire and drastically decreased rhythmic contrastiveness in their evocative Latino music. Similarly, Latino composers employed greater rhythmic contrast in their Western-styled works and less contrast in their vernacular Latino music. This empirical evidence indicates that, consciously or subconsciously, composers may alter the rhythmic variability of their "exotic" music to conform to the prosody of a corresponding nonnative language.


We present a catalogue of high-mass X-ray binaries. The catalogue is an updated version of the catalogue of van Paradijs (1995). This new catalogue contains 130 sources, 61 new high-mass X-ray binaries in addition to the 69 sources listed in van Paradijs' catalogue. Most of the new sources are identified to be Be/X-ray binaries. Some sources, however, are only tentatively identified as high-mass X-ray binaries on the basis of a transient character and/or a hard X-ray spectrum. Further identification in other wavelength bands is needed to finally determine the features of these sources. The aim of this catalogue is to provide the reader with some basic information on the X-ray sources and their counterparts in other wavelength ranges (UV, optical, IR, radio). In cases where there is some doubt about the highmass nature of the X-ray binary this is mentioned. Some doubtful cases have not been included in the catalogue although they had been suggested by some authors to be high-mass X-ray binaries, for example GRS 1915+105 and 1WGA J1958.2+3232.


Art, Culture and Society Vol 1 is the first in a series of books to be published by Twaweza Communications on the relationship between art and society, with special reference to Kenya. It is part of a cultural leadership initiative being undertaken by the organization through a reexamination of the arts as they are produced and studied. This volume brings together important reflections on the arts and is a major step in encouraging dialogue on the relationship between creativity and the human condition in the region. Significantly, it creates a space for university-based academics to engage in dialogue with artists and writers based outside institutions of higher learning. The conversations will bridge the gap between the two domains for knowledge production and enrich creative enterprise in Kenya, in theory and practice. As the essays in this collection show, the present global situation demands a way to conceptualise and theorise an ever growing cultural interconnectedness, sometimes manifested in art; and interconnectedness that draws from a myriad of cultures and experiences. Through the bridges of contact and cultural exchange distant images are mediated and brought closer to us. They are reinterpreted and modified. In the final analysis, culture is shown to be an important aspect of human creativity but separateness and boundedness is contested. Instead, culture is shown to be malleable and fluid. The essays bring in a new freshness to our reading of the creative arts coming out of Kenya.


The thermal and diagenetic evolution of Carboniferous sandstones in the central Appalachian basin has been resolved using various techniques. Paleothermometers including vitrinite reflectance and fluid inclusions indicate that burial of Lower and Upper Pennsylvanian strata of the Appalachian Plateau in West Virginia exceeded 4.4 km during the late Permian and occurred at a rate of ∼100 m/m.y. Exhumation rates of ∼10-30 m/m.y. from maximum burial to present depth were constrained using published apatite fission track and radiogenic helium ages. Quartz, lithic and feldspar-rich sandstones from different stratigraphic intervals and locations were sampled from core (95 %) and outcrop (5%) to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate sandstone diagenesis. A compositional multivariate data set compiled from point counts served as the basis for quantitative analysis of controls on sandstone diagenesis such as framework grain composition, paleoclimate and depositional environment. A priori groups (independent variables) corresponding to the controls were compared using digenetic products (dependent variables). Major conclusions of the analysis are, first, minerals that formed early appear to have been influenced by stratigraphic position. The distribution of siderite and ironoxide/oxyhydroxide may reflect the second order paleoclimatic signature recognized throughout the Carboniferous, where siderite formed during everwet periods and iron-oxide/oxyhydroxide during semi-arid conditions, reflecting differences in redox. Second, framework grain composition controlled the distribution of diagenetic alterations and quartz cementation in the burial environment. Lithic arenites are deficient in authigenic quartz, yet have undergone various degrees of illitization. The quartz deficiency is attributed to compaction-related loss of primary porosity relatively early, which inhibited flow of silica-bearing fluids. Finally, no correlation can be demonstrated between depositional environment and diagenesis. Anomalously high fluid inclusion homogenization temperatures (> 215 °C) from Upper Pennsylvanian sandstones adjacent to the Alleghany Thrust Front indicate that tectonic setting played an important role in quartz authigenesis. The discrepancy between the fluid inclusion and vitrinite reflectance data imply that warm silica-bearing fluids, likely sourced from low-grade metamorphic reactions, were injected into Pennsylvanian sandstone aquifers during thrust loading associated with the Alleghanian orogeny.


Lesbian and gay - or queer - fiction (known in Mandarin as tongzhi wenxue) constitutes a major contribution to Taiwanese literature, as evidenced by the remarkable number of prestigious literary awards won by many of the authors of the short stories presented here. Indeed, the meteoric rise of this new genre was a defining feature of Taiwan's literary scene in the 1990s. Queer fiction was also instrumental in forming self-identifying subcultural gry readerships, thus serving a significant political function. But most strikingly, this fiction has been immensely popular with general readers in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, as well as in diasporic Chinese communities worldwide. The startlingly fresh, brave voices that speak through these stories attest to the powerful social ferment of the past ten years in Taiwan, which have witnessed a revolution in discourses on sex and sexuality in the public sphere.


This paper presents aircraft measurements of aerosol optical properties and radiative effects from the Dust and Biomass‐burning Experiment (DABEX) over West Africa. On 19 January 2006 cloud‐free skies and high aerosol loading provided ideal conditions for an intercomparison of aircraft, satellite and ground‐based remote sensing instruments. Aerosol size distributions, optical properties, aerosol optical depth (AOD) and downwelling solar radiation were measured by the UK FAAM aircraft in the region of Niamey, Niger. The aircraft in situ measurements showed a mixture of dust and biomass‐burning aerosols and indicated an AOD of 0.79 (at 550 nm) that compared well against AODs from the Banizoumbou Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) site (0.74) and a Microtops sunphotometer (0.72). AERONET size distributions showed a good degree of similarity with the aircraft in situ measurements. AERONET single‐scattering albedos were also in fairly close agreement with the aircraft, having values of 0.85 and 0.87, respectively (at 550 nm). Measurements of downwelling solar radiation from the aircraft compared well with measurements from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility (AMF) at Niamey. Radiative transfer modelling suggested a 130–160 W m−2 instantaneous reduction of downwelling solar radiation by the aerosol column (15–18% of the total flux). Measurements of downwelling solar radiation compared reasonably well against radiative transfer modelling based on the aircraft in situ data. Satellite retrievals of AOD from MISR and MODIS Deep Blue were within 0.05 of the ground‐based sunphotometers measurements although there were discrepancies in optical properties retrieved by MISR, as compared to AERONET and the aircraft. Copyright © Royal Meteorological Society, Crown Copyright 2009


Children with long term health problems cannot always maintain their schooling and keep up with the curriculum (Prevatt et al., 2000; McDougall et al., 2004). They also spend prolonged periods in hospital where access to science teaching is very limited (Sobrino, Lizasoain & Ochoa, 2001). In order to address this problem, the Nefreduca project was designed to develop a short science curriculum for children in Spain with chronic kidney disease. The Nefreduca project was designed to develop a series of open source science inquiry based web learning materials for children with chronic kidney disease. In this paper the learning design strategies employed to build the Nefreduca platform are described , together with how the students' conceptions of the Kidney's role in the nutrition process were extended whilst trialling the Nefreduca materials. The students' notions of the kidney also changed after using the Nefreduca programme. Their answers illustrated a deeper understanding of the urine production process, it's constituency; and its connection to the blood filtration that occurs in the kidney. These findings suggest that the Nefreduca activities could serve as appropriate teaching material for scaffolding the students' mental models of the kidney.


In recent decades, there has been a dramatic proliferation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) between countries that, while legal, contradict the non-discrimination principle of the world trade system. This raises various issues, both theoretical and empirical, regarding the evolution of trade policy within the world trade system and the welfare implications for PTA members and non-members. The survey starts with the Kemp-Wan-Ohyama and Panagariya-Krishna analyses in the literature that theoretically show PTAs can always be constructed so that they (weakly) increase the welfare of members and non-members. Considerable attention is then devoted to recent developments on the interaction between PTAs and multilateral trade liberalization, focusing on two key incentives: an "exclusion incentive" of PTA members and a "free riding incentive" of PTA non-members. While the baseline presumption one should have in mind is that these incentives lead PTAs to inhibit the ultimate degree of global trade liberalization, this presumption can be overturned when dynamic considerations are taken into account or when countries can negotiate the degree of multilateral liberalization rather than facing a binary choice over global free trade. Promising areas for pushing this theoretical literature forward include the growing use of quantitative trade models, incorporating rules of origin and global value chains, modeling the issues surrounding "mega-regional" agreements, and modelling the possibility of exit from PTAs. Empirical evidence in the literature is mixed regarding whether PTAs lead to trade diversion or trade creation, whether PTAs have significant adverse effects on non-member terms-of-trade, whether PTAs lead members to lower external tariffs on non-members, and the role of PTAs in facilitating deep integration among members.


Sample complexity and safety are major challenges when learning policies with reinforcement learning for real-world tasks, especially when the policies are represented using rich function approximators like deep neural networks. Model-based methods where the real-world target domain is approximated using a simulated source domain provide an avenue to tackle the above challenges by augmenting real data with simulated data. However, discrepancies between the simulated source domain and the target domain pose a challenge for simulated training. We introduce the EPOpt algorithm, which uses an ensemble of simulated source domains and a form of adversarial training to learn policies that are robust and generalize to a broad range of possible target domains, including unmodeled effects. Further, the probability distribution over source domains in the ensemble can be adapted using data from target domain and approximate Bayesian methods, to progressively make it a better approximation. Thus, learning on a model ensemble, along with source domain adaptation, provides the benefit of both robustness and learning/adaptation.


This paper outlines research which explores the potential of narrative technology: the synergy of storytelling and computing to enhance creativity and creative education. The paper outlines the theoretical basis of the research: n?ogenic narrative, which is informed by contemporary debates and themes in the educational sciences. These include narrativity and storytelling in education; and positive and humanistic psychology. Furthermore, from an empirical/practical perspective, a number of examples of narrative technology are presented and discussed. These exemplify the principal ways in which narrative technology has been deployed in the research-enhanced teaching outlined in this paper: as both a pedagogical, and as a reflective methodology. The paper concludes with insights regarding the deployment of narrative technology to enhance creativity and creative education; and how the synergy of storytelling and computing is potentially affording new possibilities for a digital renaissance in education and educational technology.


The performance of a sludge blanket clarifier was evaluated and compared to conventional settlers under high levels of turbidity and algae in the field and experimentally. Field data of sludge blanket and conventional clarifier operation were observed simultaneously for the treatment of highly turbid water. In addition, a comparison was carried out on turbidity removal efficiency, algae removal, and sludge accumulation pattern. Finally, these systems were simulated in the laboratory and operated to treat turbid water with high levels of turbidity and algae up to 80 NTU and 109cells/l respectively. Field data confirmed that the sludge blanket clarifier equipped with upper sludge cones has a high removal efficiency of turbidity and algae, ease of use and has insignificant sludge accumulation compared to the conventional settler. Further, laboratory experiments have confirmed that sludge blanket clarifier is also very effective for the treatment of high algae concentrations up to 109cells/l, with a short retention time, compared to a conventional settler, which was not effective under these conditions.


For decades, legislatures and courts have created and preserved rights and remedies for vulnerable groups—consumers, employees, victims of mass torts, investors, and the like. Both branches have extolled the virtues of these substantive rights and the private enforcement mechanisms required to effectuate them. However, despite statements like that of Justice Roberts and others that the judiciary is not a lawmaking body—indeed, that the judicial institution should take care to exercise restraint—the Roberts Court has engaged in sweeping reform that tends to extinguish these substantive rights.

In 2012, I traced how the Roberts Court paid scant attention to the integral role private enforcement plays in various regulatory frameworks in which given substantive laws operate. By reducing or eliminating mechanisms of private enforcement, I argued, entire swaths of substantive law would go woefully under-enforced. Since that time, the Roberts Court's civil justice and procedural jurisprudence—jurisprudence that has brought about systematic retrenchment of substantive rights—reveals that the Roberts Court is not so much inattentive to the exigencies of various regulatory frameworks. Instead, the Roberts Court jurisprudence tends to reveal an affirmative deregulatory aim.

Far from merely calling balls and strikes, and in opinions involving questions as varied as ones about class-action rule interpretation, the permissibility of collective action waivers in arbitration agreements, the ability to opt out of collective bargaining dues on First Amendment grounds, standing, and others, the Roberts Court has achieved sweeping deregulation in the past decade. As has been traced in the literature, these deregulatory effects have been particularly pronounced in the area of consumer law. Moreover, the deregulatory effects for the underlying substantive regimes have often been achieved through somewhat indirect, procedural decision-making, but those effects have been almost as significant as if the Court had simply re-written the particular rights-bearing statutes.

During October Term 2017, the Court moved beyond consumer law and ramped up its efforts to effectuate deregulation of employment law. Whatever protections workers have enjoyed throughout our nation's history have been secured in large part through private enforcement. And to be sure, on their faces, critical workplace protection laws like Title VII and the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA")—both of which rely almost exclusively on private litigation for their effectuation—remain completely intact. However, in three critical (but less-blockbuster-than-Masterpiece Cakeshop) cases—Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Epic Systems v. Lewis, and Encino Motorcars—the Court in back-to-back 5-4 rulings stripped workers of mechanisms to pursue their rights against employers who commit wrongs in the workplace. Both history and present experience teach us that the Court's recent opinions will help eliminate the regulatory apparatus for workplace injury, and private employers will enjoy increased ability to essentially rewrite their obligations under substantive law through procedural vehicles.

This essay proceeds as follows: Part A traces the Court's employment law jurisprudence from October Term 2017. Part B discusses the regulatory consequences of these opinions and argues that the Court's opinions this past term reflect political commitments that favor and disfavor certain types of claims and claimants.


Backround and aims . Buctril (bromoxynil octanoate) is a contact nitrile herbicide used against annual broadleaf weeds. The aim of this study is to present a severe and rare case of bromoxynil poisoning Methods We present the case of a 16 years old girl who was admitted in our department eight hours after ingestion of an unspecified amount of herbicide – Buctril. Results An hour after ingestion the patient presented asthenia, breathing difficulties, profuse sweating, thirst and abdominal pain. Her family requested the ambulance that transported her to the local hospital where she presented:dyspnea (respiratory rate 44/minute) tachycardia (heart rate:130/minute), intractable vomiting. Gastric lavage, iv Ranitidine and Ringer's solution were performed,then sent the patient to our hospital At the presentation,eight hours after ingestion, she was: conscious, oriented, pale, diaphoretic with a temperature 36.6 degrees Celsius, pulse rate of 164/minute, blood pressure of 127/62 mmHg, respiratory rate of 40 per minute, vomiting, abdominal pain. She was admitted to the Toxicology Department and received endovenous treatment with glucose and electrolytes, vital functions beeing continuously monitored. Blood tests taken revealed normal values for: white blood cells, platelets,haemoglobin, glucose, serum electolytes, plasma cholinesterase, creatinphosphokinase, normal renal and liver function tests. One hour after admission the patient presented progressive impairment of consciousness, hyperthermia (41°C)and hypotension (BP=85/54 mmHg). She was immediately transported to the intensive care unit and one hour later she became unconscious ; dyspnea (RR=48/min) and tachycardia (HR>200 bpm) were aggravated. She was intubated and mechanical ventilated.In evolution in few hours, bradycardia then asystole and cardiac arrest were installed despite cardiopulmonary resuscitation.. Conclusions The toxicity of bromoxynil, particularly in acute self-poisoning, has not been well studied and defined. This case highlights the unpredictable and fulminant clinical course of herbicide poisonings


Activated growth factor receptors phosphorylate each other on tyrosine residues, and this initiates signaling by promoting interaction of the receptors with proteins that contain SH2 (Src homology 2) or PTB (phosphotyrosine-binding) domains, which recognize and preferentially bind to phosphotyrosine-containing peptides. Jones et al. conducted a genomewide quantitative analysis of such interactions that included almost every SH2 and PTB domain (more than 100 of the former and more than 40 of the latter) encoded in the human genome. They prepared protein microarrays of these domains and measured binding affinities to over 60 fluorescently tagged phosphotyrosine-containing peptides corresponding to experimentally verified sites of phosphorylation on members of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family. After more than 77,000 such measurements, the authors were able to compare the patterns of interaction among the family members. They found 43 of 65 interactions with the EGFR, ErbB2, ErbB3, and ErbB4 that had been previously recorded in the literature, and more than 100 predicted new interactions. (One of the latter was confirmed in a cell line.) The authors found that some domains bound sites that would not have been predicted by previous estimates of consensus binding preferences and suggest that this may reflect the noncompetitive binding conditions in their assays. An intriguing possibility that may help explain the contribution of EGFR family members to cancer was also noted. The authors used the affinity measurements to predict whether binding partners would change if a receptor was present in low amounts or activated to a small extent (thus interacting primarily with partners with high affinity) or more abundant and highly active (as might occur in cancers that overexpress these proteins). ErbB2 was more promiscuous in general, with each of its binding sites binding an average of more than 17 proteins with high affinity, whereas sites on EGFR, ErbB3, and ErbB4 averaged 7, 9, and 2 high-affinity partners, respectively. When the binding threshold was lowered to approximate the effects of overexpression, EGFR and ErbB2 showed interaction with many new partners, whereas ErbB3's network of partners remained essentially the same. The authors thus speculate that EGFR and ErbB2, which are activated in some human cancers, could produce their aberrant effects in part though promiscuous interaction with binding partners not normally regulated by these proteins. R. B. Jones, A. Gordus, J. A. Krall, G. MacBeath, A quantitative protein interaction network for the ErbB receptors using protein microarrays. Nature 439, 168-174 (2006). [PubMed]


In reconstructing images from coherently illuminated objects, the far-field two-dimensional phase function in the entrance pupil plane (measurement plane) of a coherent imaging system has to contend with the presence of point discontinuities or branch points. The general class of least-squares phase reconstructors that use phase gradients (or phase differences) on a grid of points in the entrance pupil measurement plane fails to correctly determine the two-dimensional pupil phase when branch points are present. The phase estimation error results from the fact that the phase gradient or phase difference inputs to the least-squares reconstructor are being wrapped by the measurement system into the principal-value range [-π, π]. Recently, the existence and the determination of a hidden phase term was presented that accounts for branch-point effects [
 D. L.
 Fried

 , J. Opt. Soc. Am. A15, 2759 (1998)]. Fried's hidden phase term is used in this study to present a branch-point-tolerant least-squares phase reconstructor for estimation of the two-dimensional measurement-plane phase function. Simulations of three different types of coherently illuminated object demonstrate the utility of this approach. The sensitivity of the reconstruction method to additive Gaussian noise is also presented.


Understand the constructs of the Python programming language and use them to build data science projects
Key Features
Learn the basics of developing applications with Python and deploy your first data application

Take your first steps in Python programming by understanding and using data structures, variables, and loops

Delve into Jupyter, NumPy, Pandas, SciPy, and sklearn to explore the data science ecosystem in Python
Book Description
Python is the most widely used programming language for building data science applications. Complete with step-by-step instructions, this book contains easy-to-follow tutorials to help you learn Python and develop real-world data science projects. The "secret sauce" of the book is its curated list of topics and solutions, put together using a range of real-world projects, covering initial data collection, data analysis, and production.

This Python book starts by taking you through the basics of programming, right from variables and data types to classes and functions. You'll learn how to write idiomatic code and test and debug it, and discover how you can create packages or use the range of built-in ones. You'll also be introduced to the extensive ecosystem of Python data science packages, including NumPy, Pandas, scikit-learn, Altair, and Datashader. Furthermore, you'll be able to perform data analysis, train models, and interpret and communicate the results. Finally, you'll get to grips with structuring and scheduling scripts using Luigi and sharing your machine learning models with the world as a microservice.

By the end of the book, you'll have learned not only how to implement Python in data science projects, but also how to maintain and design them to meet high programming standards.
What you will learn
Code in Python using Jupyter and VS Code

Explore the basics of coding – loops, variables, functions, and classes

Deploy continuous integration with Git, Bash, and DVC

Get to grips with Pandas, NumPy, and scikit-learn

Perform data visualization with Matplotlib, Altair, and Datashader

Create a package out of your code using poetry and test it with PyTest

Make your machine learning model accessible to anyone with the web API
Who this book is for
If you want to learn Python or data science in a fun and engaging way, this book is for you. You'll also find this book useful if you're a high school student, researcher, analyst, or anyone with little or no coding experience with an interest in the subject and courage to learn, fail, and learn from failing. A basic understanding of how computers work will be useful.


The only comprehensive and up-to-date look at Reform Judaism, this book analyzes the forces currently challenging the Reform movement, now the largest Jewish denomination in the United States. To distinguish itself from Orthodox and Conservative Judaism, the Reform movement tries to be an egalitarian, open, and innovative version of the faith true to the spirit of the tradition but nonetheless fully compatible with modern secular life. Promoting itself in this way, Reform Judaism has been tremendously successful in recruiting a variety of people-intermarried families, feminists, gays and lesbians, and interracial families among others-who resist more traditional forms of worship. As an unintended result of this success, the movement now struggles with an identity crisis brought on by its liberal theology, which teaches that each Jew is free to practice Judaism more or less as he or she pleases. In the absence of the authority that comes from a theology based on a commanding, all-powerful God, can Reform Judaism continue to thrive? Can it be broadly inclusive and still be uniquely and authentically Jewish? Taking this question as his point of departure, Dana Evan Kaplan provides a broad overview of the American Reform movement and its history, theology, and politics. He then takes a hard look at the challenges the movement faces as it attempts to reinvent itself in the new millennium. In so doing, Kaplan gives the reader a sense of where Reform Judaism has come from, where it stands on the major issues, and where it may be going. Addressing the issues that have confronted the movement-including the ordination of women, acceptance of homosexuality, the problem of assimilation, the question of rabbinic officiation at intermarriages, the struggle for acceptance in Israel, and Jewish education and others-Kaplan sheds light on the connection between Reform ideology and cultural realities. He unflinchingly, yet optimistically assesses the movement's future and cautions that stormy weather may be ahead.


This is a new idea that based on effective treatment of Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease with transcranial magnetoelectric stimulation technology, it can understand a hypothesis about voltage-gated Ca2+ channels is the best target for activation by physical means, basic content:Parkinson's disease , Alzheimer's disease etc. neuronal degeneration diseases, that closely related to physical-gated ion channels, which can be treated with physical means, activating neurotransmitters-energic neurons plays key roles in the treatment, and voltage-gated Ca2+ channels is the best target for physical means, the purpose is to induce Ca2+ inflowing and triggers neuronal axon terminals synaptic vesicles releasing neurotransmitters. The theory of brain cell activation sets forth the principle, method and purpose of treatment of the physical gated ion channel diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and other neural degeneration diseases, and indicates that the attempt to treat these diseases using pharmaceutical and chemical approaches could shake our confidence in conquering the diseases, and the application of physical approaches or combined application of physical and chemical approaches in the treatment of some major encephalopathy may be our main research direction in the future.


Lightning is a common meteorological phenomenon, and during thunderstorms numerous lightning strikes also influence seismic records worldwide. This can be due to electrical induction in the coils of a seismometer, electric fields influencing analog digital converters or other electronic components, or ground motions induced by the lightning strike itself and/or the acoustic coupling of the accompanying thunder. Most experimental seismologists have experienced the problems of strong electrical currents during lightning events damaging recording equipment or causing false triggers or alarms, a common problem in central Europe during the summer ( i.e. , Cranswick et al. 1985; Taylor et al. 1991; Gulkan et al. 2007; van Kamp et al. 2008; Kim et al. 2010; Zumberge et al. 2010). Even the most sophisticated lightning protection cannot always prevent equipment damage (Weichert and Henger 1976).

On 27 July 2011 a rare event occurred when lightning struck a tree on the grounds of the Seismological Observatory Bensberg (BNS), the central station of the local network of Cologne University (Hinzen and Reamer 2007; Hinzen and Fleischer 2007). The tree was located 53 m from a strong-motion station and a medium-period station with an active velocity proportional seismometer. In addition, analog monitors of a short-period passive seismometer and a long-period vertical component Sprengnether instrument recorded the incident. This contribution describes the event and gives an interpretation of the diverse records of this lightning strike extremely close to a seismic station.

On 27 July 2011 a thunderstorm approached station BNS from the west. Dark storm clouds could be observed over the Lower Rhine Embayment at least one hour before the storm arrived. Heavy rain started at 14:20 UTC and several thunderclaps were heard. At 14:30 UTC, lightning struck the nearby compound of Kardinal Schulte Haus (Figure 1). Later, we learned that …


In this report, we investigate the binding properties of the Lewis acid tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane with a Lewis base semiconducting polymer, PFPT, and the subsequent mechanism of band gap reduction. Experiments and quantum chemical calculations confirm that the formation of a Lewis acid adduct is energetically favorable (ΔG° < −0.2 eV), with preferential binding at the pyridyl nitrogen in the polymer backbone over other Lewis base sites. Upon adduct formation, ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy indicates only a slight decrease in the HOMO energy, implying that a larger reduction in the LUMO energy is primarily responsible for the observed optical band gap narrowing (ΔEopt = 0.3 eV). Herein, we also provide the first spatially resolved picture of how Lewis acid adducts form in heterogeneous, disordered polymer/tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane thin films via one- (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance. Notably, solid-state 1D 11B, 13C{1H}, and 13C{19F} cross-polarization ma...


This fifth edition continues the tradition of excellence with thorough coverage of recent trends and changes in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of CNS diseases, detailed relevant neuropathologic, genetic, and clinical findings, and how those changes relate to MRI findings. It remains a comprehensive, internationally acclaimed, state-of-the-art reference for all who have an interest in neuroradiology – trainees to experts in the field, basic science researchers, and clinicians.


. In the restricted elliptical linear model, an approximation for the risk of a general shrinkage estimator of the regression vector-parameter is given. Superiority condition of the shrinkage estimator over the restricted estimator is investigated under the elliptical assumption. It is evident from numerical results that the shrinkage estimator performs better than the unrestricted one in the multivariate t-regression model.


Conventional wisdom says that middle-aged cyclists should slow down and expect to achieve less as they grow older. But in "Cycling Past 50", author Joe Friel shows cyclists that with proper training and the right attitude, the years after 50 can be their best ever. Written for cyclists of all types-road riders, mountain bikers, track racers - this book provides an in-depth look at the full range of considerations for cycling successfully into and through middle age. Joe Friel, a writer and contributing editor to several top cycling publications and a dedicated rider himself, will inspire cyclists toward better performance and more biking enjoyment as he presents the basic principles of training; advanced workouts to improve endurance, climbing ability, and sprinting; training advice for 100-mile events and multi-day tours; planning tips and a workout program for getting into racing form; injury prevention tips and exercises; and body fueling advice. In addition to explaining the physical adjustments seasoned cyclists can make to keep their biking effective and satisfying, Friel discusses the mental aspects of cycling successfully into middle age. He explains the importance of developing a positive attitude, maintaining a high level of motivation, and taking pride in their accomplishments. He also reminds cyclists that, above all, biking should be a fun activity that should be shared with fellow riders, family, and friends.


Lightweight, robust, and flexible single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) materials can be processed inexpensively using solution-based techniques, similar to other organic semiconductors. In contrast to many semiconducting polymers, semiconducting SWCNTs (s-SWCNTs) represent unique one-dimensional organic semiconductors with chemical and physical properties that facilitate equivalent transport of electrons and holes. These factors have driven increasing attention to employing s-SWCNTs for electronic and energy harvesting applications, including thermoelectric (TE) generators. Here we demonstrate a combination of ink chemistry, solid-state polymer removal, and charge-transfer doping strategies that enable unprecedented n-type and p-type TE power factors, in the range of 700 μW m−1 K−2 at 298 K for the same solution-processed highly enriched thin films containing 100% s-SWCNTs. We also demonstrate that the thermal conductivity appears to decrease with decreasing s-SWCNT diameter, leading to a peak material zT ≈ 0.12 for s-SWCNTs with diameters in the range of 1.0 nm. Our results indicate that the TE performance of s-SWCNT-only material systems is approaching that of traditional inorganic semiconductors, paving the way for these materials to be used as the primary components for efficient, all-organic TE generators.


Data on cause-specic mortality have been collected over several decades for dierent countries. Nevertheless this valuable source of information has not been suciently explored. This is mainly due to frequent revisions of the International Classication of Diseases which lead to discontinuities and disruptions in cause-specic mortality trends. This paper proposes a new methodology for reconstructing continuous series of mortality by cause of death. The model assumes death counts as realizations from a Poisson distribution. The expected values of this distribution is a composed mean which embodies the continuous series and the redistribution pattern among causes of death. An algorithm allows the simultaneous estimation of these two components. The known associations among causes is used as input and the only assumption that is made about the underlying continuous series is smoothness. We present a simulation study and an application for demonstrating the performance of our model and its practical characteristics.


Summary 1. The number of reproductive events per lifetime affects all levels of ecological complexity, including the structure and dynamics of species communities. Here we investigate a sexual parasite‐host system with two water frog species of which one ( Rana esculenta , E) is a hemiclonal hybrid that depends on one of its parental species ( R. lessonae , L) for successful reproduction. Previous theoretical models have shown that relative fecundities are important for the species composition and stability of this system, but empirical data from natural mixed LE-populations were lacking. 2. We used three different methods to estimate the proportion of annually reproducing hybrid and parental females: (a) screening for eggs through a tiny incision into the belly skin, (b) measuring plasma hormone titres from blood samples and (c) counts of egg clumps deposited into the pond. 3. After accounting for the respective adult population sizes of the two female types ‐ calculated from mark‐recapture analyses ‐ we found that all three estimates revealed a higher proportion of reproducing L- than E-females. Ratios ranged from 1·43 (method c), to 1·90 (a) to 2·38 (b), with an average of 1·90. 4. We also investigated three potential causes for the fecundity difference (age structure, hybrid sterility and differences in reproductive costs) but could not find compelling evidence for any of them. We hypothesize that size-related differences in energy budgets offer the most probable explanation. 5. The consequences of the observed species differences in annual reproductive success were analysed with a theoretical model. The higher proportion of reproducing R. lessonae females increases the possibilities for stable coexistence in mixed LE-populations under a variety of combinations of mating patterns, relative fecundity and larval performance. The results, however, also indicate new limits for coexistence and highlight the paramount importance of larval competition for explaining the composition and dynamics of mixed LE-populations.


Studentification is increasingly recognised as a leading-edge process of contemporary urban change; identified in over fifty university towns and cities across the UK. Adopting a micro-geographic approach, this thesis investigates the unfolding processes and impacts of studentification in five case study locations within Brighton and Hove City, UK, and intersects with debates of gentrification, segregation, community cohesion, and 'otherness'.


Notes Federal Sovereign Immunity and Compensatory Contempt^ No man in this country is so high that he is above the law. No officer of the law may set that law at defiance with impunity. All the officers of the government, from the highest to the lowest, are creatures of the law, and are bound to obey it.1 But the broader reason [for sovereign immunity] is, that it would be inconsistent with the very idea of supreme executive power, and would endanger the performance of the public duties of the sovereign, to subject him to repeated suits as a matter of right, at the will of any citizen, and to submit to the judicial tribunals the control and disposition of his public property, his instruments and means of carrying on the government in war and in peace, and the money in his treasury.2 The lead prosecutor in a criminal fraud case permits the defendant's attorneys to examine thousands of subpoenaed documents pertaining to the case at a document-storage facility. An employee of the facility informs them that she can supply photocopies of any documents that the defense attorneys might consider useful. She does not tell them that she has arranged for the lead prosecutor to receive an additional set of photocopies of any documents that the defense team might select. When the defense attorneys learn of this subterfuge, they file a motion to seal the documents pending a court review of their contents and ask the prosecutor not to show the documents to anyone else. After receiving the motion, the prosecutor reviews the copies, shows them to two other Assistant U.S. Attorneys, and uses them to prepare a key government witness. At a status conference, the court orders the prosecutor to file the entire set of documents under seal with the court. Before turning them over, IMAGE FORMULA6 however, she makes an additional set of photocopies that she retains for herself. And, during the conference, she lies to the court about her arrangement with the storage facility. She also falsely claims that, after she learned of the arrangement, she contacted an Assistant U.S. Attorney who assured her that such arrangements were routine. The defense attorneys institute a civil contempt proceeding that reveals the full extent of the prosecutor's misconduct. Because the prosecutor violated a court order, the court holds the government in civil contempt and orders that the defense team be reimbursed for fees and costs incurred in litigating the misconduct issue. The prosecution moves to dismiss the fee award on the ground of federal sovereign immunity, the doctrine that prevents any entity from filing suit against the United States, or collecting damages awards against it, in a manner not expressly authorized by the government. Should the government's motion prevail?3 Many federal courts have suggested that when sovereign immunity conflicts with the judicial contempt power, the former should trump.4 However, two recent cases have concluded that such interference with an Article III court's contempt power could raise separation-of-powers problems because the contempt power may be considered an essential function of the court.5 The issue is further complicated because the doctrine of sovereign immunity itself performs an important separation-of-powers function by preventing undue judicial interference with executive-branch operations.6 However, legal scholarship has yet to address this conflict.7 Resolving this dilemma requires an understanding of the policy rationales underlying federal sovereign immunity and judicial contempt. Part I of this Note examines each doctrine separately, demonstrating how each has evolved over time, what role it plays in the federal courts, and how it IMAGE FORMULA8 operates procedurally. Part II examines the problems that arise when the two doctrines conflict-that is, when the United States (or an executive agency) invokes sovereign immunity when confronted with a contempt sanction. …


Satellite communication with wireless sensor network data transmission is greatly useful in habitat monitoring field. Instant data can be transferred without having to enter dangerous area (for example entering an active volcano area or a wild jungle) frequently, thus reducing the risk and research expenditures. This application however, demands an energy-efficient WSN that can prolong the network lifetime and can provide high throughput, low latency and delay, and high packet received rate data communication. The European Science Foundation (ESF) defined Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) as a large-scale, un-partitioned network of homogeneous, ad hoc and mostly immobile sensor nodes that would be randomly deployed in the area of interest, with the capability of wireless multi-hop communication. Each node in this new emerging category of wireless network equipped with a small microcontroller and a low power radio transceiver module, one or more sensors, and an energy source, usually a battery. The wireless sensor node design is application specific (network lifetime, coverage connectivity, infrastructure, etc.) and the size also varies from as big as a shoebox to the smallest size of a dust. The aim of the project is to deploy a monitoring system used for monitoring the earth environmental condition using WSN and satellite communication. A network of sensor nodes consists of several sensors shall be located scattering around to collect information on the environmental condition in order to determine the level of pollution such as temperature, atmospheric pressure, and etc. Data collected from the sensors then shall be transferred through several sensor nodes and the satellite to the monitoring ground station. Figure 1 shows basic connection between subsystems.


Recent years have seen a shift towards integrated control of a number of tropical diseases. Such a strategy, however, relies on an understanding of the spatial distribution and overlap of different diseases. Using a combination of fieldwork, spatial and economic analyses and computerized simulations, optimal survey designs were explored for soil-transmitted helminths (STHs), Schistosoma mansoni and Plasmodium /alciparum in East Africa, and the potential of an integrated survey approach was evaluated.
For STH, analysis indicated that hookworm clusters over larger scales than Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura, and that surveying small numbers of children, from four to five schools per district, provides a rapid and cost-effective approach to target treatment at district levels. For S. mansoni, Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) was compared to a geostatistical survey design that allows spatial prediction at unsurveyed locations based on a subset of schools. Results showed that targeted treatment was more cost-effective than presumptive treatment and that, whilst LQAS correctly classified a higher proportion of schools requiring treatment, a geostatistical design proved more cost-effective. An investigation into the optimal spatial scale to conduct surveys for STH, S. mansoni and P. /alciparum in Kenya found that, over various cost scenarios, surveying fifty children from three randomly selected sites per sub-district provided a balance of performance and cost-effectiveness for all species. In sub-districts of low S. manson; and P.alciparum prevalence, LQAS should be used to target treatment.
This thesis has shown that species-specific differences in spatial heterogeneity of infection and the costs of both mapping surveys and programme intervention have important implications for the optimal design of surveys. A two stage framework for integrated surveys is proposed allowing for a flexible approach to mapping. Similar studies in different settings are crucial and would help to assess whether changes in survey strategy are required as transmission drops due to control activities.


This paper reviews the assumptions involved in calculating rates of carbohydrate and fat oxidation from measurements of O2 consumption, CO2 production, and urinary nitrogen excretion. It is shown that erroneous results are obtained in the presence of metabolic processes such as lipogenesis and gluconeogenesis. The apparent rates calculated under these conditions can, however, be interpreted as net rates of "utilization." Thus the apparent rate of carbohydrate oxidation is the sum of the rates of utilization for oxidation and for lipogenesis minus the rate at which carbohydrate is formed from amino acids. The apparent rate of fat oxidation is the difference between the rates of oxidation and synthesis from carbohydrate, so that the apparently negative rates encountered in patients infused with glucose do quantitatively represent net rates of synthesis. Other processes such as synthesis of ketone bodies or lactate at rates greater than their utilization can also disturb the calculations, but the magnitude of the effect can be estimated from appropriate measurements. Methods of correcting the observed gaseous exchange in these circumstances are given.


This paper develops a new estimation procedure for characteristic-based factor models of security returns. We treat the factor model as a weighted additive nonparametric regression model, with the factor returns serving as time-varying weights, and a set of univariate non-parametric functions relating security characteristic to the associated factor betas. We use a time-series and cross-sectional pooled weighted additive nonparametric regression methodology to simultaneously estimate the factor returns and characteristic-beta functions. By avoiding the curse of dimensionality our methodology allows for a larger number of factors than existing semiparametric methods. We apply the technique to the three-factor Fama-French model, Carhart's four-factor extension of it adding a momentum factor, and a five-factor extension adding an own-volatility factor. We found that momentum and own-volatility factors are at least as important if not more important than size and value in explaining equity return comovements. We test the multifactor beta pricing theory against the Capital Asset Pricing model using a standard test, and against a general alternative using a new nonparametric test.


Abstract. Despite the availability of GNSS on consumer devices enabled personal navigation for most of the World population in most of the outdoor conditions, the problem of precise pedestrian positioning is still quite challenging when indoors or, more in general, in GNSS-challenging working conditions. Furthermore, the covid-19 pandemic also raised of pedestrian tracking, in any environment, but in particular indoors, where GNSS typically does not ensure sufficient accuracy for checking people distance. Motivated by the mentioned needs, this paper investigates the potential of UWB and LiDAR for pedestrian positioning and tracking. The two methods are compared in an outdoor case study, nevertheless, both are usable indoors as well. The obtained results show that the positioning performance of the LiDAR-based approach overcomes the UWB one, when the pedestrians are not obstructed by other objects in the LiDAR view. Nevertheless, the presence of obstructions causes gaps in the LiDAR-based tracking: instead, the combination of LiDAR and UWB can be used in order to reduce outages in the LiDAR-based solution, whereas the latter, when available, usually improves the UWB-based results.


We propose and report on what we believe to be the first experimental demonstration of an all-optical fiber-based Fredkin gate for reversible digital logic. The simple 3-input/3-output fiber-based nonlinear optical loop mirror architecture requires only minor alignment for full operation. A short nonlinear element, heavily doped GeO(2) fiber (HDF), allows for a more compact design than typical nonlinear fiber gates. The HDF is ideal for studying reversibility, functioning as a noise-limited medium, as compared to the semiconductor optical amplifier, while allowing for cross-phase modulation, a nondissipative optical interaction. We suggest applications for secure communications, based on "cool" computing.


We prove that, independent of the choice of a lens model, the total signed magnification always sums to zero for a source anywhere in the four-image region close to swallowtail, elliptic umbilic, and hyperbolic umbilic caustics. This is a more global and higher-order analog of the well-known fold and cusp magnification relations, in which the total signed magnifications in the two-image region of the fold and the three-image region of the cusp are both always zero. As an application, we construct a lensing observable for the hyperbolic umbilic magnification relation and compare it with the corresponding observables for the cusp and fold relations using a singular isothermal ellipsoid lens. We demonstrate the greater generality of the hyperbolic umbilic magnification relation by showing how it applies to the fold image doublets and cusp image triplets and extends to image configurations that are neither. We show that the results are applicable to the study of substructure on galactic scales using observed ...


Welcome to the 8th edition of this column on recent books and journal articles in the field of public opinion, survey methods, survey statistics, and Big Data. This year I officially added Big Data to the title as there is very strong interest on the topic and surveys and Big data are becoming more and more interrelated. This article is an update of the April 2015 article . Like the previous year, the books are organized by topic; this should help the readers to focus on their interests. It is unlikely to list all new books in the field; I did my best scouting different resources and websites, but I take full responsibility for any omission. The list is also focusing only on books published in English language and available for purchase (as ebook or in print) at the time of this review (August 2016). Books are listed based on the relevance to the topic, and no judgment is made in terms of quality of the content. We let the readers do so.


This explorative study seeks to contribute to an empirically grounded understanding of urban narratives in contemporary Budapest. It argues in favour of the narrative quality of the urban experience and then reconstructs core aspects that affect it: identification with social collectivities, personal memories, the design of the city, and individuals' sense of being at home in it. The thesis shows how these aspects intertwine and jointly shape urban narratives, and in doing so, it argues against the study of any of these aspects in isolation. The thesis draws on twenty in-depth interviews conducted in 2005 and 2006. Interviewees' narratives not only help identify the above mentioned aspects, but are also appreciated for providing insight into themes that govern their urban experiences in Budapest today. Since the late nineteenth century, Budapest has been subjected to six different economic and political regimes, two World Wars and the 1956 uprising. The city has changed again considerably since the end of state socialism in 1989. From a sociological point of view, these are particularly exciting times: urban changes are likely to challenge habitual ways of relating to the city, and individuals' efforts to re-define their narratives can be expected to reveal a great deal about otherwise less obviously manifest aspects that affect these. After introducing the methods of the empirical study and an overview of the history of Budapest, the thesis devotes one chapter to each of the four aspects mentioned above. First, it discusses narratives that contain obvious references to social collectivities, with an emphasis on status to which almost every other interviewee referred. Second, it explores how personal memories affect narratives of Budapest, and pays particular attention to the remembering and forgetting of socialism. Third, it addresses Budapest as a site of weak social control and the related level of individual freedom, and then looks at the interplay between urban form and the lived body. Finally, the thesis reveals the significance of individuals' sense of belonging to the city, and shows how it has been challenged by Budapest's recent changes.


In this paper, we explore how a programmable forwarding plane offered by a new breed of network switches might naturally accelerate consensus protocols, specifically focusing on Paxos. The performance of consensus protocols has long been a concern. By implementing Paxos in the forwarding plane, we are able to significantly increase throughput and reduce latency. Our P4-based implementation running on an ASIC in isolation can process over 2.5 billion consensus messages per second, a four orders of magnitude improvement in throughput over a widely-used software implementation. This effectively removes consensus as a bottleneck for distributed applications in data centers. Beyond sheer performance, our approach offers several other important benefits: it readily lends itself to formal verification; it does not rely on any additional network hardware; and as a full Paxos implementation, it makes only very weak assumptions about the network.


The Vandredalen thrust sheet forms the allochthonous Caledonian front in Kronprins Christian Land, eastern North Greenland. It transported Neoproterozoic shallow marine, arkosic sediments of the Rivieradal Group and shelf sediments of the Hagen Fjord Group across parautochthonous Neoproterozoic–Ordovician sediments on the foreland. The thrust sheet roots to the east along the Brede Spærregletscher–Hekla Sund lineament and has a demonstrable westwards displacement of c. 40 km. A large part of that displacement (c. 22 km) is achieved on a single structure, the Vandredalen thrust, but this is only one of a linked system of thrusts which involve parautochthonous thin-skinned thrust sheets to the west and thicker skinned thrust sheets now exposed in the east. Conodont geothermometry suggests that the thick-skinned thrust sheets formerly extended westwards above the Vandredalen thrust sheet at higher structural levels. Restoration of the displacement on the thin-skinned thrusts reveals the Rivieradal Group to be a Neoproterozoic syn-rift sequence deposited in an eastwards-facing extensional half-graben (Hekla Sund Basin) which originally lay immediately to the east of the Brede Spærregletscher–Hekla Sund lineament. The transgressive Hagen Fjord Group represents a period of post-rift thermal re-equilibration in latest Riphean time and the youngest units in the group overstep the original rift shoulder. The Hekla Sund Basin represents another example of the rift-sag episodes which are an important feature of the pre-Iapetan evolution of the Laurentian margin successions and comparisons are made with coeval basins in Scotland and Svalbard.


Despite the high potential of virtual customer integration (VCI) methods for new product development (NPD) mentioned in the literature, practical use is still limited. This paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of managers' perspectives on VCI and their intentions to use these methods for NPD. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) served as basis for developing a research model, which considers managers' cognition, attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control as important factors affecting their intention to apply VCI. Because more recent literature has expressed doubts about the explanatory potential of the rather simple TPB model, a more complex alternative model was proposed for comparison. The alternative model included the market orientation of the company, the hierarchical position of the innovation manager as well as the manager's level of innovativeness as additional explanatory variables. An empirical online study was conducted in the field of consumer goods and services. Based on a sample of 216 German-speaking innovation managers, the results show that the model derived from the TPB explains 68% of the variance in the managers' intention to apply VCI compared with 69% of variance explained by the model containing additional explanatory variables. An extension of the model does not significantly improve its explanatory power. Managers show high interest in virtually integrating customers in NPD processes. Managers consider identification of future customer needs, a broader decision basis, increased efficiency in gathering and use of customer information, and increased customer retention as major advantages of VCI. Disadvantages considered by managers in making their overall judgment are the lack of secrecy and only incremental innovations. The perceived potential contribution of VCI to NPD, the assessment of its general acceptance within the company, and the perceived ability of innovation managers to successfully implement VCI mainly influence the adoption decision. Managers' attitudes toward VCI have no significant influence on their intention to use VCI. The results suggest that strong promotion of VCI through senior management would enforce the positive effect of subjective norms on applying VCI. Measures such as including VCI on innovation managers'personal scorecard, trainings offered, and cross-functional meetings could help speed up VCI in NPD processes by increasing innovation managers' perceived behavioral control toward VCI.


Since the world is a world, children, especially men, like to play "the little soldiers": to be uniformly dressed to all, to walk by setting footsteps, singing with joy and aloud; to dance around their peers and for everything in the open air, without embarrassment ... It is in the youth movements in general, and in the scouting in particular that we meet these practices. It is through the method of inquiry assisted by participatory observation techniques and structured interview that we expect to know the contribution of Scouting in the development of children. This will be made possible thanks to the testimonials, opinions and considerations of the parents of the children in front of the interview that they will grant us and thanks to the various direct and indirect contacts with the parents and Scouts while we pretend to be Chief scout with the possibility of visiting the parents of our scouts. We will help other Scout leaders to use the Scouting Leaders of their respective Scout groups who will take this opportunity to learn the concept and practice of social surveys. We will use, after careful analysis, their protocols that we will interpret in order to present the results of our research.


Although researchers generally agree that national family policies play a role in shaping mothers' employment, there is considerable debate about whether, how, and why policy effects vary across country contexts and within countries by mothers' educational attainment. We hypothesize that family policies interact with national levels of earnings inequality to differentially affect mothers' employment outcomes by educational attainment. We develop hypotheses about the two most commonly studied family policies—early childhood education and care (ECEC) and paid parental leave. We test these hypotheses by establishing a novel linkage between the EU-Labour Force Survey and the Current Population Survey 1999 to 2016 (n = 23 countries, 299 country-years, 1.2 million mothers of young children), combined with an original collection of country-year indicators. Using multilevel models, we find that ECEC spending is associated with a greater likelihood of maternal employment, but the association is strongest for non-college-educated mothers in high-inequality settings. The length of paid parental leave over six months is generally associated with a lower likelihood of maternal employment, but the association is most pronounced for mothers in high-inequality settings. We call for greater attention to the role of earnings inequality in shaping mothers' employment and conditioning policy effects.


Sites suitable for the deployment of tidal turbines generally show a combination of complex seabed morphologies and extreme current magnitudes. Such configurations favour the formation of vortices, which can be very powerful. Anticipating the vortex effect on the turbine performance and/or lifespan requires refined description of the turbulence. Thanks to increased calculation resources, large-eddy simulation (LES) can now be applied to natural flow. An LES approach developed within the TELEMAC-3D open-source software is presented here. After validating the model with in-situ measurements, the model is applied to characterize the flow statistics of the Alderney Race. This article is part of the theme issue 'New insights on tidal dynamics and tidal energy harvesting in the Alderney Race'.


The partial oxidn. of toluene over V2O5/TiO2 catalysts is a reaction of industrial interest. In spite of the detailed study of the nature of surface vanadia species, there is an evident lack of the information concerning their reactivity. The present work demonstrates an application of the transient response techniques in combination with in situ DRIFT and FT-Raman spectroscopy for the discrimination of the reactivity of different vanadia species. Catalysts consisting of 0.35-3.7 monolayers of vanadia on titania were studied. In anaerobic conditions, a conversion of toluene to benzaldehyde (BA) with a selectivity close to 100% was found. BA is formed mainly by nucleophilic (O2-) oxygen in isolated monomeric vanadia species, while electrophilic oxygen (O-) present in polymeric and bulk vanadia species is responsible for the formation of carbon oxides. An addn. of potassium was obsd. to increase the yield of BA. [on SciFinder (R)]


In this study we investigate effective soil hydraulic parameter averaging schemes for steady‐state flow with plant root water uptake in heterogeneous soils. "Effective" soil hydraulic parameters of a heterogeneous soil formation are obtained by conceptualizing the soil as an equivalent homogeneous medium. The "effective" homogeneous medium is only required to discharge the same ensemble‐mean flux across the soil surface. One‐dimensional flow at the local scale has been used as an approximation for various simplified problems under investigation (e.g., a shallow subsurface dominated by vertical flows). The domain is assumed to be composed of homogeneous one‐dimensional soil columns without mutual interactions. Using Gardner's unsaturated hydraulic conductivity model, we derive the effective value for the parameter α. While root water uptake influences the overall water budget, its impact on the effective hydraulic parameter averaging scheme was found to be secondary. Results show that the arithmetic mean of Gardner's α is usually too large to serve as an effective parameter. Deviations of the effective parameter from the arithmetic mean become larger as the surface suction increases; that is, the flow scenario switches from infiltration to evaporation. The results consistently show a smaller effective parameter for evaporation scenarios than for infiltration scenarios. The effective parameter αeff decreases with an increase in the mean value of α. Spatial variability in α also decreases the effective value of αeff Alternative root water uptake distributions do not produce significant differences in both the water budget and the averaging scheme as long as total water loss to the plant roots remains the same.


We consider the nonlinear spin-up of a rotating stratified fluid in a conical container. An analysis of similarity-type solutions to the relevant boundary-layer problem (Duck, Foster & Hewitt, 1997) has revealed three types of behaviour for this geometry. In general, the boundary-layer evolves to either a steady state, a growing boundary-layer, or a finite-time singularity depending on the initial to final rotation rate ratio, and a "modified Burger number".
 We emphasise the experimental aspects of our continuing spin-up investigations and make some preliminary comparisons with the boundary-layer theory, showing good agreement. The experimental data presented is obtained through particle tracking velocimetry. We briefly discuss the qualitative features of the spin-down experiments which, in general, are dominated by non-axisymmetric effects.
 The experiments are performed using a conical container filled with a linearly stratified fluid, the generation of which is non-trivial. We present a general method for creating a linear density profile in containers with sloping boundaries.


This paper introduces algorithms for non-projective parsing based on dual decomposition. We focus on parsing algorithms for non-projective head automata, a generalization of head-automata models to non-projective structures. The dual decomposition algorithms are simple and efficient, relying on standard dynamic programming and minimum spanning tree algorithms. They provably solve an LP relaxation of the non-projective parsing problem. Empirically the LP relaxation is very often tight: for many languages, exact solutions are achieved on over 98% of test sentences. The accuracy of our models is higher than previous work on a broad range of datasets.


Background Phosphorylation by the phospho-inositide-dependent kinase 1 (PDK1) is essential for many growth factor-activated kinases and thus plays a critical role in various processes such as cell proliferation and metabolism. However, the mechanisms that control PDK1 have not been fully explored and this is of great importance as interfering with PDK1 signaling may be useful to treat diseases, including cancer and diabetes. Methodology/Principal Findings In human cells, few mono-ubiquitinated proteins have been described but in all cases this post-translational modification has a key regulatory function. Unexpectedly, we find that PDK1 is mono-ubiquitinated in a variety of human cell lines, indicating that PDK1 ubiquitination is a common and regulated process. Ubiquitination occurs in the kinase domain of PDK1 yet is independent of its kinase activity. By screening a library of ubiquitin proteases, we further identify the Ubiquitin-Specific Protease 4 (USP4) as an enzyme that removes ubiquitin from PDK1 in vivo and in vitro and co-localizes with PDK1 at the plasma membrane when the two proteins are overexpressed, indicating direct deubiquitination. Conclusions The regulated mono-ubiquitination of PDK1 provides an unanticipated layer of complexity in this central signaling network and offers potential novel avenues for drug discovery.


This article examines the role of Free Trade Agreements ('FTA') in eliminating tariff and non-tariff barriers on trade in the chemical sector. We identify the limits of FTAs as tools for liberalizing trade in the sector, focusing on two issues: the protection of trade secrets and the elaboration of rules of origin in the sector. We conclude that the negotiation of a Global Chemical Sector Agreement, with the active participation of the industry, would generate the greatest benefits for the sector.


Abstract: This article presents an inquiry into how the understanding of Kegan and
Lahey's immunity to change process can be enhanced through examining it in relation to
two other theoretical lenses, the work of David Bohm and the Arbinger Institute. This is
taken as an exemplar of the conception of awareness based practices for leadership
development which is introduced as the larger focus of the article. A brief review of
literature in relevant fields is presented to situate the present work. A set of
methodological considerations is described along with the process for the analysis of
textual extracts from the three sources. This is followed by a description of ten themes
emerging from this analysis. These themes are examined for interconnections and key
insights. The discussion centers around two elements. First is the wisdom of selftranscendence
in relation to the immunity to change process. Second is how the emerging
view of awareness can contribute to understanding leadership development. Concluding
reflections summarize the findings and identify limitations of the inquir


We introduce a new method to investigate localized volume variations resulting from laser exposure. Our method is based on the measurement of fused silica cantilevers deflection from which we calculate the effective stress and density variation in laser-affected zones. Specifically, we investigate density variations in fused silica exposed to femtosecond laser exposure in the regime where nanogratings are found. We demonstrate that a volume expansion is taking place in that particular regime.


A hybrid boundary integral/slender body algorithm for modelling flagellar cell motility is presented. The algorithm uses the boundary element method to represent the 'wedge-shaped' head of the human sperm cell and a slender body theory representation of the flagellum. The head morphology is specified carefully due to its significant effect on the force and torque balance and hence movement of the free-swimming cell. The technique is used to investigate the mechanisms for the accumulation of human spermatozoa near surfaces. Sperm swimming in an infinite fluid, and near a plane boundary, with prescribed planar and three-dimensional flagellar waveforms are simulated. Both planar and 'elliptical helicoid' beating cells are predicted to accumulate at distances of approximately 8.5–22 μm from surfaces, for flagellar beating with angular wavenumber of 3π to 4π. Planar beating cells with wavenumber of approximately 2.4π or greater are predicted to accumulate at a finite distance, while cells with wavenumber of approximately 2π or less are predicted to escape from the surface, likely due to the breakdown of the stable swimming configuration. In the stable swimming trajectory the cell has a small angle of inclination away from the surface, no greater than approximately 0.5°. The trapping effect need not depend on specialized non-planar components of the flagellar beat but rather is a consequence of force and torque balance and the physical effect of the image systems in a no-slip plane boundary. The effect is relatively weak, so that a cell initially one body length from the surface and inclined at an angle of 4°–6° towards the surface will not be trapped but will rather be deflected from the surface. Cells performing rolling motility, where the flagellum sweeps out a 'conical envelope', are predicted to align with the surface provided that they approach with sufficiently steep angle. However simulation of cells swimming against a surface in such a configuration is not possible in the present framework. Simulated human sperm cells performing a planar beat with inclination between the beat plane and the plane-of-flattening of the head were not predicted to glide along surfaces, as has been observed in mouse sperm. Instead, cells initially with the head approximately 1.5–3 μm from the surface were predicted to turn away and escape. The simulation model was also used to examine rolling motility due to elliptical helicoid flagellar beating. The head was found to rotate by approximately 240° over one beat cycle and due to the time-varying torques associated with the flagellar beat was found to exhibit 'looping' as has been observed in cells swimming against coverslips.


Modern high-energy physics experiments such as the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at CERN produce an extraordinary amount of data every 25ns. To handle a data rate of more than 50Tbit/s a multi-level trigger system is required, which reduces the data rate. Due to the increased luminosity after the Phase-II-Upgrade of the LHC, the CMS tracking system has to be redesigned. The current trigger system is unable to handle the resulting amount of data after this upgrade. Because of the latency of a few microseconds the Level 1 Track Trigger has to be implemented in hardware. State-of-the-art pattern recognition filter the incoming data by template matching on ASICs with a content addressable memory architecture. An implementation on an FPGA, which replaces the content addressable memory of the ASIC, has not been possible so far. This paper presents a new approach to a content addressable memory architecture, which allows an implementation of an FPGA based design. By combining filtering and track finding on an FPGA design, there are many possibilities of adjusting the two algorithms to each other. There is more flexibility enabled by the FPGA architecture in contrast to the ASIC. The presented design minimizes the stored data by logic to optimally utilize the available resources of an FPGA. Furthermore, the developed design meets the strong timing constraints and possesses the required properties of the content addressable memory.


Abstract: Michel Waisvisz's The Hands is one of the most famous and long-lasting research projects in the literature of digital music instruments. Consisting of a pair of data gloves and exhibited for the first time in 1984, The Hands is a pioneering work in digital devices for performing live music. It is a work that engaged Waisvisz for almost a quarter of a century and, in turn, has inspired many generations of music technologists and performers of live music. Despite being often cited in the relevant literature, however, the documentation concerning the sensor architecture, design, mapping strategies, and development of these data gloves is sparse. In this article, we aim to fill this gap by offering a detailed history behind the development of The Hands. The information contained in this article was retrieved and collated by searching the STEIM archive, interviewing close collaborators of Waisvisz, and browsing through the paper documentation found in his personal folders and office.


This thesis concerns polarization mode dispersion (PMD) in optical fiber communications. Specifically, we study fiber birefringence, PMD stochastic properties, PMD mitigation and the interaction of fiber birefringence and fiber nonlinearity. Fiber birefringence is the physical origin of polarization mode dispersion. Current models of birefringence in optical fibers assume that the birefringence vector varies randomly either in orientation with a fixed magnitude or simultaneously in both magnitude and direction. These models are applicable only to certain birefringence profiles. For a broader range of birefringence profiles, we propose and investigate four general models in which the stochastically varying amplitude is restricted to a limited range. In addition, mathematical algorithms are introduced for the numerical implementation of these models. To investigate polarization mode dispersion, we first apply these models to single mode fibers. In particular, two existing models and our four more general models are employed for the evolution of optical fiber birefringence with longitudinal distance to analyze, both theoretically and numerically, the behavior of the polarization mode dispersion. We find that while the probability distribution function of the differential group delay (DGD) varies along the fiber length as in existing models, the dependence of the mean DGD on fiber length differs noticeably from earlier predictions. Fiber spinning reduces polarization mode dispersion effects in optical fibers. Since relatively few studies have been performed of the dependence of the reduction factor on the strength of random background birefringence fluctuations, we here apply a general birefringence model to sinusoidal spun fibers. We find that while, as expected, the phase matching condition is not affected by random perturbations, the degree of PMD reduction as well as the probability distribution function of the DGD are both influenced by the random components of the birefringence. Together with other researchers, I have also examined a series of experimentally realizable procedures to compensate for PMD in optical fiber systems. This work demonstrates that a symmetric ordering of compensator elements combined with Taylor and Chebyshev approximations to the transfer matrix for the light polarization in optical fibers can significantly widen the compensation bandwidth.


This paper was presented at a conference sponsored by the Korean Competition Law Association on the subject of antitrust exemptions and the insurance industry. It analyzes recent developments in four areas: theoretical critiques of McCarran-Ferguson immunity, legislative developments, recent judicial interpretations and international approaches to antitrust exemptions. It argues that the allocation of power and deference is at the heart of the American doctrine and issues of federalism predominate. To the extent that McCarran-Ferguson was designed to clarify the balance of state and federal power to regulate and to set a clear substantive standard, the project has failed. Though the exemption has been criticized from all directions since adoption, legislative reform has been unavailing, demonstrating that a "one way rachet" is at work: once embedded in the law, exemptions are difficult to remove despite criticism, confusion among the courts, and proffers of compromise. A version of the American immunity covering information exchanges among firms in the insurance industry, currently the subject of a block exemption of the European Commission, is due to sunset in 2010 unless extended. As part of its oversight responsibilities, DG Comp conducted a sector inquiry and opened a public consultation into the need for the block exemption, concluding, as a preliminary matter, that claims for the exemption are unpersuasive, and is inclined to allow the block exemption to expire and rely on the general competition rules to protect necessary and pro-competitive activities in the business of insurance. At the end of the day, however, some consensus can be observed. There is wide agreement that antitrust laws are a consumer welfare prescription, exemptions should be adopted only when necessary to remedy market failures and then construed narrowly, and data dissemination and other agreements in the business of insurance are likely pro-competitive when analyzed under the rule of reason.


Social experiences and identities are being reshaped through forces that build, debase and stir. In this visual essay, the author discusses the context and process behind WYSi-WE (What You See is What Emerged), a series of graphic assemblages created to investigate this idea. Using images from an online photo sharing community, together with text selections, social intersections are explored through assemblage theory and databending (also known as glitching). Photographs, sourced by keywords related to class, faith, gender, politics and sexuality, are fused together at the level of code bits to graphically expose the influence of one piece of social identity on another. Each assemblage is accompanied by documentation of its text-image parts, and the viewer is invited to read through the compositions in multiple ways.


With signal combining and detection methods now representing a key application of signal processing in communication systems, this book provides a range of key techniques for receiver design when multiple received signals are available. Various optimal and suboptimal signal combining and detection techniques are explained in the context of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, including successive interference cancellation (SIC) based detection and lattice reduction (LR) aided detection. The techniques are then analyzed using performance analysis tools. The fundamentals of statistical signal processing are also covered, with two chapters dedicated to important background material. With a carefully balanced blend of theoretical elements and applications, this book is ideal for both graduate students and practising engineers in wireless communications.


Aim: Diagnosis of velogenic viscerotropic Ranikhet disease from six different flocks of desi chicken in and around Mumbai by gross and histopathological examination, isolation of virus and molecular methods. Materials and Methods: A total of 25 carcasses (varying between 2 and 6 carcasses from each flock) of six different flocks of adult desi chicken were subjected to necropsy examination for diagnosis of the disease during the span of a year (2014-2015). After thorough gross examination, the tissue samples were collected and processed for virus isolation and histopathological examination. The 20% tissue homogenate was inoculated into 9-day-old specific pathogen free (SPF) embryonated eggs. Mean death time (MDT) of embryos after inoculation and intracerebral pathogenicity index (ICPI) were used to judge velogenic nature of the virus. Newcastle disease virus (NDV) was isolated from six cases and confirmed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) targeting the partial fusion protein gene of the viral genome. Results: A total of 25 carcasses (varying between 2 and 6 carcasses from each flock) of six different flocks of desi chicken were presented for postmortem examination to Department of Veterinary Pathology, Bombay Veterinary College, Parel, Mumbai during 2014-2015. The gross and histopathological examination revealed lesions suggestive of viscerotropic velogenic form of the Newcastle disease (ND). The 20% tissue homogenate was inoculated into 9-day-old embryonated eggs from SPF chicken. NDV was isolated from six cases and confirmed by RT-PCR targeting the partial fusion protein gene. MDT of all the isolates was <60 h which indicated velogenic nature of the virus. ICPI of the isolates ranged between the 1.63 and 1.78. In four out of six outbreaks concurrent moderate to heavy infection of Ascardii galli in one flock and Railetina spp. in three flocks was also noted. In this study, viscerotropic velogenic form of ND was confirmed in all six outbreaks by gross and microscopic examination, virus isolation and RT-PCR. Conclusions: In this study, viscerotropic velogenic form of ND was confirmed in all six outbreaks by gross and microscopic examination, virus isolation and RT-PCR. Nowadays, vaccine strains Lasota, B1 and F strains are used widely in India to control the infection of NDV. However, virulent NDV strains are still isolated frequently in the birds under backyard and also in commercial venture which demonstrates that NDV remains an on-going threat to commercial as well as backyard poultry flocks.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to answer the following research questions: what characteristics do key Belizean educational leaders value in teacher applicants and why? What hiring tools do they use to ascertain whether teacher applicants have the characteristics they prefer?

Design/methodology/approach

The authors utilized a mixed-methods approach drawing upon three data sources – face-to-face interviews with Belizean educational leaders, field notes, and government documents. A card sorting activity of applicant characteristics and tools was embedded into the interview.

Findings

Informants preferred motivation, caring, subject matter knowledge, and teaching skills. Intelligence was perceived as a potentially negative characteristic unless coupled with other characteristics, such as strong teaching skills, motivation, and caring or the umbrella of other characteristics, such as content knowledge or university training/credentialing. Professional characteristics, such as where one went for teacher training and academic performance, were perceived as having less relative importance than personal characteristics. Least important were applicant demographics. Consistent with the extant literature, Belizean informants perceived the interview, evidence of prior experience, and certification as the most important tools in vetting and hiring applicants.

Research limitations/implications

The exploratory study is limited by the small sample of informants, but provides insights into preferences for applicant characteristics and hiring tools in an understudied international context. This study informs future research that may seek to survey representative samples of various stakeholder groups (i.e. general managers and principals) for their preferences in applicant characteristics and hiring tools from across Belizean schools and educational providers.

Originality/value

The study adds to limited research on preferred teacher characteristics among educational leaders responsible for hiring and/or working with teachers and to the limited international educational leadership research.


We describe application-specific extensions for fuzzy processing to a general purpose processor. The application-specific instruction set extensions were defined and evaluated using hardware/software codesign techniques. Based on this approach, we have extended the MIPS instruction set architecture with only a few new instructions to significantly speed up fuzzy computation with no increase of the processor cycle time and with only minor increase in chip area. The processor is implemented using a reconfigurable processor core which was designed as a starting point for application-specific processor designs to be used in embedded applications. Performance is presented for three representative applications of varying complexity.


The evaluation of the correct stability factor of tunnel is a critical element in the various design and construction phases of a tunnel excavated in difficult geotechnical conditions. An innovative, and well-applied, procedure for optimize the construction phase management is described in this article. The starting point of this procedure involves the verification of the results of numerical methods obtained from referenced analytical methods. In the first step of the procedure the results obtained through the analytical method are verified by means of a numerical method in order to evaluate the practical consequences in terms of development of deformations and plastic zone. In this manner, the assumed design risk is evaluated for the different methods and the solution that gives the best correspondence with numerical simulation is selected. Finally, residual uncertainties and parametric variations are incorporated in the analysis and Monte Carlo simulation is used to calculate the statistical distribution of the face-stabilizing pressure and the design value is selected on the basis of an acceptable probability of failure.


ABSTRACT Popular music life is permeated by a quantitative form of male dominance, and has been for several decades. Based on a recent study this article engages with the reproduction of said male dominance by attempting to understand boys' approaches to popular music and musicians. In particular, by making use of an interdisciplinary explanatory feminist theory the article seeks to show that interacting mechanisms at different levels make the adoption of a so-called 'identificatory' approach attainable for boys. The potential effect of their adoption of this approach is that male dominance within popular music life is reproduced. In addition to this, however, a more general aim of this article is to illustrate the ways in which critical realism can inform empirical gender research, especially in terms of the postulation of explanatory mechanisms.